Israel Continues Gaza Attack as Security Council Calls for Ceasefire


Israel continues its devastating assault on the Gaza Strip despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire. Overnight, Israel launched more than fifty strikes, killing at least twelve Palestinians. Seven people were killed in a bombing in northern Gaza, including an infant. At least twenty-four Palestinians were killed on Thursday, including three elderly people fleeing their home. Palestinian militants responded with around six rockets into southern Israel earlier today, causing one injury. At least 60 percent of Gaza’s 1.4 million people have no electricity, and many are without clean water. Gaza’s fragile sewage system also risks collapse, stoking fears of a worsening health crisis.

Palestinian Toll Reaches 778; At Least 200 Children Killed
Overall, the Palestinian death toll stands at at least 778, including more than 200 children. At least 3,250 Palestinians have been injured. Thirteen Israelis have died over the same period, four by friendly fire. The Security Council voted fourteen-to-nothing for the ceasefire, with the US abstaining. The measure calls “for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.”

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki: “Israel, the occupying power, must immediately implement this resolution. Aggression must cease so that we all may have the opportunity to work to heal the wounds of our people and to rebuild what the brutal Israeli war machine has destroyed in Gaza.”

UN, Red Cross Suspend Relief Work After Lethal Israeli Attacks on Aid Convoys
The measure came hours after the UN shut down major aid operations in Gaza after Israel attacked one of its aid convoys. Israeli snipers killed two Palestinian aid workers who were reportedly trying to retrieve the body of a colleague who had been killed in a previous Israeli attack. The killings reportedly came during the three-hour pause to the bombing agreed to by Israel to allow humanitarian relief.

UN relief spokesperson Christopher Gunness: “I can confirm that UNRWA has suspended its operations in Gaza because of staff security. We’ve had a shooting of a driver in a convoy clearly marked as a UN vehicle. There have been a number of attacks in which UN facilities have been hit with direct hits and others. We’ve had no choice but to suspend our operations until we can get guarantees of the security of our staff. We’ve lost—our staff have been killed. We’ve had no other choice."

The UN says it’s lost all confidence in Israeli pledges. Israel has attacked several UN and medical installations this week, including a UN school where forty-six civilians were killed.

WHO: 21 Palestinian Medical Workers Killed in Gaza Attack
According to the World Health Organization, twenty-one Palestinian medical workers have been killed and another thirty injured in the Israeli assault on Gaza. The International Committee of the Red Cross, meanwhile, said it would scale back aid operations for at least one day after one of its convoys also came under Israeli fire.

UN: 30 Died in Israeli Shelling of Crowded Home
The Red Cross made the announcement as it accused Israel of blocking access to a bombing site where several emaciated children were found next to their dead mothers. Overall, dozens of dead civilians were found in a one-block span of the neighborhood of Zeitoun. Red Cross mission chief Katrina Ritz described the bombing’s aftermath.

Katrina Ritz: “I think one of the big shocks was that these people were very weak. They were children, children being next to their dead mother. There were no assistance given to these people. There were around eighteen wounded which have not had medical aid, and very, very weak people. The children could hardly stand. There was no water for them. There was no food. And they were with all the dead bodies."

In a report Thursday, the UN said thirty of the victims killed in the Zeitoun attack had been taking shelter in a home on orders from the Israeli military. More than 100 Palestinians had been evacuated there and told to stay indoors. Palestinian paramedic Attia Barami was among the first to reach the victims.

Attia Barami: “The Red Cross got permission for us for three ambulances to enter the northern area of Gaza. We found bodies that the tanks drove over. The medics checked the bodies and found damage at the cellular level, and bodies. This baby girl, age five months, she has been dead for more than two days. The dogs ate parts of the baby’s body. This baby was burned because you can see her face and body are dark and charred."

Most of the dead were members of the same extended family, the Samounis. The death toll was initially lower but rose as more bodies were pulled from the rubble.

Vatican Official Compares Gaza to “Concentration Camp”
The Israeli attack is under increasing international criticism. On Thursday, a high-ranking Vatican official, Cardinal Renato Martino, compared Gaza to “a concentration camp.” Speaking to an Italian daily, Martino said, “Look at the conditions in Gaza. More and more, it resembles a big concentration camp.”

Democracy Now.org

What is going on in Gaza is a New Holocaust

Comments like that, besides being untrue, are unhelpful. There are a lot of people who are concerned about what is happening to innocent people in Gaza who would otherwise be involved in trying to help the people of Gaza who are put off by this sort of thing. It is like people at protests chanting "we are hamas"; we are not hamas, we don't support hamas and such insanity drives reasonable people away. There are no gas chambers, there is no ethnic cleansing (something about that 90's euphemism always intrigued me). What there is is asymmetrical warfare in a densely populated area with all the predictable results. A more realistic precedent is probably Russia's invasion of Georgia, although Georgia actually had a modern army. It distorts what is happening in Gaza and diminishes the Holocaust to make parallels between the two. Rwanda, or to a lesser extent Bosnia maybe but they were both genocide and ethnic cleansing. This is bad but something else.

I think that we all feel for the people suffering and donating to respectable humanitarian organizations is probably the best way that we can help as individuals. Getting angry isn't going to help and neither is making outrageous claims. Give some money and pray for all the people in the world who are suffering or lack basic security. And if you are still angry then do some dhikr and send the reward to the suffering people in the world (and the dhikr might make you less angry too). Try Hizb an-Nasr of Imam ash-Shadhili (beware, pdf ahead):

http://www.greenmountainschool.org/imag … l-nasr.pdf

Abbas: Israel Is Aiming to “Wipe Out” Palestinians in Gaza

Residents of Gaza suffered the most intense bombardment of the eighteen-day war last night as Israel carried out air and artillery strikes throughout the Gaza Strip. Israeli tanks backed by attack helicopters have moved into several southern neighborhoods of the densely populated Gaza City. Hospital officials report dozens of calls for ambulances have been received, but they could not be dispatched because of the fighting. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of aiming to “wipe out” the Palestinian people in Gaza by refusing to end its attack. The Palestinian death toll is now at least 935.

Red Cross: “There Is No Place Safe in Gaza for the Civilians”
More than 4,300 Palestinians have been injured. Thirteen Israelis have died over the past eighteen days. An estimated 90,000 Palestinians have fled their homes, but many residents of Gaza have nowhere to go to because all of the Gaza border crossings are closed.

Antoine Grand, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza: “There is no place safe in Gaza for the civilians. They’re afraid to stay home. They’re afraid to move. They’re also afraid to go down the street to try to find some water or to try to buy some food. No electricity, no water, difficult access to hospitals, ambulances that are not able to reach some places to collect the wounded.”

UN Human Rights Council Condemns Israel
On Monday, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution condemning Israel. The non-binding resolution said Israel’s attack had “resulted in massive violations of human rights of the Palestinian people.”

US Abstained from UN Vote After Olmert Called Bush
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has publicly claimed that he personally called President Bush last week to urge him not to support a UN Security Council ceasefire resolution that was partially drafted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. After Olmert’s call, the United States changed course and abstained from the vote, which passed 14-to-0.

Israel Accused of Testing Experimental Weapons in Gaza
Two Norwegian doctors who have just returned from Gaza have accused Israel of testing a new experimental weapon known as Dense Inert Metal Explosives, or DIME. The weapon causes the tissue to be torn from the flesh. Dr. Mads Gilbert said, “We have seen a number of very brutal amputations…without shrapnel injuries, which we strongly suspect must have been caused by the DIME weapons.” Dr. Erik Fosse said, “I have seen and treated a lot of different injuries for the last thirty years in different war zones, and this looks completely different.”

Israeli Soldier Jailed for Refusing to Fight in Gaza
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports an Israeli soldier has been jailed for fourteen days for refusing to fight in Gaza. The soldier, who has not been identified, was the first member of the IDF to be tried for refusing orders since the war on Gaza began.

Free Gaza Movement to Send More Boats with Aid to Gaza
Activists with the Free Gaza Movement are vowing to try again to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea. Yesterday, a Free Gaza boat had to return to Cyprus after it suffered a mechanical failure.

Free Gaza activist Huwaida Arraf: “We can’t wait ‘til Israel decides to stop the killing and then open up Gaza for the international community and aid workers to come pick up the pieces. No, we must insist on the right to enter. And so, in that sense, we’re not going to let the violence that Israel used against us or what they might use against us again stop us.”


Democracy Now .org

Did you by any chance hear what Naom Chomsky said this week at MIT?

This is part of his speech:

With more than 1,100 dead in 21 days and more than 5,000 wounded, half the victims women, children and the elderly.

MIT - 13 January 2009

Chomsky grasped for an appropriate word to describe the magnitude of Israeli actions. Dismissing the words “terrorism” and “aggression” as insufficient ...

Concluding, he said a Israeli military victory in Gaza would leave Israel with an image as a “blood-stained monster.”

“Supporters of Israel are in reality supporters of its moral degeneration,” he said.

http://tech.mit.edu/V128/N63/chomskytalk.html