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Israeli sniper bullet takes 12-year-old girl's life

Sami Abu Salem Jabalya refugee camp 9 March 2008


“I put my hand on her chest to stop the streaming blood. She told me that she could not breathe, her body trembled and she closed her eyes,” said Ra’d Abu Saif of his 12-year-old daughter Safa’s last moments after she was shot by an Israeli sniper last Saturday. Safa was shot in the left side of her chest while she was inside her home in Jabaliya, northern Gaza. Sami Abu Salem reports from Gaza. 

Gaza man assassinated and run over, baby shot in the head

6 March 2008


Following its withdrawal from north Gaza on 4 March 2008, the IOF continued air strikes yesterday. Israeli occupation forces (IOF) penetrated the Wadi al-Salqa village in the central Gaza Strip, assassinated one man, and killed an infant less than one month old. The number of the people killed by the IOF since 28 February 2008 has reached 120, including 72 civilians. Among the civilians were six women and thirty children. 

Egyptian anger over Israel "approaching boiling point"

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani 6 March 2008


CAIRO, 6 March (IPS) - Fury erupted on the streets and in parliament this week following violent Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. But as protests were held nationwide in support of besieged Palestinians next door, Cairo continued to keep the volatile Rafah border crossing — the only means out of the strip not under direct Israeli control — tightly sealed. 

Crossing the Line interviews Israeli historian Ilan Pappe

6 March 2008


This week on Crossing The Line: The word “genocide” is one of the most powerful words used to describe criminal killing and destruction. It has been used to describe the Nazi holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia, and Rwanda. More recently, Israeli author and historian Ilan Pappe has used this word to describe Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. Host Naji Ali speaks with Pappe about why he sees Israel’s ongoing occupation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza as genocide. 

Jabaliya buries its dead

4 March 2008


Sixteen-year-old Jacqueline Abu Shbak and her fourteen year old brother, Iyad, both lived on Jabaliya’s Abed Rabbo Street with their mother and three other young brothers and sisters. The children’s uncle, Hatem Hosni Abu Shbak, who lives next door, found the bodies of Jacqueline and Iyad in the early hours of Saturday 1 March, when he rushed upstairs after hearing intense shooting and then screaming. 

Medical negligence suspected in prisoner's death

4 March 2008


The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is deeply concerned over the death of Fadel ‘Ouda ‘Atiya Shaheen, 47, from al-Jalaa’ neighborhood in Gaza City, who had been detained by Israeli Occupation Forces in Be’r al-Saba’ Prison, as there are indications that his health condition deteriorated and the administration of the prison failed to offer him appropriate medical treatment. 

The mega prison of Palestine

Ilan Pappe 4 March 2008


In several articles published by The Electronic Intifada, I claimed that Israel is pursuing a genocidal policy against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The argument was that since Israel does not know how to deal with the Gaza Strip, they opted for a knee-jerk reaction in the form of massive killings whenever the Palestinians in the Strip dared to protest their strangulation and imprisonment. The end result so far is the escalation of the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians — unfortunately validating the adjective “genocidal” I and others attached to these policies. Ilan Pappe comments for EI. 

Academic freedom? Not for Arabs in Israel

Jonathan Cook 4 March 2008


In the strange world of Israeli academia, an Arab college lecturer is being dismissed from his job because he refused to declare his “respect for the uniform of the Israeli army.” The bizarre demand was made of Nizar Hassan, director of several award-winning films, after he criticized a Jewish student who arrived in his film studies class at Sapir College in the Negev for wearing his uniform and carrying a gun. Jonathan Cook writes from Nazareth. 

Trade union building targeted in Gaza

Mohammed Omer 4 March 2008


GAZA CITY, 4 March (IPS) - Two F-16 missiles were all it took to bring down the five-story headquarters of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions. The Union, established in 1965, is one of the forerunners of the movement calling for an international boycott of Israel, and imposition of sanctions on it until Israel meets its obligations over UN resolutions, borders, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.