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Annan 'deeply concerned' at escalating violence in Gaza

3 November 2006


Voicing deep concern at the rising death toll from Israeli operations in northern Gaza, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged Israel to refrain from “further escalating an already grave situation” and called on Palestinian militants to stop firing rockets at Israeli civilian targets. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said between 30 and 40 women today were collected inside two of its elementary schools, where their mobile phones were taken from them by Israeli soldiers. It confirmed that two of the women subsequently suffered gunshot wounds. 

On the Road with the Palestine Medical Relief Society

Bill Dienst Tulkarem and Qalqilya 3 November 2006


Our mobile health van, sponsored by Palestinian Medical Relief Society, climbs steep switchbacks through narrow alleyways to the top of the hill. We arrive at the town meeting hall in the village of Far’ata (population 700) and start unpacking our boxes of pharmaceuticals and other equipment. It is here that we set up our makeshift clinic and start seeing patients. Graffiti supporting Hamas fills the walls of the village, and green flags with Islamic inscriptions fly from the roof of the mosque. The meeting hall itself sports a poster supporting Fateh, the party of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and the late Yasser Arafat. 

Three days of siege and defiance in Beit Hanoun

Mona El-Farra Gaza Strip 3 November 2006


Israeli occupying forces launched a massive attack against northern Gaza, focused on Beit Hanoun village. At the start of this assault, the village was placed under strict siege. Nobody was allowed in or out of Beit Hanoun. At Al-Awda hospital, where 45 injured were admitted for treatment, and three dead bodies received, I was told by our emergency room staff that one of these dead could have been saved easily. While bleeding and suffering from multiple injuries, Mr. Khalil Hamad had to wait for special arrangements and an army permit to transfer him via the Red Cross from outside the village to the nearest hospital, five minutes away from the scene. Mr. Hamad bled to death before he arrived at our hospital. 

Foreign meddling and domestic inaction push Lebanon to the brink of crisis

3 November 2006


Lebanon is once again on the brink of a crisis caused by foreign meddling and domestic inaction. The White House is accusing Hizbullah, Iran and Syria of seeking the illegitimate overthrow of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s government, parroting a theme long championed by a very recent visitor to Washington, Chouf MP Walid Jumblatt. The simplistic charge dovetails with much of the current US approach to the Middle East, but it also lends credence to the theory that the Bush administration’s Lebanon policy is so flimsy as to be alterable by the last person who gained an audience with the president or one of his top advisers. 

UNIFIL: What are they here for?

Imad Martada Lebanon 3 November 2006


Resolution 1701 ignores, apparently deliberately, the investigations held not only by the United Nations itself, but also independent investigations conducted by international organizations like Human Rights Watch, Greenpeace, and Amnesty International — only to name a few — which find Israel responsible for serious violations on many levels, some irreversible. Resolution 1701 equates between an act of invasion and aggravated damage to the Lebanese infrastructure, environment, and population both Lebanese and Palestinian, with the legitimate response and (in comparison to Israel’s military power) the microscopic military power of Hezbollah. 

Pummeling the victim

Rima Merriman 3 November 2006


The terrible imbalance of power between the Israelis and Palestinians makes it impossible for Israel, regardless of which government is in power, to deal with the Palestinians in any way except through a lens of assumed moral, cultural, and racial superiority, as though military prowess equates with civilization and home-made rockets equate with savagery and a sub-human status. The savagery, though, belongs to Israel and to anyone who has the power to stop a bully in his bloody pummeling of a much weaker opponent but instead stands aside, watching under the cover of the manufactured excuse that the bully is defending himself against his hapless victim. 

One woman killed, 16 injured in Israeli siege on Gaza mosque

3 November 2006


In the ongoing Israeli ‘Operation Autumn Clouds’, Israeli forces opened fire on women who were trying to assist the escape of a group of Palestinian fighters besieged in An-Nasser mosque in Beit Hanoun. One Palestinian woman was killed and another is currently in a state of clinical death. At least another 16 women were injured, of whom three are in a critical condition. The women were staging a demonstration demanding an end to the siege of the An-Nasser mosque, in which dozens of Palestinian men have been holed up since Thursday evening. 

Palestinian man used as human shield during Israeli siege of Bethlehem

3 November 2006


Israeli troops invaded the Saf area of the West Bank city of Bethlehem early on Friday morning. Over a dozen military jeeps surrounded a building near the girls’ school in the area. Armed Palestinians exchanged fire with the Israeli soldiers on and off throughout the morning, resulting in at least six serious Palestinian injuries. A teenage boy was shot dead by the Israeli forces. One of the injured, an 80-year-old woman, is currently undergoing surgery. Around mid-day, after partly bulldozing the house of Saher Hassan, an active member of Islamic Jihad whom the Israeli army appear to be targeting, the Israeli soldiers began forcing their way in using a ‘human shield’. 

War still keenly felt in Lebanon

Mayssoun Sukarieh Beirut 3 November 2006


Current events are like hot air balloons, says Arundhati Roy; they rise up into view and disappear out of sight again. This seems to be the situation now in Lebanon. Many friends and colleagues abroad are emailing to ask what’s going on, since Lebanon is no longer in the news. Our hot air balloons have already disappeared. We are not in the news anymore, but this does not mean that war is no longer raging in Lebanon. The only difference between now and the summer, when we were in the news, is that quick death caused by immediate shelling has been replaced by slow, sporadic death caused by cluster bombs and soil and air contamination, and the brute power of Israel’s armed forces has been replaced by the soft power of UN political control. 

Palestinian NGOs accuse EU of double standards after Solana meets Lieberman

2 November 2006


Over 300 Palestinian organisations, representing civil society organisations, charities, human rights groups, and popular committees, have sent a joint letter to the Finnish representative to the Palestinian Authority, condemning the fact that the European Union policy chief, Javier Solana, met with the extreme right-wing Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman during his visit to the region. The letter reminds the Europeans of Lieberman’s “fascist tendencies”, such as his belief that all Palestinian citizens of Israel should be transferred outside the boundaries of Israel.