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OCHA: 22 Palestinians killed in Gaza in past 36 hours

27 July 2006


Twenty-two Palestinians were killed in the last 36 hours in the Gaza Strip (including a three-year-old girl). Wednesday (26 July) saw the highest daily death toll since 28 June - the start of what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have code-named ‘Operation Summer Rains’. Since the last Situation Report (18 July), there have been a significant number of Palestinian casualties - 50 dead and more than 230 injured - from IDF incursions, shellings and Israel Air Force (IAF) air strikes. Of the 150 Palestinians that have been killed since 28 June, approximately one-quarter of have been reported as children (31). At least 541 Palestinians have been injured. 

Lebanon's biggest environmental catastrophe: 15,000 ton oil spill hits coast

Wael Hmaidan 28 July 2006


The escalating Israeli attack on Lebanon is not only killing its civilians and destroying its infrastructure, but it is also annihilating its environment. Last week a 15,000 ton oil spill resulted from the Israeli air raid on the Jiyyeh power plant South of Lebanon. The power plant has six fuel tanks. Four of them have burned completely, while the fifth one, which is also the main cause of the spill, is still burning. The Lebanese Ministry of Environment is worried that the sixth tank, which is underground and so far intact, is going to explode and increase the magnitude of the problem. 

Israel's long history of abusing the United Nations

Marc J. Sirois 28 July 2006


The crux of the problem is that the Jewish state resents the United Nations because it has failed to accept repeated humiliations - and worse - with sufficient obsequiousness. In the Israeli view, international organizations should follow the example of the United States, which has frequently betrayed both the safety and the reputation of its own military and diplomatic personnel by meekly accepting Israeli atrocities and provocations. The US government forced the US Navy to help cover up the nature of Israel’s deliberate 1967 attack on the USS Liberty, which killed dozens of American servicemen, and to deny proper decorations to victims and survivors alike. 

Merseyside trade unionists call for sanctions against Israeli invasions of Lebanon, Gaza

28 July 2006


On behalf of Merseyside trade unionists the Sacked Liverpool Dockworkers have been asked to circulate, coordinate and collate all responses to this message. We are trade unionists with a record of action within our own industries and in opposition to racism and war. We watch with horror and outrage as Israel has bombed Lebanon indisciminately since 12 July with hundreds of civilian casualties, and their army begins a major ground invasion. Similar atrocities are being committed against Palestinians by Israeli forces in Gaza. We know that the Blair government, including even the T&G sponsored Foreign Secretary, has given Israel a blank cheque to continue. 

Struggling with casualties in Tyre

26 July 2006


The head of one of the main hospitals in Tyre, which has been treating civilians injured by the Israeli bombardment of south Lebanon, says his facility is rapidly running out of resources. “We can keep working like this for 10 more days and after that, God knows what will happen,” says Dr Ahmad Mroue, chairman of the Jabal Amel Hospital in Tyre. Staffed with 35 doctors, the hospital has treated 331 wounded civilians and has had to deal with 27 fatalities since the conflict began on 12 July. Dr Mroue told IRIN that up to 20 critically injured people are being transported to Beirut each day to keep beds free. Among the wounded in the hospital are six Palestinians from the Rashidiya refugee camp. 

Number of civilian deaths likely to be higher - Red Cross

26 July 2006


Members of the Lebanese Red Cross in southern Lebanon say dozens more civilians could have died than accounted for so far, making the civilian death toll higher than official figures. Kassam Shaalan, of the Lebanese Red Cross in Tyre, told IRIN that in a village near Srifa, in the hills east of Tyre, dozens of people are believed to have been buried in rubble after an Israeli missile destroyed their apartment block. The victims are presumed dead, but the Red Cross has been unable to reach the building because of safety concerns and no guarantees of safe passage from the Israeli military. On Sunday, Shaalan and two other members of his crew narrowly survived Israeli missile strikes. 

For some dual nationality families, a holiday from hell

27 July 2006


Sitting beside the dock in the southern Lebanese port of Tyre waiting to register for evacuation, Abu Wassim Jaafar spoke of how he, his wife and three children arrived on holiday in Beirut on 12 July, just two hours before Israeli air strikes on the runway closed the airport. The family, who hold German passports, drove south to visit relatives in the village of Abassiyeh, 6km outside Tyre, but had been cut off after Israeli attacks closed the roads. “I was really planning on having a good time in Lebanon, but instead we ended up hiding in the basement for 12 days surrounded by cockroaches,” said Jafaar’s 17 year-old son Mohammed. 

Lebanon conflict hurting economy, experts say

27 July 2006


Economists say that the current conflict in Lebanon is having a negative impact on the Iraqi economy as most of its trade with Lebanon has been frozen and business with Syria has decreased. “Lebanon and Syria were Iraqi’s most important trading partners,” says Muhammad Rushi, an economic analyst and professor at Baghdad University. “Hundreds of contracts had to be cancelled or postponed due to the current violence in Lebanon.” There are no reliable statistics on the volume of trade between those countries but officials say that millions of dollars are exchanged every month in trade that includes medicines, vegetables and grains. 

Displaced families tell of horrors left behind

27 July 2006


Before they left in a convoy of cars filled with screaming children and fluttering white sheets, the women of Yaroun tried to organise a team to rescue the elderly and sick of their village that for two weeks has been caught up in the deadly crossfire of Hizbullah militants and the Israeli army just two kilometers from Lebanon’s southern border. They failed. “All the men are migrant workers and most of the summer visitors are dual nationality Lebanese who were told to evacuate,” said Leila Saad. “So the only people left behind are women, children and the elderly. I saw a grandmother who was trapped in the rubble of her house, and we left her to die.” 

Palestinians still stranded on Syrian-Lebanese border

28 July 2006


Some 200 Palestinians are still waiting at the Lebanese-Syrian border crossing at Masnaa for entry authorisation from the Syrian government. Having fled from some of the worst-hit areas of Lebanon, around Tyre and the southern Bekaa Valley, the stricken families have officially left Lebanese territory but are being refused entry into Syria. They now find themselves stuck in a virtual no-man’s land between the two countries. Almost all those waiting at Masnaa hold joint Lebanese-Palestinian travel documents, specially issued for the 350,000-400,000 Palestinian refugees who live in Lebanon but who enjoy only limited rights and restricted status.