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Facing West from Arab Country

Patrick McGreevy Beirut 8 August 2006


The Bush Administration encourages Israel to crush Hezbollah, perhaps because many in the US think Israel is a settler society facing exactly the situation their own country once faced. But haven’t Israelis been here long enough to recognize that simplistic example of the eastward gaze called the war on terror? Lashing out will not make Israel safe; such a strategy is based on faulty “knowledge”: it is like plowing the sea. If crushing people will make them capitulate, the people of Gaza would long ago have become docile rather than defiant. 

"Sharp decline" in the humanitarian situation in Gaza after six weeks of siege

7 August 2006


Since the beginning of Operation Summer Rains - the IDF codename of the military operation which began on 28 June - 184 Palestinians, including 42 children, have been killed; 650 Palestinians injured. One IDF soldier was killed, 25 Israelis injured, including 11 by homemade rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. Up to 3,400 Palestinians have sought shelter in UNRWA installations as a result the IDF operation. UNDP initial estimates total $15.5 million in damages to Gaza’s infrastructure from IDF incursions, artillery shellings and air strikes excluding the damage caused to the Gaza power plant. 

UN Sub-Commission voices outrage at rights violations in Lebanon

7 August 2006


The United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights today adopted a statement decrying the rights violations taking place in Lebanon and voicing hope that the Security Council will foster an end to the fighting and a lasting solution to the conflict. The Geneva-based body said it was meeting “at a tragic moment when a brutal and barbarous war has already deprived a thousand men, women, and children of their inherent right to life, several thousands have been injured and maimed, and a million innocent people displaced.” 

Israel continues shelling and aerial bombardments across southern Lebanon

7 August 2006


Exchanges of fire continued in the past 24 hours, with a high intensity and throughout the UNIFIL area of operations. Hezbollah fired rockets in large numbers from various locations. The IDF continued shelling and aerial bombardment across the south. The IDF has maintained their presence and continued to operate on Lebanese territory in different areas. There are no reports of significant changes since yesterday in the areas where they are operating. There are reports this morning of intensive ground exchanges in many areas: Bayyadah and Mansuri along the coast and Bint Jubayl and Yarun in the central sector. 

Israel's rain of missiles on Gaza and Tae'er's legs

Mohammed Omer Gaza, Palestine 8 August 2006


The most tragic event can easily happen when two ambulances from two hospitals start collecting the remains of the flesh of people who were killed. The collection of body parts within the chaos and destruction is definitely not an easy task, especially when there are groups of people being killed and two ambulances take the share of delivering all the victims remains to two different hospitals. Within this horrendously difficult process, one ambulance will have body parts of a victim that will take to a hospital, and the other ambulance will take (not knowing) other parts of flesh… leg, or arm, owned by the very same victim to another hospital to the north. 

Arab delegation to address UN Security Council on draft resolution

7 August 2006


The Arab League is sending a delegation to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday “to present the Arab point of view” of the French-US draft resolution for a ceasefire in Lebanon after it met in an emergency meeting in Beirut on Monday. Lebanon’s displeasure with the French-US draft was the Arab League’s reasoning to call an emergency meeting in Beirut on Monday to look for consensus on the Lebanese issue and reiterate the seven-point cease-fire solution agreed to by all members of the Lebanese government, including Hezbollah, last week. 

UN calls for end to IDF attacks that hinder relief aid

7 August 2006


The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon, David Shearer, on Monday called on the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to end its attacks on civilian infrastructure - including bridges, roads, fuel depots, power stations and hospitals - and to cease all actions hindering the supply of humanitarian relief to the hundreds of thousands of displaced people across the country. “We deplore the continuation of Israeli bombardment of civilian infrastructure in Lebanon and call on all parties in this conflict to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law with regard to civilians,” Shearer said. 

Photostory: Thousands March in Brussels Against Israel's War on Lebanon

7 August 2006


Thousands of people marched through the centre of Brussels on Sunday to protest Israel’s war on Lebanon. It was the third consecutive weekend that protestors held a demonstration in the Belgian capital. This week, many more Belgians joined. Protesters demanded an immediate ceasefire. They waved Palestinian and Lebanese flags and chanted “Lebanon burns and the world is watching.” Among the protesters were members of the leftist Belgian Union of Progressive Jews and a group of young children wearing white T-shirts and carrying white balloons walked at the head of the march. 

US/Israeli traps set for Lebanese resistance

Jonathan Cook 7 August 2006


If there were any remaining illusions about the purpose of Israel’s war against Lebanon, the draft United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a “cessation of major hostilities” published at the weekend should finally dispel them. This entirely one-sided document was drafted, noted the Hebrew-language media, with close Israeli involvement. The top adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, talked through the resolution with the US and French teams, while the Israeli Foreign Ministry had its man alongside John Bolton at the UN building in New York. In a cynical ploy familiar from previous negotiating processes, Israel submitted to the US a list of requests for amendments to the resolution. 

The refugees' fury will be felt for generations to come

Karma Nabulsi 7 August 2006

***IMAGE1***People walk the dusty, broken roads in scorching summer heat, taking shelter in the basements of empty buildings. In Gaza and Lebanon, in the refugee camps of Khan Younis and Rafah, in Tyre and Beirut, in Nabatiyeh and Sidon, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children seek refuge. As they flee, they risk the indiscriminate wrath of an enemy driven by an existential mania that can not be assuaged, only stopped. Ambulances are struck, UN observers are struck. Warning leaflets are dropped from the sky urging people to abandon their homes, just as they were in 1996, 1982, 1978, 1967 and 1948. The ultimately impossible decision in Gaza and Lebanon today is: where does a refugee go?