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Gaza under darkness

Rami Almeghari Maghazi refugee camp 17 July 2006


“I have lost a total of $1,000 US dollars since the power supply has been cut, the number of my customers has decreased to minimum, I stay idle at my shop for long hours; what shall I do?” asked 31-year-old Alaa’ Salahat, a local vendor of frozen foods from the central Gaza Strip refugee camp of Maghazi. He spoke of his experience while sitting in the darkness with only a kerosene lamp illuminating the worry lines in his face. “This is really a very terrible situation; we are civilians - what does Israel want? This is really a collective punishment against an entire people,” said Alaa’. 

Displaced receive aid, but concern remains for those stuck in south

17 July 2006


Apart from a few mattresses, some clothes and a water pipe, the classroom on the third floor of the Karm al-Zeytun primary school is empty. Chairs and tables stand piled up outside, forming a makeshift home for Hussein Nuridin and his family. Nuridin fled south Beirut on Sunday, his family having left before him. He initially wanted to keep an eye on his house, he explained, but the Israeli bombardment of the area became so intense that he says he had no choice but to leave. “They bombed a Hizbullah agricultural cooperative and some 40 other buildings on my street alone,” he said. “They’re using vacuum bombs, one of which is enough to destroy an entire building.” 

Amid attacks, health workers warn of waning supplies

17 July 2006


Local health workers say they face difficulties reaching the injured in southern Lebanon following furious Israeli artillery barrages and air strikes that came in response to the 12 July kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah. “We’re cooperating with NGOs and other humanitarian associations to help us cope with the situation,” Minister of Health Muhammad Jawad Khalifa told IRIN. “But we’re experiencing difficulties in accessing affected areas to help the injured.” Khalifa added that 175 deaths and 500 injuries had been reported since the bombing began on 12 July. Dr Abdel Rahim Hennawi, director of the Hammoud Medical Centre in Sidon, 45 km south of Beirut, expressed particular concern about the lack of dialysis treatment. 

UN Security Council working on 'lasting solution' to violence in Lebanon

17 July 2006


As a team of senior United Nations official meets with the parties on the ground in an effort to end the explosion of violence in Israel and Lebanon, Security Council members are actively searching for a lasting solution to crisis, according to its July President, Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sablière of France. “What is important for the Council is to work on a contribution for a sustainable solution,” Ambassador de la Sablière told reporters following closed consultations of the 15-member body that included briefings by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari and Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jane Holl Lute. 

UN humanitarian agencies prepare for health impact of crisis in Lebanon

17 July 2006


With access to medical care, water, sanitation and other heath necessities in Lebanon severely limited by Israeli attacks, United Nations humanitarian agencies have stepped up preparations for a coordinated, regional response to the crisis, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today. “Access to health care for injured and patients with chronic conditions is a major concern,” according to WHO’s first situation report from the country since Israel’s reaction to a 12 July cross-border Hizbollah attack. In addition, the agency said that impaired power supplies have limited water and sanitation services, and that food, shelter and health services must be ensured for the displaced population. 

Questions and answers on hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah

17 July 2006


The following questions and answers set out some of the legal rules governing the various actions taken by Israel and Hezbollah to date in this recent conflict. Human Rights Watch sets out these rules before it has been able to conduct extensive on-the-ground investigation. The purpose is to provide analytic guidance for those who are examining the fighting as well as for the parties to the conflict and those with the capacity to influence them. This Q & A addresses only the rules of international humanitarian law, known as jus in bello, which govern the way each party to the armed conflict must conduct itself in the course of the hostilities. 

Israelis are dying: it must be an escalation

Jonathan Cook 17 July 2006


Here we go again — another “serious escalation” has begun in the Middle East, or so BBC World was telling audiences throughout Sunday. So what prompted the BBC’s judgment that the crisis was escalating once more? You can be sure it had nothing to do with the more than 130 Lebanese dead after five days of savage aerial bombardment from at least 2,000 sorties by Israeli war planes that are making the country’s south a disaster zone and turning Beirut into a crumbling ghost town. Those dead, most civilians and many of them women and children, hardly get a mention, their lives apparently empty of meaning or significance in this confrontation. 

Israel's latest attack on the poor

Maymanah Farhat New York, United States 17 July 2006


Residents of our village are leaving for fear of running out of food; water is scarce and there are only four small grocery stores for a population of about 15,000 people. This is common throughout the South, as most depend on the cities for commerce (cities they are now cut off from). My grandmother and aunt have left the safety of our family’s bomb shelter to stay in a village on the coast. What appalling choices they have been given — seeking refuge in a building with no bomb shelter, in closer proximity to Israeli war ships, or remaining in a village where food is running out. The death toll in Lebanon is now 150 civilians, with the number of injured rising to 350. 

From Haifa to Jerusalem: Thoughts While Getting Out of Missile Range

Am Johal Jerusalem 17 July 2006


People were hiding in bomb shelters or trying to find a way out of town yesterday as Hezbollah rockets rained down on Haifa. I couldn’t sleep all night; every noise sounded like a rocket landing. They came in like pop flies and you could hear the thwapping as they landed in the distance. As I jumped in to the shower at 9:00, something hit hard in Haifa near the water. The sirens went off and the streets became deserted. Thursday nights hit had only engendered a kind of black comedy amongst the residents - this time it was real. 

Day 5 of the siege

Rasha Salti Beirut 17 July 2006


A quiet night in Beirut, more or less, compared to what the inhabitants of Tyre and the south and the Beqaa and Tripoli experienced. They were shelled from the air and sea with little respite. Tyre is in a tragically dire situation. 30,000 are displaced; the mayor was on TV screaming for help, his voice choking with despair. They are out of supplies, they have more wounded than they can handle and the city’s reserves in fuel and other basic amenities are nearly depleted. (The IDF wants to “clear” three provinces in the South: Tyre, Marja’uyun and Bin Jbeil, in preparation for the “20 km buffer zone.”) The port of Tripoli was bombed, the port of Beirut was bombed.