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Call for release of two Fox News journalists kidnapped in Gaza

15 August 2006


Reporters Without Borders voiced deep concern today about the kidnapping of two journalists working for the US TV network, Fox News, reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, who were abducted by gunmen in the centre of Gaza City last night. “We appeal to the kidnappers to release these two journalists,” the press freedom organisation said. “They were just doing their job and can in no way be held responsible for US policy in the region or the Israeli army’s operations in the Palestinian Territories or in Lebanon. We also call on the Palestinian authorities to do everything to find Centanni and Wiig and to ensure they return safe and sound to their families.” 

PNGO applauds Venezuela's decision to withdraw ambassador from Israel

14 August 2006


The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) applauds the decision of the Venezuelan people and government to withdraw the Venezuelan ambassador from Israel. On August 3, 2006, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stated that he has withdrawn his country’s ambassador from Israel to show his ‘indignation’ over the military offensive in Lebanon. Chavez stated, “It really causes indignation to see how the state of Israel continues bombing, killing … with all of the power they have, with the support of the United States” regarding the Israeli assault on Lebanon. 

Unexploded bombs bring new dangers

15 August 2006


BEIRUT - Lebanese who had fled air strikes during the month-long conflict with Israel, are facing a new danger as they head home: unexploded bombs and shells left behind. “If any civilian touches them or tries to move them, they will explode,” Allen Kelly, liaison for United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Beirut, told IRIN. Israel’s military has stated that during its attacks on Hezbollah militias, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers, its air force hit 7,000 targets in Lebanon, and its navy carried out more than 2,500 bombardments along the Lebanese coast. 

Bombed southern suburbs spring to life

15 August 2006


BEIRUT - A mass southbound movement of displaced Lebanese continued on Tuesday as the United Nations-brokered ceasefire between Hezbollah militias and Israel’s defence forces entered its second day. “We’re leaving,” said Shams, who comes from Nabatiyeh, 80 km south of Beirut, but has spent the past month living in a Beirut park. “We know it might not be safe, but we want to know whether or not our house is still standing. And we’re tired of living like this, in such unsanitary conditions and in the open air.” 

South Beirut after a month of bombing

15 August 2006


BEIRUT - At first, heavy silence hang over Haret Hreik and other areas of south Beirut early on Tuesday morning as scenes of an apocalypse emerged from the thick smoke and smell of fresh gunpowder. Then one could discern signs of life - women weeping as they inspected what were once their homes and other fragments of their lives, all destroyed by heavy bombing by the Israeli army during the 34-day conflict between Israel and the armed wing of the Lebanese political party Hezbollah. 

Israel's freeze of familiy unification in the Occupied Territories splits tens of thousands of Palestinian families

15 August 2006


Today, B’Tselem and HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, are publishing Perpetual Limbo, a report on Israel ‘s policy freezing family unification for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories . Although the policy affects almost every Palestinian family living in the Occupied Territories , it is unknown to the Israeli public. 

Smoke and Resolutions

Maya Mikdashi Beirut 15 August 2006


Two days ago, my mother and I watched a building disappear. We had been taking a walk around our house in a mountain above southern Beirut when we saw it - the mad cluster of life, mediated through concrete buildings of different heights, starting at the coastline and spilling inwards. The city. It lay there, exposed. At first it was difficult for my American mother to discern where Beirut “proper” ended and its southern suburbs began. It all looks the same from a distance, especially from an elevated one. 

This will probably be my last letter to you

Hanady Salman Beirut 15 August 2006


This will probably be my last letter to you. I will miss you all. Some of you I never met, but I feel that you are all so close to me. More than that, you probably already know it — without you I would not have made it throughout this hell. You were there by my side and that made me stronger. Every day, you gave more meaning to all this — peoples’ stories were heard, peoples’ suffering was shared. This was what I could do for my people: tell some of their stories. Knowing that you would listen, knowing that you would care made the whole difference. 

Nablus: Patients pay the price of embargo

13 August 2006


NABLUS — Five months after an international embargo was imposed on the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), the West Bank is facing a health crisis as pharmaceuticals and medical supplies become increasingly scarce. “We’re facing severe shortages of 13 important drugs,” said Dr Lou’ay Shaheen, head of the cancer ward at the National Hospital in Nablus. “In the past two weeks, nine of these drugs were made available, but quantities still aren’t sufficient for all the patients.”