18 February 2008
BEIRUT, 18 February (IRIN) - As some 100 nations meet on 18 February to discuss a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has raised its estimate of the bombs and bomblets Israel showered over southern Lebanon in the 2006 war, to as many as 4.6 million. Read more about Israel's 2006 bombing of Lebanon could spur cluster bomb ban
18 February 2008
On Thursday, 13 February, Fawzia Abd al-Fattah al-Darak (59) from Deir al-Ghosoun north of Tulkarm died when Israeli forces prevented an ambulance from taking her to a hospital in Tulkarm. Mohammad al-Darak, her husband, testified that his wife started to experience severe chest pain. They called the emergency department of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Tulkarm in order to transport her to a hospital. Read more about Woman dies after being denied passage through Israeli checkpoint
15 February 2008
The undersigned civil society organizations utterly condemn an attack on the YMCA headquarters in Gaza City in the early hours of the morning of 15 February 2008. Unidentified militants broke into the YMCA headquarters, planted explosive devices and subsequently completely destroyed the library. The undersigned organizations ask the dismissed government to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into this crime, which is a continuation of a number of similar attacks targeting national, cultural and civil society organizations in the Gaza Strip. Read more about YMCA headquarters attacked in Gaza City
Beirut, Lebanon 18 February 2008
For a while now, we’ve been talking about it. For a while now, I’ve been talking about it. Yes, there will be another war. I have said so during radio interviews, during dinner conversations, during phone calls with my family in the US. Yes, there will be another war of Israeli aggression on Lebanon. It is just a question of time, this summer or next summer, this year or next year, but, yes, there will be another war. Rania Masri writes from Beirut. Read more about Living with the certainty of war
Ramallah, West Bank 19 February 2008
I left Lebanon more than a week ago and am only now starting to find words. I have never before been in a place that has seen so much war. Occupation, yes. Injustice, yes. Death and destruction and uncertainty, perhaps. But something felt different about Lebanon. I have not wrapped my mind around it enough to feel confident that what I write will accurately represent my own thoughts, let alone the actual situation. But I do want to tell you about Nahr al-Bared. Hannah Mermelstein writes. Read more about Nahr al-Bared and the right of return
18 February 2008
GAZA CITY, 16 February (IPS) - Human remains mix with debris following the latest Israeli assault Friday on Bureij camp in Gaza Strip. Early reports listed nine dead and more than 50 injured. A targeted leader was killed, but many others were killed too. “It’s very hard for us to rescue, or even locate bodies beneath the building,” said a medical relief worker from the local Bureij hospital. Israel has not confirmed responsibility for the missile attack by F-16 aircraft. Read more about Gaza civilians die along with assassinated leader
18 February 2008
Commentary in the Lebanese press affirms that the regional dimension has become more important following the assassination of Hizballah figure Imad Mughniyeh, which could translate into a change in the rules of engagement of all parties to Lebanon’s brewing internal conflict. And in this new framework, the international tribunal’s inquiry into the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri will become more significant as a tool of international pressure and as a stage on which Syria is battling its rivals. Read more about Meet the Lebanese Press: A cold civil war
17 February 2008
The following is an open letter sent to Director-General of UNESCO Koichiro Matsuura on 14 February 2008: On behalf of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, we are writing to express our deep concern about your statements, quoted in The Jerusalem Post, during your recent visit to Israel. These statements were one-sided, completely ignoring Israel’s continuous crimes against Palestinian history and heritage. Read more about Boycott group to UNESCO: Protect heritage of all cultures
15 February 2008
The following letter was sent by Montreal filmmaker Malclom Guy to the Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québecois on 12 February: I accepted the invitation from the Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québecois to join this year’s jury in good faith. But after examining in more detail the political and financial basis of the prize I must refuse to have my name associated with it. Behind this noble sounding “award for tolerance” hides a story of intolerance, division and discrimination. Read more about Open letter: "Award for tolerance" hides story of discrimination
15 February 2008
“We receive 20-25 new referrals every day, and we see approximately 350 children a week here at the centre. Last year we treated more than 8,400 children here in Gaza city, plus another 8,000 children at our centre in Khan Younis. All of them were under five years old, and all of them were malnourished.” Najah Zohod is the Nutritional Director of the Ard al-Insan Child Nutrition Center in Gaza City. Read more about "Shocking" rate of malnutrition in donor-dependent Gaza