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Tens of thousands call for immediate ceasefire

3 August 2006


An urgent petition signed by over 35,000 people and backed by 16 leading agencies was handed in today to Tony Blair, pressing him to call for an immediate ceasefire in the current Middle East crisis. The petition, signed following advertisements published in three national newspapers just four days ago, reflects public unease about the UK’s failure to seek an immediate ceasefire. War on Want’s Louise Richards said: “More innocent lives will be lost unless there is an immediate ceasefire. The longer violence continues the further political leaders will be from resolving not only the present crisis, but its fundamental cause, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” 

Hospitals in Gaza overwhelmed and running out of supplies

8 August 2006


Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have seen a significant increase in war casualties with severe injuries over the past month and are running out of medical supplies, Merlin said today. After a recent attack in Gaza City, 75 per cent of war-wounded patients admitted at one hospital needed amputations, Merlin’s emergency assessment team was told. In the past six weeks, doctors at this hospital have carried out amputations on more than 50 patients and have been forced to cancel 800 routine operations in order to deal with the rising number of emergency cases. 

South lacks medication for chronic diseases

8 August 2006


Aid agencies and doctors in south Lebanon say there is a growing shortage of medication for chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cancer and AIDS. Unless Israeli-imposed travel restrictions ease, thousands of people receiving treatment will suffer. “Many people remain in the villages near the border, who have been taking treatments for years and now suddenly their supply is cut,” said Hakim Khalji, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) coordinator in the port city of Tyre. MSF is providing medical supplies to people in and around Tyre but is not making deliveries of chronic disease medication to outlying villages because of dangerous conditions created by the conflict. 

Hezbollah ballbearing rockets maximise injuries

8 August 2006


Doctors are concerned that Hezbollah’s use of ballbearings in many of the rockets fired into northern Israel is increasing the number of casualties: 36 civilians have been killed so far, according to Israeli authorities. “These bullets [ballbearings] cause damaging penetrative injuries,” said Dr Eran Tal-or, the attending physician at the trauma unit in Haifa’s Rambam Hospital. “If the bullet is lodged in the brain, for example, we wouldn’t even try to get it out because we would cause even more damage. And if it cuts a major artery, then you will be dead in no time.” 

Fuel shortages threaten hospital services

8 August 2006


Lebanese officials have said that hospitals are threatened with closure as a result of severe fuel shortages nationwide.”Hospitals are currently functioning properly, but their fuel reserve can [only] last for one week,” Lebanese Health Minister Mohammed Khalife told IRIN. Lebanon is tapping into its fuel reserves to supply some hospitals, but the real issue is the difficulty in transporting the fuel around the country, Khalife said. Bombed roads and bridges are making access to some areas of Lebanon almost impossible. With Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s threatening on Monday to escalate attacks on infrastructure, the situation has become more critical. 

Civilian Resistance: Call for action and solidarity with Lebanon

8 August 2006


On August 12, at 7:00 am, Lebanese from throughout the country and international supporters who have come to Lebanon to express solidarity will gather in Martyr’s Square in Beirut to form a civilian convoy to the south of Lebanon. Hundreds of Lebanese and international civilians will express their solidarity with the inhabitants of the heavily destroyed south who have been bravely withstanding the assault of the Israeli military. This campaign is endorsed by more than 200 Lebanese and international organizations. This growing coalition of national and international non-governmental organizations hereby launches a campaign of civil resistance for the purpose of challenging the cruel and ruthless use of massive military force by Israel, the regional superpower, upon the people of Lebanon. 

Sowing the seeds of future wars

Rima Merriman 8 August 2006


Thanks to the US’s latest intervention in Lebanon, the Islamic values of Hizbollah, of Islamic Jihad, are gaining ascendancy in the Arab world and sowing the seeds for future wars. The lesson learned from this latest Lebanese war is this: The only thing that has a chance of working in the Middle East is the emergence of a powerful force that will act as a deterrent to the United States’ unconditional support of Israel’s illegal and unjustified actions. To the Arab and Moslem world, far from being a terrorist organization, The Iranian-backed Hizbollah is now a symbol of Lebanese and Arab pride. 

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.”