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Palestinians stranded at Rafah border assisted, Red Crescent says

12 July 2006


The Red Crescent Society in Egypt has denied reports that four Palestinians stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip had died as a result of poor conditions. “Two Palestinians in Egypt have died since the crisis erupted,” the Society said. “One of them died in Cairo, the other in his home in al-Arish [in different circumstances].” The border crossing, which is 350km north of Cairo and constitutes the Gaza Strip’s only gateway to the world, has been closed from the Israeli side since 25 June for ‘security reasons’. 

Gaza's Christian hospital critical

12 July 2006


“While F-16 jets and Apache bombers are firing artillery into the strip, we are in a state of emergency. We desperately need essential medicine at the hospital, yet our stores will cover only one month’s usage,” says Dr. Suhaila Tarazi, director of Al Ahli Arab, Gaza’s only Christian hospital. “The hospital is also in need of fuel to operate the hospital generator. The hospital generator is working only for couple of hours each day, usually during surgeries and some time during the night.” 

Beirut in solidarity with besieged Gazans

Stefan Christoff 12 July 2006


Activists in Beirut launched a week-long protest at Martyrs Square Wednesday in solidarity with the people of Palestine, hours after Israeli forces entered South Lebanon. More than 100 people gathered to express solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who in recent weeks have experienced an unprecedented Israeli military assault. As the sit-in commenced in Beirut, Israeli continued to escalate its military action in the Gaza Strip killing 18 Palestinians including 9 members of one family who died in an air strike on a home in Gaza. 

A hard rain's gonna fall

Laurie King 13 July 2006


The Israeli Defense Forces have named their relentless military operation in Gaza “Summer Rain,” which is cruel and sarcastic given the political, historical, and environmental context of the Eastern Mediterranean. From early May to mid-September, one can expect clear skies and no precipitation. What is raining, though, is fire and metal, along with leaflets bearing chillingly familiar threats. The Middle East is in dire need of the refreshing rains of law, justice, sanity, and wisdom. The clouds on the horizon, though, are full of fire and death, not life-giving water. 

Dear friends: Gaza is in darkness

Cherifa Sirry Cairo 12 July 2006


Its nearly 4 a.m. here and I decided to go back to my computer to communicate to my friends around the world what every single mainstream media channel, whether American, European or Arab, is failing to in regards to what is happening right now in Gaza, Palestine. I have been in front of the television for the past few hours, monitoring the news and I was shocked to see nothing on Gaza except for on two local Arab channels and one Arab satellite channel. Even Al-Jazeera, to my utter shock, didn’t so much as mention Gaza in its last two news broadcasts! 

Israel's latest bureaucratic obscenity

Jonathan Cook 12 July 2006


The same malign intent by Israel towards the Palestinians is stamped through its history like the lettering in a children’s stick of seaside rock. But despite the consistent aim of Israeli policy, generation after generation of Western politicians, diplomats and journalists has shown a repeated inability to grasp what is happening before its very eyes. The Palestinian historian Rashid Khalidi once noted that the first goal of Israel’s founders as they prepared to establish their Jewish state on a large swath of the Palestinian homeland in 1948 was to empty Palestine’s urban heartlands of their educated elites. 

IOF Bomb a House in Gaza City, Killing Two Parents and Their 7 Children; 34 Civilians Injured

12 July 2006


Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have committed a new war crime against Palestinian civilians, flagrantly breaching the Fourth Geneva Convention. IOF fighter jets dropped two bombs at a two-storey house in a crowded neighborhood in the town of Jabalia. The house belonged to a Hamas leader. The house owner was killed, and so were his wife and seven of their children. The house was completely destroyed. In addition, 34 civilians were injured, including five children and six women. Extensive damage was inflicted on 15 houses surrounding the targeted house. 

Six human rights groups to Israeli High Court: Stop the harm to the civilian population in Gaza

12 July 2006


On July 11, 2006, six human rights groups petitioned the Israeli High Court demanding that the crossings in Gaza be opened to allow for the steady and regular supply of fuel, food, medicine, and equipment, including spare parts needed to operate generators. The groups also asked for an urgent hearing in order to prevent serious harm to the health of the civilian population, especially patients in hospital, and to prevent the breakdown of the water and sewage system in Gaza. 

Response to petition to Israeli high court: 48 hours for Rafah crisis solution

12 July 2006


The Israeli High Court decided in a session held 10 July 2006 to give the State of Israel a deadline of 48 hours to come up with a mechanism to allow patients, in the least, who are stuck on the Egyptian side of the Rafah International Crossing Point, to return to their homes in the Gaza Strip. The Court decision came in reply to a petition filed by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, Mezan Centre for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights on 7 July 2006. 

Action not words are needed to change Israel's behaviour

Adri Nieuwhof and Jeff Handmaker 11 July 2006


The capture of a French-Israeli gunner on a tank during military operations on Palestinian territory triggered an extreme and illegal response from the Israeli government. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are paying an unacceptably high price as a consequence of Israel’s ongoing attacks and border closures. Israel’s performance shows a total disregard for the rules of international humanitarian law. They have lost sight of the human value and dignity of the Palestinian people. If Europe recognises that the lives of Palestinians are as valuable as the life of the French-Israeli soldier, it should act immediately to stop the tragedy that is unfolding.