All Content

Strikes paralyse Palestinian health sector

31 August 2006



In a serious escalation of an ongoing health crisis in the West Bank and Gaza, health sector workers went on strike on Tuesday in protest of unpaid wages. “The strike is paralysing all primary health care centres that provide maternal and child health services,” said Usama Al Najjar, head of the Health Professions Union. “And all kinds of children’s vaccinations have completely stopped.” Al Najjar said that if the strike goes on for long, some 300,000 children under the age of three who receive regular vaccinations will suffer. Government health workers, who number 13,000 in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt), have been unpaid for the past six months, said Al Najjar. 

Australian Foreign Minister misses the 'hole truth' on hoax claim

Stephen Smith 31 August 2006



According to Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, Hezbollah and its supporters in Lebanon are duping the world’s media. The media, he cautions, are a guilty party to the faking of IDF air strikes on civilians and rescue workers. Downer, however, has been caught out by his own gullibility. It is worrying that he did not first check his source - an unattributed blog site - or realise the callous intent of its material. More worrying is his political opportunism in contesting one photograph and thereby casting doubt on what might be depicted in other images that document the atrocities of war. 

Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

31 August 2006



During the reported period, IOF killed 28 Palestinians, including 3 children, a mentally disabled young man and an old man. In addition, a man and a woman died from previous wounded. In the Gaza Strip, IOF killed 23 Palestinians, including 11 civilians. These civilians included 3 children and a mentally disabled young man. Twenty of the victims, including the three children, were killed by IOF during a 4-day offensive on al-Shojaeya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. Two of the victims are from the Abu al-Qumboz family, and were killed while they were inside their houses. 

The damage against civilians

Paul Larudee Beirut 29 August 2006



“You’re just a kid,” scoffed nonogenarian Ahmed Yehya al-Hajj when I told him I was sixty years old. “I have sons older than you and a grandson over fifty.” Ahmed is fortunate to be alive, and not just because of his age. He was visitiing one of his many offspring in the village of Houla when the house was struck by an Israeli missile. First reports were that as many as sixty people may have died, but in fact there was only one fatality and several very serious injuries, some permanent. Still bad enough, for those affected. The survivors showed me the remnants of the missile. They also shared the remnants of their hopes and dreams. 

Electricity in Gaza: Another Victim of Israeli 'Summer Rains'

Rami Almeghari Gaza Strip 31 August 2006



As I walked into one of the largest food processing plants in the central Gaza Strip, the first thing I noticed were two workers sitting idle in the ice-cream production area of the plant. I arrived during working hours, but all the machines were completely stopped. The factory was silent, the silence was overwhelming. The workers, Ibrahim and Hassan, were sitting idle in a corner - not because there is no desire in Gaza for ice cream, but because the Al-Awda factory, for which both workers work, is no longer able to produce ice cream, due to the electricity outages in the Gaza Strip. 

Israel's deceptions as a way of life

Jonathan Cook 31 August 2006



In a state established on a founding myth — that the native Palestinian population left of their own accord rather than that they were ethnically cleansed — and in one that seeks its legitimacy through a host of other lies, such as that the occupation of the West Bank is benign and that Gaza’s has ended, deception becomes a political way of life. And so it is in the “relative calm” that has followed Israel’s month-long pounding of Lebanon, a calm in which Israelis may no longer be dying but the Lebanese most assuredly are as explosions of US-made cluster bombs greet the south’s returning refugees and the anonymous residents of Gaza perish by the dozens each and every week under the relentless and indiscriminate strikes of the Israeli air force while the rest slowly starve in their open-air prison. 

Economic recession looms

30 August 2006



The Lebanese economy could go into recession in 2006 because of the damage done by the recent Israeli offensive and its ongoing air and naval blockade of the country, Lebanon’s Finance Minister Jihad Azour has warned. Azour added, however, that there could be a quick economic turn-around should current circumstances improve. “Yes, there is a risk of negative growth but there is also a chance of a recovery in growth if the blockade is lifted quickly,” he said. However, hopes for an immediate lifting of the blockade were dashed on Wednesday when Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rebuffed United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan’s calls for an end to what he described as a “humiliating” blockade. 

Schools will re-open three weeks late, says government

30 August 2006



Sitting on the pavement by a shattered building that once housed a government school near the main square in Bint Jbeil, 100 km south of Beirut, eight-year-old Fatme talked about school life prior to the war. “I love drawing, and maths. They are my favourite subjects,” she said. “Now, both my brother’s school and mine have been destroyed. We don’t know if we’ll be able to go to school this year. If we don’t, I’ll get bored and sad.” With an estimated pre-war population of 30,000 people, Bint Jbeil witnessed some of the heaviest bombing by Israel in addition to extensive ground battles with the armed wing of Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party. 

Israel's immoral use of cluster bombs in Lebanon poses major threat

30 August 2006



The top United Nations aid official today criticized Israel’s heavy use of cluster bombs in the last three days of the war with Hizbollah, describing their use as “immoral” and warning that up to 100,000 deadly bomblets still lie unexploded across vast areas of southern Lebanon where they are maiming and killing people every day. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland also said that around a quarter of a million Lebanese returnees who fled their homes during the month of fighting were unable to return because of the devastation or for fear of injury caused by these and other unexploded ordnance. 

OCHA: 100,000 unexploded cluster bomblets in south Lebanon

30 August 2006



According to the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Cell (UNMACC) on-the-ground assessments, most the Israeli bombing assaults occurred during the last 72 hours of the conflict, during which some 90 per cent of all cluster-bomb strikes occurred. Up to 100,000 unexploded cluster bomblets remain in south Lebanon and must be defused and destroyed. The Government of Lebanon (GoL) Higher Relief Council (HRC) reports the casualty figures at 1,187 killed and 4,080 injured. As of 29 August, 381 cluster bomb strike locations have been identified and UNMACC teams have destroyed 2,606 sub munitions.