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They were thirty-three men and agricultural workers

Mayssoun Sukarieh Beirut 5 August 2006



They were working in the fields, to save what is left from the season while Israel constantly targets fruit trucks and convoys all over Lebanon. They were men and agricultural workers. They were workers having a break after a long day of peach and plum picking, resting to continue their day of work that extends to the night. They were men, thirty-three of them, who died because they were working at a time when we are supposed to be all sitting home scared or demonstrating against the resistance as the enemy wishes. They were maybe called: Muhammad, Ahmad, Issa, Ali, Hani Fadi, Khaled, Hassan, Tarek … maybe and maybe. 

Road Corridor from Syria Disrupted

8 August 2006



4 August 2006 — The Government of Lebanon’s (GoL) Higher Relief Council (HRC) today reports that 907 people have been killed and 3,293 people have been injured due to the on-going conflict. The HRC also reports that 913,760 people (of which almost half are children), about one-quarter of Lebanon’s population, have fled their homes. Most of the displaced are said to be located in South Beirut, Tyre (Sur), Sidon (Saida), Chouf, and Aaley. Although an estimated 565,000 displaced persons are staying with relatives and friends, the HRC estimates 128,000 are located in schools and public institutions in Lebanon, and 220,000 have fled to neighboring countries, including 150,000 to Syria. 

The Bougainvillea Are in Full, Glorious Bloom

Rasha Salti Saida 5 August 2006



This siege note is dedicated to Akram. Akram was my first friend from Saida. I had visited Saida before I met him, but it became a whole other story after I went there with him, and after I became familiar with his work. Akram is also one of the constitutional elements of my life in Beirut. Our friendship is peculiar because it has carved a world specific to it, a language of its own, replete with metaphors, a stock of memories, and piles and piles of images and stories. I like to think of it as a space, a retreat, like a small interior garden where a deeply anchored quietude prevails. 

Almost half the fatalities in Gaza in July were civilians

5 August 2006



In July, the Israeli military killed 163 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 78 of whom (48 percent) were not taking part in the hostilities when they were killed. Thirty-six of the fatalities were minors, and 20 were women. In the West Bank, 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in July. The number of Palestinian fatalities in July was the highest in any month since April 2002. Of the incidents B’Tselem investigated in Gaza over the past month, the organization has identified four cases in which Israel may have committed grave breaches of the laws of war. A total of 15 Palestinian civilians were killed in these incidents, including 7 minors. 

Photostory: Israeli brutality at the US Consulate in Jerusalem

Bell Way Jerusalem 5 August 2006



On Tuesday, August 1st, Palestinians and some Americans held a protest outside of the American consulate in East Jerusalem, protesting America’s massive political and financial roie in the assault on Lebanon. There were no physical or verbal exchanges between protestors or police. A police jeep arrived with back up. Suddenly, about 15 police crossed the street to the protestors quickly in a column and began shoving everyone down the hill. They immediately became violent with the protestors, shoving them, aggressively using batons and horses. 

Human Rights Watch: Hezbollah must end attacks on civilians

5 August 2006



Hezbollah must immediately stop firing rockets into civilian areas in Israel, Human Rights Watch said today. Entering the fourth week of attacks, such rockets have claimed 30 civilian lives, including six children, and wounded hundreds more. “Lobbing rockets blindly into civilian areas is without doubt a war crime,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.” Nothing can justify this assault on the most fundamental standards for sparing civilians the hazards of war.” Hezbollah claims that some of its attacks are aimed at military bases inside Israel, which are legitimate targets. 

More children killed in Rafah

5 August 2006



The victims of war crimes perpetrated by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) for the third consecutive day in Rafah has increased to 16 killed, including 10 civilians (four of them children). One of the victims was a three-day-old infant girl who fell her mother’s arm as the latter was fleeing from IOF. Two other children victims were brothers. They were killed and their mother and brother were seriously injured when they were trying to flee their house. The number of injured is up to 39, including 13 children and one woman. All were injured by shrapnel and burns, many of them were injured seriously. 

A dialogue at Huwara Checkpoint

Zachary Wales Nablus 4 August 2006



Why were you traveling in Nablus, he asks. There are beads of sweat on his upper lip, the stubble on his chin is fair. He has found a way to prop his M-4 carbine against the wall behind him so that its sling rests loosely on his shoulder. The blue-eyed corporal next to him slams his palm against a steel beam inches from a woman’s face. She startles and retreats to the imagined line behind us, corrects her hijab along her hair line and stares through him. 

Factories come under fire

4 August 2006



The Maliban glass factory, owned by an Indian businessman based in London, used to produce some 200 tons of glass a day in Chaura, 40km east of Beirut in the heart of the Bekaa Valley, and employed around 400 people. Now burnt steel bars rise like giant teeth against a clear blue sky. Salah Baraki, 60, the manager, looked out over a sea of devastation. “The factory is 42 years old, of which I worked here for 41,” he said. “In two minutes, everything was gone.” On 18 July, two Israeli fighter jets fired a handful of rockets on the production hall, reducing it to rubble. 

Oil-spill clean-up delayed by conflict

4 August 2006



European and Arab governments are ready to step in with aid and equipment to help Lebanon tackle a 10,000-tonne oil spill that was the result of Israeli air strikes on the fuel tanks of Jiyeh power station, 20km south of Beirut, on 13 and 15 July. However, the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in the south of the country is stopping them from doing so, according to a member of the Lebanese environment ministry, who did not want to be named. “They cannot mobilise their forces until a ceasefire is called,” said the ministry official. “We are operating in a state of war so normal procedure cannot be followed in this situation … a lot of countries are on standby trying to get the aid to us,” she said.