On Monday [29 December], around 11:50pm, I woke up and heard my husband calling to me: “Samira, Samira, they shelled the mosque, get up and see, and recite the Shahada [Prayer of the dying].” It was dark, and I couldn’t see anything. I recited the Shahada. I felt something heavy choking me and pressing on my body. Samira Balousha testifies to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem about the deaths of her five daughters. Read more about Testimony: Five girls in one family killed by Israeli bombing
Fifty-two people have been killed by the IOF throughout the Gaza Strip since yesterday evening (seven children and three women). Another 182 have been injured (26 children and 10 women). IOF has continued to show disregard to the rules of international law relevant to armed conflict, inflicting severe harm to civilian life and property. Read more about Fifty-two Gazans killed as Israeli forces invade
Israeli attacks on Gaza have continued for an eighth day. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) targeted more civilian objects. This includes bombardment of more houses and the Civil Defense building in Bani Suhaila town and the American School in northern Gaza. Air raids have also targeted open areas within the neighborhood, but particularly along the eastern and northern borders and the border between Gaza and Egypt. IOF’s naval vessels escalated their bombardment of Gaza’s beaches. Read more about Israeli forces bomb schools and mosque
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has continued its military operation — code-named “Cast Lead” — against the Gaza Strip for the seventh consecutive day. Air raids and attacks from ground forces and naval vessels have continued to target civilian objects. There has been an increase in the air raids targeting houses of resistance members. Read more about Hundreds dead, thousands injured and displaced
The most significant attacks by Israeli forces today was an air raid that targeted the houses of Abu al-Jabin family and Nizzar Rayyan, who is a leader in the Hamas movement. At approximately 2:40pm today, Israeli aircrafts fired five heavy missiles at the two houses, which are located in the middle of Jabaliya refugee camp. Read more about Israel extrajudicially executes Hamas leader and his family
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has continued its military operation in the Gaza Strip for the fifth day. Today, it targeted an ambulance and its medical crew with a missile, killing a doctor and an orderly and critically injuring its driver. According to Al Mezan Center’s monitoring, the number of Palestinian casualties since the start of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead at 11:30am on 27 December 2008 has risen to 315, of whom 41 were children and nine women. Read more about The civilian targets of Israel's bombing
GAZACITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - In Gaza’s main hospital, the director’s office is under virtual siege, according to an IRIN journalist in Gaza. Relatives of the injured are desperate to get their kin transferred to Egypt for emergency treatment. There is a fear here that the already overstretched healthcare system will collapse if Israel mounts a ground offensive into the tiny coastal strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians. Read more about "If there is an Israeli invasion hospitals will collapse"
Representing the Palestinian human rights community, we write to you with an urgent request for intervention by the UN Human Rights Council to put an end to the war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) as a result of the Israeli occupying forces’ ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip. Read more about Rights orgs: UN body must act to end Gaza war crimes
GAZACITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Gaza’s main hospital, al-Shifa, is struggling to cope with the influx of people injured in the Israeli air strikes which started on 27 December, according to medical sources. Staff and patients are also fearful Israel might target it, as the leaders of Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the enclave, have held press conferences there. The hospital has already moved some medical facilities below ground. Read more about Gaza's main hospital struggling to cope
At about 1:50am Tuesday, 30 December 2008, Israeli F-16 fighter jets shelled a Palestinian police site in Gaza, which is 70 meters away from the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme’s (GCMHP) main building in Sheikh Ejleen on Gaza Beach. The shelling was part of the vicious military attacks that the Israeli army launched on Gaza starting 27 December 2008. Read more about Israeli shelling badly damages human rights offices
