UNITEDNATIONS (IPS) - The United Nations is urgently appealing for 613 million dollars to aid more than a million desperate civilians in the ruins of Gaza, where schools, hospitals, houses, factories and even farmland were obliterated during the three-week assault by Israeli air and ground forces. At least 1,300 Palestinians were killed and more than 5,300 injured in the war, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Some 21,000 homes were reported destroyed or badly damaged, and more than 50,000 people were displaced into temporary UN shelters. Read more about Gaza slowly reemerging from the rubble
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani4 February 2009
CAIRO (IPS) - Despite declarations of victory by Israel, the military assault on the Gaza Strip failed to achieve its stated aims, many analysts say. The assault, and even its exceptional brutality, may only have vindicated the notion of resistance among the Arab public. “The steadfastness of the resistance in Gaza in the face of Israeli military power has resuscitated the idea of armed resistance,” Gamal Fahmi, political analyst and managing editor of the Egyptian opposition weekly al-Arabi al-Nassiri told IPS. Read more about Hamas' political victory
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - As fears rise of renewed violence in Gaza, Elena Qleibo, a French-Costa Rican aid worker from Oxfam, gives IPS a first-hand account of surviving Israel’s three-week bombardment of Gaza: I was attending a meeting at Gaza City municipality on 27 December when suddenly the meeting was interrupted by heavy booming sounds coming from a short distance away. Plumes of smoke were rising from a number of bombed areas surrounding the building I was in. I and a number of colleagues rushed outside to try and establish what was happening. Read more about Aid worker: Gaza an "apocalypse"
Piles of bricks, metal sheets and pieces of wood, are all that remains of tens of Palestinian homes in the Ezbet Abed Rabu (Abed Rabu Ranch) neighborhood, east of Jabaliya town in the northern Gaza Strip. “There is nothing left for us to live for — the house was lost and the furniture destroyed,” lamented Suad Muhammad Abed Rabu. The Electronic Intifada contributor Rami Almeghari reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about In Gaza, a "ranch" turned to rubble
RAMALLAH, occuiped West Bank (IPS) - Reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah is looking increasingly problematic as the two groups exchange serious accusations of treason, torture and extrajudicial killings. Tension between the two groups has escalated in the wake of Israel’s 22-day military assault on Gaza. Read more about Fatah, Hamas trade accusations
GAZACITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - With Gaza’s sewerage system on the verge of collapse, a top water engineer has warned of the risk of groundwater contamination in the enclave, making clean water scarcer than it already is. Gaza is particularly vulnerable to groundwater contamination since its sandy desert soil easily absorbs water — or sewage from leaking sewage pipes. Compounding the risk is the fact that groundwater is relatively near the surface, and wells dug to access it tend to be shallow. Read more about Sewage may contaminate Gaza drinking water
My wife Linda and I went back to Beirut, Lebanon recently to visit the American Community School that I graduated from in the 1950s. One of the counselors at the school, an American named David Bakis, has started a project to bring some cheer into the lives of children in the Palestinian refugee camps near Beirut. No easy task. Curtis Bell writes from the United States. Read more about The children of Shatila: no future and no past
There are many stories. Each account — each murdered individual, each wounded person, each burned-out and broken house, each shattered window, trashed kitchen, strewn item of clothing, bedroom turned upside down, bullet and shelling hole in walls, offensive Israeli army graffiti — is important. Eva Bartlett writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about Every family has a story, here are some of them
TELAVIV (IRIN) - The Israeli emergency clinic at the Erez crossing, which opened on the day Israel declared a ceasefire in Gaza (18 January), has closed after treating only five wounded Palestinians. The original purpose of the clinic, according to press releases, was to provide emergency care and evacuate those needing further care to hospitals in Israel. Read more about Israeli clinic closes after treating five Palestinians
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Gaza will need years to recover from the devastating Israeli assault, says Katharina Ritz, head of mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Israel’s 22-day assault left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead, and decimated much of the coastal territory’s infrastructure. Read more about "Gaza will take years to recover"
