Archive for the 'Gaza' Category
Siege on Hospitals in Gaza
June 12th, 2008MIDEAST: Hospitals in Need of Care
By Nora Barrows-Friedman
JEBALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza, Jun 11 (IPS) - In the brightly painted new intensive care unit wing of al-Awda, northern Gaza’s only emergency medical facility in the massive Jebaliya refugee camp, doctors, nurses, aides and administrators are ready to provide emergency surgery services for the area’s 300,000 people.
But the metal bed frames remain empty of patients — and of mattresses, and IV bags, and heart monitors, and other basic supplies needed at a basic medical facility. The equipment has been purchased, but remains in the occupied West Bank city Ramallah, prevented by Israel from being taken into Gaza.
“In the last year, the service burden on al-Awda was tripled. We had difficulty especially after the Fatah-Hamas fighting, and through the closures beginning last year,” Nehal Mehanna, programme officer at al-Awda tells IPS as she walks around the empty rooms.
“Israel is not letting certain medication and supplies into Gaza, through any checkpoint. For example, we have been waiting for seven months to have the operation tables to be shipped and enter Gaza through the Erez checkpoint — the equipment is only one hour away by car, but we’ve been waiting for seven months. Sometimes we can get supplies through the Red Cross, but they’re helping many organisations at the same time. They have limited supplies. It’s a long, complicated procedure, and it all has to be approved by the Israeli authorities.”
GAZA: No Ambulance, Call the Radio
April 13th, 2008By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Apr 12 (IPS) - “I am bleeding uncontrollably, I need an ambulance.” That was not a call to emergency services, it was an appeal broadcast live on radio in Gaza City.
Who knows whether there will ever be an ambulance or not. But this way the ambulance services still hear the appeal broadcast on Al-Iman FM Radio Station, one of few independent radio stations in Gaza. And if the emergency services cannot help, someone else who hears the appeal might.
The ambulance dispatcher announces he cannot get the ambulance to the man. An Israeli bulldozer is blocking the road, and an Israeli tank on a hilltop has been firing at the ambulance, he says. Nobody can say if anyone else got to help the man. But at least his SOS could have been heard.
Appeals again went on air after the Friday attacks on Bureij refugee camp, where the death toll climbed to 16 by the weekend. The deaths included six children among nine people killed Friday. Again, ambulance crews confirmed they could not reach many of the injured. But the appeals were made on radio for all to hear.
A man called from east of Jabaliya refugee camp asking for an ambulance for his wife about to deliver. The radio host asked his location, and that of Israeli tanks. “I can’t look from the window to see,” he said. “They will shoot me if I do.”
Confidential Documents: United States Sponsored Palestinian Civil War
March 7th, 2008Note from PSP: We’d like to reiterate our position as being non-sectarian and not affiliated with any political parties. In addition, however, we are committed to a free and just Palestine, and do not support any efforts, neither from within nor without, that undermine legitimate Palestinian resistance and quest for self-determination.
For the entire original article in Vanity Fair, click here
Excerpt:
Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. The plan was for forces led by [Fatah leader Mohammed] Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America’s behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. (The State Department declined to comment.)
But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further setback for American foreign policy under Bush. Instead of driving its enemies out of power, the U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza. […]
Within the Bush administration, the Palestinian policy set off a furious debate. One of its critics is David Wurmser, the avowed neoconservative, who resigned as Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief Middle East adviser in July 2007, a month after the Gaza coup.
Hundreds of Women, School Girls Demonstrate in Beit Ommar
March 3rd, 2008
Today, Monday march 3, the females of Beit Ommar marched against the atrocities being committed by the Israeli military in Gaza. More than 200 women from the village and girls of all ages gathered on the main street and began marching towards the military watchtower. They carried Palestinian flags and chanted slogans against the Israeli Occupation and in support of national Palestinian unity. Israeli soldiers attacked the demonstration, as they did at similar student demonstrations throughout the West Bank today, firing tear gas, sound grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at the crowd, with some participants as young as 10 years old. The soldiers then began shooting tear gas into the brand new girls’ school, which just opened this year.
At one point, about an hour into the demonstration, the Israeli military arrested one young man on a side street. Several women, including a PSP committee member, immediately intervened. They were also supported by a PSP male activist who was nearby. The man and women stood in front of the jeep to prevent it from driving away. Soldiers then attacked the protesters, punching both PSP members multiple times. Eventually, after threatening more participants with arrests, the soldiers left with the man. Later in the day young men came out into the streets to confront the Israeli military vehicles that were still in Beit Ommar. 6 were reported wounded.
Al-Jazeera Coverage of Gaza Crisis
March 3rd, 2008For those who cannot get Al Jazeera’s television coverage in English, here are recent reports on the situation in Gaza.
Israel Continues to Bombard Gaza
March 1, 2008
Anger Explodes in West Bank Over Israeli Raids
March 2, 2008
1 Youth Killed as Thousands Demonstrate Throughout Palestine
March 3rd, 2008In Ramallah, thousands participated in a demonstration called jointly by Fatah and Hamas. In Betlehem, Palestinians gathered near the Church of the Nativity, in Hebron, near a University. Schools were closed throughout the West Bank as thousands marched to apparatuses of the Israeli Occupation: checkpoints, watchtowers, the Annexation Barrier. People marched in Nablus, Qalqilya, Jenin, Betlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and dozens of smaller towns, protesting the ongoing massacre in Gaza. And make no mistake, it is a massacre. Even Israeli news sources are reporting around 50% of the fatalities are civilians. In reality, no one but the Palestinians on the ground can be sure of who was a fighter and who a civilian; they report that only a few of the 100+ people killed in the last few days were engaged in armed resistance. The demonstrations were not limited to Palestinian areas. Israelis in Tel Aviv have had multiple demonstrations, including a critical mass bike ride in which 6 people were arrested, throughout the weekend against the assault on Gaza.
In Beit Ommar, hundreds of residents flew black flags on their homes and carried them in a march through the center of town as a sign of mourning. In Beit ‘Awa, west of Hebron, residents marched towards the Annexation Fence built on their land. There, 14 year old Mahmoud Musalameh was shot in the heart. He died in a hospital in Hebron. More than 40 people were wounded in the Betlehem and Hebron districts alone during the demonstrations. In the Ramallah district, demonstrators marched towards Qalandiya, the main checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem.
Israel Promises “Shoah” (”Holocaust”) in Gaza, More Than a Dozen Children Killed
March 1st, 2008
Yesterday, Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Palestinians risked a “shoah”, the Hebrew word used to describe the Holocaust. Today, over 60 people have been killed, bringing the 4-day death toll throughout the Gaza Strip to more than 80 with more than 200 wounded. Among those killed today were at least 29 civilians, and 19 children. 1 Israeli citizen was killed last week by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, and 2 Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting today near Jabaliya.
The human rights organization Al-Haq called on the international community to prosecute Israel for war crimes, saying in their report, “Many of the recent Israeli attacks constitute war crimes which may amount to grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, for which individuals can be held criminally responsible.”
“The use of unrestrained force against a civilian population in response to the unlawful rocket attacks carried out by Palestinian armed groups is a blatant violation of the laws of war, enshrined in customary international humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention,” the report said.
Finally, after 4 days of bombardment, Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Ahmed Qureia informed Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that they were officially freezing ‘peace’ negotiations with Israel due to the bombardment of Gaza.
Communities around the world have demanded an immediate end to the massacre occurring in the Gaza Strip. Last night alone, emergency protests were held in London, New York, and other major cities throughout the U.S. and Europe. Palestinians throughout the West Bank also had demonstrations against the attacks yesterday and today, including ones in Beit Ommar, Um Salamuna, Al-Khadr, and Bil’in. Strikes are planned for tomorrow throughout Palestine.
Demonstration in Solidarity with Gaza in Beit Ommar, Settlers Open Fire
March 1st, 2008
Today approximately 50 Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists marched towards the Karmi Tsur settlement, built on Beit Ommar’s land. Karmi Tsur has recently been the staging area for the Israeli Occupation Forces as they invade Beit Ommar with increasing violence throughout the last month. Though originally planned as a demonstration against the recent bulldozing of Palestinian agricultural land near the settlement, residents decided to change the message to include a statement in solidarity with the residents of Gaza. Over 40 people were killed in attacks throughout the Gaza strip today alone, including 2 babies and small children.
The activists marched uninhibited to the fence surrounding the settlement. A 14 year old boy was hoisted up to plant a Palestinian flag on top of the fence. In response, several settlers who were out for a shabbat walk, opened fire with m16 automatic rifles towards the demonstrators, who quickly retreated. The Israeli forces who had been amassing in the settlement then came down through the gate and over the newly bulldozed land in several jeeps, forcing the people back into the village as the Israeli settlers nearby danced and cheered them on.
PNN: Jerusalem Sits in Solidarity with Gaza
February 24th, 2008Jerusalem / PNN – Yesterday throngs of people held a sit-in at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in East Jerusalem’s Old City. The occasion was a day of solidarity with the people of Gaza, under intense siege by the Israeli government and its forces.
Bishop Attallah Hanna, the Archbishop of the Roman Orthodox Church, began with a prayer “in support of our people,” and “to lift the siege on our people in the Gaza Strip.”
Jerusalem itself is under heavy siege by the Israeli government and its forces which are creating new facts on the ground in contravention to international law and the United Nations, including settlement building and expansion, Wall construction which is cutting off the city from the rest of the West Bank and its own inhabitants from one another, home demolitions, land confiscation and ethnic cleansing.
Bishop Hanna said, “We in Jerusalem stand by our people in Gaza and call for the lifting of the unjust embargo against our people there in solidarity with Gaza. Today and always Jerusalem and Gaza are together with the blessed holy Jerusalem defended by our sanctities. We feel complete solidarity with Gaza which is suffering from tragic, harsh and difficult circumstances: the ongoing siege of Gaza and the continuous targeting of stone and humans and the trees.”
Vigil in Solidarity with Gaza: Santa Barbara, CA
February 1st, 2008From Aharon
Communities throughout the world continue to protest and conduct demonstrations opposing the situations facing Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. At the University of California in Santa Barbara, campus organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, conducted a week of demonstrations on campus, topping off the week-long campaign to bring light to the Palestinian issue with a candlelight vigil for Gaza residents. Several speakers held audience, weighing in on the situation. One speaker, Aharon Ahmad M., spoke intimately about his experiences volunteering recently with the PSP in the West Bank. Aharon spent weeks with PSP co-founder, Mousa Maria, in Beit Ommar over his winter break from classes.
Despite heated debate on campus throughout the week between members of Students for Justice in Palestine and Israeli advocacy group, American Students for Israel (ASI), in which ASI members counter-protested in IOF uniform, many attended the vigil on Thursday night. Amongst the vigil
goers were people of all walks of life, class, and faith. At the end of the vigil, demonstrators carried the candles to the Pacific Ocean and offered prayers for those suffering in Occupied Palestine.
