Israel's Brutal Collective Punishment of Palestinians Continues On and ON....
Other Breaking News
Ten Palestinians, mainly children and teenagers, were killed yesterday and 50 people injured when an Israeli tank shell ripped through a crowd of protesters in the Gaza Strip.Two men could be seen lying on the street while bloodied victims, many of them boys under the age of 10, were loaded into ambulances and taxicabs.Doctors in the overwhelmed Rafah hospital said the floors were "running with blood" and that the hospital was facing shortages of beds and medicine. The hospital's small morgue was overflowing, and bodies had to be stored in a flower freezer in a nearby building. British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the offensive "unacceptable and wrong." Despite international condemnation, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said that Israel will push on with the operation. It "is essential and will continue as long as necessary," he said. Since the Intifada, 2,806 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli soldiers while 921 Israelis had died due to the conflict since then. Read here for more
The United States abstained, instead of voting for, as other remaining 14 members did, the UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel's mass demolition of Palestinian houses in the Gaza Strip. It was good enough, though NOT morally sufficient, for the UN Security Council to pass the resolution on Wednesday. All the other 14 council members (including the UK), voted for the resolution drawn up by the Arab Group within the United Nations. This is only the first "anti-Israeli" resolution adopted by the 15-nation council this year. The United States believes, in the words of James Cunningham, the US Ambassador to the UN, that Israel, despite having the strongest military force in the Middle East "has a right to self-defense," against the firepower of the Palestinians .. and that the US abstained, due in part to US concerns that Israel's actions "have not enhanced Israel's security," instead of the security and safety of Palestinian civilians. Read here for more |
...AND THE WORLD STOOD BY AND WATCH.
.. While WESTERN LEADERS, fearing political backlash by Jewish/Israeli Lobbies in their countries, could only mouth pathetic voices of dissent to the brutality of Israel's treatment of the PALESTINIANS in this militarily one-sided conflict, with Israel's forces armed and subsidised by the taxpayers of the United States.
Arab Leaders are more fearful of their own political demise and loss of their personal financial investments in the West, to launch any meaningful response to this catastrophic conflict.
The response by Western democracies to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is sufficient proof to the Muslim/Arab streets of the poverty and corruptibility of the political and democratic institutions of the West, notably the United States, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
It is indeed a disgrace and an insult to human decency and dignity..
Israeli forces killed at least 20 people, including children, one of the highest death tolls in a single day of the present intifada, as it occupied the Tel al-Sultan district on the margins of the camp in preparation for an expected assault on the heart of Rafah. Palestinians fear much greater bloodshed, however, once the Israelis attack areas of Rafah where resistance is usually stronger. Many Palestinians were bracing themselves for a long and bloody battle yesterday. The army has sealed off Rafah from the rest of Gaza. Read here for more
President Bush affirmed Israel's right to defend itself Tuesday and urged Palestinians to reject violence. Israel now faces international condemnation for the move. US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, meanwhile, is setting up a meeting with Israeli Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was in Washington for a speech to the pro-Israel lobby.And more talks while deaths mount in the Gaza Strip. Read here for more
Israeli army tanks lined up near the Jewish settlement of Rafiah Yam, in the Gush Katif block of settlements of the southern Gaza Strip during ongoing military operations in the Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah, Monday, May 17, 2004
Israeli troops preparing weapons to conduct operations in the nearby southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah
A Palestinian girl sits on a donkey as family members load furniture whilst they prepare to leave their home in an area marked for possible demolition by the Israeli Army, in the Rafah Refugee camp
Rafah Turns Into Killing Field: Response from the Western leaders -the United States said it was seeking clarification from Israel about the operation which officials said would last at least a week. The European Union sent a senior envoy for talks with Israeli leaders... while Israel's army with US-funded helicopters and gunships are on the offensive killing innocent lives and destroying Palestinian homes. Read here for more
A Palestinian woman holds a baby in the rubble of her house after it was hit by a missile from an Israeli helicopter, at the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip , May 18, 2004.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon toasts during a meeting at his office in Jerusalem, Tuesday May 18, 2004.
A Palestinian woman weeps in the rubble of her house after it was hit by a missile fired from an Israeli helicopter at the Rafah refugee camp southern Gaza Strip , May 18, 2004
An old Palestinian man rests in the street next to destroyed houses at the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip
The Rafah hospital morgue became so overloaded on Tuesday that five bodies were shifted to vegetable freezers in a nearby market for preservation, medics said. Palestinian medics said Israeli soldiers held up ambulances trying to evacuate wounded. "We are afraid," said Miriam Abu Jazzar, surveying the blood-stained ruins of her daughter's home, smashed by a missile. "Every hour there is shooting." Read here for more
A Palestinian boy kisses one of four bodies of men killed in an Israeli army operation as they lay in a makeshift morgue at Najar hospital in the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip , early Tuesday, May 18, 2004.
Gaza -Horror beyond belief: Since Tuesday, May 11, thousands of people have been denied the simple right to return to their homes; this includes infants, children, students, employees, women, and men of all ages. There is no law in this life or world that should prevent someone from returning to his or her home.Yet in Palestine this is happening. And it is Israel, the storied democratic state, that is practicing this grave violation of very basic human rights. Read here for more
Since the intifada began in September 2000, 2,806 Palestinians and 921 Israelis.Asmaa Mughayer, 15, and her brother Ahmed, 13, were shot dead yesterday as they fed pigeons on the roof of their house. Their elder brother, Ali, 24, had shouted at them to come down because it was dangerous. When he heard no response, he climbed the steps to find his sister and brother lying dead in a pool of blood. On 18 February 2004 Israeli soldiers shot and seriously injured Yusuf, 15, the son of Khalil Bashir, a school principal living in Kfar Darom in the Gaza strip. At the time Yusuf was outside the house with his father seeing off visitors, including two United Nations staff members. The three visitors had just got into their vehicle, clearly marked with the UN emblem, and were about to leave when a single shot was fired from the Israeli watchtower. Yusuf was hit in the back by a bullet. He is still in hospital and it is not known if he will walk again.At least 88 houses were destroyed in the camp last week, making more than 1,000 people homeless. The greatest burden of house destruction has fallen on Gaza, with more than 2,200 demolitions in the past three-and-a-half years, and Rafah the worst afflicted area. Read here for more
The bodies of Palestinian Ahmed Mughayer, 13, and his sister Asma, 16, are wrapped in blankets after being brought from the Talesultan area of the Rafah refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip , Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Pro-Israel President George W. Bush apologetically told the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) yesterday that the recent events in Gaza were just "troubling". Read here for more
A Palestinian woman wounded in an Israeli missile strike is rushed into Najar hospital in the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip , early Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Amnesty International yesterday accused Israel of war crimes and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention in its destruction of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the past three years of fighting.Amnesty said that Israel has demolished more than 3,000 homes during the current conflict, most of them in Gaza.Israel also destroyed 10 percent of Gaza's agricultural land and uprooted more than 226,000 trees there in 2002 and 2003, it added.
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A Palestinian woman sits amid the rubble of her house after it was hit by a missile fired from an Israeli helicopter at the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip , May 18, 2004
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia used his meeting with U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on Monday to ask the United States to pressure Israel into ending the isolation of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and to allow him to travel freely throughout the West Bank, Gaza and overseas. What was Rice's response? Rice said Arafat, whom Israel has confined to his Ramallah headquarters, must first relinquish power. While Israel pursues collective punishment on innocent Palestinians, Rice said the Palestinian Authority, after its institutional and security infrastructure already destroyed by Israel, must carry out a series of security reforms and other steps stipulated in the road map as preparation for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.Read here for more
A Palestinian woman carries her belongings while she leaving her house at the Rafah refugee southern Gaza Strip May 17, 2004
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Tuesday condemned Israel’s demolition of Gaza Strip homes as “unacceptable,” as a major crackdown continued in the southern flashpoint town of Rafah.“The British government is wholly opposed to this policy and practice of demolishing houses in this way by the Israeli defence force,” he said, as a major Israeli offensive continued in the area.“It is unacceptable and it’s also contrary to the roadmap,” he told reporters at an EU meeting in Brussels, referring to the internationally-backed peace plan for the Middle East. Earlier, EU foreign ministers issued a statement condemning the demolitions as “disproportionate” and called on Israel to stop them immediately. ISRAEL WILL NOT LISTEN. Read here for more
A Palestinian woman stands in the rubble of a house destroyed house in recent days by the Israeli Army, in the Rafah Refugee camp, next to the border with Egypt, Monday, May 17, 2004.
The Israel Defense Forces operation in Rafah did NOT receive prominent coverage in the American press.Reports from Gaza come only after the coverage of Iraq and the main national news stories, such as single-sex marriages in Massachusetts and the rocketing price of gasoline. An editorial in The Washington Post, which carried the headline "Wrong way in Gaza," warned that Israel must be careful not to leave thousands of Palestinians homeless as a result of the operation.
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