07/01/2009 Twelve days on the beginning of its deadliest offensive against the Palestinian people in the Gaza strip that claimed the lives of around 700 people and injured more than 3000 others, the Zionist entity is set to even "expand" the war furthermore.
Indeed, the Israeli security cabinet on Wednesday approved enlarging the offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but left the final decision to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a senior defense official declared.
"They approved continuing the ground offensive, including a third stage that would broaden it by pushing deeper into populated areas," he said. "But it left it up to the defense establishment whether to implement the decision."
However, and in a move that seemed "contradictory Israeli daily Ynet reported that Israeli Defense Ministry official Major General Amos Gilad will leave for Egypt Thursday in order to discuss the Franco-Egyptian ceasefire initiative. Gilad is expected to meet with Egyptian intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman and other senior officials.
The daily quoted political sources in occupied Jerusalem as saying that Israel is opposed to indirect negotiations with Hamas and to including the crossings issue in the a ceasefire agreement.
Israel threatens to bomb Al-Shefa hospital
[ 08/01/2009 - 12:59 AM ]
A Palestinian baby wounded in Israeli shelling being treated at Shefa hospital
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation army that launches a monstrous military aggression on Gaza Strip has threatened to reduce Al-Shefa hospital to rubbles, alleging that Hamas leaders were hiding inside it.
The hospital is considered the biggest hospital in the tiny Strip where hundreds of patients are lying.
Dr. Muaweya Abu Hassanein, the director of the emergency department in the hospital categorically denied the Israeli allegations, affirming that no Hamas leaders is using the hospital as a hideout, warning at the same time that if Israel carried out its threat, thousands of Palestinians in and around the hospital could be killed.
The hospital, and other smaller hospitals and clinics were previously shelled by the Israeli warplanes and tanks, stressed Hassanein. He also denied Israeli claims that medicine and medical supplies had arrived to Gaza hospitals.
The Hebrew Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted on Wednesday Israeli military officers as alleging that Hamas leaders were using tunnels under the hospital to hide and run the show, and that they were using sick Palestinians as "human shields".
At least nine Palestinian paramedics and doctors were killed in Israeli shelling of the tiny Strip, and addition to destroying 11 ambulances and a number of the civil defense vehicles.
NEW GAZATOONS FOR 2009
January 7, 2009 at 1:15 pm (Associate Post, Cartoons, Ethnic Cleansing, Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Palestine, United Nations)
Peace in 2009 ???
All images by David Baldinger
Not if THIS madness continues……
REFLECTIONS ON BLITZKRIEGS ~~ PAST AND PRESENT
Amira Hass’ parents were both survivors of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. In the following article she reflects on what they might have thought of the present Israeli blitzkrieg on Gaza……
Image by Abonoon
Lucky my parents arn’t alive to see Israel bomb GazaBy Amira Hass
What luck my parents are dead. Back in 1982 they could not stand the noise of the Israeli jet fighters flying over the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. The shriek of a plane horrified them in their house in Tel Aviv. We don’t have to see it to know, they said.
That’s how it was then. And what now, when from me they would have learned about 2-year-old Sham, who climbs nimbly onto the table to look at her sister drawing in her notebook; 5-year-old Tayyib with the space between his front teeth that shows when he smiles; or 6-year-old Carmel with the picture books she loves. The world is exploding around these children, again and again, just five or 10 meters away. For 10 days now, every minute is a minute of fear. Every minute of fear is a minute of death. Multiply that by a million and a half.
My parents despised all their everyday activities - stirring sugar into coffee, washing the dishes, standing at a crosswalk - when in their mind’s eye they saw, based on their personal experience, the terror in the eyes of children, the desperation of mothers who could not protect their young ones, the moment when a huge explosion dropped a house on top of its inhabitants and a smart bomb struck down entire families. Salmeh’s mother says: “When I wake up [from a restless sleep] I am surprised. I know it’s only by chance that I am alive.”
How would they have been able to stand their daily routine now, when they would hear from me about 70-year-old Umm Khaled. A bomb fell on the closed concrete room on the square in the Shabura refugee camp. Two civilians were killed. Dozens of houses made out of hollow concrete were severely damaged. An asbestos roof fell centimeters from Umm Khaled’s head. Only that persuaded her to “be evacuated” to her daughter’s house, half a kilometer away, under the illusion that a new house would be safer. “All I hope is that I die before I see something happen to you,” she repeatedly tells her children.
Even before the language laundromat developed to its current sophistication, my parents were nauseated by phrases like the “the war for peace in the Galilee” or “disturbances of public order” when the public order was the occupation and the disturbance was resistance to it. When order is preventing the Palestinians from having what the Jews have a right to and demand. What luck that they are not alive to hear Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni explaining that we have nothing against the Palestinian people, and the cabinet secretary explaining that there is no humanitarian crisis and this is just Hamas propaganda. To recognize lies, they did not need to know the names of the people who had not had running water for five days or more. Forget the bombardments, forget the electricity, food, even sleep. But no water? Because of the bombardments by sea, land and air, people cannot even go out to get drinking water from the city faucets. And when someone does have running water at home, it’s undrinkable.
Because of my parents’ history they knew what it meant to close people behind barbed-wire fences in a small area. A year, five years, 10 years. From 1991. How lucky it is that they are not alive to see how how these incarcerated people are bombarded with all the glorious military technology of Israel and the United States. “We urgently invite Mohamed ElBaradei to come here and prove we do not have nuclear weapons,” says Iyad - a well-known comic, even under bombardment. But Saturday night he only said “difficult, difficult,” and hung up the phone.
My parents’ personal history led them to despise the relaxed way the news anchors reported on a curfew. How lucky they are not here and cannot hear the crowd roaring in the Colosseum.
Source
Israeli Settlers Poised to Re-settle Gaza After Assault
As Israeli troops fight their way into Gaza, scores of determined settlers are prepared to enter in their wake. Israel's "Operation Cast Lead" is reported to have overwhelming support among the Israeli public, but few are as enthusiastic as the former residents of the Israeli settlements in Gaza. As tens of thousands of Israeli troops descend on Gaza in an apocalyptic frenzy, scores of determined settlers are prepared to enter in their wake. The Gaza settlements were dismantled in August 2005 as part of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan. In a single stroke, the Israeli army removed 8,000 people from the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the southwest corner of the Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border and from four smaller settlements in northern and central Gaza. In spirit, many of the Gaza settlers never left the coveted Palestinian territory on the Mediterranean coast. Despite ample compensation from the Israeli government, many have chosen to live in nearby caravan camps in desert towns between Ashdod and Ashkelon, clustered with families from the same settlement of origin. Most of the settlers didn't pack before they were escorted out of their compounds, not believing that the Israeli government would permanently expel them. Some have posted the road signs identifying their old settlements in their camps.
The evacuees have reportedly suffered from high rates of divorce, drug abuse and other problem behavior. Imbued with messianic zeal, for the last three-and-a-half years, they have been mobilizing to resettle the land they believe is theirs by divine right. Settler activists are counting on their historically strong ties to the Israeli military, with some units composed entirely of settlers, to help in their fight. Indeed, some soldiers and reservists currently in Gaza were there three years ago living in cherished settlement communities. On Monday, an article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz described the bittersweet reactions of soldiers who had lived in Gaza settlements and are now back in uniform, noting, "Some see it as a first step toward returning to their former homes."
Earlier this year, Haaretz reported on settlers' plans to follow the Israeli army into Gaza. Boaz Haetzni, a leader of the settler movement, explained, "In our estimation the 'big operation' is only a matter of time; we will follow them in. We will not ask for permission from anyone. The [settlement] groups will be ready ...
These core groups will do exactly what the group that re-established Kfar Etzion did after 1967.
They will return to the lands where they existed in the past and will rebuild them." Kfar Etzion was the first Israeli settlement established in the West Bank after the end of the Six Day War and is now part of a large bloc of settlements connecting Jerusalem to Hebron. In August, settlers and their supporters commemorated the third anniversary of the Gaza evacuation at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem. The event featured music, prayers, testimonials and updates from volunteers assisting the Gush Katif "refugees." A flyer promoting the event highlighted a biblical passage: "And the threefold cord is not easily broken" (Kohelet 4:12), a reference to the strength of the bond tying the Gush Katif settlers to one another and to the support they receive from the broader community of supporters in Israel and abroad. The program was similar to "A Tribute To Hebron," an event held at the Great Synagogue in late December.
This event, organized by www.thelandofisrael.com, was a fundraiser for the Beit Hashalom settlers, who were evicted earlier in the month from their illegally occupied house in the heart of Hebron.
The night included live music, comedy sketches and a speech by former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon, a prominent leader of the settler movement. Both events reflect the pattern that has emerged over the last several decades. After Palestinian land is seized by the Israeli army, settlements are established, connected to Israel’s electricity, water and security system, and aggressively marketed to potential residents.
Today, Israeli settlements and the state security apparatus cover over 40 percent of the West Bank. Nearly half a million Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, all of which are considered illegal under international law.
http://www.alternet.org/audits/117812/
Bombing to make the Gaza prison even more secure for Israel
There are two persistent myths about the aim of Israel's onslaught on Gaza: the first that it is an entirely defensive move, a way to end the rocket fire of Hamas; and the second that it is designed to restore the army's credibility after its failure to cow Hizballah in 2006.
No doubt the Israeli army has been itching to repair its battered image, and for sure the rocket attacks from Gaza create domestic pressures that are only too clear to an Israeli government about to face an election.
But it is a gross misunderstanding of what is unfolding in Gaza to believe Israel's motives are capricious. The politicians and generals have been preparing for this attack for many months, possibly years -- a fact alone that suggests they have bigger objectives than commonly assumed.
Israel seized this particular moment -- with western politicians dozing through the holidays and a changeover of administrations in Washington -- because it ensured the longest period to implement its plan without diplomatic interference.
The pressure on Israel to reach a political settlement will grow, however, as the inauguration of Barack Obama on 20 January approaches. That explains why, as the army brings ever greater force to bear on Hamas's urban heartlands, the outlines of an Israeli plan are starting to become visible.
Despite talk in Israel that a chance to topple Hamas is within reach, that option does not have to be pursued. Israel's aims can be achieved whether Hamas stays or falls -- as long as it is crushed politically.
Certainly, a permanent re-occupation of the enclave with its 1.5 million inhabitants is not desired by Israel, which withdrew its settlers and soldiers in 2005 precisely because the demographic, economic and military costs of directly policing Gaza's refugee camps were considered too high.
It therefore needs another ceasefire similar to the one that expired on 19 December. The questions are: who will "sign" it and what will be its terms?
Writing in The Jerusalem Post newspaper this week, Martin Kramer, a leading Washington neoconservative, suggested that Israel's goal was to forge an agreement with Mahmoud Abbas and restore his rule in Gaza. "Hamas would swallow the pill in the name of 'national unity,'" he argued.
The idea that Abbas and his Fatah party can ride into the Gaza Strip on the back of Israeli tanks may be a fantasy that makes sense to the neocons who brought us "regime change" in Iraq, but few in the Israeli government or army seem to believe it is feasible.
In any case, the distinction between Fatah's "rule" over the West Bank ghettoes Israel has created and Hamas's oversight of the prison that Gaza has become is one Israel appears keen to maintain. The Israeli vision for the West Bank, in which significant parts are annexed, depends on its political severance from Gaza.
Instead, Israel is again pursuing its favorite mode of diplomacy: unilateralism. According to officials quoted in the local media, it wants a deal that is approved by the United States and western governments but passes over the heads of Hamas and the Palestinians.
At a recent cabinet meeting, Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister, put it this way: "There is no intention here of creating a diplomatic agreement with Hamas. We need diplomatic agreements against Hamas."
According to the latest reports, the ceasefire would require, as before, that Hamas prevent all rocket fire out of the Strip, but it would also introduce what officials are vaguely terming a "mechanism" on the only border with Gaza not under Israel's control.
During its lengthy blockade, Israel has been able to prevent goods, including food, medicines and fuel, from entering the Gaza Strip through crossing points on its two land borders while its navy patrols the sea coast. But Gaza also shares a short southern land border, next to the town of Rafah, with Egypt.
Before the 2005 disengagement, Israel sought to control this fourth border too by bulldozing swathes of Palestinian homes to create a no-man's land between Rafah and Egypt. This area, overlooked by military watchtowers, was referred to as the Philadelphi corridor.
After the withdrawal, Israel hoped the steel wall along the Rafah border and its oversight of the crossing point into Egypt would ensure that nothing went in or out without its approval.
However, a small private industry of tunneling under the wall quickly burgeoned, becoming a lifeline for ordinary Gazans and a route for smuggling in weapons for Hamas.
Egypt had little choice but to turn a blind eye, despite being profoundly uncomfortable with an Islamic party ruling next door. It faces its own domestic pressures over the humanitarian catastrophe that has been visibly created in Gaza.
Israel believes the current invasion will have achieved nothing unless this time it regains absolute control of the Rafah border, undercutting Hamas's claims to be running the Strip. The "mechanism" therefore requires that technical responsibility is lifted from Egyptian shoulders.
According to the Israeli plan, it will pass to the Americans, whose expertise will be called on to stop the tunneling and prevent Hamas from rebuilding its arsenal after the invasion comes to an end.
Israel may additionally seek the involvement of international forces to diffuse the censure the Arab publics are likely to direct at Egypt as a result.
Once Hamas has no hope of rearming and cannot take any credit for the Gazans' welfare, Israel will presumably allow in sufficient supplies of humanitarian aid to pacify western governments concerned about the images of Gaza's cold and hungry children.
Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian analyst, believes that in this scenario Israel would probably insist that such supplies come only through the Egyptian crossing, thereby "fulfilling another strategic aim: that of making Gaza Egypt's responsibility."
And once the Gazan albatross is lifted from Israel's neck, Abbas and his West Bank regime will be more isolated than ever. Undoubtedly, the hope in Israel is that, with Gaza disposed of, the pressure will grow on the Palestinian Authority to concede in a "peace" deal yet more Palestinian land in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is http://www.jkcook.net/.
This article originally appeared in The National published in Abu Dhabi and is republished with permission.
Related Links
BY TOPIC: Gaza massacres
From "AMERICAN NEAR EAST REFUGEE AID"
~
Dear Friend,
Life in Gaza before Saturday, December 27, 2008 was a humanitarian crisis. Today it is a nightmare.
I just got off the phone this morning with Salah, our Director in Gaza. Within the three-hour window of a "humanitarian corridor" when bombings have stopped so people can run out for food and supplies, he and one other staff member were able to get to the ANERA office.
Salah's next step in the short time of safety, is to go to the homes of staff members who have not been in touch to confirm their safety. He was able to report that most staff continue to be unharmed, but we cannot say they are safe. Psychologically, they are feeling the toll. Some are now displaced from their homes. They don't have electricity and they are running out of water and food. This story is the same for every family living in Gaza.
As soon as it is safe we will start distributing food, medicine and medical supplies.
And in addition to repairing buildings, peoples' lives will need restoration as well. More than half the population of Gaza is under the age of 18. No one living there feels safe right now. Recovery from this trauma will take special care. Our psychologist in Gaza reports that 75% of families needed help coping with life in Gaza before the bombings. Today it is 100% because even schools are unsafe. We are preparing a major program focusing on the psychological health of children and their families who will need help recovering, so they may feel safe again.
We are beginning an ongoing needs assessment and the list of priorities for providing help in Gaza continues to grow.
I want to thank everyone who has written to us expressing concern for the well-being of our staff and all of the innocent families hurting in Gaza right now.
One way to help is to remind everyone of the devastation innocent families were living through before bombs started dropping.
We have added a page to our website - anera.org/gaza_compare - to share far and wide with friends and family who want to better understand life in Gaza before the bombardment and how it is today.
Also, we are regularly posting updates on our website. Keep an eye on our homepage www.anera.org for updates from staff, press releases and other ways to help.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Bill Corcoran
President
The Jewish circle of death
By calling anybody who dared criticize Zionism an anti-Semite, they have allowed the Israeli national mental illness of extremist racist supremacism to progress untreated, leading directly to the unbelievable escalation we are seeing now. The irony is that a little truth earlier on might have knocked some sense into World Jewry. The real 'anti-Semites' are those 'progressives' who allowed their addiction to power and their wanting to appear to be holier-than-thou to cover up the fact of the real evil driving World Jewry, evil which has led directly to the current slaughter, and will lead eventually to the destruction of the State of Israel.What are Israel and its enablers responsible for?
Cluster bombs (of course). White phosphorus. Attacking a building identified to the Israelis as a press center. Shelling a UN school to which civilians had been sent for refuge, killing mostly children (the streets ran with blood, causing the Jews to dream of matzos), again identified to the Israelis (Israeli tank gunners used HEAT rounds for maximum civilian kill).
The use of Palestinian civilians as human shields. Intentionally targeting civilians using weapons which leave cancer-causing debris. Destroying entire apartment buildings containing civilians (of course, David Frum would claim that all these pictures of dead people are fake). We can't forget the 'diet' that the Palestinians have been on, nor the fact that Israel has an obligation under international law to look after these people. The Israelis can do all these things so easily as Jewish supremacists don't see gentiles as human beings.
All of this is being watched by Jews on lawn chairs, sipping Pepsi, as a sort of ghoulish spectator sport, from the area where the Palestinian (?) rockets are falling, the rockets that were the Israeli rationale for the slaughter in the first place. Now we'll see some sort of ceasefire, and will just have to wait until the Jewish supremacist bloodlust rears its head again, so we can witness the next holocaust. This will keep happening until the Jewish supremacist state is wiped off the face of the earth.
Israel – The Sociopathic State (A MUST READ!!)
By: Anonymous American Citizen (who refuses to be silent any longer)
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LIVE FROM GAZA ~~ DAY 11 OF THE ISRAELI BLITZKRIEG
January 7, 2009 at 6:24 am (Ethnic Cleansing, Gaza, Genocide, Guest Blog, Israel, Palestine, War Crimes)
Report direct from Gaza
Day 11 of Israeli War On Gaza: Palestinians flee their houses but Israeli rockets kill them in schools
Sameh A. Habeeb
Death toll 620, injured 3000 and most of them Civilians
*Numbers and Figures of Israeli War on Gaza:
*Total death toll: 620 while Wounded: 3000.
*Civilians: 220 children and 130 women killed since the start of this War. Many old men and young people were killed and the number is estimated of 80 and this is all according to the Medical sources.
*Thus, we could say so far: Around 430 civilians killed and 190 are policemen and militants.
* More than 1 thousand child among the wounded!
*11 Ambulances bombed and 4 vans for civil defense hit.
*30 paramedics wounded and 7 killed.
Deadly Outcomes of Israeli Ground Military Operation:
1-Bombings in Jabalia Refugee Camps, 5 killed and several wounded. Many houses were damaged in the camp while hundreds of people leave their houses into some schools and safer places.
2-Israeli F16s bombarded two adjacent houses for Al Shorafa family in Toffah area. The houses were hit without previous notification. Many people killed and several wounded.
3-A massare against house of Al Daya family southern east of Gaza City. The father was killed, the mother, his son Fayez, his daughter in law Rawans, infant 6-month-baby Muhammad, 5-year-old Sharf Al Din, Ala’ aged 8 years, Rania aged 12 and Doha 3 years. Other 5 people were killed in the same house while many still under the rubbles of the 4-floor-house.
4- Marzouq Family hit in Al Toffah area. Many wounded and no news if there are victims or not!
5-Israeli drone killed 3 young guys refugee to one of the schools in Al Shati’ Refugee Camp. They were hit by a rocket while they were drinking water inside the school.
6-Medical sources: 13 palestinian women and children arrived to Al Shifa’ hospital due to Israeli shelling in Al Toffah quarter.
7-Gaza Local Radios: Thousands of Palestinians shelter to UNRWA schools mid of Gaza as Israeli army threatened of a genocide against them. Some of theose at schools are wounded and unable to reach hospitals.
8-F16s rebombarded Al Saraya security compound last night. The place totally turned rubbles.
9-Bombings target Al Baurej centeral market. Many wounded and 2 killed.
10-Bombings targeted Abu Ghanima family in Al Zaytoun area. The house includes around 12 people. Some injured, some killed and some others under rubbles.
11-A horrendous massacare: 45 civilians! Killed due to heavy Israeli bombings targeted them at Al Fakhora school in Jabalia town. The families and victims took this school a shelter from Israeli strikes. Around 100 wounded and many in critical conditions now!
12-A house for shamalkh family bombed to rubbles due bombings targeted a mosque in the area. Two palestinains killed, 10 wounded and 5 in critical conditions.
13-A house destroyed due to air raid in Khan Yonis town of Abasan.
14-Bombings in Al Shati’ camp claimed the life of one civilian and many wounded in the place.
15-Israeli rockets hit Qlaibo area north of Gaza and no wounded to be reported in the raid.
16-A house for Isi family hit in Al Toffah area.
17-A house hit near Mus’ab Bin omair Mosque and many houses burnt due to the shelling north of Gaza.
18- One Palestinian killed and 6 wounded in the Israeli air raids in Absan town in Khan Yonis.
19-Al Samouni Family: around 20 members of our family killed and another 25 under the rubbles of the house.
20-Power Transistors destroyed in the northern area.
21-Artillary shell kills a child, Merwan Ubaid, in Abasan town east of Kgan yonis.
22-Around 25 houses damaged due to artillery shells in Rafah City.
23-A house for Al alool family destroyed at Bait Lahia twon.
24-Five wounded in a rocket hit Khoza’a family.
25-Heavy bombings in the agricultural and farms in the northern areas.
26-A woman from Ghomaida family killed and her husband wounded in the northern areas of Gaza.
27-Mass bombings in Al shijaya area and many wounded and arrived at Al Shifa’ hospital.
28-Rockets targeted a house in Al Sheikh Ridwan and 5 wounded, one in critical conditions.
29-Pycatcrics: thousands of children turned traumatized due to the ongoing bombings.
30-Palestinian militants fire 30 rockets into the Israeli settlements.
31-Rockets hit the main Market of Gaza with heavy F116s rockets.
Death toll of Israeli military aggression on Gaza rose to 680 Palestinians
The continued Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip raised the death toll of Palestinians to more than 680 victims so far, half of them were children and women.
Israel Is Killing Palestinians in Gaza with U.S. Weapons
While President, Mrs. Bush, Barbara, and Jenna Deeply Saddened by Passing of Their Cat India ("Willie")
PHOTO GALLERY OF GAZA’S MARTYRED CHILDREN
January 6, 2009 at 9:55 am (Assassinations, Associate Post, Ethnic Cleansing, Gaza, Genocide, Holocaust, Israel, Palestine, War Crimes)
In Pictures: the slaughter of Gazan children
Victims of the Israeli occupation forces in the tenth day of their attacks on Gaza Strip - January 5, 2009
Uruknet
Jan 5, 2009
On January 5, 2009 three families were massacred: Samuni, Abu Eisha, and Al-Hilou .
Seven members of the Abu Eisha family were torn to pieces by shelling, said medical officials at Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. According to the medics the parents and their five children were killed when Israeli warships shelled their home in the Al-Mashtal area in the north of Ash-Shati Refugee Camp, on the shore west of Gaza City.
Medical officials at Ash-Shifa hospital also confirmed on Monday morning the deaths of seven people, including four children all members of the Samuni family in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City. Family members who managed escape the shelling claimed more than seven people may have been killed. Jalal Samuni said told Ma’an’s reporters at Ash-Shifa Hospital that more than 20 people were left inside the house which was bombarded, and he fears that many of them were killed. He explained that the neighbors gathered in the house of Arafat Samuni who came to the area yesterday. He said that advancing Israeli troops told residents to stay in their homes. Then Israeli forces shelled the house, he said.
Earlier also in the Zaytoun area killed a five-year-old girl and her grandfather, members of the Al-Hilou family. The girl’s mother was critically injured. All the victims were evacuated to Ash-Shifa Hospital (Ma’an news)
The Massacre of Al-Samuni Family
Samuni family says: Israeli soldiers gather 30 persons from Al Samuni family in one house. Ten families were in the house from the same clan. Many civilians were killed as artillery shells bombed the house. The number of victims around 14, most of them are children and women. Some are in critical conditions! Sameh A. Habeeb
Photo by AFP :Palestinian boys kneel over the bodies of Issa, left, Ahmed, center, and Mohamed Samouni, right.
Photo by WAFA
Photo by WAFA
Photo by AFP
Photo by WAFA
Photo by WAFA
Photo by WAFA
Photo by AFP
Photo by WAFA
Photo by WAFA
Photo by WAFA
Photo by WAFA
Photo by WAFA
Photo by WAFA
Photo by AFP
Photo by AFP
Photo by AFP
Photo by AFP
Photo by WAFA
Photo by WAFA
Other pictures from Gaza - January 5, 2009
Photo by AFP
A Palestinian man shouts next to the bodies of two of four Palestinian siblings at Gaza Citys al-Shifa hospital.
Palestinian medics carry a wounded boy into Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.AFP
A Palestinian father carries his wounded baby daughter into a hospital in Gaza City. AFP
Palestinian boys wounded by an Israeli tank shell wait for treatment at Shifa hospital in Gaza January 5, 2009. AFP
Wounded Palestinian children arrive for treatment at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, after an Israeli strike early Monday, Jan. 5, 2009.AFP
A wounded Palestinian boy is treated at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, after an Israeli missile strike early Monday, Jan. 5, 2009.AFP
A Palestinian baby wounded by an Israeli tank shell is treated by doctors at Shifa hospital in Gaza January 5, 2009. AFP
Palestinian children wounded by an Israeli tank shell rush into Shifa hospital in Gaza January 5, 2009.AFP
Source
January 5th, 2009
07/01/2009
After taking part in the Ashura procession in Beirut’s southern suburb to mark the martyrdom of Imam Hussein peace be upon him, hundreds of thousands of participants gathered to listen to Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s speech through a large screen.
Sayyed Nasrallah reminded at the beginning of his speech of the main phases of the Karabala battle and the position of Imam Hussein and his household, companions and his sister Sayyida Zeinab who preferred to die than to give legitimacy to Yazid, a “criminal who distanced himself from the teachings of Prophet Mohammed peace be upon him.”
Sayyed Nasrallah lashed out at some Arab leaders who are still having normal ties with Israel at a time more than 680 people killed in Gaza and advised them to follow the path of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who expelled the Israeli Ambassador in protest at the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
“In front of the Zionist entity that is based on spilling the blood of the innocent and committing massacres, the least thing to do is not to give legitimacy to this entity regardless of the sacrifices. The guardians of the Zionist entity want us to give Israel legitimacy, but the vast majority rejects this. What is taking place today in Gaza, should be a strong motive to reject giving legitimacy to this entity. Not acknowledging Israel, rejecting normalization with it is the least than can be done. Yesterday Chavez expelled the Israeli Ambassador and he set an example for all those who are still receiving Israeli Ambassadors. Some Arab leaders are requested to learn how to reject normalization with this entity. I assure you that the peoples of our nation will punish those leaders for their crimes. They ought to help the resistance instead of pressuring it.”
His eminence criticized the Egyptian regime for keeping the Rafah crossing closed in the face of the dying people of Gaza.
“Yesterday, an Egyptian official asked: does the UN need 600 martyrs and 1500 injured people to take action? Today I ask him, do you need that much victims to open the Rafah crossing?”
Sayyed Nasrallah also commented on the action taken by some Egyptian lawyers against him personally. “A group of Egyptian lawyers close to the governing regime filed a suit against me personally at the International Criminal Court because of my speech nine days ago, when I called for the opening of the Rafah crossing. They considered my call as a call for a coup d’état. I consider this suit, especially in front of those whose consciousness have not yet awaken to the gravity of the massacres, a medal of honor that I will be proud with even after I die. I openly say that we have never antagonized anyone and we will not antagonize those who colluded on us. However we will antagonize those who collude on Gaza.”
The Hezbollah chief addressed the “real US scheme” that was reflected by former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton. “What we heard yesterday from Bolton clearly indicates the real aim of the US and Israel is to end the Palestinian issue by concretizing the state of Israel, giving Gaza to Egypt and giving the rest to Jordan.”
His eminence added that “this necessitates a renewal to our call for all Palestinian factions to unite because the aim is to liquidate their cause, all of their cause, not just Hamas or Fatah.”
Sayyed Nasrallah stressed the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006 and what is currently happening in Gaza and the steadfastness there, “should put an end to any dispute on the question of a defensive strategy. This mighty army stands helpless and incapable of fulfilling its goals in front of a resistance with modest capabilities yet with a great will and this confirms that the choice of armed resistance based on faith and determination is the best and most effective way to confront the most tyrannical armies in this world. This makes thing crystal clear for us and further illustrates our viewpoint. Even the international community is incapable of condemning a massacre in a UN institution in Gaza just like it failed to condemn the Israeli massacre in a UN base in Qana in 1996. If this is the case, how will this international community be fair to any cause?”
His eminence told the angry participants that “the world is looking at you in Lebanon. We do not know how big is the scheme neither do we know the magnitude of collusion, therefore we have take all probabilities into consideration.”
The leader of the resistance warned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he will not succeed in crushing the resistance in Lebanon or in Palestine. “Olmert told Sarkozy: today Hamas and tomorrow Hezbollah. I tell the defeated and failing Olmert that you will not succeed in crushing Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon.
We have been hearing threats recently but they do not frighten us and we are prepared for any aggression. If they came to our towns and homes, the Zionist will discover that their war in July 2006 was a picnic compared to we have prepared for them.”
Sayyed Nasrallah vowed the resistance will not abandon its arms and will not leave the battlefield. “Our resistance will remain a title for our history and our sacrifices. I was hoping that the voices that emerged recently in Lebanon to reassure Israel about the border with Lebanon would have responded to Israel’s threats to the resistance and Hezbollah. What drives to rush and give free assurances to Israel at a time this entity is killing-massacre our people in Gaza?”
His eminence concluded his speech saying: “On the tenth day of Muharram, and looking at all these sacrifices, we are in dire need for the spirit, wisdom, love of martyrdom and patience of Imam Hussein peace be upon him. Throughout the past decades, we have been with Imam Hussein at every stage and ready to sacrifice ourselves for what we believe in. After all these years and experiences that proved that our sincerity, path and convictions are right, our people, generation after generation, will not be overcome and will not fear any threat as long as their slogan remains: At your service Imam Hussein. Israel is our enemy and the enemy of our nation. It will remain as such even if some make peace with it. The US administration fosters Israel and protects it, so this administration will remain our enemy and the enemy of our nation if some make peace with it.”
I Thank you for your sincere and kind participation. Let our enemy hear our voice to know that our nation will not change its position:
‘Disgrace...How Remote.”
