Press TV interview:
“…They killed a doctor, they injured a paramedic, and also targeted an ambulance… There were also casualties reported in hospitals, such as the European Hospital, the al Wafa Hospital… and Red Crescent societies…
The real tragedy here is about the children. We’ve been seeing a lot of videos and pictures, dead bodies in hospitals, of children, innocent children. A person cannot just stand silent in front of those pictures. They bring anyone to tears, except Mahmoud Abbas, Ban Ki-Moon, the Israeli community and those who support the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Two days ago, there was a father crying over his 4 year old child’s dead body, who lost half his head, and asking him to wake up, he had got him toys. Another dad, his only daughter was critically injured and he was crying ‘take my blood and give it to her and bring her back to life’. Another 6 year old boy is laying in a bed in a hospital… he doesn’t even know that his family was targeted.
The situation is only getting worse, kids are being targeted, and the international community just stands silent.”
Dr. Erik Fosse told Press TV that the majority of patients hospitalized in Gaza are civilians injured in attacks on their homes and about thirty percent of them are children.
Dense Inert Metal Explosive, known as DIME, is an explosive device developed to minimize collateral damage in warfare.
Experts say it has a relatively small but effective blast radius and is believed to have strong biological effects on those who are hit by the bomb’s micro-shrapnel.
Fosse, a department head at a university hospital in Oslo, also says some Palestinian in the besieged enclave have been wounded by a new type of weapon that even doctors with previous experience in war zones do not recognize.
Israel also used depleted-uranium and white phosphorus shells in the besieged region during their previous assaults.
This comes as Israel continues to pound the Gaza Strip for the sixth straight day. The latest Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 32 Palestinians in the besieged territory.
Palestinian sources say Israeli fighter jets have hit nearly 200 targets over the past 24 hours.
At least 167 people have lost their lives and more than 1100 others injured in Gaza since Tuesday when the Israeli attacks began.
Gaza’s ambulance crews dodge airstrikes to save lives: [PHOTO ESSAY]
Daily they risk their lives amid the horror of airstrikes to help those they can… and bring back the bodies of those they cannot. They battle on because ‘this is what we have to do for our people’. Hugh Naylor, Foreign Correspondent, spent an afternoon with Gaza’s emergency responders.
Mohammad Omer reports: Israeli jets destroying Gaza water and sewerage systems: officials
“Palestinian officials on Saturday claimed that the Israelis had targeted water wells in different parts of Gaza City, leaving thousands of families without access to clean drinking water. An Oxfam official said going into the weekend that 90 percent of the water in Gaza was already unsafe to drink.
The sewerage system is also a target, with Israeli warplanes targeting sewage treatment stations in West Gaza City early on Saturday. The areas most affected are Shati refugee camp, Tal al-Hawa, Sheikh Ejleen and most Western districts, according to Saed al-Din Atbash, head of water facilities at Gaza Municipality.
Atbash told reporters in Gaza City that Israel is deliberately targeting the wells.
“Warplanes have targeted two wells directly, one near to al-Maqwsi area 9a densely populated area with residential tower blocks) and another in al-Zaytoun, both used by 7,000 inhabitants,” he said.
Israeli warplanes have also targeted five water pipelines that supply large numbers of Gazans. With each line providing water to 20,000 inhabitants, as many as 100,000 people could be affected by the attacks.
Oxfam’s partners have had to suspend efforts to chlorinate water supplies in Gaza because of the ongoing violence, despite 90 percent of water in Gaza already considered unsafe to drink. Surviving infrastructure faces another threat and the organisation fears that water pumps and sewage plants could stop functioning within days because of severe shortages of fuel.
Shati refugee camp, in northern Gaza, is among the worst affected areas. Home to Ismail Haniyeh, who until last month exercised prime ministerial authority in Gaza, the camp is seen as a valuable target and has been hit at least once by Israeli F16s, local eyewitnesses said.
Atbash said repairs to the water line will require a period of calm and until then about 70,000 residents will be deprived of water in the refugee camp.
Gaza Municipality sees the Israeli attacks on the water and sewerage systems as “collective punishment” of the Palestinian people.
“Under international law, the targeting of civilian water supplies is classified as a war crime,” Atbash said. “The Israeli occupation’s fighter-jets targeted a sewage-station holding 25,000 cubic meters of untreated sewage, pumped in from four areas daily.”
The latest attacks are exacerbating an already critical sewerage situation. The New York Times reported last year that 13 sewerage stations in Gaza Strip were either overflowing or were close to overflowing, and 3.5 million cubic feet of raw sewage were finding their way to the Mediterranean Sea on a daily basis.”
The United Nations human rights chief on Friday voiced serious doubts that Israeli’s military operation against Gaza complied with international law banning the targeting of civilians, and called on both sides to respect the rules of war.
International law requires Israel to take all measures to ensure that its attacks are proportional, distinguish between military and civilian objects, and avoid civilian casualties, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said.
“We have received deeply disturbing reports that many of the civilian casualties, including of children, occurred as a result of strikes on homes. Such reports raise serious doubt about whether the Israeli strikes have been in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” Pillay said in a statement.
“In case of doubt, buildings ordinarily used for civilian purposes, such as homes, are presumed not to be legitimate military targets. Even where a home is identified as being used for military purposes, any attack must be proportionate, offer a definite military advantage in the prevailing circumstances at the time, and precautions must be taken,” she said.
Her spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani, speaking at a news briefing in Geneva, said: “So if there is even an iota of doubt, these are not legitimate military targets.”
Jens Laerke, spokesman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said: “More than 340 housing units in Gaza have been severely damaged or completely destroyed. As a result, more than 2,000 people have been displaced.”
On a personal note:
I was at a public park today in Canada, with many kids of varying ages, a beautifully sunny day, lots of space for the kids to run, giggle and squeals of delight.
as it should be.
i couldn’t get Gaza off my mind, where the squeals are of terror or pain. Or they are silenced.
i couldn’t get Gaza off my mind, where even when it is not being massacred, children don’t have playgrounds, let alone clean drinking water.
the siege on Gaza is criminal. the bombing of Gaza moreso. this has to end. Palestinian children should have that luxury of playing without being F-16ed or droned.
***
This type of letter needs to be replicated and sent to the various governments supporting the criminal assault on Gaza. It is one of many actions we can be taking, ourselves, to work to turn the tide towards justice and away from slaughter:
Open letter to François Hollande and to the other racists who lead us
Mister President, do you want me to show you the pictures of the Palestinian children hacked to pieces by Israeli bombs?
Mister President, do you know that one Palestinian child has been killed by Israel every three days for ten years?
Mister President, you keep with the general pattern of a hateful political class: that same class that operated the guillotine during the Algerian War; that was behind Larbi ben Mhidi’s assassination; that organized the Suez War; that gave Israel the bomb.
Mister President, you remember absolutely nothing from the history and law courses of Paris Institute of Political Studies.
Mister President, while Israel extends every day its territory by force, why do you refuse to recognize the Palestinians’ right to resist by also resorting to force?
Mister President, while supporting a state which extends its borders by force, you infringe the United Nations Charter!
Mister President, while keeping up military cooperation with Israel, you are legally party to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Mister President, while the Palestinian people is a majority on the whole Palestinian territory, you support the minority and doing so you deny democracy!
Mister President, I accuse you of one of the worst types of racism: white-collar racism!
Mister President, your statements only involve yourself! You are a disgrace to France!
****
رسالة مفتوحة الى فرنسوا هولند
و الى العنصريين الذين يحكمونناأيها الرئيس
هل تريد ان اريك صور اطفال فلسطينيين قطعت أجسادهم قسمين بالقنابل الإسرائيلية ?أيها الرئيس
أتدري أن إسرائيل تقتل طفلا فلسطينيا واحدا كل ثلاثة أيام و هذا منذ عشر سنوات ?أيها الرئيس
إنك تسير في خط سياسي حقير , إنه الخط الذي قطعت به الرؤوس في الجزائر , انه خط قتل العربي بن مهيدي , إنه خط الغارة على قناة السويس , انه الخط الذي أعطى إسرائيل القنبلة النوويةأيها الرئيس
لعلك لم تستفد من دروس التأريخ التي درستها في معهد العلوم السياسية بباريسأيها الرئيس
في الحين الذي تزيد إسرائيل من مساحتها بالقوة , تنكر انت حق الفلسطينيين في الدفاع بالقوة ?أيها الرئيس
مساندة إسرائيل في زيادة مساحتها يعتبر تعدي على ميثاق الأمم المتحدةأيها الرئيس
بالتعاون العسكري مع إسرائيل تعتبر قانونيا شريك في جرائم الحرب و جرائم ضد الإنسانيةأيها الرئيس
مساندة إسرائيل مع أن الفلسطينيين أكثرية في فلسطين يعتبر تجاهلا للدمقراطيةأيها الرئيس
اتهمك بشر أنواع العنصرية : العنصرية بعنق أبيضأيها الرئيس
إن تصريحاتك تلزمك انت فقط : إنك عار فرنسا
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