Nasser Kandil: 60 minutes about the bloody Gas and Anglo-Zionist's wars

ستون دقيقة مع ناصر قنديل 

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Israeli Officials: 'Israel prepared to take military action to save the Hashemite Kingdom'

Via FLC

"... But behind the scenes, Israeli diplomats have told their American counterparts that Israel would be prepared to take military action to save the Hashemite Kingdom.“I think Israel and the United States would identify a substantial threat to Jordan as a threat to themselves and would offer all appropriate assets to the Jordanians,” he said.Thomas Sanderson, the co-director for transnational threats at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Israel and the United States view the survival of the Jordanian monarchy as a paramount national security objective.Sanderson, who is a former contractor for the Defense Intelligence Agency, said those assets would include air power and intelligence resources,but he stressed that whatever Israel and the United States offered Jordan would be tailored to the kind of threat ISIS posed. “It’s impossible to rule out boots on the ground from Israel or the United States, but that is the least likely scenario. Amman would have to be under siege for that to happen,” he said..."

التطرف يدق ناقوس الخطر في الاردن/ الاتجاه 

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Region-wide war threatens as Iraqi state disintegrates

The ISIS War in Iraq Has Roots Much Deeper Than Sectarian Violence

Jun 27, 2014, WSWS

The war raging in Iraq between a Sunni uprising led by the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad—and the effective disintegration of the Iraqi nation-state it has caused—has drawn in not only the United States but, inexorably, countries across the Middle East and around the world.

As 300 American special forces personnel arrive in Iraq, ostensibly to advise the beleaguered Iraqi military, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is defying the outpouring of recriminations from the Obama administration and American foreign policy establishment over the collapse of his government’s control over large areas of Iraq’s west and north to ISIS and the Sunni rebellion. He has dismissed Washington’s accusations that his regime’s persecution of Sunni political parties is to blame and rejected US pressure that he stand down as prime minister to enable the formation of a “national unity” government. Instead, he has turned toward enlisting the assistance of Shiite militias within Iraq, the Iranian Shiite regime and Russia.

Maliki’s rhetoric toward the Obama administration has become increasingly bitter since he held talks with Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday. On Wednesday, he labelled the US calls for a “national unity” government as plans for a “coup.” Everything points to Shiite political factions using the July 1 sitting of the Iraqi parliament to assemble another Shiite-dominated government, whether headed by Maliki or another figure. Most Sunni politicians will not attend, and representatives of the Kurdish nationalist parties that rule Iraq’s Kurdish north as an autonomous region have declared that they will most likely boycott the parliament.

Yesterday, in an interview with the BBC’s Arabic service, Maliki denounced the US for failing to provide Iraq with the F-16 jet fighters that it ordered after the US military withdrawal in 2011. “I’ll be frank and say that we were deluded when we signed the contract,” Maliki said. “We should have sought to buy other jet fighters, like British, French and Russian, to secure the air cover for our forces. If we had air cover, we would have averted what had happened.”

Maliki declared that his government has made an emergency purchase of jet fighters from Russia and Belarus and that they would “arrive in Iraq in two or three days.” 

He proceeded to praise air strikes carried out by the Syrian air force on Tuesday against ISIS forces holding the key Iraq-Syrian border crossing of Qaim, in Iraq’s western Anbar province. While Maliki insisted that the strikes had only been made on targets on the Syrian side of the border and that his government had not requested them, he stated: 

“[W]e welcome this action. We welcome any Syrian strike against ISIS because this group targets both Iraq and Syria …. The final winners are our two countries.”

The Sunni extremist fighters that ISIS has poured into Iraq since the beginning of the year were assembled and armed in Syria, and were part of the forces that the US, the European powers, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are using to try and overthrow the Iranian-backed regime of President Bashir al-Assad. Assad’s traditional support base is among Syria’s large Alawite minority. ISIS and other Sunni-based rebels have conducted their insurrection with the openly sectarian perspective of purging Alawites from power.

In a decision that can only fan the flames of the growing region-wide war, the Obama administration Thursday requested $500 million in funding from the US Congress for training and arming so-called “moderate” militias participating in the Islamist-led military campaign against the Assad government.

In Iraq, ISIS has threatened to destroy the major Shiite shrines and massacre the Shiite population in the areas of the country that it is seeking to incorporate into an Islamic state that also includes much of Syria and Lebanon.

On Wednesday, Maliki couched the struggle against ISIS in no less sectarian terms, describing it as a “holy war against terror.” Tens of thousands of Shiite fundamentalist militia fighters have mobilised to defend Shiite shrines in Samarra, Baghdad, Najaf and Karbala, with thousands more reportedly streaming back to Iraq from Syria, where they have been fighting alongside the Syrian Army and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. The Iraqi Army units that are arrayed against Sunni rebels to the north, west and east of Baghdad are overwhelmingly comprised of Shiite personnel. Iranian military advisors from the elite Quds Force are reportedly embedded with units on the frontline.

The prospect of an ever greater Iranian intervention is posed by the military situation around Samarra, the site of the Al-Askiriya mosque, one of the most revered Shiite shrines. In February 2006, it was bombed by alleged Sunni extremists, triggering a frenzy of sectarian violence. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has publicly declared Iran will “not hesitate” to defend the shrines. While the city is heavily defended, fighting is taking place on its outskirts. If Samarra fell to ISIS and Sunni forces, or further damage is inflicted on the mosque, it would make some form of large-scale Iranian military deployment into Iraq almost certain. Lebanon’s Hezbollah has also stated that it will send thousands of fighters if the Shiite shrines are threatened.

The situation overall is fraught with the danger of escalation into a regional war. The Sunni-based monarchies, which are openly sympathetic to the Iraqi Sunni uprising and have armed the Syrian Sunni rebels, including ISIS, are mobilising their military forces.

Jordan has deployed tanks and thousands of troops to its border with Iraq, on the pretext of ensuring crossings do not fall into the hands of ISIS militants. According to a report yesterday by DEBKAfile, an Israeli military intelligence web site, the Saudi military is moving forces to its border with Iraq. Following Kerry’s visit to Egypt last weekend and embrace of the coup regime of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, DEBKAfile claimed that a task force of Egyptian special forces is also being sent to the Iraq-Saudi Arabia border. The web site alleged that the Syrian airstrikes near Qaim were an attempt to destroy an airfield that Saudi Arabia used this week to dispatch planeloads of supplies to the Sunni Islamist fighters who have seized the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing.

Other regional states are also seeking to exploit Iraq’s disintegration to advance their perceived strategic interests. According to a Reuters report, Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told Secretary of State Kerry in Paris yesterday that the separation of the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government from Iraq was “a foregone conclusion” and that Israel would recognise its declaration of independence.

Since 2003, Israel has developed close military and intelligence ties with the Kurdish establishment, seeking to forge it as an ally against Iran and Syria, which both have Kurdish minorities in strategic areas of the countries. As well as a potential point of provocation, the Iraqi Kurdish region is now also viewed in Israel as a potentially lucrative source of oil supplies, with shipments allegedly beginning to arrive from the Turkish port of Ceyhan. On Wednesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres told journalists in Washington, where he met with Obama, that “the Kurds have, de facto, created their own state” and stressed the close relations that exist between the Turkish government and the Kurdish region in the exploitation and export of northern Iraqi oil.

The response of US imperialism to the utter shipwreck that its contradictory and incoherent foreign policy in the Middle East has suffered is the most unpredictable factor in the situation. Only one thing is certain. Whatever action Washington takes will only add to the tremendous death, destruction and suffering that it has inflicted over decades in the region.

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US support for fanatics costing world dearly: Analyst

Date and Time:26 June 2014 - 13:46 -

A political commentator says the US administration, which claims to be committed to religious freedom, is supporting murderous, “religious” fanatics in the world.

“There are no rules or boundaries, and the worst part of all is the fact that the United States funds and fuels the violent acts of religious extremists without batting an eyelash, and it is costing the world dearly,” Tim King wrote in an article for the Press TV website.

Describing the US claims as a “ruse and a bloody lip for humanity,” he added, “In truth, the American government is doing, and has been doing, everything in its range of power to contaminate the world with its political and corporate greed.”

The political analyst said that “the most vicious and unnerving US support of religious extremists” goes to the militants in the Middle East to “destabilize” regional governments.

He said the US political system “seems bent on spiking the flames of unrest wherever an opportunity exists. Innocent victims suffer day in and day out in an age of amazing technology and communication, and American politicians cry for more war, knowing they will never have to participate in the warring conflicts that arouses the politicians in Washington D.C.”

King referred to the US supports for Takfiri militants in Syria, where the US-backed militants turned “Damascus, one of the world’s oldest and culturally rich cities” into a “bloodbath” for religious ethnicities.

This seems extremely contrary to the mission of a nation which claims to be built on the concept of religious freedom, he concluded

On June 20, informed Jordanian officials said that US military instructors trained Takfiri militants of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) at a secret base in Jordan in 2012.

The officials, who were not identified, revealed to American news website WorldNetDaily (WND) that dozens of ISIL members received training as part of covert aid to militants fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The source told WND that at least one of the ISIL training camps is in the vicinity of Turkish air base, Incirlik, which houses American personnel and equipment. After being trained in Turkey, thousands of ISIL militants sneaked into Iraq to wreak havoc on the country.

The Takfiri group, whose leader was released from a US-run prison in Iraq before the American forces withdrew from the country, has overrun a number of cities and towns in northern and northeastern Iraqi provinces in past days.

Related posts:

1. ISIL poses threat to entire world, not just Iraq: Analyst
2. Report: US trained ISIL militants at secret Jordan base
3. Report: US trained ISIL terrorists at secret Jordan base
4. ISIL Takfiri militants, tools of Zionists: Analyst
5. US megalomania wreaks havoc on world: Analyst
6. ISIL poses threat to whole world: Iran FM
7. US creating sectarian strife in Iraq: Analyst
8. Takfiris feared to deal strike US, Europe: Analyst
9. US-backed Takfiri terrorists wreak havoc on Iraq: Analyst
10. ISIL soldiers of fortune fighting US war in Iraq: Analyst

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Iraq intervention, redux?: The folly of ‘humanitarian imperialism’

US soldiers board the last C17 aircraft carrying US troops out of Iraq. (Photo: AFP-Martin Bureau)

By Roqayah Chamseddine - Thu, 2014-06-26 17:11- In Homage to the Struggle

Jean Bricmont’s powerful book Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War, written during the occupation of Iraq, is a timely historical critique of Western interventionism, one worth examining as the United States of America moves once more in the direction of military entanglement in Iraq. Bricmont, a Belgian theoretical physicist and professor at The Université catholique de Louvain, discusses the ideological factors which legitimize military action in response to humanitarian abuses and “in defense of democracy” (p. 7). — “This is the discourse and the representation that must be challenged in order to build a radical and self-confident opposition to current and future wars.” The humanitarian rationales offered under the banner of there being “a responsibility to protect” have only increased since the end of World War II, and methods to reinforce such motivations have grown progressively coercive.

Bricmont introduces a formula which will come to define “humanitarian imperialism:” when A exercises power over B, he does so for B's "own good" (p. 11). This is the creed of philanthropic power — which peddles and rationalizes war as a column maintaining international order — and which continues to define the very nature of international conflict post-World War II. Interventionism is no longer argued as being warranted in the name of Christianity, Bricmont argues, but what he callsideological reinforcements: democracy and human rights. For example, despite former US President George W. Bush’s frequent use of religious imagery, the call to invade Iraq was not only drenched in chilling white saviourism but an overwhelming exceptionalism which contends that only military efforts led by the United States of America would bring about a just liberation and lasting stability for the people of Iraq. “[T]he dangers to our country and the world will be overcome. We will pass through this time of peril and carry on the work of peace,” George W. Bush stated in 2003. “We will defend our freedom. We will bring freedom to others and we will prevail.”

The call to invade Iraq was not only drenched in chilling white saviourism but an overwhelming exceptionalism which contends that only military efforts led by the United States of America would bring about a just liberation and lasting stability.

The horrors inflicted upon the people of Iraq are still understated, and since 2003 the bloodshed has not stopped. When Obama delivered his speech in 2011 celebrating the US military withdrawal, there were bombings and shootings in Baghdad, in Mosul, in Kirkuk and in Tal Afer. While the Iraqi people were preparing burial shrouds Obama was reaffirming the previous administration’s claims that the US left for the Iraqi people a stable country, had forged a lasting peace and made the world more secure. Amongst the congratulatory frill and repugnant nationalism Obama did make one salient point — that the US legacy in Iraq will endure and that it shall be remembered. The legacy of this tragic and implacable war will live on in the wombs of Iraqi women who bear children withcongenital birth defects as a result of depleted uranium; the riddled bodies of those now suffering from cancer due to the toxic munitions used by the US military and finally in the land of Iraq, which has been devoured and polluted by the chemical weapons the US unleashed during its occupation.

Bricmont does not neglect to stress the deliberation and mercilessly skillful care taken by the US in the implementation of sanctions against Iraq, quoting Marc Bossuyt on this “silent genocide” (p. 24), former Belgian Constitutional Court judge and current member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague:

The sanctions against Iraq has as its clear purpose the deliberate infliction on the Iraqi people of conditions of life (lack of adequate food,medicines, etc.) calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. It does not matter that this deliberate physical destruction has as its ostensible objective the security of the region.

Bossuyt further explained that not only were the sanctioning bodies responsible but that they could not be acquitted from the charge of having the “intent to destroy the Iraqi people.” The callousness of the sanctions were most illustrated by the words of then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who defended the deaths of some 500,000 Iraqi children in 1996 during an interview with Lesley Stahl for 60 Minutes. When she was confronted with a question by Stahl, who cited the half a million dead children, Albright smoothly responded: “I think this is a very hard choice but the price-we think the price is worth it.”

The practice of humanitarian imperialism is not confined to the Middle East and North Africa and Bricmont’s analysis covers much of its breadth. The US involvement in the 1954 coup d'état in Guatemala for example is one of many historical events covered which “is an exemplary illustration of the real existing "defense of democracy" as it has been practiced by the United States” writes Bricmont (p. 26). The characterization of this “defense of democracy” is what is one of the most valuable components of this text as it applies to much of how the US military industrial complex functions, and it includes the following points, as developed by Bricmont:

A paranoid attitude on the part of the superpower toward the slightest challenge.
Demonization of adversaries. In those days, it was enough to call the victim a "communist." Later, the label became "terrorist." In any case, demonization prevents their side of the story from being taken into consideration.
Media conformism: U.S. media relay the official U.S. government version of events without serious investigation; opposing views are dismissed as absurd.
Total disregard for international law.

What transpires after the arguments for war are challenged and when claims, like in the case of Iraq, that there exist “weapons of mass destruction,” one of the reasons for the military invasion, are disproven? Bricmont provides us with the argument that is then posed to anti-interventionists who ask why the US cannot then simply “pull out:”

Because, we are told, it is now necessary to "stabilize" Iraq, to "construct democracy" there, etc. As a result, even if it is true that many organizations and intellectuals who defend human rights were initially opposed to the war, they have found themselves more or less obliged to support the ongoing war of occupation until the situation is "stabilized."

Stabilization takes priority and defence of human rights begins to dwindle once the foreign military occupation ebbs and, above all else, once interests are met.

Stabilization takes priority and defence of human rights begins to dwindle once the foreign military occupation ebbs and, above all else, once interests are met. Even now as whispers calling for more US involvement in Iraq grow into shouts the Obama administration has managed to receiveimmunity for security forces, a “necessary assurance” which protects the US from prosecution in Iraqi courts, denying the people of Iraq even the opportunity to seek justice. And yet the US left a sovereign and capable nation, is that not what we are told? And if so, what does the Obama administration fear, that US war crimes may face the judge’s gavel?

The US has been the direct cause of much of the calamities that have ravaged Iraq — the pangs of the US sanctions, which lasted from 1990 until 2003, continue to torment and fragment the land between the two rivers. The hurdle of immunity in Iraq is one that has been faced by the Obama administration before. When the US abandoned plans to keep “several thousand” troops in Iraq it came after Iraqi leaders refused to grant them immunity from Iraqi courts, and Commander in Chief Obama would rather the US military be shielded from prosecution and withdraw than face Iraq’s judicial system for crimes against the Iraqi people. This is the manner in which intervention devastates — it reintroduces former disparities and attempts to destroy for those under occupation and in the sight of imperial powers any existing components of their self-determination, which includes their right to bring their tormentors to justice. The Obama administration had promised “no troops on the ground” in Iraq and has sent 300 “military advisors” and 275 soldiers to protect the US embassy in Baghdad, despite there already being “a few hundred” troops working as “uniformed personnel” with the same legal protections provided to embassy workers. These troops, even if they range in the hundreds, are but a paltry issue in comparison to the formidable presence of the US aircraft carrier, cruiser and destroyer which have made their way into the Persian Gulf, and the US army installations, comprised of 4 active US bases, in neighboring Kuwait. Further US involvement in Iraq is not a troubling possibility, it is horrifying reality. This is where, once again, the “guilt factor” creeps into the discourse. We are told that “we must support X against Y” and that the only way to do so is militarily and that only our superior military outfits are capable of dressing the open wounds (that our previous military interventions caused).

Further US involvement in Iraq is not a troubling possibility, it is horrifying reality.

The US is arguing for the use of airstrikes — The Obama administration is seeking to quiet the bloodshed with arms and pundits are once again nodding in approval. If we are to follow this flawed contention then where does this interventionism end? Will there be annual interventions until Iraq is “stable” enough and will the cycle of pin-the-blame-on-the-dictator (and not ourhumanitarian intervention) continue? How is the US authorized to intervene when it has already proven itself incapable of exiting the international stage without trails of blood being left behind? What Iraq needs now, and what Iraq has always needed, is unity and reconciliation, not a permanent cycle of war facilitated by foreign bodies. Those who make war profitable and who otherize human life itself cannot lecture the world on stability and freedom, nor can they implement “democracy” by way of the bullet or “precision” airstrikes.

This brings us to Libya, and though this book was written well before the military offensive in Libya, Bricmont has discussed the subject in relation to his book both before and after the killing of Gaddafi. The sole purpose of an army, writes Bricmont (p. 31), is to defend its own country — or to attack another — And even if the latter is deemed legitimate it can never be humanitarian as everything about an army is to serve these aims. In an interview with Belgian writer Michele Collon, before the killing of Gaddafi, Bricmont is asked about the intervention in Libya, specifically as to whether or not the leftist parties who defended the no-fly zone are mistaken in supporting military involvement.

Those who make war profitable and who otherize human life itself cannot lecture the world on stability and freedom, nor can they implement “democracy” by way of the bullet or “precision” airstrikes.

His response cut to the bone of the matter — An intervention would strengthen what he calls the “barricade effect” wherein countries that are within the reach of the US will begin to feel threatened and will then as a result “seek to increase their armaments.” Along with the barricade effect such interventions also open up the doors for others, and so what is to stop any other nation to interfere elsewhere? And once there is intervention then the likelihood of a civil war becomes more probable. In Libya there was the ethnic cleansing of Black Libyans and now many are arguing that the state is on the verge of a civil war as the chaos, much like in Iraq, has not paused.

It is often asked “if military intervention is not the answer, then what is? The answer? Peaceful solutions such as negotiations and cooperative diplomatic efforts, much of which the US and its allies have intentionally circumvented time and time again, should be the primary focus (p. 66):

There is a world of difference between intervention and cooperation. Unlike intervention, cooperation is carried out with the agreement of the host government. Few governments in the Third World reject cooperation if it is sincere. With so much misery in the world it is hard to imagine a situation in which, for a given expenditure of money and effort, cooperation would not save more human lives than intervention.

Bricmont’s book ends with a confident and almost poetic closing, despite the heart-wrenching subject on which the entire text is based:

All those who prefer peace to power, and happiness to glory, should thank the colonized peoples for their civilizing mission. By liberating themselves, they made Europeans more modest, less racist, and more human. Let us hope that the process continues and that the Americans are obliged to follow the same course. When one's own cause is unjust, defeat can be liberating.

The struggle against neocolonialism shall define the 21 century according to Bricmont, but what we build after the chaos shall define us and shall become our legacy. And so as time moves forward and the bloodshed continues in much of the world, and as the US once again has Iraq in its sights, let us aim for peaceful resolutions rather than military interventions.

Roqayah Chamseddine is a Sydney based Lebanese-American journalist and commentator. She tweets@roqchams and writes 'Letters From the Underground.'

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Weekly report on israel's terrorism against the State of Palestine

FULL REPORT 

Israeli forces continue systematic attacks against Palestinian civilians and property in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt)

Israeli forces stormed Palestinian  communities in the West Bank

6 Palestinian civilians, including a child and an old man, were killed, and 14 others, including 4 children and journalist, were wounded.

127 incursions were conducted in the West Bank.

Hundreds of houses were raided brutally, their residents were maltreated and a number of houses were turned into military barracks.

215 Palestinian civilians, including dozens former prisoners and 10 children, were arrested.

21 of these civilians, including 3children, were arrested in East Jerusalem.

18 Charitable associations were raided and a number of them were closed.

4 university campuses, 2 money exchange shops and a media centre were raided.

Dozens of surveillance cameras were confiscated from houses and shops.

Israeli warplanes launched 18 airstrikes on civilian objects and military training sites in the Gaza Strip.

18 Palestinian civilians, including 7 women and 4 children, were wounded.

Israel continued to impose a total closure on the oPt and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.

Israeli forces established dozens of checkpoints in the West Bank.

At least 2 Palestinian civilians, including a child, were arrested at military checkpoints in the West Bank.

Israeli naval forces continued to target Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza waters.

2 fishermen were arrested and a fishing boat was confiscated..

Israeli forces continued to support settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.

Settlers attacked Palestinian civilians and their property. 

Summary

 Israeli violations of international law and international humanitarian law in the oPt continued during the reporting period (19 June – 25 June 2014).

Shooting:

 During the reporting period, Israeli forces killed 6 Palestinian civilians, including a child and an old man, and wounded 14 others, including 4 children and a journalist, in the West Bank.  In the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes conducted 18 air strikes.  Israeli naval forces carried 5 shooting and chasing incidents.

 In the West Bank, on 20 June 2014, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian child in Dura village, southwest of Hebron. 

 On 21 June 2014, an old man died of a heart attack in Hares village, northwest of Slafit, as Israeli forces moved into the village and denied him access to medical treatment.

 On the same day, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian civilian in the northern Jordan Valley.

 On 22 June 2014, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian civilian in ‘Ein Beit al-Maa’ refugee camp, northwest of Nablus.

 On the same day, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian civilian in Ramallah. 

 On 25 June 2014, a Palestinian civilian from Qalandia refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, died of wounds he sustained on 20 June during clashes with Israeli forces.  

 During the reporting period, 14 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children and a journalist, were wounded.

 In the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes launched 18 airstrikes on civil targets and paramilitary training sites of armed groups.  As a result, a number of facilities were destroyed or damaged, and 18 Palestinian civilians, including 7 women and 4 children, were injured.  

 In the context of targeting Palestinian fishermen in the sea, on 19 June 2014, Israeli gunboats stationed off al-Waha Shore, northwest of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, opened fire in the vicinity of the Palestinian fishing boats sailing 2 nautical miles offshore.  They also arrested 2 fishermen and confiscated a fishing boat.

Incursions:

 During the reporting period, Israeli forces conducted at least 127 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During these incursions, Israeli forces arrested at least 215 Palestinians, including 10 children. 

 Following their declaration of the disappearance of 3 Israeli settlers in Hebron in the south of the West Bank, since Thursday evening, 12 June 2014, Israeli forces carried out a large-scale military campaign against residential communities in the West Bank and night raids of houses using tracker dogs and maltreating the house residents by expelling them outside their houses or detaining them in one room.  Moreover, Israeli forces turned many houses into military barracks and deliberately damaged those houses. Most of the campaign was mainly targeting Hebron, but it extended all the West Bank governorates.

 During the reporting period, Israeli forces raided 18 offices of 18 charities and closed a number of them.  They also raided 4 university campuses, 2 money exchange shops and a media center.    

Restrictions on movement:

 Israel continued to impose a tight closure of the oPt, imposing severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

 The illegal closure of the Gaza Strip, which has been steadily tightened since June 2007 has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.  The Israeli authorities impose measures to undermine the freedom of trade, including the basic needs for the Gaza Strip population and the agricultural and industrial products to be exported. For 7 consecutive years, Israel has tightened the land and naval closure to isolate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, and other countries around the world. This resulted in grave violations of the economic, social and cultural rights and a deterioration of living conditions for 1.7 million people.  The Israeli authorities have established Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shaloum) as the sole crossing for imports and exports in order to exercise its control over the Gaza Strip’s economy.  They also aim at imposing a complete ban on the Gaza Strip’s exports.

 Israeli forces have continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinian civilians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip continue to be denied access to Jerusalem.

 As part of using military checkpoints and border crossings as traps to arrest Palestinian civilians under the pretext they are wanted, Israeli forces arrested 2 Palestinian civilians at military checkpoints in the West Bank.

Settlement activities

 Israel has continued its settlement activities in the oPt, in a direct violation of international humanitarian law, and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.

 Attacks carried out by Israeli forces

 On 21 June 2014, a group of settlers from Kiryat Arba settlement which is established on confiscated lands east of Hebron attacked a house in the Old City, south of Hebron. The settlers attacked owner who was arrested later by Israeli forces. Israeli forces also arrested his two sons.

 On 22 June 2014, four armed settlers from “Nahla'il” settlement which is established on the lands of Beitillu village, northwest of Ramallah, fired live ammunition at 9 Palestinian workers while working in a stone pit in Na'lan area in the northern side of the southern farm, northwest of the city. The workers ran way immediately towards the aforementioned village. The settlers withdrew later and no injuries were reported among Palestinian workers.

On 23 June 2014, Israeli settlers damaged tires of 35 cars belonging to 9 families in Beit Hanina village to the north of the old town of Jerusalem.  They also wrote racist phrases on a tourist bus.

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