http://flotilla.hyves.nl/blog/36696920/GOLDSTONE_REPORT/7wJK/?pageid=7W6ONZLC0ACCSS8G8#show_pulse_reactions_1=1&__state__=1
http://flotilla.hyves.nl/blog/39474741/KILLINGS_BY_ZIONISTS/PObI/#show_pulse_reactions_1=225&mb=&__state__=163
http://flotilla.hyves.nl/blog/39474741/KILLINGS_BY_ZIONISTS/PObI/#show_pulse_reactions_1=225&mb=&__state__=163
28 dec 2008
Shifa ICU: a glimpse of hospital critical injuries
Dr Khaled from Shifa hospital ICU told me today around 10 that the majority of cases in the ICU are critical, with an approx 80% who will not survive. The normally 12-bed ICU was caring for twice as many as normally capable, extra beds and extra rooms made to care for ICU patients. At that time, the 24 beds in the ICU were the 4th shift of critically injured, the former 3 having died from their injuries.
There is a critical need for more ICU beds, as well as mechanical ventilators
the majority of injuries were “multi-explosive injuries” with a concentration of head injuries (“head trauma”) resulting from the explosions, from shrapnel in the brain. Other injuries included abdominal injuries resulting in internal bleeding, from shrapnel in the abdomen. The majority of head injuries were not expected to survive, and those who do are expected to have brain damage, some full paralysis (quadroplegea). Because of the shortage of spaces and equipment, the ICU has had to turn patients away, others waiting in the reception until a patient dies and his space can be used.
among the critically wounded were a number of children and minors:
--a six year old down’s syndrom with brain trauma
--an 11 year old with brain trauma, not likely to survive
--a 13 year old with a head injury (“brain matter out”)
--a 21 year old, leg amputated, various shrapnel injuries over body and face, loss of hearing in one ear
--a 21 year old, braindead, “hopeless” case
--a man in his fifties, neither police nor resistance
--a man in his forties, on the beach when struck, head trauma (“brain matter out”)
--a man in his fifties, head trauma
--a 53 year old, shrapnel in the brain, no surgery possible
--many other men in their 20s and 30s, head injuries (shrapnel in brain), and abdominal injuries, some policemen.
There is a critical need for more ICU beds, as well as mechanical ventilators
the majority of injuries were “multi-explosive injuries” with a concentration of head injuries (“head trauma”) resulting from the explosions, from shrapnel in the brain. Other injuries included abdominal injuries resulting in internal bleeding, from shrapnel in the abdomen. The majority of head injuries were not expected to survive, and those who do are expected to have brain damage, some full paralysis (quadroplegea). Because of the shortage of spaces and equipment, the ICU has had to turn patients away, others waiting in the reception until a patient dies and his space can be used.
among the critically wounded were a number of children and minors:
--a six year old down’s syndrom with brain trauma
--an 11 year old with brain trauma, not likely to survive
--a 13 year old with a head injury (“brain matter out”)
--a 21 year old, leg amputated, various shrapnel injuries over body and face, loss of hearing in one ear
--a 21 year old, braindead, “hopeless” case
--a man in his fifties, neither police nor resistance
--a man in his forties, on the beach when struck, head trauma (“brain matter out”)
--a man in his fifties, head trauma
--a 53 year old, shrapnel in the brain, no surgery possible
--many other men in their 20s and 30s, head injuries (shrapnel in brain), and abdominal injuries, some policemen.
Shocking pictures
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maan timeline
The death toll rises with each strike, and as more bodies are pulled out of Saturday’s rubble. A timeline of the latest is: 2:30 Israeli airstrikes over Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza 1:45 Israeli airstrike hits near school in Az-Zaitoun neighborhood in Gaza City 12:00 Israeli air forces launched a fresh raid against the governmental compound known as “As-Saraya” killing one child and injuring several others. 11:45 Israeli bombs targeted the government municipal council offices in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip; several injured Gazans were taken to hospital. 11:00 Israel bombs the temporary headquarters of the Rafah governorate injuring several people; the original building was destroyed in Saturday’s attacks. 10:30 Israeli jets targeted a jeep in the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City killing one child. A second strike took place on the Jabalia area, no casualties were reported. 10:00 Three were killed after Israeli forces bombarded a police station in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City, and three homes were destroyed in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood west of the city. |
8:00 The last Israeli raid targeted two de facto government police headquarters in the evacuated Israeli settlement Kfar Darum and Al-Matahin (the mills).
7:30 Al-Qarara greenhouses were obliterated in a strike on the southern Strip, killing a civilian, identified as Nabil Abu Tu’eima.
7:15 Bombs hit the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City and another on a military base called “Sa’d Sayil” in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Dozens were injured.
6:45 Israeli bombs landed on Gaza City’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood where a police center was destroyed and several injured.
6:30 The attack was preceded by a strike on a medical storehouse in the Al-Junayna neighborhood and a fuel storehouse with diesel and benzene in the Tal As-Sultan area, both in Rafah in the southern Strip. The strikes destroyed the buildings and much needed civilian supplies, and killed three who have not yet been identified.
1:01am After midnight on Saturday Israeli fighter jets bombarded the security room in front of the Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as well as a mosque in the compound killing two and injuring seven. The blast shattered most of the windows of the emergency ward. The hospital’s morgues were declared full on Saturday and bodies line the hallways waiting to be claimed by family.
12:01am Three Palestinian activists with Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades were killed when an Israeli strike hit the Al-Mansura area east of Gaza City around midnight.
11:50 Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip and several targets in the north.
11:30 Three from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades were killed when Israeli airstrikes hit the Al-Mansura neighborhood east of Gaza City.
10:15 Two airstrikes killed three and injured four when they hit the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City and on Jabalia in the north.
Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the de facto Palestinian Ministry of Health Muawiya Hassanein explained that despite media reports to the contrary, a large number of the casualties are civilians including women and children.
Saturday’s attacks
Two massive waves of airstrikes dropped 100 bombs on Gaza at 11:30 and a second at approximately 2pm. Smaller strikes hit northern Gaza at 5:30 and 8pm.
Israeli strikes targeted de facto government buildings; one Hamas source told Ma’an “every de facto security building was targeted.” Confirmed casualties include Commander of the de facto Government Police Tawfiq Jabir, Governor of the Al-Wusta (central) Districts Ahmad Abu Aashur and Commander of Security and Protection Services in the de facto government police Ismail Al-Ja’bari.
Islam Shahwan, a Hamas police spokesman, said that the attacks destroyed most of the police headquarters in the Gaza Strip and that a police graduation ceremony was being held during the assault.
Saturday afternoon Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak declared the 20 square kilometers of Gaza a “special military zone.” The classification is one degree below a declaration of total war against an enemy state.
7:30 Al-Qarara greenhouses were obliterated in a strike on the southern Strip, killing a civilian, identified as Nabil Abu Tu’eima.
7:15 Bombs hit the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City and another on a military base called “Sa’d Sayil” in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Dozens were injured.
6:45 Israeli bombs landed on Gaza City’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood where a police center was destroyed and several injured.
6:30 The attack was preceded by a strike on a medical storehouse in the Al-Junayna neighborhood and a fuel storehouse with diesel and benzene in the Tal As-Sultan area, both in Rafah in the southern Strip. The strikes destroyed the buildings and much needed civilian supplies, and killed three who have not yet been identified.
1:01am After midnight on Saturday Israeli fighter jets bombarded the security room in front of the Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as well as a mosque in the compound killing two and injuring seven. The blast shattered most of the windows of the emergency ward. The hospital’s morgues were declared full on Saturday and bodies line the hallways waiting to be claimed by family.
12:01am Three Palestinian activists with Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades were killed when an Israeli strike hit the Al-Mansura area east of Gaza City around midnight.
11:50 Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip and several targets in the north.
11:30 Three from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades were killed when Israeli airstrikes hit the Al-Mansura neighborhood east of Gaza City.
10:15 Two airstrikes killed three and injured four when they hit the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City and on Jabalia in the north.
Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the de facto Palestinian Ministry of Health Muawiya Hassanein explained that despite media reports to the contrary, a large number of the casualties are civilians including women and children.
Saturday’s attacks
Two massive waves of airstrikes dropped 100 bombs on Gaza at 11:30 and a second at approximately 2pm. Smaller strikes hit northern Gaza at 5:30 and 8pm.
Israeli strikes targeted de facto government buildings; one Hamas source told Ma’an “every de facto security building was targeted.” Confirmed casualties include Commander of the de facto Government Police Tawfiq Jabir, Governor of the Al-Wusta (central) Districts Ahmad Abu Aashur and Commander of Security and Protection Services in the de facto government police Ismail Al-Ja’bari.
Islam Shahwan, a Hamas police spokesman, said that the attacks destroyed most of the police headquarters in the Gaza Strip and that a police graduation ceremony was being held during the assault.
Saturday afternoon Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak declared the 20 square kilometers of Gaza a “special military zone.” The classification is one degree below a declaration of total war against an enemy state.
Israel plays for high stakes in Gaza attack
Less than 28 months after the end of Israel’s botched war in Lebanon, the country has launched another massive assault against a militant Islamist group in the region. This time, the enemy is Hamas not Hizbollah. And this time, Israelis are hoping fervently that their political and military leaders know what they are doing.
The government and army are at pains to stress that the lessons from the failed conflict in Lebanon have been learnt. Indeed, few question the military expertise of the defence minister, Ehud Barak, a former prime minister and Israel’s most decorated soldier, and the army chief-of-staff, Gabi Ashkenazi.
Israeli defence analysts have heaped praise on the military planners, describing the bombardment of targets across the Gaza Strip as an Israeli version of the “shock and awe” tactic that led to the swift US defeat of the Iraqi military in 2003.
Yet – in an uncomfortable echo of the two most recent wars in the Middle East – the weekend assault also raises a troubling question: will the use of overwhelming firepower bring Israel any closer to achieving its military and political objectives? Or will it merely strengthen support for Hamas and other militant groups, while adding to the instability of the volatile region as images of scores of dead and wounded Palestinians are beamed across the Arab world?
Israeli leaders have made clear the main aim of the assault is to stop Gaza-based militants from firing rockets and mortars on nearby Israeli towns. Removing Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip may be the ultimate desire but is not at this stage a military objective.
According to analysts, this marks a crucial difference from the botched 2006 war in Lebanon, when the government sought nothing less than the ousting of Hizbollah, the Shia group, from southern Lebanon. It was a goal Israel’s armed forces failed to achieve, dealing a severe blow to the country’s power of deterrence and throwing the government of Ehud Olmert into a crisis from which it never truly emerged.
“The aim of the operation is to force Hamas to come back to some form of ceasefire – but under different circumstances from the one agreed in June. That means a complete end to rocket fire and an end to smuggling of weapons,” said Ephraim Kam, deputy director of Israel’s Institute for National Strategic Studies.
But there are still nagging doubts over whether Israel can achieve even the more limited war goals it has set itself. The big uncertainty, according to Yossi Alpher, a former adviser to Mr Barak, is whether Israel is able and willing to do enough to bend Hamas’s will. “There is obviously no guarantee that Hamas will feel battered enough to sue for a ceasefire,” he said.
Judging by the group’s response to the current as well to earlier Israeli attacks, Hamas will not be in a rush to follow the Israeli playbook. All through the weekend, Hamas kept up a barrage of rocket attacks on Israel. Like other militant Islamist groups, Hamas celebrates martyrdom and has proved itself able to absorb a large number of casualties without losing the will to fight. It is, moreover, safely entrenched in its Gaza stronghold, and its small, flexible rocket units do not require complex military infrastructure to keep up the fire on Israel.
Many analysts believe air strikes alone will not be sufficient to stop the rocket fire, arguing that only a full-scale invasion of the strip can achieve this. Yet few believe Israel has the stomach for the bloody urban warfare that would accompany such a ground offensive, which would almost certainly lead to high Israeli casualties and expose the government to international condemnation.
But if Israel ends the campaign without fully achieving its goals, that will almost certainly enhance Hamas’s prestige among Palestinians, at the expense of the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas, whose conciliatory line towards Israel returns to haunt him every time Israel strikes at Gaza.
Arab diplomats and analysts were yesterday also voicing concern that Israel’s actions would further strengthen extremist forces. Mustafa Alani, analyst at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre, said: “What are we going to see? More recruitment of fighters for Hamas, for Hizbollah, for al-Qaeda – you name it.”
Hesham Youssef, a senior official at the Arab League, added: “We should not allow the situation to deteriorate to give further ammunition to the hardliners and those who would benefit from an unstable situation in the region.”
The government and army are at pains to stress that the lessons from the failed conflict in Lebanon have been learnt. Indeed, few question the military expertise of the defence minister, Ehud Barak, a former prime minister and Israel’s most decorated soldier, and the army chief-of-staff, Gabi Ashkenazi.
Israeli defence analysts have heaped praise on the military planners, describing the bombardment of targets across the Gaza Strip as an Israeli version of the “shock and awe” tactic that led to the swift US defeat of the Iraqi military in 2003.
Yet – in an uncomfortable echo of the two most recent wars in the Middle East – the weekend assault also raises a troubling question: will the use of overwhelming firepower bring Israel any closer to achieving its military and political objectives? Or will it merely strengthen support for Hamas and other militant groups, while adding to the instability of the volatile region as images of scores of dead and wounded Palestinians are beamed across the Arab world?
Israeli leaders have made clear the main aim of the assault is to stop Gaza-based militants from firing rockets and mortars on nearby Israeli towns. Removing Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip may be the ultimate desire but is not at this stage a military objective.
According to analysts, this marks a crucial difference from the botched 2006 war in Lebanon, when the government sought nothing less than the ousting of Hizbollah, the Shia group, from southern Lebanon. It was a goal Israel’s armed forces failed to achieve, dealing a severe blow to the country’s power of deterrence and throwing the government of Ehud Olmert into a crisis from which it never truly emerged.
“The aim of the operation is to force Hamas to come back to some form of ceasefire – but under different circumstances from the one agreed in June. That means a complete end to rocket fire and an end to smuggling of weapons,” said Ephraim Kam, deputy director of Israel’s Institute for National Strategic Studies.
But there are still nagging doubts over whether Israel can achieve even the more limited war goals it has set itself. The big uncertainty, according to Yossi Alpher, a former adviser to Mr Barak, is whether Israel is able and willing to do enough to bend Hamas’s will. “There is obviously no guarantee that Hamas will feel battered enough to sue for a ceasefire,” he said.
Judging by the group’s response to the current as well to earlier Israeli attacks, Hamas will not be in a rush to follow the Israeli playbook. All through the weekend, Hamas kept up a barrage of rocket attacks on Israel. Like other militant Islamist groups, Hamas celebrates martyrdom and has proved itself able to absorb a large number of casualties without losing the will to fight. It is, moreover, safely entrenched in its Gaza stronghold, and its small, flexible rocket units do not require complex military infrastructure to keep up the fire on Israel.
Many analysts believe air strikes alone will not be sufficient to stop the rocket fire, arguing that only a full-scale invasion of the strip can achieve this. Yet few believe Israel has the stomach for the bloody urban warfare that would accompany such a ground offensive, which would almost certainly lead to high Israeli casualties and expose the government to international condemnation.
But if Israel ends the campaign without fully achieving its goals, that will almost certainly enhance Hamas’s prestige among Palestinians, at the expense of the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas, whose conciliatory line towards Israel returns to haunt him every time Israel strikes at Gaza.
Arab diplomats and analysts were yesterday also voicing concern that Israel’s actions would further strengthen extremist forces. Mustafa Alani, analyst at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre, said: “What are we going to see? More recruitment of fighters for Hamas, for Hizbollah, for al-Qaeda – you name it.”
Hesham Youssef, a senior official at the Arab League, added: “We should not allow the situation to deteriorate to give further ammunition to the hardliners and those who would benefit from an unstable situation in the region.”
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Palestinians destroy sections of the wall separating Gaza and Egypt following intense Israeli attacks in Rafah
Parts of the wall between Gaza and Egypt were torn down according to International Human Rights Observers witnessing and documenting the Israeli attacks on Gaza. British Human Rights Observer, Jenny Linnel, who is working with the International Solidarity Movement, was in Yibnah Camp in Rafah and confirmed that the Palestinian resistance has destroyed sections of the wall that separates Gazan Rafah from Egyptian Rafah. “They have blown up part of the wall. The Israeli’s bombed the border half an hour ago. Soon after there was a loud explosion and parts of the wall came down. Many have passed through the border,” said Linnel. |
“We heard shooting and we have seen an ambulance. We have heard that someone is hurt. People are saying that the Egyptians have been shooting at people crossing the border.”
Human Rights Defenders from various countries are present in Gaza and are witnessing and documenting the current Israeli attacks. Due to Israel’s policy of denying access to the Occupied Gaza Strip for international media, human rights activists and aid agencies, they have arrived in the strip on the Free Gaza Movement’s boats. These voyages have repeatedly broken the Israeli blockade.
Human Rights Defenders from various countries are present in Gaza and are witnessing and documenting the current Israeli attacks. Due to Israel’s policy of denying access to the Occupied Gaza Strip for international media, human rights activists and aid agencies, they have arrived in the strip on the Free Gaza Movement’s boats. These voyages have repeatedly broken the Israeli blockade.
Operation "Cast Lead": Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning
While the Western media remains silent and complicit, the Israeli Press (Haaretz) reveals the unspoken truth: the careful planning of a military operation entitled "Cast Lead" coupled with a media disinformation and diplomatic campaign. What we are witnessing is genocide.
Let us be under no illusiions, this operation was implemented with the knowledge and approval of Israeli's allies.
Long-term planning, meticulous intelligence-gathering, secret discussions, visual deception tactics and disinformation preceded operation "Cast Lead" which the Israel Air Force launched yesterday in Gaza to take out Hamas targets in the Strip.
The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike.
Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. According to the sources, Barak maintained that although the lull would allow Hamas to prepare for a showdown with Israel, the Israeli army needed time to prepare, as well. Advertisement
Barak gave orders to carry out a comprehensive intelligence-gathering drive which sought to map out Hamas' security infrastructure, along with that of other militant organizations operating in the Strip.
This intelligence-gathering effort brought back information about permanent bases, weapon silos, training camps, the homes of senior officials and coordinates for other facilities.
The plan of action that was implemented in Operation Cast Lead remained only a blueprint until a month ago, when tensions soared after the IDF carried out an incursion into Gaza during the ceasefire to take out a tunnel which the army said was intended to facilitate an attack by Palestinian militants on IDF troops.
On November 19, following dozens of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds which exploded on Israeli soil, the plan was brought for Barak's final approval. Last Thursday, on December 18, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak met at IDF Kiryat headquarters in central Tel Aviv to approve the operation.
However, they decided to put the mission on hold to see whether Hamas would hold its fire after the expiration of the ceasefire. They therefore put off bringing the plan for the cabinet's approval, but they did inform Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the developments.
That night, in speaking to the media, sources in the Prime Minister's Bureau said that "if the shooting from Gaza continues, the showdown with Hamas would be inevitable." On the weekend, several ministers in Olmert's cabinet inveighed against him and against Barak for not retaliating for Hamas' Qassam launches.
"This chatter would have made Entebe or the Six Day War impossible," Barak said in responding to the accusations. The cabinet was eventually convened on Wednesday, but the Prime Minister's Bureau misinformed the media in stating the discussion would revolve around global jihad. The ministers learned only that morning that the discussion would actually pertain to the operation in Gaza.
In its summary announcement for the discussion, the Prime Minister's Bureau devoted one line to the situation in Gaza, compared to one whole page that concerned the outlawing of 35 Islamic organizations.
What actually went on at the cabinet meeting was a five-hour discussion about the operation in which ministers were briefed about the various blueprints and plans of action. "It was a very detailed review," one minister said.
The minister added: "Everyone fully understood what sort of period we were heading into and what sort of scenarios this could lead to. No one could say that he or she did not know what they were voting on." The minister also said that the discussion showed that the lessons of the Winograd Committee about the performance of decision-makers during the 2006 Second Lebanon War were "fully internalized."
At the end of the discussion, the ministers unanimously voted in favor of the strike, leaving it for the prime minister, the defense minister and the foreign minister to work out the exact time.
While Barak was working out the final details with the officers responsible for the operation, Livni went to Cairo to inform Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, that Israel had decided to strike at Hamas.
In parallel, Israel continued to send out disinformation in announcing it would open the crossings to the Gaza Strip and that Olmert would decide whether to launch the strike following three more deliberations on Sunday - one day after the actual order to launch the operation was issued.
"Hamas evacuated all its headquarter personnel after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday," one defense official said, "but the organization sent its people back in when they heard that everything was put on hold until Sunday."
The final decision was made on Friday morning, when Barak met with Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the Shin Bet Security Service Yuval Diskin and the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Amos Yadlin. Barak sat down with Olmert and Livni several hours later for a final meeting, in which the trio gave the air force its orders.
On Friday night and on Saturday morning, opposition leaders and prominent political figures were informed about the impending strike, including Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, Yisrael Beuiteinu's Avigdor Liebermen, Haim Oron from Meretz and President Shimon Peres, along with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik.
Let us be under no illusiions, this operation was implemented with the knowledge and approval of Israeli's allies.
Long-term planning, meticulous intelligence-gathering, secret discussions, visual deception tactics and disinformation preceded operation "Cast Lead" which the Israel Air Force launched yesterday in Gaza to take out Hamas targets in the Strip.
The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike.
Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. According to the sources, Barak maintained that although the lull would allow Hamas to prepare for a showdown with Israel, the Israeli army needed time to prepare, as well. Advertisement
Barak gave orders to carry out a comprehensive intelligence-gathering drive which sought to map out Hamas' security infrastructure, along with that of other militant organizations operating in the Strip.
This intelligence-gathering effort brought back information about permanent bases, weapon silos, training camps, the homes of senior officials and coordinates for other facilities.
The plan of action that was implemented in Operation Cast Lead remained only a blueprint until a month ago, when tensions soared after the IDF carried out an incursion into Gaza during the ceasefire to take out a tunnel which the army said was intended to facilitate an attack by Palestinian militants on IDF troops.
On November 19, following dozens of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds which exploded on Israeli soil, the plan was brought for Barak's final approval. Last Thursday, on December 18, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak met at IDF Kiryat headquarters in central Tel Aviv to approve the operation.
However, they decided to put the mission on hold to see whether Hamas would hold its fire after the expiration of the ceasefire. They therefore put off bringing the plan for the cabinet's approval, but they did inform Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the developments.
That night, in speaking to the media, sources in the Prime Minister's Bureau said that "if the shooting from Gaza continues, the showdown with Hamas would be inevitable." On the weekend, several ministers in Olmert's cabinet inveighed against him and against Barak for not retaliating for Hamas' Qassam launches.
"This chatter would have made Entebe or the Six Day War impossible," Barak said in responding to the accusations. The cabinet was eventually convened on Wednesday, but the Prime Minister's Bureau misinformed the media in stating the discussion would revolve around global jihad. The ministers learned only that morning that the discussion would actually pertain to the operation in Gaza.
In its summary announcement for the discussion, the Prime Minister's Bureau devoted one line to the situation in Gaza, compared to one whole page that concerned the outlawing of 35 Islamic organizations.
What actually went on at the cabinet meeting was a five-hour discussion about the operation in which ministers were briefed about the various blueprints and plans of action. "It was a very detailed review," one minister said.
The minister added: "Everyone fully understood what sort of period we were heading into and what sort of scenarios this could lead to. No one could say that he or she did not know what they were voting on." The minister also said that the discussion showed that the lessons of the Winograd Committee about the performance of decision-makers during the 2006 Second Lebanon War were "fully internalized."
At the end of the discussion, the ministers unanimously voted in favor of the strike, leaving it for the prime minister, the defense minister and the foreign minister to work out the exact time.
While Barak was working out the final details with the officers responsible for the operation, Livni went to Cairo to inform Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, that Israel had decided to strike at Hamas.
In parallel, Israel continued to send out disinformation in announcing it would open the crossings to the Gaza Strip and that Olmert would decide whether to launch the strike following three more deliberations on Sunday - one day after the actual order to launch the operation was issued.
"Hamas evacuated all its headquarter personnel after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday," one defense official said, "but the organization sent its people back in when they heard that everything was put on hold until Sunday."
The final decision was made on Friday morning, when Barak met with Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the Shin Bet Security Service Yuval Diskin and the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Amos Yadlin. Barak sat down with Olmert and Livni several hours later for a final meeting, in which the trio gave the air force its orders.
On Friday night and on Saturday morning, opposition leaders and prominent political figures were informed about the impending strike, including Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, Yisrael Beuiteinu's Avigdor Liebermen, Haim Oron from Meretz and President Shimon Peres, along with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik.
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Ebtihal Abdallah Keshko (7) and
Maysa Munir Yahya Keshko (22) |
Name of Victims: Ebtihal Abdallah and Maysa Munir Yahya
Details of the Last Hours: During the course of the evening, Abdallah, the father, asked his daughter, Ebtihal, to get some tea from the kitchen. He also asked Maysa (22), her sister–in–law, to come out of the house and join the rest of the family outside. Almost as soon as Ebtihal entered the house it was hit by a missile and was reduced to rubble. All the family members who remained outside sustained shrapnel wounds. By 6:30 am the following morning, rescue workers had cleared all the rubble except that in the kitchen. The family started clearing the kitchen and it was Abdallah who found a clump of hair covered in dust. He began to dig frantically until he uncovered the body of his daughter, Ebtihal. At this point, he was no longer able to continue and sat down amongst the rubble of his home and wept. |
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Shortly before 7:00am local time, yet another Israeli missile strike hit the residential neighbourhood of Hi Alijnina in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
This time a pharmacy was targeted, totally destroying the building and causing severe damage to surrounding homes. Electricity lines were torn down during the blast and the street was littered with medicines. This footage was filmed within minutes of the attack as fire fighters battled to control the blaze. Shocked residents poured into the streets, some still wearing pyjamas. Some of them are interviewed in this film. |
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ISRAEL: No civilian casualties in Gaza!
The Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni states there have been NO Civilian casualties in the Aerial Bombardment of the Gaza Strip. She agrees that the bombardment is Israels version of "Shock and Awe" designed to SURPRISE Hamas, and then goes on to make the startling assertion that the civilian population were WARNED that Israel was about to start the Aerial bombardment, so which is it? You cant warn people you are going to Bomb with a Surprise Bombardment can you? NO then Tzipi Livni must be lying! 80 rockets a day? Really Livny? Watch the video below |
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video's Attacks Before nov 4th
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Widespread attacks on Gaza leave nearly 300 dead, hundreds seriously injured
destroyed police station, Omar Mukthar street
UPDATED [12:00 pm Gaza time] 285 have been killed and over 750 wounded in attacks beginning Saturday morning after 11 am, in which over 100 bombs were dropped by 80 helicopters and Israeli warplanes, according to the Union of Medical Health Workers. Hospitals are overflowing with the wounded, and seriously incapable of dealing with all of the injured.
Among the civilians killed, the mother of my good friends in Jabaliya. Every loss is atrocious, but it is more poignant when you see it or know the dead. She, Sara, 55, was mother of 7 sons, 6 daughters. Her son H reported: “I saw the crater, where the missile hit.It was about 8 m deep and 8 m in circumference.Three people were killed from that one missile, dismembered, next to my mother. They died next to the mosque which was destroyed in an invasion 10 months ago.”
Her daughter-in-law added: “Everyone in this house depended on her. She got up every day at 5 am to clean the house, go to the market and bring back food and bread. She insisted on going out to buy bread, we didn’t have any last night and she insisted on it for the kids. Before leaving here this morning, she fell down and hurt her leg. But she still insisted on leaving to get bread for the children.The F-16 started dropping rockets around Gaza and she was on the street, killed instantly from shrapnel from the missile which landed next to her. Hussein refused to believe that it was her that was killed.”
Another international human rights activist and I spent last night with the family, not sleeping, crowded into a cold basement room made colder by opened windows, in hopes they would not shatter when the inevitable shelling re-commenced. Indeed, the front window, closest to the street and site of shelling hours later, did shatter .
The family worried that Israeli ground-troops might invade and occupy their home, as they did in March 2008, and so we stayed with them, in support, though they certainly are strong and have weathered many past terrible days alone. Mostly women and children, we rested fitfully, calling and texting those in other areas of Gaza with each new explosion, as the blasts continued from 11 pm on through the night.
Apache helicopters circled above throughout the night, and the buzz of an Israeli drone could constantly be heard. At 10:10 pm, a text from another international, in Rafah: “Isralis just phoned on the land-line to say that every house with weapons is a target.” How Israel knows which houses have ‘weapons’ is one question, and what gives Israel the right to blanket bomb civilian areas is the greater question. In our house, 13 women, 3 men (including one elderly man), and 6 children under the age of 3, one more girl 14 years old. Should Israel decide to know the house has weapons, that’s 23 more civilians lost.
Shortly after 11 pm, when Israel’s bombing had resumed, we heard the blasts which we learned landed in the Zaytoun area of Gaza city, and in Sheyjayee, east of Gaza. The radio announced that one of the missiles hit a girls school in Zaytoun.
11:35 pm, more bombing, in nearby Jabaliya area between Gaza and Jabaliya. 3 more are announced killed.
12:30 am, bombing has continued, near and distant, and we now hear on the radio that Israel has bombed a mosque across the street from Shifa hospital. Visiting there the next morning, I see a crater 15 m deep and 15 m as wide where the mosque stood, and damage to buildings and stores 400 m down one street, 150m down another street, 100 m up another street. One missile was all it took. The falafel stand I visited and wrote about last week has extensive damage. Later I learn there was at least one victim in the mosque…so far.
[Back at the Jabaliya house ]At 4:25 am, a deafening and house-shaking explosion erupts, sending the children into renewed cries of fear. They’ve slept little this night, and are already scarred by this trauma. A new Israeli F-16′s missile has landed 30 metres away, across the street on the neighbour, Abu Reia’s, land. Fatema tells us that Abu Reia lives in Ramallah, the house property is enclosed and secured by a wall and a gate. There is no way resistance fighters are within, no rockets being fired from there (expecting the accusation by Israeli authorities), they tell me. Morning light two hours later reveals a crater similar to what Hussein described: 8-10 metres wide and deep. The hole gapes among an otherwise serene grouping of olive trees.
Further missile strikes at 4 am and on hit the Security and Protection Forces building, Al Aqsa TV building, the Saraya building, leaving more dead and injured. After 5 am, another local explosion in Jabaliya renews the terror of the children, the house we sit in shakes more.
From the night raids heard from Jabliya, we go towards Gaza, to share our sordid information virtually. And nearing Shifa, we see the levelled mosque.
From the ruins of the mosque, I go to the ICU at As Shifa hospital, Gaza’s main hospital. It has had to turn away scores of wounded due to a severe shortage of space, equipment and medicine. Dr. Khaled, from the ICU, tours me around, although he’s been up working all night and will do so again tonight. [SEE NEXT POST FOR SHIFA HOSPITAL UPDATE]
see:
Gaza massacres must spur us to action, Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 27 December 2008
“The amount of death and destruction is inconceivable“, Safa Joudeh, 27 December 2008
UPDATE ON ORIGINAL POSTING:
A horrible, strange numbness. It’s nearly 12 hours after the attacks across Gaza and still apprehension and fear of further strikes.
The numbness is not to loss, but to the noise, the shaking buildings and earth from continuous shelling.
But as for the loss, there is grief, intense grief.
Around me, in the home of my friends whose mother was martyred, her surviving husband and the women of the family ask me questions: “Do you see what Israel does to us? Do you understand that our mother was no terrorist, was just walking on the street? Do you see how we live?”
While the rush of US-supplied F-16s and Apache helicopters outside give some indication of possible missiles to fall, the strikes usually occur while we are talking, trying to sleep, distracted temporarily. They jar us back to a horrible reality. The younger women are amazingly strong, having endured this many times previously. But to the youngest children these shattering bombings and the raping of their childhood and of their innocence to death is new, and scarring.
At 7 am, on the way back to Gaza city, I see older children, having grown accustomed to Israel’s air and land strikes, crimes of war. The neatly groomed children walk to school, today another day although the shelling continues.
In the darkness, listening to the supplications and prayers of the widower, in a low monotone, I am reminded of times with Tibetans chanting their grief, making supplications for their martyred. The difference is that today’s slaughter, the count now at 227, has been backed by Western powers, a disgusting sequel to the ongoing siege which has already claimed 271 medically-related deaths due to closed borders and has poisoned the entirety of the Strip with malnutrition, poverty, undrinkable water, no bread, no cooking gas…
UPDATED [12:00 pm Gaza time] 285 have been killed and over 750 wounded in attacks beginning Saturday morning after 11 am, in which over 100 bombs were dropped by 80 helicopters and Israeli warplanes, according to the Union of Medical Health Workers. Hospitals are overflowing with the wounded, and seriously incapable of dealing with all of the injured.
Among the civilians killed, the mother of my good friends in Jabaliya. Every loss is atrocious, but it is more poignant when you see it or know the dead. She, Sara, 55, was mother of 7 sons, 6 daughters. Her son H reported: “I saw the crater, where the missile hit.It was about 8 m deep and 8 m in circumference.Three people were killed from that one missile, dismembered, next to my mother. They died next to the mosque which was destroyed in an invasion 10 months ago.”
Her daughter-in-law added: “Everyone in this house depended on her. She got up every day at 5 am to clean the house, go to the market and bring back food and bread. She insisted on going out to buy bread, we didn’t have any last night and she insisted on it for the kids. Before leaving here this morning, she fell down and hurt her leg. But she still insisted on leaving to get bread for the children.The F-16 started dropping rockets around Gaza and she was on the street, killed instantly from shrapnel from the missile which landed next to her. Hussein refused to believe that it was her that was killed.”
Another international human rights activist and I spent last night with the family, not sleeping, crowded into a cold basement room made colder by opened windows, in hopes they would not shatter when the inevitable shelling re-commenced. Indeed, the front window, closest to the street and site of shelling hours later, did shatter .
The family worried that Israeli ground-troops might invade and occupy their home, as they did in March 2008, and so we stayed with them, in support, though they certainly are strong and have weathered many past terrible days alone. Mostly women and children, we rested fitfully, calling and texting those in other areas of Gaza with each new explosion, as the blasts continued from 11 pm on through the night.
Apache helicopters circled above throughout the night, and the buzz of an Israeli drone could constantly be heard. At 10:10 pm, a text from another international, in Rafah: “Isralis just phoned on the land-line to say that every house with weapons is a target.” How Israel knows which houses have ‘weapons’ is one question, and what gives Israel the right to blanket bomb civilian areas is the greater question. In our house, 13 women, 3 men (including one elderly man), and 6 children under the age of 3, one more girl 14 years old. Should Israel decide to know the house has weapons, that’s 23 more civilians lost.
Shortly after 11 pm, when Israel’s bombing had resumed, we heard the blasts which we learned landed in the Zaytoun area of Gaza city, and in Sheyjayee, east of Gaza. The radio announced that one of the missiles hit a girls school in Zaytoun.
11:35 pm, more bombing, in nearby Jabaliya area between Gaza and Jabaliya. 3 more are announced killed.
12:30 am, bombing has continued, near and distant, and we now hear on the radio that Israel has bombed a mosque across the street from Shifa hospital. Visiting there the next morning, I see a crater 15 m deep and 15 m as wide where the mosque stood, and damage to buildings and stores 400 m down one street, 150m down another street, 100 m up another street. One missile was all it took. The falafel stand I visited and wrote about last week has extensive damage. Later I learn there was at least one victim in the mosque…so far.
[Back at the Jabaliya house ]At 4:25 am, a deafening and house-shaking explosion erupts, sending the children into renewed cries of fear. They’ve slept little this night, and are already scarred by this trauma. A new Israeli F-16′s missile has landed 30 metres away, across the street on the neighbour, Abu Reia’s, land. Fatema tells us that Abu Reia lives in Ramallah, the house property is enclosed and secured by a wall and a gate. There is no way resistance fighters are within, no rockets being fired from there (expecting the accusation by Israeli authorities), they tell me. Morning light two hours later reveals a crater similar to what Hussein described: 8-10 metres wide and deep. The hole gapes among an otherwise serene grouping of olive trees.
Further missile strikes at 4 am and on hit the Security and Protection Forces building, Al Aqsa TV building, the Saraya building, leaving more dead and injured. After 5 am, another local explosion in Jabaliya renews the terror of the children, the house we sit in shakes more.
From the night raids heard from Jabliya, we go towards Gaza, to share our sordid information virtually. And nearing Shifa, we see the levelled mosque.
From the ruins of the mosque, I go to the ICU at As Shifa hospital, Gaza’s main hospital. It has had to turn away scores of wounded due to a severe shortage of space, equipment and medicine. Dr. Khaled, from the ICU, tours me around, although he’s been up working all night and will do so again tonight. [SEE NEXT POST FOR SHIFA HOSPITAL UPDATE]
see:
Gaza massacres must spur us to action, Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 27 December 2008
“The amount of death and destruction is inconceivable“, Safa Joudeh, 27 December 2008
UPDATE ON ORIGINAL POSTING:
A horrible, strange numbness. It’s nearly 12 hours after the attacks across Gaza and still apprehension and fear of further strikes.
The numbness is not to loss, but to the noise, the shaking buildings and earth from continuous shelling.
But as for the loss, there is grief, intense grief.
Around me, in the home of my friends whose mother was martyred, her surviving husband and the women of the family ask me questions: “Do you see what Israel does to us? Do you understand that our mother was no terrorist, was just walking on the street? Do you see how we live?”
While the rush of US-supplied F-16s and Apache helicopters outside give some indication of possible missiles to fall, the strikes usually occur while we are talking, trying to sleep, distracted temporarily. They jar us back to a horrible reality. The younger women are amazingly strong, having endured this many times previously. But to the youngest children these shattering bombings and the raping of their childhood and of their innocence to death is new, and scarring.
At 7 am, on the way back to Gaza city, I see older children, having grown accustomed to Israel’s air and land strikes, crimes of war. The neatly groomed children walk to school, today another day although the shelling continues.
In the darkness, listening to the supplications and prayers of the widower, in a low monotone, I am reminded of times with Tibetans chanting their grief, making supplications for their martyred. The difference is that today’s slaughter, the count now at 227, has been backed by Western powers, a disgusting sequel to the ongoing siege which has already claimed 271 medically-related deaths due to closed borders and has poisoned the entirety of the Strip with malnutrition, poverty, undrinkable water, no bread, no cooking gas…
|
Grief. In the knowledge of the murderous carpet-bombing of Gaza. In the knowledge of the targeting of the mosque, the Jabaliya centre for the handicapped, and countless other thus-unrecognized victims of war crimes.
Grief, in the voice of the Imam on the radio and the voices of the women mourning their mother, the children wailing in fear. When the attacks happened yesterday morning, I was in my apt, central between the many police stations and posts where policemen work. The building shook from the explosions a few blocks away, at the Jawazat, a police academy where a reported 70 were killed, young police graduates, and also at one of Gaza’s universities, Al Azhar. I left to go to a friend’s home, some blocks away in the other direction from the Al Azhar and Jawazat bloodbathes. Black smoke rose in towers, in every direction I looked. Turning up one street, I saw a large crowd, some running from the direction in which I headed, others running in that direction. Some ran to escape, others ran to help pull bodies to safety. Around the corner and down Omar Mukthar street I saw the remains of a police station, rubble and blood strewn everywhere. As I watched Palestinians approach the station to begin extracting bodies, I witness a last rocket hit the street 150 meters away, where crowds had already gathered to try to extract the dead bodies. Ambulances, trucks, cars –anything that could move was taking injured and dead away. Vehicles were having a hard time reaching the police station with all the rubble on the ground, so we began throwing hunks of concrete aside to clear the way. At Shifa hospital, Gaza’s main, the same assortment of vehicles streamed in, horns and sirens blaring, parting the masses of people who’d arrived to search for friends, relatives. Hospitals, already malfunctioning under the months-long siege and the full closure since november 4, are now barely functioning, overcrowded, spare parts missing, machines inadequate in quality and quantity. Hospitals have had to evacuate sick patients to make room for the injured, and the dead were laid on the floors as the morgues were already overcrowded. |
Over 100 medicines were already absent due to the siege, and another 200 nearly depleted. Dr. Khaled from Shifa hospital’s ICU reports a lack of mechanical ventilators, vital to the ICU. Ehud Olmert apparently stated that the operation was “not designed to topple Hamas, but to stop the projectiles coming into Israel. Defense Minister Barak and his chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi are supervising the operation, which Israeli news sources say will continue until it has achieved its goals.”
If the objective is indeed to “stop projectiles”, why were police stations across the Strip targeted? In the first strikes, nearly all police stations, including traffic police stations, and civil defense police stations, were leveled.
There have been and will continue to be accusations of collective punishment by Israel against the 1.5 million people of Gaza, because that is precisely what today was, in addition to the extended siege. Collective punishment and crimes of war.
It’ll be worse in the night. night is when they attack most. They’ll target factories, workshops, where they think weapons are stored,” Yousef al Helo, a Gaza-based reporter for Press TV predicted. [He was right]
“The children, they were out of school, everyone was panicking. the kids see the horiffic scenes of blood and body parts everywhere. It’ll stay in their memories forever. Psychological warfare,” he added.
The Commissioner General of UNRWA Karen Abu Zayd said : “killing and destruction…follows weeks of a tight blockade that prevented UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies from assisting the population and mitigating the difficult economic situation. The population is already paying the price of the prolonged blockade, 1.5 million people are unable to fulfill their basic needs, and they now face military escalation.”
I will update more when time and electricity allow. For now, I want to go to the home of my friends whose mother was killed, I want to pay my respects and to cry with them, for she was as gentle a woman as my own mother.
If the objective is indeed to “stop projectiles”, why were police stations across the Strip targeted? In the first strikes, nearly all police stations, including traffic police stations, and civil defense police stations, were leveled.
There have been and will continue to be accusations of collective punishment by Israel against the 1.5 million people of Gaza, because that is precisely what today was, in addition to the extended siege. Collective punishment and crimes of war.
It’ll be worse in the night. night is when they attack most. They’ll target factories, workshops, where they think weapons are stored,” Yousef al Helo, a Gaza-based reporter for Press TV predicted. [He was right]
“The children, they were out of school, everyone was panicking. the kids see the horiffic scenes of blood and body parts everywhere. It’ll stay in their memories forever. Psychological warfare,” he added.
The Commissioner General of UNRWA Karen Abu Zayd said : “killing and destruction…follows weeks of a tight blockade that prevented UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies from assisting the population and mitigating the difficult economic situation. The population is already paying the price of the prolonged blockade, 1.5 million people are unable to fulfill their basic needs, and they now face military escalation.”
I will update more when time and electricity allow. For now, I want to go to the home of my friends whose mother was killed, I want to pay my respects and to cry with them, for she was as gentle a woman as my own mother.
Days: Jan 18 - 17 - 16 - 15 - 14 - 13 - 12 - 11 - 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - Dec 31 - 30 - 29 - 28 - 27