14 july 2014
Several Palestinian civil society groups have called for an independent investigation into the Israeli bombing of the al-Mabarra Center for the Disabled in Jabalia which killed two residents and wounded four, who remain in the hospital with severe burns and shrapnel wounds.
The attack took place on the weekend, so only 5 of the 19 residents were there, while the rest were at home visiting their families. Among the wounded were Mai Hamada, 30, and Salwa Abu al-Qomssan, 53, the caretaker of the center, who had returned from morning prayers just minutes before the bombing.
The Guardian newspaper reported, after interviews with eyewitnesses, “It seemed a miracle that anyone could have survived a missile that exploded in the very centre of a room where a fin and part of its guidance system remained embedded in the concrete. A scorched bed stood to one side, damaged by the blast, which blew out the walls and left palm trees in the garden as truncated stumps standing among the rubble. ‘The bomb came straight through the roof’, said Mohammad Bahri, 22, who lives next door. ‘About 4.30am two drones fired warning shots and then the jet came in and bombed.’
“The residents were barely mobile, said neighbors, spending their time in bed or in wheelchairs, and could not escape. Imad Abu Shedek denied there had been Palestinian missile fire nearby. ‘There was no resistance here. The guy upstairs, I heard he was maybe affiliated with Islamic Jihad, but he wasn't there. The first I knew was when I heard the air strike and got here and saw the bodies.’”
Stephanie Dekker, a reporter with Al Jazeera who has been reporting from Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, reported, “Most of the casualties we are seeing here are, overwhelmingly, civilians. It really is a horrendous scene. People are absolutely terrified. The hospitals are having issues with the lack of materials to deal with the people coming in."
About the attack on the al-Mabarra Center for the Disabled, the Director told a New York Times reporter that Israeli forces had dropped a ‘warning shot’ before the bomb that destroyed the center, “But no one understood what it meant,” she said. “No one could imagine the center would be a target for anyone.” In any case, she said, the severity of the residents’ disabilities would have prevented them from fleeing on their own.”
The New York Times reported that they spoke with an anonymous Israeli military official, who said they are “investigating now what was the target, what was the intelligence” that led them to target the center for disabled. The army spokesperson claimed that “Hamas’ operational infrastructure is not in specific military camps or posts. A building with two floors may have a weapons storage site on the first floor, he said, “and above it, regular families.”
But no evidence was provided to show that any such weapon caches had been uncovered. The military’s claim was speculative in nature, providing a claim with no evidence to support it. The anonymous spokesperson showed aerial photographs of a mosque that the military had targeted in another attack on Saturday in Nusseirat, saying that it was “a Hamas rocket cache and a gathering point for militants”. But the aerial photograph showed no weapons, and the bombing of the mosque resulted in no secondary explosions, which would have been the case if there had been weapons present.
Muhammad al-Gharbi, The head of the al-Salam Center in Gaza, said that Israel, in this latest assault on Gaza, has engaged in unparalleled barbarism, manifest in the frequent violations of international laws and humanitarian decrees.
He further drew attention to the need to appeal to international courts to take legal action against Israel for the war crime of targeting Palestinian disabled civilians and therapeutic centers, which are supposed to be ‘neutral’ sites, and not targets during wars.
The attack took place on the weekend, so only 5 of the 19 residents were there, while the rest were at home visiting their families. Among the wounded were Mai Hamada, 30, and Salwa Abu al-Qomssan, 53, the caretaker of the center, who had returned from morning prayers just minutes before the bombing.
The Guardian newspaper reported, after interviews with eyewitnesses, “It seemed a miracle that anyone could have survived a missile that exploded in the very centre of a room where a fin and part of its guidance system remained embedded in the concrete. A scorched bed stood to one side, damaged by the blast, which blew out the walls and left palm trees in the garden as truncated stumps standing among the rubble. ‘The bomb came straight through the roof’, said Mohammad Bahri, 22, who lives next door. ‘About 4.30am two drones fired warning shots and then the jet came in and bombed.’
“The residents were barely mobile, said neighbors, spending their time in bed or in wheelchairs, and could not escape. Imad Abu Shedek denied there had been Palestinian missile fire nearby. ‘There was no resistance here. The guy upstairs, I heard he was maybe affiliated with Islamic Jihad, but he wasn't there. The first I knew was when I heard the air strike and got here and saw the bodies.’”
Stephanie Dekker, a reporter with Al Jazeera who has been reporting from Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, reported, “Most of the casualties we are seeing here are, overwhelmingly, civilians. It really is a horrendous scene. People are absolutely terrified. The hospitals are having issues with the lack of materials to deal with the people coming in."
About the attack on the al-Mabarra Center for the Disabled, the Director told a New York Times reporter that Israeli forces had dropped a ‘warning shot’ before the bomb that destroyed the center, “But no one understood what it meant,” she said. “No one could imagine the center would be a target for anyone.” In any case, she said, the severity of the residents’ disabilities would have prevented them from fleeing on their own.”
The New York Times reported that they spoke with an anonymous Israeli military official, who said they are “investigating now what was the target, what was the intelligence” that led them to target the center for disabled. The army spokesperson claimed that “Hamas’ operational infrastructure is not in specific military camps or posts. A building with two floors may have a weapons storage site on the first floor, he said, “and above it, regular families.”
But no evidence was provided to show that any such weapon caches had been uncovered. The military’s claim was speculative in nature, providing a claim with no evidence to support it. The anonymous spokesperson showed aerial photographs of a mosque that the military had targeted in another attack on Saturday in Nusseirat, saying that it was “a Hamas rocket cache and a gathering point for militants”. But the aerial photograph showed no weapons, and the bombing of the mosque resulted in no secondary explosions, which would have been the case if there had been weapons present.
Muhammad al-Gharbi, The head of the al-Salam Center in Gaza, said that Israel, in this latest assault on Gaza, has engaged in unparalleled barbarism, manifest in the frequent violations of international laws and humanitarian decrees.
He further drew attention to the need to appeal to international courts to take legal action against Israel for the war crime of targeting Palestinian disabled civilians and therapeutic centers, which are supposed to be ‘neutral’ sites, and not targets during wars.
Adham Abdul-Fattah Abdul-‘Aal 27
The following is a list of the 183 Palestinians killed by Israeli air bombardment since Tuesday, July 8th. This list is being updated regularly. Approximately 1260 have been injured, dozens in very serious conditions. These are the names that have been confirmed by medical sources in Gaza. More than a thousand Palestinians have also been wounded, with some losing limbs and others disabled for life. The majority of the wounded are children, according to the Ministry of Health. All of the casualties listed below are victims of Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza since Tuesday July 8th. Killed Monday 14 july: 1. Adham Abdul-Fattah Abdul-‘Aal, 27 2. Hamid Suleiman Abu al-‘Araj, 60, Deir al-Balah. |
Killed Sunday 13 july:
1. Ezzeddin Bolbol, Rafah. 2. Rami Abu Shanab, 25, Deir al-Balah. 3. Ramzya Abdul-al, 73, Gaza City. 4. Mo’ayyad al-‘Araj, 2, Khan Younis. 5. Husam Ibrahim Najjar, 14, Jabalia. 6. Hijaziyya al-Hilo, 80, Gaza City. 7. Huwaida abu Harb, 44, central Gaza. 8. Haitham Ashraf Zo’rob, 21, Rafah. 9. Mo’sab Daher, 22, Deir al Balah. 10. Laila Hassan al-‘Oweidat, 35, al-Maghazi. 11. Hussein Abdul-Qader Mheisin, 14, Gaza. 12. Qassem Talal Hamdan, 23, Beit Hanoun. 13. Maher abu Mour, 23, Khan Younis 14. Mohammad abu Breis, 64, Deir al-Balah 15. Moussa Moammer, 60, Rafah. 16. Hanadi Moammer, 27, Rafah. 17. Saddam Moammer, 24, Rafah. |
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Killed Saturday 12 july:
1. Anas Yousef Qandil, 17, Jabalia. 2. Yousef Mohammad Qandil, 47, Jabalia. 3. Mohammad Edrees Abu Sneina, 20, Jabalia. 4. Abdul-Rahman Saleh al-Khatib, 38, Jabalia. 5. Husam Thieb ar-Razayna, 38, Jabalia. 6. Ibrahim Nabil Hamada, at-Tuffah - Gaza City. 7. Hasan Ahmad Abu Ghush, at-Tuffah - Gaza City. 8. Ahmad Mazen al-Bal’awy, at-Tuffah - Gaza City. 9. Ali Nabil Basal, 32, at-Tuffah - Gaza City. 10. Mohammad Bassem al-Halaby, 28, western Gaza City. 11. Mohammad Sweity (Abu Askar), 20, western Gaza City. 12. Khawla al-Hawajri, 24, Nuseirat refugee camp. 13. Ola Wishahi, 31, Mabarra association for the disabled in Jabalia. 14. Suha Abu Saade, 38, Mabarra association for the disabled in Jabalia. 15. Khalwa al-Hawajra, 24. 16. Rateb Subhi al-Saifi, 22, Sheikh Radwan – Gaza City. 17. Azmi Mahmoud Obeid, 51, Sheikh Radwan – Gaza City. 18. Nidal Muhammad Abu al-Malsh, 22, Sheikh Radwan – Gaza City. 19. Suleiman Said Obeid, 56, Sheikh Radwan – Gaza City. 20. Mustafa Muhammad Inaya, 58, Sheikh Radwan – Gaza City. 21. Ghassan Ahmad al-Masri, 25, Sheikh Radwan – Gaza City. |
Killed Saturday 12 july:
22. Rif’at Youssef Amer, 36, al-Saftawi. 23. Rif’at Syouti, western Gaza City. 24. Nahedh Na’im al-Batsh, 41, Khan Younis. 25. Baha’ Majed al-Batsh, 28, Khan Younis. 26. Qusai Issam al-Batsh, 12, Khan Younis. 27. Aziza Yousef al-Batsh, 59, Khan Younis. 28. Ahmad No’man al-Batsh, 27, Khan Younis. 29. Mohammad Issam al-Batsh, 17, Khan Younis. 30. Yahia ‘Ala’ Al-Batsh, 18, Khan Younis. 31. Jalal Majed al-Batsh, 26, Khan Younis. 32. Mahmoud Majed al-Batsh, 22, Khan Younis 33. Majed Sobhi al-Batsh, Khan Younis. 34. Marwa Majed al-Batsh, 25, Khan Younis. 35. Khaled Majed al-Batsh, 20, Khan Younis. 36. Ibrahim Majed al-Batsh, 18, Khan Younis. 37. Manar Majed al-Batsh, 13, Khan Younis. 38. Amal Hussein al-Batsh, 10, Khan Younis. 39. Anas Ala’ al-Batsh, 10, Khan Younis. 40. Qusai Ala’ al-Batsh, 20, Khan Younis. 41. Zakariyya Ala’ al-Natsh, 20, Khan Younis. 42. Mohannad Yousef Dheir, 23, Rafah. 43. Mohammad Zo’rob, 21, Rafah. 44. Imad Bassam Zo’rob, 21, Rafah. 45. Mohannad Yousef Dheir, 23, Rafah. 46. Mustafa ‘Arif, 26, eastern Gaza City. 47. Mohammad Ghazi ‘Arif, 35, eastern Gaza City. 48. Amir ‘Arif, 10, eastern Gaza City. 49. Ghazi Arif, eastern Gaza City. 50. Ahmad Yousef Dalloul, 57, Gaza. 51. Fadi Ya’coub Sukkar, 25, Gaza. 52. Qassem Jaber Odah, 16, Khan Younis. 53. Mohammad Abdullah Sharatha, 23, Jabalia. |
Killed Friday 11 july:
1. Wisam Abdul-Razeq Ghannam, 23, Rafah. 2. Mohammad Abdul-Razeq Ghannam, 26, Rafah. 3. Kifah Shihada Ghannam, 20, Rafah. 4. Ghalia Thieb Ghannam, 7, Rafah. 5. Mohammad Munir ‘Ashour, 25, Rafah. 6. Nour an-Ajdi, 10, Rafah. 7. Anas Rezeq abu al-Kas, 30, Gaza City (doctor). 8. Abdullah abu Mahrouq, Deir al-Balah. 9. Mohammad Waloud, Beit Lahia 10. Hazem Ba’lousha, Beit Lahia. 11. Ala' Abdul Nabi, Beit Lahia 12. Ahmed Zaher Hamdan, 22, Beit Hanoun. 13. Mohammad al-Kahlout, 38, Jabalia. 14. Sami Adnan Shaldan, 25, Gaza City 15. Salem al-Ashhab,40, Gaza City. 16. Raed Abu Hani, 50, Rafah. 17.Rabea Abu- Hmeedan, 65, Jabalia. 18.Mazen Aslan, Shahrman, Al-Bureij. 19. Abu el-Kas, Al Bureij. 20. Shahd Helmi al-Qrynawi, 5, Al-Bureij. 21. Mohammad Samiri, 24, Deir al-Balah. 22. Rami Abu Mosa’ed, 24, Deir al-Balah. 23. Saber Sokkar, 80, Gaza City. 24. Hussein Mohammad al-Mamlouk, 47, Gaza City. 25. Nasser Rabah Sammama, 46, Gaza City. 26. Abdul-Halim Abdul-Mo’ty Ashra, 52, Deir al-Balah. 27. Sahar Salman Abu Namous, 4, Beit Hanoun. |
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Killed Thursday 10 july:
1. Mahmoud Lutfi al-Hajj, 57, Khan Younis. (father of six killed) 2. Bassema ‘Abdul Qader Mohammed al-Hajj, 48, Khan Younis. (mother of six killed) 3. Asma’ Mahmoud al-Hajj, 22, Khan Younis. 5. Sa’ad Mahmoud al-Hajj, 17, Khan Younis. 6. Najla’ Mahmoud al-Hajj, 29, Khan Younis. 7. Tareq Sa’ad al-Hajj, 18, Khan Younis. 8. Omar al-Hajj, 20, Khan Younis. 9. Baha’ Abu al-Leil, 35, Gaza City. 10. Suleiman Saleem Mousa al-Astal, 17, Khan Younis. 11. Ahmed Saleem Mousa al-Astal, 18, Khan Younis (Suleiman’s brother) 12. Mousa Mohammed Taher al-Astal, 15, Khan Younis. 13. Ibrahim Khalil Qanan, 24, Khan Younis. 14. Mohammad Khalil Qanan, 26, Khan Younis (Ibrahim’s brother). 15. Ibrahim Sawali, 28, Khan Younis. 16. Saleem Sawali, 23, Khan Younis. 17. Hamdi Sawali, 18, Khan Younis. 18. Mohammad al-‘Aqqad, 24, Khan Younis. 19. Ismael Abu Jame’, 19, Khan Younis. 20. Hussein Abu Jame’, 57, Khan Younis (Ismael’s father). 21. Ramadan Abu Ghazal, 5, Beit Lahia. 22. Ehsan Ferwana, 19, Khan Younis. 23. Salem Qandil, 27, Gaza City. 24. Amer al-Fayyoumi, 30, Gaza City. |
Killed Wednesday 9 july:
1. Hamed Shihab, Journalist – Gaza. 2. Salmiyya al-‘Arja, 53, Rafah. 3. Miriam ‘Atiya al-‘Arja, 9, Rafah. 4. Rafiq al-Kafarna, 30. 5. Abdul-Nasser Abu Kweik, 60. 6. Khaled Abu Kweik, 31. 7. Eyad Salem ‘Oraif, 12, Gaza City. 8. Mohammad 'Oraif, 10, Gaza City (Eyad's brother). 9. Mohammad Mustafa Malika, 18 months. 10. Hana’ Mohammed Fu’ad Malaka, 28 (Mohammad’s Mother), 27. 11. Hatem Abu Salem. 12. Mohammad Khaled an-Nimra, 22. 13. Sahar Hamdan (al-Masry), 40, Beit Hanoun. 14. Ibrahim al-Masry, 14, Beit Hanoun. 15. Amjad Hamdan, 23, Beit Hanoun. 16. Hani Saleh Hamad, 57, Beit Hanoun. 17. Ibrahim Hani Saleh Hamad, 20, Beit Hanoun. 18. Mohammad Khalaf Nawasra, 2, al-Maghazi. 19. Nidal Khalaf Nawasra, 4, al-Maghazi. 20. Salah Awad Nawasra, 24, al-Maghazi. 21. ‘Aesha Shubib al-Nawasra, 23, who was pregnant in the fourth month, al-Maghazi. 22. Naifa Mohammed Zaher Farajallah, 82, al-Mughraqa. 23. Aisha Najm. 24. Amal Yousef Abdul-Ghafour. 25. Ranim Jouda Abdul-Ghafour. 26. Ibrahim Daoud al-Bal’aawy. 27. Abdul-Rahman Jamal az-Zamely. 28. Ibrahim Ahmad ‘Abdin. 29. Mustafa Abu Murr. 30. Khaled Abu Murr. 31. Mazin Al-Jarba. 32. Marwan Eslayyem. 33. Hatem Abu Salem, Gaza City. 34. Nariman Abdul-Ghafour, Khan Younis. 35. Ra’ed Mohammed Abu Shalat, 35, al-Nussairat. 36. Yasmin al-Mautawaq, 3, Gaza City. 37. Ahmad Swali, 28, al-Nussairat. |
Killed Tuesday 8 july:
1. Mohammad Sha’ban, 24, Gaza. 2. Amjad Sha’ban, 30, Gaza. 3. Khader al-Basheeleqety, 45, Gaza. 4. Rashad Yassin, 27, Nusseirat. 5. Mohammad Ayman ‘Ashour, 15, Khan Younis. 6. Riyadh Mohammad Kaware’, 50, Khan Younis. 7. Bakr Mohammad Joudeh, 50, Khan Younis. 8. Ammar Mohammad Joudeh, 26, Khan Younis. 9. Hussein Yousef Kaware’, 13, Khan Younis. 10. Bassem Salem Kaware’, 10, Khan Younis. 11. Mohammad Ibrahim Kaware’, 50, Khan Younis. 12. Mohammad Habib, 22, Gaza. 13. Mousa Habib, 16, Gaza. 14. Saqr ‘Aayesh al-‘Ajjoury, 22, Jabalia. 15. Ahmad Nael Mahdi, 16, Gaza. 16. Hafeth Mohammad Hamad, 26, Beit Hanoun. 17. Ibrahim Mohammad Hamad, 26, Beit Hanoun. 18. Mahdi Mohammad Hamad, 46, Beit Hanoun. 19. Fawziyya Khalil Hamad, 62, Beit Hanoun. 20. Donia Mahdi Hamad, 16, Beit Hanoun. 21. Soha Hamad, 25, Beit Hanoun. 22. Suleiman Salam Abu Sawaween, 22, Khan Younis. 23. Siraj Eyad Abdul-‘Aal, 8, Khan Younis. 24. Abdul-Hadi Soufi, 24, Rafah. Removed after confirmation from Ministry of Health that report of death was inaccurate: Mo’sab Daher, 22, Deir al Balah. Zakariyya Ala’ al-Batsh, 20, Khan Younis. Shahd Helmi al-Qrynawi, 5, Al-Bureij. |
Adham Abdul-Fattah Abdul-‘Aal, 27
Israeli soldiers killed one Palestinian in the Gaza Strip, on Monday at dawn, and continued the bombardment of civilian homes and property in the coastal region.
Medical sources said Adham Abdul-Fattah Abdul-‘Aal, 27, was killed by Israeli shells, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, while several Palestinians have been injured.
Also on Monday at dawn, the Israeli Air Force fired missiles into several homes, and resistance centers, in different part of the Gaza Strip.
One of the bombarded buildings is the al-Maqousi residential towers in Gaza City; the building has been repeatedly targeted in recent days.
A Palestinian mother, and three of her children, were injured in southern Gaza, as the army bombarded homes in Rafah and Khan Younis.
The ongoing bombardment led to power blackouts in different parts of the Gaza Strip, while hundreds of homes, property, and Israeli missiles have hit structures.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said at least 30 Palestinians were injured, on Monday at dawn, and that the total number of injuries among the Palestinians, including women, children, infants and elderly, is more than 1260.
Israeli soldiers killed one Palestinian in the Gaza Strip, on Monday at dawn, and continued the bombardment of civilian homes and property in the coastal region.
Medical sources said Adham Abdul-Fattah Abdul-‘Aal, 27, was killed by Israeli shells, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, while several Palestinians have been injured.
Also on Monday at dawn, the Israeli Air Force fired missiles into several homes, and resistance centers, in different part of the Gaza Strip.
One of the bombarded buildings is the al-Maqousi residential towers in Gaza City; the building has been repeatedly targeted in recent days.
A Palestinian mother, and three of her children, were injured in southern Gaza, as the army bombarded homes in Rafah and Khan Younis.
The ongoing bombardment led to power blackouts in different parts of the Gaza Strip, while hundreds of homes, property, and Israeli missiles have hit structures.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said at least 30 Palestinians were injured, on Monday at dawn, and that the total number of injuries among the Palestinians, including women, children, infants and elderly, is more than 1260.
Israeli soldiers watching World Cup
Palestinians in Gaza have noted a brief pause in the constant barrage of bombs, Sunday night, while the World Cup final game was in progress. F16 fighters continued to circle overhead, and drones continued to buzz along above the rooftops, but very few bombs were dropped during the hour and a half that the game was being played.
The Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights, based in Geneva, has issued a statement based on the number of bombing raids by the Israeli military over the past six days, saying that the bombs have been hitting Gaza at, on average, one every three minutes for three days straight.
Euro-Mid noted a significant increase in the targeting of civilian institutions by the Israeli army on the fourth day of the attack. The Israeli forces have targeted the Salah school in Deir al-Balah, a water pipeline that supplies more than 20,000 Gazans in the Zaytoun area and a wastewater treatment plant. Furthermore the Israeli forces targeted a car belonging to the municipality of Bureij refugee camp, killing two and wounding several. Israeli has also targeted power lines in Gaza city, Rafah and northern Gaza, leading to a power loss of 45 MW.
The organization also pointed out that the uninterrupted waves of airstrikes and rocket fire have triggered widespread fear among the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel, particularly among children, with dozens having to be treated for shock. On Friday, Gaza residents in peripheral areas of the north, centre and south of the territory received warnings via telephone by Israel forces that they should evacuate these areas and move to adjoin urban areas, raising concerns that at a ground offensive and significant displacement may be imminent.
During the same time period, Palestinian fighters responded to the Israeli bombardment by firing several hundred homemade shells toward Israel, causing no deaths, injuries or serious damage.
Palestinians in Gaza have noted a brief pause in the constant barrage of bombs, Sunday night, while the World Cup final game was in progress. F16 fighters continued to circle overhead, and drones continued to buzz along above the rooftops, but very few bombs were dropped during the hour and a half that the game was being played.
The Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights, based in Geneva, has issued a statement based on the number of bombing raids by the Israeli military over the past six days, saying that the bombs have been hitting Gaza at, on average, one every three minutes for three days straight.
Euro-Mid noted a significant increase in the targeting of civilian institutions by the Israeli army on the fourth day of the attack. The Israeli forces have targeted the Salah school in Deir al-Balah, a water pipeline that supplies more than 20,000 Gazans in the Zaytoun area and a wastewater treatment plant. Furthermore the Israeli forces targeted a car belonging to the municipality of Bureij refugee camp, killing two and wounding several. Israeli has also targeted power lines in Gaza city, Rafah and northern Gaza, leading to a power loss of 45 MW.
The organization also pointed out that the uninterrupted waves of airstrikes and rocket fire have triggered widespread fear among the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel, particularly among children, with dozens having to be treated for shock. On Friday, Gaza residents in peripheral areas of the north, centre and south of the territory received warnings via telephone by Israel forces that they should evacuate these areas and move to adjoin urban areas, raising concerns that at a ground offensive and significant displacement may be imminent.
During the same time period, Palestinian fighters responded to the Israeli bombardment by firing several hundred homemade shells toward Israel, causing no deaths, injuries or serious damage.
Israeli airstrikes late Sunday killed three Palestinians in southern Gaza, medics said.
Maher Abu Mor, 24, Saddam Muammar, 23, and Moussa Muammar, 60, died in the attacks on eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the medics said.
The assault brought the death toll since Tuesday to at least 170, according to Ministry of Health records.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been injured in the same period.
Earlier, airstrikes killed Samir Hamdan in Beit Hanoun, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said, while Hussein Muhesin, 19, died of wounds sustained in an airstrike on Gaza City.
Three children were injured in the strike.
Earlier, Layla Hasan al-Udat was killed in al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza and Ashraf Zurub, 21, died from wounds sustained a day earlier in airstrikes.
Husam Ibrahim al-Najjar, 14, was killed in Sunday attacks in northern Gaza and 80-year-old Hijaziyya al-Hilou was killed in the Shujaiyya neighborhood of Gaza City when an Israeli missile hit the al-Hilou family home.
Medics said it was a miracle the rest of her family survived the attack.
OCHA said Saturday that 70 percent of Palestinian fatalities are civilians, of whom 30 percent are children.
Israel warns north Gaza
In a sign of a likely further escalation, Israel dropped leaflets over northern Gaza, urging residents of the town of Beit Lahiya in particular to leave their homes "for their own safety".
"Civilians are requested to evacuate their residences immediately and move by 12 p.m. today," the leaflets said, naming locations which would prove to be most dangerous.
A UN official said that some 4,000 Palestinians have already fled their homes and sought refuge in UN facilities.
On Saturday, UNRWA official Robert Turner said that the UN refugee agency could house over 50,000 Palestinians refugees if a ground invasion took place.
Israel has warned that preparations are under way for a possible ground incursion, with tanks and artillery massed along the border and some 33,000 reservists mobilised out of 40,000 approved by the cabinet.
Israeli hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said he expects a political decision on a possible ground operation to be taken by Sunday.
Maher Abu Mor, 24, Saddam Muammar, 23, and Moussa Muammar, 60, died in the attacks on eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the medics said.
The assault brought the death toll since Tuesday to at least 170, according to Ministry of Health records.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been injured in the same period.
Earlier, airstrikes killed Samir Hamdan in Beit Hanoun, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said, while Hussein Muhesin, 19, died of wounds sustained in an airstrike on Gaza City.
Three children were injured in the strike.
Earlier, Layla Hasan al-Udat was killed in al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza and Ashraf Zurub, 21, died from wounds sustained a day earlier in airstrikes.
Husam Ibrahim al-Najjar, 14, was killed in Sunday attacks in northern Gaza and 80-year-old Hijaziyya al-Hilou was killed in the Shujaiyya neighborhood of Gaza City when an Israeli missile hit the al-Hilou family home.
Medics said it was a miracle the rest of her family survived the attack.
OCHA said Saturday that 70 percent of Palestinian fatalities are civilians, of whom 30 percent are children.
Israel warns north Gaza
In a sign of a likely further escalation, Israel dropped leaflets over northern Gaza, urging residents of the town of Beit Lahiya in particular to leave their homes "for their own safety".
"Civilians are requested to evacuate their residences immediately and move by 12 p.m. today," the leaflets said, naming locations which would prove to be most dangerous.
A UN official said that some 4,000 Palestinians have already fled their homes and sought refuge in UN facilities.
On Saturday, UNRWA official Robert Turner said that the UN refugee agency could house over 50,000 Palestinians refugees if a ground invasion took place.
Israel has warned that preparations are under way for a possible ground incursion, with tanks and artillery massed along the border and some 33,000 reservists mobilised out of 40,000 approved by the cabinet.
Israeli hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said he expects a political decision on a possible ground operation to be taken by Sunday.
Israel's cabinet had decided to step up the military campaign in Gaza to destroy the infrastructure of Hamas, the source said
A minor Israeli cabinet decided during a one-hour meeting late on Sunday to maintain military escalation against the Gaza Strip, an Israeli source said.
The source told Israel's channel I that the cabinet had decided to step up the military campaign in Gaza in order to destroy the infrastructure of the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas.
Referring to Egyptian efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza, the source said Egypt would be the only country allowed by Israel to mediate this ceasefire.
A senior leader of Hamas, meanwhile, referred earlier to Qatari mediation, saying Qatar had delivered a message to Hamas from the U.S. about the movement's terms for agreeing to a ceasefire.
The leader added that his movement had not received any "serious" proposals in this regard, noting that the movement is only getting ready to counter a potential Israeli ground operation in Gaza.
Around 170 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed and hundreds injured since Israel launched "Operation Protective Edge" in the Gaza Strip on Monday with the stated goal of ending rocket fire from the strip.
Since then, Israeli warplanes have staged hundreds of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip – home to around 1.8 million Palestinians - while ground troops remain amassed on the Strip's borders in advance of a possible ground assault.
Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, have continued to fire hundreds of rockets into Israel, some of which have reached Tel Aviv, in response to the ongoing offensive.
No Israeli fatalities have been reported thus far.
A minor Israeli cabinet decided during a one-hour meeting late on Sunday to maintain military escalation against the Gaza Strip, an Israeli source said.
The source told Israel's channel I that the cabinet had decided to step up the military campaign in Gaza in order to destroy the infrastructure of the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas.
Referring to Egyptian efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza, the source said Egypt would be the only country allowed by Israel to mediate this ceasefire.
A senior leader of Hamas, meanwhile, referred earlier to Qatari mediation, saying Qatar had delivered a message to Hamas from the U.S. about the movement's terms for agreeing to a ceasefire.
The leader added that his movement had not received any "serious" proposals in this regard, noting that the movement is only getting ready to counter a potential Israeli ground operation in Gaza.
Around 170 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed and hundreds injured since Israel launched "Operation Protective Edge" in the Gaza Strip on Monday with the stated goal of ending rocket fire from the strip.
Since then, Israeli warplanes have staged hundreds of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip – home to around 1.8 million Palestinians - while ground troops remain amassed on the Strip's borders in advance of a possible ground assault.
Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, have continued to fire hundreds of rockets into Israel, some of which have reached Tel Aviv, in response to the ongoing offensive.
No Israeli fatalities have been reported thus far.
In Gaza, the implementation of the Zionist vision takes its most inhuman form
In a September 2006 article for The Electronic Intifada, I defined the Israeli policy towards the Gaza Strip as an incremental genocide.
Israel’s present assault on Gaza alas indicates that this policy continues unabated. The term is important since it appropriately locates Israel’s barbaric action — then and now — within a wider historical context.
This context should be insisted upon, since the Israeli propaganda machine attempts again and again to narrate its policies as out of context and turns the pretext it found for every new wave of destruction into the main justification for another spree of indiscriminate slaughter in the killing fields of Palestine.
The context The Zionist strategy of branding its brutal policies as an ad hoc response to this or that Palestinian action is as old as the Zionist presence in Palestine itself. It was used repeatedly as a justification for implementing the Zionist vision of a future Palestine that has in it very few, if any, native Palestinians.
The means for achieving this goal changed with the years, but the formula has remained the same: whatever the Zionist vision of a Jewish State might be, it can only materialize without any significant number of Palestinians in it. And nowadays the vision is of an Israel stretching over almost the whole of historic Palestine where millions of Palestinians still live.
The present genocidal wave has, like all the previous ones, also a more immediate background. It has been born out of an attempt to foil the Palestinian decision to form a unity government that even the United States could not object to.
The collapse of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s desperate “peace” initiative legitimized the Palestinian appeal to international organizations to stop the occupation. At the same time, Palestinians gained wide international blessing for the cautious attempt represented by the unity government to strategize once again a coordinated policy among the various Palestinian groups and agendas.
Ever since June 1967, Israel searched for a way to keep the territories it occupied that year without incorporating their indigenous Palestinian population into its rights-bearing citizenry. All the while it participated in a “peace process” charade to cover up or buy time for its unilateral colonization policies on the ground.
With the decades, Israel differentiated between areas it wished to control directly and those it would manage indirectly, with the aim in the long run of downsizing the Palestinian population to a minimum with, among other means, ethnic cleansing and economic and geographic strangulation.
The geopolitical location of the West Bank creates the impression in Israel, at least, that it is possible to achieve this without anticipating a third uprising or too much international condemnation.
The Gaza Strip, due to its unique geopolitical location, did not lend itself that easily to such a strategy. Ever since 1994, and even more so when Ariel Sharon came to power as prime minister in the early 2000s, the strategy there was to ghettoize Gaza and somehow hope that the people there — 1.8 million as of today — would be dropped into eternal oblivion.
But the Ghetto proved to be rebellious and unwilling to live under conditions of strangulation, isolation, starvation and economic collapse. So resending it to oblivion necessitates the continuation of genocidal policies.
The pretext On 15 May, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian youths in the West Bank town of Beitunia, their cold-blooded slayings by a sniper’s bullet captured on video. Their names — Nadim Nuwara and Muhammad Abu al-Thahir — were added to a long list of such killings in recent months and years.
The killing of three Israeli teenagers, two of them minors, abducted in the occupied West Bank in June, was perhaps in reprisal for killings of Palestinian children. But for all the depredations of the oppressive occupation, it provided the pretext first and foremost for destroying the delicate unity in the West Bank but also for the implementation of the old dream of wiping out Hamas from Gaza so that the Ghetto could be quiet again.
Since 1994, even before the rise of Hamas to power in the Gaza Strip, the very particular geopolitical location of the Strip made it clear that any collective punitive action, such as the one inflicted now, could only be an operation of massive killings and destruction. In other words, of a continued genocide.
This recognition never inhibited the generals who give the orders to bomb the people from the air, the sea and the ground. Downsizing the number of Palestinians all over historic Palestine is still the Zionist vision. In Gaza, its implementation takes its most inhuman form.
The particular timing of this wave is determined, as in the past, by additional considerations. The domestic social unrest of 2011 is still simmering and for a while there was a public demand to cut military expenditures and move money from the inflated “defense” budget to social services. The army branded this possibility as suicidal.
There is nothing like a military operation to stifle any voices calling on the government to cut its military expenses.
Typical hallmarks of the previous stages in this incremental genocide reappear in this wave as well. One can witness again consensual Israeli Jewish support for the massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip, without one significant voice of dissent. In Tel Aviv, the few who dared to demonstrate against it were beaten by Jewish hooligans, while the police stood by and watched.
Academia, as always, becomes part of the machinery. The prestigious private university, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya has established “a civilian headquarters” where students volunteer to serve as mouthpieces in the propaganda campaign abroad.
The media is loyally recruited, showing no pictures of the human catastrophe Israel has wreaked and informing its public that this time, “the world understands us and is behind us.”
That statement is valid to a point as the political elites in the West continue to provide the old immunity to the “Jewish state.” However, the media have not provided Israel with quite the level of legitimacy it was seeking for its criminal policies.
Obvious exceptions included French media, especially France 24 and the BBC, that continue to shamefully parrot Israeli propaganda.
This is not surprising, since pro-Israel lobby groups continue to work tirelessly to press Israel’s case in France and the rest of Europe as they do in the United States.
The way forward Whether it is burning alive a Palestinian youth from Jerusalem, or the fatal shooting of two others, just for the fun of it in Beitunia, or slaying whole families in Gaza, these are all acts that can only be perpetrated if the victim is dehumanized.
I will concede that all over the Middle East there are now horrific cases where dehumanization has reaped unimaginable horrors as it does in Gaza today. But there is one crucial difference between these cases and the Israeli brutality: the former are condemned as barbarous and inhuman worldwide, while those committed by Israel are still publicly licensed and approved by the president of the United States, the leaders of the EU and Israel’s other friends in the world.
The only chance for a successful struggle against Zionism in Palestine is the one based on a human and civil rights agenda that does not differentiate between one violation and the other and yet identifies clearly the victim and the victimizers.
Those who commit atrocities in the Arab world against oppressed minorities and helpless communities, as well as the Israelis who commit these crimes against the Palestinian people, should all be judged by the same moral and ethical standards. They are all war criminals, though in the case of Palestine they have been at work longer than anyone else.
It does not really matter what the religious identity is of the people who commit the atrocities or in the name of which religion they purport to speak. Whether they call themselves jihadists, Judaists or Zionists, they should be treated in the same way.
A world that would stop employing double standards in its dealings with Israel is a world that could be far more effective in its response to war crimes elsewhere in the world.
Cessation of the incremental genocide in Gaza and the restitution of the basic human and civil rights of Palestinians wherever they are, including the right of return, is the only way to open a new vista for a productive international intervention in the Middle East as a whole.
The author of numerous books, Ilan Pappe is professor of history and director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter.
In a September 2006 article for The Electronic Intifada, I defined the Israeli policy towards the Gaza Strip as an incremental genocide.
Israel’s present assault on Gaza alas indicates that this policy continues unabated. The term is important since it appropriately locates Israel’s barbaric action — then and now — within a wider historical context.
This context should be insisted upon, since the Israeli propaganda machine attempts again and again to narrate its policies as out of context and turns the pretext it found for every new wave of destruction into the main justification for another spree of indiscriminate slaughter in the killing fields of Palestine.
The context The Zionist strategy of branding its brutal policies as an ad hoc response to this or that Palestinian action is as old as the Zionist presence in Palestine itself. It was used repeatedly as a justification for implementing the Zionist vision of a future Palestine that has in it very few, if any, native Palestinians.
The means for achieving this goal changed with the years, but the formula has remained the same: whatever the Zionist vision of a Jewish State might be, it can only materialize without any significant number of Palestinians in it. And nowadays the vision is of an Israel stretching over almost the whole of historic Palestine where millions of Palestinians still live.
The present genocidal wave has, like all the previous ones, also a more immediate background. It has been born out of an attempt to foil the Palestinian decision to form a unity government that even the United States could not object to.
The collapse of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s desperate “peace” initiative legitimized the Palestinian appeal to international organizations to stop the occupation. At the same time, Palestinians gained wide international blessing for the cautious attempt represented by the unity government to strategize once again a coordinated policy among the various Palestinian groups and agendas.
Ever since June 1967, Israel searched for a way to keep the territories it occupied that year without incorporating their indigenous Palestinian population into its rights-bearing citizenry. All the while it participated in a “peace process” charade to cover up or buy time for its unilateral colonization policies on the ground.
With the decades, Israel differentiated between areas it wished to control directly and those it would manage indirectly, with the aim in the long run of downsizing the Palestinian population to a minimum with, among other means, ethnic cleansing and economic and geographic strangulation.
The geopolitical location of the West Bank creates the impression in Israel, at least, that it is possible to achieve this without anticipating a third uprising or too much international condemnation.
The Gaza Strip, due to its unique geopolitical location, did not lend itself that easily to such a strategy. Ever since 1994, and even more so when Ariel Sharon came to power as prime minister in the early 2000s, the strategy there was to ghettoize Gaza and somehow hope that the people there — 1.8 million as of today — would be dropped into eternal oblivion.
But the Ghetto proved to be rebellious and unwilling to live under conditions of strangulation, isolation, starvation and economic collapse. So resending it to oblivion necessitates the continuation of genocidal policies.
The pretext On 15 May, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian youths in the West Bank town of Beitunia, their cold-blooded slayings by a sniper’s bullet captured on video. Their names — Nadim Nuwara and Muhammad Abu al-Thahir — were added to a long list of such killings in recent months and years.
The killing of three Israeli teenagers, two of them minors, abducted in the occupied West Bank in June, was perhaps in reprisal for killings of Palestinian children. But for all the depredations of the oppressive occupation, it provided the pretext first and foremost for destroying the delicate unity in the West Bank but also for the implementation of the old dream of wiping out Hamas from Gaza so that the Ghetto could be quiet again.
Since 1994, even before the rise of Hamas to power in the Gaza Strip, the very particular geopolitical location of the Strip made it clear that any collective punitive action, such as the one inflicted now, could only be an operation of massive killings and destruction. In other words, of a continued genocide.
This recognition never inhibited the generals who give the orders to bomb the people from the air, the sea and the ground. Downsizing the number of Palestinians all over historic Palestine is still the Zionist vision. In Gaza, its implementation takes its most inhuman form.
The particular timing of this wave is determined, as in the past, by additional considerations. The domestic social unrest of 2011 is still simmering and for a while there was a public demand to cut military expenditures and move money from the inflated “defense” budget to social services. The army branded this possibility as suicidal.
There is nothing like a military operation to stifle any voices calling on the government to cut its military expenses.
Typical hallmarks of the previous stages in this incremental genocide reappear in this wave as well. One can witness again consensual Israeli Jewish support for the massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip, without one significant voice of dissent. In Tel Aviv, the few who dared to demonstrate against it were beaten by Jewish hooligans, while the police stood by and watched.
Academia, as always, becomes part of the machinery. The prestigious private university, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya has established “a civilian headquarters” where students volunteer to serve as mouthpieces in the propaganda campaign abroad.
The media is loyally recruited, showing no pictures of the human catastrophe Israel has wreaked and informing its public that this time, “the world understands us and is behind us.”
That statement is valid to a point as the political elites in the West continue to provide the old immunity to the “Jewish state.” However, the media have not provided Israel with quite the level of legitimacy it was seeking for its criminal policies.
Obvious exceptions included French media, especially France 24 and the BBC, that continue to shamefully parrot Israeli propaganda.
This is not surprising, since pro-Israel lobby groups continue to work tirelessly to press Israel’s case in France and the rest of Europe as they do in the United States.
The way forward Whether it is burning alive a Palestinian youth from Jerusalem, or the fatal shooting of two others, just for the fun of it in Beitunia, or slaying whole families in Gaza, these are all acts that can only be perpetrated if the victim is dehumanized.
I will concede that all over the Middle East there are now horrific cases where dehumanization has reaped unimaginable horrors as it does in Gaza today. But there is one crucial difference between these cases and the Israeli brutality: the former are condemned as barbarous and inhuman worldwide, while those committed by Israel are still publicly licensed and approved by the president of the United States, the leaders of the EU and Israel’s other friends in the world.
The only chance for a successful struggle against Zionism in Palestine is the one based on a human and civil rights agenda that does not differentiate between one violation and the other and yet identifies clearly the victim and the victimizers.
Those who commit atrocities in the Arab world against oppressed minorities and helpless communities, as well as the Israelis who commit these crimes against the Palestinian people, should all be judged by the same moral and ethical standards. They are all war criminals, though in the case of Palestine they have been at work longer than anyone else.
It does not really matter what the religious identity is of the people who commit the atrocities or in the name of which religion they purport to speak. Whether they call themselves jihadists, Judaists or Zionists, they should be treated in the same way.
A world that would stop employing double standards in its dealings with Israel is a world that could be far more effective in its response to war crimes elsewhere in the world.
Cessation of the incremental genocide in Gaza and the restitution of the basic human and civil rights of Palestinians wherever they are, including the right of return, is the only way to open a new vista for a productive international intervention in the Middle East as a whole.
The author of numerous books, Ilan Pappe is professor of history and director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter.
