10 sept 2014
Leila Zerrougui
Israeli forces, during the recent offensive on the the Gaza Strip, used one of UNRWA's schools in the region as a military base, according to a UN offical.
Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Security-General for Children and Armed Conflict, declared on Monday that the Israeli military bombed 244 schools, 75 of which were run by UNRWA.
See: 69% of Gaza Schools Damaged by Israeli Assaults
While not disclosing the specific location of the school, it was revealed that one of these UNRWA schools was used an Israeli military base, according to the PNN.
See also: 08/23/14 Israel Retracts False Claim Regarding Alleged Hamas Rocket Base
Speaking of the aftermath of the assault on besieged Gaza, Ms. Zerrougui stated that, of the children wounded during the conflict, one third now suffer from full disability.
Nearly 600 Palestinian children suffered violent deaths as a result of injuries inflicted by Israeli strikes from the ground, air and sea.
Israeli forces, during the recent offensive on the the Gaza Strip, used one of UNRWA's schools in the region as a military base, according to a UN offical.
Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Security-General for Children and Armed Conflict, declared on Monday that the Israeli military bombed 244 schools, 75 of which were run by UNRWA.
See: 69% of Gaza Schools Damaged by Israeli Assaults
While not disclosing the specific location of the school, it was revealed that one of these UNRWA schools was used an Israeli military base, according to the PNN.
See also: 08/23/14 Israel Retracts False Claim Regarding Alleged Hamas Rocket Base
Speaking of the aftermath of the assault on besieged Gaza, Ms. Zerrougui stated that, of the children wounded during the conflict, one third now suffer from full disability.
Nearly 600 Palestinian children suffered violent deaths as a result of injuries inflicted by Israeli strikes from the ground, air and sea.
Pictured: a UN school severely damaged by Israeli attacks in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip
A Palestinian poem entitled "Running Orders" by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha describes the experience of a well-known Israeli military procedure as seen through the eyes of a Gaza resident:
"They call us now / Before they drop the bombs. / The phone rings / and someone who knows my first name / calls and says in perfect Arabic / 'This is David...' / ...You have 58 seconds from the end of this message. / Your house is next... / ...Run."
With the end of "Operation Protective Edge" on 26 August 2014, the international community is preparing to investigate numerous cases of suspected war crimes committed by the warring parties. In attempt to counter these allegations, a legal team established by the Israeli military will argue that policies like the one above, known as the "knock-on-the-roof," demonstrated Israel's humanitarian concern for civilian safety as it attacked alleged Hamas targets in Gaza.
The legal team would be right in saying that the knock-on-the-roof helped to prevent further casualties from occurring, at least to some extent. However, these arguments conceal the real effects of the policy on the ground, namely that countless civilians were displaced, traumatized, wounded and even killed as a result of these "knocks." Together with the missile strikes and ground incursions that killed over 2,100 Palestinians (about 70 percent of them civilians) and injured thousands more, Israel's "precautionary measures" during the war in fact exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Firstly, the Israeli military claims that roof-knocking was an effective method of warning to avoid harm to civilians. These knocks, however, do not reflect the soft tones the nickname implies. The knocks are bombs that exert enough force to damage or shake an entire building, causing possible physical harm and inducing tremendous fear to residents inside.
The panicked families are left rushing to warn neighbors of the incoming strike, while chaos ensues as people try to escape the firing zone. The densely populated Gazan neighborhoods and refugee camps add further difficulty for people to evacuate quickly during these life-threatening emergencies. More troublingly, there were several cases in which these supposed warning bombs directly hit and killed civilians, including three boys who were feeding pigeons on the roof of their home.
Secondly, the military claims that it exhausted all efforts to ensure that civilians were adequately warned ahead of a strike. However, the roof-knocking cases reveal that there was no consistent or reliable application for its use. The process ranged from initiating phone calls before the knocks, to no calls or knocks at all.
On several occasions, a knock was issued but the strike did not commence until hours later, posing a danger to residents who fled their homes or who believed they were issued a false alarm, and thus returned to the targeted sites. Other cases showed the opposite, in that many residents had insufficient time -- mere seconds or minutes -- to distance themselves from the explosion and debris caused by the strike, resulting in deaths and injuries. Thus instead of being a "considerate" alert, the knock-on-the-roof became a symbol of fear, unpredictability and chaos.
Thirdly, Israeli officials contend that the military's liability for civilian lives ended once they issued their warnings. But this is legally, practically and ethically wrong. In addition to the harm above, the knocks and subsequent missile strikes were directly responsible for the displacement and dispossession of Palestinian families, forcing them into homelessness and poverty.
This was further compounded by the fact that there was nowhere to run in Gaza. Between the closure of land crossings, overcrowded cities, overstretched humanitarian facilities, the targeting of hospitals and shelters, and air strikes in nearly every part of the small territory, Gaza more than ever resembled a turbulent prison where Palestinians were even denied the right to be refugees.
These devastating impacts of the knock-on-the-roof have been witnessed before. In the investigation into "Operation Cast Lead" of 2008/9, the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict concluded that roof-knocking was an ineffective warning that "constitutes a form of attack" against inhabitants of targeted buildings, and that was more likely to "cause terror and confuse the affected civilians" than help them to safety.
In short, contrary to the Israeli legal team's expected claims, roof-knocking does not legalize what has clearly been deemed a crime under international law: the collective punishment of civilians. Even if military targets were embedded in civilian areas, there is rarely a military or moral reason to excuse the disproportionate harm caused to thousands of civilians through these measures.
The fact that Israel has launched offensives on Gaza three times in the last six years, all while maintaining an eight-year blockade, further proves that its military policies do little to bring the security that its officials use to justify them.
Their only result, despite the myths to cover them up, is to make Gaza's dire humanitarian conditions a permanent feature in the lives of its people. Until those policies end, more Palestinians can be threatened with the same message by phone, explosion or missile: "Your house is next...Run."
A Palestinian poem entitled "Running Orders" by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha describes the experience of a well-known Israeli military procedure as seen through the eyes of a Gaza resident:
"They call us now / Before they drop the bombs. / The phone rings / and someone who knows my first name / calls and says in perfect Arabic / 'This is David...' / ...You have 58 seconds from the end of this message. / Your house is next... / ...Run."
With the end of "Operation Protective Edge" on 26 August 2014, the international community is preparing to investigate numerous cases of suspected war crimes committed by the warring parties. In attempt to counter these allegations, a legal team established by the Israeli military will argue that policies like the one above, known as the "knock-on-the-roof," demonstrated Israel's humanitarian concern for civilian safety as it attacked alleged Hamas targets in Gaza.
The legal team would be right in saying that the knock-on-the-roof helped to prevent further casualties from occurring, at least to some extent. However, these arguments conceal the real effects of the policy on the ground, namely that countless civilians were displaced, traumatized, wounded and even killed as a result of these "knocks." Together with the missile strikes and ground incursions that killed over 2,100 Palestinians (about 70 percent of them civilians) and injured thousands more, Israel's "precautionary measures" during the war in fact exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Firstly, the Israeli military claims that roof-knocking was an effective method of warning to avoid harm to civilians. These knocks, however, do not reflect the soft tones the nickname implies. The knocks are bombs that exert enough force to damage or shake an entire building, causing possible physical harm and inducing tremendous fear to residents inside.
The panicked families are left rushing to warn neighbors of the incoming strike, while chaos ensues as people try to escape the firing zone. The densely populated Gazan neighborhoods and refugee camps add further difficulty for people to evacuate quickly during these life-threatening emergencies. More troublingly, there were several cases in which these supposed warning bombs directly hit and killed civilians, including three boys who were feeding pigeons on the roof of their home.
Secondly, the military claims that it exhausted all efforts to ensure that civilians were adequately warned ahead of a strike. However, the roof-knocking cases reveal that there was no consistent or reliable application for its use. The process ranged from initiating phone calls before the knocks, to no calls or knocks at all.
On several occasions, a knock was issued but the strike did not commence until hours later, posing a danger to residents who fled their homes or who believed they were issued a false alarm, and thus returned to the targeted sites. Other cases showed the opposite, in that many residents had insufficient time -- mere seconds or minutes -- to distance themselves from the explosion and debris caused by the strike, resulting in deaths and injuries. Thus instead of being a "considerate" alert, the knock-on-the-roof became a symbol of fear, unpredictability and chaos.
Thirdly, Israeli officials contend that the military's liability for civilian lives ended once they issued their warnings. But this is legally, practically and ethically wrong. In addition to the harm above, the knocks and subsequent missile strikes were directly responsible for the displacement and dispossession of Palestinian families, forcing them into homelessness and poverty.
This was further compounded by the fact that there was nowhere to run in Gaza. Between the closure of land crossings, overcrowded cities, overstretched humanitarian facilities, the targeting of hospitals and shelters, and air strikes in nearly every part of the small territory, Gaza more than ever resembled a turbulent prison where Palestinians were even denied the right to be refugees.
These devastating impacts of the knock-on-the-roof have been witnessed before. In the investigation into "Operation Cast Lead" of 2008/9, the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict concluded that roof-knocking was an ineffective warning that "constitutes a form of attack" against inhabitants of targeted buildings, and that was more likely to "cause terror and confuse the affected civilians" than help them to safety.
In short, contrary to the Israeli legal team's expected claims, roof-knocking does not legalize what has clearly been deemed a crime under international law: the collective punishment of civilians. Even if military targets were embedded in civilian areas, there is rarely a military or moral reason to excuse the disproportionate harm caused to thousands of civilians through these measures.
The fact that Israel has launched offensives on Gaza three times in the last six years, all while maintaining an eight-year blockade, further proves that its military policies do little to bring the security that its officials use to justify them.
Their only result, despite the myths to cover them up, is to make Gaza's dire humanitarian conditions a permanent feature in the lives of its people. Until those policies end, more Palestinians can be threatened with the same message by phone, explosion or missile: "Your house is next...Run."
While inspecting the ruins resulting from the Israeli shelling on his drug factory, Marwan al-Astal was wondering about the international conventions that prohibit targeting everything related to the medical sector.
Disapprovingly, al-Astal looks at the medicine bottles and the damaged raw materials and the remains of Israeli artillery shells that hit his factory, and tells Anadolu Turkish news Agency: "Israel purposely ignores the international conventions, and targets everything in Gaza, even a drug factory and the hospitals”.
And according to al-Astal, the owner of the Middle East Company for Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics Industry, the Israeli tanks targeted, for many days during the 51-day war on Gaza, the drugs company, which meets 15% of Gaza needs where about 1.8 million Palestinians reside.
He continued: "two days before the war, we brought an 80-thousand-dollar shipment of supplies and raw materials, but couldn't get it inside the stores due to the outbreak of the war. The missiles hit the shipment and it was completely destroyed”.
He added: "I couldn't come to check on the place during the war; since no one dared to enter the industrial area here, in northern Beit Hanoun, because of the intensive shelling.
Al-Astal estimates the loss value of his factory to be a million dollars, noting that 50 employees will become unemployed as a result of destroying his factory.
He clarifies that the “Intensity of the Zionist shelling on the factory and the area around it caused a failure in the electronic panels responsible for programming the drugs manufacturing machines; the price of one panel of these is more than ten thousand dollars".
He added: "A huge amount of raw materials whose value is about 120 thousand dollars were damaged because we were unable to provide the appropriate temperature because of the power outages for long times; in addition; we haven't been able to reach the factory for 51 days."
“And because the company stopped working, the shortage in medicines, which the Strip already suffers from due to the Israeli blockade, will increase”, according to al-Astal.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health declared last Thursday that 27% of the essential medicines are not available any more in the Strip, and about 48% of the basic medical consumables ran out.
Yousuf Abu Al-Reish, the Palestinian Ministry of Health undersecretary, said in an earlier press conference held by the Ministry in Gaza that the hospitals in the Strip suffer a severe shortage in the essential drugs and medical consumables.
Disapprovingly, al-Astal looks at the medicine bottles and the damaged raw materials and the remains of Israeli artillery shells that hit his factory, and tells Anadolu Turkish news Agency: "Israel purposely ignores the international conventions, and targets everything in Gaza, even a drug factory and the hospitals”.
And according to al-Astal, the owner of the Middle East Company for Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics Industry, the Israeli tanks targeted, for many days during the 51-day war on Gaza, the drugs company, which meets 15% of Gaza needs where about 1.8 million Palestinians reside.
He continued: "two days before the war, we brought an 80-thousand-dollar shipment of supplies and raw materials, but couldn't get it inside the stores due to the outbreak of the war. The missiles hit the shipment and it was completely destroyed”.
He added: "I couldn't come to check on the place during the war; since no one dared to enter the industrial area here, in northern Beit Hanoun, because of the intensive shelling.
Al-Astal estimates the loss value of his factory to be a million dollars, noting that 50 employees will become unemployed as a result of destroying his factory.
He clarifies that the “Intensity of the Zionist shelling on the factory and the area around it caused a failure in the electronic panels responsible for programming the drugs manufacturing machines; the price of one panel of these is more than ten thousand dollars".
He added: "A huge amount of raw materials whose value is about 120 thousand dollars were damaged because we were unable to provide the appropriate temperature because of the power outages for long times; in addition; we haven't been able to reach the factory for 51 days."
“And because the company stopped working, the shortage in medicines, which the Strip already suffers from due to the Israeli blockade, will increase”, according to al-Astal.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health declared last Thursday that 27% of the essential medicines are not available any more in the Strip, and about 48% of the basic medical consumables ran out.
Yousuf Abu Al-Reish, the Palestinian Ministry of Health undersecretary, said in an earlier press conference held by the Ministry in Gaza that the hospitals in the Strip suffer a severe shortage in the essential drugs and medical consumables.
9 sept 2014
After 50 days of Israeli attacks on a basically defenseless civilian population in Gaza, the pro-Israeli media is now trying to blame the victims for the devastation. Worse, Israel’s supporters are running scurrilous ads that malign Hamas, even comparing it to ISIS. The editors and publishers of such media must urgently be confronted with demands that their outlets reflect the facts rather than the attacks on Palestnian resistance and the pro-Israeli re-writing of history.
Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza illustrated Israel’s use of its Dagan Plan, using Israeli civilian deaths as an excuse to cause massive Palestinian casualties and its Dahiya Doctrine, causing such extensive destruction that it would take decades to recover, thus weakening the government.
Israel not only targeted civilians (Washington Blog) (almost 2200 were murdered, with 11,000 injured) but also targeted the civilian infrastructure such as UN facilities, schools, hospitals, clinics, ambulances and medics, virtually every mosque, and the only power plant, which provided potable water. Hundreds of thousands were left homeless; entire families were wiped out; entire neighborhoods were razed to the ground. Gaza has been left with little food, no potable water, a lack of critical medical supplies, electricity, or even material to rebuild with.
According to recent media accounts, Hamas was responsible for the devastation of Gaza: Hamas not only supposedly kidnapped and murdered the three settler students on June 12th, they also initiated the attacks on Israel, forcing Israel to “defend itself” by obliterating Gaza’s infrastructure and devastating their population. Hamas, according to such accounts, refused legitimate ceasefire deals and even broke the temporary ceasefires. Israel appears to be the victim of fiendishly clever Hamas which forced Israel to commit genocide (Cohn) — causing it very bad press — all for no good reason.
Most media coverage omits the important background to the situation in Gaza:
Ÿ Hamas won the 2006 election held throughout the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip because of its reputation for integrity, its concern for social welfare, and its insistence that Israel acknowledge Palestinian rights under international law;
Ÿ Gaza is under Israeli military occupation: Israel’s total control of Gaza’s land, sea and air access has turned it into the world’s largest open-air prison. Since those under occupation are legally allowed to fight for their freedom, Palestinians have the legal right to bear arms;
Ÿ Instead of acknowledging any Palestinian rights, Israel called Hamas “terrorist” and has arrested both legislators and members by virtue of their membership; Israel even stole Hamas tax moneys;
Ÿ Israel imposed an illegal humanitarian siege on Gaza in 2006, tightening it in September 2007 to the extent that food, medical supplies, building supplies, school supplies, even soap and detergent have been banned; the restrictions, which cause permanent stunting of children and poor health throughout Gaza (Gilbert), have been compared to the notorious Warsaw Ghetto. This siege has been censored or minimized in our media. Gazans supported the Hamas attempt to force Israel to lift this siege, claiming that they would rather die than return to those conditions (Sourani)
Ÿ On June 2, the “unity government” of Fatah and Hamas was sworn in, and much to Israel’s chagrin, with official American support; Israel no longer had an excuse to refuse negotiations.
Israel responded to alleged Hamas actions by attacking Gaza
Three settler students leaving Hebron were kidnapped and killed the night of June 12th. One student called the emergency police hotline to report that he was being kidnapped; the message was followed by shots, groans and almost two minutes of silence. Despite an exchange of 54 early-morning phone calls from a parent, a “search” was not started until the next day. Media was then informed that the students had been killed, but the government put a gag order on the story that lasted until the bodies were found on June 30th. [Tarachansky] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of the crime; local Hamas members were named as suspects. Despite Hamas’ denials, “retaliatory” air strikes on Gaza started on June 14th*, along with a “search” that started what would be a two-month rampage of arrests, beatings, killing and destruction throughout the West Bank, whipping up a frenzy of anti-Arab hatred. The Israeli government produced no hard evidence for its accusations.
It was only after Israel killed a senior Hamas official on June 30, that Hamas responded with its first rockets since 2012. (Tarachansky) Former UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk claims that “there’s no legal, political or moral argument that would uphold the claim that Israel is acting in legitimate self-defense.” (Klipperstein)
While Israel had no legal right to attack Gaza, the responsibility for the deaths of the students is murkier.
The Hamas leadership had nothing to gain and everything to lose from kidnapping Israeli students and they issued an official denial the day after Netanyahu’s accusation. Despite the admission of exiled Hamas leader Salah al-Arouri that al-Qassam Brigades was responsible for the abductions, the general consensus is that the Hamas leadership was unaware of it and not responsible for it. (Cameron, Crowcroft, Ginsburg)
On August 5th Hussam Kawasme, a member of Hamas from Hebron, admitted his responsibility and implicated other family members and acquaintances. The Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal appeared to acknowledge the results of the Israeli investigations but implied that the students were legitimate targets because they were aggressors, living illegally on stolen Palestinian land. [Isakoff] The Kawasme admissions were treated with some skepticism in initial Israeli articles, presumably because they could have been the result of torture.
Circumstantial evidence points to Israel
The Israeli motive for an event that would destroy the new “unity” government was evident, particularly because of its American support. Mideast experts such as Noam Chomsky, Henry Siegman and Michel Chossudovsky have also noted other motives: the annexation of Gaza and the ultimate control of Gaza’s offshore gas (which Israel is meanwhile benefiting from).
The police emergency hotline response to the dramatic phone call for help was extraordinarily apathetic, as was the 8-9 hour delay before starting a search (Harel), which allowed the culprits generous time to cover their tracks. Israeli articles noted that Netanyahu offered no evidence whatsoever when he accused Hamas of the abduction (Tarachansky), and there seemed to be little interest in forensic investigation. Those who found the bodies in the remote hills were unidentified. Netanyahu’s use of this event to wreck havoc on both Gaza and the West Bank (and claim one thousand acres of land near Bethlehem) arouses suspicions of Israeli involvement.
An important article by Avi Issacharoff points out the complexity of the operation and, implicitly, the likelihood that it could have been at least monitored by Shin Bet; the chief of Shin Bet had been seen in the Hebron area the week before the abductions. (Issacharoff) A week before the students’ abduction, Chief of the Mossad Tamir Pardo had wondered at the reaction if three students disappeared. (Chossudovsky) An extremist Salafi organization known as Dawlat al-Islam linked to ISIS claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of the three Israelis on August 13th; such a link could connect the act with the Israeli military, which has known links to ISIS. (Chossudovsky)
Conclusion and urgent call to action:
There is an urgent need to confront the media before the new blame the victim accounts and the maligning of Hamas and the legitimacy of Palestinian resistance are entrenched in the public understanding.
Media accounts must hold Israel fully accountable for the devastation of Gaza and for the lethal, ongoing siege. Those who care about the situation facing Palestinians must take it upon themselves to challenge those responsible for the media accounts that blame the victims. Our own futures depend on it.
* (Israel had been attacking Gaza with ongoing air strikes using other rationales. Gaza militias sometimes fired homemade rockets to protest their incarceration and the siege, which Israel would use as a rationale to mount ongoing air strikes on Gaza. Hamas does not control everything in Gaza.)
Notes:
Cameron, Dell. Israeli police official refutes claim that Hamas kidnapped Israeli teens. The Daily Dot. July 25, 2014. Accessed Sept. 3, 2014
Chossudovsky,Michel.“Justified Vengeance”, The Pretext for Bombing Gaza: Was the Netanyahu Government behind the Killings of the Three Israeli Teenagers?. Global Research. July 13, 2014. Accessed September 3, 2014
Cohn, Marjorie. US Leaders Aid and Abet Israeli War Crimes, Genocide & Crimes against Humanity. Jurist. August 8, 2014.
Crowcroft, Orlando. Hamas official: we were behind the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers. The Guardian. August 21, 2014. accessed Sept. 3, 2014
Klipperstein, Ken. An Interview with Richard Falk on the Crisis in Gaza. Counterpunch. August 13, 2014. accessed Sept. 4, 2014
Gilbert, Mads. Brief report to UNRWA: The Gaza Health Sector as of June 2014. Accessed PDF
Ginsburg, Mitch. Alleged mastermind of 3 teens’ killing indicted. Times of Israel. September 4. Accessed on Sept. 4, 2014
Harel, Amos. Tapes reveal pleas of kidnapped boy’s father met with call center apathy. Ha’aretz. July 2., 2014. accessed July 2, 2014
Isikoff, Michael. Mashaal admits Hamas members killed Israeli teens. The Times of Israel. August 22 2014. accessed Sept. 1, 2014
Issacharoff, Avi. How did the Shin Bet fail to spot the Hebron kidnap cell in time?. The Times of Israel. July 7, 2014. accessed Sept 3, 2014
Ratner, Michael. The Dahiya Doctrine: Evidence of Israel’s Intentional Mass Slaughter in Gaza. The Real News. August 24, 2014. accessed Sept. 3, 2014
Sourani, Raji. Violence has gone on too long – we have lost all hope. The Independent. July 11, 2014; accessed Sept. 1, 2014
Tarachansky, Lia. Israeli Government and Press Knew Teenagers Were Dead for Weeks. The Real News Network (TRNN). July 1, 2014. Accessed on July 1, 2014:
Washington’s Blog. 150 + International Legal Experts: Israel Has Committed War Crimes. Global Research. August 9, 2014. accessed Sept. 3, 2014
Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza illustrated Israel’s use of its Dagan Plan, using Israeli civilian deaths as an excuse to cause massive Palestinian casualties and its Dahiya Doctrine, causing such extensive destruction that it would take decades to recover, thus weakening the government.
Israel not only targeted civilians (Washington Blog) (almost 2200 were murdered, with 11,000 injured) but also targeted the civilian infrastructure such as UN facilities, schools, hospitals, clinics, ambulances and medics, virtually every mosque, and the only power plant, which provided potable water. Hundreds of thousands were left homeless; entire families were wiped out; entire neighborhoods were razed to the ground. Gaza has been left with little food, no potable water, a lack of critical medical supplies, electricity, or even material to rebuild with.
According to recent media accounts, Hamas was responsible for the devastation of Gaza: Hamas not only supposedly kidnapped and murdered the three settler students on June 12th, they also initiated the attacks on Israel, forcing Israel to “defend itself” by obliterating Gaza’s infrastructure and devastating their population. Hamas, according to such accounts, refused legitimate ceasefire deals and even broke the temporary ceasefires. Israel appears to be the victim of fiendishly clever Hamas which forced Israel to commit genocide (Cohn) — causing it very bad press — all for no good reason.
Most media coverage omits the important background to the situation in Gaza:
Ÿ Hamas won the 2006 election held throughout the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip because of its reputation for integrity, its concern for social welfare, and its insistence that Israel acknowledge Palestinian rights under international law;
Ÿ Gaza is under Israeli military occupation: Israel’s total control of Gaza’s land, sea and air access has turned it into the world’s largest open-air prison. Since those under occupation are legally allowed to fight for their freedom, Palestinians have the legal right to bear arms;
Ÿ Instead of acknowledging any Palestinian rights, Israel called Hamas “terrorist” and has arrested both legislators and members by virtue of their membership; Israel even stole Hamas tax moneys;
Ÿ Israel imposed an illegal humanitarian siege on Gaza in 2006, tightening it in September 2007 to the extent that food, medical supplies, building supplies, school supplies, even soap and detergent have been banned; the restrictions, which cause permanent stunting of children and poor health throughout Gaza (Gilbert), have been compared to the notorious Warsaw Ghetto. This siege has been censored or minimized in our media. Gazans supported the Hamas attempt to force Israel to lift this siege, claiming that they would rather die than return to those conditions (Sourani)
Ÿ On June 2, the “unity government” of Fatah and Hamas was sworn in, and much to Israel’s chagrin, with official American support; Israel no longer had an excuse to refuse negotiations.
Israel responded to alleged Hamas actions by attacking Gaza
Three settler students leaving Hebron were kidnapped and killed the night of June 12th. One student called the emergency police hotline to report that he was being kidnapped; the message was followed by shots, groans and almost two minutes of silence. Despite an exchange of 54 early-morning phone calls from a parent, a “search” was not started until the next day. Media was then informed that the students had been killed, but the government put a gag order on the story that lasted until the bodies were found on June 30th. [Tarachansky] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of the crime; local Hamas members were named as suspects. Despite Hamas’ denials, “retaliatory” air strikes on Gaza started on June 14th*, along with a “search” that started what would be a two-month rampage of arrests, beatings, killing and destruction throughout the West Bank, whipping up a frenzy of anti-Arab hatred. The Israeli government produced no hard evidence for its accusations.
It was only after Israel killed a senior Hamas official on June 30, that Hamas responded with its first rockets since 2012. (Tarachansky) Former UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk claims that “there’s no legal, political or moral argument that would uphold the claim that Israel is acting in legitimate self-defense.” (Klipperstein)
While Israel had no legal right to attack Gaza, the responsibility for the deaths of the students is murkier.
The Hamas leadership had nothing to gain and everything to lose from kidnapping Israeli students and they issued an official denial the day after Netanyahu’s accusation. Despite the admission of exiled Hamas leader Salah al-Arouri that al-Qassam Brigades was responsible for the abductions, the general consensus is that the Hamas leadership was unaware of it and not responsible for it. (Cameron, Crowcroft, Ginsburg)
On August 5th Hussam Kawasme, a member of Hamas from Hebron, admitted his responsibility and implicated other family members and acquaintances. The Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal appeared to acknowledge the results of the Israeli investigations but implied that the students were legitimate targets because they were aggressors, living illegally on stolen Palestinian land. [Isakoff] The Kawasme admissions were treated with some skepticism in initial Israeli articles, presumably because they could have been the result of torture.
Circumstantial evidence points to Israel
The Israeli motive for an event that would destroy the new “unity” government was evident, particularly because of its American support. Mideast experts such as Noam Chomsky, Henry Siegman and Michel Chossudovsky have also noted other motives: the annexation of Gaza and the ultimate control of Gaza’s offshore gas (which Israel is meanwhile benefiting from).
The police emergency hotline response to the dramatic phone call for help was extraordinarily apathetic, as was the 8-9 hour delay before starting a search (Harel), which allowed the culprits generous time to cover their tracks. Israeli articles noted that Netanyahu offered no evidence whatsoever when he accused Hamas of the abduction (Tarachansky), and there seemed to be little interest in forensic investigation. Those who found the bodies in the remote hills were unidentified. Netanyahu’s use of this event to wreck havoc on both Gaza and the West Bank (and claim one thousand acres of land near Bethlehem) arouses suspicions of Israeli involvement.
An important article by Avi Issacharoff points out the complexity of the operation and, implicitly, the likelihood that it could have been at least monitored by Shin Bet; the chief of Shin Bet had been seen in the Hebron area the week before the abductions. (Issacharoff) A week before the students’ abduction, Chief of the Mossad Tamir Pardo had wondered at the reaction if three students disappeared. (Chossudovsky) An extremist Salafi organization known as Dawlat al-Islam linked to ISIS claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of the three Israelis on August 13th; such a link could connect the act with the Israeli military, which has known links to ISIS. (Chossudovsky)
Conclusion and urgent call to action:
There is an urgent need to confront the media before the new blame the victim accounts and the maligning of Hamas and the legitimacy of Palestinian resistance are entrenched in the public understanding.
Media accounts must hold Israel fully accountable for the devastation of Gaza and for the lethal, ongoing siege. Those who care about the situation facing Palestinians must take it upon themselves to challenge those responsible for the media accounts that blame the victims. Our own futures depend on it.
* (Israel had been attacking Gaza with ongoing air strikes using other rationales. Gaza militias sometimes fired homemade rockets to protest their incarceration and the siege, which Israel would use as a rationale to mount ongoing air strikes on Gaza. Hamas does not control everything in Gaza.)
Notes:
Cameron, Dell. Israeli police official refutes claim that Hamas kidnapped Israeli teens. The Daily Dot. July 25, 2014. Accessed Sept. 3, 2014
Chossudovsky,Michel.“Justified Vengeance”, The Pretext for Bombing Gaza: Was the Netanyahu Government behind the Killings of the Three Israeli Teenagers?. Global Research. July 13, 2014. Accessed September 3, 2014
Cohn, Marjorie. US Leaders Aid and Abet Israeli War Crimes, Genocide & Crimes against Humanity. Jurist. August 8, 2014.
Crowcroft, Orlando. Hamas official: we were behind the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers. The Guardian. August 21, 2014. accessed Sept. 3, 2014
Klipperstein, Ken. An Interview with Richard Falk on the Crisis in Gaza. Counterpunch. August 13, 2014. accessed Sept. 4, 2014
Gilbert, Mads. Brief report to UNRWA: The Gaza Health Sector as of June 2014. Accessed PDF
Ginsburg, Mitch. Alleged mastermind of 3 teens’ killing indicted. Times of Israel. September 4. Accessed on Sept. 4, 2014
Harel, Amos. Tapes reveal pleas of kidnapped boy’s father met with call center apathy. Ha’aretz. July 2., 2014. accessed July 2, 2014
Isikoff, Michael. Mashaal admits Hamas members killed Israeli teens. The Times of Israel. August 22 2014. accessed Sept. 1, 2014
Issacharoff, Avi. How did the Shin Bet fail to spot the Hebron kidnap cell in time?. The Times of Israel. July 7, 2014. accessed Sept 3, 2014
Ratner, Michael. The Dahiya Doctrine: Evidence of Israel’s Intentional Mass Slaughter in Gaza. The Real News. August 24, 2014. accessed Sept. 3, 2014
Sourani, Raji. Violence has gone on too long – we have lost all hope. The Independent. July 11, 2014; accessed Sept. 1, 2014
Tarachansky, Lia. Israeli Government and Press Knew Teenagers Were Dead for Weeks. The Real News Network (TRNN). July 1, 2014. Accessed on July 1, 2014:
Washington’s Blog. 150 + International Legal Experts: Israel Has Committed War Crimes. Global Research. August 9, 2014. accessed Sept. 3, 2014
Refugees sleep on the pavement outside a UN school, during Israel's devastating 2014 assault on the Gaza Strip
Chief of the UNICEF field office in Gaza, Pernille Ironside, in a statement said, “UNICEF and its partners will be playing a full part in the longer-term reconstruction of schools and the rest of the education infrastructure in Gaza, stressing that, “that would require donors to step forward with the necessary funds.”
The statement stressed that UNICEF’s Back to School campaign is budgeted at just over $16 million until the end of 2014.
“Children have suffered appalling losses as a result of the conflict,” said Pernille Ironside, Chief UNICEF Gaza Field Office. “That’s why it’s so vital that we get as many children as possible back into school immediately, so the healing process can begin in that more familiar environment,” said the statement.
UNICEF is playing a key role in urgent preparations underway in Gaza ahead of the start of a new academic year on Sunday (September 14th).
The resumption of classes in 395 government-run schools across the territory was delayed as a result of the brutal 50-day conflict with Israel that ended in a ceasefire on August 26th.
Over the coming week, UNICEF’s team on the ground will be focusing on four key areas:
· Coordination to ensure that children displaced by the fighting, or whose schools suffered heavy damage, are able to join a school in their neighborhood;
· Carrying out immediate repairs and cleaning on schools that were used to shelter families displaced by the violence;
· Planning and organization of a week of special recreational sessions for all schools, designed to allow trained staff to identify children who have been more seriously traumatized by the conflict -- and then refer them for specialized support;
· Procurement and provision of school bags, school stationery and teaching aids; and school uniforms and shoes to assist priority families who are vulnerable.
For some children, the return to class will not be easy.
“I am very sad to go back to school and check on my friends,” said 17-year old Hanadi, who is now living with her family in a school shelter in Gaza city. I do not know if they are missing or still alive. I am very sad and I don’t know how I will go back to school. I am not in a studying state of mind. ”
Others, like 16 year-old Sami, said getting back to school was a sign that some kind of normality was returning.
“For me, school is my second home.… It feels good to be back, ” said Sami.
To be noted, at least 501 children were killed in Gaza during the conflict, and over 3,374 were injured.
According to the Ministry of Education, 26 government schools were completely destroyed, and at least 207 others (including 75 run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA) suffered varying degrees of damage.
Chief of the UNICEF field office in Gaza, Pernille Ironside, in a statement said, “UNICEF and its partners will be playing a full part in the longer-term reconstruction of schools and the rest of the education infrastructure in Gaza, stressing that, “that would require donors to step forward with the necessary funds.”
The statement stressed that UNICEF’s Back to School campaign is budgeted at just over $16 million until the end of 2014.
“Children have suffered appalling losses as a result of the conflict,” said Pernille Ironside, Chief UNICEF Gaza Field Office. “That’s why it’s so vital that we get as many children as possible back into school immediately, so the healing process can begin in that more familiar environment,” said the statement.
UNICEF is playing a key role in urgent preparations underway in Gaza ahead of the start of a new academic year on Sunday (September 14th).
The resumption of classes in 395 government-run schools across the territory was delayed as a result of the brutal 50-day conflict with Israel that ended in a ceasefire on August 26th.
Over the coming week, UNICEF’s team on the ground will be focusing on four key areas:
· Coordination to ensure that children displaced by the fighting, or whose schools suffered heavy damage, are able to join a school in their neighborhood;
· Carrying out immediate repairs and cleaning on schools that were used to shelter families displaced by the violence;
· Planning and organization of a week of special recreational sessions for all schools, designed to allow trained staff to identify children who have been more seriously traumatized by the conflict -- and then refer them for specialized support;
· Procurement and provision of school bags, school stationery and teaching aids; and school uniforms and shoes to assist priority families who are vulnerable.
For some children, the return to class will not be easy.
“I am very sad to go back to school and check on my friends,” said 17-year old Hanadi, who is now living with her family in a school shelter in Gaza city. I do not know if they are missing or still alive. I am very sad and I don’t know how I will go back to school. I am not in a studying state of mind. ”
Others, like 16 year-old Sami, said getting back to school was a sign that some kind of normality was returning.
“For me, school is my second home.… It feels good to be back, ” said Sami.
To be noted, at least 501 children were killed in Gaza during the conflict, and over 3,374 were injured.
According to the Ministry of Education, 26 government schools were completely destroyed, and at least 207 others (including 75 run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA) suffered varying degrees of damage.
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A report released on Monday by the Daily Beast newspaper said the Israeli army had executed six resistance fighters from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad inside a bathroom of a house during the last war on the Gaza Strip. "While official investigations are stalled, the Daily Beast reveals important new details about the apparent summary execution of Palestinian combatants," the American newspaper stated on its website.
The Daily Beast said it had reported evidence more than one month ago accusing Israeli soldiers of carrying out a summary execution of six men from Islamic Jihad amid fierce combat in late July in Khuza'a town to the southeast of Gaza, but there was no sign that the Israeli government started afterwards to investigate the matter. |
It noted that Israel had refused to respond to repeated international appeals for launching inquiries into the incidence of reported war crimes in Gaza.
"The independent organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which the Israeli authorities have barred from Gaza, are unable to follow up in detail. And a United Nations investigation of abuses on both sides is barely underway," the US newspaper said.
However, the newspaper made efforts to investigate the incident and one of its reporters was able to make contacts with an eyewitness from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad who confirmed that the six men who had been found massacred inside the house bathroom were a commando group of his comrades and not civilians as some international media reports had said.
According to its investigations, the slain Islamic Jihad fighters were trying to ambush Israeli soldiers in Khuza'a when they themselves were caught, captured, herded into a bathroom inside an abandoned house and gunned down in an incident that, if confirmed, would be a war crime.
Did Israel Execute Jihadists in Gaza?
While official investigations are stalled, The Daily Beast reveals important new details about the apparent summary execution of Palestinian combatants.
More than a month after The Daily Beast reported evidence suggesting Israeli soldiers carried out the summary execution of six men amid fierce combat in late July, there are no signs that the Israeli government is investigating the matter. It has declined to respond to repeated inquiries. The independent organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which the Israeli authorities have barred from Gaza, are unable to follow up in detail. And a United Nations investigation of abuses on both sides is barely under way.
The Daily Beast has continued its own investigation, however. And the picture that’s emerging tends to confirm the story of a summary execution, on the one hand, while undermining subsequent reports by some in the international press who suggest the dead men, left to rot in the bathroom of a battered house, were merely innocent bystanders. Instead, they appear to have been hardened guerrilla fighters from Islamic Jihad who were trying to ambush Israeli soldiers when they themselves were caught, captured, herded into an abandoned bathroom and gunned down in an incident that, if confirmed, would be a war crime.
After repeated efforts, I was finally able to make contact with a member of Islamic Jihad who said he fought in the battle of Khuzaa and who presented a detailed picture of what happened from his organization’s perspective.
As we sipped Arabic coffee in a Gaza City hotel, the well-coiffed and slightly awkward man in his late twenties, who chose to call himself Abu Muhammad, talked about 23 ferocious days of combat, and about the last radio communication he heard with the six fighters before they were captured and killed.
From July 16 to August 8, Abu Muhammad said, he and the others were hidden below Khuzaa in a series of tunnels that he says are connected to other underground passages linking Gaza from north to south. He maintains that Israel, which made these a prime target, only managed to destroy a fraction of them during the war.
Abu Muhammad, occasionally staring off into the distance and clearly shaken, said he and the others had arrived in Khuzaa, which is right on the Gaza-Israel border, by tunnel days before Israel began its ground assault.
In the beginning, fighters from Islamic Jihad joined with the Al Qassam Brigades of Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees in a furious tit-for-tat mortar and rocket exchange with Israeli forces lining the border.
However, as the ground invasion neared, according to Abu Muhammad, an intense Israeli campaign that included bombing from F-16s and intense artillery fire killed many fighters. Civilians began fleeing as shelling intensified, but real panic came when Israel moved in its tanks, and the civilian exodus began in earnest.
During this phase of the fighting, the Palestinian resistance in the town hunkered down and waited as the Israeli shelling and aerial bombardment laid waste to one building after another in order to clear a path for tanks and jeeps. From the tunnels, the fighters could hear above them Israeli troops carving out the buffer zone that would eat up about 44 percent of Gaza’s territory and leave much of that area reduced to rubble.
“After we had been in the tunnels about a week, with the Israelis firing mortars, they drove in with the tanks,” said Abu Muhammad, who apologized about his uncertain grasp on specific dates. He’d lost track of the days after so much time underground, he said, but he remembered, “There were around 60 tanks.”
Only when Israel had positioned its forces around Khuzaa did the armed Palestinian groups begin their counterattack, according to Abu Muhammad. “First we targeted the tanks and the jeeps with IEDs,” he said mechanically, as if recalling a combat briefing. In the second stage of their effort to bog down and then repel Israeli forces, the three guerrilla factions launched a multi-pronged hit-and-run campaign from all directions.
“Some of our people would come out of the ground, attack the soldiers and then disappear back into a tunnel,” said the combat veteran. “Others surprised them from empty houses,” he said.
In one of those brazen attacks, says Abu Muhammad, fighters used a shoulder-fired rocket to hit a house the Israeli army had taken over, killing two of the soldiers with sniper fire as they fled the building. He is unable to give an overall estimate of Israeli or Islamic Jihad casualties in Khuzaa, but says 130 fighters from his group were killed during the war. (Israeli intelligence puts that number at 182.)
When I visited Khuzaa on four occasions during and after the war, there were clear signs of an intense battle in the ruins of the town. Incoming and outgoing machine-gun fire covered homes and apartments near positions taken by Israeli soldiers. Israeli bullet casings littered the floors of the entrances to residences that were transformed into stucco barracks.
It is amid this type of all-encompassing urban warfare that Abu Muhammad appears to have borne witness to a perplexing, and very possibly criminal, execution of prisoners.
He is unable to pinpoint the date when he says his comrades were mowed down, but he recalls in detail the events leading to their capture and the last moments of their lives, broadcast over Islamic Jihad walkie-talkies.
He stares at the table, speaking softly as he describes how six fighters emerged from the mouth of a tunnel, adjacent to the town’s destroyed mosque and water tower, intending to lead a brief surprise attack on soldiers. Except, in this instance it was the Israeli army that had the element of surprise and the guerrillas found themselves in an all-out firefight at the entrance to the tunnel.
As the Islamic Jihad unit retreated towards the house where they would die, they messaged that one of the fighters was injured and that they were running out of ammunition. They barricaded themselves in the unfinished two-story home. Abu Muhammad heard a drawn-out firefight over the radio. He contends that another Islamic Jihad member watched the events from an adjacent house.
“The wounded resistance fighter demanded to be left at the entrance of the house to fight off the army as they came in,” said Abu Muhammad.
When I was in the house, I found a used medical kit with Arabic instructions in the room next door to the bathroom where the fighters were killed.
Abu Muhammad claims that during the firefight that used up the Islamic Jihad unit’s remaining ammunition, he heard Israeli drone rockets fired into the roof of the house. However, this did not square with what I saw. It is one of the few homes in Khuzaa with no signs of shell damage.
“The Israelis first entered the house and began clashing with the injured fighter,” says Abu Muhammad, describing what he could make out from radio communications and what he says he was told by the fighter who watched from nearby. My request to speak to that fighter was denied by Islamic Jihad for “security reasons.”
When the Palestinians ran out of ammunition, the army moved in. The Israeli soldiers grabbed the fighter in the entrance, “pulled him outside and shot him in front of the house,” Abu Mohammed says. “Then they went into the house with dogs. In situations like this there is no way for these guys to fight off the dogs. I heard their screaming and begging for mercy on the radio.”
Then the line went dead. Repeating the report from the alleged eyewitness, Abu Muhammad contends that Israeli soldiers removed the fighters’ weapons and ammunition vests from the house. “After that there was a long burst of fire from an M16, and then silence.”
On my first visit to Khuzaa I found two ammunition vests around the corner from the bathroom where six bodies were piled. The decomposing corpses wore the black pants and belts that fighters wear, although some were barefoot. They were being carried out and the stench of their rotting flesh and bloated guts made it hard to examine them closely.
Bullet holes lined the tile wall behind where they lay. Israeli bullet casings filled the entrance to the house, where Abu Muhammad says the injured soldier intended to make a last stand before he ran out of ammo.
Islamic Jihad is still withholding the names of its dead fighters, and while Abu Muhammad says the families have been informed, their identities remain secret for now.
While Israeli authorities have declined to address publicly this particular incident, which could be considered a war crime, an Israeli intelligence briefer did supply some interesting statistics to The Washington Post and a few other media outlets last week.
The Israelis estimate the total number of Islamic Jihad fighters in Gaza to be roughly 5,200, while Hamas numbers about 16,000. (That is among a civilian population of roughly 1.8 million, half of whom are children and teenagers.) The 50-day Gaza War this year, which was sparked by a widespread campaign of Israeli arrest raids in the West Bank that was met with Islamic Jihad and Hamas rockets, and which terminated in an uneasy ceasefire, cost the lives of six Israeli civilians and 64 Israeli soldiers.
The Palestinian death count, even by the conservative Israeli estimate, was 2,127. Israeli intelligence claims 341 were from Hamas, 182 from Islamic Jihad and 93 from smaller factions, while 706 unquestionably were civilians, presumably including most or all of the 253 women and 495 children known dead. Israeli intelligence, which The Washington Post notes is anxious to reduce the stunning civilian body count, says the intelligence briefer claimed the status of 805 of the dead remained “unknown.”
The fog of Israel’s 50-Day war in Gaza has only just begun to clear and while there is still much mystery shrouding the battle for Khuzaa, the more the record of those events takes shape, the more grim it appears.
"The independent organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which the Israeli authorities have barred from Gaza, are unable to follow up in detail. And a United Nations investigation of abuses on both sides is barely underway," the US newspaper said.
However, the newspaper made efforts to investigate the incident and one of its reporters was able to make contacts with an eyewitness from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad who confirmed that the six men who had been found massacred inside the house bathroom were a commando group of his comrades and not civilians as some international media reports had said.
According to its investigations, the slain Islamic Jihad fighters were trying to ambush Israeli soldiers in Khuza'a when they themselves were caught, captured, herded into a bathroom inside an abandoned house and gunned down in an incident that, if confirmed, would be a war crime.
Did Israel Execute Jihadists in Gaza?
While official investigations are stalled, The Daily Beast reveals important new details about the apparent summary execution of Palestinian combatants.
More than a month after The Daily Beast reported evidence suggesting Israeli soldiers carried out the summary execution of six men amid fierce combat in late July, there are no signs that the Israeli government is investigating the matter. It has declined to respond to repeated inquiries. The independent organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which the Israeli authorities have barred from Gaza, are unable to follow up in detail. And a United Nations investigation of abuses on both sides is barely under way.
The Daily Beast has continued its own investigation, however. And the picture that’s emerging tends to confirm the story of a summary execution, on the one hand, while undermining subsequent reports by some in the international press who suggest the dead men, left to rot in the bathroom of a battered house, were merely innocent bystanders. Instead, they appear to have been hardened guerrilla fighters from Islamic Jihad who were trying to ambush Israeli soldiers when they themselves were caught, captured, herded into an abandoned bathroom and gunned down in an incident that, if confirmed, would be a war crime.
After repeated efforts, I was finally able to make contact with a member of Islamic Jihad who said he fought in the battle of Khuzaa and who presented a detailed picture of what happened from his organization’s perspective.
As we sipped Arabic coffee in a Gaza City hotel, the well-coiffed and slightly awkward man in his late twenties, who chose to call himself Abu Muhammad, talked about 23 ferocious days of combat, and about the last radio communication he heard with the six fighters before they were captured and killed.
From July 16 to August 8, Abu Muhammad said, he and the others were hidden below Khuzaa in a series of tunnels that he says are connected to other underground passages linking Gaza from north to south. He maintains that Israel, which made these a prime target, only managed to destroy a fraction of them during the war.
Abu Muhammad, occasionally staring off into the distance and clearly shaken, said he and the others had arrived in Khuzaa, which is right on the Gaza-Israel border, by tunnel days before Israel began its ground assault.
In the beginning, fighters from Islamic Jihad joined with the Al Qassam Brigades of Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees in a furious tit-for-tat mortar and rocket exchange with Israeli forces lining the border.
However, as the ground invasion neared, according to Abu Muhammad, an intense Israeli campaign that included bombing from F-16s and intense artillery fire killed many fighters. Civilians began fleeing as shelling intensified, but real panic came when Israel moved in its tanks, and the civilian exodus began in earnest.
During this phase of the fighting, the Palestinian resistance in the town hunkered down and waited as the Israeli shelling and aerial bombardment laid waste to one building after another in order to clear a path for tanks and jeeps. From the tunnels, the fighters could hear above them Israeli troops carving out the buffer zone that would eat up about 44 percent of Gaza’s territory and leave much of that area reduced to rubble.
“After we had been in the tunnels about a week, with the Israelis firing mortars, they drove in with the tanks,” said Abu Muhammad, who apologized about his uncertain grasp on specific dates. He’d lost track of the days after so much time underground, he said, but he remembered, “There were around 60 tanks.”
Only when Israel had positioned its forces around Khuzaa did the armed Palestinian groups begin their counterattack, according to Abu Muhammad. “First we targeted the tanks and the jeeps with IEDs,” he said mechanically, as if recalling a combat briefing. In the second stage of their effort to bog down and then repel Israeli forces, the three guerrilla factions launched a multi-pronged hit-and-run campaign from all directions.
“Some of our people would come out of the ground, attack the soldiers and then disappear back into a tunnel,” said the combat veteran. “Others surprised them from empty houses,” he said.
In one of those brazen attacks, says Abu Muhammad, fighters used a shoulder-fired rocket to hit a house the Israeli army had taken over, killing two of the soldiers with sniper fire as they fled the building. He is unable to give an overall estimate of Israeli or Islamic Jihad casualties in Khuzaa, but says 130 fighters from his group were killed during the war. (Israeli intelligence puts that number at 182.)
When I visited Khuzaa on four occasions during and after the war, there were clear signs of an intense battle in the ruins of the town. Incoming and outgoing machine-gun fire covered homes and apartments near positions taken by Israeli soldiers. Israeli bullet casings littered the floors of the entrances to residences that were transformed into stucco barracks.
It is amid this type of all-encompassing urban warfare that Abu Muhammad appears to have borne witness to a perplexing, and very possibly criminal, execution of prisoners.
He is unable to pinpoint the date when he says his comrades were mowed down, but he recalls in detail the events leading to their capture and the last moments of their lives, broadcast over Islamic Jihad walkie-talkies.
He stares at the table, speaking softly as he describes how six fighters emerged from the mouth of a tunnel, adjacent to the town’s destroyed mosque and water tower, intending to lead a brief surprise attack on soldiers. Except, in this instance it was the Israeli army that had the element of surprise and the guerrillas found themselves in an all-out firefight at the entrance to the tunnel.
As the Islamic Jihad unit retreated towards the house where they would die, they messaged that one of the fighters was injured and that they were running out of ammunition. They barricaded themselves in the unfinished two-story home. Abu Muhammad heard a drawn-out firefight over the radio. He contends that another Islamic Jihad member watched the events from an adjacent house.
“The wounded resistance fighter demanded to be left at the entrance of the house to fight off the army as they came in,” said Abu Muhammad.
When I was in the house, I found a used medical kit with Arabic instructions in the room next door to the bathroom where the fighters were killed.
Abu Muhammad claims that during the firefight that used up the Islamic Jihad unit’s remaining ammunition, he heard Israeli drone rockets fired into the roof of the house. However, this did not square with what I saw. It is one of the few homes in Khuzaa with no signs of shell damage.
“The Israelis first entered the house and began clashing with the injured fighter,” says Abu Muhammad, describing what he could make out from radio communications and what he says he was told by the fighter who watched from nearby. My request to speak to that fighter was denied by Islamic Jihad for “security reasons.”
When the Palestinians ran out of ammunition, the army moved in. The Israeli soldiers grabbed the fighter in the entrance, “pulled him outside and shot him in front of the house,” Abu Mohammed says. “Then they went into the house with dogs. In situations like this there is no way for these guys to fight off the dogs. I heard their screaming and begging for mercy on the radio.”
Then the line went dead. Repeating the report from the alleged eyewitness, Abu Muhammad contends that Israeli soldiers removed the fighters’ weapons and ammunition vests from the house. “After that there was a long burst of fire from an M16, and then silence.”
On my first visit to Khuzaa I found two ammunition vests around the corner from the bathroom where six bodies were piled. The decomposing corpses wore the black pants and belts that fighters wear, although some were barefoot. They were being carried out and the stench of their rotting flesh and bloated guts made it hard to examine them closely.
Bullet holes lined the tile wall behind where they lay. Israeli bullet casings filled the entrance to the house, where Abu Muhammad says the injured soldier intended to make a last stand before he ran out of ammo.
Islamic Jihad is still withholding the names of its dead fighters, and while Abu Muhammad says the families have been informed, their identities remain secret for now.
While Israeli authorities have declined to address publicly this particular incident, which could be considered a war crime, an Israeli intelligence briefer did supply some interesting statistics to The Washington Post and a few other media outlets last week.
The Israelis estimate the total number of Islamic Jihad fighters in Gaza to be roughly 5,200, while Hamas numbers about 16,000. (That is among a civilian population of roughly 1.8 million, half of whom are children and teenagers.) The 50-day Gaza War this year, which was sparked by a widespread campaign of Israeli arrest raids in the West Bank that was met with Islamic Jihad and Hamas rockets, and which terminated in an uneasy ceasefire, cost the lives of six Israeli civilians and 64 Israeli soldiers.
The Palestinian death count, even by the conservative Israeli estimate, was 2,127. Israeli intelligence claims 341 were from Hamas, 182 from Islamic Jihad and 93 from smaller factions, while 706 unquestionably were civilians, presumably including most or all of the 253 women and 495 children known dead. Israeli intelligence, which The Washington Post notes is anxious to reduce the stunning civilian body count, says the intelligence briefer claimed the status of 805 of the dead remained “unknown.”
The fog of Israel’s 50-Day war in Gaza has only just begun to clear and while there is still much mystery shrouding the battle for Khuzaa, the more the record of those events takes shape, the more grim it appears.
