17 june 2019
By Asa Winstanley
A new World Heath Organization report on Gaza this month made for shocking reading.
But as usual when it comes to our hopelessly Israel-sympathetic media, there was barely a whisper about it in the “mainstream” papers.
It states that in the course of the year following the start of the Great March of Return protests in March 2018, Israeli army thugs killed 277 Palestinians, including 52 children.
Most of these were murdered in cold blood during the unarmed, massive popular protests that took place along the boundary line between Gaza and Israel. Almost without fail, the protesters have returned every week, time and again since then, to protest against Israel and its crimes.
More than that, the protests are for the Return – the non-negotiable predicate of the Palestinian liberation struggle. And they are more than merely symbolic. They are marching for a real return to their homelands.
The population of the Gaza Strip is overwhelmingly – 73 per cent – made up of refugees. That is, if you ask the young, unarmed refugee protestors risking their lives to return to their homes where they are from, they will not reply “from Gaza.”
They will tell you that they are from Jaffa, they are from al-Majdal, or they are from some other Palestinian population centre in what is now called Israel. They will tell you that, because it is their truth.
They are the refugees, and they do not and will not forget, generation after generation. And now, for the past year, they are marching as the start of their long return to Palestine.
They tell the objective historical truth: their parents and grandparents were expelled at the barrel of the gun and under the threat of the bomb, victims of what one future Israeli prime minister once called “cruel Zionism.”
The Nakba was the defining event in Palestinian history – although it has never really ended since 1948. The most infamous event of all, it involved the expulsion of around 800,000 Palestinians, the majority, from their homeland by force.
This was not some accident, or unintended consequence of war, as Zionist propaganda long held. It was a deliberate consequence of decades of Zionist agitation for the “transfer” of the indigenous population out of the country for the crime of not being Jewish.
From Theodor Herzl’s plan to “spirit the penniless population” over the border, until the current day Israeli government’s threats to annex the West Bank, Zionism has always entailed forced expulsions, war crimes, terrorism, racism and repression of the native Palestinian population.
And so we read in this new WHO report that there were nearly 7,000 gunshot wounds among Gaza’s population of two million during a single year.
As my colleague Maureen Murphy at The Electronic Intifada reported: “Many of those injured have extensive and in some cases irreversible damage to their bones, neurovascular structures and soft tissue.
Among them, hundreds face amputations if they cannot access specialized tertiary treatment for their catastrophic wounds.
Three health workers have been killed and more than 700 others injured.
Thousands of elective surgeries were postponed as a health system already in crisis took in wave after wave of emergency casualties.”
Such systemic violence and such a cruel policy of serious injury to unarmed protesters can only be deliberate. Again, it is a longstanding policy.
Recall the infamous command of Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Yitzhak Rabin for his soldiers to “break the bones” of Palestinian children protesting against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the first intifada – the popular uprising of the Palestinian people for freedom.
As well as being inherently racist, Zionism is inherently violent.
A Jewish settler-colony in a historic territory, Palestine, which is overwhelming non-Jewish can only ever be sustained by massive systemic, sustained violence.
That is the brutal reality behind the so-called “Jewish state.” A homogeneous project like Zionism in a heterogeneous, multi-religious, multi-ethnic country like Palestine is as doomed to failure in the long term as the European Crusader kingdoms were.
- Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist living in London who writes about Palestine and the Middle East. He has been visiting Palestine since 2004 and is originally from south Wales. He writes for the award-winning Palestinian news site The Electronic Intifada where he is an associate editor and also a weekly column for the Middle East Monitor where this article was published.
A new World Heath Organization report on Gaza this month made for shocking reading.
But as usual when it comes to our hopelessly Israel-sympathetic media, there was barely a whisper about it in the “mainstream” papers.
It states that in the course of the year following the start of the Great March of Return protests in March 2018, Israeli army thugs killed 277 Palestinians, including 52 children.
Most of these were murdered in cold blood during the unarmed, massive popular protests that took place along the boundary line between Gaza and Israel. Almost without fail, the protesters have returned every week, time and again since then, to protest against Israel and its crimes.
More than that, the protests are for the Return – the non-negotiable predicate of the Palestinian liberation struggle. And they are more than merely symbolic. They are marching for a real return to their homelands.
The population of the Gaza Strip is overwhelmingly – 73 per cent – made up of refugees. That is, if you ask the young, unarmed refugee protestors risking their lives to return to their homes where they are from, they will not reply “from Gaza.”
They will tell you that they are from Jaffa, they are from al-Majdal, or they are from some other Palestinian population centre in what is now called Israel. They will tell you that, because it is their truth.
They are the refugees, and they do not and will not forget, generation after generation. And now, for the past year, they are marching as the start of their long return to Palestine.
They tell the objective historical truth: their parents and grandparents were expelled at the barrel of the gun and under the threat of the bomb, victims of what one future Israeli prime minister once called “cruel Zionism.”
The Nakba was the defining event in Palestinian history – although it has never really ended since 1948. The most infamous event of all, it involved the expulsion of around 800,000 Palestinians, the majority, from their homeland by force.
This was not some accident, or unintended consequence of war, as Zionist propaganda long held. It was a deliberate consequence of decades of Zionist agitation for the “transfer” of the indigenous population out of the country for the crime of not being Jewish.
From Theodor Herzl’s plan to “spirit the penniless population” over the border, until the current day Israeli government’s threats to annex the West Bank, Zionism has always entailed forced expulsions, war crimes, terrorism, racism and repression of the native Palestinian population.
And so we read in this new WHO report that there were nearly 7,000 gunshot wounds among Gaza’s population of two million during a single year.
As my colleague Maureen Murphy at The Electronic Intifada reported: “Many of those injured have extensive and in some cases irreversible damage to their bones, neurovascular structures and soft tissue.
Among them, hundreds face amputations if they cannot access specialized tertiary treatment for their catastrophic wounds.
Three health workers have been killed and more than 700 others injured.
Thousands of elective surgeries were postponed as a health system already in crisis took in wave after wave of emergency casualties.”
Such systemic violence and such a cruel policy of serious injury to unarmed protesters can only be deliberate. Again, it is a longstanding policy.
Recall the infamous command of Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Yitzhak Rabin for his soldiers to “break the bones” of Palestinian children protesting against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the first intifada – the popular uprising of the Palestinian people for freedom.
As well as being inherently racist, Zionism is inherently violent.
A Jewish settler-colony in a historic territory, Palestine, which is overwhelming non-Jewish can only ever be sustained by massive systemic, sustained violence.
That is the brutal reality behind the so-called “Jewish state.” A homogeneous project like Zionism in a heterogeneous, multi-religious, multi-ethnic country like Palestine is as doomed to failure in the long term as the European Crusader kingdoms were.
- Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist living in London who writes about Palestine and the Middle East. He has been visiting Palestine since 2004 and is originally from south Wales. He writes for the award-winning Palestinian news site The Electronic Intifada where he is an associate editor and also a weekly column for the Middle East Monitor where this article was published.
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Jürgen Todenhöfer, German author and journalist, was in Gaza on June 14, participating in the weekly ‘Great March of Return’ demonstration, in solidarity with Palestinians, Days of Palestine reported.
Todenhöfer was videotaped holding a sign with the words, “Dear Israelis, please treat the Palestinians the same way you want to be treated!” In a show of outright disregard for human rights, an Israeli sniper shot this peaceful foreign activist with a rubber-coated steel bullet in his back. Todenhöfer wrote on his Facebook page afterward, stating “Dear friends, one cannot ‘demonstrate’ more peacefully than I tried to do today at the border fence of Gaza.” Readers are encouraged to watch the video of this peaceful protester, here. |
He then said “There is no other constitutional state in the world where you are shot at for such a conciliatory sentence. It can’t go on like this.”
Not only does he report being a few hundred meters from the border, but that the Israeli soldier shot him in the back with a rubber bullet. The question is, what type of threat was this older gentleman, a few hundred meters away from the fence, with his hands up, facing away from the soldiers?
On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, an American activist, and member of pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was killed by Caterpillar D9R armored bulldozer.
Corrie was involved in an effort to stop the demolition of homes in southern Gaza, with other international activists.
Since March of 2018, Palestinians in Gaza have been demanding Israel lift the illegal blockade it has imposed on the highly densely populated strip, and for the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their ancestral lands, occupied and colonized by Israel.
Not only does he report being a few hundred meters from the border, but that the Israeli soldier shot him in the back with a rubber bullet. The question is, what type of threat was this older gentleman, a few hundred meters away from the fence, with his hands up, facing away from the soldiers?
On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, an American activist, and member of pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was killed by Caterpillar D9R armored bulldozer.
Corrie was involved in an effort to stop the demolition of homes in southern Gaza, with other international activists.
Since March of 2018, Palestinians in Gaza have been demanding Israel lift the illegal blockade it has imposed on the highly densely populated strip, and for the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their ancestral lands, occupied and colonized by Israel.
16 june 2019
Dozens of fires break out over the weekend in Israeli communities bordering the Hamas-controlled enclave amid reports of Qatari envoy entering Gaza to deliver some $25 million in aid
The incendiary balloon terrorism from the Gaza Strip shows no signs of slowing down despite the Qatari aid being transferred to the enclave, with dozens of fires being started in the nearby Israeli communities over the weekend.
Qatari envoy to Gaza Muhammad al-Emadi was to enter the Hamas-controlled enclave sometime on Sunday to deliver $25 million in aid to the officials in the Strip, said Palestinian sources. The transfer of the funds is apparently one of the key demands put forward by the terror group in order for the quiet along the border to be maintained.
At least three fires were started on Sunday in the Eshkol and Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Councils. All the fires had been extinguished and no injuries were reported. The same two communities were subjected to incendiary balloons attacks on Friday as well with at least seven fires breaking out there.
In addition, on Thursday an explosive device attached to a balloon was found in Kibbutz Ruhama near the southern city of Sderot and a fire broke out in Simhoni Forest near Kfar Aza.
Over the course of Wednesday and Tuesday more than a dozen blazes broke out in the communities bordering Gaza as a result of incendiaries being launched into Israel by Palestinian factions in the Strip.
Last week it was reported terror groups in Gaza appear to have found a new method of launching incendiary balloons in order to ignite as many fires as possible on Israeli territory, thereby maximizing the damage.
The latest upgrade in what has become an entire arsenal of terror tools for the Palestinian factions in Gaza is to soak a slow-burning fuse in explosive liquids and attach it to an incendiary balloon. The balloon drips fireballs as it flies, creating several ignition points from just one device.
The incendiary balloon terrorism from the Gaza Strip shows no signs of slowing down despite the Qatari aid being transferred to the enclave, with dozens of fires being started in the nearby Israeli communities over the weekend.
Qatari envoy to Gaza Muhammad al-Emadi was to enter the Hamas-controlled enclave sometime on Sunday to deliver $25 million in aid to the officials in the Strip, said Palestinian sources. The transfer of the funds is apparently one of the key demands put forward by the terror group in order for the quiet along the border to be maintained.
At least three fires were started on Sunday in the Eshkol and Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Councils. All the fires had been extinguished and no injuries were reported. The same two communities were subjected to incendiary balloons attacks on Friday as well with at least seven fires breaking out there.
In addition, on Thursday an explosive device attached to a balloon was found in Kibbutz Ruhama near the southern city of Sderot and a fire broke out in Simhoni Forest near Kfar Aza.
Over the course of Wednesday and Tuesday more than a dozen blazes broke out in the communities bordering Gaza as a result of incendiaries being launched into Israel by Palestinian factions in the Strip.
Last week it was reported terror groups in Gaza appear to have found a new method of launching incendiary balloons in order to ignite as many fires as possible on Israeli territory, thereby maximizing the damage.
The latest upgrade in what has become an entire arsenal of terror tools for the Palestinian factions in Gaza is to soak a slow-burning fuse in explosive liquids and attach it to an incendiary balloon. The balloon drips fireballs as it flies, creating several ignition points from just one device.
14 june 2019
The Palestinian Center For Human Rights (PCHR): On Friday, 14 June 2019, in excessive use of force against peaceful protesters on the 61st Friday of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege, Israeli forces wounded 92 Palestinian civilians, 28 of them were children and four were paramedics, including a female paramedic, in the eastern Gaza Strip. One of the wounded was a child, who was hit with a live bullet to the chest and sustained serious wound.
According to observations by PCHR’s fieldworkers, the Israeli forces who stationed in prone positions and in military jeeps along the fence with Israel continued to use excessive force against the protesters by firing bullets and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, dozens of the protesters were hit with bullets and teargas canisters without posing any imminent threat or danger to the life of soldiers.
During this week, Israeli forces have escalated their attacks against the medical personnel in the field, wounding 4 members of them with rubber bullets and direct tear gas canisters in eastern Rafah. This indicates that there is an Israeli systematic policy to target the medical personnel and obstruct their humanitarian work that is guaranteed under the rules of the international humanitarian law.
On Friday, 14 June 2019, the incidents were as follows:
At approximately 16:30, thousands of civilians, including women, children and entire families, started swarming to the five encampments established by the Supreme National Authority of Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege adjacent to the border fence with Israel in eastern Gaza Strip cities.
Hundreds of protesters, including children and women, gathered adjacent to the border fence with Israel in front of each encampment and its vicinity tens and hundreds of meters away from the fence. The protesters chanted slogans, raised flags, and in very limited incidents attempted to approach the border fence and throw stones at the Israeli forces.
Although the protesters gathered in areas open to the Israeli snipers stationed on the top of the sand berms and military watchtowers and inside and behind the military jeeps, the Israeli forces fired live and rubber bullets in addition to a barrage of tear gas canisters. The Israeli attacks, which continued at around 19:30, resulted in the injury of 92 Palestinian civilians, 28 of them were children and four were paramedics, including a female paramedic.
sAmong those wounded, 25 were hit with live bullets and shrapnel, 52 were hit with rubber bullets and 15 were directly hit with tear gas canisters. One of the wounded was a child, who was hit with a live bullet to the chest and sustained serious wound.
In addition, dozens of civilians suffered tear gas inhalation and seizures due to tear gas canisters that were fired by the Israeli forces from the military jeeps and riffles in the eastern Gaza Strip.
table shows the number of civilian casualties due to the Israeli forces’ suppression of the Great March of Return since its beginning on 30 March:
Killed Wounded
Total 207 12707
Children 44 2532
Women 2 385
Journalists 2 203
Medical personnel 4 209
Persons with disabilities 9 Undefined
Note: Among those wounded, 548 are in serious condition and 137 had their lower or upper limbs amputated; 123 lower-limb amputations, 14 upper-limb amputations, and 25 children had their limbs amputated according to the Ministry of Health. The number of those wounded only include those wounded with live bullets and directly hit with tear gas canisters, as there have been thousand others who suffered tear gas inhalation and sustained bruises.PCHR reiterates Palestinians’ right to peaceful assembly to confront Israel and its forces’ denial of the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, right to return and right to end the occupation of the Palestinian territory.
PCHR stresses that the Israeli forces should stop using excessive force and respond to the legitimate demands of the demonstrators, particularly lifting the closure which is the real solution to end the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
PCHR reiterates the reported published in February by the UN Commission of Inquiry which emphasizes what came by PCHR and other Palestinian and international human rights organizations. The report at the time concluded that the Israeli violations may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
PCHR emphasizes that continuously targeting civilians, who exercise their right to peaceful assembly or while carrying out their humanitarian duty, is a serious violation of the rules of international law, international humanitarian law, the ICC Rome Statute and Fourth Geneva Convention.
Thus, PCHR reiterates its call upon the ICC Prosecutor to open an official investigation in these crimes and to prosecute and hold accountable all those applying or involved in issuing orders within the Israeli Forces at the security and political echelons.
PCHR also emphasizes that the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention should fulfill their obligation under Article 1; i.e., to respect and ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances and their obligations under Article 146 to prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
PCHR calls upon Switzerland, in its capacity as the Depository State for the Convention, to demand the High Contracting Parties to convene a meeting and ensure Israel’s respect for this Convention, noting that these grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and Protocol (I) Additional to the Geneva Conventions regarding the guarantee of Palestinian civilians’ right to protection in the occupied territories.
According to observations by PCHR’s fieldworkers, the Israeli forces who stationed in prone positions and in military jeeps along the fence with Israel continued to use excessive force against the protesters by firing bullets and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, dozens of the protesters were hit with bullets and teargas canisters without posing any imminent threat or danger to the life of soldiers.
During this week, Israeli forces have escalated their attacks against the medical personnel in the field, wounding 4 members of them with rubber bullets and direct tear gas canisters in eastern Rafah. This indicates that there is an Israeli systematic policy to target the medical personnel and obstruct their humanitarian work that is guaranteed under the rules of the international humanitarian law.
On Friday, 14 June 2019, the incidents were as follows:
At approximately 16:30, thousands of civilians, including women, children and entire families, started swarming to the five encampments established by the Supreme National Authority of Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege adjacent to the border fence with Israel in eastern Gaza Strip cities.
Hundreds of protesters, including children and women, gathered adjacent to the border fence with Israel in front of each encampment and its vicinity tens and hundreds of meters away from the fence. The protesters chanted slogans, raised flags, and in very limited incidents attempted to approach the border fence and throw stones at the Israeli forces.
Although the protesters gathered in areas open to the Israeli snipers stationed on the top of the sand berms and military watchtowers and inside and behind the military jeeps, the Israeli forces fired live and rubber bullets in addition to a barrage of tear gas canisters. The Israeli attacks, which continued at around 19:30, resulted in the injury of 92 Palestinian civilians, 28 of them were children and four were paramedics, including a female paramedic.
sAmong those wounded, 25 were hit with live bullets and shrapnel, 52 were hit with rubber bullets and 15 were directly hit with tear gas canisters. One of the wounded was a child, who was hit with a live bullet to the chest and sustained serious wound.
In addition, dozens of civilians suffered tear gas inhalation and seizures due to tear gas canisters that were fired by the Israeli forces from the military jeeps and riffles in the eastern Gaza Strip.
table shows the number of civilian casualties due to the Israeli forces’ suppression of the Great March of Return since its beginning on 30 March:
Killed Wounded
Total 207 12707
Children 44 2532
Women 2 385
Journalists 2 203
Medical personnel 4 209
Persons with disabilities 9 Undefined
Note: Among those wounded, 548 are in serious condition and 137 had their lower or upper limbs amputated; 123 lower-limb amputations, 14 upper-limb amputations, and 25 children had their limbs amputated according to the Ministry of Health. The number of those wounded only include those wounded with live bullets and directly hit with tear gas canisters, as there have been thousand others who suffered tear gas inhalation and sustained bruises.PCHR reiterates Palestinians’ right to peaceful assembly to confront Israel and its forces’ denial of the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, right to return and right to end the occupation of the Palestinian territory.
PCHR stresses that the Israeli forces should stop using excessive force and respond to the legitimate demands of the demonstrators, particularly lifting the closure which is the real solution to end the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
PCHR reiterates the reported published in February by the UN Commission of Inquiry which emphasizes what came by PCHR and other Palestinian and international human rights organizations. The report at the time concluded that the Israeli violations may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
PCHR emphasizes that continuously targeting civilians, who exercise their right to peaceful assembly or while carrying out their humanitarian duty, is a serious violation of the rules of international law, international humanitarian law, the ICC Rome Statute and Fourth Geneva Convention.
Thus, PCHR reiterates its call upon the ICC Prosecutor to open an official investigation in these crimes and to prosecute and hold accountable all those applying or involved in issuing orders within the Israeli Forces at the security and political echelons.
PCHR also emphasizes that the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention should fulfill their obligation under Article 1; i.e., to respect and ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances and their obligations under Article 146 to prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
PCHR calls upon Switzerland, in its capacity as the Depository State for the Convention, to demand the High Contracting Parties to convene a meeting and ensure Israel’s respect for this Convention, noting that these grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and Protocol (I) Additional to the Geneva Conventions regarding the guarantee of Palestinian civilians’ right to protection in the occupied territories.
13 june 2019
Israeli soldiers fired, on Thursday at dawn, several missiles into Palestinian lands in Gaza city, and Rafah in the southern part of the coastal region, causing damage to nearby homes and buildings.
Media sources said the Israeli missiles did not lead to casualties, but caused damage to some homes and structures near the targeted areas.
They added that the soldiers also fired two artillery shells into farmlands, east of Khan Rafah, causing damage,
Israel also ordered Gaza coastal waters shut until further notice, preventing the residents, including the fishermen, from entering Palestinian waters, “in response to flammable balloons and kites flown from Gaza into nearby Israeli area.”
The Israeli army said a shell was fired from Gaza, during late night hours Wednesday, before the Iron Dome missile interception system managed to detonate it.
Media sources said the Israeli missiles did not lead to casualties, but caused damage to some homes and structures near the targeted areas.
They added that the soldiers also fired two artillery shells into farmlands, east of Khan Rafah, causing damage,
Israel also ordered Gaza coastal waters shut until further notice, preventing the residents, including the fishermen, from entering Palestinian waters, “in response to flammable balloons and kites flown from Gaza into nearby Israeli area.”
The Israeli army said a shell was fired from Gaza, during late night hours Wednesday, before the Iron Dome missile interception system managed to detonate it.
