Local Peace Groups Condemn Israeli Attacks in Gaza
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- Written by PPRC and AUPHR PPRC and AUPHR
- Published: 27 December 2008 27 December 2008
- Hits: 2581 2581
Event: Local Peace Groups Condemn Israeli Attacks in Gaza
Date: Saturday, December 27, 2008
Time: For Immediate Release
Contacts: Portland Peaceful Response Coalition
(503) 344-5078 voicemail
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.pprc-news.org
Local Peace Groups Condemn Israeli Attacks in Gaza
The Portland Peaceful Response Coalition and Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights unequivocally condemn Israel's criminally ruthless attacks on Gaza, attacks that have killed over two hundred Palestinians, including many civilians, and people whose only crime was to have been a part of what little civil service still exists in Gaza," said William Seaman, a volunteer with PPRC and a member of American Jews for a Just Peace. "It is clear that the overwhelming majority of the scores of victims of this US-financed and US-supported assault had nothing to do with the Qassam rocket and mortar fire coming out of Gaza, and it is equally clear that this latest massacre of Palestinians is grossly disproportionate, and on these two counts alone the assault constitutes a serious war crime."
Seaman also emphasized that the rocket fire from Gaza that followed the Israeli attacks demonstrates further that the Israeli attack was ineffective and did not strike the Palestinian militants who have been attacking Israeli civilian towns and cities in the Western Negev and just north of Gaza along the Mediterranean coast. "The rocket fire from Gaza, just like any attack on civilians, on non-combatants, is strictly prohibited under international law and constitutes war crimes," said Seaman. "But we completely reject the claim that these rocket attacks justify the wholesale slaughter that Israel has just carried out in Gaza."
According to the Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem (The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories), "from 2004 to the end of 2007, eleven Israelis, four of them minors, were killed by Qassam rockets fired by Palestinians. Another Israeli civilian and one foreign national were killed by Qassam rockets that struck [Israeli] settlements in the Gaza Strip." UN figures, cited by B'Tselem, put the number of rockets fired from Gaza in 2006 at 1,786, and in 2007 at 1,331, with almost all of these rockets resulting in no injuries or deaths. The ongoing rocket fire from Gaza nonetheless terrorizes the Israeli civilian population along the Gaza border regions. Regardless of the effectiveness of these weapons, the targeting of civilians is strictly illegal and immoral.
"The root cause of this ongoing conflict is the ongoing, illegal, US-backed Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza," said Seaman. "In Gaza this occupation takes the form of a blockade that is strangling the entire civilian population, a siege that has brought widespread malnutrition to Gaza's children, crippled the healthcare system, and has utterly dismantled the economy." Seaman said that unless there is a comprehensive resolution to this decades-old conflict, a resolution that recognizes fully the human rights of the Palestinian people, the resistance by Palestinians will continue. "That resistance has taken many forms in these last few decades, some peaceful, and some violent," said Seaman, "and unless we recognize the legitimate demands of the Palestinian people, especially those of us who are citizens of the country which most aggressively supports Israel's crimes, and unless we work for a just peace, we will continue to share responsibility for the victims on both sides
of this conflict."
The Israeli attack was carried out in part with F16 fighter jets and missiles provided by the United States. "Israel's latest massacre in Gaza could not have been carried out without the military and political support of our country," said Seaman. "This means simply that we have a direct and central responsibility to take action by protesting this attack and demanding an immediate cease-fire." PPRC and AUPHR are asking Oregonians to contact the White House to protest the attack and to demand an immediate cease-fire. The White House can be contacted at 202-456-111 or by e-mailing at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The State Department should also be contacted with the same message at 202-647-6575. In addition, PPRC and AUPHR urge Oregonians to contact our representatives in Congress. Contacts for the Oregon delegation can be found at www.pprc-news.org ; additional action links are available at the US Campaign to End the Occupation website at www.endtheoccupation.org.
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Ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza; 225 killed over 700 wounded, Israel prepares for further attacks
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- Written by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC Agencies Saed Bannoura - IMEMC Agencies
- Published: 27 December 2008 27 December 2008
- Hits: 3530 3530
Ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza; 225 killed over 700 wounded, Israel prepares for further attacks
Saturday December 27, 2008 20:55
by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC Agencies
As instructed by its political leadership, the Israeli army continued its military offensive against the Gaza Strip and shelled further targets raising the number of deaths among the residents to 225, and at least 700 residents were wounded, dozens seriously.
The Qatar-based Al Jazeera News Satellite news Agency said that the simultaneous and ongoing Israeli strikes also targeted a mosque, the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees, and dozens of civilian homes and facilities.
At least 40 security centers were simultaneously hit; some centers were repeatedly hit which increased the number of casualties as the residents and medics rushed to evacuate the wounded and the casualties before the Israeli force struck the same targets again
AL Shifa hospital in Gaza, the main hospital in central Gaza, is overloaded with killed and wounded residents.
Dr. Hasan Khalaf, head of the hospital, said that the hospital had to use some ordinary rooms as primitive intensive care units due to the large number of injuries.
Dr. Khalaf added that dozens of families were hit, members of the same family killed and wounded after the army shelled their homes.
Dozens of children were also wounded as the shelling was carried out as school children were heading back home from school.
In the west Bank thousands of residents marched in the streets calling for unity and demanding Arab countries to interfere and calling for ending talks with Israel.
President Mahmoud Abbas contacted several Arab leaders asking them to intervene immediately and stop the Israeli assaults.
Also in the West Bank, the army violently attacked hundreds of protesters in villages and towns in east Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron and several other Palestinian areas.
Arab leaders and Arab residents of Israel also took off to the streets protesting against the ongoing Israeli offensives in the Gaza Strip.
Arab member of Knesset, Jamal Zahalka, participated in a protest in Nazareth and called for indicting the Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, for war crimes against the Palestinian people.
Mohammad Nazzal, one of Hamas political leaders in Damascus, said that Hamas and all resistance factions are ready to defend the residents of the Gaza Strip, and added that the Israeli crimes in Gaza require a massive response from the resistance in retaliation to the “massacres in Gaza”.
Nazzal demanded Arab countries not only to slam the Israeli offensive, but to act on the ground by cutting their relations with Israel, by breaking the Israeli siege and opening the Rafah Border terminal.
He also demanded the Arab countries and leaders to practice pressure on the international community to stop the Israeli offensive.
In Ramallah, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr, Hanan Ashrawi, said that Europe and the United States are supporting Israel as Europe is upgrading its relations with Israel which is encouraging it to carry further attacks against the Palestinians while the US is sending more financial and military support to Israel.
Ashrawi added that Arab leaders must be decisive in their response to the Israeli offensive and must act to stop these attacks. In Bethlehem, Dr. Victor Batarsa, mayor of the city, said that the municipality decided to cancel all Christmas celebrations and to remove Christmas tree from the manger square in addition to removing Christmas lights and decorations.
Thousands of Palestinian refugees in Jordan along with Jordanian nationals took off to the street protesting against the Israeli attacks in Gaza and called on Jordan to cut its diplomatic ties with Israel.
Massive protests were also reported in Egypt as the protesters calls for a response to the Israeli offensive and crimes against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Protests were also reported in refugee camps in Lebanon calling for unity among the Palestinian factions and demanding Arab unity in order to counter the Israeli crimes.
They also called on all resistance factions to step-up their retaliation against the Israeli offensive and to strike back in the occupied territories and in Israel.
gaza strip |
israeli attacks |
news report 
saed at imemc dot org
The International Middle East Media Center is a media collective based in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We are independent journalists producing and distributing the authentic voices of the people. IMEMC is a cooperation between Palestinian and In
From Personal Witness of Cowardly Israeli Attack on Gaza
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- Written by Anonymous Anonymous
- Published: 27 December 2008 27 December 2008
- Hits: 2584 2584
I've never seen anything like this. It all happened so fast but the amount of death and destruction is inconceivable, even to me and I'm in the middle of it and a few hours have already passed. I think 15 locations were hit during the air raid on Gaza. The images are probably not broadcast in US media. There are piles and piles of bodies in the locations that were hit. As you look at them you can see that a few of the young men are still alive, someone lifts a hand here, and another raise his head there. They probably died within moments because their bodies are burned, most have lost limbs, some have their guts hanging out and they're all lying in pools of blood. Outside my home, (which is close to the universities) a bomb fell on a large group of young men, university students, they'd been warned not to stand in groups, it makes them an easy target, but they were waiting for buses to take them home. This was about 3 hours ago 7 were killed, 4 students and 3 of our neighbors kids, teenagers who were from the same family (Rayes) and were best friends. As I'm writing this I heard a funeral procession go by outside, I looked out the window and it was the 3 Rayes boys, They spent all their time together when they were alive, and now their sharing the same funeral together. Nothing could stop my 14 year old brother from rushing out to see the bodies of his friends laying in the street after they were killed. He hasn't spoken a word since.A little further down the street about an hour earlier 3 girls happened to be passing by one of the locations when a bomb fell. The girls bodies were torn into pieces and covered the street from one side to the other.
These are just a couple of images that i've witnessed. In all the locations people are going through the dead terrified of recognizing a family member among them. The city is in a state of alarm, panic and confusion, cell phones aren't working, hospitals and morgues are backed up and some of the dead are still lying in the streets with their families gathered around them, kissing their faces, holding on to them. Outside the destroyed buildings old men are kneeling on the floor weeping. Their slim hopes of finding their sons still alive vanished after taking one look at what had become of their office buildings.
160 people dead in today's air raid. That means 160 funeral processions, a few today, most of them tomorrow probably. To think that yesterday these families were worried about food and heat and electricity. At this point I think they -actually all of us- would gladly have Hamas sign off every last basic right we've been calling for the last few months forever if it could have stopped this from ever having happened.
The bombing was very close to my home. Most of my extended family live in the area. My family is ok, but 2 of my uncles' homes were damaged, another relative was injured.
I don't know why I'm sending this email. It doesn't even begin to tell the story on any level. Just flashes of thing that happened today that are going through my head
International Witnesses Speak Out from Gaza
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- Written by Free Gaza Free Gaza
- Published: 27 December 2008 27 December 2008
- Hits: 3418 3418
International Witnesses Speak Out from Gaza
For More Information, please visit http://www.FreeGaza.org, or see contact details below.
(Besieged Gaza, Palestine - 27th December 2008) - Human Rights Defenders from Lebanon, the UK, Poland, Canada, Spain, Italy and Australia are present in Gaza and are witnessing and documenting the current Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Due to Israel's policy of denying access to international media, human rights defenders and aid agencies to the Occupied Gaza Strip, many of these Human Rights Defenders arrived in Gaza with the Free Gaza Movement's boats. FREE GAZA boats have broken Israel's siege of Gaza five times in the past four months.
"At the time of the attacks I was on Omar Mukhtar street and witnessed a last rocket hit the street 150 meters away where crowds had already gathered to try to extract the dead bodies. Ambulances, trucks, cars - anything that can move is bringing injured to
the hospitals. Hospitals have had to evacuate sick patients to make room for the injured. I have been told that there is not enough room in the morgues for the bodies and that there is a great lack of blood in the blood banks. I have just learned that among the civilians killed today was the mother of my good friends in Jabalya camp."
- Eva Bartlett (Canada) International Solidarity Movement
"Israeli missles tore through a children's playground and busy market in Diere Balah, we saw the aftermath - many were injured and some reportedly killed. Every Hospital in the Gaza strip is already overwhelmed with injured people and does not have the medicine or the capacity to treat them. Israel is committing crimes against humanity, it is violating international and human rights law, ignoring the United Nations and planning even bigger attacks. The world must act now and intensify the calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel; governments need to move beyond words of condemnation into an active and immediate restraint of Israel and a lifting of the siege of Gaza"
- Ewa Jasiewicz (Polish and British) Free Gaza Movement
"The morgue at the Shifa hospital has no more room for dead bodies, so bodies and body parts are strewn all over the hospital."
- Dr. Haidar Eid, (Palestinian, South African) Professor of Social and Cultural Studies, Al Aqsa University Gaza
"The bombs began to fall just as the children were on the streets walking back from school. I went out onto the stairs and a terrified 5 year old girl ran sobbing into my arms."
- Sharon Lock (Australian) International Solidarity Movement
"This is incredibly sad. This massacre is not going to bring security for the State of Israel or allow it to be part of the Middle East. Now calls of revenge are everywhere."
- Dr. Eyad Sarraj - President of the Gaza Community Mental Health Centre
"As I speak they have just hit a building 200 metres away. There is smoke everywhere. This morning I went to the building close to where I live in Rafah that had been hit. Two bulldozers were immediately attempting to clear the rubble. They thought they had found all the bodies. As we arrived one more was found."
- Jenny Linnel (British) International Solidarity Movement
"The home I am staying in is across from the preventive security compound. All the glass of the house shattered. The home has been severely damaged. Due to the siege there is no glass or building materials to repair this damage. One little boy in our house fainted. An eight year little boy was trembling on the ground for an hour. In front of our house we found the bodies of two little girls under a car, completely burnt. They were coming home from school. This is more than just collective punishment. We are being treated like laboratory animals. I have lived through the Israeli bombardment of Beirut and the Israel's message is the same in Gaza as it was in Beirut- The killing of civilians. There was just another explosion outside!"
- Natalie Abu Eid (Lebanon) International Solidarity Movement
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Human Rights Defenders in Gaza (available for interviews):
Dr. Eyad Sarraj (Arabic and English) +972 599400424
Ewa Jasiewicz, Free Gaza Co-Coordinator in Gaza (Polish, Arabic, and
English) - +972 59 8700497
Dr. Haider Eid (English and Arabic) + 972 59 9441766
Sharon Lock (English) +972 59 8826513
Vittorio Arrigoni (Italian) +972 59 8378945
Fida Qishta (English and Arabic) +972 599681669
Jenny Linnel (English) +972 59 87653777
Natalie Abu Shakra (Arabic and English) 0598336 328
For more information on the Free Gaza Movement (FREE GAZA) or the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) contact in the West Bank:
Adam Taylor (ISM) - 972 59 8503948
Lubna Masarwa (FREE GAZA) - 972 50 5633044
###########
The Free Gaza Movement, a human rights group, sent two boats to Gaza in August 2008. These were the first international boats to land in the port in 41 years. Since August, four more voyages were successful, taking Parliamentarians, human rights workers, and other dignitaries to witness the effects of Israel's draconian policies on the civilians of Gaza.
http://www.FreeGaza.org
Israel launches deadly Gaza attacks, nearly 200 killed, many injured
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- Written by Jenny Percival and agencies Jenny Percival and agencies
- Published: 27 December 2008 27 December 2008
- Hits: 3658 3658
• Death toll nears 200 after air raids aimed at Hamas bases
• Campaign will 'expand as necessary', says Israeli defence minister
Nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured after the Israeli air force launched dozens of air raids on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Palestinian health officials said at least 195 people were killed and more than 250 wounded in one of the bloodiest days for decades in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many were members of the security forces of the Islamic group Hamas, but civilians were also killed.
In an indication of how the operation may yet expand, the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, said Israel's air offensive against militant sites in Gaza "will widen as necessary". He told a news conference: "There is a time for calm and there is a time for fighting, and now is the time for fighting. The operation will expand as necessary." It was unclear if this would include a ground offensive.
The Israeli military said it attacked "terrorist infrastructure". Hamas vowed to avenge what it called "the Israeli slaughter" and Palestinian militants responded with rocket salvos that killed an Israeli man and wounded others.
The strikes come just over a week after a six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas expired, and follow a series of warnings by Israeli officials that they were planning an operation in response to rockets fired into Israeli towns and villages by Hamas and other militant groups based in Gaza. More than 50 rockets have been launched from Gaza in recent days, according to Israeli military officials. Israel yesterday reopened crossings into the Gaza Strip, allowing in humanitarian aid after an eight-day closure, in what has been seen as an attempt to pre-empt international criticism ahead of today's attacks.
Despite the warnings, the timing and scale of the assault came as a surprise to many residents of Gaza. The raids had been expected to begin tomorrow, and the fact that they took place mid-morning rather than at night meant many official buildings and schools were full. Some of the missiles struck densely populated areas as children were leaving school. Parents rushed into the streets to search for them.
Television footage from Gaza showed bodies scattered on a road and the dead and wounded being carried away. Civilians rushed to the targeted areas and tried to move the wounded in their cars to hospital.
Read more: Israel launches deadly Gaza attacks, nearly 200 killed, many injured