Gaza massacre continues
The death toll is now at least 320, with over 1,000 people wounded. According to UNRWA at least 51 62 civilian women and children have been killed, an estimate that is “conservative and it is certainly rising”. In fact most of the casualities appear to be civilian police.
As the bombs continue to fall and the tanks mass on the border, Defense Minister Barak has pledged a “a war to the bitter end against Hamas and its branches“. This is a war to destroy Hamas, not to end the Qassams, which as Barak himself pointed out a few months ago an invasion cannot accomplish.
The Palestine Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) yesterday reported that Israel is waging the “bloodiest and most brutal war against the Gaza Strip since its occupation in 1967, under an international and Arab conspiracy of silence”. Most of the casualities have been civilians, it continues, including at least 20 children. The PCHR notes that the timing of the attacks, which “coincided with the end of the morning period and the beginning of the afternoon period at schools, many of which are located near police stations”, indicates “that an Israeli decision was taken to cause maximum casualties in the climax of daily activities”.
Humanitarian organisations are calling for an immediate ceasefire. Amnesty International reports that “[s]cores of unarmed civilians, as well as police personnel who were not directly participating in the hostilities” have been killed, noting that
“[t]he escalation of violence comes at a time when the civilian population already faces a daily struggle for survival due to the Israeli blockade which has prevented even food and medicines from entering Gaza.”
Amnesty also provides a corrective to the ludicrous spin about who was responsible for ending the ceasefire:
“The Israeli blockade meant that the recent five-and-a-half-month ceasefire between Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, Gaza residents experienced little or no improvement to their lives. The ceasefire effectively ended after six Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza force on 4 November and a barrage of Palestinians rockets were launched on nearby towns and villages in the south of Israel.”
The UN OCHA cites Al Mezan to the effect that “most [of the] fatalities were civilian police; other fatalities included at least 20 children, nine women, and 60 other unarmed civilians” in “one of the highest single-day death tolls recorded in the occupied Palestinian territory since 1967″. This number is “expected to rise”.
UN special rapporteur Richard Falk released a statement today condemning Israel’s “severe and massive violations of international law“. The airstrikes have “killed and injured hundreds of civilians” and have “destroyed every police and security office of Gaza’s elected government”. Israel has “ignored recent Hamas’ diplomatic initiatives to reestablish the truce or ceasefire since its expiration on 26 December”. Falk concludes,
“The Israeli airstrikes today, and the catastrophic human toll that they caused, challenge those countries that have been and remain complicit, either directly or indirectly, in Israel’s violations of international law. That complicity includes those countries knowingly providing the military equipment including warplanes and missiles used in these illegal attacks, as well as those countries who have supported and participated in the siege of Gaza that itself has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.”
Update: the death toll has risen to at least 350, with over 1,600 people injured. Oxfam reports:
“The bombing has caused severe damage to the civilian infrastructure in Gaza with many areas being left without water or electricity. In particular the number of causalities has completely overwhelmed the already severely limited health services in Gaza. All hospitals are reporting being out of critical supplies and the basic supplies they do have are running out fast…
John Prideaux-Brune, Oxfam Great Britain’s country programme manager in Jerusalem, said:
“Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza depend on Oxfam and other international aid agencies for the basics of life – clean water, food and sanitation. Gaza has been shut off from the outside world for 19 months and people there are already on the edge. There’s a real risk of a humanitarian crisis unless the bombing stops now.
“The international community must not stand aside and allow Israeli leaders to commit massive and disproportionate violence against Gazan civilians in violation of international law. Oxfam condemns outright Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. However they cannot justify this overwhelming military response which is killing innocent civilians.
“World leaders must take all necessary actions to stop attacks by all parties and must push the Israelis to continuously open all crossing points into Gaza.”
Filed under: Israeli / Palestinian | 5 Comments
Tags: blockade, Cast Lead, collective punishment, Gaza, Hamas, Human Rights, siege, war crimes
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As a side note, I officially retract anything positive I’ve ever said about Seth Freedman.
Mmmm, not sure which planet Freedman is living on. Or anyone else supporting this escapade, come to that.
It is some kind of twisted logic to suggest that killing civilians is justified because you were aiming at a Mosque, Police Station or University. Worshippers, Policemen and University students have never been legitimate targets as far as I am aware.
Given that the rate of Kassam firing doesn’t seem to have been much affected, even in its own terms this tactic appears to be a failure.
It seems there is little alternative than to believe that Israel is intending to destroy any possibility for normal life in Gaza, presumably hoping that the population will leave or die.
More likely the latter as the Gazans are not allowed to leave thanks to the connivance of the Egyptian dictator Mubarak who is solidly on the side of the zionist terrorists and western warmongering imperialists.
Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon: “The goal of the operation is to topple Hamas”.