Resident Seriously Injured By Army Fire In Gaza

Gaza Shelling

by Saed Bannoura

 Palestinian Medical Sources in the Gaza Strip reported that one resident was seriously wounded on Wednesday morning, after the Israeli army opened fire at him east of Gaza city.

 The sources stated that the resident, in his twenties, was shot in the thigh, and he was moved to a nearby hospital for treatment.

On Tuesday, two Palestinians, including one child, were injured after the Israeli army invaded an area east of the Al-Boreij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.

Several military vehicles, tanks and army bulldozers invaded the area and uprooted trees and farmlands.

Furthermore, soldiers invaded an area east of Gaza city and opened fire; damage was reported, but no injuries were.

On Sunday, Adham Abu Salmiyya, spokesperson of the Higher Committee for Medical and Emergency Services in Gaza, reported that in 2011, Israeli soldiers killed 19 children and injured more than 200, in air strikes and bombardment targeting the Gaza Strip.

Last September, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza reported that 5,151 Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli fire and shells since the Al Aqsa Intifada started in September 2000.

The numbers do not include Palestinians killed in armed confrontation with the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The number of combatants killed in the same timeframe is 1,499. Total number of civilians and non-civilians killed in the same timeframe is 6,631.

One third of civilians were killed within the West Bank, and two thirds in the Gaza Strip. One in four was children, and 5.5% (nearly four hundred) were women.

Of the civilians killed in the West Bank, children make up one in five (343 deaths), with the children of Gaza making up 28% (939) of the civilian deaths. An estimated 84 children have also been killed in Gaza during assassination operations carried out by the Israeli army against armed resistance fighters and senior political leaders.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62671

PCHR Concerned over Medical Shortages in Gaza Strip Hospitals

by Palestinian Center For Human Rights

 The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) expresses concern over the extreme shortage of medicines in the Gaza Strip hospitals. PCHR warns of the potential catastrophic repercussions on the health of the Gaza Strip population, especially patients who suffer from renal failure due to the shortage in blood filters used in dialysis.

 PCHR is concerned that the lack of such blood filters may stop dialysis in the Gaza Strip hospitals, and hence endanger the lives of 450 patients.

According to Dr. Ashraf al-Qidwa, Spokesman of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Dialysis filters 5 and 6, which are major consumables that function like normal kidneys and serve to remove toxins from the blood during dialysis. These filters are about to run out from hospitals and medical care centers in the Gaza Strip.

According to al-Qidwa, only 24 pieces of these consumables are available now, which does not suffice according to the needs of 450 patients who undergo dialysis three times a week. This amount is only sufficient for a weekly dialysis of the patients’ blood only.

Al-Qidwa stated that if blood filters ran out, all dialysis apparatuses in hospitals would be stopped. He attributed the shortage in medical consumables to the abstention of the Ministry of Health in Ramallah from supplying the Gaza Strip’s medical needs as agreed.

PCHR has followed up the developments in the health conditions in the Gaza Strip. In June and December 2011, PCHR received complaints from patients concerning delayed receipt of their medicines from health facilities in the Gaza Strip as many medicines and medical consumables ran out.

At that time, PCHR found out that such delay was essentially attributed to the running out of such medicines and medical consumables as they were not regularly supplied to the Gaza Strip, or their amounts were decreased to the minimum, by the General Directorate of Pharmacy in Ramallah; only 20% of the Gaza Strip’s actual needs have been supplied in 2011.

According to PCHR’s documentation, 178 medicines and 190 medical consumables ran out from public health facilities in the Gaza Strip, and in December, 120 medicines and 140 consumables ran out, because they were not supplied by the Ministry of Health in Ramallah.[1] PCHR has warned of the impact of the shortage of medicines on the lives of patients in the Gaza Strip, but the crisis has not been improved and it has reemerged with the shortage of medicines necessary for renal diseases.

Click here to read the story of Shahinaz Khouf, a mother of six who suffers from kidney failure and whose health is deteriorating because she receives insufficient dialysis sessions.

PCHR expresses utmost concern over the deterioration of health conditions of Palestinian patients in the Gaza Strip, and:

1. Calls upon President Mahmoud Abbas to immediately intervene with the Ministry of Health in Ramallah to ensure the prompt flow of consignments of medicine and medical needs to health facilities in the Gaza Strip;

2. Calls for making necessary coordination to remove obstacles between the Ministries of Health in Ramallah and Gaza, especially under the current atmosphere of reconciliation;

3. Calls upon the Ministry of Health in Ramallah to immediately supply all medicines and medical needs that are necessary for health facilities in the Gaza Strip to avoid further risks to the health and lives of the population of the Gaza Strip.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62673

Preparations For Second Phase Of Swap Deal To Start Tuesday

Saleh Al-Aroury

Member of the Political Bureau of the Hamas movement, Saleh al-Aroury, stated that the Israeli army will start gathering all Palestinian detainees scheduled to be released under second and final phase of the prisoner-swap deal that was reached on October 11, between Israel and the Hamas movement.

 Al-Aroury added that the detainees will be released directly after Gaza Strip detainees are sent to the Negev Detention Camp, and West Bank detainees are send to the Ofer Prison.

The Hamas official denied reports claiming that a specific date was set for the actual release of the detainees, adding that Egypt, the mediator, informed Hamas that a specific time and date was not determined due to “logistics”.

But he affirmed that December 18 is the final date all detainees included in the swap-deal should be let go.

Israel will be releasing 550 detainees of its choice, including sick detainees, elderly, children, and detainees who fit other categories that were not explained. Israel said it will not be releasing detainees it labels as "prisoners with blood on their hands".

Al-Aroury further said that unlike the first phase of the deal, no detainees will be exiled out of Palestine, and that they will all be allowed back to their homes.

In addition, Al-Aroury denied some reports that claimed that prisoners held on criminal charges will be released, confirming that all freed detainees under the prisoner-swap deal were arrested and imprisoned by Israel for their political activities and their affiliation with the resistance.

Egypt mediated and supervised the talks for several years until a deal was brokered in October.

On October 18, Israel released 477 detainees, named by the resistance, while the captured Israel soldier, Gilad Shalit, was handed by the resistance to Egypt, before he was escorted by Israeli officials back home.

Israel is supposed to release the remaining 550 detainees, named in the second phase of the deal that should be implemented by December 18.

Once the detainees are released, the total number of detainees released under the deal will be 1,000 male detainees, and 27 female detainees.

It is worth mentioning that on October 2009, Israel release 20 female detainees in exchange for a video recording of Shalit proving that he is alive and well.

The total agreed number of detainees to be released under the deal is 1,027. Israel is refusing to release Fatah strongman, Marwan Barghouthi, and PFLP Secretary-General, Ahmad Saadat, in addition to dozens of political leaders and members of the resistance.

The deal includes the release of 180 detainees held by Israel prior to the signing of the Oslo peace agreement.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62661

Settlers Break Into Israeli Military Base, Sabotage Property

Insane Jewish settlers

by Saed Bannoura

Israeli sources reported Tuesday that a group of extremist Israeli settlers of the Hilltop Youth settler movement infiltrated, on Monday at night, an Israeli military base near the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, sabotaged property and vehicles, and hurled stones at the soldiers, wounding a senior officer.

The sources stated that Lieutenant Ran Kahana was mildly wounded after being hit in the head by a stone hurled by one of the settlers. The army chased the infiltrators but did not make any arrests.

The settlers also blocked a main road in the area and hurled stones at Palestinian cars causing damage to a number of vehicles.

Israeli media sources stated that the attacks seem to be motivated by Israeli intentions to dismantle some random settlement outposts in the West Bank by March of next year.

An Israeli Army spokesperson stated that approximately 100 settlers arrived in the area and starting throwing rocks at Palestinian vehicles, in addition to throwing rocks at Israel military vehicles before burning tires near the military base.

The spokesperson added that approximately 50 settlers infiltrated into the military base and started throwing stones at military vehicles in addition to throwing nails inside the base and on the road that leads to it.

An extremist settler with the “Hilltop Youth” movement held Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, responsible for the escalation, and claimed that Barak “discriminates against the settlers and their settlements.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued orders to the army to act in a decisive manner against the settlers who attacked the base.

Several Israeli leaders, including some leaders of the Yesha Council of Settlements condemned the attack against the base.

In related news, the Israeli Police apprehended 17 extremist settlers who barricaded themselves, on Monday, at the site of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River.

They settlers hung banners with photos of the right-wing Jewish leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who called for the "Jewish state to expand beyond the Jordan river into the state of Jordan and all the way to Iraq.”

According to Israeli Yedioth Aharonoth, the settlers entered a closed military zone behind the border fence with Jordan, and barracked themselves in the site, very close to where Jordanian soldiers are stationed.

The site, 10 kilometers away from the West Bank city of Jericho, is one the most sacred sites for Christians after the Nativity Church in Bethlehem and the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. 

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62662

Two Palestinians Injured By Army Fire In Gaza

by Saed Bannoura

 Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported, Tuesday, that two Palestinians, including one child, were injured after the Israeli army invaded an area east of the al-Boreij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.

 The Higher Committee of Medical and Emergency Services In Gaza reported that a 48 year-old man, and a 14 year-old child, suffered moderate injuries and were moved to the al-Aqsa Hospital in Dir al-Balah.

Local sources reported that several military vehicles, tanks and army bulldozers invaded the area and uprooted trees and farmlands.

Furthermore, soldiers invaded an area east of Gaza city and opened fire at random; damage was reported, but no injuries.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/62663

Report: “19 Children Killed, 200 Injured, By Israeli Shells In 2011”

Yousef Az-Za’lan, 10

by Saed Bannoura

December 11, 2011

Adham Abu Salmiyya, spokesperson of the Higher Committee for Medical and Emergency Services In Gaza, reported that, in 2011, Israeli soldiers killed 19 children, and injured more than 200, in Air strikes and bombardment targeting the Gaza Strip since the beginning of this year.

Abu Salmiyya added that the youngest of the slain children were identified as Malak Shaath, 2, and Islam Qreiqe’, 3, adding that most of the slain children faced horrific deaths as Israeli military shells mutilated their bodies.

He further stated that more than one-third of the wounded Palestinians in 2011 are children, adding that Yousef Bahjat Az-Za’lan, 10, is still in the intensive care unit after a shell fired by the Israeli army on Thursday killed his father, Bahjat, 42, and his brother Ramadan, 12 years old; at least 17 residents were wounded in the shelling, seven of them were children.

Abu Salmiyya accused the Israeli Army of deliberately targeting the civilians during the illegal and random bombardment of civilian areas in the Gaza Strip, especially during late night hours and at dawn.

He added that the repeated offensives against the Gaza Strip are impacting the psychological conditions of the children in Gaza, and called on different international humanitarian groups to ensure the protection of the Palestinian children and civilians in the coastal region in particular, and in Palestine in general.

 http://uruknet.com/?p=m83819&hd=&size=1&l=e

Israel’s Latest Apartheid Law

by ILAN PAPPÉ

Those of us who have been veteran comrades in the struggle for peace and justice in Palestine have quite often been frustrated by the inability to galvanize enough support in the political and media establishments in the West against the brutal occupation of the West Bank and the strangulation of Gaza.  We believed that clear cut evidence of the oppression and the highly visible criminal policies that raged since 1967 should have at least triggered a world reaction similar to the one that now takes place against Libya, and even more so. 

But we know all the reasons why it did not, and will not happen. And yet we may have overlooked one particular reason, indeed one successful ploy of the Israeli peace camp that seems to have aborted any such effort in its buds. The liberal Zionists believe strongly in the existence of two discrete entities one Israel and one that lies on the other side of the 1967 green line which have very little in common. The acceptance of this line as a hard fact is the main justification given in the West for the inaction against Israel (one which is also supported by some of Palestine’s best friends and of course the Palestinian Authority). The line drawn is not just a political boundary it is mainly a moral border. Everything that is happening in the occupied world is diametrically opposed to life in democratic Israel and hence the argument is that if you treat Israel as a pariah state then you will also harm the ‘good’ part, the pre-1967 state. This is also the basis to the continued support for the two states solution that bases peace on the ability of moral Israel to re-invent itself in the pre-1967 borders. 

I hope this distinction would at least disappear from the vocabulary and dictionary of the Western solidarity movement with Palestine (where it can still be heard in loyalty to the peace camp in Israel, the PA and the invisible lord of realpolitik).That this distinction is false was proved once more this week (20 March, 2011) when yet another apartheid law was passed in Israel. This new law allows Jewish settlements built on state land inside Israel not to admit Israeli Palestinian citizens as residents and  legalizes the wish of these new settlers not to sell land to  the Palestinians citizens of the state. This is one of many such laws passed recently (the loyalty oath law that turns the Palestinians in Israel to second class citizens by law and one which does not allow them to live with their Palestinians spouses from the occupied territories are two of the more famous apartheid laws passed recently). The new law, like the previous others,  institutionalize the Apartheid State of Israel  or for short ASOI. 

ASOI is now one of worst apartheid regimes in the world. It controls almost all of Palestine (apart from Gaza which it imprisoned hermetically since 2005). It has, in absolute terms the highest number of political prisoners (China was reported to have less then 1000, Iran has few thousands); Israel holds nearly 10,000 of them. It has the largest number of apartheid laws and regulations than any country in the world and apart from the Arab regimes that are now collapsing and rogue states such as  Miramar and North Korea,  has the longest imposition of emergency laws and regulations that rob citizens of their most basic human and civil rights. Its policies against the discriminated native population, now composing nearly half of the overall population in ASOI,  include atrocities such as  barring people from using water sources, from cultivating their fields, building more houses, from getting to work, schools or universities and it bans them from commemorating their history and in particular the 1948 Nakbah. 

ASOI is protected by left wing philosophers, mostly Jewish but not only, in the USA and the West as well as by the new members of the European Union whose deplorable record during the holocaust may explain their unconditional support for ASOI. It enjoys the unconditional backing of many Jewish communities in the World, Christian Zionists and cynical corporations who benefit from ASOI’s military elite’s  proclivity to use lethal weapons at will and from the state’s progressive banking system and a high tech know how. 

ASOI could become the Free Republic of Israel and Palestine (FRISP) or any similar name, where people would enjoy the same rights now fought for all over the Arab world and which the West claim to disseminate and protect all over the world. If ASOI will not become FRISP, any action such as the one taken now by the West in Libya would rightly be regarded suspiciously as cynical and dishonest. 

Linkage has lost it attraction since it was misused by Saddam Hussein in 1991. But now is the time to revive it. It is time to realize that there will not be a new Middle East – in fact, there will no world peace – if ASOI continues to enjoy immunity and is not curbed and stopped – and hopefully one day  – replaced by the democratic FRISP. 

Ilan Pappé is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, director of the university’s European Centre for Palestine Studies, co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies, and political activist. His books include A Modern History of Palestine, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and Gaza in Crisis (with Noam Chomsky).

 http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/03/22/israel-s-latest-apartheid-law/