Egypt halts Gaza-bound aid convoy
Press TV – July 19, 2014
A Gaza-bound Egyptian convoy carrying humanitarian aid for the war-ravaged, besieged Palestinian enclave has been halted by the country’s security forces in Sinai.
Activists travelling with the convoy on Saturday afternoon said the vehicles carrying humanitarian supplies to the people in the Israeli-blockaded territory had been stopped at a Sinai checkpoint by Egyptian forces and not allowed to pass due to alleged “security reasons,” Ahram Online reported.
The development comes as Gaza is entering the twelfth day of an Israeli military onslaught that has left more than 312 Palestinians dead, including many women and children.
The report further cites Egyptian political activist Zizo Abdo as saying that the convoy was halted at Balooza checkpoint, the first military checkpoint in North Sinai.
Abdo also stated that the convoy consists of 11 buses and a medical convoy, totaling over 550 people including students, workers, and various political figures.
According to the report, if the convoy is allowed to pass through the checkpoint, it is set to pass through Sinai’s al-Arish city, an already troubled area where Egyptian security forces are battling an anti-state militancy that has surged since the military ouster of the country’s first freely elected president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
After al-Arish, the convoy will move directly to the Rafah border crossing.
Egypt’s authorities have largely kept the critical border crossing for the besieged Palestinians living in Gaza shut over the past year, claiming security concerns over the surge of militancy in the Sinai region.
However, the crossing has been opened a few times since the start of the massive Israeli offensive as an “exceptional” measure to transport injured Palestinians to Egyptian hospitals and deliver Egyptian as well as Arab aid to Gaza.
Similar Egyptian convoys were able to cross into Gaza during the Israeli assault on the strip in 2012.
NBC reinstates Mohyeldin to salvage image
By Jonathon Cook | The Blog from Nazareth | July 19, 2014
Some good overnight news, to which readers have alerted me: Ayman Mohyeldin has been reinstated by NBC as their Gaza correspondent. This is an interesting sign of changing times: NBC, it seems, is waging a rearguard action, feeling the need to restore its credentials for editorial independence. Once it would have been taken for granted that a large media organisation was free and fearless; now increasingly it is not.
What was so revealing about NBC’s original move was that no serious reason was given by the TV executives for Mohyeldin’s removal from Gaza; and their grounds for reinstating him are equally opaque. That is because their decision can only be explained in cynical, political terms, as a response to, or pre-emption of, the Israel lobby and its chums in Washington’s corridors of power.
It is true that there are cynical journalists, but most genuinely believe they are independent and free to say what they like – even when the evidence screams at them that the opposite is true. But media executives, who should really be called what they are – money men and women – are the ones who make the key decisions. And they are entirely cynical about editorial policies. They are interested solely in revenues, access and remaining credible with and useful to powerful interest groups, including the massive corporations that run the media.
Journalists have a bad habit of ignoring the reality that these corporate titans run their news organisations, and they manage it by not examining their bosses’ motives, or their own, too deeply.
But Mohyeldin’s removal will have caused them problems. There were no possible editorial grounds for pulling him from Gaza. The executives offered a vague pretext – “security” – but then exposed the deceitfulness of their reasoning by bringing in another reporter to replace him.
This was doubtless too much for the journalists at NBC, who were threatened by the thought that their outlet might not be quite the bastion of free speech they need to believe it is. And that doubt will only have been reinforced by the popular campaign to bring Mohyeldin back.
In these circumstances, NBC’s original decision threatened to expose to many of its journalists and viewers the hoax of a free western press. That, I suspect, is why Mohyeldin was hurriedly reinstated. NBC’s executives understood that the illusion needed to be restored.
But, as I say, this is a sign of progress. These media corporations can no longer take for granted that we will continue believing they are committed to the truth or acting honourably.
Israel targets more hospitals in Gaza assault
Ma’an – 18/07/2014
GAZA CITY – Israel shelled the Beit Hanoun hospital in northern Gaza on Friday, damaging the top floors and causing panic among patients and staff, employees said.
A nurse in the hospital told Ma’an that Israel fired a drone missile at the roof and third floor, damaging water supplies.
The area of the hospital targeted contained a ward for children, a reception area, and the offices of several doctors.
The building was evacuated immediately following the attack, with no injuries reported.
The attack comes as Israeli tanks fired shells at the al-Wafa hospital in Gaza City late Thursday, the facility’s director said.
“Israeli tanks are shelling the hospital, they have hit several of the floors, and several nurses have been injured,” director Basman Alashi told AFP.
“There is no place safe in Gaza! If a hospital is not safe, where is?” he said.
The hospital in Gaza’s Shujaiyeh district has come under Israeli fire several times before, and the Israeli military has called on Alashi and other doctors to evacuate it.
The Al-Quds hospital was also hit overnight Thursday by Israeli forces, causing a fire to break out which damaged several departments of the building.
On Saturday, thirty-year-old Ola Washahi and 47-year-old Suha Abu Saada were killed when an Israeli rocket hit a care home for Palestinians with special needs in Beit Lahiya.
The facility’s director, Jamila Alaywa, was unable to contain her fury as she described the tragedy that had befallen the center she set up in 1994.
“Both Ola and Suha had severe mental and physical handicaps, and had been living at the center since it was founded,” she told AFP.
“They didn’t understand what was happening and they were so frightened,” Alaywa said.
“They fired the rocket and it hit us without any warning. There was no warning strike with an empty rocket,” she said.
Photo by Charlie Andreasson, ISM
Horror stories abound at Gaza hospital after Israeli invasion
Al-Akhbar | July 18, 2014
As Israeli occupation forces pushed into Gaza overnight, intense tank fire shook parts of Khan Younis, sending a flood of patients into the southern city’s Nasser hospital.
The shells smashed into buildings near the border with Israel, prompting thousands to flee their homes under the cover of darkness, only missiles lighting up the sky.
At Nasser hospital, doctors and nurses working 24-hour shifts were on alert for the wave of patients who began arriving in the early hours.
“The situation is very, very difficult,” said doctor Kamel Zaqzuq.
“This is much, much more difficult than the last war,” he said, referring to the November 2012 Israeli assault on Gaza that killed 177 Palestinians.
“At night, it’s one constant emergency.”
He said the hospital was running short on some supplies, including medical sutures for stitches.
Many of those who arrived at the hospital on Thursday night and early Friday morning, after the ground invasion began, were children, he said.
For some, it was too late — doctors said 11 people ended up in the facility’s morgue.
Two were still there on Friday morning, wrapped in white sheets on the steel shelves of a refrigerator, locked behind a door of rusting iron bars.
Others suffered grave injuries and were being treated in the intensive care unit, including 25-year-old Khadija Abu Hamad.
She was hurt in tank shelling in a neighborhood known simply as Sharqiya, or eastern district.
Shrapnel ripped through most of her body, embedding itself in her brain, breaking her left arm and gouging out her left eye.
The little remaining part of her face not covered in bandages was bruised black and yellow, and metal pins were holding her broken arm together.
Next to her was 18-year-old Uday al-Astal, now paralyzed on his right side after shrapnel entered his brain.
And on the other side of the room was a relative of his — 23-year-old Yousef al-Astal.
“He came in with a very serious injury to his femoral artery,” said doctor Moataz al-Jubur, who is supervising the intensive care ward.
“We had to amputate his leg.”
Both were wounded in an Israeli bombing on Wednesday. Four of their relatives were killed — among them two children, aged four and six.
Across the ward, Jubur was supervising another patient hurt late on Thursday night as the invasion began.
Shrapnel tore into his stomach, kidneys and intestines, Jubur said.
“I keep giving him blood transfusions, but he’s in very bad shape.”
Downstairs, those with less serious injuries waited for treatment, or to hear news of loved ones.
Ibrahim Fayyad, 24, was sitting outside his house on Friday morning when an airstrike hit.
“It happened a few meters away and so I started to run away in fear,” he said.
“Even as I was running there was another strike, a plane fired three times, there was a huge explosion, and there was shrapnel flying everywhere.”
Two of his cousin’s sons were killed: 26-year-old Mohammed Fayyad, and 25-year-old Mahmoud Fayyad.
Jubur has worked at Nasser hospital for more than five years, and was sanguine when asked about the current conflict.
“This is not the first time I’ve been in a situation like this,” he said.
Israel assaulted Gaza in a 22 day war over New Year 2009, and again in late 2012, both of which had devastating consequences for civilians in Gaza.
The current conflict has depressing echoes of those former rounds of violence.
So far, the Palestinian death toll from 11 days of violence stands at more than 270, while two Israelis have also been killed, one soldier and one civilian.
UN figures indicate that at least a third of the dead are children.
“The whole world is watching while the Palestinians are being slaughtered,” Jubur said, his voice rising.
“They are innocents, people sitting next to their homes, people sitting with their relatives,” he added.
“Where should these people go?”
(AFP)
Journalists injured in Israel airstrikes on media buildings
Ma’an – 18/07/2014
GAZA CITY – At least one journalist was injured in an Israeli airstrike that targeted Palestinian media buildings in the Gaza Strip early Friday.
Israeli Apache helicopters targeted the al-Jawhara tower in Gaza City at 4 a.m., causing damage to at least 10 apartments in the building, which holds several media offices.
Photojournalist Muhammad Shabab was injured and taken to al-Shifa hospital for treatment.
Two municipality workers at street level were injured as rocks and debris covered the area.
Israeli forces also targeted the Daoud Tower in the al-Rimal neighborhood, cutting off the broadcast of a local radio station and injuring several employees.
The Israeli army has been regularly accused of targeting Palestinian journalists by international watchdogs, and attacks on news and radio stations in Gaza have generally been more frequent during times of bombardment.
NYT headline on Gaza killings hits new low
By Jonathon Cook | The Blog from Nazareth | July 17, 2014
Remember the appalling New York Times headline of July 10 over a story about a family of nine Palestinians killed by an Israeli strike as they watched the World Cup on the beach: “Missile at beachside Gaza cafe finds patrons poised for World Cup.” Could you imagine a more obfuscatory and misleading headline? Like the missile made the decision about where to strike on its own. I thought that was about as low as the NYT would sink.
But I was wrong. They have come up with an even more dissembling headline, one clearly crafted to avoid highlighting the embarrassing fact that Israel slaughtered four boys yesterday who were playing football in clear view on the beach.
The first subeditor does a reasonable job: “Four young boys killed playing on a Gaza beach”. It’s not exactly clear who did the killing, but at least it gives an idea of the story.
But then, it seems, the senior editors stepped in and demanded the headline be rewritten. Not to make the headline better or clearer, mind you. Simply to strip it of any relevance to the story; in fact, to strip it of any obvious meaning at all. Here it is: “Boys Drawn to Gaza Beach, and Into Center of Mideast Strife.”
No missile strike, no blast, no deaths and injuries, no Israeli responsibility to be found in the headline. All of it whitewashed by that weasel word “strife”.
And look at the enormous burden being placed on the verb “drawn”. It leaves the reader wondering not why Israel targeted four children but why they were “drawn” to the beach in the first place. And further, why they were drawn – rather than thrust by Israel – into the “center of strife”. The clear implication is that they were pawns, lured to the beach and exploited for some nefarious end. Who could have done such luring and to what purpose?
The NYT editors are world-class wordsmiths. They understand the power of words and they are experts at using them to achieve the desired effect. There is nothing accidental about this headline. It is as precisely targeted as the Israeli missile that ended those four young boys’ lives.
www.fair.org/blog/2014/07/17/nyt-rewrites-gaza-headline-was-it-too-accurate/
Israeli military shells Gazan el-Wafa hopsital
International Solidarity Movement | July 18, 2014
Gaza, Occupied Palestine – Yesterday at 20:40 the Israeli military contacted el-Wafa hospital in Gaza and stated, “Why don’t you care about your family? Why don’t you care about your patients?”
The receptionist replied, “Sir, you can’t bomb the hospital. We cannot move the patients.”
Several minutes later, two rockets were fired at the hospital, and two more shortly after. The fourth rocket penetrated through the concrete walls.
The shelling then began heavily, hitting the hospital from all sides. Nurses ran through the halls screaming.
Dr. Basman Alashi, executive director of el-Wafa hospital, stated, “They are going to destroy the hospital.” Soon after the hospital lost electricity.
Alashi stated, “If these patients die, I hold Netanyahu personally responsible for their souls.”
All but four of the 17 patients were evacuated. Two of the four remaining patients were dependent on oxygen and were unable to be immediately moved. There were also four staff members and two Spanish international activists inside el-Wafa.
At 21:45, the Israeli military called the Red Cross and asked them to contact el-Wafa to ask how much time was needed to evacuate the rest of the hospital. Alashi told them that he needed two hours to fully evacuate the hospital.
The last shelling occurred at 22:00 and the last patient was evacuated at 22:45 to Al sahaba medical complex.
According to Dr. Basman Alashi, “There were no physical injuries but emotionally, it is indescribable for the staff.”
photos by Charlie Andreasson
Israeli strike kills three children playing on Gaza roof
Al-Akhbar | July 17, 2014
Brothers Jihad and Wissam were playing on the roof of their Gaza apartment with their cousin Fulla, when an Israeli strike came from the blue skies above and killed them.
Fulla, a nickname given to 10-year-old Afnan, was the eldest. All three were from the Shaheber family, in Gaza City’s Sabra district.
After being cooped up at home for days on end, neighbors said the children were taking advantage of the relative calm that followed a brief truce between Israel and Hamas.
“They were playing on the roof,” said neighbor Raed al-Kurdi, 33, his white vest stained with blood.
“We were sitting on our roof next to our neighbor’s one and we found all of a sudden a rocket coming from above and it hit their roof,” he added.
“The people who were injured were from the Shaheber family, there were children, two girls, two boys and two grown men.
“They were in serious condition, we carried them out in our arms.”
Three of the children died en route to the Shifa hospital, where they were laid out on steel tables in the morgue as doctors in blue coats moved around them, cleaning them.
Each had coin-sized pieces of flesh gouged out from their limbs by shrapnel.
Next to them, their uncle Mohammed wept openly.
An employee at the hospital, he heard the call go out for ambulances after the strike that hit the Shaheber home.
“They were children, just playing on the roof. And now they’re dead, lying in front of us,” he said, his voice anguished but also angry.
“How can this be, how can this be?”
The morgue chief asked the distraught family members if they want to allow media waiting outside into the room.
“It is up to you, but if you want to show the world what happened here, we will let them in,” he told Mohammed and other relatives inside, who assented tearfully.
The three children were lined up beside each other, along with a fourth child brought in from an earlier strike in Gaza City.
Fulla was laid in the middle and her cousins one on either side.
Her curly hair framed her face, specked with blood.
Her T-shirt might once have been white, but now it was completely red, soaked through with her blood.
To her right was 8-year-old Jihad, his turquoise T-shirt and trousers torn through by shrapnel.
To her left was Wissam, seven years old, his eyes still open as though he was staring into the middle distance.
His trousers had been removed, revealing his blue and yellow superhero underwear.
Pathology of Zionist siege of Gaza: Victim blamed
By Yuram Abdullah Weiler | Press TV | July 17, 2014
“At the heart of the blame approach is a system of warfare, which centers on the outcome of moral or legal battles rather than on the resolution of conflict and the prevention of future violence. As such, it neither reduces pathology nor protects the victim.” – Ofer Zur, Ph.D.
Once again, the Zionist entity has unleashed a massive bombing campaign on Gaza, killing over 200 people and injuring 1500, supposedly in retaliation for being targeted by “an ever-escalating number of missiles.”
The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, by responding with over 1,000 rockets aimed at targets within the Zionist entity, is being portrayed as the aggressor and “Israel” as an innocent victim that even agreed to a cease fire while its “terrorist” adversary did not. U.S. President Obama has justified Zionist assaults on Gaza since “there’s no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.”
To clarify who is the victim and who is the perpetrator here, we must briefly examine history to see the pathology of the Zionist entity, which has repeatedly launched similar assaults on Gaza under the pretext of its right to defend itself. Most news coverage of the current carnage points to the deaths of three kidnapped teenagers as the immediate cause, falling in line with the allegations of Zionist Prime Minister Netanyahu, who insisted on blaming Hamas for the tragedy. However, taking such a short-sighted perspective can only yield a distorted view of this ongoing colonial confrontation whose roots date back to before the Balfour Declaration in 1917.
To understand what led to the current onslaught, we can begin with the unilateral withdrawal of Zionist occupation forces and settlers from Gaza in August 2005. Engineered by Ariel Sharon, the butcher behind the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, the “disengagement” from Gaza was an excuse to circumvent Zionist responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention as the occupying power, as was clarified in a letter sent to then U.S. President George Bush. The letter stated that, upon completion of the withdrawal, “there will be no basis for the claim that the Gaza Strip is occupied territory.”
By cooperating with Sharon’s disengagement plan, Palestinians expected the Zionists to live up to their word and allow Gazans “to breathe the air of freedom and begin rebuilding their shattered lives.” However, this did not happen: Gaza’s borders remained closed, its airport remained shut down, the sea was still off limits to fishermen, and entry into and exit from the coastal enclave remained a virtual impossibility, subject to the whims of the Israeli entity. Based on the Hague “effective control test,” Gaza remained occupied territory under international law, as research professor of law at the University of London Iain Scobbie wrote, “When we also take into account the views that have been expressed on control of the territory from the air, it is clear that Israeli withdrawal of land forces did not terminate occupation.”
Before the disengagement, Hamas had announced their intention to participate in the May 5, 2005 legislative elections, which resulted in Fatah winning 50 seats and Hamas winning 28, mainly in the major urban areas. Fatah contested the election in court, which ruled in their favor, necessitating a second election that was delayed until January 25, 2006. However, as the date approached, it became increasingly clear, much to the chagrin of U.S. and Zionist officials, that Hamas stood a good chance of winning over the disputing Fatah factions. Their worst fears were born out when Hamas won big, taking 74 seats to Fatah’s 45, something which reportedly surprised even the Hamas leadership.
As a result of the sweeping Hamas victory, rival Fatah, of course, became bitter, but the Bush administration flatly refused to accept the outcome, and announced that they would neither engage the victors in dialogue nor grant economic aid until Hamas met three conditions: First, recognition of the Israeli entity; second, disarming and renunciation of violence; and third, acceptance of all previous Palestinian agreements with Tel Aviv. By placing these conditions on Hamas, the American officials, who, incidentally, were among the staunchest proponents of holding the elections, effectively signaled that, rather than supporting democracy, they were unwilling to accept the will of the majority of the Palestinian people.
In one of the first acts of the newly-elected government, political bureau head Khaled Mish’al unilaterally extended the Hamas truce with the Zionist regime, but instead of welcoming this gesture, the U.S. exerted pressure on countries worldwide not to recognize the incoming Palestinian administration. While Turkey and Russia extended invitations to the newly-elected government, Mahmoud Abbas played no small role in sabotaging meetings between the Hamas leadership and South Africa and Malaysia. Moreover, the outgoing Palestinian Legislative Council gave Abbas sweeping executive powers which gave him the authority as president to have the final word in any disputes arising with the new Hamas government.
The security situation in Gaza became increasingly chaotic due to poor response by Fatah police under the command of Abbas, who himself had a personal security force of 10,000, financed and trained by the U.S. in Jordan with Zionist collaboration. Then, Washington and Tel Aviv imposed economic sanctions and virtually cut off all financial channels by which aid could flow to the Hamas government. Next, armed provocateurs were dispatched to stir the growing unrest into a full-blown confrontation between Hamas and Fatah. Lastly, the U.S. and the Zionist entity resorted to armed conflict in an attempt to bring down the Hamas government.
As the political struggle between Fatah and Hamas intensified, the Zionist regime fired shells into Gaza, allegedly in response to rockets fired from there, and continued to assassinate Palestinian activists from both factions in an obvious attempt to escalate the conflict. Then on June 9, 2006, a Zionist artillery bombardment killed seven Palestinians, one of whom was the father of a ten-year-old girl named Huda Ghalia. The photos of Huda running in tears toward her father after her entire family had been annihilated by an Israeli shell galvanized Gazans, who demanded a response to this Israeli provocation. At that point the Izzadin al-Qassam brigades appealed to Hamas leadership, which finally relented and ended the truce. Nevertheless, Abbas continued to meet with then Zionist prime minister Ehud Olmert, whom the Hamas leaders justifiably referred to as a “terrorist.”
A critical point in the escalating conflict came soon afterward when on June 24 Zionist troops entered Gaza and kidnapped two Hamas members, the brothers Mostafa and Osama Muammar, after severely beating their father who required hospitalization. In retaliation, members of various resistance factions tunneled under the border to the Zionist outpost of Keren Shalom, neutralizing four soldiers and kidnapping corporal Gilad Shalit. The Zionist regime used the abduction, for which Hamas was not directly responsible, as an excuse to bomb bridges, main roads, water plants, power stations and other services in a vicious attempt to dislodge Hamas by destroying Gaza’s infrastructure.
For a time in the summer of 2006, the world was distracted from Gaza while Hezbollah successfully repulsed a full-scale Zionist assault on Lebanon, which killed 1,109 Lebanese civilians and wounded 4,399. Explaining his perspective on cause of the so-called War of Tammuz, one Hezbollah fighter explained, “The Israelis did what they could to destroy our humanity. As a result, the people rose up and resisted. Isn’t that normal?” This statement exposes the Zionist pathology: the desire to destroy the humanity of Palestinians, which is precisely what we see in Gaza, as the victim is blamed for resisting the oppressor.
By 2007, an agreement for a unity government brokered by the Saudis was derailed by the United States, which tasked Lieutenant General Keith Dayton with toppling the Hamas government with the help of Fatah. This act of American adventurism led Hamas to expel Fatah forces from Gaza. In response to Hamas with the backing of the U.S., western allies and Egypt, the Israeli entity launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27, 2008, killing 1,400 during the bloody three-week operation. As if this were not enough, the Zionist regime struck Gaza again in March 2012 for five days, killing another 25 Palestinians in a series of air assaults.
This brings us to the present attack on Gaza, which began on July 8 and so far has claimed the lives of over 200 men, women and children, destroyed 500 homes and cut off water to hundreds of thousands. The Zionist pathology remains the same as it was in Lebanon: the desire to destroy the Palestinians’ humanity. Even more macabre were the actions of some citizens in Sderot who gathered on a hill to watch the bombardment, cheering raucously as each Israeli bomb exploded in Gaza. This is all part of the morbid Zionist pathology.
“Of course, let us not think for a moment, God forbid, that we can be indifferent to the death of innocents. The death of any child, Israeli or Arab, Muslim or Jew, is an unspeakable tragedy that rends the heart,” Rabbi Eric Yoffie, former president of the Union for Reform Judaism, confided sanctimoniously. This is while three teenage Zionists have confessed to murdering a teenage Palestinian boy by burning him alive. This oxymoron is also part of the Zionist pathology.
WaPo’s Gaza dispatch: ugly and dishonest
By Jonathon Cook | July 17, 2014
There’s something deeply ugly, verging on mendacious, about this eye-witness account of the strike against children on Gaza’s beach, which killed four of them, by William Booth in the Washington Post. It begins with what appears to be context but is, in fact, simply an effort to deflect criticism from Israel and blame the victims.
He starts with this: “It is not unusual for militants to launch rockets from sites near my hotel.”
So had rockets been launched from the spot where the children were killed? Here’s the account of veteran Guardian / Observer correspondent Peter Beaumont:
The building that was hit was just a shipping container next to where one of the kids’ father keeps his boat and stores fishing nets. The kids were just playing hide and seek there. They shoot missiles (against Israel) from this neighborhood but none from that location.
So how is Booth’s introduction relevant in any way to the story? Yes, militants have fired rockets from the neighbourhood (after all, from where else but “neighbourhoods” are they likely to fire rockets in one of the most densely populated places on earth). But, as Beaumont points out, they were not being fired from the area that was attacked by Israel.
Israel is supposedly using precision missiles. So this was deliberate targeting of that area, an open area from which no rockets had been fired and where children regularly play. If Booth believes that rockets fired from the general area somehow justify Israel’s missile strikes on the children (and if not, why mention it?), then why the hell is he staying in the al-Deira hotel, which is presumably as likely to be hit as the harbour where the children play?
There is also something unpleasant in his style of writing here. Note this line as the injured children are brought to his hotel.
Two young terrified kids were bleeding and injured, and they were quickly bandaged on the floor of the terrace, where guests usually eat skewers of grilled chicken, suck on water pipes and watch the sun go down.
That incidental reference to the chicken and water pipes is added for colour. It’s a journalistic technique we use when there’s not much happening and you want to set a scene to draw the reader into the story. But here it’s entirely unnecessary. The action – the bleeding children and the dead bodies nearby – are what will draw the reader in, as any rookie journalist would know. So when I see Booth pausing from his description to talk about how the guests entertain themselves in the evenings, I sense – both as a journalist and a reader – that his attention is not fully on the events at hand.
I’d like to believe this is his way of responding to the shock of the events he’s just witnessed. But I suspect something else is at work here, something revealing about the business of journalism.
Most of the time, we write not for ourselves or our readers but for our editors – in short to keep our jobs. Here Booth was called on to stop being the careerist and connect with his humanity. That, rare though it is in journalism, was what the moment required: to see, really see the desperate, terrified little boys in front of him. Instead, all he could think about was technique and what his editors might want.
Health crisis looms in Gaza after Israel bombs water infrastructure
By Ahmed Hadi | Al-Akhbar | July 17, 2014
To either prepare for a ground invasion or to simply to make life for Gazans harsher than it already is, Israel decided to bomb the wells that provide tens of thousands of people in Gaza with water. It has also targeted sewage plants, which means clean water is not coming in and sewage water is not going out.
Bassem Siam carried two plastic gallons as he left his home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza, ignoring the intense bombardment and the continued Israeli military flights. He went to his neighbors who happen to have a small supply of drinking water to get a sip of water for himself and his family and to help his wife wash the dishes that have accumulated in the kitchen because water has been cut off for two days. The 30-something-year-old man held the two gallons tightly to his chest and returned home quickly as Israeli planes bombed farm land near his home. When he entered the building where he lives, he exhaled deeply, having survived the devastating missile shrapnel.
Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza live under the threat of water scarcity due to the fact that Israeli fighter jets bombed wells that provide water to several residential areas in the Gaza Strip. Municipalities in charge of these wells believe that the Israeli targeting of wells is motivated by a decision to destroy the infrastructure in Gaza and to undermine the people’s ability to remain steadfast.
Israeli planes targeted a well located in al-Nasr neighborhood, west of the city of Gaza, which provides water to about 20,000 people and the Ali well in al-Zaitoun area, south of the city, which provides water to about 7,000 people. In addition, three main water lines that feed al-Shujaiya and al-Sabra neighborhoods and provide about 21,000 people with water were also hit.
This targeting appears to be systematic and its obvious objective is to deprive people of water, the single most important element of daily life, especially during the month of Ramadan.
According to the head of the water facilities at the Gaza municipality, Saad al-Din Atbash, it is very difficult to repair the destroyed wells amidst the ongoing violence. Not to mention that the cost for each well to start working again at the same capacity it was working before is $120,000. “In addition, the cost of repairing the three water lines that were damaged is about $6,000 for each line,” he added.
In light of the ongoing war and siege of Gaza, it is hard for the municipality to repair these wells and water lines, Atbash confirmed. He also noted that the electric cables which operate the well pumps that feed the industrial area to the east of Gaza city (known as Karni) have been burned. These pumps provide water to about 5,000 people. He confirmed that the crews working in the field have repaired what can be repaired in order to distribute water again, even if on an intermittent basis. He warned, however, that these crews are working in unsafe conditions because the Israeli military targets emergency work crews.
Gazans are starting to complain about the water shortages that last for days at a time, forcing some of them to fill up their home water tanks with desalinated water to use for drinking, cooking, washing and cleaning. The problem, however, is that the distributors of desalinated water were directly targeted more than once during the 2008 Israeli war on Gaza. Not to mention the additional cost of buying desalinated water which doubles people’s water bills. In addition, several purification water plants announced their inability to provide services to residents, especially to those living in border areas.
Fadi Omran, one of the desalinated water distributors, tells Al-Akhbar : “We can’t risk our lives and go out in the evening. We are trying to work during the day but we don’t have enough time to meet the needs of all the people.” Omran, who drives a huge truck, explained that the Israelis do not differentiate between civilians and Resistance fighters, “they target any moving object at night.” He said that fear for their lives forces them to delay delivering their customers’ orders. In addition to the fact that his plant works only when there is electricity.
This situation prompted the director of the water department in the Gaza municipality to call on people to ration their water consumption “until the damaged water pipes and water wells are repaired.” He also called on international organizations to intervene in order to prevent Israel from bombing the infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
On the evening of July 12, Israeli warplanes targeted a vehicle that belongs to the non-governmental Coastal Municipalities Water Utility near its well located to the west of Rafah in southern Gaza. The bombing killed a 42-year-old employee called Ziad al-Shawi, destroyed his car completely and seriously injured two of his colleagues.
Because of this incident, the general director of the utility, Monzer Shiblak, announced the complete suspension of work at the field water utility after the targeting of its staff, “despite the existing coordination with the Israeli side. The suspension will continue until proper field protection is provided for the employees.” At the same time, he expressed commitment to see his utility persist in its vital duties towards the public and in carrying out its water and sanitation services to the best of its ability.
During a press conference, Shiblak called on international humanitarian organizations, especially the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), to assume their responsibilities and take action to protect the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility and pressure the Israeli side to stop targeting their crews and the municipalities’ crews.
According to observers, warnings have been issued regarding the consequences of subjecting Palestinians in Gaza to health and environmental catastrophes as a result of the Israeli bombing of sewage pump no. 1. This pump services the area to the west of the city of Gaza and treats about 15,000 cubic meters of waste-water per day, thus protecting about 200,000 of the city’s residents from the potential harm of untreated sewage water.
Israeli Airstrikes Kill 24 Palestinians on Wednesday, Including 6 Children
Children crying for their friends killed on a Gaza beach (image from Joe Catron – Twitter)
IMEMC | July 17, 2014
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Israeli airstrikes and naval and artillery strikes have killed 24 Palestinians on Wednesday, most of whom are civilians.
One Israeli airstrike targeted a civilian car, killing two adults and a child, all from the same family.
In Khan Younis, At approximately 01:00 on Wednesday, 16 July 2014, an Israeli drone fired a missile at the vicinity of ‘Asqalan School in al-Fakhari area in the southeast of Khan Yunis, killing:
1. Farid Mahmoud Abu-Doqqa, 33, Khan Younis.
Three other members of the same family were killed in a separate airstrike, also in Khan Younis. They were riding in a clearly-marked civilian taxi when the taxi was targeted by an aerial missile and blown to pieces. The family members killed in the attack are:
2. Omar Ramadan Abu Doqqa, 24, Khan Younis.
Omar’s little brother:
3. Ibrahim Ramadan Abu Doqqa, 10, Khan Younis.
And their grandmother:
4. Khadra Al-Abed Salama Abu Doqqa, 65, Khan Younis.
The family had been visiting an injured relative at Shifa Hospital, and were on their way home when their taxi was targeted by an Israeli missile. Five others were injured in that attack.
Also in Khan Younis, at approximately 03:00, an Israeli drone fired a missile at
5. Mohammed Tayseer Yousef Shurrab, 23
He was targeted when he was on his way back home in Gizan Abu Rashwan area in the southeast of Khan Yunis. He was instantly killed.
At approximately 06:40, Israeli drones fired 2 missiles at a house belonging to Muneer Abu Hatab in Khan Yunis refugee camp. The house was damaged.
In Rafah, in the early hours of Wednesday, July 16, 2014, an Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian civilian in Shabura camp:
6. Ashraf Khalil Abu Shanab, 33, Rafah.
An Israeli airstrike around the same time targeted the Abu Audah family home in Rafah, killing two:
7. Mohammad Ismael Abu Odah, 27, Rafah.
8. Mohammad Abdullah Zahouq, 23, Rafah.
Four others were injured in that attack.
In a separate airstrike in Rafah, a Palestinian man associated with the Islamic Jihad was killed (he was not engaged in any hostilities at the time of his assassination):
9. Mohammad Sabri ad-Debari, Rafah.
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, between 22:00 on Tuesday until 08:15 on Wednesday, 16 July 2014, Israeli warplanes bombarded and destroyed 7 houses in Gaza City:
1 house belonging to Sami Hashem in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood; 1 house belonging to the heirs of Nabeel Shabet in al-Tuffah neighborhood; 1 house belonging to Mahmoud ‘Atallah in al-Ghefari area; 1 house belonging to Mahmoud al-Zahhr, a leader of Hamas, 1 house in al-Sabra neighborhood belonging to Na’im al-Harazinin al-Zaytoun neighborhood; 1 house belonging to Tayseer al-‘Ashi in al-Remal neighborhood; and 1 house belonging to ‘Adnan Killab in al-Shati refugee camp.
Israeli warplanes bombarded 2 flats in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, as well: a minaret of a mosque in al-Shati refugee camp, a building of the Ministry of Interior and al-Wafaa’ Hospital, which Israeli forces ordered its evacuation.
On Wednesday morning, a Palestinian man died from injuries sustained when a missile struck his car in Rafah before midnight.
10. Ahmad al-Nawajha
Midday on Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza beach killed four children between the ages of 9 and 11 – IMEMC has a full report on this killing in a separate article
The children killed are:
11. Ahed Atef Bakr, 10, Gaza beach.
12. Zakariya Ahed Bakr, 10, Gaza beach.
13. Mohammad Ramiz Bakr, 11, Gaza beach.
14. Ismail Mahmoud Bakr, 9, Gaza beach.
Later on Wednesday afternoon, a Missile fired by a reconnaissance aircraft in west of Gaza, in the Sheikh ‘Ejleen region of Gaza City killed:
15. Mohammad Kamel Abdul-Rahman, 30, Sheikh ‘Ejleen, Gaza City.
A Palestinian died Wednesday afternoon of wounds sustained in earlier airstrikes:
16.Husam Shamlakh, 23, Sheikh ‘Ejleen, Gaza City.
died of wounds sustained in a previous attack on a house in west Gaza/ Sheikh ‘Ejleen:
Four people were killed, including two small children and an elderly woman, and three others injured, when Israeli fire targeted them near the al-Katiba mosque west of Khan Younis. They were all members of the same family:
17.Usama Mahmoud Al-Astal, 6, Khan Younis .
18. Yasmin al-Astal, 4, Khan Younis.
19. Hussein Abdul-Nasser al-Astal, 23, Khan Younis.
20. Kawthar al-Astal, 70, Khan Younis.
Airstrikes continued throughout Wednesday afternoon and evening, killing:
21. Kamal Mohammad Abu ‘Amer, 38, Khan Younis.
22.Akram Mohammad Abu ‘Amer, 38, Khan Younis. (brother of Kamal, injured in same incident, then later same day died of his injuries)
23. Abdul-Rahman Ibrahim Khalil as-Sarhi, 37, Gaza City.
Also on Wednesday,
24. Hamza Raed Thary, 6
died of wounds he sustained in an airstrike several days ago in Jabalia.
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Lawrence of Cyberia | March 19, 2010
In December 1945 and January 1946, the British Mandate authorities carried out an extensive survey of Palestine, in support of the work of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine. The results were published in the Survey of Palestine, which has been scanned and made available online by Palestine Remembered; all 1300 pages can be read here.
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