Date: 23 / 01 / 2009  Time:  13:02
Gaza – Ma’an –

The Acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Ahmed Bahar, demanded that Israeli leaders be tried for war crimes on Thursday.

Bahar said in a letter to the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, “The intentional court is called upon to carry out legal procedures by apprehending and detaining Israeli leaders and those responsible for the vicious war perpetrated against civilian Palestinians in Gaza.”

He added: “The Israeli occupation used all kinds of weaponry including the internationally-banned weapons, among them phosphorus, against the Palestinians and shelling residential areas killing 1,340 civilians the majority of whom were children, women, the elderly, medics, journalists, UN workers and other innocents.”

He also noted that Israel disregarded a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

UN humanitarian chief visits Gaza

Date: 23 / 01 / 2009  Time:  11:26
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

The United Nations’ top humanitarian official visited Gaza on Thursday as a part of a team appointed by the UN secretary-general to assess the situation in the war-ravaged territory.

John Holmes, the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs is also due to make a one-day visit to Egypt for meetings with UN officials, the Red Cross and representatives from other humanitarian agencies. He will also meet Palestinian and Israeli officials.

On Thursday Holmes called the number of casualties from Israel’s three-week war "extremely shocking."

Holmes is expected to give a news conference in Jerusalem on Friday to address his findings regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

AI: IOF troops used phosphoric bombs against Gaza civilians

[ 22/01/2009 - 02:28 AM ]

LONDON, (PIC)--

Amnesty International said on Monday that the Israeli occupation terrorist army had indeed used internationally-prohibited bombs in shelling populated areas in Gaza Strip.

The AI findings constituted big blow to the Israeli occupation government, and exposed the Israeli lies of denying using such bombs in the war on Gaza.

The human rights organisation said that there is widespread evidence of Israel's use of white phosphorus bombs during its offensive against the Gaza Strip.

"Yesterday, we saw streets and alleyways littered with evidence of the use of white phosphorus, including still burning wedges and the remnants of the shells and canisters fired by the Israeli army," said Christopher Cobb-Smith, a weapons expert who is in Gaza as part of a four-person Amnesty International fact-finding team.

"White phosphorus is a weapon intended to provide a smokescreen for troop movements on the battlefield," said Cobb-Smith. "It is highly incendiary, air burst and its spread effect is such that it that should never be used on civilian areas”.

Amnesty International delegates found both burning white phosphorous wedges and their carrier shells (which delivered them) in and around houses and buildings.  Some of these heavy steel 155mm shells have caused extensive damage to residential properties, according to AI's press statement.

Legal experts in the organization underlined that the use of such bombs is considered as "war crime", especially if they were used in densely populated areas like Gaza Strip.

Israeli occupation investigation Feeling the heat of the international anger over using such bombs against civilians, the Israeli occupation government admitted its guilt and confessed it had indeed used them "in open areas".

The Israeli occupation government alleged that it was carrying out its own investigation on "how the phosphorous bombs were used, and not why they were used" in the war against Gaza.

The Hebrew Maariv newspaper quoted officers in the Israeli occupation army as alleging that the Israeli artillery shot projectiles covered with pieces of clothes saturated with phosphorous "with the aim to create smoke in the sky to cover the IOF troops' mobility, but many international organizations insisted that the phosphorus bombs were used indiscriminately.

The firm opinion of those organizations pushed the Israeli occupation army to the corner, prompting it to admit their guilt although they tried to deceive the international community by saying they were used against "terrorists".

Another blow to the Israeli fabrications came from Jordanian medical team that visited the tiny Strip, and found out that 90% of the Palestinian casualties were caused by the phosphorous bombs.

More than 1300 Palestinian civilians, the bulk of them were children and women, were killed and thousands have sustained severe injuries and burns as a result of the Israeli aggression that lasted for 22 days in which, Israel acknowledged it had involved nearly one-half of its air force.