Putting the Zionist Israeli War on Gaza in Perspective By Hassan El-Najjar

Putting the Zionist Israeli War on Gaza in Perspective

By Hassan El-Najjar

Editor of ccun.org, January 11, 2009

The Zionist Israeli terrorist war on the Gaza Strip has continued for the fifteenth day. The Israeli US-made F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters have continued bombing all areas of the Gaza Strip spreading death and destruction and terrorizing innocent civilians, particularly women and children, in violation of the US law which prohibits targeting civilians. The Israeli terrorist forces also have been using European-made naval vessels in bombarding various areas of the Palestinian territory.

The official statistics about the Palestinian death toll reached 830, the injuries reached 3350. Many more Palestinian civilians have been killed and injured but were not included in the official statistics because of the continuous Israeli terrorist attacks. Death and destruction hit every residential area in the Gaza Strip.

Among today's victims of Israeli terrorism were 30 civilians, 8 of them from one family. The victims included at least 230 children, 91 women, and 3 journalists.

The Palestinian resistance fighters have demonstrated their readiness to fight a long-term urban warfare against the Zionist, terrorist invaders. Yesterday, they killed 12 Israeli soldiers in Gaza and launched their missiles against Israeli targets as far away as 45 kilometers from Gaza. Today's news from Arabic TV stations show formidable resistance to the Israeli terrorist invasion, represented by rockets and missiles launched at many Israeli targets as far away as 50 kilometers from Gaza. There are news about so many confrontations, only TV stations can cope with, in which Israeli soldiers are killed or injured, and Israeli military vehicles are destroyed.

At the same time, many many Palestinian civilians are killed and injured, and their homes are destroyed by the Israeli terrorist war machine. The entire Gaza Strip population of more than 1.5 million people are held hostage to the Israeli savagery. They still suffer from lack of food, medicine, electricity, running water, and rescue services.

The Israeli terrorist war on Gaza points to the core of the conflict. Most Gazans are basically Palestinian refugees who were evicted from their homes and lands in 1948 and were never allowed to return to their property, contrary to what UN resolutions 184 and 191 call for. Once again, this conflict will not be resolved without justice, without giving Palestinians their rights, as stated in the UN relevant resolutions.

Theft of property is wrong. Palestinians have to be allowed to have their own state, according to the UN Partition resolution, which allows most of the refugees to live in the Arab State of Palestine. Using forces to force Palestinians to surrender will not work. It has never worked in every case of invasion, occupation, and oppression.

It has not worked for the Crusaders in the Middle Ages, nor for Germans when they occupied most of Europe, nor for Americans in Korea and Vietnam, nor for the Soviets in Afghanistan, nor for Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Zionist Israeli dreams of enslaving Palestinians and establishing the Israeli Empire in the Middle East will never happen.

God has created people equal at the moment of birth. God doesn't like it when some of them try to enslave and oppress others. He doesn't tolerate it when some of them try to impose themselves on nations to worship them instead of Him. His punishment will happen whenever this happens, as it happened in every previous case.

The Zionists in Israel are armed to teeth. They are intoxicated with the trillions of dollars other Zionists have looted from the US and other capitalist countries. They have controlled governments of the US and other NATO countries and dragged them to fight Israeli wars against Arab and Muslim states in order to pave the way to establish the mythical Israeli empire in the oil-rich Middle East.

The Israeli Zionists cannot believe that with all their power and control over the US-EU governments, they still cannot control Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which may explain the fierce cruelty they inflict on the Palestinian civilian population there. The Zionists do not want to believe that the resistance of the invaded nations will ultimately achieve victory, they are trying to avoid the disgraceful fate of previous cruel invaders and occupiers, who went to the dust bin of history.

The unlimited financial, economic, and military support from the Zionist-controlled US-EU governments has enabled the Israeli terrorists to continue their war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza Strip, with thousands of women and children killed and injured, without an end in sight despite the ceasefire resolution passed by the UN Security Council, which is crippled by the Zionist control of US-EU votes.

The Zionists have been successful in destroying the state of Iraq, occupying Afghanistan, subjugating Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, and the Arab Gulf States. However, they have achieved nothing so far. There is resistance everywhere to their wicked dream of subjugating the Arab and Muslim world with the US-EU blood, money, and military equipment.

The 60-year-long war to subjugate the Palestinian people has not ended yet. Palestinians have refused to be the slaves of Khazari Zionists who have no roots in the Middle East. All indications show that it will end only with victory for the Palestinian people, the rightful owners of the Holy Land, the descendants of the Cana'anites, and the true descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The resistance in Iraq destroyed the dreams of Wolfowitz, Pearle, and Feith, who planned the war and dragged the US to execute it with its money and with the blood of its sons and daughters, leading to the collapse of its financial system.

Voices are being heard now calling for investigations and prosecutions of those who have allowed the Israeli use of US weapons to kill civilians in Gaza, thanks to Congressman Kucinich.

The US treasury was looted with hundreds of billions of dollars in 2008. The catastrophic $10.7 trillion US national debt was caused by the Zionist-imposed military and security spending to achieve goals of the Zionist empire, not the US nation state. The way for the US out of the Zionist bondage is the adoption of a national US currency, other than the dollar, which is really the currency of the Zionist Empire. Then, the dollar will be worthless, and the trillions of dollars which the Zionists extorted from nations will be worthless too.

This step of adopting a US national currency, other than the dollar, is necessary before the total Zionist destruction of the United States.

It's time for Americans to stand up to this Zionist systematic destruction of their nation state in service of the wicked dream of the Israeli empire in the Middle East.

Another major step should be counter-balancing the influence of Zionists in the US government by appointing non-Zionist Christian and Muslim Americans in the major decision-making positions in government, as most of these positions are now occupied by Zionists, Jews and gentile, who have been biased in favor of Israel.

This step is what's called checks and balances, which is required but not achieved in US government appointments yet. Sacking all those who are loyal to Israel from the departments and agencies of the US government in all levels is necessary to save America and the world from the endless state of war. US officials should pledge allegiance only to the US, not to Israel as most of them do every year when they travel to the Zionist state and stand before AIPAC.

AIPAC represents a foreign entity. Participation in its activities, including working in its think tanks, or speaking in its annual meetings should be a disqualifier for anyone from assuming any job in any level in the government, local, state, or federal. Otherwise, they will be serving a foreign entity on the expense of the United States.

This is the way for America and the world out of the continuous state of Zionist wars, death, and destruction.

Planet Earth is hungry for peace, love, and prosperity, access to which has been denied for a long time by Zionists.

Nothing is impossible to achieve, the one-thousand mile journey starts with just one step.

===================================

Day 15 of the Zionist Israeli Terrorist War on Gaza, US-Made F-16 & Apache Helicopters Continue Death & Destruction Missions, 821 Palestinians Killed, 3330 Injured

ccun.org, January 10, 2009, 8:00 am ET

Hamas: The IOF targets civilians, avoids confrontation with resistance

[ 10/01/2009 - 12:23 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Hamas said on Friday that most of the targets attacked by the Israeli occupation airforce ad ground forces have been civilian targets and that the resistance has lost very little so far.

Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, said that the targeting by Israelis of civilian installations indicates a grave military and political failure on the part of the Israeli occupation.

"The more than 1000 targets struck by the Zionist enemy were civilian, including universities, hospitals, mosques and houses. This sort of targeting indicates a failure on the part of the enemy which has so far not confronted the resistance on the ground."

He pointed out that the Israeli occupation ground forces remained close to borders and in open areas to avoid confrontations with the resistance.

Meanwhile, the Qassam Brigades announced that in addition to the 8 IOF troops killed in a house they occupied in the Salatin neighbourhood of Beit Lahya in the northern Gaza Strip, its sniper have managed to kill on Friday another 4 IOF soldiers in different areas of the Gaza Strip. This brings the number of IOF soldiers killed in Gaza by the resistance since the start of the ground invasion to 45 and the number of IOF soldiers wounded to 120, according to Hamas sources.

Furthermore, the Qassam Brigades, announced on Friday morning that its fighters fired on Friday morning a Grad rocket at an Israeli occupation military air base of Tal-Nov about 45 kilometres from Gaza, so far the farthest place targeted the Palestinian resistance.

QB: Its fighters killed 8 IOF soldiers in Beit Lahya

[ 09/01/2009 - 06:18 PM ]

IOA acknowledges death of three soldiers despite unprecedented media blackout

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

The Israeli occupation army has acknowledged Thursday that at least three soldiers, including a major, of its elite troops were killed with Palestinian resistance bullets in northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli acknowledgment came despite the strict media blackout the Israeli occupation government imposed on the events in Gaza.

Ten more Israeli soldiers were also wounded in the battle, according to official Hebrew sources. Two more Israeli troopers were killed by Palestinian snipers, the sources confirmed.

But Palestinian fighters asserted they have killed at least 33 Israeli soldiers and wounded more than 100 others since the Israeli aggression on Gaza began 14 days ago.

At dawn Friday, the IOF troops pulled out of the Qarara town, east of Khan Younis city, after fierce clashes with the Palestinian resistance fighters led by the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. Six Palestinian citizens, including three elderly people, were killed by the IOF during the incursion.

Meanwhile, the Qassam Brigades, on Friday evening, said its fighters stormed a house occupied by IOF troops in the Salatin neighborhood of Beit Lahya and killed at least eight of them.

IOF troops kill more Palestinian children, women in Gaza

[ 09/01/2009 - 05:56 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The brutal Israeli occupation army continued its monstrous aggression on the tiny Gaza Strip for the fourteenth successive day, killing around 800 Palestinians and wounding more than 3250 others, hundreds of them in serious condition.

According to Dr. Muaweyya Abu Hassanien, the director of the emergency department in the PA health ministry in Gaza Strip confirmed that at least 50% of the martyrs were children and women, adding that ambulance teams were unearthing new bodies of Palestinian civilians buried under the rubbles of their homes that were destroyed by the Israeli air strikes and tank shelling.

Paramedics and ambulance vehicles face big difficulties in reaching out to wounded Palestinian civilians, especially in the northern part of the coastal Strip where many Palestinian families believed to be killed or forced out of their homes at the hands of the IOF troops.

At least eight paramedics and a doctor were killed after IOF troops deliberately shot them as they tried to aid wounded children and women in various areas of the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Basim Naim, the PA minister of health, confirmed that Gaza hospitals face sharp shortage in medicine and medical equipment and couldn’t cope with the increasing number of Palestinian victims.

He also pointed out that 50% of the ambulance vehicles were either destroyed or suspended that, he added, doubles the burden on the Palestinian doctors and paramedics, urging an immediate help from doctors in neighboring Arab countries.

Tens of Arab doctors and surgeons had been waiting at the Rafah crossing point for nearly one week, and prepared to go into Gaza Strip to help their Palestinian colleagues, but the Egyptian authorities refused to allow them in.

However there were reports on Friday evening of 11 Arab doctors crossing the Rafah terminal into the Gaza Strip to help their Palestinian colleagues.

The intensive Israeli air, land, and sea shelling had targeted civilian homes in addition to schools run by the UNRWA were hundreds of Palestinian families sought a refuge. At least 30 Palestinian civilians were massacred in the UNRWA-run Al-Fakhora school in Jabalya city after Israeli warplanes shelled it.

Local mosques and civil infrastructure were also destroyed by the intensive Israeli bombardment. Local observes opined that the Israeli behavior in targeting civilians reflects their failure in defeating the Palestinian resistance despite the simple weapons they have compared to the Israeli state-of-the-art weapons.

The Israeli occupation government imposed media blackout on the Israeli casualties in the war in Gaza with the aim not to demoralize the Israeli public; but sources in the Palestinian resistance confirmed that tens of Israeli soldiers, including high-ranking officers were killed and wounded in the ongoing fighting.

US Congressman calls for inquiry into illegal use of US weapons by Israel

Friday January 09, 2009 19:30 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

After reports emerged from Gaza that Israel bombed a United Nations School on Tuesday, where people had sought refuge from Israeli military attacks, US Congressman Dennis Kucinich has called for an investigation into Israel's possible illegal use of US-supplied weapons.

The US is the single largest supplier of weapons to Israel, with over $3 billion in weapons transfers taking place each year. In addition to F16 fighter jets, guns, tanks and bombs, the US has also supplied Israel with tens of thousands of cluster bombs, weapons which have been declared illegal under international law.

In a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Kucinich stated, “I believe that with the current escalation of violence in Gaza, a legal threshold has been reached, warranting a Presidential examination and report to Congress. I hereby request an examination of Israel’s compliance with the provisions of the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 (AECA).

While neither the AECA nor the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA) define 'internal security' and 'legitimate self-defense,' I believe that Israel’s most recent attacks neither further internal security nor do they constitute 'legitimate' acts of self-defense. They do, however, 'increase the possibility of an outbreak or escalation of conflict,' because they are a vastly disproportionate response to the provocation, and because the Palestinian population is suffering from those military attacks in numbers far exceeding Israeli losses in life and property.”

Kucinich stated that he supports “Israel's security and its right to exist in peace, without the fear of rocket attacks from Hamas. Moreover, I abhor the violence being visited upon the citizens of our firm ally.” But he says that, “no nation is immune from the legal conditions placed on the receipt of U.S. military assistance.”

Israel has long held a 'special relationship' with the US, in which its actions against the civilian population of the Palestinian territories it has occupied with military force since 1967, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, go unquestioned by US leadership.

But according to Congressman Kucinich, “I believe that Israel’s use of defense articles provided by the U.S in the current Gaza military attacks may constitute a violation of the AECA. At a minimum, the conflict is sufficient to warrant an immediate report to Congress as required by 22 U.S.C. §2753.”

He asked Secretary of State Rice to, “Please contact my office by close of business on January 7, 2009 with the date the report will be submitted.”

As of January 9th, Kucinich says he has not yet received a response.

15th day under attack: death toll in Gaza reaches 804, Journalists attacked by the army fire

Saturday January 10, 2009 10:57 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

The Israeli army continued last night and this morning to target the Gaza Strip, while the military operation entered its 15th day on Saturday.

The bodies of three children from the same family killed in Gaza by the Israeli shelling on Monday â€“ Photo by WAFA

Palestinian sources reported that Israeli forces shelled on Saturday at dawn residential areas located in Kahn Younis, Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip and Gaza city and nearby refugee camps in the central Coastal Region.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that the death toll in Gaza due to the Israeli continued attacks on Gaza now stands by Saturday midday at 709, with 3300 injured among them 500 in critical conditions.

The Israeli Army embarked on its military offensive on Saturday December 27, 2008. Israeli warplanes started by shelling all the Palestinian security posts there. In the following days, the shelling was expanded. Hospitals, homes, blacksmith workshops, schools, and mosques where targeted. Day and night the entire Palestinian coastal region was under attack. On Saturday January 3, 2009, Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza strip and divided it into two sections.

Also on Saturday Palestinian Journalists protested in Gaza City against the Israeli attacks on them. On Friday night Ala Al Murtaje, a local journalist in Gaza, was killed and his mom sustained critical wounds when his home came under Israeli fire.

Al Murtaje is the third journalist to be killed by the Israeli shelling. Last week Eyhab Al wahidi, who is a camera man for the Palestinian President office in Gaza and Bassel Faraj, a Cameraman for the Algerian TV where killed in similar shelling.

In addition Israeli jet fighters shelled on Friday evening Al Johara building, in Gaza City, the building host journalists' offices working for local and Arab media. According to journalists the missile hit near the studios of the live feed nearly killing them.

Israeli did not allow international journalists to enter the Gaza strip since the attacks started three weeks ago.

Dr. Barghouthi: Israel is executing civilians in Gaza, committing war crimes?

Saturday January 10, 2009 11:58 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian Legislator Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, stated in a press conference on Saturday at the Watan Media Center in Ramallah, that Israel continues its crimes in Gaza for the fifteenth day, and is committing war crimes by shelling civilian homes and killing children, women and elderly.

Dr. Barghouthi added that the large number of civilian casualties proves that Israel’s claims of targeting the fighters are false and outrageous.

He demanded documenting all statistics and cases in preparation for an international criminal investigation and demanded the formation of an international committee which would be in charge of prosecuting Israeli officials responsible for these crimes.

The Palestinian Legislator also said that Israel is not only targeting civilians but also targeting medical personnel as 13 medics and physicians were killed by the Israeli army during the ongoing offensive.

He added that the army shelled hospitals, schools and mosques which increased the number of civilian casualties.

Dr. Barghouthi further said Israel’s statements that the fighters its army is kidnapping in Gaza are illegitimate are very serious claims which are considered an approval to kill them after they are captured.

Commenting on Jordan’s decision to withdraw its ambassador to Israel, Dr. Barghouthi said that this is a positive step that should be followed similar steps by other Arab and Foreign countries.

He slammed the Pentagon’s decision to transfer weapons to Israel and considered this decision as an active American participation in the war crimes carried out by the Israeli army against the Palestinian people. “It is a blow to the upcoming Obama Administration which is preparing to move into the White House”, Dr. Barghouthi added.

Qaddoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, said that Israel’s kidnapping of civilians in Gaza and the media blackout on the issue is very serious as it gives the army a free hand to assassinate the kidnapped residents.

Fares added that the army is not providing any information about the number of kidnapped residents or their whereabouts “Which gives the army the opportunity to execute them, through their bodies in the streets, and claim that they were killed in during clashes”.

The Society demanded the Red Cross to perform its duties in the Gaza Strip and to act in order to receive information on the abducting residents.

Doctor Moawiya Hassanen, of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, reported Saturday that 804 Palestinians, including 230 children, 92 women, and 92 elderly were killed, and more than 3300 were wounded; 400 seriously.

No end in site, offesnive continues, more civilians continue to fall

Saturday January 10, 2009 11:14 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

As the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip continued for the second week, the Israeli army killed more than 804 Palestinians and wounded at least 3300. On Friday at night, Palestinian resistance continued its clashes with the invading forces; fierce battles were reported on Friday at night and Saturday at dawn in Beit Lahia and Al Atatra.

Dr. Hassanen added that two reporters and three international women were among the casualties. He also said that the army damaged 14 ambulances and killed twelve medics.

On Saturday, twelve Arab physicians made it into Gaza; nine of them are Egyptian, one Moroccan and one Jordanian.

During a series of shelling and air strikes on Friday the army killed 29 Palestinians and wounded dozens of other residents.

On Friday at noon, a 60-year old man and his wife were killed and their son was wounded in an Israeli shelling in northern Gaza.

Three more Palestinians were killed in Abasan Al Sughra in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian child was also killed on Friday and another child was wounded when the army shelling a home in Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

On the same day, a 42-year old woman was killed; another woman and a child were wounded when the army shelled another home in Al Qarm area in Jablia.

In Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the army killed a mother, four of her sons and her sister. The ages of her slain sons are between 4 and 14. At least eighteen more residents were wounded.

Three Palestinians were killed in the central Gaza Strip and seven more were wounded in a shelling carried out by the Israeli Navy in Al Zawaida town in the central Gaza Strip.

Israel enters third week of war with attacks on media
- six dead overnight; 802 since violence began

Date: 10 / 01 / 2009 Time: 09:31
Gaza – Ma’an –

Since midnight Saturday morning Israeli fire has killed six Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, targeting family homes media institutions and factories.

Israel is continuing its targeting of homes in the northern and central Gaza Strip, and has reported bombing more than 70 targets since Friday morning, killing more than 35 people during the course of the day.

Resistance fighters launched more than 20 projectiles aimed at Israeli targets during the day.

According to Israeli sources, at least 646 projectiles have been launched since the invasion began on 27 December.

As of Saturday morning local time, 801 Palestinians in Gaza were dead as a result of the Israeli violence.

Media targets

Journalist Ala Mortaji died Friday evening from wounds sustained when Israeli tank fire hit his home during an invasion of the Zaitoun district of Gaza City earlier in the day.

Mortaji is the third journalist to be killed in the Israeli violence in Gaza, he worked as a radio broadcast personality in Gaza on a local radio show.

Medical sources confirmed Ala’s death, and said his mother had her arms amputated after the attack.

The home of another reporter, Samir Khalifah in the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, was targeted by Israeli fire, district was badly damaged. The family said they narrowly escaped death, having moved to the lower floor of the home only a few hours before the Israeli attack and were thus able to flee the fire that broke out in the home after it was hit by Israeli bombs.

The Jawwhara media tower, home to more than 20 news agencies and production studios, was targeted late Friday night.

With the destruction of the towers the offices of the Palestine Media Company, Dubai TV, Al-Alam TV (Iran), Turkish satellite television, the Chinese satellite network, the Lebanon Broadcasting Company (LBC) and Kuwait TV were put out of commission.

Civilian homes targeted

Including the homes of the two reporters, Israeli aircraft targeted nine civilian homes across Gaza overnight; three in Gaza City , two in Rafah, and one near the Nasr Children’s hospital.

Jihad As-Semery was killed and three others injured in a shelling of a house in Karara city in southern Gaza.

When shells hit the Abu Al-Kheir family home in the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City two civilians were killed.

The home of the Balbisy family in the An-Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip was leveled overnight, though the family had already evacuated the area for an unknown location.

Israeli fire targets factories and government complexes

The Israeli army shelled the security department complex in the center of Khan Younis as well as the headquarters of the civil defense.

A rocket propelled grenade hit a factory east of Khan Younis killing two security guards from the Astal family.

***Updated 12:16 Bethlehem time

Al-Qassam Brigades: Eight Israeli soldiers killed during operation in Beit Lahiya

Date: 09 / 01 / 2009 Time: 19:47
Gaza – Ma’an –

Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades reported to have killed eight Israeli soldiers taking cover in a home in Beit Lahiya on Friday.

The Brigades added in a statement that a Special Force of fighters attacked the soldiers “in a quick and qualified operation.”

The fighters broke into the home, killed at least eight soldiers and confiscated their weapons. The home the soldiers were taking cover in was in the As-Salteen neighborhood of Beit Lahia in the western Gaza Strip.

A spokesperson with the Israeli army denied the report. So far Israel has confirmed the death of ten soldiers in the Gaza invasion.

Resistance fighters clash with Israeli troops in northern Gaza; five soldiers dead - projectile fire continues

Date: 10 / 01 / 2009 Time: 13:47
Gaza – Ma’an –

Gaza’s armed factions launched projectiles at the western Negev Saturday, and continued to clash with Israeli ground troops in Gaza, reportedly injuring five soldiers near the borders of the Strip.

Clashes

Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds fighters attacked Special Forces as they rested in a home in the northern Gaza Strip near the American school. The Brigades statement said fighters used Rocket Propelled Grenades and medium grade weaponry to surprise the soldiers, saying a number were killed during the operation.

All Al-Quds fighters were able to flee the scene safely, according to a statement from the group.

Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades said they detonated two explosive devices near Israeli soldiers and shot an Israeli soldier with sniper fire on Mount Kashef east of Gaza City.

The group said they also targeted a configuration of soldiers east of Jabaliya with RPGs and shot at soldiers near the Gaza Strip borders. They did not indicate whether soldiers had been injured.

A military wing calling itself Jaysh Al-Umma (Army of the Nation) claimed to have shot an Israeli soldier southeast of the Zaitoun neighborhood south of Gaza City Saturday morning,

The Eagles of Palestine said they shelled a compound housing Israeli tanks north of Makbara Ash-Sharkyah with two 15mm mortar shells.

The National Resistance Brigades said they shelled several tanks east of Al-Maghazy with a developed projectile launcher before dawn Saturday.

Israeli sources said five soldiers were injured in clashes with Palestinian resistance factions Friday, and there has been no word on how many were injured Saturday.

Projectiles

Islamic Jihad’s armed wing the Al-Quds Brigades said resistance fighters fired three projectiles at the Eshkol area of the western Negev.

The Brigades also launched four mortar shells towards the Nahal Oz military point in a joint action with the “Eagles of Palestine,” a group previously unheard of, which began conducting military operations shortly after Israel began its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Israel confirmed that three projectiles landed in Eshkol Saturday, with no injuries reported; several mortar shells were also reported to have landed near military compounds near the Gaza borders.

Trapped by Israeli troops six days in one room, 33 Gazans seek Red Cross intervention

Date: 09 / 01 / 2009 Time: 22:32
Gaza – Ma’an –

A family trapped by Israeli forces in for six days one room of their home in the Al-Mughrqa area, south of Gaza City, phoned Ma’an on Friday seeking urgent rescue.

The Al-Wahidi family is appealing to the Red Cross, human rights organizations, or any relevant organization, to intervene and rescue them.

Salem Yousef Al-Wahidi, the owner of the family house, says 33 members of the family have been trapped in the house without food or drink since Sunday, when Israeli tanks moved into the area.

Al-Wahidi said Israeli soldiers forced them into one room. The soldiers are still occupying the roof of the building and the surrounding area. The army has refused to allow food, including milk for the small children among them.

Jawwara building, with more than 20 press offices inside, hit by Israeli missiles

Date: 09 / 01 / 2009 Time: 20:07
Gaza - Ma'an -

Israeli airstrikes hit the Jawwara building in Gaza City on Friday afternoon.

The building was home to more than 20 local, national and international press offices.

No injuries were reported, but the already limited information coming out of Gaza, given Israel's decision to bar international journalists from the area, will be further compromised.

Ban Ki-Moon calls Olmert to express disappointment over Israel’s non-compliance with UN resolution

Date: 10 / 01 / 2009 Time: 12:36
Bethlehem - Ma’an/Agencies -

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Friday, expressing his disappointment over the continued Israeli violence in the Gaza Strip.

According to Ki-Moon’s spokesperson Michele Montas, the UN head is “working right now on those diplomatic channels,” to ensure that the UN Security Council Resolution, passed Friday morning local time, is implemented in Gaza.

Palestinian Press Syndicate condemns Israeli targeting of press in Gaza

Date: 10 / 01 / 2009 Time: 12:05
Salfit – Ma’an –

Media organizations spoke out against the recent Israeli policy of targeting press members and buildings, calling it a policy of frightening the media into silence.

The Palestinian Press Syndicate condemned Saturday the Israeli decision to target journalists working in Gaza strip and putting them in danger.

The syndicate expressed grave concern over the Israeli bombing of the Jawhara media tower. In a statement the syndicate noted that symbols representing the local and international press were covering the building and it could not have been mistaken for a separate target.

“The aim of such acts is to frighten the press and reporters into halting coverage of what is happening in Gaza,” the syndicate statement said.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFA), the Commission for Journalists’ Protection, international press organizations, demanded the protection of the Palestinian press working in Gaza.

In their statement the groups called Israel’s decision to forbid the foreign press from entering Gaza proof that the Israeli occupation seeks to conceal the rimes being carried out against civilians and the press.

The syndicate demanded the anti-press policies be halted immediately and steps be taken to ensure the safety of the local press, and ensure requests from international media organizations for access to Gaza are granted.

Barghouthi: Israel is stifling Arab press action in Gaza, West Bank and Israel

Date: 10 / 01 / 2009 Time: 11:51
Ramallah - Ma’an -

Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouthi condemned the Israeli attacks on the Jawwhara media towers.

The attack injured one reporter and destroyed the offices of more than 20 media outlets including local Arabic and satellite channels.

“Israel forbade the foreign press from coming in [to Gaza] to cover the events [in order] to conceal its crimes,” Barghuthi said in a statement. He accused Israel of trying to suppress the voice of the Arab press as well by shelling the homes of journalists and destroying communications equipment that allow images of the Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip to reach the world.

The death of a photojournalist with the Algerian news earlier this week and the cameraman of the National Palestine Television Friday night as well as the arrest of Al-Alam reporter after the first days of the Israeli military actions, are not a coincidence, said Barghouthi.

Israel is purposefully targeting journalists through the “protection wall operation” implemented after 2000 in the West Bank in an effort to stifle press offensive to Israel.

Gaza officials: Massive sewage flood imminent

Saturday January 10, 2009 10:41 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Due to the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza, nearly 700,000 Palestinians have gone without water for days, and sewage pumping systems have stopped. In many places, raw sewage is running through the streets, and officials have warned that a massive sewage flood, like the one in 2007 that killed 5 people, could occur at any time.

2007 sewage flood in Um Al-Nasser village

One million people in Gaza remain without electricity for nearly two full weeks. The Deputy Director of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, Maher Najjar, told Israeli reporter Amira Hass that between 40 and 50 % of the Gazan population are now without access to water.

There are 37 sewage pumping stations in Gaza. Due to the lack of electricity, 5 of them are completely out of operation, and the remaining 32 are only partially operational.

In March 2007, Um Al Nasser village in northern Gaza was completely flooded with sewage when a 6.5 acre septic cesspool containing 20,0000 cubic meters of sewage water collapsed, killing five people and causing hundreds to be made homeless.

Now, a similar disaster may be about to occur, on top of the military assault that has left nearly 800 people dead in the last two weeks. Local officials report that both fresh-water pumping systems that provide water to the residents of Gaza, and sewage pumping systems, pumping out human wastewater, are on the verge of collapse in many areas. The biggest wastewater treatment plant, in northern Gaza, was supposed to have been emptied a month ago due to the potential for flooding. Now, the risk of breakage and flooding has reached a crisis, with 10,000 people at risk if a flood does occur.

According to Maher Najjar of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, a major water pipe providing clean water to 30,000 residents in central Gaza was damaged by an Israeli air strike, and a sewage pumping station in Beit Lahiya stopped working after its generator was destroyed by an Israeli missile, causing sewage to flood the street.

In Beit Hanoun, sewage has been flowing through the street for a full week, after an intake pipe to the sewage treatment plant was hit by an Israeli missile.

And in Gaza City, four out of seven sewage pumping stations have run out of diesel fuel for their generators, and are pumping sewage directly into the sea. The remaining three are dumping raw sewage onto farmland near Gaza City. Soon this sewage will be on the streets of Gaza City, unless pumping is restored.

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