Category Archives: Palestine

Chile, Home to the Largest Palestinian Community Outside the Arab World, Urges Israel to Stop Bombing Gaza · Global Voices

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has not gone unnoticed in Chile. Representatives of Chile’s sizable Palestinian community have been urging the government to take a more active stance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and build on President Michelle Bachelet’s condemnation last week of the shelling.

So far, 243 Palestinians, including many women and children, have been killed and more than 1,500 injured since the bombing began on July 8, according to Gaza’s health ministry. In Israel, rockets launched from Gaza that weren’t picked off by the Iron Dome missile defense system have injured several people. One Israeli civilian died after he was hit by shrapnel near the Gaza border, and an Israeli soldier was killed during ground operations that began on July 17.

Chile, which recognized Palestine as a “free, independent and sovereign state” on January 7, 2011, is home to the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East. Estimates of the number of Palestinian descendants in Chile range from 450,000 to 500,000.

via Chile, Home to the Largest Palestinian Community Outside the Arab World, Urges Israel to Stop Bombing Gaza · Global Voices.

Better to keep heads down than “crow” about “rocking” tanks – Israeli tanks withdraw from Beit Lahiya after clashes with Hamas | Maan News Agency

Everyone wants to be the big guy but who is bringing peace? And when I say everyone, I am including Israelis and various brigades…

Hamas’ military wing the al-Qassam Brigades has claimed responsibility for hitting multiple Israeli military vehicles in the area, confirming direct hits with mortar shells and 107 rockets.

The Al-Quds Brigades affiliated with Islamic Jihad also claimed responsibility for the targeting of the military site Dugit, which is on the site of a former Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip, and two wells with four 107 missiles and the Mighen military site north of Beit Lahiya with three mortars.

For its part, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility for the targeting of Eshkol with three rockets.

via Israeli tanks withdraw from Beit Lahiya after clashes with Hamas | Maan News Agency.

Through Lens, 4 Boys Dead by Gaza Shore – NYTimes.com

My day here began at 6 a.m. Photographing something as unpredictable as war still has a routine.

It is important to be out the door at first light to document the destruction of the last night’s bombings. By midmorning, I check in at the hospital’s morgue to see if families have come to pick up the dead for burial.

When the routine is broken, it is because things can go horribly wrong in an instant. That is how it happened in Libya in 2011, when three colleagues and I were taken captive by government soldiers and our driver was killed.

On Wednesday, that sudden change of fortune came to four young Palestinian boys playing on a beach in Gaza City.

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I had returned to my small seaside hotel around 4 p.m. to file photos to New York when I heard a loud explosion. My driver and I rushed to the window to see what had happened. A small shack atop a sea wall at the fishing port had been struck by an Israeli bomb or missile and was burning. A young boy emerged from the smoke, running toward the adjacent beach.

I grabbed my cameras and was putting on body armor and a helmet when, about 30 seconds after the first blast, there was another. The boy I had seen running was now dead, lying motionless in the sand, along with three other boys who had been playing there.

By the time I reached the beach, I was winded from running with my heavy armor. I paused; it was too risky to go onto the exposed sand. Imagine what my silhouette, captured by an Israeli drone, might look like as a grainy image on a laptop somewhere in Israel: wearing body armor and a helmet, carrying cameras that could be mistaken for weapons. If children are being killed, what is there to protect me, or anyone else?

I watched as a group of people ran to the children’s aid. I joined them, running with the feeling that I would find safety in numbers, though I understood that feeling could be deceptive: Crowds can make things worse. We arrived at the scene to find lifeless, mangled bodies. The boys were beyond help. They had been killed instantly, and the people who had rushed to them were shocked and distraught.

Earlier in the day, I had photographed the funeral for a man and a 12-year-old boy. They had been killed when a bomb hit the car in which they were riding south of Gaza City, severely injuring an older woman with them.

There is no safe place in Gaza right now. Bombs can land at any time, anywhere.

A small metal shack with no electricity or running water on a jetty in the blazing seaside sun does not seem like the kind of place frequented by Hamas militants, the Israel Defense Forces’ intended targets. Children, maybe four feet tall, dressed in summer clothes, running from an explosion, don’t fit the description of Hamas fighters, either.

via Through Lens, 4 Boys Dead by Gaza Shore – NYTimes.com.

Israel denies American teaching volunteers entry to West Bank – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Ahwal said that even though she was allowed entry without a problem in June to attend the federation’s conference in Ramallah, this time the Israelis at the bridge acted differently. “As soon as we came up to passport control, I knew something bad was up,” she told Al-Monitor in Amman.

Israeli officials interrogated the entire group, trying to find any discrepancies in their narratives. In the end, Ahwal was told that she was denied entry for five years, and that the group will not be allowed in because they “lied.”

via Israel denies American teaching volunteers entry to West Bank – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Israel warns 100,000 Gazans to evacuate their homes | Maan News Agency

So if this child is killed because he has no place to go – it will be his fault because he was warned, or it makes it OK for the homes of 100,000 people to be destroyed?

Israel urged 100,000 Gazans to flee their homes on Wednesday, but the warning was largely ignored despite an intensification of the military’s nine-day campaign.

via Israel warns 100,000 Gazans to evacuate their homes | Maan News Agency.

Israel to demolish 3 homes of Hebron men suspected of killing teens | Maan News Agency

Never have understood this and wonder if homes of three people who have admitted killing of Palestinian teen will be similarly demolished?

Israeli forces on Tuesday delivered demolition orders to the families of two Palestinians in Hebron Israel accuses of kidnapping and killing three Israeli teenagers.

More than a week ago, Israeli forces partly demolished two of the houses, which belonged to Amer Abu Aisha and Marwan al-Qawasmi.

via Israel to demolish 3 homes of Hebron men suspected of killing teens | Maan News Agency.

192 Palestinians killed in the last week. Complete list with names (updated today 12:30pm)

{And how many Israeli’s were killed or injured by rockets fired from Gaza in the last week?}

Palestine News Network is trying to keep an updated list with the names of all the people killed in Gaza since Tuesday, when Israel started Operation Protective Edge.

The names and ages of those killed are based on the information released by the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The place and circumstances are based on the information published by the local media and our own sources in Gaza.

via 192 Palestinians killed in the last week. Complete list with names (updated today 12:30pm).

rubble and dust | Palestine Rose

Dr. Nasser al-Tatar, shining example

of selflessness and humanity,

worked continuous shifts for six days

in Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital;

…when he finally went home,

Dr. Nasser al-Tater,

watched as his home

where he had lived for 30 years—

was being bombed into rubble and dust

in less than one minute,

by an American F-16 ‘Falcon Fighter’ jet,

given to Israel by American tax payers…

via rubble and dust | Palestine Rose.

Read carefully – Israel isn’t bombing Gaza because of Hamas — New Internationalist

Israel’s oppression of Palestinians doesn’t start and finish with large-scale military operations: ‘normality’ for Gazans is ghetto life, for those in the West Bank, ethnic cleansing and colonization. Rockets or no rockets do not change this. The air, sea and land blockade of Gaza – now supported by Egypt – has gone on for seven long years. And when a ceasefire is implemented, and it may be in place by 9am on 15 July, Israel and its supporters will expect a return to the status quo. This is why resistance should not be denounced by those outside liberation movements: resistance in all forms is any oppressed people’s right to shout to the world, ‘we’re still here’ and to demand justice and change.

Until the world realizes that military operations in Gaza are about subduing the population into compliance with Israel’s quest to carry on as it pleases, the occupying state will continue killing and oppressing, unabated for decades to come.

via Israel isn’t bombing Gaza because of Hamas — New Internationalist.

A knock on the roof, then another Gaza home destroyed by Israeli missile | World | The Guardian

{Two things are clear here. I. That Israeli military either has infiltrated a number of “spies” into Gaza to gather information and “tag” buildings slated for attack and destruction whenever Israel decided the time was right, or 2. They paid for a lot of information, which like purchased information in Afghanistan by the CIA, turned out to be bad or based, in part, on people who wanted to get even with personal enemies. What is really clear is that a plan has been in place to destroy a number of targets for months and the claim would be self-protection against Hamas and places where rockets were stored. The claims in many cases are false and based on bad information, or just being made up!}

He says he had just returned to his family on Sunday night after working a week straight at an overwhelmed hospital short of resources. “We’ve had tens of deaths and hundreds of injured. I needed to be at the hospital,” he says. “It was just after the time for breaking the Ramadan fast at 7.50pm.

“The IDF called my nephew with a 10-minute warning saying that they planned to destroy my house. Because it took him several minutes to find me, it was less than 10 minutes. I got my family out quickly and warned my neighbours to take care. Then they hit my house with a rocket and then a second.”

He walks through the destruction, picking up a book left on his consulting desk now covered in dust, and examines the tangled crater at the centre of his gutted home.

“I’m at a loss to explain why they did this,” says Tatar, 59. “I have been a doctor for 30 years. First I was a cardiologist, then head of cardiology, then director general. I have tried to reach out through channels to find out why this happened, but I’ve had no reply.”

via A knock on the roof, then another Gaza home destroyed by Israeli missile | World | The Guardian.