Israel Bans International Media from Gaza,

MrBrian wrote:

Senior defence ministry official Reserve Major General Amos Gilad, who led the Israeli side in the Egyptian-brokered negotiations for the truce [said] "Hamas is committed to the destruction of the state ... It wants to take over the Palestine Liberation Organisation. At present for tactical and strategic reasons, it is interested in the calm."

Right, so for tactical and strategic reasons Hamas objects to 1.5 million Palestinians being imprisoned and slowly starved, while also being subjected to aerial bombardments and sniper attacks from Israeli soldiers? Purely tactical and strategic is their concern.

And of course, the Israeli blockade is merely a form of self-defense, just as the Warsaw ghetto and the Nazi concentration camps were a form of self-defense against the Jewish-Bolshevik threat. Never again!?! Yeah, sure. As long as it's not Israel on the receiving end then it's perfectly o.k.

And the truce wasn't broken by Hamas, it was broken by an illegal Israeli incursion which resulted in the deaths of 6 Palestinians. The fact that the Palestinians retaliated with their crappy rockets doesn't justify further Israeli aggression and a violation of the basic human rights of 1.5 million people.

I wonder when this shit will end? I wonder if Obama will permit it to continue?

pearljamfan1212 wrote:

does this have anything to do with it?

http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/10/22/africa/OUKWD-UK-PALESTINIANS-ISRAEL-GAZA.php

Israel shuts Gaza crossings after rocket attack

JERUSALEM: Israel temporarily closed its border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after militants from the Hamas-controlled territory fired a rocket into southern Israel.

"After a rocket was fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip yesterday, Defence Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Gaza crossings to be closed starting Wednesday morning," a defence ministry official said.

The official did not say how long the crossings would remain shut.

Gaza militants fired the rocket on Tuesday, the first in more than six weeks, causing no damage or injuries, Israeli police said.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire in June. It called for a cessation of cross-border violence and a gradual easing of Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip, which was tightened after the Islamist group seized control of the territory in 2007.

The truce has largely held, although Gaza militants occasionally fire rockets into Israel, which responds by temporarily closing its borders with the coastal territory.

Or maybe it has something to do with this?

http://www.btselem.org/English/Settler_Violence/20080807_Surge_in_settler_violence.asp
'7 August '08: Increase in settler violence

B'Tselem is investigating twelve cases of settler attacks on Palestinian between 29 July and 4 August. These cases reflect a sharp increase in reports of such violence, and represent a peak to an escalation that has been underway over the past few weeks. The recent cases took place across the West Bank, with a majority in South Mount Hebron and the settlements around Nablus...'

http://palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article700
'..Israel has blamed the latest restrictions of aid and fuel to Gaza on Hamas’s violation of a five-month ceasefire by launching rockets out of the Strip. But Israel had a hand in shattering the agreement: as the world was distracted by the US presidential elections, the army invaded Gaza, killing six Palestinians and provoking the rocket fire.

The humanitarian catastrophe gripping Gaza is largely unrelated to the latest tit-for-tat strikes between Hamas and Israel. Nearly a year ago, Karen Koning AbuZayd, commissioner-general of the UN’s refugee agency, warned: “Gaza is on the threshold of becoming the first territory to be intentionally reduced to a state of abject destitution”.

She blamed Gaza’s strangulation directly on Israel, but also cited the international community as accomplice. Together they began blocking aid in early 2006, following the election of Hamas to head the Palestinian Authority (PA)...'

http://socialistworker.org/2008/09/25/breaching-israeli-blockade
September 25, 2008

'THE ALL-out Israeli siege on Gaza continues while 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza face a total lack of medical care and supplies, and extreme shortages of food, water and electricity...

With Israel claiming to have ended its occupation of Gaza, this group of activists decided to test Israel and see if the Palestinians would, in fact, be in control of their access to the Mediterranean waters off the Gaza Coast. A Palestinian fisherman named Hissi was quoted in Britain's Guardian saying, "We were expecting a real Palestinian state, and that we'd be able to work and move freely, but it never came. Now instead, they've put Gaza under siege."

Meanwhile, Palestinian fishermen have been confined to fish within a few miles of the Gaza shore under threat of Israeli military strikes. As part of breaking the siege, fishermen and activists attempted to go back out in Palestinian waters off of the Gaza coast and fish. They came under fire from the Israeli Navy on September 1 and called for international support...

Israeli fire hits girl in Gaza school
Report, Al Mezan, 27 October 2008
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9916.shtml

'Amidst the tightened siege imposed by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) on the Gaza Strip, the IOF continues to open fire on areas adjacent to the eastern border. This morning it targeted a school at Khizaa town in the southeast of the Gaza Strip, injuring a girl inside her classroom.

According to the Center's investigations, IOF troops, which are fortified and stationed along the eastern border line, opened fire on Khizaa town, east of Khan Younis, at around 8:15am on Monday, 27 October 2008. Aziza Sulaiman Qdeih, 15, was injured by a live bullet's shrapnel to the nose while she was at her first-story classroom in the Shuhada Khizaa high school. She sustained minor injuries, according to medical sources...'


http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9731.shtml

1 August 2008
'..As we reported yesterday, Israeli forces shot and killed a ten-year-old boy, Ahmed Mousa, in the head with live ammunition fired from an M16, on Tuesday evening. Around the time of the funeral procession for Ahmed Mousa last night, Israeli occupation forces returned to the village and opened fire on villagers, shooting another young Palestinian teenager in the head. Eighteen-year-old Yousef Ahmad Amira went into a coma after he was shot twice in the head, according to Palestinian news agencies and eyewitnesses. The Mayor of Nilin village said that six other young men were also shot and injured by rubber-coated steel bullets after clashes broke out between Israeli occupation soldiers and villagers defending their land. US-made Israeli bulldozers reportedly destroyed barricades built by villagers at the entrance to Nilin, as Israeli forces began firing tear gas and sound grenades, followed by indiscriminately opening fire...'

Or this:

West Bank camp incursion causes destruction, fear
Report, The Electronic Intifada, 26 September 2007
Residents of the Ein Beit Alma refugee camp began to pick up the pieces after an intense Israeli military incursion last week left dozens homeless, and many very frightened, especially children. The fighting with Palestinian militants also caused damage to sewer systems, residents said.

Muhammed Msaimi, aged 26, hid for over a day with his wife and three children in the bathroom because of gunfights which took place outside their apartment. However, the bullets found their way into that room as well, and they crawled behind a thick wall, Msaimi, a registered refugee, said.

"Then the soldiers came and told us to leave. They said we should cover our ears. They blew up the floor above us. No one lives there," he told IRIN. The explosion knocked out the entire upper floor and caused structural damage to the rest of the building. Msaimi now lives with his in-laws.

The Israeli military said the purpose of the three-day operation was to "prevent the execution of terror attacks into the Israeli home front," and that information obtained from arrested alleged militants, 49 in all, had led them to an explosive belt which had been smuggled into Tel Aviv...'



http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0810/S00301.htm#b
'..Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians farmers near Huwwara on Saturday 11th October.

More than 25 settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yizhar descended upon Palestinian farmers while the farmers were undertaking their annual olive harvest. The settlers were armed with machine guns, and one fired a single shot in the air before they began to hurl rocks at the Palestinian farmers, injuring two. One of the injured, Mustafa Najah from Burin, was hit in the head and taken to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. He is thought to have sustained eye injuries.

The attack continued for ten minutes before Israeli soldiers arrived on the scene. The soldiers, however, instead of removing the settlers from the land, started to fire into the air, insisting that the Palestinian farmers cease their harvesting and leave the lands. Farmers report that the soldiers and settlers then walked around the groves together, telling farmers to leave their own lands. The farmers were forced from their lands for over an hour, before eventually being allowed back to continue their harvest...'

RolandTD20Kdrummer wrote:

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/04/04/mideast/index.html

'In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Mahmoud Zahar even mentioned the possibility of a "two-state" solution in which Palestinians have "freedom and independence side by side with our neighbors" -- despite Hamas' long-standing vow to eradicate Israel.

In his letter, Zahar [...] claimed that Israel is continuing "illegal colonial policies" and using "excessive military force."

"Israel is undertaking all these illegal measures as the world watches and listens," Zahar told Annan. "Israel continues to commit these grave violations of international law ... without any concern, acting as if it is a state above the law."

Zahar also said that the Palestinian Authority is hoping that nations threatening to withhold aid from the Palestinian Authority because of Hamas' leadership will reconsider "their positions and their hasty decisions."

"We expect the international community to respect the democratic choice of the Palestinian people and to work with this new Cabinet in order to enhance this democratic course and to protect political pluralism through the achievement of peace and stability in the region," he said.

The United States, Israel and the European Union regard Hamas as a terrorist group, and the United states and Canada have formally cut ties with the new government...'