Hezbollah rally in Beirut expresses solidarity with the Palestinian people under military siege in Gaza. Over 700 have been reported killed.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
15:47 Mecca time, 12:47 GMT
School hit piles pressure on Israel
The UN says it regularly sends the Israeli army exact geographical coordinates of its facilities
Israel is facing mounting pressure to agree a ceasefire, as fighting continues in the wake of an attack on a UN school in Gaza.
On Wednesday, 11 Palestinians were killed by air strikes and shelling in Gaza City and in the north of the Strip.
Explosions were also reported in Jabaliya and Beit Lahia, north of Gaza, as around eight rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel.
No Israeli injuries have been reported following the rocket attacks.
On Tuesday, the Israelis launched an attack on a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) in the northern town of Jabaliya.
The attack left 43 Palestinians dead and around 100 wounded.
Doctors said all the dead were either people sheltering in the school or residents of the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp.
'No safe havens'
Around 15,000 Palestinians have had to flee the fighting amid concern there are no safe havens in Gaza.
Israel says missiles were fired from the UN building and that their troops were simply returning fire on Palestinian fighters using the school as cover.
However, Michel Abdel Massih QC, a London-based international human rights lawyer, called for an independent investigation.
"If [Israeli] claims are to be tested properly we need an independent tribunal. The International Criminal Court was set up to deal with these issues, so there is a mechanism for the UN security council to refer the case for investigation," he told Al Jazeera.
Massih compared the 680 Palestinian casualties to 10 Israeli deaths and underlined that proportionality of use of force is central to international law.
"From an international law point of view, there is at very least a case to answer against the planners and those who executed those orders," he said.
John Ging, director of operations in Gaza for Unrwa, said they regularly provide the Israeli army with exact geographical co-ordinates of its facilities.
He also called for the Israelis to allow an international investigation into the incident.
'War crime' allegation
When asked if Tel Aviv would allow such an investigation, Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, said Israel had already held an "initial investigation" which found that troops had returned fire from the UN building.
Regev accused Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls the Gaza Strip, of committing a "war crime" by using those sheltering in the UN school as "a human shield".
War crimes: Key facts
The International Criminal Court says war crimes are defined as the violation of the laws and customs of war.
These include:
The murder, ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied territory.
The extensive destruction of cities, towns and villages, and any devastation not justified by military necessity.
The incident has provoked strong international condemnation with Ban-Ki-moon, secretary-general of the United Nations, branding both the incident and Hamas rocket attacks "unacceptable".
At least 683 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and nearly 3,085 wounded since the war began on December 27. Seven Israeli soldiers and three civilians have died in the same period.
Following increasing pressure to agree a ceasefire as the humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorates further, Israel announced on Wednesday it would set up "humanitarian corridor" to ship vital supplies to the Strip.
From Wednesday, Israel says it will halt military operations near Gaza City for three hours daily to let aid through.
Heba, a Gaza resident and mother of two, told Al Jazeera there was no place left in Gaza that can be considered safe.
"What happened in the school was a hugely offensive and inhumane thing. We never expected that people who sought refuge in a UN building would be attacked and killed," she said.
Self-defence claim
Randa Seniora, from the Independent Commission on Human Rights, told Al Jazeera: "What is happening in Gaza are crimes against humanity.
"Israel cannot claim, as an occupying authority, that it is acting in self defence because simply it is considered a war crime to create harm and damage among civilian populations."
While earlier attempts to agree a ceasefire resolution at the UN have so far floundered, a French-Egypt proposal appeared to be gaining some support early on Wednesday.
The deal, which could include stationing international monitors at the Egyptian-Gaza border, has received qualified backing from the US and support from Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of Hamas-rival Fatah.
Despite this, Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in southern Israel, said the Israelis are thought to be considering stepping up their assault.
The Israeli security cabinet is due to meet later on Wednesday to debate whether troops should storm Gaza's urban centres, our correspondent reported.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
16:15 Mecca time, 13:15 GMT
Hezbollah 'ready to fight Israel'
Nasrallah commended Hugo Chavez for expelling Israel's ambassador to Caracas
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has warned that "all possibilities" are open against Israel as he gave a fiery speech in which he blasted Israel's offensive in Gaza and voiced support for Hamas.
Addressing tens of thousands of supporters via video link at his stronghold in Beirut's suburbs, Nasrallah said: "I say to [Ehud] Olmert [Israel's prime minister], the loser, the vanquished in Lebanon that 'you cannot overcome Hamas or Hezbollah'."
The comments by Nasrallah, whose Shia movement fought a devastating war with Israel in Lebanon in 2006, marked the first time he has spoken so openly on the possibility of a renewed conflict with Israel since the war in Gaza began on December 27.
Nasrallah warned that the 2006 conflict, in which about 1,200 mostly Lebanese civilians were killed, would be "but a walk in the park" compared to what awaits Israel if it launches a new offensive on Lebanon.
In his speech, which marked Muslim holy day of Ashura, Nasrallah said: "Your 2006 war will be but a walk in the park compared to what we have prepared for you in the event of a new offensive.
"We have to act as though all possibilities are real and open (against Israel) and we must always be ready for any eventuality."
"We are ready to sacrifice our souls, our brothers and sisters, our children, our loved ones for what we believe in."
Egypt attacked
The Hezbollah leader also reiterated past criticism of Egypt for failing to open its border with Gaza and blasted the United Nation Security Council for not acting to denounce the Israeli offensive that has left nearly 700 Palestinians dead.
"Does the government in Egypt need more than 650 victims and 2,500 wounded to open the Rafah crossing once and for all to help the people of Gaza toward victory?" Nasrallah said.
"I am simply asking for the opening of a crossing and not another front."
He also commended Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, for expelling Israel's ambassador to Caracas on Tuesday saying that all countries, including Arab states, must follow his example.
"Arab governments must learn from this great Latin American leader to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people and must cut relations with Israel," Nasrallah said.
Jordan, Egypt and Mauritania are the only Arab countries to have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Source: Agencies
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
05:38 Mecca time, 02:38 GMT
Obama 'deeply concerned' over Gaza
Obama has repeatedly said that, until he is sworn in, only Bush can speak on US foreign policy
Barack Obama, the US president-elect, has expressed "deep concern" over the number of civilian casualties in Gaza and Israel during the conflict there.
Speaking after 40 Palestinians were killed at a UN school where civilians had sheltered, Obama said "the loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern for me".
Obama repeated his view that he did not want to speak fully in the issue until he became president on January 20 and that only George Bush could speak on US foreign policy until then.
"After January 20 I'm going to have plenty to say about the issue, and I am not backing away at all from what I said during the campaign, that starting at the beginning of our administration, we are going to be engaged effectively and consistently in trying to resolve the conflict in the Middle East," he said.
Al Jazeera's Washington correspondent Rob Reynolds said it seemed Obama felt the most politically advantageous thing was to say as little as possible.
"He has mentioned he would have 'plenty to say' once sworn in, but there could be many more civilian casualties in Gaza by then."
'Durable' ceasefire
With diplomatic efforts intensifying to bring an end to the crisis, Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, told a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York that the US understood the urgency of ending the Gaza conflict and was "working around the clock" to find a solution.
"Our goal must be the stabilisation and normalisation of life in Gaza," Rice said.
But she added that any ceasefire plan "has to be a solution that does not allow the rearmament of Hamas."
Earlier the Bush administration had called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but again insisted that it be "durable".
Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, said the US backed Israel's Gaza offensive, but urged it to be "very cautious when it comes to civilian casualties".
"We want it to be kept to a minimum," she said.
When asked how quickly the US wants to see a ceasefire in place, she said: "We would like it as soon as possible but it has to be something that is durable."
Perino denied that the call for an immediate ceasefire was a shift in the US position, which has backed Israel's decision to attack Gaza in what it says is a move to stop rocketfire by Palestinian fighters targeting southern Israel.
On Monday UN sources said a proposed new resolution to be put before the Security Council would have three main points: A demand for an immediate ceasefire, the formation of some sort of "humanitarian corridor" for much-needed aid and a form of "monitoring mechanism" for the ceasefire.
On Monday, Palestinian, Egyptian and other ministers met Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general in attempt to secure UN backing for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Last week, the US blocked a Libyan-backed proposal for the UN to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza last weekend.
Source: Agencies
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
00:37 Mecca time, 21:37 GMT
Israel's 'colonial tactics' decried
A majority of Gazans are refugees whose ancestors used to live in what is today Israel
Azmi Bishara, an Arab-Israeli analyst and former member of the Israeli parliament, has lashed out at the Israeli media campaign being run alongside its war on Gaza that criminalises the victims and victimises the coloniser.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Tuesday, Bishara said Israel's war on Gaza was disproportionate and punishes the Palestinian people for refusing to bow to Israel's fait-accompli in the strip.
"Usually people are pushed to collective punishment because they want to punish resistance movements or national liberation movements.
"That's usually what colonial powers did, and that's what Israel is doing.
Bishara said the majority of Gazans are refugees, whose ancestors used to live in what is now Israel.
"Everybody knows that 75 per cent of the people of Gaza are refugees. Everybody knows that Israel disengaged from Gaza militarily, but occupies it economically and politically and also it besieges Gaza militarily.
"Israel would say, "what would any normal country do if they were threatened by rocket fire? They would act".
"But Israel is not a normal country, it is an occupying country, a colonial country and the people of Gaza are under siege."
‘Punishing democracy’
Bishara said that Palestinians are being punished for choosing Hamas in the January 2006 democratic elections and accused Israeli officials for dramatising their lies.
"Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, should be asked, "What would you do if your house is besieged and you can't feed your child, can't go to school, and can't take them to the doctors and physicians when they are ill.
"I consider Hamas rockets a protest shout, they haven't hurt many, only the few. They are weapons of the poor, used to express their will.
"What brought the war was the siege. When colonial powers have historically gone to occupy countries, siege has always been a weapon. Siege is a military action at the beginning of war.
"When it did not work to break the will of the Palestinian people... Israel realised that the rockets were a response to the siege, and they went to the next phase which was direct military aggression, which is actually now directed against civilians to punish them for their democratic choice.
"What I think will happen is a ceasefire that will mean an end to the siege if the rockets stop. It will happen after the deaths of so many people."
Source: Al Jazeera
No comments:
Post a Comment