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Children Heavily Represented Among 917 Dead, Say Officials
Health officials in Gaza said yesterday that the Palestinian death toll since Israel began its offensive against the Strip on December 27th had reached 917 and the number of wounded 4,100.
An explosion is seen after an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip January 13, 2009. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters) Officials expect the number of casualties to rise steeply as Israeli armour and troops move into heavily populated urban areas in the north and Israeli planes intensify their bombardment of the south.
Bassem Naeem, health minister in the Hamas government, said that about 380 of the fatalities were women and children. Israeli sources said 300 militants had been killed, a figure which may include the 187 civilian policemen who died in the initial bombardment. This means, analysts argue, that two-thirds of the fatalities are civilians. Children, who officials say are heavily represented among the casualties, comprise half of Gaza's population.
In the north, Muhammad Shriteh, an ambulance driver for the Red Crescent Society, speaking on the phone from Gaza city, said rescue teams were unable to enter Zeitoun on the border with Israel because of heavy bombing and the Israeli advance. "It is very bad in Zeitoun area. All the families are leaving. It is a ghost town. We cannot collect bodies or the injured."
In the south, Jenny Linnel, a peace activist from Devon in England who is in Rafah, reported by phone that entire "neighbourhoods parallel to the border with Egypt" are being bombarded and tunnels used to smuggle essential goods and weapons into Gaza are being targeted.
"All residents have been ordered to leave. Homes are being destroyed or severely damaged. There has been a mass evacuation. Families go to stay with relatives who live elsewhere." Linnel has been serving as a volunteer with the Red Crescent.
UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman Christopher Gunness said the agency estimates that the number of people who have fled Rafah is 20,000.
He said UNRWA had a convoy of more than 50 lorries carrying food, medical and non-food aid entering Gaza through Israel's Karem Shalom crossing.
UNRWA is dispersing aid to distribution centres and 31 shelters housing 25,000 people.
Human Rights Watch called on Israel to stop firing white phosphorus shells into heavily populated areas of Gaza. "White phosphorous can burn down houses and cause horrific burns when it touches the skin," said Marc Garlasco, the organisation's military analyst. Doctors in Gaza say one person has died and a number have suffered injuries consistent with white phosphorus burns.
Shriteh confirmed this report: "My partner and I collected from near al-Quds hospital one shahid [martyr or fatality] and seven injured people who had burns all over their bodies."
The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution that "strongly condemned the ongoing Israeli military operations . . . which have resulted in massive violations of human rights of the Palestinian people and systematic destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure".
The resolution was adopted by 33 votes with 13 abstentions, including European countries, and one against, Canada.
A boat owned by the Free Gaza Movement,carrying doctors, journalists and medicine, which set out for Gaza from Cyprus, has had to turn back for mechanical reasons. An Iranian cargo ship carrying medical supplies is set to enter Israel's maritime exclusion zone today.
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Show AllSigh. I read this. I listened to DemocracyNow this morning. www.democracynow.org Jews Against the Occupation had a demonstration yesterday. www.jatonyc.org I'm glad it was the segment after some of the comments made by people at the pro-Israel demonstration. I'm older; I've never heard such hawkish, ugly comments as at the pro-Israel demonstration,(of the day before,) except for pro-war on Iraq comments by Southern US Republicans (Christians)in 2003. It's up to us, all of us. I sent thank you's to Dennis Kucinich and Maxine Waters, and let them know I appreciated their "NO" votes in the House of Reps on Friday, that I am a Jew. Do what you can. We can. We have to.
I finally got Amy's show on the radio. Finally, a better choice after shifting through so many sickening rightwing talk shows.
JWVerez:Hi. I'm glad you live where it's available on radio. Are you able to get a Pacifica Network radio station? www.pacifica.org I listen on WBAI www.wbai.org which is part of the small network. If you look at the pacifica website, you'll see something about veterans on the home page, I think.
Sometimes I then watch it on the website (one thing making me smile:I was able to figure out how to do the software to view the show online! not bad for an older woman with l o w tech savvy), and sometimes read the transcript. I like the transcripts a lot. www.democracynow.org The Esther Kaplan who has an article on CD about labor, in the center column, now, is the same Esther Kaplan quoted in the DemocracyNow segment at the Jews Against the Occupation of Palestine demonstration yesterday.
I'm getting Amy Goodman on one of the news stations on the radio but I'll have to check. I'll check out pacifica on the web since I'm not sure I'll be able to get that here.
My wife looks at a lot of these websites with me and sometimes takes ideas and tailors them for the local area audience. I live in the southern part of TX which is generally more liberal but the conservatives can be such nuisances nipping at our heels sometimes. The northern part is nothing more than a mad house probably due to its closeness to Oklahoma I think. I think some of it is starting to lighten up though. I know Goodman isn't perfect and wished she had taken Nader seriously at least a bit but with the flaming failures of US foreign policy and its relation to other nations especially Israel, I can see that even the moderates feel choked by the zionists so maybe something can be done to unite the liberals and progressives and maybe even some semi-conservatives.
JWVerez:I had a good buddy in Oklahoma, who grew up in TX, due to his dad working in oil,then when he got thrown from a car,driving on a salesman job, and became quadriplegic, moved back to family in Oklahoma. He was Dem. Died a couple of years ago, bedsores (from wheelchair sitting) after going to local VA hospital which sent him to next bigger hospital, which sent him to TX just over the border and he died in a couple of weeks from MRSA infection. He was in a sea of "red" in Oklahoma and we'd laugh about it.
I know Amy Goodman's work for almost 20 years. She's always given Nader air time. I don't understand what you mean when you say you "wished she had taken Nader seriously...,". Are you saying that Amy is one of the "moderaes feel choked by the zionists"? Amy Goodman fears no one in her work. Her grandfather was a rabbi. She once interviewed Pres. Clinton when he called WBAI on election day morning of his second Pres. election, to ask people to go and vote. The Latino music show host ran to get Amy, who came on (she was News Director at the time, or just worked in the news dept.)the air with Bill Clinton and did a 40 minute or so interview. At one point, he got angry and said, "You are not respecting the President". I heard it "real time", although it got a lot of air time after. She was not disrespectful, but just kept asking questions. Persistent. One thing I'll say for Bill Clinton, he had a lot of facts at his quick memory recall.
Amy Goodman was indeed one of the rare ones to give Kucinich, Paul, Mckinney, and Nader more of a chance to speak out and reach an audience out there. Not even Air America would try.
And our CONgress has passed TWO resolutions stating that THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SUPPORT THE SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENT CHILDREN. Welcome to the NEW AMERICAN CENTURY...where love is hate and truth is a lie.
photo of a Hamas militant:
http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1676-molochs-altar-child-sacrifice-and-the-war-on-terror.html
I wish I hadn't followed that link.
While I'm not a praying man, I pray that there is justice in some life.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
So you would rather not know so that you can pretend that you live in a world where stuff like this doesn't happen? Or does the picture make it seem too real? The jaded reader knows before clicking that it would be the image of a child.
Turning away from painful image gives us a pornographic view concerning what war is really about. War is not an erotic fantasy of glory and patriotism - it is a house of horrors.
Vaudree
And just how many children like that have you seen for real? It must have been a lot for you to be an expert on what we should see and what war is really like. How many have you seen for yourself?
I certainly wish I hadn't followed it myself. It wasn't an honest thing to do nor was it any kind of statement.
Shame on you both.
Thomas
I suggest your outrage is a little misplaced. Did YOU expect to see a Hamas Militant? If so how would you have identified said person as a Hamas Militant and what prejudices would it have reinforced?
Your outrage seems to me more because it was not what you EXPECTED to see and what you EXPECTED to see is the mindset most people here are speaking up against.
My outrage is NOT misplaced. Prejudice. I see a lot of prejudice here. And it is certainly not mine.
Your defense of this is beneath you. Far beneath you.
Perhaps you should go over and see what it really looks like, what it smells like, not just a nice clean picture.
This kind of thing has my utter contempt. Its far past outrage. Far past.
>>My outrage is NOT misplaced. Prejudice. I see a lot of prejudice here. And it is certainly not mine.
You exhibit it more then most people here. You just call it love of country.
The Israeli government claims it targetting militants only and children by the hundreds being killed yet you choose to save your greatest outrage to a person who links to a picture of one of those dead children.
Maybe if the rest of the world was not so willing to experience the horrors of war, we would not always be rushing into another.
Instead we have it all being cleaned up for the public....Predatar drones firing missiles on villages and no one ever has to see the aftermath and people such as yourself outraged when a picture of the aftermath shown.
As to your Vietnam experiences. You chose to serve there. What did YOU expect to see?
This has absolutely nothing to do with the war in Gaza.
Shame on you for trying to say it does.
As to my experiences, you need not concern yourself about them. You simply wouldn't understand the conversation. You have seen nothing and I envy you for it.
It never occoured to me that if I had chosen another draft board, I'd have been able to choose Viet Nam or not. Stupid of me.
You had the same choice Cassius Clay had Thomas.
Or the 50,000 some Americans that came to Canada.
I don't understand your reaction because I know you would be disturbed at the deaths of children and your other comments show this.
Children are dying in large numbers in this siege and invasion - and that is sickening. Do we have to witness it in person in order to have a reaction or opinion? If that's your point, then I disagree completely.
Perhaps you think the person was being flippant about calling this little girl a Hamas terrorist. I interpret it as pain at the use of language to justify murder.
Joe
Look at what was posted. Look at the label. You know exactly what the intent was, what the message was.
The deaths of children particularly disturb me as most people, the death of all these people disturb most any sane person.
"Do we have to witness it in person in order to have a reaction or opinion?"
Of course not. And if someone enjoys or needs to see that kind of picture to motivate them to a reaction, or to reinforce their opinion, thats their problem. But to foist it on other people, unsuspecting, is crude, cruel and chickenshit in my opinion.
Then we have this little jewel:
"So you would rather not know so that you can pretend that you live in a world where stuff like this doesn't happen? Or does the picture make it seem too real?"
What arrogant nonsense and obviously posted by someone that has only seen blood when they draw it for a test.
I could show them pictures from the border from this last year that make that picture look like a picture of a picnic. Almost a thousand people have died in Gaza, over 5700 died along our Southern Border, children included. Want to see some pics from Darfur?
I have seen that little girl and others like her, up close and personal and I don't need some asshole trying to make a political point posting traps like that. I didn't sleep a lot last night, but folks like these that make stupid statements, try and reinforce their prejudices with graphic images I'm sure slept like babies.
If you find this justified, I'm disappointed. I don't, under any circumstances. This whole argument has gotten out of hand in my opinion. I am just disgusted.
Get off it, Vaudree. I've seen plenty of pictures like this, and worse. I was talking from a place of pain - pain at the reality of what humans keep doing to each other, and to the least of us at that.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
GottaGetOffTheGrid
I didn't appreciate this at all. I don't know what your intent was, but you missed the mark by a mile.
GottaGetOffTheGrid. Thank You for that link. Israel showed her who was Boss. azjoe.
Thomas More is right in criticizing the manner in which I posted the link. It was in poor taste. The statement was made in irony and does not translate into web-land. I offer my sincere apologies for that.
However, I do not apologise for posting the link to the photo (the article is very much worth a read, as is all of Chris Floyd’s work). IMO there are much too few photos like this being published or shown these days.
GottaGetOffTheGrid
I thank you for that. And sometimes things just don't translate well. I should know. (lol)
You of course don't have to apologize for what you posted. Anyone can post what they like. Just please in the future, label it correctly and I'm sure you would anyway in the future..
Its something that more than likely wouldn't happen again in a hundred years.
I also don't discount the possibility that it was just me that it hit like that. But it did. And that was exactly how I felt.
I thank you again for acknowledging it could possibly have been done another way and thats the end of it for me. My respects.
Can you imagine what the zionist trolls would be screaming if those children were Israeli and even Jew? They act no different from Bill Bennett who rails against "abortion" on one side while at the same time calling for the "abortion" of black babies which by the way got him into trouble.
If a few thousand more Palastinians have to die to show the world what israel is like so be it .Afterall their lives mean very little. israels policy of killing children also makes sense because they would grow up to be terrorists.
"If a few thousand more Palastinians have to die to show the world what israel is like so be it"
Have you lost your mind?
Thank you Thomas for nailing that rotten reply. I don't want anyone dead quite frankly. All I asked was for people to see what would happen if the shoe were on the other foot and I get a wacko response. I guess the zionist trolls are attacking on a different note here.
JWVerez
I truly think this is getting out of hand.
Thomas,
War and terrorism are out of hand. Our reactions are strong, and some are out of hand, but they are in response to unimaginable horror and insanity and strong reactions should be expected.
In the future, it would be helpful if you would address the individuals you have a problem with, instead of posting blanket admonitions. You can't deny that there is a strong and virulent attempt to squelch dissent, both here and in Israel. This is not good, to say the least. We can help ourselves and each other if we use directness, especially in these pixelated words that don't carry body language or expressions.
I have been guilty of the same issue, and I am trying to learn.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
This is what's done to teenaged foreign Human Rights workers when they try to protect Palestinian schoolchildren by accompanying them to their homes--and this was during "peacetime", in front of the world's cameras and dozens of onlookers. Here are more details on same incident and this is how you can express your discomfiture, if you have any that is.
This is absolutely disgraceful that over 1,000 Palestinians have died (at least 1/3 were civilians) compared with 13 Israelis. If this isn't textbook example of war crimes then I don't know what is. Maybe the illegal invasion/occupation of Iraq perhaps and the associated torture.
Where is the rest of the world? Demand that Israel get their asses out of Gaza and the other illegally occupied territories that the UN Resolutions required. Give them one week, then send in troops.
At least 4 of the 13 were killed by fellow IDF not from Hamas fire.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3655052,00.html
A few days ago I discovered the free download Livestation http://www.livestation.com/ (for Mac users like me, too!), and have been watching streaming television coverage from Gaza by English Al Jazeera, whose reporters are actually in Gaza, not just hanging out in Israel like the U.S. "reporters." There are lots of other international broadcasting networks on Livestation, too. Now we can see exactly what the rest of the world sees, in real time, not just on youtube, unfiltered by our corporate media.
It is beyond heartbreaking to see war crimes as they happen, carried out by our client state Israel with weapons our taxes have paid for. There is not much more to say, except God help us, we are complicit in a new holocaust. Israel is carrying out a slaughter of civilians in a cage. I think that their universal military service in Israel has created a nation of people who have been carefully trained to commit atrocities without remorse. The relatively few Israelis who are speaking out against this carnage deserve our great respect for their courage and humanity.
Israel's cruel tactics don't surprise me. After all, they were the ones who gave the US training in how to torture prisoners in Abu Ghrab.
Israel always presents itself as the poor victim, but in reality, it is as blood-thirsty as the people she accuses of being the agressor.
Where are the liberals in Congress? Why aren't they speaking out against this atrocity? Where are Gaza's Arab neighbors? Are they all wimps with no
sense of compassion?
900 to 13 dead, and this is not genocide? Is Bush gone yet?
Bush is almost gone but don't expect much better from Obama. His silence is deafening.
"Where are the liberals in Congress? Why aren't they speaking out against this atrocity?"
They are cowed by the Israel Lobby, same as most US politicians. It's an ill wind that's blowing in this country, and I fear for supporters of the Lobby if/when things get out of hand. Actually, I fear for this country as a whole far more than I fear for the supporters.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
900 dead, and how many maimed for life? Blinded, scarred, amputatated. And how about the life altering emotional scarring and trauma of the survivors, if there are any when this finally ends? It is just so discusting.
This slaughter of innocents is disgusting. Heard this really battered woman lying in a hospital today crying about her child (conceived after 22 years of marriage) who dies in her arms and of a father who lost two of his three young daughters who were out with their grandmother. I think one was hit with 17 bullets.
Finally we have a weapons expert to confirm that it was white phosphorus being used:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPw-mqGkL9M&feature=channel_page
And just when I thought I heard everything - the the Canadian Jewish Congress (the Pro Israel group) is trying to get protests against the slaughter in Gaza considered a hate crime! The Congress is also putting pressure on government stating that the government should insist that they stop!
~QUOTE~ The congress said it would release a list of those who co-sponsored the anti-Israel protests, among them the Ontario wing of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Canadian Peace Alliance and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
One of the groups Farber is naming, the Canadian Arab Federation, calls the congress's approach an unsurprising attempt to divert attention from the horrors the Israeli military has been visiting on Gaza and its people.
It's only normal that many Canadians, horrified by what has occurred in Gaza, would react strongly, but labelling them anti-Semitic or Muslim extremists is just fear-mongering, said Mohamed Boudjenane, executive director of the federation.
"We had 10,000 people (protest)," Boudjenane said. ...
Boudjenane pointed out that numerous Jews have also rallied against the Israeli attacks, naming some prominent ones such as author Naomi Klein and political and social activist Judy Rebick.
They aren't anti-Jew, he said, but were only there to protest the ``massacre" happening in Gaza. ~END QUOTE~
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/570376
(The Star is free registration if you don't see article at first glance)
Vaudree, if protesting Israeli action in Gaza is a hate crime, then soon I will be hung, drawn and quartered!
Congratulations on your comment. It's great to see there are still some civilized, decent people left in this crazy world.
Israel-America (spot the difference) sickens me beyond belief. They are both dinosaurs which have no place in this modern world.
www.dangerouscreation.com
I am absolutely disgusted with some of the posts here. I don't know what has happened, but apparently there are a lot of folks here that speak of dying lightly.
Thomas,
Other than one or two post (and I'm not sure what they actually meant), I don't see much to be disgusted with. What is disgusting is what Israel is doing. The rest of us are watching in horror as we are driven insane by our own country's complicity. A few angry posts are nothing in comparison to that.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
Ted
You are much nicer than I am. I find people talking about things they know nothing about as if they know all about it very disgusting. And that kind of bait and switch, shock value propaganda is beneath contempt.
In comparison to whats going on in Gaza, you are right. But I won't suffer fools gladly. They have the right to publish Don Imus type stuff just as I have the right to say what I think of it.
Thomas,
If the posts on Common Dreams were limited to absolute experts, this would be a pretty desolate place. Plus, I don't trust most experts - they usually see only the trees.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
Considering that you are still denying the Holocaust of 20 million Native Americans, I guess you should fit right in with those who speak lightly of dying.
t_g
I think we live in historical times: because of the economic difficulties; because of whipped-up and constantly emphasized religious differences; because of the huge inequalities of wealth there'll be a lot of disenchanted and disenfranchised people.
Let's look at who is benefitting from all that chaos and try to stop them!
Part of the above is happening in the Middle East: the US ally (or part of the US??) Israel is representing all that's wrong and ugly with our First World society: greed, selfishness and deception/hipocrisy.
As long as there is no independent state for the Palestinians, there'll be no peace. This should be the priority of the incoming US Administration. Unfortunately my Government (Australia) is parroting the US Gov't propaganda, so no pressure from here. We don't really have a powerful Jewish lobby. Not yet, anyway, but we do have some very strong conservative voices.
I think us, moderate Jews should raise our voices, as this Israeli policy is certainly no benefitting us. We are being hated everywhere we go. I feel VERY uncomfortable with publicly calling for equal rights for Palestinians - I've been called a self-hating Jew, I had hate-mail and threatening phone calls. They were anonymous (of course!!), but I think most came from fellow Jews. Shame!!!!!
I have stopped commenting on my views publicly - I'm an elderly woman. Do I need all these hassles? Anybody else had similar experiences? How do you deal with it? Is there any way to express my views without being afraid?
p.s. my husband is also of my views and he has stopped voicing them years ago - because of similar reasons. He is also Jewish...
toad_goddess,
Thank you for your candor. I strongly believe you speak for many, especially many moderate and progressive Jews. It is clear that the Israel Lobby is strong in many places, and Australia is not exempt.
I'm not sure how else to describe what the Israel Lobby represents, other than fascism. Maybe that's an outmoded or misplaced description, but in my mind, fascism represent the use of force to coerce people, and that describes what the IL does. Whether it is actual force (as it has been many times) or coercion by other means (threats, name calling, shaming), matters not. The IL's goal is to silence those who dare question anything Israel does. I don't know what else to call it: Fascism. They are fascists.
Agreed also that there must be an independent state for the Palestinians. The only way this will happen is for Israel to give back some land. It is clear that the hardest of the hardliners in Israel are the settlers, but they are the ones who have caused much of this problem. They know what they do, they just don't care. Land at any expense (as long as it's Palestinian expense), is their motto.
The longer I look at this problem, the fewer peaceful solutions I see...unless the world coalesces and forces Israel to give back land. If the world doesn't do this, I am certain this will escalate out of control and suck the US and other nations into a huge conflict, probably worldwide and nuclear. The implications and dangers are enormous. We, the citizens of the nations, can and must do our part by boycotting Israeli products and by voicing our opinions wherever and whenever we can. We must not let the Israel Lobby force us into our own ghettos of fear, as they have done with the Palestinians. There is far too much at stake!
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
Damn the right wing Harper "Government".
By the way, nobody's asking the US the most FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION. Where are we getting the funding from? Answer, we're still borrowing from China and Japan. If China and Japan were to quit letting the US borrow, then the US would be unable to waste taxpayer money building massive WMDs and shipping them to rogue nations such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Israel, India, etc ... Either we the people are gonna stop Congress or else China and Japan will do it one day and when they do, the US will witness the most horrendous financial meltdown that will make 2008 look like a minor annoyance !
I glanced at the Post Gazette the other day, and there was a picture on the front page taken from a service being held at a synogogue...
...denouncing Palestine's firing of missles into Israel.
Yep. I couldn't believe it either.
I'm fearful for the respective futures of the Arab world and Jewry. Hate is an infectious disease. Israel is being used as a battering ram for the imperial powers.
I still think Israel should be dismantled and that the Jews should be dispersed throughout the globe.
Or make an even trade with Europe for her Muslim citizens? Is that doable?