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Gazans Mark Anniversary of War
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are marking one year since the start of Israel's 22-day offensive on the territory, which left hundreds dead and damaged millions of dollars worth of infrastructure.
Schoolgirls in Gaza City flash the victory sign during a rally marking the one-year anniversary of last winter's war. Sirens have wailed across the Gaza Strip as the still-devastated enclave marks one year since the start of Israel's deadliest offensive ever launched on the territory. (AFP/Mohammed Abed) Hamas officials
held a ceremony on Sunday outside the destroyed Palestinian Legislative
Council building in Gaza City - one of the first targets of the assault.
Air raid sirens were turned on at 11:20am (9:20 GMT), the exact time that the aerial bombardment began.
Ismail Haniya, the deposed Palestinian prime minister, was expected to unveil a plaque commemorating the 1,600 people that Hamas officials say were killed during the war.
Other estimates put the Palestinian death toll closer to 1,400, the majority of whom were civilians, including around 400 children.
Thirteen Israelis were also killed during the war - 10 soldiers and three civilians.
A month of events are planned to commemorate the war in Gaza.
Sombre mood
Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, who was among one of the few international broadcasters to report on the war from inside the territory, was at the scene.
She said that "the message here isn't just one of sombreness and sadness to mark one of the darkest phases of Palestinian history, but also one of defiance by the Hamas government, who continue to maintain control, law and order here in the Gaza Strip".
The stated aim behind Israel's "Operation Cast Lead" was to cripple the ability of Hamas and other Palestinian groups from launching rockets into southern Israel.
Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokesperson, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that the operation had been successful.
"This [goal] was achieved as, a year after the operation, we are seeing very little rocket fire. In that sense, it has been a success," she said.
Palestinian armed groups have slowed, but not stopped, their indiscriminate rocket attacks, but the factions claim that is by choice.
Hamas defiant
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin was granted exclusive access to a rocket-manufacturing site, where they demonstrated that their capabilities have not been diminished.
In a rare interview, the spokesperson for Hamas' military wing the al-Qassam Brigades, known as Abu Obeida, dismissed Israeli claims that his group had been weakened by the war.
"We were affected by this war, but we were able to regroup even during the battle, before it finished and the impact on our military capabilities was marginal. We were capable of rearming and much more."
Dr Ahmad Yousuf, a senior Hamas official and former advisor to Haniya, said that the political movement also remained strong despite the devastation caused by the Israeli offensive.
"The Israelis failed their objectives on all accounts," he told Al Jazeera from Gaza City.
"Hamas is still there and we try to help our people, but we are still under occupation and suffering from sanctions."
Human Rights Watch, an international advocacy group, has accused both Israel and Hamas of failing to take punitive action against members of their own forces who are accused of rights violations during the war.
Shattered infrastructure
Mustafa Barghouti, an independent Palestinian politician and former minister of information, criticised Israel for refusing to allow in supplies to rebuild Gaza's shattered infrastructure.
"Today 25,000 houses in Gaza remain unrepaired because Israel is not allowing a single sack of cement or a piece of glass into Gaza," he told Al Jazeera from the West bank town of Ramallah.
Barghouti also criticised international governments for failing to put sufficient pressure on Israel.
"My question is why does Europe and other donor countries not send ships with materials for construction. They can have Nato investigating these ships to make sure there is no security risk."
Last week, 16 rights groups including Amnesty International and Oxfam issued a joint statement saying the world has "betrayed" civilians in the Gaza Strip by failing to end the Israeli blockade of the enclave.
Source: Al Jazeera
- Posted in
14 Comments so far
Show AllWhile Egypt acting as Israel's and the US's surrogate attempts to block or hinder aid being brought to Gaza with the Viva Palestine aid convoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB9Rp7LcqGY
Completely irrelevant and illogical obstruction mouthed by Egyptian official. "The trucks coming back could cause massive infiltration!" Why does the port of entry to Egypt make any difference, other than delay and added cost and logistical complication?
The Government of Egypt is a disgrace to humanity!
Why not tell them so:
Or for a more diplomatic aproach and some suggested letters and addresses to send them to for attention of His Excelency President Mubarak you can see examples at the Islamic Human Rights Commission:
http://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=3813
Thank you!
Important video; very!
"Gaza Aid Convoy Members Prepare For Hunger Strike"
by Saed Bannoura, IMEMC.org, Dec 27 2009
http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=61504
QUOTE:
Members of the Viva Palestina international aid convoy to Gaza will begin a hunger strike at 11.25am local time tomorrow (27th) in protest at the Egyptian government's refusal to allow the convoy entry onto its soil.
Diplomatic negotiations are also taking place between the Turkish and Egyptian governments over the convoy's entry to Egypt. IHH, Turkey's main humanitarian aid agency, has 63 vehicles travelling on the convoy.
The Syrian government has also provided aid and vehicles, as has the government of Malaysia. More than 400 people from 17 countries are travelling on the 150 vehicle convoy, which is taking medical, humanitarian and educational aid to Gaza.
They left London on 6 December and have travelled nearly 3,000 miles across Europe and the Middle East. However, the convoy and its cargo of aid is now stopped in the Jordanian port town of Aqaba, having been denied entry into Egypt.
British MP, George Galloway, who is travelling with the convoy, said: 'Israel has kept Gaza under siege for three-and-half years against international law. It has not allowed aid or rebuilding materials in following its attack on Gaza earlier this year. Our convoy is determined to break the siege and take in urgently needed supplies Spirits are high in our camp in Aqaba, and we are going nowhere except to Gaza.'
It was at 11.25am on December 27 2008, that Israel dropped its first bombs on the besieged population of Gaza. Three weeks later, following a sustained air, land and sea assault, more than 1,400 Palestinians had been killed.
he (sic) Viva Palestina hunger strikers will consume only liquids until the convoy is allowed entry into Egypt.
Convoy members will also mark the first anniversary of the beginning of Israel's Operation Cast Lead by holding a march through Aqaba, jointly with the Jordanians. In the evening, more than 1,400 candles will be lit for a vigil.
The convoy has been jointly organised by the charity Viva Palestina and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the UK's largest organisation campaigning for solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Box BM PSA, London, WC1N 3XX
Press: 07941 203 894
END QUOTE
The article speaks of 150 vehicles of aid, but George Galloway, in the video Lucitanian provided a link for, says 250 vehicles, and 500 people.
Why does Al Jazeera put the word -betrayed- in quotation marks???
Quoting from the article, "Last week, 16 rights groups including Amnesty International and Oxfam issued a joint statement saying the world has "betrayed" civilians in the Gaza Strip by failing to end the Israeli blockade of the enclave".
As first guesses, I think it's either due to the word appearing within quotes in the joint statement, or the word appears unquoted there, but while the rest of the above quoted text from the AlJazeera article is only of its wording, not appearing in the joint statement.
You'd need to refer to the joint statement's text to see what of the above-quoted text from AlJazeera's article appears as quoted, above. I doubt it fully appears in the joint statement, for if the contrary was true, then AlJazeera surely would have put the whole sentence within quotes.
no, my question was rhetorical, betrayed is betrayed...by putting quotes around it, it lessens its meaning and power as a word, ...
Israel's attack on the people of Gaza was enabled by US-supplied weapons and we the people of the US who pay taxes provide over $30 billion annually to Israel although Israel has consistently misused U.S. weapons in violation of America's Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts.
"Washington provided F-16 fighter planes, Apache helicopters, tactical missiles, and a wide array of munitions, including white phosphorus and DIME.
"The weapons required for the Israeli assault was decided upon in June 2008, and the transfer of 1,000 bunker-buster GPS-guided Small Diameter Guided Bomb Units 39 (GBU-39) were approved by Congress in September. The GBU 39 bombs were delivered to Israel in November (prior to any claims of Hamas cease fire violation!) for use in the initial air raids on Gaza."
In a 71-page report released March 25, 2009, by Human Rights Watch, Israel’s repeated firing of US-made white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of Gaza was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes.
"Rain of Fire: Israel’s Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza," provides eye witness accounts of the devastating effects that white phosphorus munitions had on civilians and civilian property in Gaza.
"Human Rights Watch researchers found spent shells, canister liners, and dozens of burnt felt wedges containing white phosphorus on city streets, apartment roofs, residential courtyards, and at a United Nations school in Gaza immediately after hostilities ended in January.
"Militaries officially use white phosphorus to obscure their operations on the ground by creating thick smoke. It has also been used as an incendiary weapon, though such use constitutes a war crime.
“In Gaza, the Israeli military didn’t just use white phosphorus in open areas as a screen for its troops," said Fred Abrahams, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report.
"It fired white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren't in the area and safer smoke shells were available. As a result, civilians needlessly suffered and died."
http://wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1523&Itemid=227
This senseless slaughter of so many civilians puts a new meaning into Hanukkah.
Cameiros
What we have is the 'Chosen People' syndrome. Completely amoral policies are adopted because the 'Chosen People' are answerable only to their God. Good and evil do not factor into this ideology. Unspeakable crimes are committed, so long as the self-proclaimed 'covenant with god' is adhered to...
What is this covenant with God? Anything the 'Chosen People' say it is.
Why do you people insist in calling it a war when it was anyting but? A war is a conflict where both sides are equally engaged; however, in a case such as Gaza, where 1.5 million defenseless civilians were caged like animals and bombed mercilessly with no chance of defending themselves, it is not a war but a massacre. Enough already with the politically correct shit: a massacre and crimes against humanity are just that and all the twittering with the language ain't gonna change the fact that Israhell is a despicable monster that deserves to be hunt down and put out of our misery.
time for an international boycott of israel. can't really hit them anywhere but in their pockerbook. they have the sixth or seventh strongest miitary in the world and hold nuclear weapons, so we have to take other measures. what a cruel joke on the world they are, this nation of 8 million that regularly takes this earth of 6 billion to the precipice of disaster and annihilation all too often.
Gaza And The Warsaw Ghetto
same place
different time
while the world stood by
genocide
live
The fact that there are only 10 comments on this thread says it all. Who in America cares about the Palestinians?
Of course, if Americans had been suffering under brutal occupation for sixty years, there probably would be a few complaints. 300 million of them.
But America arms and supports Israel, condones its genocide, land stealing, house demolitions, the Gaza siege, etc.
For a land that supposedly stands for freedom, democracy and human rights it seems rather strange!
http://www.dangerouscreation.com
"We constantly talk rightly about Israeli crimes; but that's highly misleading, because they are U.S./Israeli crimes. There is nothing that Israel does that goes beyond what the United States authorizes and in fact directly supports with economic, diplomatic, military, and also ideological support.-That is, by framing issues. So these are U.S./Israeli crimes. If we talk about israel we should remember,- we are talking about ourselves. Its not like talking about crimes of China..."
http://www.zcommunications.org/attachments/media/audio/3399.mp3
"Never Again!" turns out to be a Zionist lie, just like "Change we can believe in!"
Israel's slow-motion Holocaust of the Palestinians continues, day by day, as the world watches and does nothing to rescue the Palestinians from today's Nazis, Israel.
Also on this page is Chris Hedge's essay, "One Day We’ll All Be Terrorists." He's right, the day is fast approaching when any of us who speak up about anything will be slammed into jail without trial by our Unitary Executive and his forces.
That day isn't here quite yet. What we have today is the fact that right now, most of us are Good Germans, actively protecting ourselves from realizing just what it is that is being done in our names.