Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse. Now they are shelling UN schools.
Israeli forces have shelled another UN school in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp. Three artillery shells landed in the perimeter of the school, killing some 30 displaced people who were sheltering there and injuring 55.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, has been using UN schools to shelter some of the 15,000 Gazans who had fled their home following the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
The massacre is reminiscent of the Israeli shelling in 1996 of a UN compound in Qana, southern Lebanon, which killed 106 civilians.
John Ging, the UNRWA Director of Operations in Gaza, stressed that all UN schools in Gaza are clearly marked, flying the UN flag, and that the organisation has provided the GPS coordinates of all of its installations in the area to Israel. “Those who were in the school were all families seeking refuge,” the UN News Centre quoted him as saying.
Over 640 people have been killed so far in Gaza.
This report from the Ma’an News Agency website, one of the most browsed in Palestine:
Date: 06 / 01 / 2009 Time: 17:04
Updated 18:07
Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli forces killed at least 42 Palestinians at a UN school that was sheltering displaced people in Jabaliya Refugee Camp in the northern Gaza Strip late on Tuesday afternoon, medical officials confirmed to Ma’an.
According to initial reports, the school was destroyed, collapsing on top of Palestinians who took shelter inside from the intense bombardment by Israeli air and ground forces.
According to another report, broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Israeli tank shells hit the front gate of the school. UNRWA Spokesperson Christopher Gunness confirmed that at least one shell landed near the school.
Children are also said to be among the dead. Hundreds of people were reported to be in the area of the school at the time of the shelling.
Ma’an’s reporter said that dozens more, all civilians, were injured in the attack on the Al-Fakhoura School. The death toll is expected to rise as a number of the wounded are said to be in critical condition. Ambulances were initially unable reach the school.
The school is operated by UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees. UNRWA has been using its schools to house some of the 15,000 Gazans who have fled their homes due to Israel’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, which began on Saturday.
UNRWA says it handed over the GPS coordinates of all UN installations throughout the Gaza Strip to the Israeli military. The school was clearly marked as a UN facility.
Earlier on Tuesday, the United Nations confirmed that three refugees had been killed at 11:30 on Monday night when Israeli forces fired directly on a UNRWA school in Gaza City. Another UNRWA school also came under fire in the city of Rafah.
“There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized,” said John Ging, the top UN official in Gaza. He also said that people in Gaza are “entitled” to action by the international community to stop the Israeli invasion.
“I am appealing to political leaders here and in the region and the world to get their act together and stop this,” he said, speaking at Gaza’s largest hospital. “They are responsible for these deaths.”
Tuesday’s attack has drawn comparisons to the 1996 Israeli shelling of a UN compound in Qana, southern Lebanon, in which 106 civilians were killed.
EXCLUSIVE-Gaza headmaster was Islamic Jihad “rocket-maker”
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSL05686115
By Adam Entous
q/
“RAFAH, Gaza Strip, May 5 (Reuters) – By day, Awad al-Qiq was a respected science teacher and headmaster at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip. By night, Palestinian militants say, he built rockets for Islamic Jihad….” u/q
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Debka(site too busy at this moment) has quoted that Hamas was firing mortar from the school.
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Anil,
I am totally against violence against civilians, this goes to Israelis and also to Hamas.
Why there is no fairness in your writing? There is so much of hype when this happen in Gaza, but simillar attrocities are being commited by Sri Lankan gaovernment towards Tamils, they bomb schools, hospitals, churches, UN relief centers, they even block humanatarian aids from reaching the victims. THIS IS HAPPENING EVERYDAY! Not a single word from you.
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Only Insignificant Lives…
Is the recent genocide taking place in Gaza related to OIL again? We know that the Iraq war had a lot to do with oil and war profiteering by the Americans.
After oil prices had gone down to USD40+ a barrel in recent times, isn’t it convenient that there is a sudden renewal of conflict in the Middle East again? Isn’t it suspicious that the price of oil has shot up to USD50+ a barrel just these past few days?
For all the conspiracy theorists, is there really a cartel of powerful business people running the world’s economy, who will do anything for a quick buck? Greedy tycoons who don’t mind bathing in blood money?
You know, if Madoff can run his ponzi scheme for years and cheat investors out of USD50 billion, then I guess anything is possible.
Let’s see how much the price of oil is once a truce is called between Israel and Palestine. Wanna bet that the price will be around USD100 per barrel?
From financial scandals to high oil prices to war profiteering, I see a common link – don’t you?
SPEAK UP MALAYSIA:
STOP HARMING
INNOCENT CIVILIANS
FOR PROFIT
“If we go on the way we have, the fault is our greed and if we are not willing to change, we will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect.”
- Jacques-Yves Cousteau
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q/
“An Israeli military spokesman said Israeli forces shelled the UNWRA-run school in Jebalya killing 40 Palestinians in response to mortar fire from the building.
There were secondary blasts from explosives cached inside.
The casualties included the Hamas mortar unit and several Hamas commanders who had been hiding behind the backs of the civilian refugees.
DEBKAfile’s militlary sources report: In Gaza, Hamas has abdicated its responsibilities for governance and reverted to terrorist tactics – against the Palestinian population – in order to maximize civilian casualties for horror scenes to be broadcast across the world as pressure on Israel to stop fighting.
Palestinians say whole families are locked in their homes from which Hamas open fire. Some are booby-trapped to blow up Israeli invaders with those families.
After shedding their uniforms, Hamas operatives emerge from their bunkers to seize petrol stations and ambulances and grab most of the incoming food and medical aid carried in daily by hundreds of trucks from Israel and Egypt.
Their firing stations are often located in schools. One huge explosives and weapons arsenal was uncovered next door to Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Hamas terrorists force small children to accompany them on combat missions.
The Palestinian death toll from Israel’s 11-day offensive is estimated in Gaza at 633 with thousands of injured overwhelming the hospitals. Yet Hamas continues to shoot rockets and missiles into Israel – 40 by Tuesday evening, half concentrated on Sderot.” u/qhttp://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5831
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Very upset! Very upset!
Whatever said & done……………
The innocent are the ones that suffer the most..!
Why do the act of killing? We are all humans that are able to communicate by talking. Even dogs communicate by barking, which we don’t even understand their lingo…!
I think……
Isreal wants to wipe them complete off the face of the earth!
They know that there ARE innocent people & especially children. Why do they STILL want to bomb it…..??
And the superpowers are keeping quite about it…! What happen to the word “Human Rights !”
Its our ‘right’ to be alive………!!!
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Is it the same clearly-marked UNRWA school as shown in this video, where Hamas militants were luanching attacks from the inside of it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmXXUOs27lI
Israel is clearly to blame when Hamas uses school children as human shields. Israel should only use psychic-based weaponry that targets the minds of fighters directly, thus avoiding any chance of civilian casualties.
(It is a well-known fact that the IDF kidnapped Professor X and are now in posession of his Cerebro technology, thus there is no excuse for Israel not employing solely psychic weaponry.)
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http://tinyurl.com/7u4ltl
Hamas Steals Humanitarian Supplies, Then Sells Them for Profit
Middle East | Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 5:45:39 pm PST
Report: Hamas stealing aid supplies to sell to residents.
A number of reports from the Strip paint a picture of very difficult humanitarian conditions, not least because of Hamas itself. The suspicion is that the group’s operatives have seized control of any supplies passing through the crossings – including those sent by Israel and international organizations.
Reports say Hamas takes a cut out of all aid that arrives, including flour and medicine. Supplies intended to be distributed without gain among the population are seized by the group and sold to the residents, at a profit to the Hamas government.
One such incident was recorded Monday, when a convoy of trucks carrying supplies through the Kerem Shalom crossing was opened fire upon and seized by Hamas gunmen. Similar incidents occurred with trucks carrying fuel.
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http://tinyurl.com/96wee5
Two residents of the area who spoke by telephone said they saw a small group of militants firing mortar rounds from a street near the school, where 350 people had gathered to get away from the shelling. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal…
An Israeli defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to make the information public, said it appeared that the military used 120mm shells, among the largest mortar rounds…
Two residents who spoke to an AP reporter by phone said the two brothers [jihadis killed at the scene] were known to be low-level Hamas militants. They said a group of militants — one of them said four — were firing mortar shells from near the school.
An Israeli shell targeted the men, but missed and they fled, the witnesses said, refusing to allow their names to be published because they feared for their safety. Then another three shells landed nearby, exploding among civilians, they said.
Palestinian militants have frequently fired from residential areas in the past.
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Might is right. There are more arabs than jews. Ergo the jews are wrong so the Hamas Charter must be upheld:
* Article 7 of the Hamas Covenant states the following: “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (the Cedar tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.” (related by al-Bukhari and Muslem).
UNRWA has been the UN arm in the fight against the “despicable”, “evil” jews (sarcasm intended).
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Israel left the Gaza to the Fakestinians who then immediately commenced to desecrate Jewish synagogues and holy places (like Joeph`s Tomb etc). Then those profitable greenhouses that Bill Gates purchased for them were vandalised so tunnels could be dug and the equipment used to produce weapons that can be used to push the Jews in the Mediterranean.
This is good. Now, Spain and India should be returned to followers of the True Faith.
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Scott, the Hamas Charter is Supernatural which could qualify for some psychic powers:
# Tickler Says:
Today at 10: 45.41 (2 seconds ago)
IRA had nothing like the Hamas Charter:
See Article Seven: The Universality of Hamas here:
http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/documents/charter.html
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Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth, no thanks to Israel pushing 200,000 refugees into the area. It is not possible to drop bombs ANYWHERE without hitting civilians. Accusing the Palestinians of embedding weapons among civilians is clever misrepresentation of facts.
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Drachen, you are right: See this video of how Hamas deliberately tries to avoid entangling children in the fighting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J08GqXMr3YE
NOT.
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“misrepresentation of facts”, Drachen?
Denial is a chosen blindness.
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What Hamas can bring to Palestine?? Peace? NO! Safety? NO! Wealth? NO! Independent? NO! Food? NO! Bomb? YES! Endless War? YES! Well, what else do the poor Palestine people really expect from Hamas? Conflict & death is a certainty. Darkness in the night. Cold in the winter too. These Israel is more than capable of to dish out if someone ask from them. So, why the palestine still support Hamas ideology? Maybe they can see THE END & they all wanted it. Peace on earth!
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It is not possible to drop bombs ANYWHERE without hitting civilians. – drachen
Indeed many observers just assume that it was the Israelis who put the refugees in camps and kept them there. Michael Moore speaks about a visit to the refugee camps in 1988:
Although in my life I had already traveled through Central America, China, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the Middle East. I wasn’t ready for what I saw in the refugee camps in the Occupied Territories. I had never encountered such squalor, debasement, and utter misery. To force human beings to live in these conditions – and deo so at the barrel of a gun, for more than forty years — just made no sense. Stupid White Men, p. 178.
Now Moore seems to presume that it’s the Israelis who have done this to the Palestinians. (His next paragraph goes into how badly the Jews have been treated in the past.) He seems to have no awareness that for the first (and critical) half of the Palestinian experience of refugee confinement, it was Arab rulers and Arab guns who kept them in misery, and that once Israel took over they tried to move these unfortunate victims out into decent housing, and it was the Arabs who pushed UN Resolutions insisting that they be returned to the squalor of the camps. How much more nonsensical is that? Unless one thinks in terms of Domineering Cognitive Egocentrism, and the Jihad Paradigm.
http://www.seconddraft.org/ess_palestinian_suffering.php
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Let’s stick to improving Malaysia, in particular Penang…and stay out of the politics of other region.
I don’t think many of us understands the politics of the Middle East, other than reading it from Wikipedia. I am sure many of those who are protesting cannot even point out Gaza on the world map.
Even the Arabs and Persians are distancing themselves from the conflict. If we want to get involved, there are so many conflicts going around….Sri Lanka, Darfur, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Spain, Pakistan, India…..the list is endless.
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Arutz Sheva reports that a study by the Terror and Intelligence Information Center shows that when the IDF warns Arab civilians of an impending attack in their neighborhood, Hamas uses the information in order to organize the civilians into human shields in the hope of protecting the targets from the IDF’s wrath. The Center explains that Hamas considers this a ‘win-win’ situation:
If the IDF cancels its planned attack on a terror target, the terrorists receive a respite. If the IDF attacks despite the human shields, it can then be portrayed as a killer of women and children. The tactic was inspired by the experience of Hizbullah is using such methods against Israel, the study determines.
The study notes that Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh (still in hiding) and Nizar Riyyan (who was killed by the IDF last week) publicly boasted of using the tactic. The real questions are why the world allows Hamas to get away with this tactic, and why their use of this tactic should surprise anyone.
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2009/01/shocka-palestinians-using-israeli.html
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To Wits0, – why do you not read other sources? Do you not know that the url you referenced ie little green footballs is a very rightwing US website? Why is it always Hamas’ doing? Why do you not mention the blockade that has been going on in Gaza, the building up of settlements in the West Bank?
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Anil, there seem to be a lot of Israeli sympathizer in your blog. Where all people come from?
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These dumb Palestinians sure deserve everything they are getting, don’t they? First they lost half the country to Israel. Then they voted for Hamas. Now they’re bombed to bits for firing home-made rockets into Israel. Moral of the story is: Don’t resist when you’re being raped. You’ll only get hurt further.
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Oooh…the poor perpetual victims…how heartless of us to not believe that they can do no wrong! Booo hoooo hoooo..!
Only Right Wingers must be bad guys. Leftist like Che Guevara are gods!
The Israeli government forcibly evicted their settlers from Gaza almost 3 years ago for the Gazan – all shown live on CNN and BBC. Hamas rockets is what got for all their effort.
SiNickel, why don’t you ask why he quotes Gush Diarrhea’s stuffs?
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“These dumb Palestinians sure deserve everything they are getting, don’t they? First they lost half the country to Israel..”
-drachen
There`s a joker somewhere. Israel lost half the territory it was to get under the Balfour Declaration when the Brits encouraged arab immigration (while stopping the Jews from going in) and created Trans-Jordan. It was British perfidy that lost Israel most of the land it was to get.
And who told you that all those fellows in Gaza have been there for thousands of years. You should not listen so much of your friends like SiNickel who are so caught up with what they read in PAS publications.
The Arabs know better. Go ahead and prove me wrong (I`m wringing my hands in anticipation).
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Drachen/SiNickel/VoidDance and all other Israel haters, here`s news for you:
Several years ago the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who was appointed by Arafat, he boldly declared that the Arabs had been living in the Land for 10,000 years. Based on conservative Bible chronology, that means the Arabs have been living in the Land before the Almighty created Adam and Eve.
How did Israel become Palestine and who are the Palestinians? The second Jewish war with the Romans took place in 132-135 CE. Led by Rabbi Akiva and Simon bar Kochba, the Jewish uprising was crushed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian who sought to de-Judaize Jerusalem and make it a pagan city. Hadrian renamed Jerusalem “Aelia Capitolina” in honor of Jupiter. He changed the name of Judea and gave it the name of the Jews ancient enemy, the Philistines. He called it — Palestine.
Over time, Palestine was ruled by the Roman Byzantines (312-637) [Persian interrupt 614-629], Omayyad Arabs (638-750), Islamic Abbassid’s (750-1099), Crusaders (1099-1291) [Saladin the Kurd interrupt 1187-93], Mamluks (1291-1516), Ottoman Turks (1517-1917), and the British Mandate (1917-1948). None of these rulers established a sovereign state in the Land and Jerusalem was never the capital of any empire since the time of King David. Palestine was a forgotten desolate, wasteland, but historical records show there was always a Jewish presence in the Land.
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