Saturday 10th January 2009

The Foreign Secretary
The Rt Hon David Miliband MP
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH

Dear Mr Miliband

I am appalled by Israel’s continued savage attack on the people of Gaza and by the lack of condemnation from the British Government. Israel has ignored the United Nations once again and as I write this is raining bombs down on the civilian population of Gaza.

International aid groups lashed out at Israel on Thursday 8th January over the war in Gaza, saying that access to civilians in need is poor, relief workers are being hurt and killed, and Israel is woefully neglecting its obligations to Palestinians who are trapped, some among rotting corpses in a nightmarish landscape of deprivation.

1n the current 14 days (as at Saturday 10th January 2009) conflict some 780 Palestinians and 11 Israelis have died. Who started it? It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It did so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men. During the ceasefire, Israel prevented any exports from leaving the strip in clear violation of a 2005 accord, leading to a sharp drop in employment opportunities for the Gazans.

The disgaceful bombing of the UN al-Fakhura school in the Jabaliya refugee camp on Tuesday 6th January was especially outrageous. The Israelis claimed there were so called militants firing from the school but John Ging, the director of operations in Gaza for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), told reporters that he had visited the school during a three-hour lull in the fighting on Wednesday and "was reassured by the management of the school ... that there were no militants in the school".

According to former US President Jimmy Carter, writing in the Washington Post on Thursday 8th January: `After 12 days of "combat," the Israeli Defense Forces reported that more than 1,000 targets were shelled or bombed. During that time, Israel rejected international efforts to obtain a cease-fire, with full support from Washington. Seventeen mosques, the American International School, many private homes and much of the basic infrastructure of the small but heavily populated area have been destroyed. This includes the systems that provide water, electricity and sanitation. Heavy civilian casualties are being reported by courageous medical volunteers from many nations, as the fortunate ones operate on the wounded by light from diesel-powered generators. `

What Israel is doing (with tacit British support) is a war crime and I urge you to speak out against it.

Yours Fathfully,
Mr Paul O’Hanlon