Dark Autumn Clouds Raining Blood over Beit Hanoun,
a report from Yousef Alhelou
Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip
One day after the Israeli army declared that it had pulled out and completed “Operation Autumn Clouds” in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, at least 19 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and at least 45 were injured, as a large number of shells were fired at the town. Another five Palestinians were killed in Jenin in the northern West Bank by the Israeli army.
The series of incidents began at 6 a.m. when eyewitnesses said that dozens of tank shells and missiles landed simultaneously in a small and limited area in Beit Hanoun. Ambulances found it difficult to evacuate the wounded.
According to Palestinian sources, some of the shells landed on a home, killing 11 members of one family called Al-'Athamneh, including a 9-year-old child and a 73-year-old woman.
Israeli sources confirmed that artillery shells were fired on Wednesday morning. They said it was not yet known whether the matter was a technical error or a human one!
Sources in Gaza reported that some of those killed were hurt after shells hit a group of civilians who arrived to help those injured in the first barrage. Residents in the area were called to donate blood as it was feared that the number of casualties would rise.
Khaled Radi, a Palestinian health ministry official, said that all the dead were civilians. He said that seven children and four women were among the dead.
Radi also said that at least 45 more were wounded, all civilians. Four hospitals are treating the wounded across Gaza.
Emergency and first aid director in the ministry of health, Dr Moa'aweyah Hassanein, announced that the latest round of Israeli war crimes in Gaza has resulted in a new massacre in the northern town of Beit Hanoun. 19 innocent civilians, including 7 children and 4 women have been murdered brutally as they slept in their own house, he said. This brings this week’s toll alone to 83 Palestinian dead and more than 350 critically injured.
In a huge demonstration outside the morgue in Kamal Adwan Hospital, in the northern Gaza Strip, thousands called for revenge. Hundreds of Palestinians began marching in the northern Gaza Strip, in protest at the Israeli army operation in Beit Hanoun. The protestors chanted slogans against Israel and called for retaliation.
President Mahmoud Abbas declared a three-day mourning period and schools were closed after the horrific massacres against civilians in Beit Hanoun. Abbas added in a statement, "This is a horrible, ugly massacre committed by the occupation against our children, our women and elderly in Beit Hanoun. We urge and call the Security Council to convene immediately to stop the massacres committed against our people and to uphold their responsibility to stop these massacres."
During an emergency meeting of the Palestinian cabinet, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced that efforts to form a national unity government have been suspended after “this awful massacre”.
The government spokesman, Ghazi Hamad, appealed to the international community to mobilize and stop Israel carrying out such massacres against unarmed Palestinians. “Israel is a nation that has no human values and is a disgrace to the modern world”, he added.
Palestinian health minister Bassem Naim also referred to the series of incidents, saying that killing constitutes a policy for the Israelis. "I have no words to describe the ugly Israeli massacre in Beit Hanoun this morning. This massacre is added to another massacre which the town has only just emerged from. This morning's operation only proves that killing is Israel's aim, and this is proved by the massive fire at the medical teams arriving in the area."
Naim added that another proof was the inclusion into the government of Avigdor Lieberman, who calls day and night to kill Palestinians. The Israeli army targets ambulances, paramedics and journalists to hide the facts, he said.
”"The massacre in Beit Hanoun proves that the Israeli government is committing war crimes against civilians”, said Knesset member Talab El-Sana after the incident. "Palestinian children and women are murdered in their homes and in their beds. Olmert, Peretz and Halutz are war criminals who failed in the first war and are committing war crimes in the second war."
He called for "the end of the ongoing slaughter" and said "Tanks cannot kill the dream of a people aspiring to independence and freedom."
Mohamed 'Athamneh, 37, said: "The Israeli army claimed that they pulled out from our town. They are not physically here but their smells and their bad image are still here. They continue their brutal horrific massacres of civilians in Beit Hanoun and in all the Palestinian territories. They want to achieve victory here after they were defeated in south Lebanon. They only understand the language of force. They are vampires who don’t know mercy. The bodies of children are scattered everywhere in the scene in pieces. God be with us! The whole world turns a blind eye."
"It is the saddest scene and images I have ever seen", 29-year-old Majed Kafarnah said. "I saw people coming out of a house covered in blood. I started screaming to wake up the neighbours."
Mona Al-Zanoiun, 41, said: "They destroyed our houses … they killed women and children, they are criminals. They murder us in a cold blood. Where is the international community and the Security Council to see these massacres? We do not want them to send us food; we want them to take brave actions to stop these crimes." She described what happened to the town as a "tsunami" and "destructive earthquake".
Nidal Mater, 53, said: "Once again they commit massacres against civilians, but they will not break our sprit. We will not leave our land. All of us ready to die for the sake of FREEDOM".
He added: "They use their arsenal to kill children and women. They are cowards … We will never forget. Where is their democracy? I just wonder, are they just human beings like us? They destroy our agriculture fields, water, electricity networks and infrastructure. We cannot recognize our streets, destruction is everywhere, and even the mosques which are considered holy places are destroyed!"
Noor Masoud, 14, said ironically: "My message to the Israeli army is ‘Well done; every day you prove to us that you are the most polite army of the worl’". She was crying when she spoke and added, "If you ask the trees and walls in Beit Hanoun they will tell you how merciful the Israeli army is!! It's so funny when the Israeli government expresses its regret following this horrific awful massacre."
Mahmoud Nasser, 33, said: "We rush from one mourning tent to the other because of the operation that only ended yesterday and already we have to deal with a new massacre. Difficult images, dead children, injured children with their faces torn. It's unbelievable."
He added : "All of Beit Hanoun is busy with only one thing: moving the dead and wounded. All this between puddles of blood, lots of blood and body parts; next to some of the bodies were the schoolbags and sandwiches of children preparing to go to school."
Um Zeyad, 42, said that she lost four children in the incident: Muhanad, Mahdi, Arafat and Saad. "I am proud to be the mother of 'shahids' [martyrs]. It is a great honour and we pray to Allah to compensate us”, the bereaved mother said.
She added that two days ago, "the Israeli army stole $1800 from my sister's house. Another woman who was in the same house tried to prevent him from stealing the money. He hit her with his gun on her head and she lost consciousness. The soldier refused to allow a woman to bring water." She added that there were "42 of us, women and children, trapped in one room."
I asked a man about what happened and he started crying. "It was an emotional moment", another man said. "It's normal to see a woman cry but it is very hard to see a man cry", he added. "We lost our homes, members of our family, loved ones and they destroyed our agricultural fields, citrus trees and olive trees which is our only income."
He ended by saying, "Today, Palestinians are united against one enemy."
Yousef Alhelou, Freelance Journalist, lives in Gaza city; he can be contacted on ydamadan (at) hotmail.com
Please also see:
Gaza: From "Summer Rain" in the South to "Autumn Clouds" in the North, by Yousef Alhelou in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip
www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2769&blz=1
8 Nov. 06: The Killing of Civilians in Beit Hanun is a War Crime
www.btselem.org/english/firearms/20061108_War_Crime_in_Beit_Hanun.asp
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Call for Protection and Responsibility in Beit Hanoun
www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=2755&blz=1
www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2780&blz=1
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Response to Beit Hanoun Tragedy
2006-11-08 | Physicians for Human Rights-Israel’s statistics on children injured in the last four months:
1) One third of the civilians killed in Gaza are children. Not including the recent incidents in Beit Hanoun, 247 Palestinians have been killed, amongst them 155 civilians including 57 children.
2) Of the 996 injured, one third (337) are children.
3) 96 children have died in 2006.
Including the recent events in Beit Hanoun, the number of children killed in 2006 so far is more than double the 52 killed in 2005.
Given the events of the past few days and especially the tragedy in Beit Hanoun this morning, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel calls on the Israeli military to stop immediately all activity which endangers civilians, especially children. The Israeli military must comply with international law. Israel must take full responsibility for the civilians it has injured, especially the children amongst them.
In addition, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel’s petition with other human rights organizations to the Israeli High Court on artillery fire into the Gaza Strip is still pending. The organizations and their lawyer will attempt legal procedures in order to expedite the High Court’s decision on the matter. The organizations hope the High Court will force Israel to comply with international law, and reject the shrinking of the “safety zone” to 100 meters. Even in its previous format of 300 meters the zone did not properly protect civilians.
For more information:
Maskit Bendel, Director Occupied Territories Project, 972-54-7700477
Shabtai Gold, Public Outreach, 972-54-4860630
To download the full report:
www.phr.org.il/phr/article.asp?articleid=395&catid=42&pcat=42〈=ENG
For more information on the “safety zone” petition:
www.phr.org.il/phr/article.asp?articleid=331&catid=41&pcat=41〈=ENG
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel www.phr.org.il
Please also see:
Israel/Occupied Territories: Amnesty International delegate visits scene of Gaza Strip killings
web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE150872006
UN team confirms IDF use of phosphorus bombs during war
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785041.html
Study: 57 unarmed Palestinian minors killed by IDF since June
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785063.html
Sources: Most of the dead are women and children
19 Palestinians killed in IDF shelling in northern Gaza
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785380.html
UN officials voice ‘shock and dismay’ at deadly Israeli shelling of Gaza civilians
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20534&Cr=palestin&Cr1=
United Nations ! The Sight Inside Biet Hanoun Reveal Unimaginable Horror
One Intire Palestinian Family Wiped Out
Rivers of Blood and Body Parts Shattered Every Where
www.uruknet.de/?p=m28098&hd=0&size=1&l=t
Israel Kills 24 Palestinians Including Women, Kids
www.palestinechronicle.com/story-110806125730.htm
EU voices "shock" at Israel artillery strikes in Gaza
rawstory.com/news/2006/EU_voices_shock_at_Israel_artillery_11082006.html
www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=2779&blz=1
The countdown begins
Published by Antony Loewenstein November 9th, 2006 in Israel
While Israel kills Palestinian civilians with seeming impunity in Gaza - and a leading Israeli human rights group claims that war crimes are likely to have taken place - a Palestinian in Gaza worries that such behaviour is the shape of things to come:
The present subjugation of Palestinians to siege, poverty and confinement - in addition to continuing Israeli military attacks - can only make it easier for our people to slip into infighting and tragedy. Both the international community and peace-loving Israelis and Palestinians will inevitably face ever more criticism for their failure to stem this tide of misery. Even to those who never supported Hamas, it is impossible to ignore such a huge double standard: the outside world accepts Lieberman’s appointment as deputy prime minister, despite his extreme views, while it boycotts the Palestinian Authority’s elected Hamas administration.
The world will start to take notice when it realises a fascist is Deputy Leader of Israel. Avigdor Lieberman represents the real Zionist agenda, namely the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel. In some ways, his elevation is a positive development. The established Jewish community remains silent, of course, incapable of even expressing disagreement with his appointment out of supposed loyalty to the Jewish state. Sadly for them, international calls for a boycott against Israel will grow, and rightly so.
What will it take for Israel to change its ways? Large-scale international pressure, boycotts and isolation. It worked in apartheid South Africa after many decades, and it will work again.
antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2006/11/09/the-countdown-begins-2
The Olmert Regime issues its usual "Aww, shucks", and we're all supposed to ignore what's happened here. Imagine if that had been an entire Israeli family ... Would platitudes from Hamas make it all better?
A brutal taste of the future
The assault on Beit Hanoun is a terrifying example of what lies in store for Palestinians
By Sami Abdel-Shafi in Gaza City
11/08/06 "Guardian" -- -- The initiation of Avigdor Lieberman - widely regarded as an outright racist - into Ehud Olmert's Israeli government seems to have already brought a taste of things to come. For the past week, the Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanoun has been made a ground zero by the Israeli army. By yesterday, more than 260 Palestinians lay dead and injured, with 53 fatalities - women, children and ambulance drivers among them.
The Israeli army had vowed to end the firing of home-made rockets towards southern Israel. Many Palestinians disagree with the use of these makeshift rockets, but regard Israeli offensives as flagrantly disproportionate. Beit Hanoun was left with no men between the ages of 16 and 45 in the wake of a massive forced round-up by the Israeli army last Thursday night amid helicopter gunfire, tanks and artillery shelling. Women and children in the city sent urgent calls for help through Gaza's radio stations. To these jobless women, losing their men meant breakdown in their households.
On Friday morning, scores of women marched through Beit Hanoun in a spontaneous rush to aid friends and loved ones after hearing their pleas. Unarmed, they were shot at by Israeli soldiers from their tanks; two women were left dead and others severely injured. These women were said to have been heading to a mosque to free armed men who took refuge there. Television footage and interviews with witnesses show these women posed no military threat, but they were treated as such by the Israeli army without warning.
Meanwhile, Lieberman's party, Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel is Our Home"), envisages expelling Palestinians or subjecting them to such misery that they are forced to leave. The party's spin doctors state it more mildly, saying that it proposes to relocate Palestinians to areas under the Palestinian Authority's control. The Beit Hanoun offensive offers an example of what lies in store for them.
Today, the Palestinian Authority tries to govern a besieged Gaza Strip and a West Bank with disconnected cities and villages. The 1.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are imprisoned by closure policies, impoverished and without any hope of a dignified life or economic development. The 1.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank are quickly catching up in a collapse created by the dozens of Israeli military checkpoints and the separation wall which make their lives impossible. Israeli restrictions on movement have made the Palestinians of East Jerusalem look as though they live in a faraway country, from the point of view of West Bankers and Gazans.
The present subjugation of Palestinians to siege, poverty and confinement - in addition to continuing Israeli military attacks - can only make it easier for our people to slip into infighting and tragedy. Both the international community and peace-loving Israelis and Palestinians will inevitably face ever more criticism for their failure to stem this tide of misery. Even to those who never supported Hamas, it is impossible to ignore such a huge double standard: the outside world accepts Lieberman's appointment as deputy prime minister, despite his extreme views, while it boycotts the Palestinian Authority's elected Hamas administration.
One can only wonder at Olmert's insistence that his deputy will not diminish whatever prospects remain of peace. Israel's offensives against Gaza punish an entire population. Bulldozing the area's water and sewage systems, including those built with international donor funding, killing civilians and subjecting tens of thousands of residents to oppressive military measures represent the reality of Israel's policy, whatever its stated objectives.
· Sami Abdel-Shafi is senior partner at Emerge Consulting Group, in Gaza City - sami.abdelshafi (at) emergeconsultants.com
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
Olmert: Sorry for civilian deaths in Gaza
Diplomatic sources: Timing of tragic event 'problematic' due to PM's upcoming meeting with Bush in Washington
Ronny Sofer
Published: 11.08.06, 12:40
Following a security consultation Wednesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz expressed their regret over the death of 18 innocent civilians in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, apparently as a result of inaccurate artillery fire by the Israel Defense Forces.
Fatal Mistake
18 Palestinians killed in Beit Hanoun / Ali Waked
(VIDEO) Dozens of missiles, shells directed at Qaasam launching sites hit Beit Hanoun houses; 18 Palestinians killed, including seven children, some 30 injured. IDF looking into incident, says 'terror groups use all means, launch rockets from populated areas'
The two offered the Palestinian Authority urgent humanitarian aid and immediate medical treatment for the injured, which include children, women and elderly people.
Defense Minister Peretz added that he had instructed the army to launch an immediate investigation into the incident. The defense minister instructed the IDF to halt its artillery fire in the northern Gaza Strip until the investigation is completed.
Olmert and Peretz met Wednesday morning for a prescheduled discussion on the security situation in the north. During the discussion, the officials received updates on the difficult incident in Beit Hanoun, in which 19 Palestinian civilians were reportedly killed.
Following the incident, terror organizations in the Gaza Strip boosted the firing of rockets at southern Israel. One rocket landed in the center of Sderot, lightly injuring one woman. Several people suffered from shock.
Bloody streets in Beit Hanoun (Photo: AFP)
Following the defense minister's instruction, the IDF launched an immediate investigation into the incident. According to initial reports, the artillery fire targeted launching sites used to fire Qassam rockets at Gaza vicinity communities.
According to the Palestinian report, however, the artillery fire hit houses in a residential neighborhood.
Diplomatic sources said that the timing of the tragic incident in Beit Hanoun was problematic because it took place on the eve of the prime minister's trip to Washington to meet with US President George W. Bush.
'Palestinians are those firing at civilians'
Israeli officials understand that the incident would harm Israel's status in the world. Therefore, Israeli representatives in the world's capitals were instructed to make it clear that the artillery shells were fired in response to the ongoing fire at Sderot and Ahskelon.
"This is self-defense fire, after all of Israel's attempts to prevent the onoing fire of rockets through diplomatic measures have failed," a senior diplomatic source in Jerusalem said.
"Israel left Gaza and is seeking every way to reach a diplomatic solution. The Palestinians are the ones firing at a civil population in Israel's south, fire which is causing casualties. We are exerting legitimate efforts to defend Israel's residents in the south. Unfortunately, this unintentional tragic incident is the outcome of the terror activities coming from an area under the sovereignty of the Hamas government," the source added.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni referred to the incident during a business convention in Tel Aviv. According to Livni, "Israel has no plan to hurt innocent civilians, but to work to defend its citizens."
"Unfortunately, unfortunate incidents like this morning's incident sometimes take place as part of the fighting. Israel is facing an ongoing attack by Palestinian terror organizations, which is manifested in the ongoing Qassam fire at Israeli population centers," she added.
Hanan Greenberg contributed to the report
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3325525,00.html
Does Israel just read from the exact same script every single time makes these "mistakes"? After a while, all the spoken "regret" in the world begins to contrast sharply with a pattern of policies deadly to Arab civilians.
The 'Accident' At Beit Hanun And The Logic Of Unilateralism
A lot of words will be written and spoken about the IDF's shelling of a residential area of Beit Hanun early this morning, which killed at least 18 Palestinians as they slept. As I live in the U.S., most of the words I read and hear about it will blame the Palestinians for their own deaths, insisting that if only someone hadn't sometime in the past fired some crappy Qassam missile possibly from somewhere in the vicinity of where those dead Palestinians lived, then the IDF would not be attacking Palestinians and everything would be fine.
This is bullshit. Let us stop pretending that the massive killing of Palestinians in Gaza over the last few months begins and ends with the Qassams, and that if only they would stop firing them, the Palestinians would find a government in Israel willing to sit down and talk peace. This is a lie. It is a story we tell ourselves, to maintain the happy illusion we were raised on, i.e. that poor little Israel is always sincerely seeking peace, but is constantly frustrated by neighbors who don't want it.
Let's return to the real world via two quotes. One from Israeli journalist Gideon Levy:
What would have happened if the Palestinians had not fired Qassams? Would Israel have lifted the
economic siege that it imposed on Gaza? Would it open the border to Palestinian labourers? Free prisoners? Meet with the elected leadership and conduct negotiations? Encourage investment in Gaza? Nonsense. If the Gazans were sitting quietly, as Israel expects them to do, their case would disappear from the agenda here and around the world. Nobody would have given any thought to the fate of the people of Gaza if they did not behave violently.
Well, that's an important first step. A recognition that the firing of missiles out of Gaza does not happen in a vacuum, but has a context; and that that context is Israel's determination to unilaterally impose on the Palestinians a "solution" that will retain Israel's domination over them through indirect rather than direct occupation, rather than allow to emerge through negotiation a viable, successful, independent Palestinian state.
Let us stop pretending that there has ever been an Israeli government that ever meant to get out of the territories occupied in 1967, or meant for the Palestinians ever to live in a genuinely independent state. Successive Israeli government plans for the Palestinians - if they have allowed for the existence of the Palestinians at all - have aimed at forcibly confining the Palestinian population in those areas where they are most concentrated, leaving the most desirable Palestinian land for Israeli colonization and annexation. Successive governments have worked on the assumption that the "Palestinian problem" will be solved by confining them in encircled homelands (what we would have called "bantustans" in the time of apartheid), which will be entirely under Israeli domination, possibly offering a source of cheap labor for Israel but offering nothing more appealing than emigration to the Palestinians. This is not a mindset of the Israeli left or right, it is the mindset of both, whether in the form of the Netanyahu government plan for "Palestine":
What we see this morning in Gaza is where the logic of this unilateral policy leads. Gaza was the first bantustan to be fenced and sealed off, and it is the first to show us how exactly this policy will be imposed.
Here's our second quote, from Arnon ("Arnon the Arab Counter") Soffer, the Israeli demographer whose alarmist warnings about the "demographic threat" were reportedly influential in convincing Ariel Sharon to actually build the walls and fences that would put into effect his long-anticipated plan to bring apartheid South Africa to the Middle East:
First of all, the fence is not built like the Berlin Wall. It's a fence that we will be guarding on either side. Instead of entering Gaza, the way we did last week, we will tell the Palestinians that if a single missile is fired over the fence, we will fire 10 in response. And women and children will be killed, and houses will be destroyed. After the fifth such incident, Palestinian mothers won't allow their husbands to shoot Kassams, because they will know what's waiting for them.
Second of all, when 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it's going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It's going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day. (Source)
That is the rationale behind what is going on in Gaza today, and that is why it is positively perverse to pretend that Qassams are the source of the devastation there, when they are actually a relatively minor side-effect of the underlying issue.
Israel's policy is to imprison the Palestinian people in a series of encircled "homelands", while annexing the Palestinian land and water resources to Israel. As Soffer implies, this is not a "solution" to the problem that any Palestinian can willingly accept but, grossly outgunned as they are, what exactly are the Palestinians going to do about it, except send their crappy homemade rockets over the wall? And when they do that, Israel has an answer: it will use its overwhelming firepower to simply bomb the confined Palestinians into submission. Apparently, when enough of their women and children are dead, the Palestinians are supposed to accept whatever unilateral solution Israel imposes on them. That is the logic of Israeli unilateralism; that is the logic of the wall. You have to be utterly insane and delusional to think that this will ever bring Israel security, but apparently those qualities are no longer disqualifiers for holding office in Israel.
And that is why this morning's killings in Beit Hanun are not an accident, but an "accident". Of course the individual tank gunners who fired the fatal barrage didn't mean to kill those particular Palestinians, and in that sense it is an accident. But inasmuch as it is Israeli policy to cage the Palestinians and bomb them into submission, this is not an accident, it is policy. It is the natural outcome of an Israeli government mentality that still thinks military might will allow it to impose unilaterally a solution on the Palestinians, and save it from having to negotiate with them as equals. And, most damningly of all, it is the natural outcome of an Israeli government mentality that finds it less distasteful to blow up innocent people in Gaza than to finally get out of the Occupied Territories and allow Palestinians their independence.
Photo: A Palestinian boy is reflected in a pool of water stained with blood after an Israeli shelling at Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip November 8, 2006. Israeli shelling killed 18 civilians, including women and children, on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said, in one of Israel's deadliest strikes in the coastal territory in months. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/
Survivors tell harrowing tales of Israeli barrage
AP
Published: 08 November 2006
Scorched fragments of clothes, a girl's slipper and body parts lay strewn in pools of blood in front of a row of houses that was riddled by what witnesses said was an Israeli artillery strike today while Palestinian residents slept.
The Palestinian health ministry said 18 people from an extended family were killed, including 10 children and seven women. About 60 people were wounded, the ministry said.
Clan member Akram al-Athamna, an off duty policeman, said he was woken at dawn by the sound of a shell exploding.
"I looked, and about 50 meters (yards) away, I saw smoke coming out of the house of my uncle Saad," he said. "It looked like the shells hit the top floor, and my brother and I ran down into an alley."
He said he counted about 15 shells hitting and that many of the casualties were people who fled outside after the first explosions and were caught in the open.
"Projectiles were fired directly onto the people who were rushing out of the house," he said. "There was blood everywhere. I saw my neighbor, Sakher Adwan, he went to get his sister, and he was killed."
Rahwi Hamad, 35, who lives across the street, said he woke to the sound of shells exploding and people screaming.
"I opened my window and I looked out and I saw a shell hit a neighbor's house ... When I came out, another shell had hit the house," he said. "We took dismembered bodies from the houses. we saw legs, hands, parts of heads stuck to the wall, it was disgusting. There was a stench of blood and (burned) flesh."
Large holes had been punched in the fronts of the houses and their balconies had collapsed.
Surviving relatives sat weeping in front of the buildings. One man dipped his fingers in a puddle of blood and daubed it on his face.
"God avenge us, God avenge us," he cried.
Firefighters hosed the blood off buildings and cobblestones while ambulance crews gathered body parts from nearby streets and gardens.
The Israeli army said an initial probe found only that artillery fire had been aimed at an open area used by militants to launch rockets.
Israeli officials said they regretted the loss of life but were awaiting the outcome of the army investigation to determine what exactly had happened. The Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered a halt to artillery fire while the probe continued.
Scorched fragments of clothes, a girl's slipper and body parts lay strewn in pools of blood in front of a row of houses that was riddled by what witnesses said was an Israeli artillery strike today while Palestinian residents slept.
The Palestinian health ministry said 18 people from an extended family were killed, including 10 children and seven women. About 60 people were wounded, the ministry said.
Clan member Akram al-Athamna, an off duty policeman, said he was woken at dawn by the sound of a shell exploding.
"I looked, and about 50 meters (yards) away, I saw smoke coming out of the house of my uncle Saad," he said. "It looked like the shells hit the top floor, and my brother and I ran down into an alley."
He said he counted about 15 shells hitting and that many of the casualties were people who fled outside after the first explosions and were caught in the open.
"Projectiles were fired directly onto the people who were rushing out of the house," he said. "There was blood everywhere. I saw my neighbor, Sakher Adwan, he went to get his sister, and he was killed."
Rahwi Hamad, 35, who lives across the street, said he woke to the sound of shells exploding and people screaming.
"I opened my window and I looked out and I saw a shell hit a neighbor's house ... When I came out, another shell had hit the house," he said. "We took dismembered bodies from the houses. we saw legs, hands, parts of heads stuck to the wall, it was disgusting. There was a stench of blood and (burned) flesh."
Large holes had been punched in the fronts of the houses and their balconies had collapsed.
Surviving relatives sat weeping in front of the buildings. One man dipped his fingers in a puddle of blood and daubed it on his face.
"God avenge us, God avenge us," he cried.
Firefighters hosed the blood off buildings and cobblestones while ambulance crews gathered body parts from nearby streets and gardens.
The Israeli army said an initial probe found only that artillery fire had been aimed at an open area used by militants to launch rockets.
Israeli officials said they regretted the loss of life but were awaiting the outcome of the army investigation to determine what exactly had happened. The Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered a halt to artillery fire while the probe continued.
news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1962576.ece
France demands independent probe of Beit Hanoun incident
Ambassador to the UN Jean Marc Chevalier says his country demands independent investigation into IDF shelling of north Gaza town; United States expected to veto Security Council decision against Israel regarding recent IDF operations in Gaza; ‘Israeli occupying forces have committed another massacre,’ Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour says
Yitzhak Benhorin
Latest Update: 11.09.06, 19:09
WASHINGTON - France’s Ambassador to the UN Jean Marc Chevalier said during a Security Council meeting Thursday that his country demanded an independent investigation of the circumstances of Wednesday’s incident in Beit Hanoun in which 18 Palestinians were killed by IDF fire.
“France wants an investigation of this attack, an independent investigation,” Chevalier said.
The US was expected to veto Thursday night’s UN Security Council decision against Israel regarding recent IDF operations in the Gaza Strip and the killing of Palestinians in Beit Hanoun Wednesday.
A Palestinian proposal to establish an international investigation committee and the stationing of UN observers in the Strip was expected to come up in the meeting. Due to US objections, it wasn’t clear whether there would be a vote at the end of the meeting.
The demand to convene the Security Council was raised on Monday by Qatar, the only Arab Council representative. The demand was initially rejected, but the Beit Hanoun incident changed matters.
US Ambassador John Bolton said Qatar's request was discussed by the council on Tuesday "and there was no support for it."
The Palestinian proposal makes no mention of the Quartet’s decision calling on the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel, accept past agreements and denounce terror. There is also no mention of the incessant Qassam rocket attacks on Israel, which the IDF’s activity in Gaza was meant to prevent.
The clause calling for the stationing of foreign observers in Gaza is especially problematic for Israel and the US, as it is Israel’s position that the Palestinians must take responsibility for Gaza and put an end to the rocket attacks.
'Israel regrets the death of the innocent civilians'
Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour said it was time for the UN's most powerful
body to shoulder its responsibilities with regard to the Israeli offensive in Gaza, a view backed by Arab and Islamic nations and the 117-member Nonaligned Movement of developing countries.
"The Israeli occupying forces have committed another massacre this morning in Beit Hanoun," Mansour said. "The Security Council has to react and to react immediately in order to stop this aggression and these crimes against the Palestinian people."
Danny Carmon, the deputy head of the Israeli delegation to the UN, said during the meeting that the escalation stems from the Qassam rocket fire on Israel, which is acting ‘in self-defense.’ He stressed that the death of the Palestinian family in Beit Hanoun was an ‘unfortunate accident.’
“Israel regrets the death of the innocent civilians,” Carmon said, adding that Israel treated some of those wounded in the incident and launched an investigation into the IDF’s artillery fire in the north Gaza town.
Carmon said that Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in the hope that the Palestinian would manage it responsibly as a first step to the establishment of a Palestinian state that can live side by side in peace with Israel.
But since Israel left the Gaza Strip Palestinians fired 1,000 Qassams. "Israel is asked again and again to show restraint. But the question is until when. After 1,000 rockets? 2,000 rockets?" Carmon asked.
He spoke about the need to release the Israeli soldier, while Karnit Goldwasser, the wife of kidnapped soldier, Ehud Goldwasser, was present. "She is here to remind members of the Council who voted on Resolution 1701 that they are obliged to fulfill what they voted for and act for the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers."
Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the killing of the Palestinian family in Beit Hanun, and noted that he had warned Israel of the dangers involved in operating in densely populated areas.
He said the Israel had promised to investigate the incident.
"Over the weekend, I had the opportunity of talking to the Israeli Prime Minister requesting that they exercise maximum restraint. I also spoke to President Abbas urging him to do whatever he can to ensure that Katyushas (rockets) going into Israel were also stopped," Annan told a news conference.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3326287,00.html
If this plan goes ahead, look for Israel to seal off the area to media and aid workers, so that they can again clean the place up.
Proving once again that the powerful US Israeli/Zionist Lobby is capable of using the US veto as an Israeli/Zionist weapons.
U.S. plans to veto proposed UN resolution on Beit Hanun deaths
By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent
The U.S. is threatening to veto a proposal for a United Nations Security Council resolution regarding the deaths of 19 Palestinian citizens in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun on Wednesday.
The Palestinian citizens were accidentally killed in an Israel Defense Forces shelling meant to destroy Qassam rocket launchers in the area.
The draft was written and distributed among Security Council members on Wednesday by Qatar, a non-permanent member of the Security Council.
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The proposal calls for an "immediate investigation into the massacre that took place in Beit Hanun" and calls on Israel to "cease all violence against the civilian population in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem."
The Qatari draft also demands the deployment of UN observers in the area to oversee the implementation of the cease-fire outlined in the draft.
Sources in New York report that senior American officials have denounced the draft in its present formulation. The Qatari draft makes no mention of the Qassam rockets fired by Palestinians into Israel, nor does it mention IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Palestinian militants in June.
Deputy head of the Israeli delegation to the UN Danny Carmon said in response "the Palestinian citizens were killed, in all likelihood, by Israeli fire, but in fact, they fell victim to the terrorism of Hamas."
The official discussion over the draft began Thursday evening, but it is not yet clear when the vote will take place. Sources estimate the vote will be postponed until Friday, if not next week.
Arab foreign ministers to hold emergency meeting on IDF Gaza offensive
Arab foreign ministers will gather for an emergency meeting to discuss a common response to the recent IDF offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Arab League secretary-general said Thursday.
Secretary General Amr Moussa said he called for the meeting on Sunday in Cairo at the request of Palestinian and Lebanese officials to "look into practical steps and measures to deal with the Israeli ongoing and recurrent aggression on the Palestinian people, latest of which is the Beit Hanun massacre."
www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=786114&contrassID=1&subCo
a report from Yousef Alhelou
Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip
One day after the Israeli army declared that it had pulled out and completed “Operation Autumn Clouds” in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, at least 19 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and at least 45 were injured, as a large number of shells were fired at the town. Another five Palestinians were killed in Jenin in the northern West Bank by the Israeli army.
The series of incidents began at 6 a.m. when eyewitnesses said that dozens of tank shells and missiles landed simultaneously in a small and limited area in Beit Hanoun. Ambulances found it difficult to evacuate the wounded.
According to Palestinian sources, some of the shells landed on a home, killing 11 members of one family called Al-'Athamneh, including a 9-year-old child and a 73-year-old woman.
Israeli sources confirmed that artillery shells were fired on Wednesday morning. They said it was not yet known whether the matter was a technical error or a human one!
Sources in Gaza reported that some of those killed were hurt after shells hit a group of civilians who arrived to help those injured in the first barrage. Residents in the area were called to donate blood as it was feared that the number of casualties would rise.
Khaled Radi, a Palestinian health ministry official, said that all the dead were civilians. He said that seven children and four women were among the dead.
Radi also said that at least 45 more were wounded, all civilians. Four hospitals are treating the wounded across Gaza.
Emergency and first aid director in the ministry of health, Dr Moa'aweyah Hassanein, announced that the latest round of Israeli war crimes in Gaza has resulted in a new massacre in the northern town of Beit Hanoun. 19 innocent civilians, including 7 children and 4 women have been murdered brutally as they slept in their own house, he said. This brings this week’s toll alone to 83 Palestinian dead and more than 350 critically injured.
In a huge demonstration outside the morgue in Kamal Adwan Hospital, in the northern Gaza Strip, thousands called for revenge. Hundreds of Palestinians began marching in the northern Gaza Strip, in protest at the Israeli army operation in Beit Hanoun. The protestors chanted slogans against Israel and called for retaliation.
President Mahmoud Abbas declared a three-day mourning period and schools were closed after the horrific massacres against civilians in Beit Hanoun. Abbas added in a statement, "This is a horrible, ugly massacre committed by the occupation against our children, our women and elderly in Beit Hanoun. We urge and call the Security Council to convene immediately to stop the massacres committed against our people and to uphold their responsibility to stop these massacres."
During an emergency meeting of the Palestinian cabinet, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced that efforts to form a national unity government have been suspended after “this awful massacre”.
The government spokesman, Ghazi Hamad, appealed to the international community to mobilize and stop Israel carrying out such massacres against unarmed Palestinians. “Israel is a nation that has no human values and is a disgrace to the modern world”, he added.
Palestinian health minister Bassem Naim also referred to the series of incidents, saying that killing constitutes a policy for the Israelis. "I have no words to describe the ugly Israeli massacre in Beit Hanoun this morning. This massacre is added to another massacre which the town has only just emerged from. This morning's operation only proves that killing is Israel's aim, and this is proved by the massive fire at the medical teams arriving in the area."
Naim added that another proof was the inclusion into the government of Avigdor Lieberman, who calls day and night to kill Palestinians. The Israeli army targets ambulances, paramedics and journalists to hide the facts, he said.
”"The massacre in Beit Hanoun proves that the Israeli government is committing war crimes against civilians”, said Knesset member Talab El-Sana after the incident. "Palestinian children and women are murdered in their homes and in their beds. Olmert, Peretz and Halutz are war criminals who failed in the first war and are committing war crimes in the second war."
He called for "the end of the ongoing slaughter" and said "Tanks cannot kill the dream of a people aspiring to independence and freedom."
Mohamed 'Athamneh, 37, said: "The Israeli army claimed that they pulled out from our town. They are not physically here but their smells and their bad image are still here. They continue their brutal horrific massacres of civilians in Beit Hanoun and in all the Palestinian territories. They want to achieve victory here after they were defeated in south Lebanon. They only understand the language of force. They are vampires who don’t know mercy. The bodies of children are scattered everywhere in the scene in pieces. God be with us! The whole world turns a blind eye."
"It is the saddest scene and images I have ever seen", 29-year-old Majed Kafarnah said. "I saw people coming out of a house covered in blood. I started screaming to wake up the neighbours."
Mona Al-Zanoiun, 41, said: "They destroyed our houses … they killed women and children, they are criminals. They murder us in a cold blood. Where is the international community and the Security Council to see these massacres? We do not want them to send us food; we want them to take brave actions to stop these crimes." She described what happened to the town as a "tsunami" and "destructive earthquake".
Nidal Mater, 53, said: "Once again they commit massacres against civilians, but they will not break our sprit. We will not leave our land. All of us ready to die for the sake of FREEDOM".
He added: "They use their arsenal to kill children and women. They are cowards … We will never forget. Where is their democracy? I just wonder, are they just human beings like us? They destroy our agriculture fields, water, electricity networks and infrastructure. We cannot recognize our streets, destruction is everywhere, and even the mosques which are considered holy places are destroyed!"
Noor Masoud, 14, said ironically: "My message to the Israeli army is ‘Well done; every day you prove to us that you are the most polite army of the worl’". She was crying when she spoke and added, "If you ask the trees and walls in Beit Hanoun they will tell you how merciful the Israeli army is!! It's so funny when the Israeli government expresses its regret following this horrific awful massacre."
Mahmoud Nasser, 33, said: "We rush from one mourning tent to the other because of the operation that only ended yesterday and already we have to deal with a new massacre. Difficult images, dead children, injured children with their faces torn. It's unbelievable."
He added : "All of Beit Hanoun is busy with only one thing: moving the dead and wounded. All this between puddles of blood, lots of blood and body parts; next to some of the bodies were the schoolbags and sandwiches of children preparing to go to school."
Um Zeyad, 42, said that she lost four children in the incident: Muhanad, Mahdi, Arafat and Saad. "I am proud to be the mother of 'shahids' [martyrs]. It is a great honour and we pray to Allah to compensate us”, the bereaved mother said.
She added that two days ago, "the Israeli army stole $1800 from my sister's house. Another woman who was in the same house tried to prevent him from stealing the money. He hit her with his gun on her head and she lost consciousness. The soldier refused to allow a woman to bring water." She added that there were "42 of us, women and children, trapped in one room."
I asked a man about what happened and he started crying. "It was an emotional moment", another man said. "It's normal to see a woman cry but it is very hard to see a man cry", he added. "We lost our homes, members of our family, loved ones and they destroyed our agricultural fields, citrus trees and olive trees which is our only income."
He ended by saying, "Today, Palestinians are united against one enemy."
Yousef Alhelou, Freelance Journalist, lives in Gaza city; he can be contacted on ydamadan (at) hotmail.com
Please also see:
Gaza: From "Summer Rain" in the South to "Autumn Clouds" in the North, by Yousef Alhelou in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip
www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2769&blz=1
8 Nov. 06: The Killing of Civilians in Beit Hanun is a War Crime
www.btselem.org/english/firearms/20061108_War_Crime_in_Beit_Hanun.asp
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Call for Protection and Responsibility in Beit Hanoun
www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=2755&blz=1
www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2780&blz=1
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Response to Beit Hanoun Tragedy
2006-11-08 | Physicians for Human Rights-Israel’s statistics on children injured in the last four months:
1) One third of the civilians killed in Gaza are children. Not including the recent incidents in Beit Hanoun, 247 Palestinians have been killed, amongst them 155 civilians including 57 children.
2) Of the 996 injured, one third (337) are children.
3) 96 children have died in 2006.
Including the recent events in Beit Hanoun, the number of children killed in 2006 so far is more than double the 52 killed in 2005.
Given the events of the past few days and especially the tragedy in Beit Hanoun this morning, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel calls on the Israeli military to stop immediately all activity which endangers civilians, especially children. The Israeli military must comply with international law. Israel must take full responsibility for the civilians it has injured, especially the children amongst them.
In addition, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel’s petition with other human rights organizations to the Israeli High Court on artillery fire into the Gaza Strip is still pending. The organizations and their lawyer will attempt legal procedures in order to expedite the High Court’s decision on the matter. The organizations hope the High Court will force Israel to comply with international law, and reject the shrinking of the “safety zone” to 100 meters. Even in its previous format of 300 meters the zone did not properly protect civilians.
For more information:
Maskit Bendel, Director Occupied Territories Project, 972-54-7700477
Shabtai Gold, Public Outreach, 972-54-4860630
To download the full report:
www.phr.org.il/phr/article.asp?articleid=395&catid=42&pcat=42〈=ENG
For more information on the “safety zone” petition:
www.phr.org.il/phr/article.asp?articleid=331&catid=41&pcat=41〈=ENG
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel www.phr.org.il
Please also see:
Israel/Occupied Territories: Amnesty International delegate visits scene of Gaza Strip killings
web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE150872006
UN team confirms IDF use of phosphorus bombs during war
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785041.html
Study: 57 unarmed Palestinian minors killed by IDF since June
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785063.html
Sources: Most of the dead are women and children
19 Palestinians killed in IDF shelling in northern Gaza
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785380.html
UN officials voice ‘shock and dismay’ at deadly Israeli shelling of Gaza civilians
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20534&Cr=palestin&Cr1=
United Nations ! The Sight Inside Biet Hanoun Reveal Unimaginable Horror
One Intire Palestinian Family Wiped Out
Rivers of Blood and Body Parts Shattered Every Where
www.uruknet.de/?p=m28098&hd=0&size=1&l=t
Israel Kills 24 Palestinians Including Women, Kids
www.palestinechronicle.com/story-110806125730.htm
EU voices "shock" at Israel artillery strikes in Gaza
rawstory.com/news/2006/EU_voices_shock_at_Israel_artillery_11082006.html
www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=2779&blz=1
The countdown begins
Published by Antony Loewenstein November 9th, 2006 in Israel
While Israel kills Palestinian civilians with seeming impunity in Gaza - and a leading Israeli human rights group claims that war crimes are likely to have taken place - a Palestinian in Gaza worries that such behaviour is the shape of things to come:
The present subjugation of Palestinians to siege, poverty and confinement - in addition to continuing Israeli military attacks - can only make it easier for our people to slip into infighting and tragedy. Both the international community and peace-loving Israelis and Palestinians will inevitably face ever more criticism for their failure to stem this tide of misery. Even to those who never supported Hamas, it is impossible to ignore such a huge double standard: the outside world accepts Lieberman’s appointment as deputy prime minister, despite his extreme views, while it boycotts the Palestinian Authority’s elected Hamas administration.
The world will start to take notice when it realises a fascist is Deputy Leader of Israel. Avigdor Lieberman represents the real Zionist agenda, namely the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel. In some ways, his elevation is a positive development. The established Jewish community remains silent, of course, incapable of even expressing disagreement with his appointment out of supposed loyalty to the Jewish state. Sadly for them, international calls for a boycott against Israel will grow, and rightly so.
What will it take for Israel to change its ways? Large-scale international pressure, boycotts and isolation. It worked in apartheid South Africa after many decades, and it will work again.
antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2006/11/09/the-countdown-begins-2
The Olmert Regime issues its usual "Aww, shucks", and we're all supposed to ignore what's happened here. Imagine if that had been an entire Israeli family ... Would platitudes from Hamas make it all better?
A brutal taste of the future
The assault on Beit Hanoun is a terrifying example of what lies in store for Palestinians
By Sami Abdel-Shafi in Gaza City
11/08/06 "Guardian" -- -- The initiation of Avigdor Lieberman - widely regarded as an outright racist - into Ehud Olmert's Israeli government seems to have already brought a taste of things to come. For the past week, the Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanoun has been made a ground zero by the Israeli army. By yesterday, more than 260 Palestinians lay dead and injured, with 53 fatalities - women, children and ambulance drivers among them.
The Israeli army had vowed to end the firing of home-made rockets towards southern Israel. Many Palestinians disagree with the use of these makeshift rockets, but regard Israeli offensives as flagrantly disproportionate. Beit Hanoun was left with no men between the ages of 16 and 45 in the wake of a massive forced round-up by the Israeli army last Thursday night amid helicopter gunfire, tanks and artillery shelling. Women and children in the city sent urgent calls for help through Gaza's radio stations. To these jobless women, losing their men meant breakdown in their households.
On Friday morning, scores of women marched through Beit Hanoun in a spontaneous rush to aid friends and loved ones after hearing their pleas. Unarmed, they were shot at by Israeli soldiers from their tanks; two women were left dead and others severely injured. These women were said to have been heading to a mosque to free armed men who took refuge there. Television footage and interviews with witnesses show these women posed no military threat, but they were treated as such by the Israeli army without warning.
Meanwhile, Lieberman's party, Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel is Our Home"), envisages expelling Palestinians or subjecting them to such misery that they are forced to leave. The party's spin doctors state it more mildly, saying that it proposes to relocate Palestinians to areas under the Palestinian Authority's control. The Beit Hanoun offensive offers an example of what lies in store for them.
Today, the Palestinian Authority tries to govern a besieged Gaza Strip and a West Bank with disconnected cities and villages. The 1.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are imprisoned by closure policies, impoverished and without any hope of a dignified life or economic development. The 1.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank are quickly catching up in a collapse created by the dozens of Israeli military checkpoints and the separation wall which make their lives impossible. Israeli restrictions on movement have made the Palestinians of East Jerusalem look as though they live in a faraway country, from the point of view of West Bankers and Gazans.
The present subjugation of Palestinians to siege, poverty and confinement - in addition to continuing Israeli military attacks - can only make it easier for our people to slip into infighting and tragedy. Both the international community and peace-loving Israelis and Palestinians will inevitably face ever more criticism for their failure to stem this tide of misery. Even to those who never supported Hamas, it is impossible to ignore such a huge double standard: the outside world accepts Lieberman's appointment as deputy prime minister, despite his extreme views, while it boycotts the Palestinian Authority's elected Hamas administration.
One can only wonder at Olmert's insistence that his deputy will not diminish whatever prospects remain of peace. Israel's offensives against Gaza punish an entire population. Bulldozing the area's water and sewage systems, including those built with international donor funding, killing civilians and subjecting tens of thousands of residents to oppressive military measures represent the reality of Israel's policy, whatever its stated objectives.
· Sami Abdel-Shafi is senior partner at Emerge Consulting Group, in Gaza City - sami.abdelshafi (at) emergeconsultants.com
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2006
Olmert: Sorry for civilian deaths in Gaza
Diplomatic sources: Timing of tragic event 'problematic' due to PM's upcoming meeting with Bush in Washington
Ronny Sofer
Published: 11.08.06, 12:40
Following a security consultation Wednesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz expressed their regret over the death of 18 innocent civilians in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, apparently as a result of inaccurate artillery fire by the Israel Defense Forces.
Fatal Mistake
18 Palestinians killed in Beit Hanoun / Ali Waked
(VIDEO) Dozens of missiles, shells directed at Qaasam launching sites hit Beit Hanoun houses; 18 Palestinians killed, including seven children, some 30 injured. IDF looking into incident, says 'terror groups use all means, launch rockets from populated areas'
The two offered the Palestinian Authority urgent humanitarian aid and immediate medical treatment for the injured, which include children, women and elderly people.
Defense Minister Peretz added that he had instructed the army to launch an immediate investigation into the incident. The defense minister instructed the IDF to halt its artillery fire in the northern Gaza Strip until the investigation is completed.
Olmert and Peretz met Wednesday morning for a prescheduled discussion on the security situation in the north. During the discussion, the officials received updates on the difficult incident in Beit Hanoun, in which 19 Palestinian civilians were reportedly killed.
Following the incident, terror organizations in the Gaza Strip boosted the firing of rockets at southern Israel. One rocket landed in the center of Sderot, lightly injuring one woman. Several people suffered from shock.
Bloody streets in Beit Hanoun (Photo: AFP)
Following the defense minister's instruction, the IDF launched an immediate investigation into the incident. According to initial reports, the artillery fire targeted launching sites used to fire Qassam rockets at Gaza vicinity communities.
According to the Palestinian report, however, the artillery fire hit houses in a residential neighborhood.
Diplomatic sources said that the timing of the tragic incident in Beit Hanoun was problematic because it took place on the eve of the prime minister's trip to Washington to meet with US President George W. Bush.
'Palestinians are those firing at civilians'
Israeli officials understand that the incident would harm Israel's status in the world. Therefore, Israeli representatives in the world's capitals were instructed to make it clear that the artillery shells were fired in response to the ongoing fire at Sderot and Ahskelon.
"This is self-defense fire, after all of Israel's attempts to prevent the onoing fire of rockets through diplomatic measures have failed," a senior diplomatic source in Jerusalem said.
"Israel left Gaza and is seeking every way to reach a diplomatic solution. The Palestinians are the ones firing at a civil population in Israel's south, fire which is causing casualties. We are exerting legitimate efforts to defend Israel's residents in the south. Unfortunately, this unintentional tragic incident is the outcome of the terror activities coming from an area under the sovereignty of the Hamas government," the source added.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni referred to the incident during a business convention in Tel Aviv. According to Livni, "Israel has no plan to hurt innocent civilians, but to work to defend its citizens."
"Unfortunately, unfortunate incidents like this morning's incident sometimes take place as part of the fighting. Israel is facing an ongoing attack by Palestinian terror organizations, which is manifested in the ongoing Qassam fire at Israeli population centers," she added.
Hanan Greenberg contributed to the report
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3325525,00.html
Does Israel just read from the exact same script every single time makes these "mistakes"? After a while, all the spoken "regret" in the world begins to contrast sharply with a pattern of policies deadly to Arab civilians.
The 'Accident' At Beit Hanun And The Logic Of Unilateralism
A lot of words will be written and spoken about the IDF's shelling of a residential area of Beit Hanun early this morning, which killed at least 18 Palestinians as they slept. As I live in the U.S., most of the words I read and hear about it will blame the Palestinians for their own deaths, insisting that if only someone hadn't sometime in the past fired some crappy Qassam missile possibly from somewhere in the vicinity of where those dead Palestinians lived, then the IDF would not be attacking Palestinians and everything would be fine.
This is bullshit. Let us stop pretending that the massive killing of Palestinians in Gaza over the last few months begins and ends with the Qassams, and that if only they would stop firing them, the Palestinians would find a government in Israel willing to sit down and talk peace. This is a lie. It is a story we tell ourselves, to maintain the happy illusion we were raised on, i.e. that poor little Israel is always sincerely seeking peace, but is constantly frustrated by neighbors who don't want it.
Let's return to the real world via two quotes. One from Israeli journalist Gideon Levy:
What would have happened if the Palestinians had not fired Qassams? Would Israel have lifted the
economic siege that it imposed on Gaza? Would it open the border to Palestinian labourers? Free prisoners? Meet with the elected leadership and conduct negotiations? Encourage investment in Gaza? Nonsense. If the Gazans were sitting quietly, as Israel expects them to do, their case would disappear from the agenda here and around the world. Nobody would have given any thought to the fate of the people of Gaza if they did not behave violently.
Well, that's an important first step. A recognition that the firing of missiles out of Gaza does not happen in a vacuum, but has a context; and that that context is Israel's determination to unilaterally impose on the Palestinians a "solution" that will retain Israel's domination over them through indirect rather than direct occupation, rather than allow to emerge through negotiation a viable, successful, independent Palestinian state.
Let us stop pretending that there has ever been an Israeli government that ever meant to get out of the territories occupied in 1967, or meant for the Palestinians ever to live in a genuinely independent state. Successive Israeli government plans for the Palestinians - if they have allowed for the existence of the Palestinians at all - have aimed at forcibly confining the Palestinian population in those areas where they are most concentrated, leaving the most desirable Palestinian land for Israeli colonization and annexation. Successive governments have worked on the assumption that the "Palestinian problem" will be solved by confining them in encircled homelands (what we would have called "bantustans" in the time of apartheid), which will be entirely under Israeli domination, possibly offering a source of cheap labor for Israel but offering nothing more appealing than emigration to the Palestinians. This is not a mindset of the Israeli left or right, it is the mindset of both, whether in the form of the Netanyahu government plan for "Palestine":
What we see this morning in Gaza is where the logic of this unilateral policy leads. Gaza was the first bantustan to be fenced and sealed off, and it is the first to show us how exactly this policy will be imposed.
Here's our second quote, from Arnon ("Arnon the Arab Counter") Soffer, the Israeli demographer whose alarmist warnings about the "demographic threat" were reportedly influential in convincing Ariel Sharon to actually build the walls and fences that would put into effect his long-anticipated plan to bring apartheid South Africa to the Middle East:
First of all, the fence is not built like the Berlin Wall. It's a fence that we will be guarding on either side. Instead of entering Gaza, the way we did last week, we will tell the Palestinians that if a single missile is fired over the fence, we will fire 10 in response. And women and children will be killed, and houses will be destroyed. After the fifth such incident, Palestinian mothers won't allow their husbands to shoot Kassams, because they will know what's waiting for them.
Second of all, when 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it's going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It's going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day. (Source)
That is the rationale behind what is going on in Gaza today, and that is why it is positively perverse to pretend that Qassams are the source of the devastation there, when they are actually a relatively minor side-effect of the underlying issue.
Israel's policy is to imprison the Palestinian people in a series of encircled "homelands", while annexing the Palestinian land and water resources to Israel. As Soffer implies, this is not a "solution" to the problem that any Palestinian can willingly accept but, grossly outgunned as they are, what exactly are the Palestinians going to do about it, except send their crappy homemade rockets over the wall? And when they do that, Israel has an answer: it will use its overwhelming firepower to simply bomb the confined Palestinians into submission. Apparently, when enough of their women and children are dead, the Palestinians are supposed to accept whatever unilateral solution Israel imposes on them. That is the logic of Israeli unilateralism; that is the logic of the wall. You have to be utterly insane and delusional to think that this will ever bring Israel security, but apparently those qualities are no longer disqualifiers for holding office in Israel.
And that is why this morning's killings in Beit Hanun are not an accident, but an "accident". Of course the individual tank gunners who fired the fatal barrage didn't mean to kill those particular Palestinians, and in that sense it is an accident. But inasmuch as it is Israeli policy to cage the Palestinians and bomb them into submission, this is not an accident, it is policy. It is the natural outcome of an Israeli government mentality that still thinks military might will allow it to impose unilaterally a solution on the Palestinians, and save it from having to negotiate with them as equals. And, most damningly of all, it is the natural outcome of an Israeli government mentality that finds it less distasteful to blow up innocent people in Gaza than to finally get out of the Occupied Territories and allow Palestinians their independence.
Photo: A Palestinian boy is reflected in a pool of water stained with blood after an Israeli shelling at Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip November 8, 2006. Israeli shelling killed 18 civilians, including women and children, on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said, in one of Israel's deadliest strikes in the coastal territory in months. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)
lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/
Survivors tell harrowing tales of Israeli barrage
AP
Published: 08 November 2006
Scorched fragments of clothes, a girl's slipper and body parts lay strewn in pools of blood in front of a row of houses that was riddled by what witnesses said was an Israeli artillery strike today while Palestinian residents slept.
The Palestinian health ministry said 18 people from an extended family were killed, including 10 children and seven women. About 60 people were wounded, the ministry said.
Clan member Akram al-Athamna, an off duty policeman, said he was woken at dawn by the sound of a shell exploding.
"I looked, and about 50 meters (yards) away, I saw smoke coming out of the house of my uncle Saad," he said. "It looked like the shells hit the top floor, and my brother and I ran down into an alley."
He said he counted about 15 shells hitting and that many of the casualties were people who fled outside after the first explosions and were caught in the open.
"Projectiles were fired directly onto the people who were rushing out of the house," he said. "There was blood everywhere. I saw my neighbor, Sakher Adwan, he went to get his sister, and he was killed."
Rahwi Hamad, 35, who lives across the street, said he woke to the sound of shells exploding and people screaming.
"I opened my window and I looked out and I saw a shell hit a neighbor's house ... When I came out, another shell had hit the house," he said. "We took dismembered bodies from the houses. we saw legs, hands, parts of heads stuck to the wall, it was disgusting. There was a stench of blood and (burned) flesh."
Large holes had been punched in the fronts of the houses and their balconies had collapsed.
Surviving relatives sat weeping in front of the buildings. One man dipped his fingers in a puddle of blood and daubed it on his face.
"God avenge us, God avenge us," he cried.
Firefighters hosed the blood off buildings and cobblestones while ambulance crews gathered body parts from nearby streets and gardens.
The Israeli army said an initial probe found only that artillery fire had been aimed at an open area used by militants to launch rockets.
Israeli officials said they regretted the loss of life but were awaiting the outcome of the army investigation to determine what exactly had happened. The Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered a halt to artillery fire while the probe continued.
Scorched fragments of clothes, a girl's slipper and body parts lay strewn in pools of blood in front of a row of houses that was riddled by what witnesses said was an Israeli artillery strike today while Palestinian residents slept.
The Palestinian health ministry said 18 people from an extended family were killed, including 10 children and seven women. About 60 people were wounded, the ministry said.
Clan member Akram al-Athamna, an off duty policeman, said he was woken at dawn by the sound of a shell exploding.
"I looked, and about 50 meters (yards) away, I saw smoke coming out of the house of my uncle Saad," he said. "It looked like the shells hit the top floor, and my brother and I ran down into an alley."
He said he counted about 15 shells hitting and that many of the casualties were people who fled outside after the first explosions and were caught in the open.
"Projectiles were fired directly onto the people who were rushing out of the house," he said. "There was blood everywhere. I saw my neighbor, Sakher Adwan, he went to get his sister, and he was killed."
Rahwi Hamad, 35, who lives across the street, said he woke to the sound of shells exploding and people screaming.
"I opened my window and I looked out and I saw a shell hit a neighbor's house ... When I came out, another shell had hit the house," he said. "We took dismembered bodies from the houses. we saw legs, hands, parts of heads stuck to the wall, it was disgusting. There was a stench of blood and (burned) flesh."
Large holes had been punched in the fronts of the houses and their balconies had collapsed.
Surviving relatives sat weeping in front of the buildings. One man dipped his fingers in a puddle of blood and daubed it on his face.
"God avenge us, God avenge us," he cried.
Firefighters hosed the blood off buildings and cobblestones while ambulance crews gathered body parts from nearby streets and gardens.
The Israeli army said an initial probe found only that artillery fire had been aimed at an open area used by militants to launch rockets.
Israeli officials said they regretted the loss of life but were awaiting the outcome of the army investigation to determine what exactly had happened. The Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered a halt to artillery fire while the probe continued.
news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1962576.ece
France demands independent probe of Beit Hanoun incident
Ambassador to the UN Jean Marc Chevalier says his country demands independent investigation into IDF shelling of north Gaza town; United States expected to veto Security Council decision against Israel regarding recent IDF operations in Gaza; ‘Israeli occupying forces have committed another massacre,’ Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour says
Yitzhak Benhorin
Latest Update: 11.09.06, 19:09
WASHINGTON - France’s Ambassador to the UN Jean Marc Chevalier said during a Security Council meeting Thursday that his country demanded an independent investigation of the circumstances of Wednesday’s incident in Beit Hanoun in which 18 Palestinians were killed by IDF fire.
“France wants an investigation of this attack, an independent investigation,” Chevalier said.
The US was expected to veto Thursday night’s UN Security Council decision against Israel regarding recent IDF operations in the Gaza Strip and the killing of Palestinians in Beit Hanoun Wednesday.
A Palestinian proposal to establish an international investigation committee and the stationing of UN observers in the Strip was expected to come up in the meeting. Due to US objections, it wasn’t clear whether there would be a vote at the end of the meeting.
The demand to convene the Security Council was raised on Monday by Qatar, the only Arab Council representative. The demand was initially rejected, but the Beit Hanoun incident changed matters.
US Ambassador John Bolton said Qatar's request was discussed by the council on Tuesday "and there was no support for it."
The Palestinian proposal makes no mention of the Quartet’s decision calling on the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel, accept past agreements and denounce terror. There is also no mention of the incessant Qassam rocket attacks on Israel, which the IDF’s activity in Gaza was meant to prevent.
The clause calling for the stationing of foreign observers in Gaza is especially problematic for Israel and the US, as it is Israel’s position that the Palestinians must take responsibility for Gaza and put an end to the rocket attacks.
'Israel regrets the death of the innocent civilians'
Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour said it was time for the UN's most powerful
body to shoulder its responsibilities with regard to the Israeli offensive in Gaza, a view backed by Arab and Islamic nations and the 117-member Nonaligned Movement of developing countries.
"The Israeli occupying forces have committed another massacre this morning in Beit Hanoun," Mansour said. "The Security Council has to react and to react immediately in order to stop this aggression and these crimes against the Palestinian people."
Danny Carmon, the deputy head of the Israeli delegation to the UN, said during the meeting that the escalation stems from the Qassam rocket fire on Israel, which is acting ‘in self-defense.’ He stressed that the death of the Palestinian family in Beit Hanoun was an ‘unfortunate accident.’
“Israel regrets the death of the innocent civilians,” Carmon said, adding that Israel treated some of those wounded in the incident and launched an investigation into the IDF’s artillery fire in the north Gaza town.
Carmon said that Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in the hope that the Palestinian would manage it responsibly as a first step to the establishment of a Palestinian state that can live side by side in peace with Israel.
But since Israel left the Gaza Strip Palestinians fired 1,000 Qassams. "Israel is asked again and again to show restraint. But the question is until when. After 1,000 rockets? 2,000 rockets?" Carmon asked.
He spoke about the need to release the Israeli soldier, while Karnit Goldwasser, the wife of kidnapped soldier, Ehud Goldwasser, was present. "She is here to remind members of the Council who voted on Resolution 1701 that they are obliged to fulfill what they voted for and act for the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers."
Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the killing of the Palestinian family in Beit Hanun, and noted that he had warned Israel of the dangers involved in operating in densely populated areas.
He said the Israel had promised to investigate the incident.
"Over the weekend, I had the opportunity of talking to the Israeli Prime Minister requesting that they exercise maximum restraint. I also spoke to President Abbas urging him to do whatever he can to ensure that Katyushas (rockets) going into Israel were also stopped," Annan told a news conference.
www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3326287,00.html
If this plan goes ahead, look for Israel to seal off the area to media and aid workers, so that they can again clean the place up.
Proving once again that the powerful US Israeli/Zionist Lobby is capable of using the US veto as an Israeli/Zionist weapons.
U.S. plans to veto proposed UN resolution on Beit Hanun deaths
By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent
The U.S. is threatening to veto a proposal for a United Nations Security Council resolution regarding the deaths of 19 Palestinian citizens in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun on Wednesday.
The Palestinian citizens were accidentally killed in an Israel Defense Forces shelling meant to destroy Qassam rocket launchers in the area.
The draft was written and distributed among Security Council members on Wednesday by Qatar, a non-permanent member of the Security Council.
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The proposal calls for an "immediate investigation into the massacre that took place in Beit Hanun" and calls on Israel to "cease all violence against the civilian population in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem."
The Qatari draft also demands the deployment of UN observers in the area to oversee the implementation of the cease-fire outlined in the draft.
Sources in New York report that senior American officials have denounced the draft in its present formulation. The Qatari draft makes no mention of the Qassam rockets fired by Palestinians into Israel, nor does it mention IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Palestinian militants in June.
Deputy head of the Israeli delegation to the UN Danny Carmon said in response "the Palestinian citizens were killed, in all likelihood, by Israeli fire, but in fact, they fell victim to the terrorism of Hamas."
The official discussion over the draft began Thursday evening, but it is not yet clear when the vote will take place. Sources estimate the vote will be postponed until Friday, if not next week.
Arab foreign ministers to hold emergency meeting on IDF Gaza offensive
Arab foreign ministers will gather for an emergency meeting to discuss a common response to the recent IDF offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Arab League secretary-general said Thursday.
Secretary General Amr Moussa said he called for the meeting on Sunday in Cairo at the request of Palestinian and Lebanese officials to "look into practical steps and measures to deal with the Israeli ongoing and recurrent aggression on the Palestinian people, latest of which is the Beit Hanun massacre."
www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=786114&contrassID=1&subCo
