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Gaza

3 dead in Israeli air strike on Gaza

Published today (updated) 01/06/2010 16:45

Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike hits Palestinian smuggling tunnels in Rafah,
in the southern Gaza Strip on 2 May 2009.[ MaanImages/Hatem Omar]
Gaza – Ma’an – Medics in the Gaza Strip confirmed three dead following an Israeli air strike on the northern Strip near the town of Beit Lahiya on Tuesday afternoon.

An Israeli military source said planes were aiming for a “clear target” in the area, and pilots noted “secondary explosions” following the bombing.

The fire is the second, possibly third of the day, with clashes reported in the south with alleged militants, and shots fired toward a 65-year-old woman hitting her in the legs near the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Israeli military representatives said two “infiltrators” were killed, though Palestinian medics said no bodies had been recovered from the area.

The same representatives said they were unaware of any military activity in the region where the elderly woman was killed, saying the fire that injured the woman was not from Israeli forces.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=288886

Egypt opens Rafah border

Egypt opens Gaza border following IDF raid on aid flotilla

Egypt opens Rafah crossing amid a storm of international criticism of Israel’s blockade of the enclave, to let Palestinians cross until further notice.

By Reuters

Egypt opened its border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, letting Palestinians cross until further notice amid a storm of international criticism of Israel’s blockade of the enclave, officials in Egypt and Gaza said.

The move, urged by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against whom the embargo has been directed, prompted dozens of people to race to the crossing point in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, though the gates appeared still to be closed.

It is the only point on Gaza’s borders that is not fully controlled by Israel. Cairo, coordinating with Israel, has opened it only sparingly since Hamas Islamists, who are allied to Egypt’s opposition, seized control of Gaza three years ago.

A permanent opening of the crossing, which lies above a stretch of desert frontier riddled by hundreds of smuggling tunnels, would be a major boost for Hamas and a blow to efforts by Israel and its Western allies to cripple the Islamists.

The Interior Ministry run by Hamas since it seized control of the Gaza Strip from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007 said in a statement: “Rafah crossing is open every day from 9 A.M to 7 P.M.” Since Hamas took over, Egypt has opened the crossing only sporadically and with restrictions.

Egyptian security source told Reuters: “Egypt opened its border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to allow humanitarian and medical aid to enter the Strip.

“The border will remain open for an unlimited time,” the source said, letting Palestinians enter and leave Egypt.

Aid convoys, to which Egypt has in the past allowed only limited access, would be allowed to use the crossing, subject to following Cairo’s limitation that only food and medical supplies be transported.

“Hard materials” – apparently including concrete and steel which Gazans want to repair damage from last year’s Israeli offensive – would have to go via Israel, the Egyptian source said. Israel has made clear since it halted a Turkish-backed aid convoy at sea on Monday that it will not ease its embargo.

Israeli Butchery at Sea by Gilad Atzmon

As I write this piece the scale of the Israeli lethal slaughter at sea is yet to be clear. However we already know that at around 4am Gaza time, hundreds of IDF commandos stormed the Free Gaza international humanitarian fleet. We learn from the Arab press that at least 16 peace activists have been murdered and more than 50 were injured. Once again it is devastatingly obvious that Israel is not trying to hide its true nature: an inhuman murderous collective fuelled by a psychosis and driven by paranoia.

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Rattling the Cage: Living it up in Gaza

Gaza is a paradise if Foreign Ministry statements are any indication.

Don’t you just wish you lived in Gaza? Don’t you just envy those people who get to raise their kids amid such abundance? Look at all the stuff they’ve got:

“Truckloads of meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, milk powder, baby food, wheat and other staples arrive in Gaza on a daily basis,” said the Foreign Ministry in advance of the “Freedom Flotilla,” due to either reach Gaza or get intercepted by the navy today.

“Since the cease-fire in January 2009, well over a million tons of humanitarian supplies entered Gaza from Israel – that is almost a ton of aid for each man, woman and child in the Strip.”

A ton each! Somebody put those people on a diet! They get “most types of food,” said the IDF. Most types! Even pasta, ever since Sen. John Kerry went to Gaza last year and found that the IDF was banning pasta, and convinced army officials, softies that they are, to start letting it in.

But the story of life in Gaza gets even happier. In the first quarter of 2010, the IDF said, “Israel transferred 250 trucks of equipment for the UNRWA summer camp, including arts and crafts equipment, swimming pools, inflatable toys, ice cream machines, musical instruments, clothing, sports equipment, etc.”

They eat ice cream, they swim, they play music. Paradise! And look at this: “Special permission was granted to Gaza footballers to train in Judea and Samaria and compete in international matches abroad.”

We even let their soccer team out to play. It took special permission, but hey, for those guys and those fans, if that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes.

SO WHO are these goddamn Jew-haters and their boats, The Rachel Corrie – the “St. Pancake” they should call it. Who are these Nazi human rights organizations? And who is this John Ging, this terrorist who runs UNRWA in Gaza? “We recommend the world send ships to Gaza,” he says. “Breaking the siege on Gaza is possible.”

We should put him on a ship and sink it.

The UN. Anti-Semites, all of them. They try to make everything in Gaza look terrible. Read this garbage by the “UN Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs, Occupied Palestinian Territory.” (“Occupied.” I love that.) They put out a report every week about how awful it is for the poor Palestinians. Look at this crap from their last one, for May 12-18:

“Imports of industrial fuel to operate the Gaza power plant further declined this week… this week’s figure represents 27 percent of the actual estimated weekly amount of fuel required for the power plant to operate at full capacity. As a result, the majority of the population continues to experience power cuts of eight to 12 hours per day, forcing them to rely on generators run by fuel… These generators, which are imported largely through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, can be unsafe… [A] generator fire broke out inside a house this week, killing two members of one family and injuring five others. Since the beginning of the year, 31 Palestinians have been killed and 41 others injured in generator-related incidents.”

They’re not careful – that’s our fault? They probably started the fires on purpose to blame it on Israel. Here’s some more garbage:

“Quantities of imported cooking gas also further declined this week… representing only 64% of the average weekly needs… As shortfalls continue, the rationing scheme for cooking gas, introduced in November 2009, remains in place.”

Oh, too bad, they won’t be able to heat their ice cream. A tragedy. Now look what big, bad Israel is doing to the poor fisherman in Gaza:

“Israeli restrictions on Palestinian access to fishing areas beyond three nautical miles from shore also continued to be enforced; in at least two incidents this week, Israeli naval vessels opened ‘warning’ fire toward Palestinian fishing boats, forcing them ashore.”

Do we know these “fishermen” aren’t really terrorists? Can we take a chance? Nobody got killed, did they? Oh, but wait, now read this from the last weekly installment of the UN Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

“Israeli forces shot and killed one elderly Palestinian civilian and injured another one in two separate incidents near the Gaza-Israel border… On 14 May, Israeli forces positioned on the border east of Jabalya shot and killed an elderly Palestinian man while he was visiting the grave of his wife in a cemetery located in the area. In a separate incident, Israeli forces opened fire toward a group of Palestinians collecting rubble near the border, injuring one of them. Israeli forces continue to enforce access restrictions in the ‘buffer zone’ by opening ‘warning’ fire toward people entering the area, affecting farmers and workers, and leveling lands in border areas.”

Well, maybe if the terrorists in Gaza didn’t keep trying to get near the fence and kill our soldiers, we wouldn’t have to shoot old men in cemeteries and kids collecting rubble, would we? (Rubble? They have swimming pools, arts and crafts, musical instruments, and spend their time looking through rubble? A fat lot of good it does trying to help those kids.)

They’re terrorists, doesn’t everybody understand? They try to kill us and we never did anything to them. We got out of Gaza, remember? There’s no more occupation. Finished!

And now the Jew-haters are coming with their boats and their food and their medical aid – to make us look bad! That’s all they want to do. They don’t care about the people in Gaza. The people in Gaza don’t even care about the people in Gaza, about their own children. Only we do. Only Israel cares about those people. Look at all the things we do for them. And the world doesn’t appreciate it. Well, what do you expect?

I only wish somebody would treat us Israelis like we treat people in Gaza.

It’s too bad; we’d give the world a real lesson in how to show appreciation.
source

Egyptian Statement in Solidarity with the Flotilla

Dear all,

I am writing to you on the behalf of the “We are all resistance” movement (Kollona Muqawama). We salute all of you and each and everyone involved in organizing the Gaza flotilla. We also issued a statement in this occasion that a 234 Egyptian political leaders, members of parliament, labour activists, and student activists signed in support of the mission, all belonging to various types of political movements in Egypt (mostly on the left, Arab nationalists, and Islamic left). We would be very happy if you can forward this statement to our brothers and sisters on borad the ships. The least we could do is show solidarity at this moment. We are also holding a protest in front of the Egyptian parliament on June 1st to protest the extension of the emergency law. This protest has been scheduled for over two weeks now. We contacted the protest organizers and they welcomed lifting banners in solidarity with your mission in the protest, as most of the organizers have already signed this statement.

Key signatories include, Sun’ala Ibrahim, Egypt’s best novelist, and also one who rejected Egypt highest prize in literature before; Hamdeen Sabahi, an MP and popular nominee for Egyptian presidency; Ibrahim Yousri, ex-ambassador and key figure in the national movement; Magdy Hussien, leader of the labour party and currently serving two years in prison for having crossed to Gaza during the war in definace of the embargo; Abdelhalim Kandil, the general coordinator of the kefaya movement; Yahya al-Qaza, Mohamed Sharaf, Saeid El-Nashaei, all key figures in Kefya; Ahmad Fouad Nejm, one of Egypt’s top poets; Wajdi Ghoniem, and Maher Amr, key scholars of religion; known writers Ahmad El-Khamisi, Safinaz Kazim; and key syndicalists, Mohamed Abdel Qudus, and Yehia Qalash–among many other prominent signatories.

with all respect and best wishes,

Mohamed Waked,

Kollona Muqawama (we are all resistance) movement.

Gaza flotilla drives Israel into a sea of stupidity

An Israeli woman sunbathes off Tel Aviv coast as she takes part in a 16-boat protest against a Turkish ship sailing for Gaza, on May 22, 2010.

Of course the peace flotilla will not bring peace, and it won’t even manage to reach the Gaza shore. The action plan has included dragging the ships to Ashdod port, but it has again dragged us to the shores of stupidity and wrongdoing

The Israeli propaganda machine has reached new highs its hopeless frenzy. It has distributed menus from Gaza restaurants, along with false information. It embarrassed itself by entering a futile public relations battle, which it might have been better off never starting. They want to maintain the ineffective, illegal and unethical siege on Gaza and not let the “peace flotilla” dock off the Gaza coast? There is nothing to explain, certainly not to a world that will never buy the web of explanations, lies and tactics.

read on

Gaza : We will not go down

LATEST NEWS ON THE GAZA AID FLOTILLA – FROM VIVA PALESTINA’S CREW MEMBER KEVIN OVENDEN

At 08.50 am today we are awaiting the arrival of the European parliamentarians, who begin to shuttle from Northern Cyprus to our staging ground in international waters to the south of the island where they will board the lead ship. The decision by the Greek Cypriot government not only not to allow the flotilla to harbour there, but also to object to, and twice prevent, the departure of a
parliamentary delegation directly by sea to join the convoy is creating something of a scandal in Greece and beyond.

Cyprus recently elected its first ever Communist President, earning him the moniker the Fidel Castro of the Mediterranean. If this recent shabby episode is anything to go by, Akel, the Cypriot Communist Party, would be better served by its previous policy of supporting a left of centre figure for the highest office. The last such president allowed friends of Palestine to
muster there.

Five vessels are ready to go – three cargos and two passenger, three Turkish and two that sailed from Athens – one Greek and one Greek-Swedish. They are larger boats and the clear lesson is that for such an operation a few larger and well fitted vessels are more effective than a larger number of smaller boats.

A coalition of organisations and initiatives has come together in this flotilla, but the Turkish IHH has set the standard by raising around 20 million USD and setting about the mission with elan, peerless organisation and a collegiate approach that belies the extent to which they are responsible for the impressive force that is gathered now in the Eastern Mediterranean.

To my mind, the lessons are worth learning now, for whatever the outcome of the next 48 hours, there will be another sea mission to Gaza – and it will need to be even bigger and broader.

A small boat has pulled alongside with the parliamentary delegation. They will now join us on the Mavri Marmara and then it’s all a question of timing:when to start the 18 to 20 hour journey down to Gaza so as to avoid giving the Israeli forces the best conditions to attack us.

Kevin Ovenden
Viva Palestina

A battle for the high seas. And the high ground’ By Lauren Booth*

If you’re hoping to see news about the extraordinary events taking place in the Med sea around Cyprus on either the BBC or Sky this weekend. Forget it. For now. Despite the fact that almost three dozen Brits are amongst the 700 brave souls heading to Gaza on a fleet of ships laden with essential aid. Or the incredible military and political manoeverings surrounding Israels response to the peaceful attempt, major news channels in the West remain silent. This despite the fact their news editors have the direct numbers of spokespeopleon board and access to the live news feed.

After calls to newsrooms across the UK it is clear to me that the first ever sea bound fleet of international aid to Palestine is not of itself a big enough story for our media – until if fails. On Israel’s terms. The BBC has been taking some 200 calls in an hour from viewers wanting news of the mission – to no avail. So what’s going on?

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