imanway
2009-01-13 12:00:38 UTC
The death toll from Israel's war on Hamas rose to 763 Thursday evening
after dozens of bodies were found during a suspension in Israel's
bombing, medics said. About 20 people, among them many women and
children, were killed in new raids by the Israeli military on
Thursday, said Mouawiya Hassanein, head of Gaza's emergency services.
Rescuers also found many bodies in debris while searching during a
three hour suspension in hostilities across Gaza between 1100 GMT and
1400 GMT, Hassanein said. "The toll has gone up to 763 after the
discovery of many bodies in zones that we could not get to before,"
especially around Jabaliya and Atatra in the north and Zeitoun in Gaza
City.
The medical workers said they were able to find 12 dead and 19
survivors, including several wounded and weakened children found next
to their dead mothers, in houses hit during ****ling in Zaitoun – 100
meters from Israeli army positions, the ICRC said in a statement.
Soldiers ordered the rescue workers to leave, but they refused.
"The ICRC believes that in this instance, the Israeli military failed
to meet its obligations under international humanitarian law to care
for and evacuate the wounded," it added, describing the incident as
"shocking" and "unacceptable."
Head of the ICRC's delegation for Israel and the Palestinian
Territories, Pierre Wettach, said the "Israeli military must have been
aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did
they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist
the wounded."
The Red Cross has been requesting safe passage to Zaitoun since Jan.
3, but the Israeli authorities only granted permission to do so on
Wednesday.
According to local medical sources, even with the lull and Israeli
permission, ambulances and some medical teams came under fire and were
being prevented from rescuing victims in areas that have been without
food or water for 12 days. One rescue worker in an ambulance was hit
by two Israeli bullets, one in the head, and the team was forced to
flee without reaching the injured people.
Since the start of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza on Dec. 27, 21
Palestinian medics have been killed in the line of duty.
And more than one-third of at least 700 Palestinians killed in this
war so far have been children, while international aid organizations –
which declared a "total humanitarian crisis" in Gaza – warned their
death toll would rise as the Israeli army moves deeper into the most
densely populated areas in the world.
Most of Gaza's 1.5 million people, which have been under an 18-month
Israeli blockade, have no power, and hospitals have barely enough fuel
to operate their back-up generators for a few more days, according to
news wires.
"There is no safe space in the Gaza Strip; no safe haven, no bomb
****ters, and the borders are closed, making this one of the rare
conflicts where civilians have no place to flee," said Maxwell
Gaylard, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian
territories on Wednesday.
Joining other international agencies, UNRWA said the Israeli three-
hour "humanitarian respite" per day was not enough and called for a
full cease-fire, as Gaza residents complained that Israel had "made
up" for the three hours on Wednesday and early Thursday by tripling
its attacks.
"We must stop the violence and allow people to live," said UNRWA chief
John Ging, adding that Palestinian men, women and children were all
seeking safety "and there is no safety in Gaza, even in an UNRWA
school."
He was referring to the bombing of the school in Jabalya refugee camp,
which was ****tering hundreds of civilians hoping to escape from the
Israeli attacks, apparently believing that the blue United Nations
flag on the school's rooftop meant safety.
The Israeli army claimed that Palestinians had fired at the troops
from the school, but UNRWA insisted that initial investigations showed
there were "no militants or militant activities in the school and the
school compound."
On Thursday, one person was killed when Israeli tank ****ls hit a
truck convoy on its way to pick up U.N. assistances in northern Gaza.
Arab critics, who often say that the United Nations gives Israel and
its U.S.-ally "above-the-law" status, suggest that if the
international community does not heed to the appeals of its own
humanitarian organizations to immediately stop this Israeli onslaught
on Gaza, then the entire world has the blood of Palestinian children
on its hands.
A demonstration in Sarajevo against the Israeli assault on Gaza
Thursday provides a stark reminder of the international community's
failure to stop the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men in 1995, and
a warning against its repetition in Gaza.
In a rally organized by survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre,
hundreds of Bosnians protested in front of the U.S. embassy in
downtown Sarajevo, holding up banners reading: "Srebrenica 1995 – Gaza
2009" and "Palestine is another Bosnia."
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after dozens of bodies were found during a suspension in Israel's
bombing, medics said. About 20 people, among them many women and
children, were killed in new raids by the Israeli military on
Thursday, said Mouawiya Hassanein, head of Gaza's emergency services.
Rescuers also found many bodies in debris while searching during a
three hour suspension in hostilities across Gaza between 1100 GMT and
1400 GMT, Hassanein said. "The toll has gone up to 763 after the
discovery of many bodies in zones that we could not get to before,"
especially around Jabaliya and Atatra in the north and Zeitoun in Gaza
City.
The medical workers said they were able to find 12 dead and 19
survivors, including several wounded and weakened children found next
to their dead mothers, in houses hit during ****ling in Zaitoun – 100
meters from Israeli army positions, the ICRC said in a statement.
Soldiers ordered the rescue workers to leave, but they refused.
"The ICRC believes that in this instance, the Israeli military failed
to meet its obligations under international humanitarian law to care
for and evacuate the wounded," it added, describing the incident as
"shocking" and "unacceptable."
Head of the ICRC's delegation for Israel and the Palestinian
Territories, Pierre Wettach, said the "Israeli military must have been
aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did
they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist
the wounded."
The Red Cross has been requesting safe passage to Zaitoun since Jan.
3, but the Israeli authorities only granted permission to do so on
Wednesday.
According to local medical sources, even with the lull and Israeli
permission, ambulances and some medical teams came under fire and were
being prevented from rescuing victims in areas that have been without
food or water for 12 days. One rescue worker in an ambulance was hit
by two Israeli bullets, one in the head, and the team was forced to
flee without reaching the injured people.
Since the start of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza on Dec. 27, 21
Palestinian medics have been killed in the line of duty.
And more than one-third of at least 700 Palestinians killed in this
war so far have been children, while international aid organizations –
which declared a "total humanitarian crisis" in Gaza – warned their
death toll would rise as the Israeli army moves deeper into the most
densely populated areas in the world.
Most of Gaza's 1.5 million people, which have been under an 18-month
Israeli blockade, have no power, and hospitals have barely enough fuel
to operate their back-up generators for a few more days, according to
news wires.
"There is no safe space in the Gaza Strip; no safe haven, no bomb
****ters, and the borders are closed, making this one of the rare
conflicts where civilians have no place to flee," said Maxwell
Gaylard, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian
territories on Wednesday.
Joining other international agencies, UNRWA said the Israeli three-
hour "humanitarian respite" per day was not enough and called for a
full cease-fire, as Gaza residents complained that Israel had "made
up" for the three hours on Wednesday and early Thursday by tripling
its attacks.
"We must stop the violence and allow people to live," said UNRWA chief
John Ging, adding that Palestinian men, women and children were all
seeking safety "and there is no safety in Gaza, even in an UNRWA
school."
He was referring to the bombing of the school in Jabalya refugee camp,
which was ****tering hundreds of civilians hoping to escape from the
Israeli attacks, apparently believing that the blue United Nations
flag on the school's rooftop meant safety.
The Israeli army claimed that Palestinians had fired at the troops
from the school, but UNRWA insisted that initial investigations showed
there were "no militants or militant activities in the school and the
school compound."
On Thursday, one person was killed when Israeli tank ****ls hit a
truck convoy on its way to pick up U.N. assistances in northern Gaza.
Arab critics, who often say that the United Nations gives Israel and
its U.S.-ally "above-the-law" status, suggest that if the
international community does not heed to the appeals of its own
humanitarian organizations to immediately stop this Israeli onslaught
on Gaza, then the entire world has the blood of Palestinian children
on its hands.
A demonstration in Sarajevo against the Israeli assault on Gaza
Thursday provides a stark reminder of the international community's
failure to stop the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men in 1995, and
a warning against its repetition in Gaza.
In a rally organized by survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre,
hundreds of Bosnians protested in front of the U.S. embassy in
downtown Sarajevo, holding up banners reading: "Srebrenica 1995 – Gaza
2009" and "Palestine is another Bosnia."
__________________