Amid the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, the West Bank has risen.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians marched with President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement from the West Bank city of Ramallah toward Jerusalem to protest Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of nearly 800 Palestinians, many of them civilians. The protest appears to be the largest mass demonstration since the 1980s.
The uprising promises to be different from previous intifadas, partly because it comes in the wake of the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street and other mass protest movements around the globe. But the way in which the world engages with protest has also evolved, due to the advent of Twitter and cell phone video, which can focus attention on raw conflict in a way that bypasses the mainstream media. Today’s march is being live tweeted at the hashtag #48kMarch.
Reuters reported that protests also broke out in Jerusalem itself, near the old walled city and outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Haaretz reported that several protesters have already been killed by Israeli military forces. Reuters quoted hospital officials saying one person had been killed and three others were in critical condition and on life support. Some 200 protesters were injured, a hospital doctor told the news service.
Heather Hurlburt, a national security fellow at Human Rights First, said that Palestinian civil society and non-violence activists have been talking about massive, peaceful marches as a protest tactic since the Arab Spring in 2011. “No one in Israel or the West has much excuse to be surprised or unprepared for this tactic. They’ve had years to think about how to handle it peacefully,” Hurlburt told HuffPost.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza, during a 1967 war.
UN Shelter in Gaza ‘Struck by Israeli Shells’
Thanks to Michael who writes: ‘”Just saw this on CNN. Israel shelled school where the UN was sheltering civilians, many dead. UN is saying Israel refused to let them evacuate. I cant help but wonder, is this a sign things are blowing up and the dark finally being revealed? CNN was actually being slightly critical of Israel, which is a sign in itself.”
Could be Michael, as Suzi Maresca said to me: “The world’s attention is finally on the right things, and I think it’s only a matter of time before the Israeli people start to understand how they’ve been manipulated.”
From AlJazeera, July 25, 2014 - http://tinyurl.com/m3vbluk
At least 16 people have been reported killed and 150 injured in the bombardment of a UN school in northern Gaza used to shelter civilians from fierce clashes on the streets outside.
The Gaza health ministry told the Reuters news agency that Israeli fire had caused the deaths at the school in Beit Hanoun on Thursday.
An Israeli military source however told Al Jazeera that Palestinian rocket fire had been detected in the area and that it might have fallen short and hit the shelter.
Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Gaza, said she was unable to reach the school after the attack due to heavy Israeli shelling. No one she had spoken to in Gaza believed the deaths were caused by a Palestinian rocket.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Chris Gunness, the spokesman for UNRWA, the UN’s humanitarian organisation in Gaza, said his organisation had been in contact with Israeli forces as fighting closed in on the shelter.
“We gave the Israelis the precise GPS coordinates of the Beit Hanoun shelter. We were trying to coordinate a window [for evacuation] and that was never granted,” he said.
He said he could neither confirm nor deny that Hamas fighters were near the building, but said Israel and Hamas “must respect the inviolability of UN premises, and humanitarian law”.
He called the attack “tragic and appalling”.
Robert Turner, the director of UNRWA, told Al Jazeera there was no warning from the Israelis before the shells landed.
“This is a designated emergency shelter,” he said. “This was an installation we were managing, that was monitored [to ensure] that our neutrality was maintained.”
Israel has attacked UN schools before, saying that they were being used as safe havens for the armed Palestinians.
The UN has also previously criticised the Palestinian groups for using UN schools to hide fighters and weapons.
‘No fighters at school’
A witness who arrived at the Kamal Adwan hospital after the bombardment told Al Jazeera: “We were sitting in the school, because we were told it is safe.
“By God, there was not a single fighter, not a single shot was fired from the school. Why did they shoot at the school? Why? Can someone explain that to me? Why would they shell the school?”
Thursday’s strike is the fourth time a UN facility has been hit since Israel’s offensive was launched on July 8.
At least 815 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,240 injured in the Israeli assault, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
Two Israeli civilians have been killed by fire from Gaza since the offensive began.
The total number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the military assault stands at 32. One more soldier has been listed as missing and is believed to be dead.
UN’s Ban Ki-moon: “This Is Wrong”
By Karl Penhaul and Ed Payne, CNN, July 25, 2014 - http://tinyurl.com/l9y44t6
Gaza City (CNN) — The exasperation could be seen on the face of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
A U.N. shelter in northern Gaza had been hit. At least 16 were dead, a couple hundred more were wounded — most of them women and children.
In condemning the violence, his message was clear: “This is wrong.”
“I am telling to the parties — both Israelis and Hamas, Palestinians, that it is morally wrong to kill your own people,” he said. “Whole world has been watching, is watching with great concern. You must stop fighting. And enter into dialogue.”
But little of that was happening, only finger pointing.
A Palestinian government statement condemned the incident, calling it “Israeli brutal aggression that targeted” Gaza’s displaced. It demanded an end to the “Israeli war machine.”
Still, it’s unclear who was behind the incident.
While Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, told the Washington Post Thursday night that “there was a possibility” shells from Israeli forces struck the shelter, the Israeli military also said it could have been a rocket fired from Gaza that fell short of Israel and exploded. An investigation was underway.
“From initial inquiries done about the incident, during the intense fighting in the area, militants opened fire at … soldiers from the school area,” a military statement said. “In order to eliminate the threat posed to their lives, they responded with fire toward the origins of the shooting.”
Diplomatic efforts continued into the early hours of Friday. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been active, his shuttle diplomacy taking him from Cairo to Jerusalem, the Palestinian territories and back. Asked Thursday about a possible cease-fire, he balked.
“I’m going to have a lot to say (Friday) probably, so I’m going to wait until then,” Kerry said. “We still have more work to do. I certainly have more work to do tonight.”
The diplomatic effort wasn’t solely limited to the United States, as several Middle Eastern nations worked to try to win Hamas’ agreement for an Egyptian-led cease-fire. Hamas said Turkey and Kuwait were also involved.
Thursday’s hit at the U.N. shelter is just the latest violence that has raged for more than three weeks between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Hundreds have died, including many children.
Thursday’s strike marks the third time a U.N. school serving as a shelter has been hit.
The first occurred on Tuesday in eastern Gaza, where about 300 people were staying, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said. The second occurred Wednesday in central Gaza at a shelter were about 1,500 were staying. There were no fatalities, and few injuries in those incidents.
At least 809 people have been killed and more than 5,240 wounded since the start of an Israeli operation on Gaza, the Gaza Health Ministry said Friday.
An Israeli military representative said Thursday that the violence has killed 32 soldiers and three civilians.
On the 18th day of the military operation in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the Israeli military.
“The IDF has struck a deep and significant blow at the infrastructures of terrorism — at the terrorists themselves, at rockets, at command centers, at production facilities and at many other targets,” he said at the start of Friday’s Cabinet meeting.
Before the U.N. shelter was hit on Thursday, the Israeli military said the area surrounding the school in Beit Hanoun had turned into a battlefield, and it had asked that the facility be evacuated. A four-hour window was given, the military said.
“I have no idea what they’re talking about,” UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said Friday. “We spent hours attempting to organize a humanitarian cease-fire and pause. We’re very clear the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) did not respond to our desperate pleas. If the IDF had responded this carnage would never have happened.”
The Israeli military accused Hamas militants of refusing to let people at the shelter leave, saying they were being used as human shields.
“We have a situation here where we are fighting a terrorist organization that is abusing and exploiting the civilian component,” Lerner told CNN. “This is a tragedy. This is a clear tragedy.”
Apparently, neither Israel, nor Hamas can claim the moral high ground in this conflict.
“Both sides have violated international human rights, humanitarian law and human rights law,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said. “These are really shocking incidents.”
“The secretary-general is right. This kind of killing must stop immediately.”
Footage from the school showed pools of blood and images from hospitals showed absolute chaos. There were so many victims than many gurneys included two wounded children.
One father carried his small daughter into the hospital. There wasn’t much the dad could do but try to comfort his little girl as she cried and begged for him not to leave her.
In another area a mortician wrapped up the body of a 1-year-old girl who was killed.
All the while people wandered through the halls, trying desperately to find where their loved ones had been taken.
A CNN crew that visited the school three hours after the hit discovered a one-inch deep hole in the concrete in the courtyard where people were killed and injured. It appeared shrapnel struck people within a 30-meter radius. Walls were hit as high as about eight meters above the ground.
CNN personnel didn’t see the remnants of any rocket or missile.
Some witnesses told CNN there were three to four explosions.
It is unclear how many people were in the shelter, but U.N. schools can typically hold up to 1,500 people.
Two killed at West Bank protest
Two Palestinian men were shot and killed during a demonstration in the West Bank in support of residents of Gaza, Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti said.
He said more than 15,000 people were marching when Israeli soldiers fired. More than 100 people were wounded, he said. The health minister in Ramallah said 185 of the wounded were brought there for treatment.
Mosques using loudspeakers called for people to donate blood at hospitals, Palestinian television reported.
Protesters were “throwing rocks, firebombs and fireworks” at Israeli security forces, the Jerusalem Post reported. The newspaper, which put the size of the demonstration at 10,000 people, said 13 Israeli police officers were injured.
Some flights to Israel resume
On Thursday, Delta Air Lines joined Air Canada and United Airlines in resuming flights to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, airline spokesman Morgan Durrant said. It had been a day and a half since the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration imposed the prohibition of flights to the city because of security concerns.
Lufthansa Group has canceled all Lufthansa, Germanwings, Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Brussels Airlines flights flying to and from Tel Aviv through Friday. Lufthansa said in a statement that it “acknowledges the considerable efforts” Israel has made to protect the airport using its “Iron Dome” — system that targets incoming rockets and fires an interceptor missile to destroy them in the air.
When Lufthansa is assured that protection can be “verifiably guaranteed” it will resume flights.
The canceling of flights has caused some controversy which continued Thursday with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asking Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid about it.
The FAA’s ban was “a major setback to Israel,” Blitzer said.
“Yes, it was and it was wrong,” Lapid answered.
“It was a win for Hamas, right?” Blitzer said.
Yair responded by saying that Los Angeles International Airport was “ten times” more dangerous that Ben Gurion International though he acknowledges that a rocket had landed about a mile from the airport.
“It’s totally safe to fly to Israel,” he said, “and I recommend it, by the way, to everyone who wants to come in.”