Saturday, 16 January 2003
Khalid Amayreh reports:
Most of the killings and demolitions took place on 11 and 12 January as thousands of Israeli soldiers, backed by tanks, Apache helicopters and army bulldozers rampaged through civilian neighbourhoods in the southern and northern Gaza Strip. According to eyewitnesses, as dozens of tanks rumbled to the centre of Khan Yunis shortly after midnight Saturday, Israeli Apache helicopters began strafing civilian homes and businesses with heavy machine-gun fire. Facing a hail of bullets from the sky and indiscriminate shooting from armoured personnel carriers on the ground, the terrified and defenseless Palestinians huddled inside their homes for protection, keeping away from windows and doors. At least two Palestinian civilians were reported killed, and many others wounded by flying bullets.
Before departing, the invading forces dynamited more than 30 family businesses, mostly private metal workshops, the Israeli army alleged were being used to manufacture primitive missiles used by Palestinian resistance groups. The Israeli allegations are denied by the Palestinians, human rights groups and international observers operating in the area. They all stress that the real Israeli motive is to destroy Palestinian livelihoods and impoverish as many families as possible.
Around sunrise, as Palestinian children were preparing to go to school, an Israeli army force attacked the Beit Hanoun neighbourhood, just north of Gaza City. After imposing the routine curfew on the neighbourhood, the Israeli army dynamited the family home of Mohamed Al-Masri, an Islamic Jihad activist who was killed during a resistance operation last year. The operation ended with the Israeli force opening fire indiscriminately on Palestinians who had gone into the street to see what was going on. A middle-aged man -- a father of six children, was killed on the spot.
In the second week of January, the Israeli army killed more than 27 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Some 200 Palestinian youths were picked up, seemingly randomly, and taken to the notorious Ofer detention camp near Ramallah. Many in Jerusalem and the territories believe that the vast majority of the detainees are being held to break the Palestinian will to resist the occupation. The demolition of homes continued this week as Israel destroyed more than 40 dwellings -- an average of five to six homes every day. Classified as a war crime under international law, these demolitions are causing suffering to thousands of already-tormented Palestinian families who lose their lifelong investment, and suddenly find themselves in the streets, often in the quiet hours just before dawn. Most of the killings and demolitions took place on 11 and 12 January as thousands of Israeli soldiers, backed by tanks, Apache helicopters and army bulldozers rampaged through civilian neighbourhoods in the southern and northern Gaza Strip.
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The Beit Hanoun massacre
PalestineFreeVoice November 10 2006
November 8th, 2006, Zionist Israeli forces killed 18 members of the Athamne family in Beit Hanoun, including eight children.The massacre in Beit Hanoun, was the latest in a series of attacks which have claimed the lives of Palestinian civilians. Since the beginning of 2006 some 600 Palestinians including more than 100 children, have been killed and some hundreds more have been wounded by Zionist forces.The majority were killed or injured in the Gaza Strip as a result of deliberate and reckless Israeli artillery shelling and air strikes into densely populated residential areas, including the refugee camps.
The assault on Beit Hanoun was carried out following a six-day ground incursion by Zionist forces into Beit Hanoun, ending the 8th of November, resulting in the deaths of more than 50 Palestinians including children and injuries to some 200 others. In addition, Zionist forces destroyed and damaged scores of homes, public buildings, water and electricity networks, roads and other infrastructure,vehicles and cultivated fields which provide a crucial source of livelihood to a population already impoverished by the effects of Zionist closures.In a number of cases,residents reported having been used as human shields by the Zionist's who took over residential homes and used them as military watch towers from which they would attack their unprotected targets. During the incursions,the residents were prevented from using their phones and Internet to communicate with the outside world.
In the past months,other incursions, combined with frequent air strikes,have been carried out by the Zionist army into small towns and villages and throughout the refugee camps in Gaza.The consequenses have been similar in terms of civilian deaths and injuries.
"We just need to live" say Beit Hanoun residents
08 Nov 2006 12:40:45 GMT
REUTERS
GAZA CITY, 8 November (IRIN) - Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun have described finding bodies dismembered by what they said was Israeli artillery fire early this morning, and added that many residents were fleeing the town for fear of further violence.
They told how they have been left without water - and in many cases homes - after the Israeli military occupied the town of 50,000 inhabitants for a week before bombarding it less than 24 hours after withdrawing.
"Right now, the only thing the people of Beit Hanoun need is to live," said Yamen Zaqqout, a 28-year-old computer programmer.
Eighteen Palestinians died in this morning's bombardment, Palestinians said, adding to more than 60 Palestinian deaths during Israel's week-long occupation of Beit Hanoun, which ended on Tuesday. The Israeli government said it was investigating this morning's bombardment.
"Israel has no desire to harm innocent people, but only to defend its citizens. Unfortunately, in the course of battle, regrettable incidents such as that which occurred this morning do happen," said Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Zaqqout told IRIN of the carnage he found at about 5 a.m. this morning, when most of Beit Hanoun's 50,000 residents were enjoying their first proper night's sleep for a week.
"I found bodies without heads, children's bodies without hands, some without legs. We found a husband, wife and children who were still on their bed – we thought they were still asleep until we tried to wake them up," he said.
"We were all sleeping. We had spent a very bad week during the occupation when we slept about three hours a night but after the Israelis left we felt we could finally sleep, deeply.
"I didn't hear the shelling but my brother woke me and we ran to the street where the shells hit. Some of the buildings they hit had up to 40 members of the same extended family living inside in separate apartments.
Zaqqout also described the conditions during the previous week when he and his family were confined to their home.
"We had enough food – but one of our neighbours spent two days without food until the Israelis said there would be a window of two hours for women only to go out and buy food.
"Another neighbour was pregnant and had to give birth. We spent two hours waiting for the ambulance because it had to get permission to come," he said.
Dr Jamil Suleiman, 42, a paediatrician at Beit Hanoun Hospital, told IRIN that hospital staff had worked day and night during the week-long occupation of the town with little water, electricity and medication.
"We had no water because the Israelis damaged the water supply system, we had no electricity and we had very little medication," he said.
"The Israelis demolished many houses and more than 1,000 people who lost their homes came to the hospital – they needed something to eat and drink because they had nothing.
"Already we had very little food and drink for staff and patients. They slept outside at the back of the hospital and many of them are still there now.
"Two of the injured were mentally-ill residents of Beit Hanoun who did not understand what was going on and were wandering around the streets when they were shot by Israeli snipers."
Dr Jihad Hammad, 39, a professor of political sociology at Al-Aqsa University, said the scenes of demolished houses and ripped-up roads left by the Israeli troops were comparable to the devastation found after an earthquake.
"The whole city is totally damaged – it was like an earthquake. The streets are destroyed – you can't even drive your car," he said.
"Right now you walk around Beit Hanoun and on every corner you find people crying".
"People don't have anywhere to stay and are leaving Beit Hanoun. But many have no options and nowhere to go. At the mosque they are reading the Holy Qur'an."
In a statement, the Israeli military said it believed this morning's artillery fire had been directed at Palestinian rocket launchers some distance from the area where the Palestinian deaths were reported, although its investigation was continuing.
It said its week-long occupation of Beit Hanoun, codenamed Autumn Clouds, was intended to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets at Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip and said troops discovered weapons, arrested militants and made sure humanitarian aid got into the town.
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