Israel annexing East Jerusalem?

A confidential EU report accuses the Israeli government of using settlement expansion, house demolitions, discriminatory housing policies and the West Bank barrier as a way of "actively pursuing the illegal annexation" of East Jerusalem.

The document says Israel has accelerated its plans for East Jerusalem, and is undermining the Palestinian Authority's credibility and weakening support for peace talks. "Israel's actions in and around Jerusalem constitute one of the most acute challenges to Israeli-Palestinian peace-making," says the document, EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem. 

The report, obtained by the Guardian, is dated 15 December 2008. It acknowledges Israel's legitimate security concerns in Jerusalem, but adds: "Many of its current illegal actions in and around the city have limited security justifications."

"Israeli 'facts on the ground' - including new settlements, construction of the barrier, discriminatory housing policies, house demolitions, restrictive permit regime and continued closure of Palestinian institutions - increase Jewish Israeli presence in East Jerusalem, weaken the Palestinian community in the city, impede Palestinian urban development and separate East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank," the report says.

The document has emerged at a time of mounting concern over Israeli policies in East Jerusalem. Two houses were demolished on Monday just before the arrival of the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and a further 88 are scheduled for demolition, all for lack of permits. Clinton described the demolitions as "unhelpful", noting that they violated Israel's obligations under the US "road map" for peace.

The EU report goes further, saying that the demolitions are "illegal under international law, serve no obvious purpose, have severe humanitarian effects, and fuel bitterness and extremism." The EU raised its concern in a formal diplomatic representation on December 1, it says.

It notes that although Palestinians in the east represent 34% of the city's residents, only 5%-10% of the municipal budget is spent in their areas, leaving them with poor services and infrastructure.

Israel issues fewer than 200 permits a year for Palestinian homes and leaves only 12% of East Jerusalem available for Palestinian residential use. As a result many homes are built without Israeli permits. About 400 houses have been demolished since 2004 and a further 1,000 demolition orders have yet to be carried out, it said.

City officials dismissed criticisms of its housing policy as "a disinformation campaign". "Mayor Nir Barkat continues to promote investments in infrastructure, construction and education in East Jerusalem, while at the same time upholding the law throughout West and East Jerusalem equally without bias," the mayor's office said after Clinton's visit.

However, the EU says the fourth Geneva convention prevents an occupying power extending its jurisdiction to occupied territory. Israel occupied the east of the city in the 1967 six day war and later annexed it. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

The EU says settlement are being built in the east of the city at a "rapid pace". Since the Annapolis peace talks began in late 2007, nearly 5,500 new settlement housing units have been submitted for public review, with 3,000 so far approved, the report says. There are now about 470,000 settlers in the occupied territories, including 190,000 in East Jerusalem.

The EU is particularly concerned about settlements inside the Old City, where there were plans to build a Jewish settlement of 35 housing units in the Muslim quarter, as well as expansion plans for Silwan, just outside the Old City walls.

The goal, it says, is to "create territorial contiguity" between East Jerusalem settlements and the Old City and to "sever" East Jerusalem and its settlement blocks from the West Bank.

There are plans for 3,500 housing units, an industrial park, two police stations and other infrastructure in a controversial area known as E1, between East Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, home to 31,000 settlers. Israeli measures in E1 were "one of the most significant challenges to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process", the report says.

Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said conditions for Palestinians living in East Jerusalem were better than in the West Bank. "East Jerusalem residents are under Israeli law and they were offered full Israeli citizenship after that law was passed in 1967," he said. "We are committed to the continued development of the city for the benefit of all its population."

comment:

Talking about illegal activity, the very existant of Israel nationhood herself is illegal!

The Algiers Declaration of a Palestinian State

State of Palestine Declaration of Independence 

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Palestine, the land of the three monotheistic faiths, is where the Palestinian Arab people was born, on which it grew, developed and excelled. Thus the Palestinian Arab people ensured for itself an everlasting union between itself, its land, and its history.

Resolute throughout that history, the Palestinian Arab people forged its national identity, rising even to unimagined levels in its defense, as invasion, the design of others, and the appeal special to Palestine's ancient and luminous place on the eminence where powers and civilizations are joined. All this intervened thereby to deprive the people of its political independence. Yet the undying connection between Palestine and its people secured for the land its character, and for the people its national genius.

Nourished by an unfolding series of civilizations and cultures, inspired by a heritage rich in variety and kind, the Palestinian Arab people added to its stature by consolidating a union between itself and its patrimonial Land. The call went out from Temple, Church, and Mosque that to praise the Creator, to celebrate compassion and peace was indeed the message of Palestine. And in generation after generation, the Palestinian Arab people gave of itself unsparingly in the valiant battle for liberation and homeland. For what has been the unbroken chain of our people's rebellions but the heroic embodiment of our will for national independence. And so the people was sustained in the struggle to stay and to prevail.

When in the course of modern times a new order of values was declared with norms and values fair for all, it was the Palestinian Arab people that had been excluded from the destiny of all other peoples by a hostile array of local and foreign powers. Yet again had unaided justice been revealed as insufficient to drive the world's history along its preferred course.

And it was the Palestinian people, already wounded in its body, that was submitted to yet another type of occupation over which floated that falsehood that "Palestine was a land without people." This notion was foisted upon some in the world, whereas in Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations (1919) and in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), the community of nations had recognized that all the Arab territories, including Palestine, of the formerly Ottoman provinces, were to have granted to them their freedom as provisionally independent nations.

Despite the historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian Arab people resulting in their dispersion and depriving them of their right to self-determination, following upon U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947), which partitioned Palestine into two states, one Arab, one Jewish, yet it is this Resolution that still provides those conditions of international legitimacy that ensure the right of the Palestinian Arab people to sovereignty.

By stages, the occupation of Palestine and parts of other Arab territories by Israeli forces, the willed dispossession and expulsion from their ancestral homes of the majority of Palestine's civilian inhabitants, was achieved by organized terror; those Palestinians who remained, as a vestige subjugated in its homeland, were persecuted and forced to endure the destruction of their national life.

Thus were principles of international legitimacy violated. Thus were the Charter of the United Nations and its Resolutions disfigured, for they had recognized the Palestinian Arab people's national rights, including the right of Return, the right to independence, the right to sovereignty over territory and homeland.

In Palestine and on its perimeters, in exile distant and near, the Palestinian Arab people never faltered and never abandoned its conviction in its rights of Return and independence. Occupation, massacres and dispersion achieved no gain in the unabated Palestinian consciousness of self and political identity, as Palestinians went forward with their destiny, undeterred and unbowed. And from out of the long years of trial in ever-mounting struggle, the Palestinian political identity emerged further consolidated and confirmed. And the collective Palestinian national will forged for itself a political embodiment, the Palestine Liberation Organization, its sole, legitimate representative recognized by the world community as a whole, as well as by related regional and international institutions. Standing on the very rock of conviction in the Palestinian people's inalienable rights, and on the ground of Arab national consensus and of international legitimacy, the PLO led the campaigns of its great people, molded in.

The massive national uprising, the intifada, now intensifying in cumulative scope and power on occupied Palestinian territories, as well as the unflinching resistance of the refugee camps outside the homeland, have elevated awareness of the Palestinian truth and right into still higher realms of comprehension and actuality. Now at last the curtain has been dropped around a whole epoch of prevarication and negation. The intifada has set siege to the mind of official Israel, which has for too long relied exclusively upon myth and terror to deny Palestinian existence altogether. Because of the intifada and its revolutionary irreversible impulse, the history of Palestine has therefore arrived at a decisive juncture.

Whereas the Palestinian people reaffirms most definitively its inalienable rights in the land of its patrimony:

Now by virtue of natural, historical and legal rights, and the sacrifices of successive generations who gave of themselves in defense of the freedom and independence of their homeland;

In pursuance of Resolutions adopted by Arab Summit Conferences and relying on the authority bestowed by international legitimacy as embodied in the Resolutions of the United Nations Organization since 1947;

And in exercise by the Palestinian Arab people of its rights to self-determination, political independence and sovereignty over its territory,

The Palestine National Council, in the name of God, and in the name of the Palestinian Arab people, hereby proclaims the establishment of the State of Palestine on our Palestinian territory with its capital Jerusalem (Al-Quds Ash-Sharif).

The State of Palestine is the state of Palestinians wherever they may be. The state is for them to enjoy in it their collective national and cultural identity, theirs to pursue in it a complete equality of rights. In it will be safeguarded their political and religious convictions and their human dignity by means of a parliamentary democratic system of governance, itself based on freedom of expression and the freedom to form parties. The rights of minorities will duly be respected by the majority, as minorities must abide by decisions of the majority. Governance will be based on principles of social justice, equality and non-discrimination in public rights of men or women, on grounds of race, religion, color or sex, and the aegis of a constitution which ensures the rule of law and an independent judiciary. Thus shall these principles allow no departure from Palestine's age-old spiritual and civilizational heritage of tolerance and religious coexistence.

The State of Palestine is an Arab state, an integral and indivisible part of the Arab nation, at one with that nation in heritage and civilization, with it also in its aspiration for liberation, progress, democracy and unity. The State of Palestine affirms its obligation to abide by the Charter of the League of Arab States, whereby the coordination of the Arab states with each other shall be strengthened. It calls upon Arab compatriots to consolidate and enhance the emein reality of state, to mobilize potential, and to intensify efforts whose goal is to end Israeli occupation.

The State of Palestine proclaims its commitment to the principles and purposes of the United Nations, and to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It proclaims its commitment as well to the principles and policies of the Non-Aligned Movement.

It further announces itself to be a peace-loving State, in adherence to the principles of peaceful co-existence. It will join with all states and peoples in order to assure a permanent peace based upon justice and the respect of rights so that humanity's potential for well-being may be assured, an earnest competition for excellence may be maintained, and in which confidence in the future will eliminate fear for those who are just and for whom justice is the only recourse.

In the context of its struggle for peace in the land of Love and Peace, the State of Palestine calls upon the United Nations to bear special responsibility for the Palestinian Arab people and its homeland. It calls upon all peace-and freedom-loving peoples and states to assist it in the attainment of its objectives, to provide it with security, to alleviate the tragedy of its people, and to help it terminate Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The State of Palestine herewith declares that it believes in the settlement of regional and international disputes by peaceful means, in accordance with the U.N. Charter and resolutions. With prejudice to its natural right to defend its territorial integrity and independence, it therefore rejects the threat or use of force, violence and terrorism against its territorial integrity or political independence, as it also rejects their use against territorial integrity of other states.

Therefore, on this day unlike all others, November 15, 1988, as we stand at the threshold of a new dawn, in all honor and modesty we humbly bow to the sacred spirits of our fallen ones, Palestinian and Arab, by the purity of whose sacrifice for the homeland our sky has been illuminated and our Land given life. Our hearts are lifted up and irradiated by the light emanating from the much blessed intifada, from those who have endured and have fought the fight of the camps, of dispersion, of exile, from those who have borne the standard for freedom, our children, our aged, our youth, our prisoners, detainees and wounded, all those ties to our sacred soil are confirmed in camp, village, and town. We render special tribute to that brave Palestinian Woman, guardian of sustenance and Life, keeper of our people's perennial flame. To the souls of our sainted martyrs, the whole of our Palestinian Arab people that our struggle shall be continued until the occupation ends, and the foundation of our sovereignty and indepe.

Therefore, we call upon our great people to rally to the banner of Palestine, to cherish and defend it, so that it may forever be the symbol of our freedom and dignity in that homeland, which is a homeland for the free, now and always.

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful:
"Say: 'O God, Master of the Kingdom,
Thou givest the Kingdom to whom Thou wilt,
and seizes the Kingdom from whom Thou wilt,
Thou exalted whom Thou wilt, and Thou
abasest whom Thou wilt; in Thy hand
is the good; Thou are powerful over everything."

Yasser Arafat.
Date: 15-Nov-1988
Location: Algeria    

The Palestinian National Council on Nov. 15, 1988, issued the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in a meeting in Algieria.

On December 15, 1988 The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) permanent representative at the UN submitted the Algiers declaration to the United Nations for a vote. The UN General Assembly adopted by a vote of 104-2 (the US and Israel against, with 36 abstentions) resolution 43/177, citing the Algiers declaration, and stating that the Palestinian people have the right to declare a state according to Resolution 181. The UN decision also included a provision elevating the PLO's observer status by replacing references to the "Palestine Liberation Organization" with just "Palestine" in all UN bodies.

Following the UN vote, more than 100 states recognize the State of Palestine, and 20 more grant some form of diplomatic status to the Palestinian delegation.

The Algiers Declaration of a Palestinian State was written by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, was significant for its definition of an independence state. You might want this in the light of the International court case againt the Israeli Occupational Force.

Lawsuit against Israeli Officials via Spanish National Court

The Spanish National Court begun assessing charges brought against former Israeli authorities by a Palestinian human rights group in June 2008. Judge Fernando Andreu evaluated the case and decide to investigate the War Crimes committed by those Israeli.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) had filed a lawsuit against former Israeli defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and other high-ranking officials for approving the military operations in 2002. On July 22, 2002, Israel dropped a one-ton bomb over the 4 story building in the Gaza Strip and assassinated Salah Shehadeh (one of "celebrity" leader of the Hamas). Thus killed Salah Shehada and seventeen civilians, including his wife, his daughter, his guard, eight children (including a 2-month infant), two elderly men and two women. This bom also inflict injury to seventy seven people in al-Daraj neighborhood, eleven houses were completely destroyed and thirty two houses damaged. The list submitted by the PCHR also included Ben-Eliezer's former military advisor Michael Herzog, former chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon and former air force commander Dan Halutz.

In response to the news, the Israeli defense minister has vowed to halt a Spanish probe into the alleged war crimes of former Israeli military officials. Ehud Barak said he would do everything in his power to block an inquiry against former Israeli defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and six other officials. "The minister intends to fight vigorously against the accusations in Spain and do everything possible to get the investigation dismissed," reads the statement.


Here is how the then IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon described the operation and execution:
[Shehada] clung to the civilian population because he understood our sensitivities. In quite a few cases, we avoided attacking him because his wife was with him, or his daughters. Shehadeh had six daughters. More recently, we made things easier for ourselves and said that even if his wife is with him, we will attack him. Moreover, a discussion began about whether it would not be right to attack him even if his daughters were with him. But we made a decision against that. We decided that we would not harm his daughters.

On the Saturday evening before the attack, we held a discussion. It was clear to us that in order to knock down the building, we would need a ton [of explosives], and the question was whether we would use one bomb of a ton or two of half a ton. Our experience was of dropping 160 bombs in the Palestinian arena without a single innocent civilian being killed, but the concern was that two bombs raised the statistical risk of a miss.

So I sent the air force to do its homework and they came back to me with the answer that a one-ton bomb was more certain. The assessment was that the result would be the destruction of Shehadeh's house and damage to the empty neighboring building, and shattered windows in the area and tin siding that would be sent flying from the tin shacks. People wounded, not killed. In retrospect, though, it turned out that the neighboring house was not empty. The execution of the air force was perfect, but the intelligence gap in regard to the neighboring house caused a hitch. Six children were killed in that house.

The Israeli then Prime Minister Sharon considered the air strike a great success . Officials statements says that they regretted the loss of civilian lives but pointed out that Shehada was responsible for those deaths since he routinely positioned himself among innocents. Rather than set up a military camp, Shehada hid among civilians in order to make it more difficult for Israel to target him. They futher put the weight that the practice is expressly forbidden by international law and that law further holds the party who involves the civilians responsible for their casualties, not the attacker.
Well using the same analogy, if ay Iraqi people decided to assassinate Bush al Dubya (of illegal fame war in Iraq) in the restaurant where he dine or the hotel that he stay and cause many civilian casualties. Could we blame put the blame on this lame duck Dubya, 'cause he routinely positioned himself in civilian restaurant, civilian hotel and any other public places? The same also goes to says, if anybody tries to assinated Sharon himself or anybody on that stature by crook, and inflict many casualties in the proceses, perhap Sharon would like to calm down the relative of the decease to blame him instead and spare the attacker. Reality take precedence eh mister??

BTW, similar cases have previously been filed in Israeli courts, but the reason, rights and justice never serve for those occupied people.
Truth, justice and the Israeli way!

The Zionist regime make a move to protect their soldiers from war crime

The Zionist's government of Israel is about to approve a bill to grant aid and support to their zionist soldiers which at the brim of suits for the war crimes in Gaza. It's more likely that this soldiers will face law suits against the used of the Phosphorus weapons again civilian, or at least somebody must be held responsible for such actions.

The bill, titled "strengthening the IDF's hand after Operation Cast Lead", was put forward by none other than Defense Minister Ehud Barak himself, with some coordination with the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Justice and State Prosecutor. According to Barak, "the government carries the responsibility for sending IDF soldiers on military operations and as a result is obligated to grant them complete support against any possible harm to them stemming from those operations."
Barak said "I do not know of any army that operates at the high standards that the IDF operates," "There is no place for an automatic backlash following every operation." Barak claim that the zionist army behaved according to its high moral values during Cast Lead. "As an army which is unsurpassed in its moral traditions, the IDF has done all that it can in order to adhere to international law, in order to avoid harming civilians who are not involved in fighting," Barak said, he adding some more to such moral principles by saying "have not always been enough to prevent tragedies from happening." 

Well mister, unfortunately records from score of human rights body base in Palestinian and Israel state the otherwise. Palestinians, Jewish as well as the International Human Right body agree about this. There is awfully lots of them inside occupied region and in the matters of facts the occupied region is the most watch area in the world.
for the past 30 year the International community has came to broad consensus to solve the issue namely the 2 state settlement. Two state settlement mean that Israel has to fully withdraw from territory it occupy in 1967 war. This mean they need to withdraw from the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. This is the International law. Its not admissible to acquire territory by war. That what the world court said. This is what written in the in the United Nation charter. Go and read it before you guy(s) slam me ok. This is the fundamental principal of article 2 in the United nation charter. what about the International Court of justice decision on the wall that Israeli built around the occupied territory? what about that? well in july 2007 International Court of justice landed adversary opinion that the wall is illegal under international law, that Israeli is legally bound to remove it all and paid compensation to the damage due to teh construction and those involved.

So now this funny minister of zionist Israel talking about adhere to international law and yet ignore many of UN resolutions pertinent to their occupation! It's the same set of International law that Israeli claim that are bound to. or perhaps they have the privilege to chose whichever that suit their liking only. While at the same time ignore the rests, with the blessing of the United State of America of course! Israel only quote international law as it deem fit to to serve their purpose yet deprive the same law for the palestinians people. That what I see as far as I remember. 


So enough with that, so let get back to the issue at hand. So when the news paper run the articles about the Israeli WP. The IDF spokesman quickly (as always) denied the use of phosphorus and said that Israel was using only the weapons that were allowed under international law. 

But photographic evidence as well as the video clips has emerged and proves that Israel has been using this white phosphorus weapon during its offensive in Gaza. There is many evidence that the phosphorus weapon have injured Palestinian civilians, the dead may not speak about it but surely one can see the horrifies burn mark on them. Some of the victim is still pretty much alive at this time of writing, hence could tell the world how they felt having part of their body burned out. And many more who's lucky enough doesn't caught in fire can always tell the horror story about the sadistic events. People like Sabah Abu Halima who's suffered terrible burns on her arms, legs and torso can tell you such terribly experience: "There was fire, and so much white smoke". "The missile melted my children. My daughter-in-law melted in front of my eyes." This is publish in BBC News, you can go and read more over here.


But then rows of M825A1 white phosphorus (WP) shells were photographed on the Israel De fence Forces artillery units on the side of the Israel-Gaza border. The Times has identified stockpiles of white phosphorus (WP) shells from high-resolution images. Confronted with this latest evidence, an IDF spokeswoman suddenly change the tone of her statement and insisted that the M825A1 shell was not a WP type. “This is what we call a quiet shell - it is empty, it has no explosives and no white phosphorus. 

she said There is nothing inside it, We shoot it to mark the target before we launch a real shell. And reiterate that Israel was using only the weapons that were allowed under international law. 


yeah right! Like that we don't know that this pale blue M825A1 WP munitions made in USA and heavily used in Fallujah. If I was the reporter I would ask ask her, if we could shoot her with the so call empty shell and let see if it could burn her kind pussy(of course I mean the cat) out of her sorry ass. I hate this saddo lunatic of uncharacteristic being.Darn! 

Of course the Israeli's spokesman/woman will quickly deny it such as; nooo! those are not white phosphorus burn, we have not used white phosphorus in this war, hamas did! while lookin at you in the eyes.

Typical Israeli government statements I must say.

This is nothing to shock about, for those of you who is new to this area, Israel has a very poor reputation for telling the truth. In 1982, it denied using phosphorous munitions on civilian areas in Lebanon, not until journalists discovered dying and dead civilians whose with a strange burn and the wounds caught fire when exposed to air. Some even have the "privileged of it kind" to witness the nature and characteristic of WP when 2 dead babies who, when taken out from a mortuary drawer in West Beirut during the Israeli siege of the city suddenly burst back into flames! Lebanese hospitals fill to the brim with patients with burn wounds consistent with phosphorous munitions.Then a bit latter, Israel suddenly admitted that it had not been telling the truth. Jacob Edery, the Israeli minister in charge of government-parliament relations, confirmed that phosphorous shells were used in direct attacks against Hizbollah, adding that "according to international law, the use of phosphorous munitions is authorized and the (Israeli) army keeps to the rules of international norms".

What law? So don't you see, It the same arguments, The Zionist just dish out the same reasons over and over again. It's a standard reply. perhaps they just changed the date and there rest is the same all same.  The shell is not defined as an incendiary weapon by the Third Protocol in the Convention on Conventional Weapons because its principal use is to produce smoke to protect troops. We know that the white phosphorus is a weapon intended to provide a smokescreen for troop movements(as an obscurant/smoke screen) on the battlefield. But the use of white phosphorous as a weapon other than that, is banned by the Third Convention on Conventional Weapons which covers the use of incendiary devices. Though Israel(and their big brother the US) is not a signatory to the convention, its military manuals reflect the restrictions on its use.

The nature of white phosphorous as highly incendiary effect in such that it should never be used on civilian areas, is clear define in the international convention on the use of incendiary weapons. It should not be used where there is a possibility of hitting civilians. So looking at a densely populated Gaza Strip, one of the most dense area in the world. You just cannot shoot above their head and expect none of it hit them. That is insane. This is no Viet Cong in dense jungle that the US burn them alive with infamous napalm! This is no vietnam. There are 1.5 million Palestinians pack and squeezed in this small occupied territory. How does one think is does hit civilians? Unless if it was their goal to hit any Palestinians. 


As the passing of such bill is not enough, the Israeli military censor is applying strict restrictions preventing the media from identifying soldiers who participated in the Gaza Strip offensive and all information about them that may be used in legal proceedings against them in international court abroad.

So yess they are afraid, they are very afraid I must say. I can't help but see the growing concern (read:fear) linger at the core of zionist supreme regime. With the Strengthening the IDF's Hand after Operation Cast Lead bill plus the censorm it clear they did everthing they can to protect the murderer and their cohort. Hide as much as you could but the evidence of this blantant atrocity is abundance and widely acknowledge and there is no doubts about it. Hence, only time will tell if the mighty Jewish power lobby could do their magic this time 

United Nations High Commissioner Calling for Gaza's War Crimes probe

Navi Pillay, a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for an independent investigation into possible war crimes committed by Israeli's in Gaza. She specifically referred to the killing of 30 Palestinian civilians in a home in central Gaza that was shelled by Israeli forces.

"I am concerned with violations of international law. Incidents such as this must be investigated because they display elements of what could constitute war crimes," Pillay, told Reuters.

"There is an international obligation on the part of soldiers in their position to protect civilians, not to kill civilians indiscriminately in the first place, and when they do to make sure that they help the wounded," Pillay said. "In this particular case these children were helpless and the soldiers were close by," she said.

Speaking earlier to a special session of the UN Human Rights Council held on the Gaza crisis, Pillay had said that Israel should be held accountable for any violations of international law.

Pillay continued by noting that a large number of people, including children, had been killed or wounded in "Israel's totally unacceptable strikes" against clearly marked UN facilities sheltering Gaza civilians.


Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1860 calling for an immediate cease-fire in the 14-day-old conflict and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza but Israel rejected the resolution and continued its offensive on Friday.

Hamas Rockets Put Israel's Nuclear Facility in Battle Zone

 Friday, January 02, 2009 

Rocket attacks from Gaza have forced Israelis to flee in ever greater numbers, escalating the belief among Israel's military chiefs that Hamas missiles could threaten the nation's top secret nuclear facility at Dimona.
Israeli officials say that Hamas has acquired dozens of Iranian-made Fajr-3 missiles and with it, an even longer range than previously seen. Many fear that as the group acquires ever more sophisticated weaponry it is only a matter of time before the nuclear installation at Dimona, 20 miles east of Beersheba, falls within its sights.

Dimona houses Israel’s only nuclear reactor and is believed to be where nuclear warheads are stored.

Israeli officials allowed dozens of Palestinian holders of foreign passports to flee the fighting in the Gaza Strip on Friday.

Army spokesman Peter Lerner says nearly 300 Palestinians poured through the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing Friday morning. The Palestinians hold citizenship from a number of other countries, including the U.S., Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan.

On Thursday an Israeli warplane dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on the home of one of Hamas' top five decision-makers, instantly killing him and 18 others, while the Israeli army said troops massed on the Gaza border were ready for any order to invade.

The airstrike on Nizar Rayan was the first that succeeded in killing a member of Hamas' highest echelon since Israel began its offensive Saturday. The 49-year-old professor of Islamic law was known for personally participating in clashes with Israeli forces and for sending one of his sons on a 2001 suicide mission that killed two Israelis.

The attacks continued Friday. Before dawn, Israeli aircraft hit 15 houses belonging to Hamas militants, Palestinians said. They said the Israelis either warned nearby residents by phone or fired a warning missile to reduce civilian casualties. Twelve people were hurt in the attacks, hospital officials said.

Even as it pursued its bombing campaign, Israel kept the way open for intense efforts by leaders in the Middle East and Europe to arrange a cease-fire. Israel said it would consider a halt to fighting if international monitors were brought in to track compliance with any truce.

Adding to the urgency of the diplomatic maneuvering, the Israeli military said its preparations for a possible ground assault were complete and that troops stood ready to cross the border if the air operation to stamp out Hamas rocket fire needed to be expanded.

Soldiers massed along the Gaza frontier said they were eager to join the fight, and some even cheered as they heard thunderous airstrikes in the distance.

The hit on Rayan's home obliterated the four-story apartment building and peeled off the walls of others around it, creating a field of rubble in the crowded town of Jebaliya in the northern Gaza Strip. Mounds of debris thrown up by the blast swallowed up cars.

Eighteen other people, including all four of Rayan's wives and nine of his 12 children, also were killed, Palestinian health officials said. A man cradled the burned, limp body of a child he pulled from the rubble.

The house was one of five bombed Thursday, among more than 20 targets altogether. Warplanes shredded the houses, taking off walls and roofs and leaving behind eerie, dollhouse-like views into rooms that still contained furniture.

Israel's military, which has said the homes of Hamas leaders are being used to store missiles and other weapons, said the attack on Rayan's house triggered secondary explosions from the arms stockpiled there.

Seven other Palestinians were killed in airstrikes Thursday and one died of earlier injuries.

Israel has targeted Hamas leaders many times in the past, and the current leadership went into hiding at the start of the offensive. Rayan, however, was known for openly defying Israel and in the past had led crowds to the homes of wanted Hamas figures — as if daring Israel to strike and risk the lives of civilians.

Residents said he openly went to a nearby mosque Thursday morning to pray.

In his last interview, recorded with Hamas TV on Wednesday, Rayan was as defiant as ever about confronting the Israeli military.

"Oh fighters, know that you will be victorious," he said. "God promises us either victory or martyrdom. God is greater than they are, God is greater than their planes, God is greater than their rockets."

The military said it had information that there was a tunnel beneath Rayan's home for use as an escape route.

Israel seemed determined to press ahead with airstrikes on Hamas houses. It also has been targeting buildings used by the territory's Hamas government — emptied days ago by evacuations — as well as rocket-launching sites and smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt.

"We are trying to hit everybody who is a leader of the organization, and today we hit one of their leaders," Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon said in a television interview.

More than 400 Gazans had been killed and some 1,700 wounded since Israel embarked on its aerial campaign, Gaza health officials said. The United Nations has said the death toll includes more than 60 civilians, 34 of them children.

One of them, 11-year-old Ismail Hamdan, was buried Thursday after dying of wounds suffered from an airstrike Tuesday that killed two of his sisters, Haya, 4, and Lama, 12. His body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag and his battered face was still bandaged as he was carried above a crowd of mourners.

Since Saturday, three Israeli civilians and one soldier have also died in rocket attacks that have reached deeper into Israel than ever before, bringing more than a tenth of Israel's population of 7 million within rocket range.

The bombing campaign has worsened an already hard life for Gaza's mostly poor population of 1.5 million. On Thursday, hundreds of people stood in long, snaking lines across the territory waiting to buy bread.

Israel launched the offensive Saturday after more than a week of intense Palestinian rocket fire that followed the expiration of a six-month truce, which Hamas refused to extend because Israel kept up its blockade of Gaza.

So far, the campaign has been conducted largely from the air. But a military spokeswoman, Maj. Avital Leibovich, said preparations for a ground operation were complete.

"The infantry, the artillery and other forces are ready. They're around the Gaza Strip, waiting for any calls to go inside," Leibovich said.

Thousands of soldiers waited along the border, resting among tanks, armored personnel carriers and howitzers. The troops watched warplanes and attack helicopters flying into Gaza, cheering each time they heard the explosion of an airstrike.

One soldier, who can be identified under military rules only as Sgt. Yaniv, said he was eager to go in. "I am going crazy here watching all this. I want to do my part as well," he said.

Hamas promised to put up a fight if Israeli land forces invaded.

Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and many other Western nations. From 2000 to 2004, Hamas was responsible for killing nearly 400 Israelis and wounding more than 2,000 in 425 attacks, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

From 2001 through May 2008, Hamas launched more than 3,000 Qassam rockets and 2,500 mortar attacks against Israeli targets.

"We are waiting for you to enter Gaza to kill you or make you into Schalits," the group said, referring to Israeli Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid by Hamas-affiliated militants 2 1/2 years ago and remains in captivity in Gaza.

Israel's bruising campaign has not deterred Hamas from assaulting Israel. According to the military, militants fired more than 30 rockets into southern Israel during the day.

No injuries were reported, but an eight-story apartment building in Ashdod, 23 miles from Gaza, was hit. Panicked residents ran through a debris-strewn street.

Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rebuffed a French proposal for a two-day suspension of hostilities to allow for the delivery of humanitarian supplies. Israel has been allowing trucked relief supplies to enter Gaza. Ninety aid trucks crossed the border Thursday.

Still, Olmert seemed to be looking for a diplomatic way out, telling Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other world leaders that Israel would accept a truce only if international monitors took responsibility for enforcing it, government officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were confidential.

A Turkish truce proposal included a call for such monitors.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, speaking to reporters during a visit to Paris for meetings with French officials, expressed skepticism about the benefits of a cease-fire. She said Hamas used the lull during the six-month truce that expired last month to build up its arsenal of weapons.

"Our experience from the past is that even when we accept something in order to have a peaceful period of time, they abuse it in order to get stronger and to attack Israel later on," Livni said.

Egypt's foreign minister said Hamas must ensure that rocket fire stops in any truce deal, and he criticized the Palestinian militants for giving Israel an "opportunity on a golden platter" to launch the offensive.

Gaza has been under Hamas rule since the group's fighters overran it in June 2007. The West Bank has remained under the control of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been negotiating peace with Israel for more than a year but has no influence over Hamas. Bringing in truce monitors would require cooperation between the fiercely antagonistic Palestinian factions.

An Abbas confidant said the Palestinian president supported the notion of international involvement. "We are asking for a cease-fire and an international presence to monitor Israel's commitment to it," Nabil Abu Rdeneh said.

World leaders have not been deterred by the initial rejections by Israel and Hamas of truce efforts, and next week French President Nicolas Sarkozy plans a whirlwind trip around the region.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comment: Hamas had been using the Qassams rockets as long as I can remember. This rockets are cobbled together in a rudimentary from a different parts smuggled from the outside.

Its only effective on short-range up to 1.8 miles. Very short indeed. Unlike the Israeli possesion, this rockets is very simple, it don't have any sophisticated guidance/targeting systems, infact there have none at all. This of course contributed toward it poor performances and less infective unless it ben used in a populated area. Sort of trowing stone with a blind eyes hopping to hit somebody so to speak. What a trully reminiscence of Palestinian people throwing stone on the street at the full heavily armor Israel army.

The Fajr-3 rocket is an Iranian multiple-launch artillery rocket which carries a 45-kilogram warhead. With the ranges about 75–80 kilometres efectively can reach the Dimona nuclear facilities, 20 miles away. There were growing fears in Israel that this missiles could bring catastrophe to the complex.

Well I this type of rocket wont bring no harm to the reactor. It may damage the fasilities surrounding the buildings but not the re-enforced harden reactor building. If it ever pass multi layers of USA made and Israel own anti missile system. 

Aljazeera video on Israeli's bombardment:


Aljazeera reports on the further Israeli airstrikes on Gaza pluss an interesting comment from Israeli Foreign Minister:

Dear President-elect Obama, please end military aid to Israel

During his November 4 acceptance speech, President-Elect Barack Obama stated that “There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.”



Help Influence the Obama Administration on ending the military aid to Israel and promote peace.Go and sign will ya?

Update:
Another online Petition : Gaza "peace and Justice" by Council on American-Islamic Relations