SHOCK FOLLOWS FOOTAGE OF SETTLER RUNNING OVER PALESTINIAN

Just when you think you have seen it all, foolish, naive and optimistic creatures that we are, something new comes along. It seems that the Israeli/Palestinian situation is never short of new things to shock us all. I remember reading about Laura Bush, in the 1950's doing this to a boy who had jilted her, but now an illegal settler from and illegal settlement part of an illegal occupation has decided moving vehicles are weapons of murder, much like the Caterpillar driver that killed Rachel Corrie. This occurred late last week.

December 3, 2009
Ma’an News

An amateur video shocked Palestinians on Tuesday, catching what appeared to be an Israeli settler repeatedly running over a wounded Palestinian at a gas station outside the settlement of Kiryat Arba in Hebron on Thursday.

Kiryat Arba is located on the outskirts of Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank. It has been a flashpoint for violence in the past. In December 2008, settlers from Kiryat Arba rampaged through neighboring areas, setting fire to houses and injuring several people, after their government evicted Israelis from a nearby house they had stolen from Palestinians.

Witnesses saw the alleged attacking Palestinian arrive at the station, after which Israeli media sources said he stabbed the owner of a convenience store and a woman. After the attack, a soldier shot and injured the Palestinian, who was taken to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem. The spokesman was not able to say whether the soldier was on duty at the time.

After being shot the Palestinian staggered from the station when a silver Mercedes ran him down, stopped, reversed, and ran him over again and stopped with what appeared to be the rear tire on the driver's side still on part of the Palestinian.

A hospital spokeswoman, Yael Bosem-Levi, said the man was undergoing surgery for "serious" wounds. He was transported to the hospital by Israel's Magen David Adom ambulance service, Bosem-Levi said. She would not release the man's name or other details.

The video was reportedly taken on Thursday, although at the time, Israeli representatives made no mention of the settler’s alleged attack, telling reporters only that a Palestinian man had been shot after he stabbed and lightly injured two settlers.

A military spokesman told Ma’an that after the two Israelis were hurt, a soldier shot and injured the Palestinian, who was taken to the Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem. The settler, on the other hand, was released under house arrest.

What follows is a partial clip from Al-Jazeera. Click here for an uncut version of the same film.

The full video captures several soldiers standing by as the incident unfolds. Those who run up to the vehicle and appear to take the keys out of the ignition are armed settlers. The Palestinian is left underneath the car screaming as settlers extract the driver. Several seconds later, medics approach the injured man.

According to The Jerusalem Post, police believe the driver was David Mizrachi, an Israeli from the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba and the husband of one of the alleged stabbing victims. He may stand trial for attempted murder, the newspaper reported.

Tensions were running high after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday limitations on construction in the Jewish-only settlements, which were built on land owned by Palestinians.

The settlers vowed to these orders to slow down certain West Bank construction. Soldiers have also shown an increasing aversion to cracking down on settler behavior, with some announcing their refusal to take part in missions that involve removing settlers from what Israeli courts determine are illegally occupied Palestinian homes or outposts.

Last fall in Hebron, dozens of soldiers were sent to evacuate the Ar-Rajabi home in Hebron, following which a rampaging settler from Kiryat Arba shot a Palestinian at almost point-blank range. The settler was briefly arrested and later released without charge.

IDF SOLDIERS AND JEWISH SQUATTERS; SH*T, DRUGS AND ABUSE

ED Noor: Grrrr. Kawther Salam has made her photos almost impossible to access and many are no longer available. This picture no longer here was quite the illustration but I don't have the patience to comb through 70 pages trying to find the original to "steal" and replace it. Imagine if you will, a simple blue plastic barrel simply full of water that has been polluted with human waste. 

This is a bucket full of feces left by IDF soldiers occupying a roof in Hebron. Buckets like this one are routinely emptied into the water tanks on Palestinian roofs by soldiers.

The following are just random entries from the diary of Kawthra Salam, a Palestinian photo journalist who lives in the town of Hebron on the West Bank. This is her life. This is what life under Israeli Occupation is like. These are the soldiers as the media does not present them, and incidents that are daily occurrences for her and all other Palestinians. Her blog is called THE DAILY LIFE OF KAWTHER SALAM I have taken incidents from this diary and roughly pulled some out and posted them with the accompanying photos so that one can see how daily life is, in Occupied Palestine.Update 21.05.2004
The Israeli soldiers stationed on the roof of the Palestinian woman Naziha Abu Dahood broke into her bedroom early in the morning. She was alone with a sick child when she saw the Israeli soldier exposing his penis and telling her that he "had a big one for her which is better than the small one she had".

Grieving widow Naziha Abu Dahood

The murderer/rapist denied all charges.

The woman ran to the street screaming and fell in a coma. On 31 December 2001 they killed her husband in his living room when they were abusing his wife sexually and he stepped in to urge them to stop.

xxxxxxxxxx

Another Bucket full of IDF crap left on the roof of Dr. Zahdeh. Buckets like these were left in almost every Palestinian home occupied or used by the IDF during the Gaza Massacre last winter.

I documented the sick behaviour of the Israeli soldiers in 1999-2000 in the film “Hebron: City Without Mercy”. The film shows the the IDF soldiers urinating in bottles and offering this to Palestinians to drink as "Coke".

Feces and urine "coke" from IDF soldiers on my roof.

The Israeli soldiers were calling each other on the roofs of Palestinians houses in the middle of night, one of them said that he want to do something great and urged his colleagues to pay attention. Then he proceeded to urinate into the water tank of the family who owned the house.

A settler attacked me from behind as I was leaving my home. The soldiers laughed.

It was a winter day in 1999. The earth was dressed in white;snow covered everything. I had my best friend and constant companion, my camera. It was a beautiful day but no one could because IDF abuses kept them indoors. The street was empty, nobody was allowed to walk on Al-shuhada street during the normal weather and day.

Loud voices came to my ears: "Kawther, Kawther, let us take some pictures". I turned to see a big snow sculpture made by two IDF soldiers at the entrance of the street. The nice civilized soldiers started playing and licking their snow sculpture. I took some pictures and left; the soldiers were masturbating on it and licking, shouting me to stop and help them treach orgasm.

One of the Israeli soldiers stationed on my roof, near where Rabbi Moshe Leviger squats in his outpost, asked me for help. It was at midday in summer, the foul smell of their shit and urine contaminated the fresh air.
The soldier said that he did not understand English well, and he wanted me to explain him an English message he had received on his cellphone. The distance between each other was less than 1.5 meters. I took his request seriously and I read the message. It said, “I want to fuck you in bed, I want to fuck you in the street, I want to fuck your mother, sister...”

I had to put a jerry can on my balcony, in front of my bedroom, to collect the Israeli soldiers' urine which dripped from the military post on my roof every day. The IDF soldiers urinated at night and during the day I was forced to collect it. Often the soldiers would collect their urine in vessels for a couple of days and wait until I hung my washed clothes. Then they would spread their urine on my clothes.

xxxxx

An armed settler delivering drugs to the soldiers on my roof.

During the nights, the Jewish squatters used to bring drugs for the soldiers on my roof. The soldiers were giving each other drug injections. After that they would sit on the floor breathing heavily for hours, later often having sex with each other.

It was not easy to get these photos but this soldier is on duty!

Sometimes they would make sex with soldier women, but it was more common to to see the men have anal sex with each other. Most nights when they had no sex, they would resort to shouting abuse at me and "asking" me to have sex with them. They would continue making noise in this way until the morning.

Private Rachel Vetroyski was with the group on my roof and was taken by ambulance into the hospital because of an Ecstasy overload.

One day a soldier fell from the roof. He was breathing with difficulty and raving on the floor as if he was dying. I called the IDF headquarter and asked for a military ambulance to take this soldier. When the unit officer came to check the story, the soldier claimed that he was having an ”epilepsy attack”.

Seth Malatov suffers from Ecstasy overdosing he described as "epilepsy"

In another event I saw a soldier beating his colleague seriously and trying to take away his weapon after he took drugs. The soldiers claimed that their colleague was ready to shoot at the Arab houses in the area.

The soldiers left me messages on the walls outside my doorway. If I remove it they will write worse things.

Dr. Tayseer Zahdeh from Hebron has further information about the drug dealer of the IDF soldiers who were stationed on his roof. He saw them taking heroin injections in front of his private room, were he and his family hid themselves from the soldiers. Dr. Zahdeh also saw them fucking each other.

He took the used syringes and used them to back the story, but the military commander said that these syringes were used by Dr. Tayseer. The commander forgot that the IDF syringes have a special colour which is not allowed to be used by Palestinians.

I also documented the interaction between IDF soldiers and drug dealer at night when the settlers would come and bring drugs for the IDF soldiers stationed on my roof. At the military point which called “4,5” near my house and which the Jews called “Broken”, I made a deal with an Arab Israeli citizen who was a middleman between the Jewish drug gang and the Israeli army.

I promised the man that I would not mention to his name if he let me film the drugs which he brought to the IDF soldiers. The man told me that there are an increasing number of IDF soldiers who are themselves drug dealers. He allowed me to film some of the drugs which he hid in his shoe.

He showed me the settlers who provide the IDF soldiers with drugs and asked me to fellow his steps near the area of the Abraham Cave and the Abraham Avino settlement. I informed the Israeli Police about that, and once I succeeded in taking a picture of this squatter in the hands of the police.

The roof of my house was a real theatre for the illegal practices of the IDF. I have filed hundreds of official complaints with the Israeli Police station about their continued sexual harassment. I was giving them full information, the time of the events, the day, the name of the group involved, the name of military post, pictures and even tape recordings.

Not once did the Israeli Defence Ministry take any action against their soldiers. The IDF soldiers were having sex with each other in front of me; sometimes they were fucking other women working with them or girls from the settlements. Most of time they were making noise to disturb me and shouting abuse at me.

On November 27, 2002, I wasn't surprised to hear Ronit Lev-Ari, head of the Occupational Prime Minister's Office for the Status of Women declare that one in every six women in Israel has been sexually harassed on the streets. She said, 30% of the victims were aged between 18-24. The harassment includes attempts to touch the women, obscene verbal proposal, prolonged staring, and efforts by men to press their bodies against them.

In Hebron I constantly hear obscene verbal proposals, such like, "whore, bitch, nice fucker, sharmutah."

This IDF soldier pressed his body against me and massaged my breasts in public in Al Shuhada street. This happened on 25th April 2000 during the peace time. He tried to look innocent for my camera!

On July 5, 2001, Sawsan Abu Turky, a nine year old girl from Hebron was attacked by the IDF soldiers on her way back home. At a checkpoint, one soldier allowed Sawsan to pass, but the other one said no, you should return. When Sawsan tried to pass anyway, the soldier pushed her on the ground and kicked her head with the butt of his rifle. Sawsan was hospitalized for five days, but when she released she was still having pain.

On September 6, 2001, Sawsan was arrested because she had tried to kill an Israeli soldier. Sawsan was raped twice at Israeli jail on the first day of her incarceration.

Here are a few of a never ending string of soldiers who greet me with sexual words or crude gestures about bodily and sexual functions every day as I come and go from my home.

In July 2002, an Israeli sergeant who had been stationed on my roof as a soldier wrote me a couple of times. The last time he wrote me in Hebrew about his so-called love, he compared his love with the “Mosquito”, how he fell in love with her, and how he was dreaming at nights to be with her, and how she occupied his mind and thoughts all the time but he killed her later because he was scared to share his secret with others.

I considered this IDF letter to be a thinly veiled death threat against me. At that time I was living with a friend in Tel Aviv and was not allowed to return home in Hebron, or to live in my house which was now occupied by the squatters of the American Jewish terror organization Kach. The letter from "Moskito" (in Hebrew) can be read here: Page1 Page2 Page3 Page4 Page5 Page6

The words on this IDF's vest says "Good Mother F*cker" which is a very foul expression to an Arab.

These soldiers detained Palestinians youth who refused to read these horrid words. My camera captured in 1998 them detaining students and searching their bodies after they disobeyed the military order "read the sign of nice mother f*cker". When I heard the soldiers asking the youths to read the signs, I got curious, hid behind a car, watched the IDF play and snapped some pictures.

Following is how Israeli "Justice" under the military Law, or how the Israeli Government responds to sexual harassment perpetrated by the occupation troops. Between 1997 and 2001, I filed over 300 complaints against the constant and continued abuses and sexual harassment by the IDF and the American Jewish squatters against me at the police station. The office of the Attorney General sent a letter to my lawyer Lea Tsemel, it was a copy of a letter which she had sent to the military Attorney General notifying him of Lea Tsemel's reminder, and asking them to "take care of the matter". The matter was the IDF sexual harassment. Here is the Letter No. 1 (in Hebrew).

This "Born to Kill" IDF even has a Body Count written on his vest.

The second letter was send by the Military Attorney General to my lawyer Mr. Habib who works in the office of Lea Tsemel in Jerusalem. The Military AG condescended to let us know that “regarding a pre-high court appeal served by Mr. Habib. The military attorney expressed his anger because Mr. Habib has sent this appeal, while the army had clearly explained that the issue is not in the hands of Attorney General of Judea Samaria, but in the hands of the Attorney General of the Central Command". Here is the Letter No. 2 (in Hebrew) The third letter was sent by the Attorney General of the Central Command to Mr. Habib. It says that they have received an appeal from Lea Tsemel regarding my complaint, and that a military police investigation has started. The letter states that on March 03 the AG has decided to close the case because they have "found no evidence of the events" I had complained about in the operation log. In addition, they say that my complaint is contradicted by the evidence of some soldiers who were involved, and that other soldiers could not be found. Here is the Letter No. 3 (in Hebrew) In yet another lengthy letter from the Attorney General to Judea and Samaria to my lawyer, he wrote that he was “sorry for using the name of the occupation in your complaints letter against the IDF soldiers. Again the matter is not in the hands of AG of J and S, and that the case has been transferred to the AG of the Central Command, and a military Police investigation has started". Here is the Letter No. 4 (in Hebrew)

This was the conclusion of Israeli government official responses to my complaints about the IDF sexual abuses and harassment. There was no investigation made in this matter. Once a military police invited me for investigation, but the military Commander of Hebron did not allow him to do that.

He held him for over one hour in his office, after which they called me. By now there was no time left for investigation; the investigator was talking with his girlfriend while I was carrying my video tapes recording the IDF abuses. The investigator said that he had to leave and he would meet me in Tel Aviv next week.

Since then nobody called me for investigation, or to look at my video. Look at my diary posted on Gush Shalom on Thursday 6th, June 2002. Who is responsible about all what the IDF did to me and to my people? Probably I should ask President Bush to send Israel a shipment of urine and shit to play with during occupying the West Bank.

I wasn't the only case who was abused by the IDF soldiers. One night, the IDF soldiers were in a search mission of a Palestinian house where they have a military post on the roof. They took the house owner out and left the woman and her children in a room under the IDF control. The soldiers grabbed the woman, tore off her underwear and started licking between her legs by force.
On June 12, 2002, Ashwaq Yosef Al-Atrash ,14, and her sister Wal'a, 15 , were arrested by the Israeli Border Police in Hebron for refusing to strip naked on the public Street of Al-Sahleh near the vegetable market in the old city. The sisters refused so the soldiers used force. They beat up the girls with the butt of their guns while other soldiers started removing their clothes!!
Ashwaq collapsed and felt on the floor with serious bleeding on her back and Wal'a continued to fight the soldiers to keep on her clothes. The soldiers called the police to arrest both after Ashwaq collapsed. The police kept the girls for 24 hours and charged them of attacking soldiers and disobeying military orders. They were fined 600 000 sheckels and 500 000 sheckels in court. THIS is occupation.

Every time I come home, everything I or my friends have is thoroughly checked.

There is always a fresh layout of barbed wire making it difficult to get to my door.

Cleaning my home after returning to find it had been used by IDF and settlers while I was gone.

On May 2002, I arrived home to find the teapot in my kitchen stinking and full of urine!! All of my window panes were broken!! They also put new barbed wire on my roof to prevent the construction man from fix the damaged water tanks on my roof. My neighbors told me that the IDF soldiers and settlers broke into my house over the last couple days. After that everyone could smell the urine in the teapot in my kitchen.

After filming IDF abuse of a woman, this soldier violently twisted my wrist to take my best friend, my camera from me. He did not succeed.

This episode was documented in the Israeli-Palestinian joint office DCO in Hebron. Other documented abuses: There is story of the sisters Ashwaq and Wallah Al-Atrash, who were molested sexually by Israeli soldiers on Al-Shuhada street near Gross square.

There is the story of Assad Said Al-Himouni, who was raped in the Israeli jail by an MP officer.

There is the story of Sawsan Abu-Turki and two other cases of sexual harassment by the IDF

Here is yet another story, which I posted last year.
And here is another one, "Boys with Toys" (scan of original article is here). It cost me my job with the Al-Quds newspaper.

Who is this Israeli soldier? Why did the Israeli commander arrest this soldier for 21 days after the Palestinian Newspaper 'AL-Hayat' showed this coloured picture of him playing with a Palestinian child?? I was astonished when a PA employee from Bethlehem asked me about him.

I had filmed him in Hebron playing with the child, taking off his gun and holding it on the boy's shoulder!! When I was taking the pictures he had said to me that he loved the child and then played with him while I filmed them. He asked me for copies of the photos. But the next day the Intifada began and I was not able to find him again.

Maybe he missed a little brother, but this soldier was kind and had a good heart.

I did not publish this photograph so these soldiers were not punished.

June 10, 2002.
Today I cry for the children of my country. When I stopped to give the kids in the old market some sweets, I asked them what they are going to do during the summer holiday.
Enthusiastically, the kids said, "We have already started our course in the mosque. We receive money, food and study in the mosque!" Then they told me about the Grave Torture after death. How the angels 'Naker and Niker' interrogate people in the grave about what they did in their life and how they tortured their bodies.
They told me how the angels took the bodies five times daily and forced the people who didn't pray during their life to pray in the middle of the fire in the hell!!
They told me that suicide bombers are martyrs and receive a good place in Paradise married to 70 charming women, the nail of each one more valuable more than the hole world!! They also told me how Al-Shaheed was forgiving 70 person of the Martyr's family to enter Paradise and live with him!! They told me how Al-Shaheed's blood had a nice smell and his body survived to a live in the garden of Paradise with God from the moment he died!!
They told me how women were hung by their hair if they had not covered up. They told me how women with nails covered in polish are burned, and the musician's ears will be closed with lightening flame stick. Such deplorable stories for children barely the age of the flowers studied in the mosque. I do not recognize this new Islam from the one I have lived with all my life!!
Nobody teaches these children that God is peace, love forgiveness and mercy; no body tells them that life is very short and they should enjoy it. No one has told them that God is not a list of threats, warnings and cruel messages. My Islam is of love, not hatred.
These children shouldn't go to the mosque to hear just false rumors and lies. I'm crying for the future of this new generation, I'm crying at the terrible situation that has made Extremists powerful and use the needs of the victims to call them to serve this vicious god they describe.

We must all find balance and peace too. It is almost too late!

LAW ABIDING SETTLERS IN HEBRON

August 28, 2009
KAWTHER SALAM
West Bank/ Hebron

“It was hard for Satan alone
to mislead the whole world,
so he appointed
prominent rabbis
in different localities.”

~ A Chasidic saying attributed to Nahman of Bratzlav, early 19th century. ~ Leo Rosten “The Joys of Yiddish” (Washington Square Press 1968)

Israeli IDF occupation criminal pointing his rifle to the chest of a child in the old city of Hebron, preventing him from reaching his home in the heart of occupied city.

In Hebron, one of the Palestinian towns in the West Bank, About 500 armed Jewish squatters from Kach the terror organization, lead by Moshe Levinger , Baruch Marzel, and Noam Federrman, protected by 5000 IDF soldiers, live in the heart of city terrorizing, 200.000 Palestinians and converting their daily life into misery and disaster.

The yearly budget of the government for financing the social security in Israel is always reduced and transferred to the IDF in order to keep protecting these armed squatters in the middle of Palestinian civilians, and corrupting Israel.

Rabbi Moshe Levinger (Hebrew: משה לוינגר‎; born 1935) is an Israeli Religious Zionist who since 1967 has been a leading figure in the movement to settle Jews in the territories captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. He is especially known for leading Jewish settlement in Hebron in 1968 and for being one of the principals of the settler movement Gush Emunim founded in 1974. Levinger has also been titled The Disgrace of Hebron.

Until 1997, about 35,000 Palestinians lived in central Hebron. About 25,000 of them have since been driven out by the unrelenting pressure of settlers protected by Israeli soldiers and the government which gives them their orders. Several hundred settlers live inside the city and about 5000 within the adjoining colony of Kiryat Arba. The settlers, many of them the products of the yeshivot (religious schools) of Jerusalem, and some of them sociopathic Americans living out a messianic fantasy at the expense of the Palestinians, are heavily armed and very dangerous. Levinger's word is their law.

Rabbi Baruch Marzeln is a psychopathic American who moved to the Settlements where he could kill and steal from the Arab population and build up a following. The 3 very short vids below show his bestial mannerism and the things he encourages his followers to do.

MOVIE ~ WE BECOME SILENT

 

A MOVIE ABOUT CODEX ALIMENTARIUS

"WE BECOME SILENT ~ THE LAST DAYS OF HEALTH FREEDOM"

International award-winning filmmaker Kevin P. Miller of Well TV announced the release of a new documentary about the threat to medical freedom of choice.

'We Become Silent: The Last Days of Health Freedom' details the ongoing attempts by multinational pharmaceutical interests and giant food companies ~ in concert with the WTO, the WHO and others ~ to limit the public’s access to herbs, vitamins and other therapies.

'We Become Silent’ is narrated by Dame Judi Dench, the noted UK actress who has won multiple Golden Globe awards, an Oscar, and a Tony for her on-stage work, in addition to dozens of other honors throughout her prestigious career.

GAZA CHRONOLOGY ~ JUNE 19 ~ DEC 27, 1008

Every time the recent Israeli/Palestinian "war" or more accurately "slaughter" is brought up in discussion, there is always at least one person who spouts how Hamas broke the ceasefire by beginning indiscriminate shelling of Southern Israel. This error is understandable considering the Western media follows the Zionist party line and keeps hush about Israel's true bullying tactics. As a result, people defend Israel due to inadequate and squewed information that is biasedtowards Israel.

However, the fact is that Israel follows a policy of baiting until finally, in frustration and self-defense, their target lashes out. In this case, Hamas fought back out with primitive rockets. Not to be approved, but understandable. As you will read, they tried again and again to have Israel follow the ceasefire, but Israel refused and the were driven to retaliate. Not having access to media as Israel does, and being considered a pariah or terrorist state by most, due to Zionist propaganda, their side of the events up to this war have been unknown to most in the West. So here we have the chronology of events for the 6 months of the so-called ceasefire leading up to the horrors of December 28 through to mid January.

What you will see is one breach of ceasefire after another by Israel ~ murders , kidnappings, jailings, as well as unwarranted attacks on simple fishing vessels and farmers whom they deem "Hamas". It appears that, to Israeli soldiers, if a farmer grew olives that he pressed to make oil then the oil was sold through a shop to the wife of a Hamas member, the FARMER would be shot as a criminal. They are basically that fanatic about Hamas. Please read and learn the truth.

A typical market in happier times in Gaza just prior to the recent Holocaust.

Wednesday, 25 February 2009 22:12 By Anis

19th June:
Ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hamas government comes into force for six months. Israel insisted on a verbal agreement. It stated: cessation of all military hostilities on both sides, opening of Gaza's borders after 72 hours for 30% more trade, unrestricted trade after ten days. Egypt supports the extension of the agreement to the West Bank. (source: International Crisis Group: Ending the War in Gaza. Middle East Briefing No. 26, 5.1.2009, p. 3)

19th June
Israeli warships fire four rockets at Palestinian fishermen in Palestinian waters. On the same day aircraft circling over Gaza City break the sound barrier near the ground and trigger a panic among the people. In the area of Khan Yunis Israeli patrols shoot over the border fence at farmers who work on their fields on the other side of the border. (source: Ma'an, 26.06.2008). This scenario is repeated almost daily.

24th June:
Two young officials of Jihad are murdered in their homes in Nablus by units of the IDF (Israeli Defence Force). On the same day al-Quds Brigades fire three rockets at Sderot in retaliation. (source: Ma'an 24.06.2008) The Israeli side uses the action of Jihad as an excuse to close the border crossings again.

As wrong as bombs are, compare these to the monstrously huge,
poison-packed bombs used with such force by the Israeli army.

26th June:
The al-Aqsa Brigades fire a rocket on Sderot after many Fatah members have been arrested in raids by the Israeli army. With this the al-Aqsa Brigades want to force the extension of the ceasefire to the West Bank. The spokesman of the Hamas government in Gaza warns the al-Aqsa Brigades that their actions would prevent the lifting of the blockade and favour instead the narrower interests of a organizational and political nature.

29th June:
A delegation of farmers complain to Hamas' Ministry of Agriculture that because of the Israeli bombardment they can no longer cultivate their fields along the border fence.

The body of a farmer, felled by a sniper, is removed from his fields where he had been harvesting parsley when the Israelis appeared.

4th August:

During a meeting of the Israeli labour party the Minister of Defence, Ehud Barak, threatens a ground invasion into the Gaza strip, despite Hamas' adherence to the ceasefire.

8th August:

The director of the secret service Shin Bet, Yuval Diskin, thinks that a ceasefire would reduce the pressure on Hamas to release Shalit. He calls on the army to prepare for a major military offensive. (source: Ma'an 8.8.2008) These statements reinforce the impression among Palestinians that as far as the Israeli military leadership is concerned the purpose of the ceasefire is to gain time in order to prepare an offensive.

29th September:
The Israeli navy sinks a fishing boat (source: http://www.btselem.org/english/testimonies/20080910_israeli_navy_boat_charges_into_a_fishing_boat_witness_al_hasi.asp), after fishing boats were shot at and rammed several times.

One of the rammed sailing vessels.

4th November:

Israeli troops enter into Khan Yunis. Deliberately targeted projectiles kill six Hamas members and injure several people, including one woman. In the Deir al-Balah several rockets are fired at residential areas. Near Wadi Salqa two houses of the Hawaidi family are destroyed and seven family members, three of them women, are kidnapped and taken to Israel. The same day Israeli border guards prevent French consular officials, who want to get a picture of the situation, from entering the Gaza strip.

(Some background information: the dubious tunneller Abu Dawabah is arrested and claims during interrogation that both Hamas and and al-Aqsa brigades had offered him money for kidnapping an Israeli soldier. (source: Ma'an 3.11.2008) One day later the Hamas Ministry of Internal Affairs issues a denial. (See also International Crisis Group: Ending the War in Gaza. Middle East Briefing No. 26, 5.1.2009, p.5)

5th November:

Residential areas in the north of the Gaza strip and Khan Yunis are bombarded. Israeli troops kill a leader of Jihad and six Hamas officials. Because of this, Hamas, the al-Aqsa Brigades and Jihad fire rockets into Israel. Until then Hamas fully observed the ceasefire. Jihad and the al-Aqsa Brigades state that the ceasefire will not prevent them from reacting to Israeli violations of the agreement. In spite of this, Hamas wants to continue the ceasefire and ask Egypt for mediation.

Despite such losses, Hamas was STILL asking Egypt
to help them maintain the ceasefire!

5th November:

The Gaza Strip is completely sealed off. Even food, medicine, fuel, spare parts for generators and water pumps, paper, telephones and shoes can no longer or only in minimal amounts enter the Gaza Strip.

8th November:
Israeli bulldozers enter into the strip at several points. This leads to armed clashes with the units of the DFLP.

9th November:

Hamas Chief Ismail Haniya declares to European delegates who had broken through the sea blockade with a boat of the Free Gaza Movement and visited Gaza that Hamas could live with a solution of the Palestine problem on the basis of UN Resolutions. (source: Ma'an 9.11.2008)

12th November:

A further four Hamas members are killed. Israeli airplanes fire rockets at residential areas. The Palestinian factions are getting ever more skeptical about the ceasefire. Israeli bulldozers cut a 150 metre swath into an area in the Gaza Strip for military patrols, destroying about 750 hectares of agrarian land. (source: Ma'an 21.11.2008)

13th November:

Israeli boarder patrols bar a UN food convoy from passing the border. The DFLP claims that for Israel this was not about the ceasefire, but about breaking resistance to the occupation. In the following days the PFLP, the DFLP, the Popular Committees and Hamas fire projectiles at Israeli places while Israeli airplanes bomb the north of the Gaza Strip.

16th November:

The Israeli Minister of Transport calls for killing the whole Hamas leadership. During new attacks another four members of the Popular Committees are killed. By now 15 people have been killed during the air strikes in recent days. The Popular Committees declare the end of the ceasefire. Their spokesperson blames Israel.

17th November:
The DLFP and Jihad fire rockets into Israel.

Men and boys wait their turn hoping there will still be bread left for them to take home to their families.

18th November:

The food crisis gets worse and worse. 50% of the bakeries cannot operate anymore due of lack of flour. Others use animal feed to bake bread. Israeli tanks enter the strip, there are armed clashes with the PFLP and the mujaheddin, another resistance group of Fatah.

The Israeli Navy arrest 15 fishermen and three foreign solidarity activists off the coast of Gaza. The "Internationals" accompanied the fishermen in the hope that their presence would guarantee a minimum of protection. They are taken to Israel and get expelled after six days of solitary confinement. (source Ma'an 18.11.2008).

An Israeli naval ship sprays a Palestinian fishing boat
with a water cannon off the coast of the Gaza Strip. (David Schermerhorn)

The three fishing boats were given back after 9 days, but one boat was damaged, the GPS device was missing. During their days in prison, the solidarity workers were barred from contacting their lawyers and their embassies. (source: http://www.freegaza.org/de/home/547-three-palestinian-fishing-boats-returned and http://www.freegaza.org/de/home/558-kidnapped-in-gaza]

20th November:

Yet again a Hamas member is killed by targeted rocket strikes. Hamas increasingly comes under pressure from the other groups as well as their own base, who demand they force Israel to keep to the ceasefire. But how?

23th November

Diplomatic sources claim that the Egyptians stepped in and got Hamas and the Israeli government to agree to resume the ceasefire according to the conditions originally negotiated. This is confirmed by Hamas. Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha furthermore states that the other resistance groups also agree to the continuation of the ceasefire ~ on condition that the blockade is lifted. Israel does not comment on this.

24th November:

A member of the Popular Committee is killed by an Israeli rocket. After Israeli claims that rockets were fired ~ but no one claimed responsibility for that ~ the Israeli Minister of Defense Barak retracts the order to open the border for urgently needed food deliveries. As far back as August rockets had been fired on several occasions from the Gaza Strip to the Negev desert, without claim of responsibility, which led to the closure of the border each time. At the time Hamas leader Mammud al-Zahhar accused Israeli agents of creating a pretext for a land invasion. (source Ma'an 12.9.2008).

An Israeli soldier pointing a gun at a disabled citizen

who was hoping to get his child medical assistance.

Also at the time the names of groups nobody in Gaza had heard of before and knew anything about crop up such as Ahrar al-Jalil, Tawhid Brigades or Hisb Allah. Some believe they are collaborators wanting to corrupt the ceasefire. Other voices believe they are small radical cells who think Hamas have made too many concessions.

28th November:

The Israeli army kills a man from Khan Yunis, who doesn't belong to any organization. On the same day eight Israeli soldiers are injured at a boarder border post through attacks by the mujaheddin.

30th November:
Jihad declare they no longer feel bound by the ceasefire. The al-Aqsa Brigades fire projectiles at Sderot again. Hamas and Jihad are warned by mediators from Qatar that Israel plans a major military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The political leadership of Hamas issues an urgent appeal to armed groups including their own al-Qassam Brigades to stop firing rockets into Israel.

2nd December:
Israeli tanks enter the Gaza Strip again. Two teenagers are killed in air strikes.

4th December:
Al-Aqsa Brigades fire rockets at Ashkelon.

Settlers burning another Palestinian home
after terrorizing and scaring off the inhabitants.

5th December:
Massive assaults by Jewish settlers on Palestinians in Hebron. While the al-Aqsa Brigades, the DFLP and the al-Quds Brigades of the Jihad fire rockets at Israeli places as a reaction to the events in the West Bank, Hamas organises solidarity demonstrations with Palestinians in Hebron to rescue what is left of the ceasefire agreement.

7th December:

The blockade in the Gaza Strip is getting more severe. A boat from Israel with peace activists wanting to bring food and gifts for children to Gaza on the occasion of the feast of sacrifice is forced to turn back by Israeli warships. The same fate befalls a boat from Qatar and another one from Libya, both of which want to deliver food to Gaza.

For the short time fresh water is available each day,
families flock to the pumps. This child and her brother
manifest the spirit of the Palestinian people, determined to resist.

13th December:

Tzipi Livni states that in case a Palestinian state is set up the Palestinian people living in Israel would be expatriated. By now no organisation thinks there is any purpose in extending the ceasefire. Brigades of the DFLP, al-Aqsa, the Popular Committees and Jihad fire at Israeli places on a regular basis. The political leadership of Hamas in Gaza, especially the de facto president Haniya has no means of preventing this, because even their own armed faction, the al-Qassam Brigades, no longer see any sense in the ceasefire.

14th December:

The Hamas leadership abroad states through Khaled Mashaal that Hamas reject an extension of the ceasefire, whereas Haniya still hopes that Egyptian mediation will help achieve an extension.

19th December:
On the same day the six-month-ceasefire ends all factions declare at separate mass events that they consider the ceasefire to be finished ~ even Fatah.

20th December:

Fawzi Barhum, the spokesman of Hamas, calls on all factions to form a common resistance front. His acerbic reply to the Russian demand that Hamas should consider the extension of the ceasefire is that the onus was now on the international community to put pressure on Israel to cease the attacks on the Palestinian people, instead of blaming the victims of these attacks. (source: Ma'an 21.12.2008) But the Egyptians do not react.

23th December:

The former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hamas government, Mahmud al-Zahhar, declares once again that Hamas is prepared to continue with the ceasefire agreement, provided Israel adheres to the conditions agreed in June, in particular the lifting of the blockade. But the discourse of al-Qassam Brigades is more subdued. Abu Ubaida, spokesman of al-Qassam Brigades, speaks only about the possibility of suspending the military action and no longer about a ceasefire and does not exclude any military action in Israel if Israel does not stop its aggression against Gaza. (source: Ma'an 23.12.2008)

27th December:

The Israeli military attacks the Gaza Strip, killing about 1,360 people, mostly civilians including more than 400 children, by 18th January 2009. Many thousands are injured and made homeless.

Israel uses phosphorus as a weapon, turns over a cemetery, shoots at the UN, schools, mosques etc.

Dropping a payload of phosphorus bomblets over Gaza.

About 13 people die on the Israeli side, four of them soldiers killed by their own soldiers. The West puts the whole blame for the catastrophe on Hamas.