Israel using Gaza as test laboratory for new weapon: medics Mon Jan 12, 11:59 am ET
OSLO (AFP) – Israel is testing a new extremely nasty type of weapon in Gaza, two medics charged as they returned home to Norway Monday after spending 10 days working at a hospital in the war-torn Palestinian territory.There's a very strong suspicion I think that Gaza is now being used as a test laboratory for new weapons, Mads Gilbert told reporters at Oslo's Gardermoen airport, commenting on the kinds of injuries he and his colleague Erik Fosse had seen while working at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza.The two medics, who were sent into the war zone by the pro-Palestinian aid organisation NORWAC on December 31, said they had seen clear signs that Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME), an experimental kind of explosive, were being used in Gaza.This is a new generation of very powerful small explosives that detonates with an extreme power and dissipates its power within a range of five to 10metres (16-98 feet), said Gilbert, 61.We have not seen the casualties affected directly by the bomb because they are normally torn to pieces and do not survive, but we have seen a number of very brutal amputations... without shrapnel injuries which we strongly suspect must have been caused by the DIME weapons, he added.The weapon causes the tissue to be torn from the flesh. It looks very different (from a shrapnel injury). I have seen and treated a lot of different injuries for the last 30years in different war zones, and this looks completely different, said Fosse, 58.
If you are in the immediate (vicinity of) a DIME weapon, it's like your legs get torn off. It's an enormous pressure wave and there is no shrapnel, he explained.
Gilbert also accused Israel of having used the weapon in the 2006 Lebanon war and previously in Gaza, and referred to studies showing wounds from the explosive could cause lethal forms of cancer within just four to six months.Israel should disclose what weapons they use and the international community should make an investigation, he said, stressing the amount of damage apparently caused by the new form of explosive.We are not soft-skinned when it comes to war injuries, but these amputations are really extremely nasty and for many of the patients not survivable, he said.
Israel to hit Hamas with 'iron fist' if rocket fire continues Mon Jan 12, 11:56 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel will hit Hamas with an iron fist if the Islamist movement does not halt its rocket fire against the Jewish state, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned on Monday.We want to end the operation when the two conditions we have demanded are met: ending the rocket fire and stopping Hamas's rearmament. If these two conditions are met, we will end our operation in Gaza, Olmert said in a speech in the southern town of Ashkelon.Anything else will meet the iron fist of the Israeli people, who are no longer ready to tolerate the Qassams (rockets).Will it take time? Let it take time. We will continue as long as necessary in order to remove this threat, the premier added.Israel launched a massive operation against the Hamas-ruled territory on December 27 with the declared goal of halting the near-daily rocket fire from Gaza against southern Israel, which has killed four people since the start of the offensive.Israel has conditioned the end of the operation, which has claimed the lives of more than 900 Palestinians, on a complete halt to rocket fire and arms smuggling from Egypt into Gaza.Ashkelon, a port city situated around a dozen kilometres (eight miles) from Gaza, has been hit by dozens of Qassams since the start of the offensive.
Major cities stage fresh protests over Gaza Sun Jan 11, 4:21 pm ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Cities around the world staged fresh protests Sunday against Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip as the bombing campaign entered its third week, while pro-Israel demonstrators also took to the streets.One of the biggest rallies took place in Brussels where a march attended by 30,000 people, according to the police, ended in incidents of violence during which a regional politician was slightly injured and windows smashed,Tens of thousands of students, trade unionists and politicians marched through the centre of Madrid to denounce the Israeli action in Gaza and call for peace.Several hundred then moved on to the Israeli embassy where stones were thrown and police intervened.Some members of the crowd wore Palestinian flags to show their solidarity with the people of Gaza, where hundreds, many of them children, have been killed since the Israeli offensive began 16 days ago.Around 4,000 people marched through the western Austrian town of Bregenz, despite the extremely cold weather, organisers said.In France the organisation representing Muslim bodies called on all politicians to end the tragedy hitting everyone in Gaza and invited Muslims to express their solidarity with dignity.
Demonstrations also took place in at least three Italian cities.
Jewish groups across Europe also held rallies in support of Israel and denouncing Hamas. Thousands of British Jews rallied in central London to call for peace for the citizens of both Israel and Gaza.Police estimated the crowd at the demonstration in Trafalgar Square at 4,000, but organisers claimed the turnout was closer to 20,000.
Counter-demonstrators lining the side of the square chanted throughout the rally, waving placards reading We are all Hamas. Boycott Israel, Israeli terrorist cowards and End the siege -- talk to Hamas.Similar pro-Israeli demonstrations were also held in the German cities of Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich, with authorities saying altogether 2,000 people took part.Charlotte Knobloch, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told crowds in Munich that the sole responsibility of the death of civilians on both sides lay with Hamas.Police in Marseille, southern France, said around 4,000 people marched through the city in support of Israel's right to self defence. In Prague 200 turned out to back IsraelOutside Europe, pro-Palestinian rallies were also held across Asia and in Africa.In Algeria alone tens of thousands marched, with 100,000 demonstrators reported in the eastern town of Annaba and 30,000 at Tlemcen in the west.In Hong Kong, more than 1,000 students and ethnic minorities took part in a protest organised on social networking website Facebook.The group, holding placards and banners, marched from Victoria Park to the US consulate general demanding the United States stop supporting Israel's offensive on Gaza. In Indonesia, 20,000 Muslims staged a peaceful rally Sunday in the capital of Jakarta. Protesters from the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) gathered at the national monument in Jakarta and marched through the streets. Israel's offensive on Gaza continued Sunday as planes carried out more air strikes, while troops clashed with Hamas fighters despite international calls for a ceasefire as the death toll neared 900.
THIS IS WHAT MAKES ME SO MAD THE ARABS COMPLAIN ABOUT ISRAEL ROCKETING THEM AND NO WERE TO GO,MEANWHILE THE ARABS HAE ROCKETED ISRAEL FOR 8 YEARS JUST THINK ALL THE FRIGHT THE ISRAELIS HAVE GONE THROUGH........THINK WORLD QUIT BEING DECIEVED BY THE MEDIA AND START STICKING UP FOR ISRAEL.
No place to hide as rockets fall on Israeli Bedouin town by Hazel Ward Hazel Ward – Sun Jan 11, 3:28 pm ET
RAHAT, Israel (AFP) – When the sirens screamed their warning that rockets from Gaza were about to land in this Israeli desert town, Suleiman Abu Shareb could do little but herd his children into their home and pray.With no bomb shelter or other protective space in his home, Abu Shareb, an Arab Bedouin, had no way of knowing they would be safe.It's really frightening -- I don't have a bomb shelter in my house, he said, a string of prayer beads moving swiftly between his fingers.When the alarm sounded, I just dragged all the kids inside the house -- getting them inside is the only thing we can do, said Shareb, who is 50 and does not have a job.It is a common complaint in this run-down desert town of 50,000 inhabitants, where at least a third of the population have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide when the rocket warnings sound.We haven't got a bomb shelter so we just carry on as normal. It's not as if we have a choice, says 38-year-old Nizar Ibn Katan, who is also unemployed. If it lands on us, it must be God's will.There are about 160,000 Bedouins living in Israel, with most of them concentrated in the southern Negev desert.These people are Israel's most destitute community, with half of them living in 'unrecognised' villages which receive no municipal services such as electricity, running water or roads.The other half live in seven towns and two rural villages, which are characterised by deep poverty and rampant unemployment.Before Israel launched its war on Hamas in Gaza on December 27, no-one even considered the possibility of Palestinian rockets falling in and around their town.But since the start of the Israeli offensive, Gaza militants began firing Grad rockets, which have a range of up to 50 kilometres (30 miles).
Now this Bedouin town is under just as much threat as the Jewish Israeli communities closer to the Gaza border.No-one every thought there would be rockets falling here, shrugs Iyad, a 34-year-old Bedouin standing at a fruit and vegetable shop near the town centre.When the siren goes off, you just pray to God it doesn't land on your head, he says, pointing up at the flimsy aluminium roof.This wouldn't stop anything.
So far, few rockets have landed on the outskirts of the town. But with an increasing number of them crashing into the nearby city of Beersheva, no-one is feeling particularly confident.Between 30 to 40 percent of the houses here don't have any protected area, admits Ahmad al-Huzail, who is responsible for civilian security in Rahat.There are three emergency warning sirens placed all round the town -- the piercing wail sufficient to alert everyone to the incoming threat. Within the town itself, al-Huzail says 30 percent of houses are too old to have a bomb shelter or protected room. On the outskirts of the town, where people live in open-sided tents with black tarpaulin walls and ramshackle tin roofs, they are completely vulnerable, he says, without even the luxury of a solid wall behind which to hide. Mayor Fayez Abu Sabihan admits the lack of shelters is unacceptable, while insisting people have been clearly instructed as to what to do in an emergency. When the sirens go off, you must look for a concrete wall and lie down next to it with your hands over your head, he said. Rubbish blows through the largely empty streets. A child sitting on a scrawny-looking donkey gazes into the distance, oblivious to the heaps of smelly rubbish scattered across the wasteland. In the distance, Gaza burns, sending clouds of grey smoke spilling into the cloudy sky. We do what we can, shrugs al-Huzail. It would take a lot of money to make this town secure and there just isn't the budget.
Since Israel began its Gaza campaign on December 27, many politicians have been down to visit Rahat, armed with lavish promises of help and support. It's the run-up to elections, notes al-Huzail with Israel due to go to the polls next month. Back on the streets, Iyad glances up at the skies. Earlier on, the sirens wailed and another two rockets fell close to the town, but they fell in open spaces without hurting anyone. No-one wants children to die -- not here, not over there, he says. But we have to ensure our own security.
Patrolling Egypt-Gaza border at heart of truce talks by Ron Bousso Ron Bousso – Sun Jan 11, 3:19 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – How to prevent arms smuggling along the porous border between Gaza and Egypt is at the heart of talks that Cairo is conducting on ending Israel's deadly war on Hamas, officials say.Israel has repeatedly made clear that it would not stop its deadly offensive on Hamas in Gaza until it received guarantees that the smuggling through the hundreds of tunnels snaking from Egypt into Gaza would stop.
Halt the arms smuggling from Sinai into Gaza and the Israeli combat will stop, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said last week.Several options on how to do that are currently on the table.The Egyptians are proposing to deploy forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas -- whom Hamas ousted from Gaza in June 2007 -- on the Gaza side of the border and boost Egyptian troops on the other side, several Israeli officials have told AFP.The Egyptian proposal is an upgraded version of the 2005 deal for the Rafah border crossing that required the presence of Palestinian Authority forces and European Union observers, they said.The Palestinian force would be larger and have more authority in the crossing and along the entire border, said one defence ministry official.At the same time, Cairo is proposing that it deploy more forces along its border with Gaza, a move which would require amending the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace deal which limits the number of Egyptian troops in the Sinai peninsula.The Egyptian forces would work in cooperation with a foreign engineering corps which would locate and destroy smuggling tunnels along the border, he said.
Europe, meanwhile, has proposed sending international troops to patrol the border, with Denmark and the Netherlands offering to send forces to the Sinai peninsula, a senior Western diplomat in Israel told AFP.That plan however is unlikely to get off the ground as Egypt will never accept foreign forces on its side of the border, according to a European official in Cairo.Meanwhile Abbas has also called for international troops, but on the Gaza side of the border.We want an international presence in the Gaza Strip and not on the Egyptian border, he said in Cairo on Saturday.Israel is favourable both to the Egyptian and Abbas proposals, officials have told AFP.Israel would consider favourably the deployment of Palestinian Authority forces along the Philadelphi Route, as the 15-kilometre (nine-mile) border between Gaza and Egypt is known, a senior official told AFP.Israel wants calm and an end to weapons smuggling into Gaza, if such a solution would answer these requirements, Israel will be satisfied, he said, adding that this included the deployment of foreign troops along the border.Hamas however adamantly opposes any foreign deployment on the border or in Gaza and on Saturday Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal said the Islamists would view any international troops as an occupation force.He was joined by the leaders of nine other Syrian-based Palestinian factions, who issued a joint statement rejecting any international forces or observers in the Gaza Strip or any security arrangements that undermine the resistance against Israel. The exiled leaders also said they reject any initiative or proposal that aims to achieve the goals which the enemy failed to achieve through the barbaric military offensive.Israel has said it aims to wipe out Hamas's ability to fire rockets from its Gaza stronghold and its ability to smuggle weapons into the territory.
School resumes in Israel despite rocket threat By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer – Sun Jan 11, 2:30 pm ET
SDEROT, Israel – Thousands of children in southern Israel returned to school Sunday for the first time in two weeks, braving the threat of Palestinian rocket attacks while the army pushed ahead with its offensive in the neighboring Gaza Strip.Schools have been closed since Dec. 27, when Israel launched the operation to end years of Hamas rocket fire. With that threat diminishing, the military said Sunday that students could attend schools that are sufficiently fortified with a concrete roof and bomb shelters. So students and their parents returned — hesitantly.Chana Oved said she wanted to keep her 10-year-old son Daniel at home, but that after two weeks indoors, he was eager to get out and see his friends.I'm scared. I don't want him to go, but he insisted, the 48-year-old Sderot resident said as the boy dragged her into Haroeh Elementary School. Usually, he doesn't like to go to school but this time he does.Just a mile from the Gaza border, Sderot has frequently come under rocket fire — four projectiles landed in the city on Sunday alone, including one near a school, the army said. There were no injuries on Sunday, but rockets over the years have killed eight residents, wounded hundreds and traumatized everyone.
Sderot's schools are all fortified. Haroeh has a concrete roof and bomb shelters, and its bus stop is protected by a concrete cover. On Sunday, soldiers went to the school to assist the students in case of a siren.Oved was still worried, but was at least somewhat relieved that school would give her son a distraction. Both were injured by a rocket that landed on their home several years ago and Daniel has suffered from post-traumatic stress symptoms since.He's never been the same, she said.Education Minister Yuli Tamir said students were returning only in protected areas of the south. She said she hoped school would provide structure and routine in a time of great stress and uncertainty for children.In Sderot, however, attendance was sparse. City officials said about 2,300 students came to school — a 60 percent turnout.And in many other towns in southern Israel, schools remained closed. Rockets have struck several empty schools in the past two weeks. On Sunday, an empty kindergarten in the city of Ashdod was hit.Schools in Gaza also have been shut. Some have been hit by Israeli airstrikes and Israel says school grounds have been used by militants as rocket and mortar launching sites. U.N.-run schools in the territory have been turned into shelters for residents fleeing the violence, which Gaza medical officials say has killed nearly 870 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis have also been killed since the offensive was launched.Leah Maman, a secretary at Haroeh school, brought her 12-year-old daughter Eden with her to work on Sunday because the school the girl usually attends, in a nearby village, is not fortified and remained closed.Eden was eager to return. I miss my friends, she said.
Other parents refused to send their kids back.
The problem is not inside the schools, its getting there, said Mari Ochana, who kept her 16-year-old daughter at home. Residents in Sderot have just 15 seconds to find cover between the sound of air-raid sirens and the landing of the rocket.Those 15 seconds could be critical, Ochana said.
Thousands descend on White House to protest Gaza war Sat Jan 10, 6:45 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Several thousand protesters descended on the White House Saturday in support of Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza, as other protests took place across Canada and in the Mexican capital.As many as 10,000 people, according to organizers, gathered from about 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) in Washington's Lafayette Park, across from the White House, chanting free Palestine as protest leaders and activists spoke from a podium.The protests came as Israel vowed to escalate its war in Gaza that has left at least 825 Palestinians dead as troops battled fighters from the Islamist movement Hamas into a third week, in defiance of a United Nations truce call.There are many young people. We feel it's one of the most important demonstrations for Palestine ever in the US, said Eugene Puryear, a coordinator of the Washington protest, which was organized by the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) coalition.
Protesters waived Palestinian flags, wore keffiyeh -- a traditional Palestinian headdress -- and waived signs, some of which read Stop the Gaza holocaust and Free Palestine, let Gaza live.They then led a march passing in front of the headquarters of The Washington Post newspaper to protest its hard pro-Israeli line, Puryear said, before heading to the offices of construction equipment giant Caterpillar and military contractor Lockheed Martin.I came because there are innocent children dying daily in Palestine. The American people need to know the truth, said 13-year-old Razan Ali, a Palestinian-American who bused in from New York.A dozen buses filled with protesters came from New Jersey and another seven buses drove in from New York.
Yasmina Farej, a 54-year-old who came from Brooklyn dressed in conservative Muslim garb, said she was motivated to join the protest because of the war in Gaza; they bomb the innocent children.Thousands more protested across several Canadian cities, calling for an immediate ceasefire and especially targeting conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his support of Israel.In Montreal, some 2,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanted Israel the assassin and called for a ceasefire in the impoverished Gaza Strip. Some brandished dolls spattered with red paint that they said represented children killed by the Israeli army.Several hundred protesters also gathered in front of the US embassy in Mexico City in opposition to what they called the criminal aggression in Gaza. Some protesters set shoes ablaze and hurled them against the embassy gates.Demonstrators against the Israeli offensive also rallied in major cities across Europe, with the largest protests in Paris and London, where largely peaceful demonstrations turned violent as the day wore on.
