http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38950
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Hamas criticizes world’s ‘silence’ at capture of Gaza aid boat
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Hamas criticizes world’s ‘silence’ at capture of Gaza aid boat
Human Rights Group Says 29 Civilians Were Killed by Israeli Air Attacks in Gaza
Human Rights Group Says 29 Civilians Were Killed by Israeli Air Attacks in Gaza
Twenty-nine civilians, including eight children, were killed in what appeared to be six missile strikes by Israeli drones in Gaza in December and January, according to a report released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch. The group questioned whether Israeli forces had taken “all feasible precautions” to avoid civilian casualties.
Israel’s military has never acknowledged using the remotely piloted planes to fire missiles. In a statement released Tuesday, it said that it had used an assortment of weapons and technologies to minimize the risk to Palestinian civilians.
Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, a spokeswoman for the Israeli military, said Israeli forces had also gone to extraordinary lengths to warn civilians during the Gaza offensive, and she questioned the credibility of some of the Palestinian witnesses cited by the advocacy group.
The report, based on interviews with witnesses to the attacks and an examination of the missile debris, represented the latest in a series of accusations about Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war. And it raised broader concerns about how carefully drones were being used, much like the complaints that the Central Intelligence Agency has encountered in its use of drones to attack suspected members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan.
The report was partly written by Marc Garlasco, the senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, who was a weapons-targeting official at the Pentagon from 1997 to 2003.
Mr. Garlasco has praised the American military’s use of drones in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying that their ability to hover over a target for many hours had improved the accuracy of many missile attacks and limited civilian casualties.
The group’s findings in Gaza suggest that “the weapon itself isn’t the problem,” he said in an interview. “It’s the way it’s used that is.”
He added: “The operators have the ability to distinguish between combatants and civilians and can even divert the missiles after launch. So it’s hard to understand how the Israelis did such a poor job of targeting.”
Israel has said that it uses drones to gather intelligence and to help provide target information for helicopters and other aircraft. But Mr. Garlasco said the missile impact marks and the highly fragmented debris in the six attacks matched the smaller missiles typically used by drones rather than the larger antitank missiles that Israeli helicopters were seen carrying in Gaza.
The report said one missile had hit a group of university students waiting for a bus in the center of Gaza City, while another struck a truck hauling oxygen tanks and a third smashed into a school sheltering people who had lost or left their homes.
In three other attacks, the report said, the victims were six children, ages 10 to 15, who had been playing on residential rooftops. Muhammad al-Habbash, the father of one of the girls who was killed, told Human Rights Watch that some of the children had been feeding chickens that the family kept on the roof when the missile struck.
At another house, Nahla Allaw said her son’s legs had been crushed and blood poured from small holes in his chest as he died.
While fighters from Hamas, the militant Palestinian faction that controls Gaza, often placed artillery spotters on rooftops, the group found no evidence of militants in the area at the time of the attacks, the report said.
When asked about the rooftop attacks, Colonel Leibovich, the Israeli military spokeswoman, said, “This is the first time I am hearing of these specific incidents.”
Israel has said that over all, 1,166 people were killed in the Gaza offensive. Of those, 295 were noncombatants, 709 were Hamas fighters and 162 were men whose affiliations could not be identified, Israeli officials have said. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza has said 1,417 people were killed, including 926 civilians.
The Israeli military has conducted internal investigations into its conduct during the 22-day war, which determined it had operated in accordance with international law. The United Nations Human Rights Council is conducting an investigation into allegations of war crimes by Israel and Hamas.
After the attack on the truck, the Israel Defense Forces released video of the event, contending that they had killed men who were loading rockets. The military later acknowledged that the cylinders on the truck were oxygen tanks, though it also said they could have been used in rocket production.
Colonel Leibovich said few military forces had ever taken as many precautions to minimize civilian casualties as Israel did in Gaza, dropping 500,000 leaflets warning people that its forces were arriving and even making telephone calls to neighbors of those thought to be Hamas fighters.
“There were also numerous cases where pilots had to reverse the missiles because they saw civilians enter the area,” she said.
P. W. Singer, the author of a recent book on military robots called “Wired for War,” said Israel might also be finding that using the drones “certainly raises the bar of expectations.”
“Because you can target more precisely, people hold you to a higher standard,” he said.
Israeli navy commandeers Gaza aid boat
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR2009063000788.html
Israeli navy commandeers Gaza aid boat
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 2:05 PM
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Israeli navy intercepted a ship carrying foreign peace activists trying to break a blockade of Gaza on Tuesday and forced it to sail to an Israeli port, the military said.
A statement said the Greek-registered freighter Arion ignored a radio message from the Israeli military saying it would not be allowed to enter Gaza waters and ordering it to turn back.
The statement said naval personnel boarded the small vessel without any shots being fired.
The military said those on board would be handed over to immigration authorities on arrival in the southern port of Ashdod, and humanitarian cargo would be trucked into the Gaza Strip after a security check. The ship arrived at Ashdod port after nightfall.
An earlier statement by the voyage’s organizers, the Free Gaza Movement, said the vessel, renamed the Spirit of Humanity, left the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Monday bound for Gaza with three tons of medical supplies.
The 20 passengers include former U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire and other activists from Britain, Ireland, Bahrain and Jamaica.
The ship was flying a Greek flag, but no Greek citizens were aboard. The Greek government issued a statement saying it sent a message to Israel demanding that it release the ship, crew and passengers.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel was planning to free the crew and passengers. “Nobody wants to keep them here,” he said. “They will be released as soon as they are checked.”
The Free Gaza Movement has organized five boat trips to Gaza since August 2008, defying a blockade imposed by Israel when the militant group Hamas seized control of the territory from its Palestinian rivals in June 2007.
Two other attempts were stopped by Israeli warships during Israel’s three-week war in the territory in December and January. Nobody on board was harmed.
Elderly asked to skip Haj
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=124197&d=1&m=7&y=2009
| Elderly asked to skip Haj Muhammad Humaidan & Samir Al-Saadi | Arab News |
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JEDDAH: A workshop on precautionary health measures during Haj and Umrah yesterday recommended that the old, the infirm, pregnant women and children not perform Haj and Umrah this year in view of the global swine flu pandemic. Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah said at a press conference following a workshop in Jeddah yesterday that the World Health Organization (WHO) experts who participated in the conference were satisfied with the precautionary measures taken by the Kingdom to prevent the spread of the virus among pilgrims during the Haj season. “What the health authorities in the Kingdom are doing to prevent the spread of the disease by far surpasses what is being done anywhere else in the world,” Al-Rabeeah said, adding that the Kingdom was the only country which was implementing the system of quarantine recommended by the WHO. Experts from the WHO, other international agencies and Saudi Arabia attended the workshop, which was organized on instructions from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. Asked by Arab News about the efficacy of vaccines against swine flu, the minister said there is no effective vaccine against the disease. “The available vaccines are yet to be evaluated and assessed, a process that might take months.” The workshop recommended that Haj and Umrah pilgrims, local residents and service providers in the holy cities should be vaccinated against the H1N1 virus at least two weeks before their departure from their home countries, the minister said. The workshop’s major recommendations were that Saudi health authorities and Haj delegations representing various countries stock necessary quantities of medication for treatment and prevention of the virus causing the swine flu. Referral laboratories should have reserve stocks of reagents and trained manpower to deal with the large number of people in Haj. The pilgrims, residents and those in contact with them should also be vaccinated against seasonal flu. The workshop also recommended that pilgrims take the new H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available later this year, before coming to Saudi Arabia. The workshop stressed the need for continuing the monitoring and checking of the spread of swine flu in the Kingdom. Practicing personal hygienic habits such as covering the nose while sneezing, coughing into tissues and washing hands with water and soap besides wearing masks while visiting crowded places were also recommended. Quarantine facilities should be close to arrival lounges for Haj pilgrims, according to the experts. Recording and preserving accurate data about the disease for future reference was also stressed at the workshop. The workshop urged the importance of adhering to the health conditions issued by the Saudi Ministry of Health. The MoH and WHO annually prepare plans for awareness campaigns. The minister said he did not agree with claims that the media’s focus on the disease was larger than the actual danger. “On the other hand, the danger of the disease comes from the absence of immunity and vaccination against it,” he said. The WHO experts expect a considerable increase in cases of swine flu until a vaccine is found. At the same time, the ministry announced that six new cases of swine flu had been reported in the Kingdom, raising the number to 81. |
Steffino – Wettbewerb
Es wurde ein Steffino – Wettbewerb ausgerufen. Ich bin gespannt. Ich hoffe, dass das hier kein unlauteres Mittel ist, um sich einen guten Google-Rank für den Begriff Steffino zu sichern.
Also auf zum Steffino-Wettbewerb. Und hier die zu beachtende google-Suche.
Hello world (well at least that part that will see this post..)
Hi everybody,
my real weblog is toomuchcookies.net. CU there!
