PCHR Weekly Report: 29 Palestinians killed, 89 wounded in Israeli attacks

According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)'s Weekly Report, during the week of 10 - 16 April 2008, 29 Palestinians, including 10 children and a journalist, were killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. 13 of the victims, including 8 children, 2 brothers and a journalist, were killed in an Israeli missile strike on Juhor al-Dik village in the central Gaza Strip. 2 of the victims were extra-judicially executed by Israeli forces.
In addition, 81 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 41 children, 3 women and a journalist, were wounded by Israeli forces in Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. 8 Palestinian civilians and an Israeli journalist were wounded by Israeli forces in the West Bank.
Israeli attacks in the West Bank:
Israeli forces conducted 48 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank this week. During those incursions, Israeli forces abducted 52 Palestinian civilians, including 14 children. 5 Palestinian civilians were abducted by Israeli forces at military checkpoints in the West Bank.
In the West Bank, 8 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children, were wounded by Israeli forces in Taffouh village, west of Hebron, and ‘Azzoun ‘Atama village, south of Qalqilya.
Additionally, an Israeli journalist was wounded when Israeli forces used force to disperse a peaceful demonstration organized in protest to the construction of the Annexation Wall in Bil'in village, west of Ramallah.
Israeli forces confiscated machinery of a bakery and raided a mosque in Hebron.
Contrary to Israeli claims of easing restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians, Israeli forces have continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank. Thousands of Palestinian civilians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have been denied access to Jerusalem. Israeli forces have established many checkpoints around and inside the city.
Israeli Annexation Wall:
Israeli forces have continued this week to construct the Annexation Wall on illegally seized Palestinian land. In addition, Israeli forces attacked peaceful protests that were held at Wall construction sites.
On 11 April 2008, scores of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders demonstrated in al-Ma’sara village, south of Bethlehem. The demonstrators moved towards Palestinian land which Israeli forces intend to confiscate. Israeli troops placed barbwire near the land to prevent the demonstrators from moving forward. They also violently beat a number of demonstrators. As a result, 3 Palestinian civilians, including a child, sustained bruises throughout their bodies: Ahmed Mahmoud Taqatqa, 28; Mohammed Yousef Burjiya, 18. and Zaid ‘Eissa Zawahra, 10.
Israeli settlement activities:
Israeli settlers have continued to attacks Palestinian civilians and property. On 12 April 2008, Israeli forces handed notifications to 3 Palestinians from Nazlat ‘Eissa village, north of Tulkarm, that their shops would be demolished, claiming that they were built without licenses and are located near the Annexation Wall. These shops provide sources of income for more than 20 families counting more than 100 individuals.
On 13 April 2008, dozens of Israeli settlers from “Gilad” settlement, east of Qalaqila, gathered near the road leading to the town and threw stones at Palestinian civilian vehicles. A number of vehicles were damaged. On 14 April 2008, dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian civilian vehicles traveling on Nablus-Ramallah road, south of Nablus. The settlers gathered near Hawara checkpoint and threw stones at civilian vehicles. On the same day, at least 40 Israeli settlers from “Gilad” settlement, southwest of Nablus, uprooted at least 30 almond trees in Til village.
Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip:
During the reporting period, Israeli forces killed 29 Palestinians, including 10 children and a journalist, and wounded 81 others, including 41 children, 3 women and a journalist in the Gaza Strip.
On 11 April 2008, Israeli forces killed 2 activists of the Palestinian resistance in Khuza’a village, east of Khan Yunis. On the same day, Israeli forces killed an activist of the Palestinian resistance and 6 civilians, including 2 children, and wounded 27 others, including 12 children, in al-Boreij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
On 14 and 15 April 2008, Israeli forces extra-judicially executed 2 members of the Palestinian resistance and wounded a third one and 5 civilians bystanders, including a child, in the northern Gaza Strip.
On 15 April 2008, 4 activists of the Palestinian resistance were killed and 4 others were wounded during armed clashes with Israeli troops that moved into al-Shoja’eya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City.
On 16 April 2008, Israeli forces killed 13 Palestinian civilians, including 8 children and a journalist, and wounded 32 others, including 17 children, a journalist and a woman, during an incursion into Juhor al-Dik village in the central Gaza Strip. On the same day, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian farmer and wounded 2 others in the northern Gaza Strip. Additionally, 12 Palestinians, including a child and 2 women, were wounded by Israeli forces in separate attacks throughout the Gaza Strip.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces conducted 6 incursions into Palestinian communities. During these incursions, Israeli forces razed at least 320 donums of agricultural land, destroyed 11 houses and damaged civilian properties, including a mosque.
Recommendations to the International Community:
Due to the number and severity of Israeli violations this week, the PCHR made a number of recommendations to the international community. Among these recommendations were that the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention comply with their legal obligations detailed in Article 146 of the Convention to search for and prosecute those responsible for grave breaches, namely war crimes.
In addition, PCHR calls for the immediately implementation of the Advisory Opinion issued by the International Court of Justice, which considers the construction of the Annexation Wall inside the West Bank illegal. PCHR recommends international civil society organizations, including human rights organizations, bar associations and NGOs to participate in the process of exposing those accused of grave breaches of international law and to urge their governments to bring these people to justice.
For the full report, click on the link below:
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/W_report/English/2008/17-04-2008.htm

Family Trouble

I didn't post in Feb/March, my actual life became far too hectic to have a virtual life as well. My Gran, in her early 90's, suffered a series of small strokes and over a couple of weeks the woman i had known disappeared. The care of her family is now not enough- she needs constant medical attention and lives in a world of talking squirrels, princesses, airmen, bombing raids.


Since my early teens we as a family have cared for her- looked after her accounts, done her shopping and gardening, read her letters if they looked in anyway "official" or "financial", been her only visitors. She didn't need looking after to such as degree, but after my Grandfather died she seemed to give up. She couldn't cope with the real world and retreated into the home they had shared, reading books, watching TV and cooking.


As a child I spent hours with her in the kitchen and developed my love of baking there- insisting on rubbing the butter into the flour, whisking the custard, mashing the potatoes. Infact, the hotter the food stuff and higher the risk of serious burns the more I wanted to do it. She was the woman who made me heavy english comfort food- potato pie, apple pie, stew and dumplings- and occasionally fed me illicit meat products..."would you like some ham? I'll slice it really thinly...?". She never really approved of or got my parents' vegetarianism.




Anyway- in the midst of my man trouble I came across this poem that made me think of her and the situation she created for herself:




Sonnet II




Time does not bring relief; you all have lied


Who told me time would ease me of my pain!


I miss him in the weeping of the rain;


I want him in the shrinking of the tide;


The old snows melt from every mountainside,


And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane;


But last year's bitter loving must remain


Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide!


There are a hundred places where I fear


To go, -so with his memory they brim!


And entering with relief some quiet place


Where never fell his foot or shone his face


I say, "There is no memory of him here!"


And so stand stricken, so remembering him.

By Edna St. Vincent Millay

Man trouble

Words, Wide Night

Somewhere on the other side of this wide night
and the distance between us, I am thinking of you.
The room is turning slowly away from the moon.

This is pleasurable. Or shall I cross that out and say
it is sad? In one of the tenses I singing
an impossible song of desire that you cannot hear.

La lala la. See? I close my eyes and imagine
the dark hills I would have to cross
to reach you. For I am in love with you and this

is what it is like or what it is like in words.

By Carol Ann Duffy

The First Day

I wish I could remember the first day,

first hour, first moment of your meeting me,

If bright or dim the season it might be

Summer or winter for aught I can say.

So unrecorded did it slip away,

So blind was I to see and forsee,

So dull to mark the budding of my tree

That would not blossom yet for many a May.

If only I could recollect it, such

A day of days! I let it come and go

As traceless as a thaw of byegone snow;

It seemed to mean so little, meant so much;

If only now I could recall that touch,

First touch of hand in hand- Did one but know!

By Christina G. Rossetti

I Survived Lent

And feel a little foolish- how soft am I? Giving up coffee for 40 days and nights felt like a real hardship. The first week and a half I was dealing with caffeine with-drawl so I’ll allow my self that. But really! Even after the craving, itching need for strong coffee had passed, I still missed it. I missed the thick, sugary hit first thing in the morning. I missed the ritual of coming downstairs at the weekend and methodically making a pot of coffee. I missed my house smelling of coffee. I missed drinking coffee with friends in cafes and bars. I missed grinding coffee with cardamom and boiling up into a syrup like drink. Ahhh what a relief Easter weekend was. Easter has never really meant huge amounts to me, I’ve always thought that the Church kinda missed the point of Jesus by focusing on his horrific death and supposed “resurrection”. Wasn’t his message a little more important? Anyway this year was slightly different- I was sooo excited on Easter morning and was salivating as I made that first cup. It didn’t disappoint! Unlike the church sermon an hour or so later. The vicar at my mother’s village church didn’t repeat his anti-war sermon of Christmas Eve but grumbled about “the message” being lost amongst isles and isles of brightly covered chocolate eggs. So here’s part of the message, in my new bible-quote-of-the-week:
"As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church." (I Corinthians 14:34-35)
The bible is full of these illuminating statements about “unclean” and “headstrong” women…I wonder if my dad realised this when he rejected Christianity and then gained a wife and two daughters?