First foreign journalist killed in Gaza + Photos

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An Associated Press video journalist was killed in an ordnance explosion in the Gaza Strip, together with a Palestinian translator and three members of the Gaza police.

Simone Camilli, 35, died Wednesday when Gaza police engineers were neutralizing unexploded ordnance in the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya left over from fighting between Israel and Islamic militants.
Camilli is the first foreign journalist killed in the Gaza conflict, which took more than 1,900 Palestinian lives and 67 on the Israeli side.

Camilli and a translator working with the AP, Ali Shehda Abu Afash, were accompanying the ordnance team on assignment when the explosion occurred. The police said four other people were seriously injured, including AP photographer Hatem Moussa.

Anti-Israeli posters hang on walls in Rome + Photos

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Several anti-Israeli posters are found hanging on the walls of Rome in the past two days. The posters, written in Italian, share the message “Do Not Buy from Israel” and contain a list of Jewish-owned stores that should be boycotted.

“If you buy from these infamous people, you will contribute to the killing of other thousands of women, children, and elderly,” the posters say.

The mayor of the city has published a statement condemning the posters and comparing them to the ones seen during the times of Fascism in Italy. The posters are currently being removed from the walls of the city.

The Italian government and media since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip have been worked in favor of the Zionists.

They want to show Hamas and the Palestinian resistance are the main culprit of the present war, but Italian people have repeatedly shown their vigilance by holding several pro-Palestinian demonstrations in different cities.

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Give Israelis Nobel Peace Prize!’

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The Nobel Peace Prize should be given to Israeli forces for their “unimaginable restraint” in their offensive against the blockaded Gaza Strip, says the Israeli envoy to the United States.

Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer made the appalling remarks at a pro-Israeli event in Washington on Tuesday.

The Israeli forces “should be given the Nobel Peace Prize… a Nobel Peace Prize for fighting with unimaginable restraint,” Dermer said, claiming the Israeli soldiers do not “target a single Palestinian civilian.”

“Our soldiers are dying so that innocent Palestinians can live,” he said, censuring Human Rights Watch for its criticism of the Israeli aggression.

At a different event in Tal Aviv, UN chief Ban Ki-moon extended his condolences to the Israeli regime for its losses during the offensive against the besieged sliver, which has so far left more than 630 dead, mostly civilians.

According to Palestinian medical workers, more than 160 Gazan children have been among the dead.

Earlier in the day, Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), put child fatalities from the 15-day offensive at 121, adding that more than 900 Palestinian children were also injured.

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Vietnam calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza Strip

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Vietnam has urged concerned parties to the conflict in the Gaza Strip to immediately cease fire and refrain from violence against civilians and resume peace negotiations.

Ambassador Le Hoai Trung, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations made the appeal at a July 22 open meeting of the UN Security Council on the Middle East situation, including a discussion on the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Ambassador Dr. Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations was also invited to attend and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon participated in the event via a telephone conservation from the West Bank.

The Palestinian representative called on the UN Security Council to pass a resolution demanding a truce between Israel and the Islamic militants of Hamas forces. Mansour stressed that the Security Council should take actions to stop the killing of innocent people and bring Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

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Norwegian Doctor to Obama: Do You Have a Heart?

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Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor who volunteers at the overburdened Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip, has written a letter addressing US president Barack Obama.

Dearest friends,

The last night was extreme. The “ground invasion” of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, dying – all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent.

The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza’s hospitals are working 12-24 hour shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment all in Shifa for the last 4 months), they care, triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS!

Now, once more treated like animals by “the most moral army in the world” (sic!).

My respect for the wounded is endless, in their contained determination in the midst of pain, agony and shock; my admiration for the staff and volunteers is endless, my closeness to the Palestinian “sumud” gives me strength, although in glimpses I just want to scream, hold someone tight, cry, smell the skin and hair of the warm child, covered in blood, protect ourselves in an endless embrace – but we cannot afford that, nor can they.

Ashy grey faces – Oh NO! Not one more load of tens of maimed and bleeding, we still have lakes of blood on the floor in the ER, piles of dripping, blood-soaked bandages to clear out – oh – the cleaners, everywhere, swiftly shovelling the blood and discarded tissues, hair, clothes,cannulas – the leftovers from death – all taken away … to be prepared again, to be repeated all over. More then 100 cases came to Shifa in the last 24 hrs. Enough for a large well trained hospital with everything, but here – almost nothing: no electricity, water, disposables, drugs, OR-tables, instruments, monitors – all rusted and as if taken from museums of yesterday’s hospitals. But they do not complain, these heroes. They get on with it, like warriors, head on, enormously resolute.

And as I write these words to you, alone, on a bed, my tears flow, the warm but useless tears of pain and grief, of anger and fear. This is not happening!

An then, just now, the orchestra of the Israeli war-machine starts its gruesome symphony again, just now: salvos of artillery from the navy boats just down on the shores, the roaring F16, the sickening drones (Arabic ‘Zennanis’, the hummers), and the cluttering Apaches. So much made in and paid by the US.

Mr. Obama – do you have a heart?

I invite you – spend one night – just one night – with us in Shifa. Disguised as a cleaner, maybe.

I am convinced, 100%, it would change history.

Nobody with a heart AND power could ever walk away from a night in Shifa without being determined to end the slaughter of the Palestinian people.

But the heartless and merciless have done their calculations and planned another “dahyia” onslaught on Gaza.

The rivers of blood will keep running the coming night. I can hear they have tuned their instruments of death.

Please. Do what you can. This, THIS cannot continue.

Mads Gilbert MD PhD

Professor and Clinical Head

Clinic of Emergency Medicine

University Hospital of North Norway

Palestinian fighters kill over 40 Israeli soldiers

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Palestinian resistance fighters have killed over 40 Israeli soldiers since Tel Aviv started its offensive on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Al-Qassam Brigades, which is the military wing of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, said that its forces killed 15 more Israeli forces in eastern Gaza City on Monday alone.

The Palestinian fighters also targeted an Israeli Merkava-4 tank in the east of Gaza City on the same day.

Hamas also fired dozens of retaliatory rockets into Israel. Warning sirens have sounded in Tel Aviv, Yavne, Gadara, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and many other places.

Top Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh said on the same day that the besieged Gaza Strip will become “a graveyard for Israeli soldiers” who are committing crimes against the Palestinians in the blockade enclave for more than two weeks.

The latest casualties bring the Palestinian death toll to nearly 600 from 14 days of Israeli attacks. Over 3,000 Palestinians have also been injured in the onslaught.

Medical workers are now raising alarm over a humanitarian crisis in Gaza where hospitals are running low on basic medical supplies.

Meanwhile, anti-Israeli rallies are being held worldwide in condemnation of Tel Aviv’s ongoing atrocities against Palestinians, urging an immediate end to bloodshed in Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian protests have turned violent in France with angry demonstrators clashing with security forces in a Paris suburb.

A group of US demonstrators, joined by anti-Zionists, has gathered in front of the White House to protest Tel Aviv’s escalating ground and aerial offensives.

Similar rallies have been held in the Netherlands, Austria, Chile, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Britain, Morocco, Bolivia, and Australia, among others.

Israel drops white phosphorus bombs on Gazans

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Latest reports say Israeli aerial and ground forces are using white phosphorus bombs to pound several residential areas across the besieged Gaza Strip.

The lethal bombs violate all international conventions and are considered as banned weapons in civilian areas.

This comes as a Norwegian doctor in the besieged coastal enclave has recently criticized Israel for using cancer-inducing bombs against Palestinian civilians.

Medics say some Palestinians in the besieged enclave have been wounded by a new type of weapon that even doctors with previous experience in war zones do not recognize.

Israel also used depleted-uranium and white phosphorus shells in the besieged region during their previous assaults.

The latest revelation comes as Israeli tanks and warplanes keep pounding the besieged enclave. Sources say at 39 Palestinians were killed on Monday alone.

Sunday has been the bloodiest day of the two-week conflict. More than 100 Palestinians were killed in the Shejaiya neighborhood near Gaza City on Sunday. The majority of the victims were civilians including children, women and the elderly.

The latest casualties bring the Palestinian death toll to 510 from 14 days of Israeli attacks. Over 3000 Palestinians have also been injured in the onslaught.

Medical workers are now raising the alarm over a humanitarian crisis in Gaza where hospitals are running low on basic medical supplies.

The UN Security Council has expressed serious concern over the growing number of casualties in the Gaza Strip, calling for an immediate ceasefire between the conflicting parties.

US Muslims Launch Gaza Alert

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Offering US Muslims a direct link to their representative congressmen, a leading US Muslim advocacy group has launched a new service designed to enable American Muslims to share their concerns about foreign policy issues.

“We hope CAIR Connects, by providing a quick and easy way to contact elected officials on important issues, will enhance American Muslim civic participation and provide public officials with viewpoints on foreign policy they may not have heard previously,” Robert McCaw, Government Affairs Manager at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement obtained by OnIslam.net.

“While our first ‘CAIR Connects’ alert deals with Gaza, future alerts will deal with other international issues as they arise.”

McCaw was announcing the launch of the new community service called “CAIR Connects”.

In its first “CAIR Connects” alert, the nation’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, made an alert on ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza.

“This alert is provided to allow you an opportunity to communicate your concerns regarding the current crisis in Gaza to your elected officials,” it said.

“Please take a few moments to compose your e-mail and it will be delivered to congressional staff,” it added.

Israel has been launching relentless airstrikes against Gaza since Tuesday, July 8, in which more than 202 have been killed and over 1000 injured in the tiny coastal strip.

Israel has claimed that its new war on Gaza, under the title Operation Protect Edge, was a response to the rocket attacks being carried out by Hamas.

It added that its offensive is intended to halt rocket fire at its cities from the Gaza Strip.

There have been no Israeli casualties from the hundreds of rockets that have been fired by militants in Gaza.

Latin American leaders slam Israeli Gaza onslaught

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The presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia have decried the Israeli military incursion into Gaza as genocide and called for the UN to condemn the Zionist regime.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro likened the latest Israeli onslaught on Gaza, which has so far claimed over 350 lives, to an “extermination,” RT reported Sunday.

Venezuela further called for an emergency session of the UN’s Human Rights Council to address Israel’s ongoing military incursion in Gaza, on Saturday.

The South American nation’s government also reiterated its support for the Palestinian people and warned that the Israeli regime had “initiated a higher phase of its policy of genocide and extermination with the ground invasion of Palestinian territory, killing innocent men, women, girls and boys.”

“President Nicolas Maduro has instructed the Ambassador to the UN Jorge Valera to call for an emergency session of the Human Rights Council,” said an official statement on Saturday, adding the UN should address the “systematic violation of the Human Rights of the Palestinian population in Gaza by the State of Israel and adopt the necessary measures to halt those violations.”

Venezuela has been a staunch supporter of Palestinian statehood, with the previous president, the late Hugo Chavez, severing relations with Israel after he compared its 2009 military incursion into Gaza to the Holocaust.

Meanwhile, Bolivian President Evo Morales joined with the Venezuelan leader in condemnation of Israel’s so-called Operation Protective Edge. During a visit to Brazil, the Andean leader said it was high time something was done “to end the genocide that Israel is carrying out on Palestine.”

“There is no UN High Commission on Human Rights, there is no Human Rights Council. When an empire attacks a country with a view to dominating it, unfortunately there is no one who can defend the people,” said Morales in a statement.

This is while Turkish Prime Minister also rounded on Israel for its Gaza offensive on Saturday, alleging the Jewish state had “surpassed Hitler in barbarism.”

“[Israelis] have no conscience, no honor, no pride. Those who condemn Hitler day and night have surpassed Hitler in barbarism,” Erdogan told supporters at a political rally in the Black Sea city of Ordu.

He accused the US government of taking a “disproportionate” approach to the conflict and said the Muslim world had not reacted strongly enough to the offensive. Israel has discouraged its citizens from traveling to Turkey, citing the current public mood and the underlying cause.

Over 100 Palestinians martyred in Israeli assault on Sunday alone, death toll 450

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Israeli forces killed at least 100 Palestinians on Sunday including 66 in a single neighborhood of Gaza City, bringing the 13-day death toll to 437.

The assault on Gaza — which has also left 18 Israels dead — is the largest and deadliest attack on the besieged coastal enclave since 2008. More than 200 Palestinians have died since the ground invasion began on Thursday.

On Sunday, 66 bodies were recovered from the Shujaiyya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, in what medical authorities called a “massacre” and a level of violence not seen before in the ongoing conflict.

At least 500 Palestinians were injured in Israeli attacks on Wednesday, with the total surpassing 3,000 as Gazan hospitals struggled to cope with the surge and facing shortages of medical supplies, doctors, and hospital beds.

Hospitals were also facing continuous power cuts, as electricity has fallen by more than 70 percent as a result of Israeli shelling and the siege itself, which even prior to the assault had reduced electricity availability to eight-hour stints.

60 thousand Gazans fled their homes on Sunday alone amid the mass killing in the Shujaiyya neighborhood, adding to a total number of displaced that has now hit 135,000.

Sources familiar with the situation argued, however, that there is not a single place safe from Israeli attack in the besieged coastal enclave, as shelling from land and sea as well as air strikes have not left any region untouched.

Palestinian analysts expressed astonishment at Israel claims that 1.7 million Gaza residents had been warned to leave their homes, asking: “Where in the world can they go?”

Israel has kept its border with Gaza shut tight to the flight of refugees, while Egypt has also maintained the seven-year-old Israeli-led blockade of the Strip by keeping its border closed as well.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the operation would continue until quiet was restored in southern Israel.

Operation Protective Edge was launched 13 days ago in what Israel said was an attempt to stop rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, which had increased after Israel launched a massive operation in the West Bank that left 10 Palestinians dead, 130 injured, and more than 600 Hamas-affiliated individuals in prison.

The operation, named “Brother’s Keeper,” was launched in order to find three Israeli teenagers who disappeared in June from the Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion in the West Bank.

Israel blamed Hamas for the kidnapping without any evidence, a charge which the group denied.

Shelling and airstrikes resume Sunday afternoon

On Sunday afternoon, Israeli shelling fully resumed after a four-hour humanitarian ceasefire that it violated numerous times, and dozens more had been killed in the Gaza Strip as a result.

Rayan Taysir Abu Jami, 8, and an elderly woman named Fatima Mahmoud Abu Jami were killed and three injured in an air strike on Khan Younis on Sunday evening, according to Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesman in Gaza Ashraf al-Qidra.

Eight Palestinians were also killed in Israeli air strike on house in al-Ramal.

The dead were named by Al-Qidra as Samar Osama al-Hallaq,29, Kinan Akram al-Hallaq, 5, Hani Mohammad al-Hallaq,29, Suad Mohammad al-Hallaq, 62, Saji al-Hallaq, Ibrahim Khalil Omar, Ahmad Yassin, and an 8th person, who was unnamed.

A man and woman, meanwhile, were killed in a strike on the Atatra house in Beit Lahiya.

Medical sources said Ahmad Abu Tayim, 27, died of injuries sustained on an airstrike on al-Zana are of Khan Yunis.

Aya Abu Sultan, 15, was killed in a strike on her house northern Gaza Strip.

Another man was killed, while four were injured in another strike on Gaza City earlier in the afternoon.

Palestinian medical sources also said that a child identified as Suleiman Abu Jami was killed in an Israeli raid on Khan Younis in the south.

Five other people were injured in Beit Hanoun in the north.

In the central Gaza Strip, Israeli airstrikes in the afternoon killed four members of Abu Zayid family in al-Bureij refugee camp after destroying their home over their heads.

Medical sources also said Suleiman Abu Jami was killed in Bani Suheila in Khan Younis. Four others were injured in the same raid including one critically injured.

Al-Qidra said earlier that an elderly woman Najah Saad Addin Darraji, 65, and a 3-year-old boy Abdullah Yousif Darraji were killed in Rafah.