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Aftermath of Israeli Air Force and Army incursion into the Gaza Strip (AIC archive photo)
Only one day after commencement of "peace
talks" on core issues, Israel
kills 19 Palestinians, injures dozens in Gaza City
The Alternative Information
Center (AIC) wholly condemns today’s
Israeli military incursion into the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City,
and its killing of at least 19 Palestinians and injury of 45.
The AIC
does not view today’s atrocity as an isolated incident, but another link in the
ongoing Israeli chain of oppression and isolation of the Gaza Strip and its
residents.
Dr. Haider
Eid, Associate Professor in the Department of English at Al-Aqsa
University in Gaza,
spoke with the Alternative Information Center
this afternoon from Gaza
City. “Funerals of the Palestinian
martyrs killed today are now beginning to take place in Gaza City.
At the moment, we cannot hear the Israeli Air Force above and Israeli ground
troops have evacuated the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City.
However, local Palestinian reports speak of Israeli strikes now beginning in
Khan Yunis.”
“What is
happening in the Gaza Strip cannot be isolated from Bush’s visit last week to Israel, during which he obviously gave the green
light for Israel to continue
annihilating the Palestinian residents of Gaza.
This also comes one day after Israel
purports to speak about core issues for peace with the Palestinian Authority. I
expect the Palestinian Authority to immediately sever diplomatic relations with
Israel
and stop the charade of negotiations. If the international community does not
immediately intervene to halt the killing, there will be a holocaust in Gaza. The international
community should boycott the apartheid state of Israel
as it boycotted the apartheid state of South Africa.”
The Palestinian
cabinet has dubbed today’s killings by Israel “a criminal act against the
Palestinian people.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the raids as
a massacre, noting that “we say to the world that our people will not remain
silent against such crimes.”
The 19
Palestinians killed include 24 year old Husam Zahhar, the son of senior Hamas
leader Mahmoud Zahhar, in addition to three farmers: 66 year old As’ad Eissa
Radwan Tafesh, 22 year old Marwan Sameer Ouda, and 50 year old Sa’id Mustafa
al-Sammouni.
Although Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert noted yesterday that Israel
would not launch a broad operation in Gaza,
Minister of Defense Ehud Barak replied that a large-scale strike against Gaza was “inevitable.”
The
writing is on the wall. The international community must immediately end its tacit
support of Israel’s
military and government actions against the Palestinian residents of the Gaza
Strip, and instead put active pressure on the Israeli government until it
reverses its inhumane policies. These actions, which have created a
humanitarian crisis unprecedented in the history of Gaza, denying the Palestinians their most
fundamental right—the right to life—are pushing the region into an increasingly
perilous situation.
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