Israeli soldiers in the West Bank aiming to fire at Palestinian demonstrators.

West Bank Palestinians Protest Israeli Actions in Gaza; Israel Kills, Injures Palestinians throughout West Bank under the Cover of Media Focus on Gaza

While most of the world media was focusing on the Israeli incursions into the Gaza Strip, the situation in the occupied West Bank was also volatile.

A majority of schools across the West Bank were closed, and several marches and demonstrations took place in a number of Palestinian cities and towns.

The largest share of the action on 2 March occurred in Hebron. From the morning, demonstrations were organized in many locations and clashes between the demonstrators and the Israeli military occurred in Beit Awwa, a village to the southwest of Hebron. 14-year-old Mahmmoud Mohammed Masalma was killed when Israeli soldiers shot him the heart. An additional 45 people were injured, three of them in serious condition according to reports from the hospital. 

In heavily populated Palestinian areas, such as in the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers move from building to building by knocking holes through the walls of apartment complexes and offices.

In the past months, Israeli government ministers have become increasingly belligerent in their threats to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. What began with growing calls for the illegal collective punishment of Gazan residents by cutting fuel supplies down to a trickle—a threat now implemented by Israel—has shifted into direct threats of assassination, indiscriminate bombardment and the wiping out of entire Gaza neighborhoods. On Israeli radio last month, Eli Moyal, the Mayor of Sderot, whose city has carried the brunt of Palestinian Qassam rocket attacks, was asked by interviewer Razi Barkai what he would do if he was Defense Minister. Moyal replied: 

"I would kidnap [Hamas leader Ismail] Haniyah, I would kidnap or kill the other leaders, I would bomb neighborhoods, etc."

Barkai: "And if you do all that and the next day are bombed with another 100 Qassams, what then?"

Moyal: "We did it in Lebanon in 2006; we wiped out a whole neighborhood, the Dachya, including tall buildings, sometimes with people in it, and—what can you do? It worked! We have had nearly two years of quiet from Lebanon since then."

Higher up the ladder in the Israeli government, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit of the ruling Kadima Party stated explicitly that: "The heads of Hamas must pay the price. Hamas doesn't understand any other language; the problem is we are talking to them in English instead of in Arabic.  They only understand [the language of force]. The situation at present doesn't make sense; every other country faced with rockets on its citizens would go in and destroy the area.  We should warn the [Arabs in Gaza] in advance, give them a day's notice, and then wipe out a neighborhood. We should also hit their leaders, regardless of who or what they are.”

The AIC Unreservedly Denounces Israeli Mass Killings of Palestinians in Gaza, and Calls on the International Community to Intervene and Force Israel to Halt its Actions and Abide by International Law

Destruction during Israel's recent attacks in the Gaza Strip.

The Alternative Information Center (AIC) unreservedly denounces Israel’s killing of over 140 Palestinians in Gaza since last Wednesday and calls on the international community to intervene immediately to halt what Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai has dubbed a ‘holocaust’ that Israel will unleash on Gaza residents.

Over the past weeks, Israel has rebuffed at least two offers of a cease-fire by the Hamas leadership in Gaza, proving that the goal of Israel is not actually to halt the Qassam rocket attacks on Sderot. Israeli Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, openly stated today that a primary goal of these murderous attacks on the Gaza Strip is to “weaken the Hamas rule, in the right circumstances even bring it down,” not mentioning that Hamas is the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people.

However, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip are not occurring in isolation, but in fact are part of a wider circle of American-led violence in the entire Middle East region, violence intended to secure US political and economic domination in the region. Additionally, these Israeli aggressions are being cynically used by the unpopular Olmert-led government as a panacea to forestall a collapse of the ruling coalition, specifically, the threats of the Shas political party to quit the coalition.

A residential building bombed during Israel's ongoing attacks in the Gaza Strip.

We, the undersigned civil society organizations in Jerusalem, condemn the Israeli military aggression in the form of genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.  We appeal to you, the International Committee of the Red Cross, as guardians of the Geneva Conventions, that states mainly, the protection of civilians in times of occupation.  The failure to protect, as is your responsibility, will undoubtedly further exacerbate the beginning of a Holocaust, as publicly stated by the Israeli war criminal, Matan Vilnai, on February 29, 2008. 

Since Wednesday, February 27, 2008, over 100 Palestinians, of which one third were children, have been brutally murdered by the Israeli occupation military forces.  The atrocities continue as we write this statement to you, and the world community watches in silence.

In light of the continuing massacres in Gaza Strip as well as the West Bank, we demand the High Contracting Parties, in particular Member States of the European Union, to fulfill their legal obligations under common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions and Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.  We call upon the Member States and the International Committee of the Red Cross to take the necessary measures to prosecute those responsible for grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and to ensure that Israel, as an occupier, abide by the international humanitarian law and its legal obligations.