:icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

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As Israel claims its imposed siege on Gaza is for security reasons, basic foodstuffs are being blocked from reaching the impoverished strip.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said Monday that the Israeli government has created a dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip by blocking humanitarian aid to help the residents of Gaza who are in desperate need of essential goods.

UNRWA spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Adnan Abu Hasna, said he does not understand the connection between the shipment of aid (in the form of food) to Gaza and Israel's security concerns.

The Israeli authorities have banned tea, sweets, date bars, jam, biscuits and tomato paste from entering the coastal territory.

According to UNRWA, the crippling Israeli blockade in place since June 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza, has also increased the level of unemployment in the area which makes most Palestinian families unable to provide for their basic needs.

Over 40 percent of Gaza's population of 1.5 million is jobless.

The UN body has repeatedly called for the immediate opening of Gaza's crossings.

Many analysts say the people of Gaza are experiencing a "black Ramadan," the holy month of dawn-to-dusk fasting for Muslims, since they cannot satisfy their basic needs.

HE/TG/MB

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The Israeli government faces condemnations over its decision to erect hundreds of housing units in the illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

On Monday, Israel's Defense Ministry approved the construction of more than 450 new homes in the occupied West Bank.

The new construction project, the first government-approved project in the West Bank under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, comes despite international calls for an end to Tel Aviv's land-grabbing and illegal settlement building.

The Palestinians have also conditioned any resumption of peace talks with Israel on a complete halt to settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

The announced 450 homes will be built in six settlements -- which are all included in the settlement blocs that Israel intends to retain under any peace agreement, according to Haaretz newspaper.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat slammed the move for 'nullifying' the effect of any future building freeze and further undermined Israel's credibility as a partner for peace.

"Given the choice between making peace and making settlements, they have chosen to make settlements," the BBC quoted Erekat as saying.

Last week, Israeli officials said Netanyahu planned to endorse the new housing units before giving in to international pressures -- spearheaded by the United States-- for an end to Tel Aviv's settlement activities.

Fatah spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi denounced the Netanyahu administration's decision and described it as 'a grand deception'. "He thinks that he can deceive the rest of the world... but what he is doing under a variety of pretexts is the continuation of settlements and at the same time demanding a price in return," he said.

Upon the report, the United States expressed its regret over Israel's dodging of the long-demanded settlement freeze while the European Union also hurled its 'unified' opposition against Tel Aviv's decision.

Some 500,000 Israelis live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while 2,500 more housing units are currently under construction.

MRS/SC/DT

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A recently released Palestinian woman has unveiled information about Israel's misbehavior and immoral insults to Palestinian women who are kept in custody.

“Palestinian women prisoners have been and continue to be exposed to repeated interrogation even throughout nights”, said Saberin Abu-Ammarah, a 26-year-old Palestinian woman who has recently been freed after spending six years in an Israeli prison.

She added that Israeli jailors stripped Palestinian women of their clothes.

She said that Israel's misbehavior towrard Palestinian women is a crime against humanity and added that Israeli jailors did not let prisoners meet with their families especially in the holy month of Ramadan and did not provide them with television or radio.

The released woman said that some prisoners are in bad health, but Israelis prevent the entering of doctors into prison facilities.

More than 12,000 Palestinians -- including women and children -- imprisoned by Israel are suffering under harsh conditions in unaccountable detention facilities.

SF/SC/DT

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Carter: Palestinians mull one state

Carter (r) has made many visits to the region to
assist with achieving peace [File: AFP]
Palestinian leaders are "seriously considering" a one-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, former US president Jimmy Carter has said.

After visiting the Middle East, Carter said in an opinion article of The Washington Post newspaper the outcome was "more likely" than independent Israeli and Palestinian states being formed.

He said that one state was "obviously the goal of Israeli leaders who insist on colonising the West Bank and East Jerusalem".

However, he added: "A majority of the Palestinian leaders with whom we met are seriously considering acceptance of one state, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

'Nonviolent struggle'

"By renouncing the dream of an independent Palestine, they would become fellow citizens with their Jewish neighbours and then demand equal rights within a democracy.

"In this nonviolent civil rights struggle, their examples would be Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Junior and Nelson Mandela."

Carter, who commented that a two-state solution was "clearly preferable", said that Palestinian leaders had also considered the current demographics of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

"Non-Jews are already a slight majority of total citizens in this area, and within a few years Arabs will constitute a clear majority," he said.

The 39th US president had been travelling in the region as a member of the Elder's Panel, a group of noted international diplomats working to address humanitarian issues.

Source: Agencies

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BBC -

Anger at Israeli settlement plan


Some 2,500 housing units are now under construction in settlements
Israel has officially approved the construction of more than 450 new homes in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli defence ministry has announced.
This is the first new government-approved construction project in the West Bank since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in March.
It comes despite US pressure to halt settlement building.
A senior Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said the move "nullified" the effect of any future building freeze.
Palestinians have ruled out resumption of peace talks with Israel until there is a complete halt to settlement construction.
Mr Erekat said Israel's decision further undermined its credibility as a partner for peace.

WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS
Construction of settlements began in 1967, shortly after the Middle East War
Some 280,000 Israelis now live in the 121 officially-recognised settlements in the West Bank
A further 190,000 Israelis live in settlements in occupied East Jerusalem
The largest West Bank settlement is Modiin Illit, where 38,000 people live
There are a further 102 unauthorised outposts in the West Bank which are not officially recognised by Israel
The population of West Bank settlements has been growing at a rate of 5-6% since 2001
Source: Peace Now

Obama's Mid-East plans in jeopardy
"Israel's decision to approve the construction nullifies any effect that a settlement freeze, when and if announced, will have," Mr Erekat said.
"Given the choice between making peace and making settlements, they have chosen to make settlements," he added.
Mitchell visit
"Defence Minister Ehud Barak has authorised the construction of 455 housing units in settlement blocs," the Israeli defence ministry said in a statement.
It updated its earlier statement that said Mr Barak had approved the building of 366 housing units.
The homes will be built in six settlements - all of which are included in the settlement blocs that Israel wants to keep under any peace agreement, according to Israel's Haaretz newspaper.
It says the settlements include Har Gilo, Modiin Illit and Ariel.
Last week, Israeli officials announced that Mr Netanyahu would give the go-ahead for the new housing units.
The issue is expected to be discussed when Mr Netanyahu's aides meet US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, later this week.
BBC Jerusalem correspondent Tim Franks says there is little doubt that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is feeling pressure from the settlers - who dismissed this latest approval to build as insultingly limited.
But today's announcement can only complicate a possible resumption of meaningful peace talks with the Palestinians.
"What Netanyahu is doing is clearly at the scale of a grand deception," said Fatah spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi.
"He thinks that he can deceive the rest of the world... but what he is doing under a variety of pretexts is the continuation of settlements and at the same time demanding a price in return."
The Americans, who are trying to broker new peace negotiations, have already expressed their displeasure, our correspondent says.
They say they are trying to build credibility across the Middle East in a new Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The question for the US special envoy is whether he will, in the end, accept the Israeli version of a settlement freeze.
Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.
Some 2,500 housing units are currently under construction.
The settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

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Katya Adler
BBC Newsnight, Israel

Israel's army is changing. Once proudly secular, its combat units are now filling with those who believe Israel's wars are "God's wars".
Military rabbis are becoming more powerful. Trained in warfare as well as religion, new army regulations mean they are now part of a military elite.
They graduate from officer's school and operate closely with military commanders. One of their main duties is to boost soldiers' morale and drive, even on the front line.

Israeli general warns of dangers of turning war into 'jihad'

This has caused quite some controversy in Israel. Should military motivation come from men of God, or from a belief in the state of Israel and keeping it safe?
The military rabbis rose to prominence during Israel's invasion of Gaza earlier this year.
Some of their activities raised troubling questions about political-religious influence in the military.
Gal Einav, a non-religious soldier, said there was wall-to-wall religious rhetoric in the base, the barracks and on the battlefield.
As soon as soldiers signed for their rifles, he said, they were given a book of psalms.
And, as his company headed into Gaza, he told me, they were flanked by a civilian rabbi on one side and a military rabbi on the other.
"It felt like a religious war, like a crusade. It disturbed me. Religion and the army should be completely separate," he said.
'Sons of light'
But military rabbis, like Lieutenant Shmuel Kaufman, welcome the changes.
In previous wars rabbis had to stay far from the front, he says. In Gaza, they were ordered to accompany the fighters.


Our job was to boost the fighting spirit of the soldiers. The eternal Jewish spirit from Bible times to the coming of the Messiah
Rabbi Kaufman
"Our job was to boost the fighting spirit of the soldiers. The eternal Jewish spirit from Bible times to the coming of the Messiah."
Before his unit went into Gaza, Rabbi Kaufman said their commander told him to blow the ram's horn: "Like (biblical) Joshua when he conquered the land of Israel. It makes the war holier."
Rabbis handed out hundreds of religious pamphlets during the Gaza war.
When this came to light, it caused huge controversy in Israel. Some leaflets called Israeli soldiers the "sons of light" and Palestinians the "sons of darkness".
Others compared the Palestinians to the Philistines, the bitter biblical enemy of the Jewish people.
Israel's military has distanced itself from the publications, but they carried the army's official stamp.
Still, army leaders insist their rabbis respect military ethics and put their private convictions aside. They say the same about the new wave of nationalist religious solders joining Israel's fighting forces.
'Religious duty'
I visited an orthodox Jewish seminary near Hebron in the West Bank. It is one of an increasing number of religious schools that encourage taking the Jewish Bible to the battlefield.

The seminary is in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank
All students at the seminary choose to serve in Israel's combat units while statistics suggest less ideologically driven Israelis are avoiding them. This has made headline news in Israel.
The 19-year-olds I spoke to at the seminary told me religious soldiers like them can make the army behave better and become "more moral".
They believe it is their religious duty to protect the citizens of Israel, the Jewish state. The Lord commands it, they said.
The students' seminary is built in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.
If President Barack Obama gets his way, Israel will eventually evacuate most settlements.
They are illegal under international law and Palestinians claim the territory as part of their future state. But for the religious soldiers the West Bank is part of land given to the Jews by God.
Gal Einav thinks many soldiers will refuse to close settlements down.
The settlement issue could well tear the army apart, he told me, adding that most of his officers were settlers these days.
"If it comes to a clash between political orders from Israel's government and a contradictory message from the rabbis, settlers and religious right-wing soldiers will follow the rabbis," he said.
Threat of 'Jihad' ( Don't you think crusade is more appropriate to describe this but BBC choses Jihad, to create Islamophobia and also make it less effective )
Israel's military leaders strongly disagree.
Brig Gen Eli Shermeister is the army's chief education officer.

Pamphlets were handed out comparing Palestinians to the Philistines
He admits some mistakes were made in the past but says the right balance has now been found with the military rabbis.
He insists Israel's military commanders are the only ones in charge of the soldiers' spirit.
"The moral code of Israel's army is clear. We judge soldiers in the light of this code. Nobody can create another moral code. [Certainly] not a religious one."
But Brig Gen Shermeister's predecessor describes what he sees as clear and worrying changes within the military.
According to Reserve Gen Nehemia Dagan, what is happening in the army is far more dangerous than most Israelis realise: "We (soldiers) used to be able to put aside our own ideas in order to do what we had to do. It didn't matter if we were religious or from a kibbutz. But that's not the case anymore.
"The morals of the battlefield cannot come from a religious authority. Once it does, it's Jihad. I know people will not like that word but that's what it is, Holy War. And once it's Holy War there are no limits."
Many religious Jews object to the type of preaching heard during Israel's recent Gaza operation.
They say it perverts the true teachings of Judaism as well as contradicts Israel's military code.
Day to day, Israel's army mainly operates in civilian areas - in Gaza, the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.
The influences that Israeli soldiers are exposed to are extremely significant.
How they view the Palestinians who live here is likely to affect the way they use their power and their weapons.
Watch Katya Adler's film on rabbis in the Israeli army on Newsnight on Monday 7 September 2009 at 10.30pm on BBC Two, then afterwards on the Newsnight website.

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BBC

By Tim Franks
BBC News, Jerusalem

Enflamed language
It was, said one angry onlooker, "a holocaust".
Time to back up. The onlooker was, according to the Haaretz newspaper, a supporter of the "pale, agitated and tearful" former welfare minister, Shlomo Benizri. Mr Benizri had just arrived at Masiyahu Prison in central Israel to begin a four-year sentence for taking bribes.
A crowd of big-wigs and supporters was on hand to display their loyalty to the former minister. The newspaper reported that some blew shofars - ceremonial ram's horns. Some handed out stickers showing Mr Benizri's face and the word "innocent".
And some proclaimed their disgust at his imprisonment. "A disgrace," said one. "A holocaust," said another.
This is no aberration. In Mea Shearim, the haredi (ultra-orthodox) Jerusalem neighbourhood, you can see posters calling the Israeli police - with whom some haredi men are regularly battling at demonstrations over a number of complaints - "Zionist Gestapo".
Earlier in the summer, when a haredi woman was accused of starving her child, the Jerusalem hospital doctors who had raised the alarm were described, by outraged haredim, as "Doctor Mengeles" - after the incomparably sadistic doctor at Auschwitz.
And when, from time to time, the Israeli border police move on to a hill-top in the West Bank to dismantle the shacks marking out a new Jewish outpost, what do the settler youth chant?
"Kapo! Kapo!" A kapo was a class of inmate at the Nazi concentration camps and death camps, whom the guards used to do some of their dirty work on the ordinary prisoners.
It is odd. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the etymology of "holocaust" back to 1250.
It meant a sacrifice completely consumed by fire. From the 17th Century it carried wider connotations of utter destruction. But since the Nazi genocide, the Holocaust has acquired a capital letter and become inseparable from the deaths of six million Jews.

This poster reads: ‘Killers! Second attempted murder by the commanders of the Zionist Gestapo’
Almost all Jews believe that the Holocaust was an episode of unique evil.
They shudder when non-Jews refer to Gaza as a "concentration camp", or when Hamas deplores draft UN plans for Gazan children at UN schools to be taught about the Holocaust because - in the words of a Hamas spokesman - it is "a big lie".
And yet Matan Vilnai remains deputy defence minister, 18 months after he warned the Palestinians in Gaza that they might bring a "shoah" (the Hebrew for holocaust) on themselves, if militants were to carry on firing rockets into southern Israel.
He meant, we were told, a "catastrophe", rather than a "holocaust". But it was, at the least, a rather maladroit use of the word.
Some Israeli Jews have explained to me that their compatriots use the word "shoah" in the way that black Americans use racist terminology that would be unacceptable coming from the mouths of white people. Indeed, it can be empowering to throw around a term once used as a badge of your victimhood.
But in this case, it could quite easily be a symptom of how fractured and febrile this place has become. One liberal rabbi, whose parents are both Holocaust survivors, managed to smile in wonder, as he told dinner guests from America about how some haredim were comparing Jerusalem's main hospital to Auschwitz.
"It's amazing how they jump straight in with the most extreme language they can," he said. "And then they just turn it up a notch or two."

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By Roger Hardy
BBC Middle East analyst
BBC

One of US President Barack Obama's most important foreign policy initiatives is in jeopardy.
The Netanyahu government in Israel has approved the building of 455 new homes for settlers in the West Bank - in defiance of Mr Obama's call for a complete settlement freeze.
One former US diplomat with extensive experience of the Middle East calls it "a huge slap in the face" for the Obama administration.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to have it both ways.
He wants to appease the settler lobby by allowing new construction, and to appease the Americans by finalising an agreement on a temporary freeze.
But he is in danger of satisfying no-one.
The White House has been quick to condemn the new announcement.
A Palestinian spokesman, Saeb Erakat, said the Israeli decision "nullifies any effect that a settlement freeze, when and if announced, will have".
Even the settlers and their supporters are unimpressed.
One Israeli analyst - quoted by the French news agency AFP - called the announcement "a sedative given to the settler lobby before proceeding with the painful operation of freezing settlements".
Good intentions
On the Middle East, as on other issues, Barack Obama entered the White House full of good intentions.

WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS

Construction of settlements began in 1967, shortly after the Middle East War
Some 280,000 Israelis now live in the 121 officially-recognised settlements in the West Bank
A further 190,000 Israelis live in settlements in occupied East Jerusalem
The largest West Bank settlement is Modiin Illit, where 38,000 people live
There are a further 102 unauthorised outposts in the West Bank which are not officially recognised by Israel
The population of West Bank settlements has been growing at a rate of 5-6% since 2001
Source: Peace Now

Challenge of Israeli settlements
The Bush administration had neglected the peace process. He would revive it.
Mr Bush had shunned Iran and Syria. Mr Obama would talk to them.
But like other presidents before him, he has discovered how resistant the region's problems are to solution.
Mr Obama, and his tireless Middle East special envoy George Mitchell, are still struggling to achieve some sort of breakthrough before 23 September.
That's when the president is expected to address the new session of the UN General Assembly.
He would like to use the occasion for a three-way meeting in New York with Mr Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
This would set the seal on the re-launch of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Question of credibility
But, with little more than two weeks to go, the pieces of the puzzle are stubbornly refusing to fall into place.
Mr Mitchell is due to return to Israel in a few days, for one more shot at finalising a settlement freeze.
But even if there is deal, this will not be the "complete" freeze Mr Obama has been calling for. The signs are that it would be temporary - for six to nine months - and would exclude Jerusalem.
Would that entice the Arabs into the game?
Mr Abbas says that without a meaningful freeze he won't resume talks.
The Arab states would be reluctant to take even modest steps towards normalising relations with Israel, as the Americans are urging them to.
Failure in the Middle East would damage Mr Obama's credibility.
As he grapples with the domestically difficult issue of healthcare and with an unpopular war in Afghanistan, many would conclude that he had bitten off more than he can chew.

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BBC

A former Israeli military commander has told the BBC that Palestinian youngsters are routinely ill-treated by Israeli soldiers while in custody, reports the BBC' s Katya Adler from Jerusalem and the West Bank.
"You take the kid, you blindfold him, you handcuff him, he's really shaking... Sometimes you cuff his legs too. Sometimes it cuts off the circulation.
"He doesn't understand a word of what's going on around him. He doesn't know what you're going to do with him. He just knows we are soldiers with guns. That we kill people. Maybe they think we're going to kill him.


They dragged me from my home by the scruff of the neck. The more I cried the more they choked me... They pulled me along on my stomach. My knees were bleeding. They beat me with their guns and kicked me all the way to the jeep
Mohammad Khawaja, 13
"A lot of the time they're peeing their pants, just sit there peeing their pants, crying. But usually they're very quiet.''
Eran Efrati is a former commander in Israel's army. He served in the occupied West Bank.
In a discreet park in Jerusalem we meet to discuss allegations that soldiers like him often mistreat Palestinian minors, suspected of throwing stones.
Mr Efrati - who left the army five months ago - says the allegations are true:
''I never arrested anyone younger than nine or 10, but 14, 13, 11 for me, they're still kids. But they're arrested like adults.
"Every soldier who was in the Occupied Territories can tell you the same story. The first months after I left the army I dreamed about kids all the time. Jewish kids. Arab kids. Screaming.
''Maybe [the kid is] blindfolded for him not to see the base and how we're working... But I believe maybe we put the blindfold because we don't want to see his eyes. You don't want him to look at us - you know, beg us to stop, or cry in front of us. It's a lot easier if we don't see his eyes.
''When the kid is sitting there in the base, I didn't do it, but nobody is thinking of him as a kid, you know - if there is someone blindfolded and handcuffed, he's probably done something really bad. It's OK to slap him, it's OK to spit on him, it's OK to kick him sometimes. It doesn't really matter.''

Israel says stones can be deadly weapons

Young Palestinians are mostly arrested for throwing stones at Jewish settlers or Israeli soldiers.
This, they say, is their only means of venting their frustration at Israel's military occupation of their home, the West Bank.
Every week in the West Bank village of Bilin, Palestinians organise a demonstration against Israel's West Bank barrier.
Israel says it needs the barrier to stop attacks on its citizens. Palestinians call it a land grab. They say it makes their daily life even tougher.
Israeli soldiers monitor the protest from the other side of the barrier.
Night-time arrests
At a recent protest, I watched a gang of Palestinian boys darting amongst the olive trees, picking up stones and rocks to throw at the soldiers.
Some used sling-shots. Many had a scarf or shawl wrapped round their face to hide their identity.
The soldiers responded with tear gas and sound grenades. Sometimes they have used rubber-coated bullets too.

After he left the military, Mr Efrati said he dreamed about children screaming
Often after an incident like this, Israeli soldiers raid a West Bank village.
Usually in the middle of the night. The arrests can be brutal.
''Their faces were painted when they came for him. It was frightening. All those soldiers for one boy. They put iron weights on his back in the jeep and beat him all the way to jail. He couldn't get up for a week.''
Mohammad Ballasi's 15-year-old son, also called Mohammad, was arrested by Israeli soldiers for stone-throwing.
We met him and his wife just outside an Israeli military base in the West Bank. Palestinian youngsters are tried in military tribunals.
The military tribunals regard Palestinians as minors until their 16th birthday, unlike the civil courts in Israel where minors are considered to be minors until their 18th birthday.
The first time Mohammad's parents saw him since he was arrested two weeks before was at his trial. He pleaded guilty.
''When you're beaten like that, you would confess against your own mother," said Suad Ballasi, choking back tears.

Almost every other week we find a 14 or 15 year old carrying an explosive belt or grenade on his body
Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibowitz
Israeli military spokeswoman
''He's a child. His friends are playing in the street and he is in handcuffs. I couldn't stop crying in court. My heart feels like it's going to explode.''
The human rights organisation Defence for Children International (DCI) has written a report accusing Israel's military of what it describes as the systematic and institutionalised ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children by the Israeli authorities.
Gerard Horton is an international lawyer for DCI. He said Mohammad's Ballasi's story is a familiar one.
''We see these stories again and again. Israel is a signatory to the UN convention against torture. It's also a signatory to the UN convention on the rights of the child - and under customary international law, it's not permissible to mistreat and torture, particularly children, who are obviously more vulnerable than adults."
He told me that Israel arrested 9,000 Palestinians last year. Seven hundred of those were children.
Mr Horton says the military tribunals need to process cases quickly.
DCI believes the system is designed so that it is in an adult or a child's interest to plead guilty.

Israeli troops frequently use tear gas against protesters at Bilin

Gerard Horton says Palestinians tend to end up in jail longer if they try to fight their case.
Mohammad Khawaja had just turned 13 when he was arrested.
''They dragged me from my home by the scruff of the neck. The more I cried the more they choked me," he said.
"My mum was screaming. They pulled me along on my stomach. My knees were bleeding. They beat me with their guns and kicked me all the way to the jeep.
"They cuffed my hands and legs, blind-folded me and left me there for 24 hours. I thought I was going to die.
"Later interrogators wanted me to tell on other people. I wouldn't. They beat me with plastic chairs. They told me to sign a paper written in Hebrew. I don't read or speak it. Because I signed it they put me in jail.''
Israel's military denies any suggestion that the abuse of young Palestinians is routine, but the army says it has to guard against Palestinian children involved in what it describes as "acts of terror".
Nightmares
Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibowitz is a spokeswoman for Israel's military.
''Even though it's just a stone or just a Molotov cocktail, they're deadly weapons. Doesn't matter who did it - they're deadly weapons," she said.
"Almost every other week we find a 14 or 15-year-old carrying an explosive belt or grenade on his body, in one of the crossings.
"This is the situation we live in, and since we are defending ourselves and we want to punish those terrorists, we have no choice but to find them, to punish them - and hope that we won't return to this."
Mohammad Khawaja hasn't slept properly since the soldiers came. He says the nightmares will not go away.
Human rights groups are calling on the international community to investigate what they say are Israel's violations of children's rights.

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Human rights organization: Israeli forces willfully kill a child in N Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun


07.09.09 - 11:58
PCHR - On Friday afternoon, 4 September 2009, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed a 14-year-old child, Ghazi al-Za’anin, in Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip.

IOF troops shot the child from close range, while he was walking with his family. This child was the second to be killed by IOF in less than a week.

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) investigations, and eye-witness testimony, indicates that, at approximately 13:40 on Friday, 4 September 2009, Maher Ghazi al-Za’anin drove his four children, including Ghazi, 14, to their farm, 500 meters away from the border with Israel, in the northeast of Beit Hanoun town. Before arriving at the farm, al-Za’anin and his children stepped down from the car and approached their land on foot. On their way to the farm, they were surprised by an Israeli military jeep that stopped opposite to them. Al-Za’anin and his children were frightened, and ran away. IOF soldiers who were inside the jeep immediately opened fire. Ghazi was wounded by a bullet to the head and fell to the ground. The father carried the child to their car, whereupon IOF soldiers fired at the car, hitting it with two bullets. The father drove to Beit Hanoun Hospital and the child was transferred to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as he was in a critical condition. Ghazi was admitted to the intensive care unit, where he was pronounced dead on the following morning, Saturday, 5 September 2009.

PCHR has recently documented many cases in which IOF positioned along the border opened fired at agricultural areas and houses. It is believed that these attacks are intended to deny Palestinian farmers access to their agricultural land, some of which lie within the so-called ‘buffer zone’.

PCHR strongly condemns the murder of a child by IOF, and:

1. Reiterates condemnation of this latest crime, which is part of a series of crimes committed by IOF in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
2. Calls upon the international community to promptly and urgently take action in order to stop such crimes, and renews its call for the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations and provide protection to Palestinian civilians in the OPT.