[News] Gaza: One Year After Disengagement

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/assad08172006.html

August 17, 2006


In One Raid Alone, the IDF Destroyed 180 Rooftop Water Tanks


Gaza: One Year After Disengagement

By SAMAR ASSAD

On 15 August 2005, Israel began removing 8,500 Israeli settlers from 
21 settlements in the Gaza Strip. The move, although unilateral and 
came with warning from Palestinians that the disengagement would 
maintain Israeli control over Gaza, gave some Palestinians hope for a 
better economic future and hope they would no longer be subjected to 
harassment from the Israeli army and settlers.

A year later, Gaza and its 1.4 million residents are neither secure 
nor economically prosperous. Israel's control over Gaza was felt well 
before the election of Hamas and was painfully clear since 27 June 2006.

With international media and diplomacy focused on Lebanon, the 
Israeli military offensive in Gaza continued unabated and practically 
unmonitored. With the exception of the United Nations registering 
grave concerns over the deteriorating humanitarian conditions and the 
continued violence against Palestinian civilians and infrastructure, 
it seems that the so-called "first-front" in the latest cycle of 
violence has been forgotten.

Gaza in Numbers

According to a 9 August 2006 report by the Palestinian Monitoring 
Group (PMG), 170 Palestinians including, 138 civilians, 14 security 
officers and 15 militants, were killed in Israeli attacks from 27 
June-8 August 2006. During that same period, 506 Palestinians were injured.

PMG, which collects information documented by Palestinian ministries, 
including the Ministry of Health, Public Works and Infrastructure, 
the Palestinian security agencies and PMG field workers, reported 
that since 27 June 2006 Israel has carried out 768 military strikes 
against Gaza. According to PMG, Israeli F-16s and helicopters 
launched "190 air strikes, the Israeli military fired over 3,500 
artillery shells, and the Israeli Air Force carried out 380 air patrols."

According to PMG's figures, between 8 July-8 August, 131 
Palestinians, including 108 civilians-among them 26 children-were 
killed and 395 Palestinians were injured. July was the deadliest 
month in Gaza with 151 Palestinians killed, making it the "single 
largest monthly death toll in the Gaza Strip since October 2004," PMG said.

As in Lebanon, Israel's military campaign in Gaza has caused 
widespread destruction of public and private property. Public 
infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, water and wastewater 
systems, power plants, telephone and electricity networks and 
civilian institutions, has been targeted by Israel. Homes, vehicles, 
greenhouses and agricultural land have also been damaged.

According to the Palestinian Coastal Municipalities Water Utility 
(CMWU), a 14 July 2006 Israeli incursion into Wadi al Salaq in the 
Gaza Strip caused damaged to some 850 meters of the water network 
system and damaged the connection systems to 35 homes. A 15-19 July 
incursion into Beit Hanoun destroyed over 180 rooftop water tanks.

In a similar tactic used in Lebanon, the Israeli army has dropped 
flyers ordering civilians to leave their homes because of an 
impending air strike. Israel's argument for shelling civilian homes 
in Gaza, just as in Lebanon, has been that rockets are fired on 
Israel from the vicinity of the homes or that the homes serve as a 
weapons cache.

There are several articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention that 
protect civilians from such actions, including Article 32, which 
prohibits the causing of physical suffering, murder or other measures 
of brutality against civilians and Article 33, which prohibits 
collective punishment and intimidation of a civilian population.

Failures of Disengagement

In addition to the introduction of unilateralism into Middle East 
diplomacy, which has proven to be a failed policy, Israel's 
disengagement from Gaza failed to produce a political horizon, it 
failed to bring about promised economic revival and it failed to 
ensure implementation of third-party brokered agreements. For 
instance, Israel still has not fulfilled its commitments on the 
Movement and Access Agreement that was brokered by U.S. Secretary of 
State Condoleezza Rice in November 2005. In essence, the Agreement 
stresses the need to remove closures to pave the way for economic 
revival. Today, the most prominent aspect of that Agreement is the 
absence of its implementation by Israel.

For its part, the international community was unable to create 
mechanisms for monitoring and enforcement because the disengagement 
was not conceived of or followed in the context of a political 
framework. Ultimately, this created a crisis of implementation. Now 
Gaza is in disarray, and this has been exacerbated by the withdrawal 
of aid after the election of Hamas to power.

Many issues crucial to Palestinians' livelihood remain unresolved. 
For example, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip face a number of 
challenges to economic development because of limited Palestinian 
access to the Israeli labor market and the restricted movement of 
goods. Development plans in areas evacuated by the settlers remain on 
hold because the wreckage left behind has not been moved as agreed. 
Agriculture exports from the evacuated greenhouses have not 
materialized due to Israel's closure of the border.

Israel continues to control the entry and exit of all people and 
goods into the Gaza Strip, to patrol its coast and airspace, to 
provide its water, fuel, electric utilities, and sewage, and to enter 
Gaza with military forces at will. Under international law, 
"effective control" is the measure of whether a territory is 
occupied. So, according to this definition, the Gaza Strip, one year 
after disengagement, remains under occupation.

Samar Assad is the Executive Director of The Palestine Center.


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