[News] Gaza Ceasefire broken from day one

Tue Jan 27 12:56:59 EST 2009

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10247.shtml

Ceasefire broken from day one

Eva Bartlett, The Electronic Intifada, 27 January 2009

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - At 7:30am 22 January, five 
days after Israeli authorities declared a "ceasefire" following their 
22-day air, land and sea bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Israeli 
gunboats renewed shelling off the Gaza city coast, injuring at least 
six, including four children.

Muawiyah Hassanain, director of Ambulance and Emergency Services, 
reported more shelling in the northwestern coastal area al-Sudaniya 
the same morning. Five fishermen were injured in the attacks, he said.

About 9:45am that morning in Shejaiya district to the east of Gaza 
City, seven-year-old Ahmed Hassanian was outside his house with 
friends when Israeli soldiers fired from the eastern border. A bullet 
lodged in his brain, causing brain hemorrhage. Dr. Fawzi Nablusi, 
director of the ICU at al-Shifa hospital, says the boy is not 
expected to survive.

Three Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire and 15 
injured, including the ten injured 22 January, according to both 
Hassanain and Dr. Khalaf.

Hours after the ceasefire was said to have come into effect 18 
January, Israeli warplanes flew extremely low over areas of Gaza. 
Drones capable both of photographing and of dropping targeted 
missiles continued to circle overhead. At 8:30am on 18 January, one 
of these drones dropped two missiles in the Amal area east of Beit 
Hanoun, killing 11-year-old Angham Rafat al-Masri and injuring her mother.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reports further 
violations of the ceasefire, including the killing of Maher Abu 
Rjaila, 23, shot in the chest by Israeli troops at 10:40am 18 January 
as he walked on his land east of Khan Younis city.

Israeli soldiers fired on residents of Al-Qarara, near Khan Younis, 
at 1pm 20 January, shooting Waleed al-Astal, 42, in his right foot.

In al-Shifa hospital, Yasser Abed, 15, from Gaza's Beach refugee 
camp, explained how he received a shard of shrapnel in his forehead. 
"I went out of my house to see what was happening," he said. "I 
didn't see the gunboat, didn't see anything." His father explains 
that Yasser was rushed to al-Shifa after the shrapnel hit him, and 
that there was a girl nearby aged about four who was also hit by a 
piece of shrapnel.

In another room at al-Shifa, 11-year-old Nisreen al-Quqa tells how 
she was out walking on the beach with her brother when the Israeli 
navy began to fire upon Palestinian fishermen. A piece of shrapnel 
from the shelling got lodged in her right calf muscle. "What 
ceasefire?" the girl's mother said, looking down at her daughter. But 
she knows Nisreen is lucky to have only a minor leg injury; it could 
have been much worse.

Others injured after the ceasefire include a 14-year-old boy hit in 
the thigh by shrapnel fragments, and a 35-year-old man also with 
shrapnel injury.

Israel's assault on Gaza killed at least 1,330 people, with as many 
as 200 more bodies expected to be recovered from under the rubble of 
more than 4,000 destroyed houses and 20,000 buildings.

Ninety percent of the cases in al-Shifa's ICU are civilian, and of 
these half are women and children, says Dr. Fawzi.

Ceasefire violations are not new. During the six-month ceasefire that 
began 19 June, Israeli forces killed 22 Palestinians, many of them 
members of resistance groups. Thirty-eight fishermen and farmers were abducted.

Israeli soldiers routinely fired upon fishermen and farmers along 
Gaza's eastern and northern borders, injuring 62, according to 
Palestinian sources.

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