<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Israel violates Gaza ceasefire
nearly every day</h1>
<div class="submitted">
<span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2014-12-22T20:56:49+00:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span class="username"
xml:lang="" about="/users/maureen-clare-murphy"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Maureen
Clare Murphy</span> on Mon, 12/22/2014 - 20:56</span> </div>
<div class="field-body">
<p>After Israeli warplanes bombed Gaza on Friday, the BBC <a
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30558922">described</a>
the air strike on “a Hamas facility” as “the first such action
since the declaration of a truce in August.”</p>
<p>The short BBC News item, essentially a repackaged Israeli army
press statement, added that the strike was “in response” to a
rocket fired earlier from Gaza.</p>
<p>The casual reader would understand this to mean that Israel has
held its fire since the August <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-ceasefire">ceasefire</a>
which ended the intensive bombing this summer that claimed more
than 2,200 Palestinian lives.</p>
<p>However, the reality is that Israel has fired on Palestinians
in Gaza <em>nearly every day</em> since the 26 August truce.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israel and Egypt have kept Gaza totally sealed and
its 1.8 million inhabitants effectively imprisoned.</p>
<h2>Ceasefire violations</h2>
<p>One of the main Palestinian conditions for a ceasefire was the
lifting of the years-long siege that has all but obliterated
Gaza’s economy, and which has had a deleterious impact on nearly
all aspects of life there.</p>
<p>During the 51 days of Israeli bombing this summer, the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/no-ceasefire-without-justice-gaza/13618">unanimous
cry</a> from Gaza was not just for the ending of the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-incremental-genocide-gaza-ghetto/13562">genocidal</a>
violence. A return to the <em>status quo</em> of <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-gaza-ceasefire-isnt-enough/13692">slow
suffocation under siege and complete impunity</a> for Israel’s
constant violations of Palestinian rights was not tenable.
Gaza’s staggering sacrifice — more than one in every thousand of
its residents killed — required the fulfillment of basic rights.</p>
<p>“A ceasefire is not enough,” <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-gaza-ceasefire-isnt-enough/13692">wrote</a>
the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights’ Raji Sourani during the
height of Israel’s violence.</p>
<p>The August ceasefire deal brokered by siege-enforcing <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/egypt">Egypt</a>,
while never made transparent to the public, reportedly called
for the opening of Gaza’s crossings, allowing the entry of
reconstruction materials needed to rebuild Gaza’s devastated
neighborhoods, the extension of the permitted fishing areas
off Gaza’s shore and the relaxation of access restrictions in
the areas along Gaza’s perimeter fence with Israel.</p>
<p>These truce conditions are similar to those that ended twelve
days of Israeli bombing — claiming hundreds of Palestinian lives
in Gaza — in November 2012.</p>
<p>Like its <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/infographic-who-violates-ceasefires-more-israelis-or-palestinians">relentless
violations</a> of that earlier ceasefire, Israel has violated
the August agreement with total impunity.</p>
<p>Here is a brief breakdown:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Gaza remains sealed.</strong> While the Israeli
closure of all of Gaza’s other crossings remains in place,
travel through the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/rafah-crossing">Rafah
crossing</a> with Egypt — the sole point of entry and exit
for the vast majority of Gaza’s residents — has also been
strangled. On Sunday, approximately 630 Palestinians left Gaza
via Rafah after Cairo <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/no-ceasefire-without-justice-gaza/13618">temporarily
reopened the crossing</a> — for only the second time in two
months.<br>
<br>
Travel via Rafah is limited to those seeking medical treatment
or people holding permits to stay abroad; <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/month-pictures-november-2014/14082">at
the end of last month</a>, there were an estimated thirty
thousand people waiting to exit Gaza via Rafah. Amongst them
were one thousand patients who include “those with advanced
cancer, renal and heart diseases, and orthopedic and
ophthalmological needs,” according to the United Nations
monitoring group <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ocha">OCHA</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Construction materials are not allowed in to Gaza.</strong>
Though $5.4 billion was <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/who-benefits-billions-pledged-gaza-reconstruction">pledged</a>
at a donors conference in Cairo in October, “reconstruction of
Gaza has barely begun” and “even fewer construction materials
are now entering Gaza than before the conflict,” <a
href="http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=d7bf98037b5abfd4c69593c62&id=1efe40b2f9">according
to the humanitarian group Oxfam</a>. Despite the massive
scale of destruction — it is <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-many-bombs-has-israel-dropped-gaza">estimated</a>
that Israel dropped the equivalent of an atomic bomb on Gaza
this summer — only one percent of the estimated five
million tons of construction materials required have been
allowed in to Gaza. “At this rate it would take more than 23
years to meet ‘immediate’ needs alone,” states Oxfam.
<br>
<br>
</li>
<li><strong>Exports are not allowed out of Gaza.</strong> Only a
trickle of exports from Gaza are allowed through the
Israeli-controlled commercial crossings each month. Before the
blockade was imposed in May 2007, an average of 240 truckloads
of exports <a
href="http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_protection_of_civilians_weekly_report_2014_12_18_english.pdf">left
Gaza each week</a>. So far this year, an average of only two
truckloads of exports have <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/ocha_opt_protection_of_civilians_weekly_report_2014_12_18_english">been
allowed out of Gaza each week</a>. Though the Israeli
government announced an easing of export restrictions in
October, the reality is that <em>the total number</em> of
trucks of exports allowed out of Gaza so far this year is
about <em>only half</em> of the <em>weekly average</em>
before the siege, according to data compiled from OCHA’s <a
href="http://www.ochaopt.org/reports.aspx?id=104&page=1">weekly
reporting</a>.
<br>
<br>
</li>
<li><strong>Gaza is under constant Israeli fire.</strong> The
Israeli military, which monitors movement in the area of the
boundary fence, uses deadly force against any Palestinians who
dare approach the perimeters of the Gaza open-air prison,
where much of the most fertile farmland is located.<br>
<br>
Though the August ceasefire deal stipulated that Palestinians
would have increased access to the perimeter areas, Israel has
“so far not officially announced the boundaries of what they
consider a restricted area, thus generating uncertainty and
increasing the risks to the civilian population,” <a
href="http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_protection_of_civilians_weekly_report_2014_12_18_english.pdf">states
OCHA</a>. “Field observations suggest that areas within 100
meters from the fence are largely inaccessible, while access
to areas several hundred meters beyond this distance is
risky.” Meanwhile, access to fishing waters “is restricted to
six nautical miles from the coast.”<br>
<br>
Indeed, Israeli forces opened fire at Palestinians in the
“access restricted areas” on a <em>daily basis</em> the week
of 9-15 December (the last week of <a
href="http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_protection_of_civilians_weekly_report_2014_12_18_english.pdf">available
data</a> from OCHA), resulting in the injury of four
civilians. Twenty incidents of Israeli fire were <a
href="http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_protection_of_civilians_weekly_report_2014_12_12_english.pdf">recorded
the week before that</a> and an average of two incidents per
day <a
href="http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/protection_of_civilians25%20nov_to_5_dec_2014.pdf">during
the last week of November</a>. One Palestinian civilian was
killed and a seventeen-year-old boy was critically wounded by
Israeli fire in the perimeter area <a
href="http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_protection_of_civilians_weekly_report_2014_11_28_english.pdf">last
month</a>, in the most serious of such incidents.<br>
<br>
<a
href="http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=d7bf98037b5abfd4c69593c62&id=1efe40b2f9">Oxfam
data</a> show that approximately fifteen rockets have been
fired from Gaza since the August ceasefire, including “test
rockets” fired toward the sea. During that same period, there
were about 45 incidents of Israeli naval fire, 35 incidents of
Israeli border fire, and about a half-dozen army incursions
into Gaza. <em>Israel has fired on Palestinians in Gaza on
almost a daily basis</em> since the ceasefire. Six
Palestinians were <a
href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=748403">shot
during a protest</a> earlier the same day that Israel bombed
Gaza “in response” — as the BBC put it — to a rocket fired
from Gaza which landed in an open field, causing no injuries.</li>
</ul>
<p>Not only is the pre-ceasefire <em>status quo</em> of Israeli
siege still firmly in place, but the secret terms of the United
Nations-backed Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism “include onerous
controls of building supplies and intrusive monitoring of
Palestinian families seeking to rebuild homes destroyed by
Israel,” as The Electronic Intifada has <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/oxfam-finally-breaks-silence-uns-failed-gaza-reconstruction-mechanism">previously
reported</a>:</p>
<blockquote>The mechanism gives Israeli occupation authorities
access to Palestinian families’ personal information on UN
databases, effectively turning the UN into the enforcer and
partner of Israel’s Gaza siege.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>The deal, brokered and championed by UN Special Coordinator
for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry, capitulated
ultimate control of reconstruction to Israel while doing
nothing for people in Gaza.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Instead of easing its grip since August, Israel finds that
it enjoys more control over Palestinians in Gaza than ever
before.</p>
<p>But none of this has made international news headlines, which
largely seem to regurgitate Israeli government press briefings.</p>
<p>One notable exception is <em>Newsweek’s</em> <a
href="http://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/19/gaza-one-war-one-family-five-children-four-dead-290987.html">recent
cover story</a> which comprehensively lays out the horror to
which Gaza has been subjected — from the erasure of almost one
hundred Palestinian families in Israeli air strikes this summer
to the practical and moral failure of what has become known as
the “menacing mechanism” for reconstruction.</p>
<p>The daily violence Israel wreaks on forsaken Gaza has gone
otherwise unreported — and when there is a brief news item on
Israeli air strikes on Gaza, it is Israel which “responds” to
Palestinian rocket fire. Never is rocket fire from Gaza
presented as a “response” to Israel’s routine violation of
Palestinians’ most basic rights.</p>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>