Gaza Baby Delivered from Dying Mother

Gaza Baby Delivered from Dying Mother

By Adam Justice , July 28, 2014 13:16 PM BST

Doctors have delivered a Palestinian baby girl, Shayma Hussien, from the womb of her Mother, whom medics said was killed in an Israeli air strike on their house.

Israel is using shrapnel bombs in Gaza

Gaza July 2014 Mother and Child

Israel is using « DIME » shrapnel bombs in Gaza, against Geneva rules
PUBLISHED: 14 JULY 2014 HITS: 800

The information comes from the French newspaper l'Humanité. According to the testimony of a Norwegian surgeon, Israel is using Dense Inert Metal Explosive bombs in Gaza, violating the Protocol 1 of the Geneva Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, to which Israel is party. Dr. Erik Fosse, who has come for humanitarian purposes, testifies that Israel is using in Gaza these bombs, which have a shrapnel effect on civilians. He knows them because he was already intervening in Gaza in 2008 – 2009, and already had to denounce the use of this weapon, together with Palestinian doctors. The way Israel is using DIME bombs in Gaza may amount to a war crime.

Dense Inert Metal Explosive are a mix of explosive material and small particles of chemically inert material, for instance tungsten. The metal is mixed in very small particles (1 – 2 mm) or in powder, and thus the micro-shrapnel can slice through soft tissue and bone. The mix, in a carbon fibre casing, has a very potent shrapnel effect in a small radius : the probability of killing people within a small radius is increased, and survivors may have to be amputated (esp. of the lower limbs), because the shrapnel cannot be detected through x-ray in the bodies of the victims and the injury cannot be cured. The tungsten powder « dissolves » in the body, and any minor injury interferes with the clotting process, leading to profuse bleeding.

DIME weapons have been developed among other things as a replacement for depleted uranium bombs. In theory, the long-range damage of the explosion is reduced (allowing for the use of the weapon in urban, asymmetric battles). Indeed, the effect of the explosion is dissipated at a range of 5 – 10 meters. DIME bombs are usually carried by drones ; they are the dreamed « smart bomb » for a « clean war ». But tungsten is also a known carcinogenic material : in addition to their amputations, survivors must therefore be followed for cancer risks. The destruction of the carbon case adds to the effect of the weapon, as it explodes into small fibre sharps, of 3 to 10 microns. The risk for respiratory diseases, and for lung cancer, is very important.

Actually, according to Israel's Manual on the Rules of Warfare on the Battlefield (2006 edition), shrapnel invisible to x-rays are forbidden. The manual, which is referred to on the ICRC's website ( http://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_rul_rule79 ), acknowledges that the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons bans these weapons, that cause « damage over and above what is necessary and [are] therefore forbidden ». Why is Israel using them notwithstandingly ?

Source: < The European Institute for International Law and International Relations >  http://www.eiilir.eu/

RSS link with the Bodu Bala Sena - Swapan Dasgupta

For West, Rajapaksa is Sri Lanka’s Modi
Jul 25, 2014

Swapan Dasgupta

''The belief is that India will endorse Sri Lanka’s growing impatience with NGOs and multilateral bodies that use the cover of human rights and reconciliation to carry out a political agenda''

It is a measure of Sri Lanka’s return to “normal” democratic politics that conspiracy theories are once again resonating in Colombo.

Compared to the situation just three years ago when “politics” continued to centre on the 30-year-long bloody civil war that mercifully came to an end in May 2009, the sub-text of political discussions today is the presidential election, due some time in early-2015.

It is not that the unending tensions between the Central government in Colombo and the Provincial Council in Jaffna have become so drearily routine that they cease to excite the public imagination. The Tamil National Alliance-controlled local administration in the Northern Province has reverted to the constitutional brinkmanship that marked Jaffna politics in the days before the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s conquest of the province. The loquacious Tamil politicians now in charge of the provincial administration know that they owe their return to the centrestage to the total decimation of the Tigers by the Sri Lankan Army five years ago. Yet, such are the charms of posturing that it is obligatory for them to pretend that the three lost decades were just a footnote.

When I was in Sri Lanka exactly 13 months ago, the conspiracy theory centred on President Mahindra Rajapaksa’s “secret” plan to either avoid provincial council elections in the Northern Province altogether or rig the results in favour of the pro-government Tamil parties. At that time TNA leaders were quite vocal in insisting that the so-called hardliners in the Rajapaksa government would never allow democracy in the Tamil areas.

Predictably, the conspiracy theory turned out to be spurious. Elections were held in the Northern Province as per the President’s commitment; there was a high turnout of voters and no suggestion of electoral malpractice; and the TNA won a resounding victory.

Since then, there is an ongoing cold war between the TNA and the government in Colombo over Jaffna’s claim for unhindered powers over land and police — the 13th Amendment controversy. Colombo is adamant that it cannot afford to relax its guard and allow any possible revival of terrorism in the province. The TNA feels that this is tantamount to reneging on a sovereign commitment given by President J.R. Jayawardene to Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and enshrined in the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987. It believes that India must use its muscle power to secure something akin to the “special status” of Article 370 for the Lankan Tamils. New Delhi, which is understandably wary of over-involvement in Sri Lanka after the Indian Peace Keeping Force experience of the late 1980s, isn’t too keen to meddle beyond a point and would rather that the matter be resolved within Sri Lanka. The TNA, however, loves to play the India card to replenish its bargaining clout with Colombo. The progress has been zero but the use of a foreign power to resolve domestic disputes has created complications for the larger relationship between New Delhi and Colombo. It has also created the conditions for China to cosy up to a country that is anxious for deepening economic engagements without strings attached.

The election of the Narendra Modi government has created a mood of anticipation in Colombo.

First, there is satisfaction that a BJP government with a majority of its own will not have to accommodate every unreasonable demand from Tamil Nadu on the course of bilateral relations. There is an expectation that the unfortunate situation of India voting against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Commission and Manmohan Singh’s boycott of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo won’t be repeated.

Secondly, given Mr Modi’s own unfortunate experiences with the global human rights industry, it is expected that India will be more understanding of Sri Lanka’s position on the collateral damage of the civil war. The belief is that India will endorse Sri Lanka’s growing impatience with NGOs and multilateral bodies that use the cover of human rights and reconciliation to carry out a political agenda. Certainly, India will have reason to be concerned about the precedents being set by the UN office in Colombo. Last month, for example, the UN attempted to conduct “voter education” workshops in a country that had universal adult franchise even before India and where voter turnout has always been extremely high. My own interaction with UN staffers leave me in little doubt that the local outfit sees itself as a facilitator for a type of politics that in Lanka’s context is decisively anti-Rajapaksa.

Thirdly, the BJP has had a more rounded view of India’s civilisational links with Sri Lanka than some of those who saw the relationship through an exclusively Tamil prism. Since the time Syama Prasad Mookerjee took an active role in the Mahabodhi Society and the return of Bodh Gaya to Buddhist control, the (Rashtriya Swayamsevak)Sangh fraternity has cherished both the Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna and the Buddha tooth shrine in Kandy. These ties have been supplemented in recent years by exchanges with the Madhya Pradesh government and Colombo’s support for the preservation of the “Ram setu” linking the two countries.

Maybe it is because of an expected shift away from big-brotherly condescension to a more civilisational-cum-economic relationship that the conspiracy theories are certain to multiply in Colombo. There are certain to be suggestions of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh link with the extremist Bodu Bala Sena that many people feel was responsible for the recent attacks on Muslims in Sri Lanka. More fanciful suggestion will hold that defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa is behind a sinister plot to ensure a Hindu-Buddhist alliance in Colombo and the Central Provinces to counter an exaggerated Muslim cultural separatism.

There will be many more theories that will be lapped up by an impressionable media for whom President Rajapaksa is just another version of the dreaded Mr Modi in India. Like in India, the foreign media and NGOs in Sri Lanka believe that it is their responsibility to ensure natives vote according to the high moral standards set by the West.

The writer is a senior journalist
http://www.asianage.com/

Children killed in Gaza playground shelling

"It's believed that because it's been relatively calm, many of these children went outside to enjoy themselves on this Eid holiday but tragically they've been killed," Tyab said.

Children killed in Gaza playground shelling
Israel denies hitting Gaza's main hospital and a playground, where seven children were killed.

Last updated: 28 Jul 2014 18:03

Eight people including seven children died following a missile strike on a park inside the Shati refugee camp [AFP]

Missiles have struck several sites in Gaza, including a park inside a refugee camp and an outpatient building of the strip's largest hospital, disrupting a relative lull at the start of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Eight people, including seven children, died following missile fire on a park inside the Shati refugee camp on the edge of Gaza City, medics said.

The children were playing on a swing when the strike hit the park, Ayman Sahabani, the head of the emergency room at Shifa hospital, told reporters.

 The Israeli army swiftly denied it was behind the strike, tweeting that a misfired rocket from Gaza had hit the playground.

"We had no activity in the area. We know it was launched from within Gaza and landed short," Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said.

However Hamas denied it had fired any rockets in the area and said it was "categorically an airstrike by Israel". It said it had collected schrapnel from the scene that it could prove was from an Israeli munition.

Medics said that an Israeli missile also hit a building, believed to be an outpatient clinic, close to the main gate of Shifa hospital, the same hospital where the victims of the playground strike were taken.

Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from the hospital, said there were chaotic scenes as "a number of small bodies were brought into this hospital".

"It's believed that because it's been relatively calm, many of these children went outside to enjoy themselves on this Eid holiday but tragically they've been killed," Tyab said.

Israelis killed

Also on Monday, four Israelis were killed in a mortar attack at Eshkol in southern Israel near the Gaza border.

The Israeli army hasn't commented on whether the four were soldiers or civilians, but the army has been deployed heavily in that area.

Monday’s violence followed an almost 12-hour pause in fighting and came as international efforts intensified to end the three-week war between Israel and Hamas.

The United Nations on Monday called for an "immediate" ceasefire in the fighting that has already killed more than 1,040 Palestinians, 43 Israeli soldiers and three civilians on the Israeli side.

At least two more Palestinians were killed in other attacks on Monday. A four-year-old boy died when tank shells hit his family's house in Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip, Gaza health officials said. Another person was killed by tank shelling in a separate incident, also in Jabaliya.

The military said at least a dozen rockets had been fired from Gaza at Israel since midnight.

Eid of mourning

As Muslims began celebrating Eid al-Fitr, there was fear and mourning on Monday instead of holiday cheer in large parts of Gaza.

Palestinian families huddled inside their homes, fearing more airstrikes, while those who came to a cemetery in Gaza City's Sheik Radwan neighbourhood to pay traditional respects at their ancestors' graves gathered around a large crater from an airstrike a week ago that had broken up several graves.

Amid an eerie calm, the call to Eid prayer echoed in the southern town of Rafah on Monday morning. Dozens of worshippers lined the rows of a severely destroyed mosque, with a collapsed roof and missing walls. Many of the faithful looked sombre during the traditional holiday sermon.

In Gaza City, dozens of men prayed in the courtyard of a UN school surrounded by school desks. Children and women stood on a higher level overlooking the worshippers.

"We are suffering and will suffer but we need our rights, our houses, our lands and our farms to return to us and we will not accept living a miserable life," said Abu Saber Jalees, who fled fighting to seek shelter at the school.

Amid a slowdown in the fighting, rescue teams uncovered five bodies in a village east of Khan Younis, said Saed al-Saoudi, the commander of the Civil Defence in Gaza.

UN unsuccessful truce bid

In New York, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council called for "an immediate and unconditional humanitarian ceasefire".

And while it was the council's strongest statement yet on the Gaza war, it was not a resolution and therefore not binding.

The council's presidential statement also called on the parties "to engage in efforts to achieve a durable and fully respected ceasefire, based on the Egyptian initiative."

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, spoke with UN chief Ban Ki-moon, according to a statement from his office, in which he voiced his dismay with the announcement.

"It does not include a response to Israel's security needs and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip," he said.

Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour also did not hide his disappointment.

He said the council should have adopted a strong and legally binding resolution a long time ago demanding an immediate halt to Israel's "aggression," providing the Palestinian people with protection and lifting the siege in the Gaza Strip so goods and people could move freely.

"You cannot keep 1.8 million Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip in this huge prison," Mansour told reporters. "That is a recipe for disaster. It is inhumane, and it has to be stopped and it has to be lifted."

Shujayea: Massacre at Dawn - Special series - Al Jazeera English

Shujayea: Massacre at Dawn - Special series - Al Jazeera English