Issue no 100

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Issue No : 100 25th August , 2014

Palestinian Cultural Organization Malaysia

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More than 100 Palestinians killed since Israel breached ceasefire

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Death toll in Gaza exceeds 2100

FEATURED STORY

Articles & Analyses

Interview

Read in This Issue

Israeli crimes in international and humanitarian law

Meshaal speaks to Anadolu on the state of the resistance, negotiations and regional politics

Hamas holds Israel responsible for talks faltering

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Israeli fails to kill Qassam chiefHis wife and daughter killed in the attackP8

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Three Al-Qassam leaders killed in an Israeli airstrike Thursday

Malaysian solidarity delegationarrives in Gaza

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CONTENTS

News of Palestine :

More than 100 Palestinians killed since Israel breached ceasefire 6

Hamas holds Israel responsible for talks faltering 7

Israeli fails to kill Qassam chief 8

Three Al-Qassam leaders killed in an Israeli airstrike Thursday 9

Israeli newspaper: Assassinating Al-Qassam leaders will not weaken Hamas 10

Retreat of fearful Israeli settlers near Gaza border 11

UNICEF: Israel killed 500 children in Gaza 11

Police: Israel dropped ‹equivalent of 6 nuclear bombs› on Gaza 12

Hamas: Israel’s bombing of Gaza civilian apartment tower “war crime” 13

Europeans urge new UN resolution on Gaza 14

Egypt calls for open-ended ceasefire, return to talks 15

Haniyeh: Hamas will not accept less than end to blockade 15

Hamas signs paper calling on Abbas to join ICC 16

Turkey to send floating power ship to Palestine 17

Hamas hails EU ban on Israeli settlement products 18

Bright hope for Palestinian independence, freedom soon 19

Israel Insider

Ya›alon: We are not aiming at demilitarizing Gaza at this stage 20

Malaysia & Palestinian Cause

Malaysian solidarity delegation arrives in Gaza 21

PCOM: New negotiations with Israel should obtain international guarantees 22

Articles & Analyses

Israeli crimes in international and humanitarian law 23

Interviews

Meshaal speaks to Anadolu on the state of the resistance, 26

negotiations and regional politics

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News of Palestine

More than 100 Palestinians killed since Israel breached ceasefire

Death toll in Gaza exceeds 2100

At least 100 Palestinian civilians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on civilian homes in Gaza since Israel breached the temporary ceasefire, bringing Gaza death toll to 2,120 victims since the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza on July 7th, 2014.

Among the victims, there are 560 children, 290 women and 98 el-derly. Besides, more than 10,500 Palestinians were injured, including 3220 children, 2065 women and 400 elderly.

During the ongoing Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, over 15,700 civilian houses were destroyed or severely damaged. Besides, over 38,000 houses were affected displacing over 200,000 Palestinians.

On the other hand, 221 schools and 3442 service and public facilities in Gaza have sustained damages. Moreover, 151 Mosques in Gaza were severely damaged, of which 65 Mosques were completely demol-ished.

Source: Agencies 8/7/2014

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Hamas holds Israel responsible for talks faltering

Hamas Movement held Israel fully responsible for faltering truce talks in Cairo due to its continued prevarication in reaching a long-term ceasefire agree-ment.

In a brief statement issued on Tuesday evening, spokesman for the Move-ment Sami Abu Zuhri called on Israel to stop wasting chances for a truce agreement.

“We are ready for all the possibilities and developments”, he added.

A state of anticipation has prevailed as the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians are still ongoing under Egyptian auspices. No progress has been witnessed so far.

In their turn, the Mujahedeen and Ahrar movements held Israel responsible for obstructing reaching a truce agreement.

In a press release issued on Tuesday, Mujahedeen movement said that Israel has no other choice but to meet Palestinian demands.

For its part, the Ahrar movement confirmed that Palestinian resistance would not keep silent for long, saying that Israeli manipulation of time factor would not succeed in wasting resistance’s achievements.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry asked on Monday for a 24-hour extension of Gaza ceasefire for the fourth time in a row to allow more room for further negotiations.

19/8/2014 SOURCE :PIC

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Moussa Abu Marzouk, senior member of Hamas political bureau said, “Israel has violated the cease-fire by attempting to assassinate Mohammed Deif”.

Abu Marzook, a Cairo-based leader of Hamas, wrote on his Facebook page about 3 a.m. Wednesday that Mr. Deif’s wife and daughter, 2 years old, were killed in an F-16 strike on a Gaza City home the night before. Another Hamas statement hours later, inviting people to join in the funeral, said the child was a boy.

12 civilians left dead through continuous bombing, one of them targeted residential 3-story Al-Dalou family’ house Gaza in Shikh Radwan quarter west north of # Gaza city.

Head of the Hamas military wing has survived several Israeli assassination attempts over the years. In 2002 Deif survived after Israeli helicopters fired at the vehicle which he was driving, however were not able to kill him. In July 2006 Deif was severly injured in an air strike on a house in which he was located.

At least 2018 Palestinians have been killed and more than 10,000 others injured in more than a month of devastating Israeli attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip since July 7.

Since 2007, the Gaza Strip – home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – has reeled under a crippling Is-raeli blockade that has badly affected the local economy and played havoc with residents’ livelihoods.

20/8/2014 Source: Agencies

Israeli fails to kill Qassam chiefHis wife and daughter killed in the attack

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Palestinian Cultural

Organization Malaysia

Three Al-Qassam leaders killed in an Israeliairstrike Thursday

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas said Israel assassinated the fol-lowing leaders after firing, during the early dawn hours, several missiles into a home in the Sultan neighbourhood, west of Rafah, in the southern part of the coastal region. The three have been identified as:

1. Mohammad Abu Shamma-la, commander of Al-Qassam in southern Gaza region.

2. Raed al-‘Attar, commander of Al-Qassam in Rafah.

3. Mohammad Barhoum, a senior leader of al-Qassam.

It is worth mentioning that Abu Shammala and al-‘Attar top Israel’s extrajudicial assassination list as Israel considers them behind the capture of corporal Gilad Shalit in 2006.

The remains of al-‘Attar and Abu Shammala were moved to the Abu Yousef an-Najjar Hospital, in Rafah, while rescue teams are still trying to remove the remain from Barhoum from under the rub-ble.

The Maan News Agency said the Israeli Air Force fired twelve mis-siles into the three-story home in Tal Sultan in Rafah, completely leveling it to the ground along with several nearby homes.

Five Palestinians were also killed in the attack, and more than 40 have been injured.


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Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published an op-ed on Friday warning that the assas-sination of Al-Qassam Brigade leaders in the Gaza Strip should not be viewed as an indication of Israel’s victory over Hamas.

Military analyst Ron Ben-Yishai argued that Israel’s operations against Al-Qassam leaders will not have any tangible effects on Hamas’s military apparatus, but may shorten the duration of the operation and help “avoid a long war of attrition”.

The Israeli analyst pointed out that Hamas will swiftly appoint new leaders in place of those Israel assassinates, adding that the killing of Al-Qassam leaders will also not have any effect on Hamas’s rocket arsenal.

He said the assassinations would only affect the boldness of future attacks, because this requires an experienced leader who is qualified to make strategic decisions to carry out operations within Israel.

However, even though the leadership missions in the military wing of Hamas will be affected, he suggested that it is hard to measure the impact of the assassinations on Hamas’s ability to man-age battle. He cited the assassination of Al-Qassam’s leader Ahmed Al-Jaabary in 2009 and how Hamas instantly appointed a successor and continued firing rockets until the end of the operation.

23/8/2014 Source: MEMO

Israeli newspaper: Assassinating Al-Qassam leaders will not weaken Hamas

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Retreat of fearful Israeli settlersnear Gaza border

UNICEF: Israel killed 500 childrenin Gaza

Nearly half of the Israeli settlers resid-ing near the Gaza border have report-edly fled their homes in the occupied territories in recent weeks, expressing fears and doubts about the prospect of a safe return to the area.

During the period, hundreds of Israeli families have left the Negev desert, which has long been a tourist attrac-tion, to the northern areas, the Los An-geles Times reported on Friday.

A poll this week revealed that 21 per-cent of the residents in the area are considering moving away.

UNICEF has said that the Israeli occupation killed around 500 Palestinian children during the war on the Gaza Strip and wounded around 3,000 others.

Chief of UNICEF’s Gaza Field Office Pernille Iron-side said that 469 children were killed. The num-ber is expected to rise.

She described the effects and damage of the Israeli war on the Palestinian children as “bad,” noting that nine children were killed in the last 48 hours.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced a higher number. They said that 560 children were killed and 11,000 wounded.

Meanwhile, three children were killed on Thursday in Al-Nafaq Street in the north-east of the Gaza Strip. Several international organisations said that targeting children during the war mounts to war crimes and perpetrators must be held account for them.

Despite the Israeli army’s announcement to the residents of the area after the latest cease-fire with Hamas that they can return to their homes, the communities are reportedly still half-empty.

12/8/2014 Source: ALALAM

UNICEF stressed that children in Gaza are expe-riencing difficult living conditions. They make up around half of Gaza’s population, 1.8million. UNI-CEF said that the Israeli occupation has destroyed the houses of more than 50,000 children.


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Police: Israel dropped ‹equivalent of 6 nuclear bombs› on Gaza

Bomb disposal experts in Gaza on Friday said that Israel had dropped the equivalent of six nuclear bombs on the tiny coastal enclave over the course of it’s six-week assault, including many that the police say are internationally banned.

The explosives’ engineering po-lice of the Gaza Ministry of Interior said in a statement that Israel had dropped 20,000 tons of explosives on the 139 square mile (360 sq km) territory.

“Flechette shells, fuel-air bombs (which explode twice, including after impact), dime shells, and flechette shells saturated with ura-nium were fired at Gaza Strip,” the statement added, stressing that the weapons “affect the environment, soil, and water and will affect the next generations by spreading dis-eases especially cancer.”

The statement said that areas near the border like Khuzaa, east-ern Rafah, Shujaiyya, eastern al-Mughazi, al-Bureij and Juhr al-Dik were hit with “the lion’s share of Is-raeli shells and missiles.”

The statement said that of the total number of explosive, 8,000 were dropped from warplanes, “killing entire families and crossing them out of the Palestinian civil register.”

Drones, Apache, F15, F16 and “vertical” warplanes were used during the offensive, firing MK82, MK83 and MK84 shells.

The statement added that the Is-raeli artillery deployed in eastern Gaza City had fired high-explosive shells at homes and civilian prop-erty causing massive damage, especially in Rafah, Khan Younis, Shujaiyya and Beit Hanoun.

More than 60,000 artillery shells of

different sizes were fired at Gaza.

During the assault, Gaza police bomb disposal experts said that engaged in 1731 different mis-sions including treating explosive devices, suspicious devices. and vehicles, among other tasks.

Major Hazem Abu Murad, deputy head of the explosives engineer-ing department, and Major Taysir al-Hum were killed while disman-tling suspicious objects in northern Gaza Strip, the statement added.

According to the statement, Major Abu Murad was one of the most important experts and trainers in explosives engineering in Gaza.

Other engineering police members were killed or detained during the Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip, the statement added, without identify-ing them.

22/8/2014 Source: Ma’an

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Hamas: Israel’s bombing of Gaza civilian apartment tower “war crime”

Hamas has slammed on Saturday Israel’s strike on an 11-story apartment tow-er in Gaza city as a “war crime” and a “serious escalation”, because of which scores of Gaza civilians suffered critical wounds while dozens of others have gone homeless.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said Israeli claims that the tower housed a Hamas base are sheer “lies”.

A drove of Israeli fighter jets hit an 11-story-apartment tower in Gaza City, bring-ing the entire building to the ground on Saturday and leading to several wounds among dozens of Gaza civilians.

Remarkable damage was further detected among a number of Palestinian fam-ily homes adjacent to the tower.

At least 17 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, have been rushed to hospital while dozens are believed to have been lying beneath the mounds of pile into which the residential tower has been turned, Health Ministry spokes-person Ashraf al-Qudra reported.

The occupation warplanes destroyed another residential multi-story building in al-Shujai’ya, razing it entirely to the ground.

A round of Israeli rocket attacks knocked down on Saturday evening a com-mercial center comprising 80 shops and a large number of commercial and residential apartments in Rafah city, to the south of the Strip.

The wave of Israeli onslaughts culminated in the bombing of a nearby seven-story-building owned by Za’reb family.

24/8/2014 Source: PIC

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Europeans urge new UN resolution on Gaza

Britain, France and Germany have reportedly launched a new UN bid which aims to end six weeks of horrific violence in the Gaza Strip.

In a document obtained by AFP, the three countries pushed for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire which would put an end to the fighting in Gaza, as Egyptian-brokered peace talks in Cairo continue to fail in providing solutions.

The European initiative calls for a lifting of the Israeli blockade and a monitoring mechanism that would report on ceasefire violations, and also verify the flow of goods into the Gaza Strip.

Besides lifting the siege, the proposed plan includes resuming negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization based on the two-state solution.

Diplomats said that the text aims to advance efforts in reaching an agreement within the 15-member UN Securi-ty Council on a resolution, following resistance towards Jordan’s draft text, most notably from the United States.

The document calls for the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, which has been under democratically-elected control by Hamas since 2007.

Additionally, it provides for the lifting of economic and humanitarian restrictions on the Gaza Strip in allowing for a massive reconstruction effort, and for the re-opening of border crossings.

It requests that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon immediately come up with proposals to “implement the relevant provisions” in order to salvage what remains of negotiations.

22/8/2014 Source: IMEMC

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Egypt calls for open-ended ceasefire, return to talks

Haniyeh: Hamas will not accept less than end to blockade

Egypt called on Saturday for an open-ended ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a return to indirect talks between Is-raelis and Palestinians under its auspices in Cairo.

Reuters quoted a statement for the Egyptian foreign min-istry as saying that Cairo calls on all parties involved in the Gaza conflict to agree to an indefinite ceasefire and to return to negotiations under its patronage.

Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the Palestinian Author-ity, had announced in Cairo at noon Saturday that the

Former Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Fri-day said that the Palestinians would not accept anything less than an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza, as Israeli forces continued to attack the besieged enclave.

Haniyeh accused Israel of using negotiations as a cover for their crimes and said it must accept the “fair demands” made by the Palestinian delegation, adding that Hamas would not accept anything less than an end to Israel’s as-sault and the seven-year blockade.

Palestinians have demanded in indirect negotiations in Cairo that Israel end its eight-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has crippled the tiny coastal enclave’s econ-omy and led to widespread suffering, as well as re-open an airport and seaport, among other demands.

Haniyeh urged Egypt to hold Israel responsible for crimes committed against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, adding that Israel is responsible for the collapse of the indirect ceasefire talks in Cairo.

Haniyeh also paid condolences to the three Hamas mili-tary commanders killed by Israel on Thursday, adding:

Egyptian government would ask the Palestinian delegation to resume negotiations to discuss a prolonged ceasefire then to discuss other issues later on.


“History proves that Hamas only becomes stronger and tougher than Israel expects when they kill our leaders.”

Senior Hamas official Mushir al-Masri said Friday that a return to indirect ceasefire negotiations is conditional on Israel accepting Palestinians de-mands.

He said that Israel should accept what was dis-cussed in indirect talks or prepare for a “long war.”

22/8/2014 Source: Ma’an

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Hamas signs paper calling on Abbas to join ICC

Member of Hamas’ political bureau Ezzat al-Resheq said his movement has signed a paper calling on PA chairman Mahmud Abbas to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) in order to prosecute Israeli war criminals.

Early Saturday, senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk wrote on his Facebook page that “Hamas has signed the paper which Abbas demanded the Palestinian factions to approve before he could sign the Rome Statute which will allow Palestine to join the International Criminal Court.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has earlier asked Palestinian factions to sign a national paper allow-ing him to sign the Rome Statute and take Israel to the International Criminal Court.

In another context, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahhar confirmed that his movement would not ac-cept any international resolutions that seek to disarm Palestinian resistance.

Zahar wrote in a statement that “Hamas will not accept any international resolutions that try to disarm the resistance and fail to lift the blockade fully.”

A number of European countries have introduced a new draft resolution in the UN Security Council calling for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza and lifting Israeli siege.


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Turkey to send floating power ship to Palestine

Turkey will send a floating power-generating ship to Gaza, Taner Yildiz, Turkey’s energy minister said Tuesday.

“Turkey will build power plants in Palestine in the long term, but as a quick solution Turkey will send a 100 megawatt power- generating ship from Basra to Gaza offshore in about two to three months,” Yildiz said at a press conference in Ankara with his counterpart from Palestine.

Yildiz said Israel should lift the blockade on the Gaza strip to allow power to be delivered to the city.

Yildiz said Israel hit 10 energy plants in Gaza, which means a total loss of 120 megawatts of energy for Gaza City. Yildiz said he believes Israel’s attitude towards energy in Gaza will be different than its current position since having access to energy is a humanitarian issue.

For a permanent solution to Palestine’s energy problems, Palestine should benefit from its own gas fields, he said. Turkey will take part from now on in any energy bid announced by the Palestine state, Yildiz said. Turkish firms will be in Palestinian gas fields like any other international outlet, he added.

The Palestinian minister of energy, Omar Kittaneh, said he met with Turkish energy firms on Monday and he is very pleased by the results. Kittaneh said they will deliver their plans for the energy sector in Palestine to Turkish authorities within a few days.

Seven floating power plants have been produced so far by the Turkish private sector with 1000 megawatts of capacity.


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Hamas hails EU ban on Israeli settlement products

Hamas Movement’s spokesman Fawzi Barhoum hailed on Monday the European Union’s decision to boycott Is-raeli settlement products.

Barhoum called for more tough restrictions and punitive measures against Israel for committing war crimes in Gaza.

The EU decided on Sunday to boycott Israeli poultry and dairy products from settlements in occupied Jerusalem, West Bank, and Golan Heights.

As a response, Israel declared it will end all exports of poultry and dairy produce to the European Union after refusing to encode its settlements’ products.


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Bright hope for Palestinian independence, freedom soon

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 (Bernama) -- There is a beacon of hope for Palestinians to obtain their indepen-dence and freedom in the near future, notes the Palestinian Cultural Organisation Malaysia.

Its chairman, Muslim Imran said the possibilities that its people would be free and gain independence were based on the increased growth of resistance in Gaza, and the rapid efforts by the international solidarity movements in playing significant roles to help the Gazans.

“I base my hopes on observation, not on ideology and blind hopes, on the timeline of the Israeli occupation where the same scenario happened in South Africa where the blacks were suffering within the regime for more than 80 years but they were resisting and later, freed.

“Also, with the continuous help from the international community, it destroyed the apartheid system suf-fered by many blacks during that time,” he told Bernama here Tuesday.

Based on the history of South Africa, a similar scenario could unfold for Gaza because history showed no colonisation would ever succeed, said Muslim.

However, the independence and freedom would still take years to happen as the enemy (Israel) was still strong and assistance were still given to them by foreign superpowers.

Muslim also believed that Palestine could be a successful country and even outshine other countries based on the fact that 99 per cent of its citizens were literate, thus giving better chance for its people to strive for excellence.

“We had a very developed culture and society before the Israeli occupation and within the Palestinian com-munity, we had among the highest number of PhD holders in 1920s,” he said.

Meanwhile, Muslim said Malaysians had helped tremendously in both levels from the government to its citizens in having played important roles in assisting Gazans during the hard times.

19/8/2014 Source: BERNAMA

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Israel Insider

Ya›alon: We are not aiming at demilitarizing Gaza at this stage

Israeli war minister Moshe Ya’alon said that the Israeli political leadership wants to end the conflict in Gaza through a political solution with the Palestinians and not to escalate it.

In remarks to Israel’s public radio on Saturday, Ya’alon stated that Israel aims at this time to reach a ceasefire agreement and not to demilitarize the Gaza Strip.

For his part, political analyst at Israel’s channel 10 Moav Vardi said that Egypt is trying hard nowadays to bring the Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table once again.

He expressed his belief that Israel would deal with the Egyptian efforts positively, saying that such Israeli po-sition was clear in the remarks that had been made by the Israeli war minister during his recent visit to settlements around Gaza.

The analyst added this week would be crucial be-cause Israel could take other steps if it failed to re-

sume its ceasefire talks with the Palestinians during the coming days.

Military analyst for Channel 10 Or Heller, in turn, warned that the continued firing of rockets from Gaza would prompt Israel to carry out a limited ground op-eration early next week.

In this regard, an Israeli political source said that Egypt would invite the Palestinians and Israelis soon to re-start the ceasefire talks in Cairo.

In a related context, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that Israel’s threats to launch a ground oper-ation in Gaza do not scare the Palestinian resistance.

The spokesman stated in a brief press release on Sat-urday that the resistance in Gaza is ready to protect its people, stressing that Gaza would always remain a graveyard for all invaders.


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Malaysia & Palestinian Cause

Malaysian solidarity delegationarrives in Gaza

Members of a Malaysian governmental delegation reached Rafah border crossing on Monday morning in solidarity with the Palestinian people and to check out Israeli crimes in Gaza Strip.

Dato Seri Aziz Rahim, a representative of the Malay-sian government and civil society institutions, Pales-tinian Ambassador to Malaysia Anour Aga, and Ma-laysian Ambassador to Egypt, arrived this morning in Gaza via Rafah crossing, the PIC reporter said.

Minister of Public Works and Housing Mufid Al-Ha-sayna received the delegation that brought with it re-lief aid and medical supplies.

The PIC reporter said that the delegation will visit hos-pitals and buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes dur-ing the aggression on the besieged enclave.

More than 80 more Malaysian members of the convoy (including doctors, journalists and volun-teers) were denied entry into Gaza by the Egyp-tian Army.

Putera 1Malaysia Club president Datuk Seri Ab-dul Azeez Abdul Azeez yesterday described their humanitarian mission to Gaza as a success. He said although only three of the 85 members of the Malaysian mission were permitted to enter Gaza, they managed to hand over food supplies and medicine to the people there.

“Alhamdulillah, 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid were successfully channelled to the Palestinians through the mission.” He added.


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PCOM: New negotiations with Israel should obtain international guarantees

The Palestinian Cultural Organisation Malaysia (PCOM) believes that any new indirect negotiations with Israel on a permanent ceasefire should get clear international guarantee to ensure Israel’s commit-ment to the signing of any agreement.

In a statement, the non-governmental organisation said the Palestinian demands were based on basic human rights, which required a solid stance by the international and regional political players in pressur-ing Israeli occupation to finally end its aggression and siege on Gaza.

PCOM noted that throughout two weeks of tough indi-rect negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis on the Israel-Gaza conflict in Cairo, Israel showed lack of seriousness and intentionally wasted time to circum-vent Palestinian demands.

The organisation held Israel responsible for the failure of the Cairo negotiations and collapse of ceasefire, claiming that Israel had once again breached the tem-porary ceasefire agreed upon with the Palestinian fac-

tions by resuming strikes on civilian homes.

In the statement, PCOM stressed on the right of Pal-estinians to defend themselves and resist the occu-pier by all means possible as guaranteed by interna-tional laws and conventions.

The Palestinians clung on to their legitimate demands in lifting all forms of siege imposed on Gaza and paved the way for the reconstruction of Gaza without any delay or disruption, it said.

On another note, PCOM said it placed great value on the brave stance adopted by the Malaysian Govern-ment towards the Palestinian cause and the support by Malaysian organisations and the media.

According to PCOM, more than 2,000 people died and 10,000 injured since Israel launched a massive aerial, naval and ground offensive against Gaza on July 8.

22/8/2014 Source: BERNAMA

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Israeli crimes in international and humanitarian law

By: Fadel Abdel Ghani

When an Israeli official or journal-ist gets asked why you’re bomb-ing and killing families in the Gaza Strip, the answer is usually readily available, which is: the main cause for that is the terrorist movement of Hamas which is using civilians as human shields. We have heard this justification numerous times, even during the bombing of UN offices and headquarters, and protect-ed institutions such as hospitals, schools, mosques and churches, and this justification, due to the huge media machine of the Zionist entity, whether written or heard, has become almost a given to many in the West, amid the weak respons-es to that especially in English.

And so is the case of the bomb-ing of political leaders of the resis-tance, as Israeli journalists and of-ficials repeat the saying that these are legitimate targets, until this also became a given for a large sector of Arabs and westerners. People are also dazzled by Israel’s warn-ings sent to families before bomb-ing and destroying their homes, as Israel boasts about it in the inves-tigations it releases after its wars.

Civilians and the rumour of using them as human shieldsCustomary humanitarian law gov-erns the nature of the armed con-flict between Israel and the Pal-estinian resistance, including the Hamas movement and others, and

Articles & Analyses

is considered binding to all par-ties, and also the rules and Article III of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 regarding occupied land. So if, hypothetically speaking, we as-sumed the truth of the Israeli nar-rative regarding Hamas taking shelter among civilians, and using them as human shields, still, this does not relieve Israel from its le-gal responsibility, and the presence of one person or a number of them does not justify the killing of an en-tire family, or the targeting of civil-ians in the area and killing them all. Israel has to prove with evidence the reasons behind its targeting of schools, hospitals and civilian homes.

Yes, international law prohibits the use of civilians as human shields, including taking control of an area and making civilians stay in it (it has never been proven that the Palestinian resistance has used ei-ther method). And thus, Israel is re-

sponsible for justifying its attacks, and not the opposite. In the case that Israeli allegations prove cor-rect, it has to discriminate in its tar-geting of civilians versus militants, and then there is being proportion-ate in its attack, where it is the re-sponsibility of the attacker to can-cel out an attack or suspend it in case the civilian damage was more than the importance of the military target.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross: “The bloodshed of civilians must be stopped and civilian targets must be avoided during military opera-tions,” this means military neces-sity is subject to the provisions of the law relating thereto. If we are following the Israeli logic for the killing and destruction of all targets that are likely to constitute a mili-tary threat even though they have not been proven yet, we completely disregard the most prominent prin-

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ciples of international humanitarian law and justify the chaotic killing and destruction operations.

Despite all this, all signs confirm that Israeli forces purposely tar-get civilians, and not randomly as many repeatedly say, which means it is a deliberate and random kill-ing and destruction at the same time. In most attacks in which civil-ians were killed, so far, there is no tangible evidence of the presence of forces or weapons belonging to the Palestinian resistance in those areas, prior to the attacks or dur-ing them. Also, 34 per cent of those killed were women and children (the total number of those killed is approximately 1,850, out of those there are 390 children and 210 women) and out of those injured, 47 per cent are women and chil-dren (the total number of wounded are around 10,000, of whom 2,830 are children and 1,940 women). These are statistics by the Pales-tinian Ministry of Health from July 8 to August 4. Israel may have targeted, through its attacks, loca-tions and weapons for the resis-tance, which are near residential areas, but these high figures of women and child victims are clear evidence that Israel deliberately targeted civilians.

Israeli crimes of warThus, Israeli forces violated the

most important standards of the customary humanitarian law, thus committing crimes that mount to war crimes, especially when we know that Israeli weapons can tre-mendously reduce the possibilities of injuries among civilians, through all the advanced technology it pos-sesses, which is not available for Palestinian resistance weapons, as some of the Israeli missiles are equipped with special cameras that allow those launching them to watch the target and therefore change the weapon’s path in case they find out that there are no mili-tary institutions or targets. But, it appears from the number of casu-alties, that those firing the rockets were certain that they are going to kill civilian men, women and chil-dren and let their weapons con-tinue their path and kill them, and we see that Israel, during this war, expanded its killing of civilians, in a systematic manner, and its crimes have mounted to the level of crimes against humanity, and that this is the system and policy of the gov-ernment.

Targeting political leaders of Pales-tinian resistance groups, and mo-bilising public opinion to consider them legitimate targets, does not change facts, and therefore people must work hard to respond to these

Israeli allegations in a legal manner where the international humanitar-ian law is very clear in this regard, where it requires that the politi-cal leader to participate in military planning, or to actually participate in the battlefield, to be considered a fighter. Other than that, all these political leaders are civilian targets, and it is prohibited to target them. Israel has to prove with evidence the participation of any political leader it’s killed in the fighting, oth-erwise, it’s committed a war crime.

Even in the case of targeting mili-tary leaders, which the interna-tional humanitarian law allows, the attacking party must take into consideration the principle of pro-portion which we’ve previously mentioned. Will Israel accept for Palestinian resistance groups to bomb the house of an Israeli and kill him and all his family?

Many in the West were dazzled by Israel giving warnings, before it commits its bombing and destruc-tion, and this is also considered part of the Israeli policy of mislead-ing and deceiving onlookers which coincides with a huge systematic media campaign. We, as human rights advocates, see no value for such warnings, as they are not real, and they do not include any actual information on the location or time

Israeli forces violated the most important standards of the custom-ary humanitarian law, thus commi�ing crimes that mount to war crimes

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of the attack. Second, and most importantly, the time frame given after the warning must be enough to evacuate the place.

Most importantly, international hu-manitarian law is clear and giving warnings, even if effective, does not relieve the attacker from the two principles of discrimination and proportion mentioned before, but rather we clearly accuse Israel of transforming the warnings, which should’ve been a noble weapon, into a weapon of war, that aims at displacing the locals of an entire area, and frightening them.

The Palestinian Authority and the International Criminal

CourtFinally, in regards to the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, Israel still controls the Strip’s land, sea and air borders, and it controls electricity, water and communica-tions while the law of occupied land which is mentioned in the Fourth Geneva’s Convention, and which Israel is a party to, applies to the Gaza Strip, despite their forced withdrawal from it. Article 33 stipulates: “No persons may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Col-lective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of ter-

rorism are prohibited.” While Article 55 says “the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the popula-tion.” Article 59 states: “the Occu-pying Power shall agree to relief schemes on behalf of the said pop-ulation, and shall facilitate them by all the means at its disposal.”

In customary humanitarian law, Rule 53 states: “It is prohibited to starve civilians as a method of war,” while Rule 55 states that “parties to the conflict must allow the passage of humanitarian relief items to civil-ians.”

Everything that’s been mentioned remains ink on paper as long as criminals are not chased in court and brought to justice, or prevented from repeated escape from punish-ment, which sends all criminals on earth a message that allows them to continue committing their crimes amid Russian and Chinese political protection, in the case of the Syrian regime, and American and Europe-an protection in the case of Israel.

The political path must be separat-ed from the legal and humanitarian paths, because family members of the victims have the right to see those who killed and attacked their loved ones, or caused them loss of property or money, see them taken to courts, all without any discrimi-

nation based on race or religion. In this regard, we recommend that the Palestinian Authority (PA) signs the statute of the In-ternational Criminal Court, and to separate between the path of negotiations and the rights of vic-tims. And the PA must go to court in order to bring justice to tens of thousands of Palestinian families whose members were killed, or whose houses were destroyed, and whose members were dis-placed or arrested and tortured for tens of years.

Otherwise, Israel will continue committing its crimes, and the United States, along with some European countries will continue to supply it with weapons, even though it continues to use these weapons to commit war crimes, and crimes against humanity, similar to Russia and Iran sup-plying the Syrian regime with weapons.

The values of human rights and their laws must be applied to all people. People in the Middle East are now convinced that values of justice, democracy and human rights do not apply to them, and that they are merely ink on paper that is used for political neces-sity, regardless of the essence of humanity, and then they ask you who created radicalism and how can we fight terrorism?!

Israel will continue commi�ing its crimes, and the United States, along with some European countries will continue to supply it with weapons

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Meshaal speaks to Anadolu on the state of the resistance, negotiations

and regional politics

Interviews

By: Ahmad Almasri

The Zionist enemy made two mistakes. First, it led the negotiations, through Egyptian mediators, to a dead-end and aborted all political efforts to reach an agreement, and therefore it must bear the re-sponsibility for its actions. The second mistake is that it violated the ceasefire hours before it ended and lied, once again, to the international commu-nity and American administration (just as it had previously deluded them and broke the ceasefire.

On the eve of his meeting with the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, and President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in Doha, Khaled Meshaal gave this extensive interview to Anadolu Agency.

The Head of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, linked its return to indirect negotiations with Israel to «the resistance›s reassurance that there is a real side pushing Israel to give in to the Palestinian demands, most importantly, the blockade imposed on Gaza.»

During the extensive interview, Meshaal reiterated the resistance commitment to its demands, saying, «We will not back down from the Palestinian demands, be-ginning with lifting the blockade imposed on Gaza.» He also expressed the resistance groups› willingness to fight «until the end and defend the lives and land of the Palestinians» before adding that «the Palestinian people have been fighting for 100 years, and will not be worn down in a month, a year or even years.»

Meshaal denied the latest Israeli claim that Hamas vio-lated the cease-fire. «[Israel] is, once again, lying to the international community, just as it fooled the com-munity and violated the ceasefire in the past under the pretext that a soldier was kidnapped. It also became apparent that Israel was planning to violate the cease-

fire in order to assassinate resistance officials, but it failed to do so.»

He also denied Israel›s claims regarding Hamas›s plans to stage a coup against the Palestinian Author-ity and considered the statements made by the Pales-tinian Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamdallah in regards to hitting Hamas›s infrastructure to be «exaggerated», pointing out that the movement›s military losses are «limited».

The Hamas official described the Israeli Prime Minis-ter Benjamin Netanyahu as a «child killer», consider-ing Israel›s actions in Gaza since the beginning of its attack on Gaza on July 7th to be a real «Holocaust».

Meshaal, who now lives in Doha, said that he regards Netanyahu›s labelling of Hamas as the «Islamic State» (ISIS) as a means of «riding the wave of the war on terrorism in order to find common ground with the American agenda and limit his losses.»

He also stressed that the movement does not inter-vene in Egyptian affairs, and called, once again, for the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip as an international crossing. He praised Turkey and Qatar›s position on the Pales-tinian issue in general, and especially Gaza, saying,

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«We are grateful for the Turkish position and we thank the Turkish people and authorities.»

Meshaal noted that his upcoming meeting with Presi-dent Mahmoud Abbas will focus on enhancing the path to reconciliation and national unity, as well as coordi-nating the means by which Palestinians can face their national issues with a coordinated and unified position based on the national partnership that the reconcilia-tion process was founded on.

The full interview is as follows:

During a press conference, Netanyahu de-scribed Hamas as «ISIS» and said that he destroyed the tunnels and hit Hamas›s infra-structure. What are your comments on his statements?

The child-killer in Gaza, Jerusalem, the West Bank and many other areas in the world, does not have the right to label others. What Israel has been doing for the last 45 days is a true Holocaust committed in Gaza, including killing children, destroying residential areas, mosques, UNRWA schools and hospitals. This has re-sulted in 10,000 wounded and 2,000 martyrs, a quar-ter of whom are children and another quarter of whom are women and elderly. This enemy is reproducing a terrible replica of Hitler›s actions of decades ago. To-day, we are witnessing true Nazism and Netanyahu is trying to ride on the wave of the war on terrorism in an attempt to find common ground with the American agenda. However, the Zionist enemy›s cards are out in the open for the international community to see, and they are losing more and more by the day, so they are trying to limit their losses.

As for the destruction of Hamas›s tunnels and infra-structure, every war results in losses, and I admit re-sponsibly that we have sustained losses and made big sacrifices, but he (Netanyahu) is exaggerating his achievements; he has achieved nothing. The only thing he achieved was killing children, destroying homes and committing Holocaust massacres against Gaza. In terms of military losses, yes we have had some losses, but they are limited, as stated by Al-Qassam Brigades [Hamas›s military wing] and the resistance,

including its military wings, are capable of facing the Israeli aggression and they will win the battle.

How wiling are you to resume indirect negotia-tions with Israel through Egyptian mediation?Dialogue to reach an agreement through indirect ne-gotiations is a means, not a goal; it is no fun and it is not something we wish to achieve. As long as the conditions conducive to achieving the Palestinian de-mands are unavailable, then dialogue is pointless, regardless of the place or mediator. The point is that we must be sure that there are serious conditions that drive the enemy to give in to the Palestinian demands.

How can you be sure that these conditions are available?Managing battles is a combination between field work and political action, and we know when there is a point in negotiating. We, as a political leadership, decide when taking a step in the right direction is worthwhile, and this is connected to the situation in the field.

While we are on the topic of the situation on the ground, Israel accused Hamas of violat-ing the ceasefire before it ended last Tuesday. How true is Israel›s story regarding your viola-tion of the ceasefire?The Zionist enemy made two mistakes. First, it led the negotiations, through Egyptian mediators, to a dead-end and aborted all political efforts to reach an agree-ment, and therefore it must bear the responsibility for its actions. The second mistake is that it violated the ceasefire hours before it ended and lied, once again, to the international community and American administra-tion (just as it had previously deluded them and broke the ceasefire, using the story of the missing soldier) when the government claimed that it was responding to rockets fired from Gaza, but this was a false ex-cuse. Israel was planning an attack on Gaza during the ceasefire, planning to execute it before the cease-fire ended, believing that it would be able to kill some officials, which was proven yesterday when it tried to assassinate the Commander of Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif, but failed. The only thing achieved by the enemy was the murder of Deif›s wife and son Ali. The Zionist enemy isn›t only content with committing the crime, but makes it worse by lying day after day about it.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that «the Arab world is against Hamas», and that only Qatar, Turkey and Iran are on the movement›s side.Those who have followed our current defensive op-eration have realised the large support received by Hamas, the Palestinian resistance movements and its brigades on an Arab, Islamic and international level. We do not deny that some governments and regimes (which will remain nameless) are not on our side, but all the people and nations are with us, as well as many governments, leaderships and officials, some publi-cally while others in secret. However, those who side with Netanyahu and the Zionist enemy are very few and what do we want with them? We do not care as long as the [Arab] nation is with us and is proud and happy with the achievements of the resistance. Those who want to side with others, may God forgive them, but they are the isolated ones, not the Palestinian re-sistance.

As an option for a solution, would you accept the presence of international observer forces, such as the UNIFIL forces in Lebanon?International forces only work in conflicts between in-dependent states, but not when a nation lives like the Palestinian nation, under occupation. The party that needs an international force to rein in its aggression and put an end to its occupation and settlement is the Zionist enemy. As for the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza, they need the support and ad-vocacy of the international community, not its restraint. The Palestinians look forward to the international community›s support and backing and for it to stop the murdering, thieving Zionist enemy.

How would you judge the official Arab posi-tion on the aggression against Gaza?

The official Arab position is certainly varied. There are those who supported the Palestinian people and the resistance openly and those who remained silent; and there are those who were content with doing the bare minimum while others provided great support; there are also those who disappointed us and came up short.

Can we end with a final message to the people of Gaza and another to the Israelis?I say to the people of Gaza that you are have a just cause, you are doing the right thing and, God-willing, you will be victorious. Gaza is the pride of the nation and the symbol of its glory, and it is now in a pioneer-ing position, setting an inspired and impressive exam-ple. Together we will engage in the battle, and we are proud of the Gazans and the steadfastness and per-severance they have shown, especially in the ranks of the youth, who have embraced the resistance and stood as one behind it. All of this sets an example we are proud of; a balanced example of resistance against an occupier, moderate ideology, and open-minded politics that is aware of its Arab, Islamic, regional and international surroundings.

To the Israelis I say that your leadership is leading you to destruction. Brutal military force won›t change his-tory, nor will it give the occupiers a just cause or defeat those who actually have a just cause. The Palestin-ian people are committed to their right to their land, to defend themselves and to life the siege imposed on Gaza, and their number one demand is to elimi-nate the occupation and settlement. If the Israelis do not recognise this, then they are wasting time and ex-hausting themselves and their security, and their lead-ers are misleading them if they think they can break the will of a free nation like the Palestinians.

To read the full interview, follow this link:

http://bit.ly/1tt4fmK

I say to the people of Gaza that you are have a just cause, you are doing the right thing and, God-willing, you will be victorious

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Documents

Issue no 100