Venezuela Sends Second Shipment of Humanitarian Aid to Palestinian Territories

National Radio of Venezuela, January 21

The government of Venezuela sent a second shipment of aid to the Palestinian people in order to contribute in fighting the health crisis in the area resulted from recent Israeli attacks.

This second humanitarian aid included 84 tons of food, medicine, blankets and other items were sent from the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, located in the state of Vargas.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro said that “the United Nations is in charge of medical personnel and despite the fact that it has not been done yet, the sending of Venezuelan doctors of Arabic background who wish to help could be coordinated.”

“We are going to monitor the status of the Palestinian people. All of humanity should monitor the situation in the Palestinian territories. These people have suffered 60 years of abuse and crimes,” said Maduro.

The Foreign Minister noted that “what happened in the Gaza Strip is a reflection of 60 years of suffering for the Palestinian people, so our government will continue to pay attention in international organizations and in every process that has begun to negotiate a stable peace. We will follow negotiations to return land and the right to a free, sovereign, whole and peaceful state to the Palestinian people.”

Minister Maduro assured that Venezuela will continue to “have firm, clear positions in the face of blackmail that some sectors of the domestic right-wing and the international right-wing are trying to engage in worldwide.”

Israel admits troops may have used phosphorus shells in Gaza

Peter Beaumont, Jan 21, The Guardian

Israel has admitted – after mounting pressure – that its troops may have used white phosphorus shells in contravention of international law, during its three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip.

One of the places most seriously affected by the use of white phosphorus was the main UN compound in Gaza City, which was hit by three shells on 15 January. The same munition was used in a strike on the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City the same day.

Under review by Colonel Shai Alkalai is the use of white phosphorus by a reserve paratroop brigade in northern Israel.

According to army sources the brigade fired up to 20 phosphorus shells in a heavily built-up area around the Gaza township of Beit Lahiya, one of the worst hit areas of Gaza.

The internal inquiry – which the army says does not have the status of the full investigation demanded by human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – follows weeks of fighting in which Israel either denied outright that it was using phosphorus-based weapons, or insisted that what weapons it was using "were in line with international law".

Phosphorus is a toxic chemical agent that burns on contact with air and creates thick white smokes in order to hide troop movements. However phosphorus shells are largely indiscriminate scattering large numbers of fragments over a large area, which can cause severe damage to both human tissue and property.

As the Guardian reported yesterday, Palestinian doctors have reported treating dozens of cases of suspected phosphorus burns.

According to senior IDF officers, quoted today in the Ha'aretz newspaper, the Israeli military made use of two different types of phosphorus munitions.

The first, they insisted, was contained in 155mm artillery shells, and contained "almost no phosphorus" except for a trace to ignite the smoke screen.

The second munitions, at the centre of the inquiry by Col Alkalai, are standard phosphorus shells – both 88mm and 120mm – fired from mortars.

About 200 of these shells were fired during Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, and of these – say the IDF – 180 were fired on Hamas fighters and rocket launch crews in northern Gaza.

Alkalai is investigating the circumstances in which the remaining 20 shells were fired, amid compelling evidence on the ground that phosphorus munitions were involved in the attack on a UN warehouse and a UN school.

The mortar system is guided by GPS and according to Israel a failure of the targeting system may have been responsible for civilian deaths. However, critics point out the same explanation was used for mis-targeting deaths in Beit Hanoun in Gaza in 2006.

The brigade's officers, however, added that the shells were fired only at places that had been positively identified as sources of enemy fire.

The use of phosphorus as an incendiary weapon as it now appears to have been used against Hamas fighters – as opposed to a smoke screen – is covered by the Convention of Certain Conventional Weapons to which Israel in not a signatory.

However, Israel also is obliged under the Geneva Conventions and customary international humanitarian law to give due care to protecting the civilian population when deciding on appropriate military targeting and response to hostile fire, particularly in heavily built up areas with a strict prohibition on the use of indiscriminate force.

"They obviously could not have gone on denying the use of phosphorus," Donatella Rovera, Amnesty researcher for Israel and the Occupied Territories, told the Guardian yesterday. "There are still phosphorus wedges burning all over Gaza including at the UN compound and at the school.

"It is clear they are not using it as smoke screen as they claimed. They used it in areas where they had no forces, and there are much less problematic smoke screens that they could have used."

Amnesty on Monday warned that Israel could be guilty of war crimes, saying the use of the shells in a civilian areas was "clear and undeniable".

Rovera demanded too that Israel produce clear evidence that there were fighters in the areas it says its troops were fired upon when the phosphorus munitions were fired.

The admission that the shells may have been used improperly follows yesterday's demand by the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon for an investigation into the targeting of UN facilities – including by phosphorus weapons.

It also follows the decision by the IDF to protect the names of battalion and brigade commanders who participated in Operation Cast Lead.

According to Israel Army Radio on Wednesday the decision – ordered by defence minister Ehud Barak – was made in anticipation that war crimes charges may be filed against IDF officers, who could face prosecution when they travel overseas.

Rally to support the people of Gaza this Sunday

*** PRESS RELEASE ***
(Friday 2/1/09)
Rally to support the people of Gaza this Sunday
Stop the massacres! End the siege! Justice for Palestine!

A protest and march to support the people of Gaza will begin at Sydney Town Hall at 2pm this Sunday January 4th 2009.

The demonstration has been initiated by the Sydney-based Gaza Defence Committee, a broad coalition of individuals and organisations that seek to build solidarity in Australia with the people of Gaza.

The protest will condemn the massacres and inhumane siege of Gaza by the Israeli government and military.

Israel has bombarded from the skies children on their way home from school, police stations and densely populated civilian areas. Hundreds have been killed and thousands injured in a matter of days.

The massacre comes after two years of economic blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel to punish Palestinians for democratically electing a Hamas government. Many Gazans had already died due to lack of basic medical treatment, food, clean water and electricity and over 60% live below the UN poverty line.

Now, having taken control of all Gaza's borders and starved its 1.5 million inhabitants, the Israeli military – the forth largest in the world – massacres a trapped, defenceless and impoverish population from the skies.

"Incredibly, at a time when everyone with a shred of humanity needs to stand with the people of Gaza… the Australian government is calling Palestinians 'aggressors' and justifying Israel's massacre," said Tim Dobson, a spokesperson for the Gaza Defence Committee. "That's why everyone in Australia needs to protest on Sunday. To show the people of Gaza we are with them."

The demonstration will march from Town Hall to Belmore Park via the Egyptian consulate in Surry Hills.

For more information please call Tim 0430 209 865 or Ghassan 0408 605 437