Kim Bullimore
Another Palestinian woman and child were killed on August 1, as the Israeli military continued its relentless round-the-clock bombardment of the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Mervat Fayez Abu Sharikh (24) and Aref Ahmad Abu Qeida (14) were killed when Israeli forces began shelling the Nada buildings, west of the Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. Three more civilians were injured when Beit Hanoun was bombed.
Haaretz reported on August 3 that Israeli forces "killed two Palestinian militants and one civilian in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses said ...
"An air strike killed one militant and seriously wounded two others as gunmen confronted more than 50 Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers advancing near Rafah airport."
The previous day, the International Middle East Media Centre reported that the Palestinian ministry of health had issued a detailed report on Israel's attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip.
According to the report, more than 176 residents of the Gaza Strip have been killed during the Israeli onslaught, including 40 children. More than 872 have been injured, 272 of whom were children. Most of the injuries were serious; dozens of people had lost limbs.
Of the deaths, around a quarter were caused by live rounds of ammunition fired by Israeli occupation forces and 33.8% were caused by surface-to-air missiles. The rest were killed by tank shells and artillery fire.
The report also noted that more than 23 ambulances belonging to the ministry of health and the Red Crescent have been fired on. Israeli military forces have repeatedly targeted ambulances and their crews, ensuring they were either delayed or unable to reach injured and dead Palestinians.
An earlier report issued by the ministry on July 22 noted that since September 2000 when the Al Aqsa intifada (uprising) began, there had been 383 recorded incidents of Israeli aggression against Palestinian medical teams and 39 health workers had been killed by Israeli forces. A further 487 had been injured. More than 38 ambulances had been totally destroyed, and 139 damaged, by Israeli military attacks.
In response to the ongoing attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Palestinian groups have carried out a range of resistance operations in the Occupied Territories. According the July 1 edition of Haaretz, militants attempted to blow holes in Israel's illegal "apartheid wall" in Jenin, and explosives were hurled at an Israeli military post near the Palestinian city of Tul Karam.
As the death toll rises in Gaza and Lebanon, Palestinians have demonstrated in the West Bank and inside Israel against the ongoing Israeli assault.
In Ramallah, more than 2000 Palestinians took to the streets on August 1 to protest the visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region. The rally, which was coordinated by Fateh, called for continued support for the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance.
Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and Israeli Jews have staged demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Um al Fahem in northern Israel. The most recent demonstrations erupted in response to the Israeli military's massacre in the Lebanese village of Qana, which killed nearly 60 people, more than half of whom were children.
Around 300 people joined the demonstration in Haifa, including activists from Gush Shalom and the Israeli Palestinian political party Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality). Protesters called for an immediate ceasefire, the release of captured soldiers and negotiations with Hezbollah and Hamas.
Thousands of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship took part in a demonstration in Um al Fahem on July 30. The protesters carried signs calling for an end to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. At the protest, the village's mayor castigated the leaders of Arab nations for not condemning earlier the Israeli assault on Lebanon.
Ma'an news agency reported that an anti-war demonstration on August 1 in Jerusalem was forcibly dispersed. According to the report, the demonstration outside the United States consulate in the city was peaceful and called for "an immediate end to the Israeli aggression in Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territory".
Israeli security forces used tear gas to break up the protest, firing at close range and seriously injuring several protesters.
Israel's mainstream, pro-Zionist "peace" organisation Peace Now has refused to participate in the anti-war demonstrations. Leaders of the group, of which Labor Party leader and "defence" minister Amir Peretz is a member, have told the Israeli media that the war in Lebanon is a "just war".