BY STEVE NIVA The Counterpunch March 8-9, 2008 http://www.counterpunch.org/niva03082008.html Steve Niva is a Member of the Faculty, Middle East Studies, The Evergreen State College. 1. There seems to be a massive upsurge in violence in Gaza these past few days; what is happening? It is important to recognize that the violence is mostly one-sided. On the one side, Israel is conducting … [read more]

The murderous embargo must be lifted! In the Gaza Strip one and a half million people virtually live under siege, behind barbed wire and without a chance to escape this prison camp. The living conditions are unbearable due to a severe shortage of food, medicine and clean water, strictly limited power supply and worsening hygienic conditions. Despite this situation the blockade of the Gaza … [read more]

BBC News, 29 February 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7270650.stm Israeli leaders are warning of an imminent conflagration in Gaza after Palestinian militants aimed rockets at the southern city of Ashkelon. The deputy defence minister said the stepped-up rocket fire would trigger what he called a "bigger holocaust" in the Hamas-controlled coastal strip. Israeli air strikes … [read more]

Ramallah, 28/02/2008. An Israeli airstrike aimed at the ministry of interior building in Gaza City also destroyed the nearby Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) head office in Gaza and killed a 5-month-old baby in a residential building in the same area. The PMRS head office was housing the main PMRS clinic in the Gaza Strip, the main pharmacy, an ambulance, a loan centre for handicapped … [read more]

Haaretz Editorial, February 25, 2008 Three years ago, the CBS television network broadcast photos of American soldiers abusing prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The horrifying pictures led to the trials of eight soldiers, dismissals and a storm of outrage in America. At the trial of one prison guard, who was sentenced to eight years in jail, a psychologist gave his evaluation: that … [read more]

Gaza Strip, 27, February, 2008- (PCAS) The water authority in the Gaza Strip has warned of severe epidemics and disease due to water pollution. This will be happening due to the Israeli ban of entering antiseptic and antigerms materials needed for water treatment. Head of water authority, Munbzer Shoblaq, said in a press conference that water will be polluted if Israeli will prevent these … [read more]

One Palestinian has been killed and three others injured in a raid against a police station in the west of Gaza City. The station is located next to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's house. Dr. Mu'awiya Hassanain, head of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian Health Ministry, said that ambulances transferred the dead body and the casualties to a hospital in … [read more]

We were all pleased to see a new wall tear down, but unlike the Berlin Wall, this does not mean that the occupation is over and Gazans are free. Egypt closed the border back and the 5 days of freedom the Gazans courageously allowed themselves by demolishing the walls of their prison didn't allow them to erase 6 months of blockade, without medicines, without drinking water, without electricity, … [read more]