[Sayed Zakerya]

Gaza: The massacre in Zeitoun
By Tom Eley
10 January 2009

In the annals of war crimes, the name "Zeitoun" will assume its place alongside names like "My Lai," "Fallujah," "Sabra-Shatila," "Guernica," "Nanking," "Lidice," and "Wounded Knee."

In the last two days, the massacre that took place in Zeitoun, a neighborhood on the southern flats approaching Gaza City, has only now begun to come into focus. Aid groups, including the Red Cross, have used the three-hour pauses in Israel bombardment that began on Wednesday in a desperate attempt to remove the wounded, some of whom apparently still remain. Most of the dead have been left behind.

What is particularly horrifying about the Zeitoun massacre—details of which continue to unfold—is the sadistic behavior of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). This is a mass killing that has unfolded over days.

It appears that the IDF tricked residents, promising that they would be safe gathered in large groups in particular buildings, only to bomb them later. Over the course of four days, the Israelis then left the sick and dying—all civilians, the majority small children—with no medical assistance, food or water, even though Israelis enjoyed total control over the area. At the same time, they refused repeated requests for access to the neighborhood by aid workers.

It is not clear how many have died in Zeitoun. At this point, it appears the number is somewhere between 70 and 85. But this figure may grow significantly as the unassisted wounded continue to die, and as aid workers uncover bodies of victims in bombed-out buildings.

Israel raided Zeitoun on Sunday, quickly establishing its control. The town occupies a strategic location south of Gaza City, and will be used should the IDF launch an attack on the city proper.

According to survivors, after invading the IDF compelled extended families to gather in centrally located buildings, marching families at gunpoint from one building to the next. The IDF told the residents of Zeitoun that they were being led to houses that would not be bombed.

But in at least once case, it has emerged that the IDF forced some 110 Palestinians into a house that was then bombed within 24 hours, killing perhaps 70 people, all civilians. Aid workers only discovered the corpses after being prevented for four days by the IDF from visiting the neighborhood in Zeitoun.

Those in the building, which has been described as a "warehouse" by one survivor, were left inside without food or water. After one day, three men attempted to venture out to find food. They were immediately hit by a barrage of IDF fire. At that point, a missile hit the rooftop of the warehouse.

Meysa Samouni, a 19-year-old who survived the attack with her two-year-old daughter, who was maimed, described the scene: "When the missile stuck, I lay down with my daughter under me. Everything filled up with smoke and dust, and I heard screams and crying. After the smoke and dust cleared a bit, I looked around and saw 20 to 30 people who were dead, and about 20 who were wounded.

"The persons killed around me were my husband, who was hit in the back, my father-in-law, who was hit in the head and whose brain was on the floor, my mother-in-law Rabab, my father-in-law's brother Talal, and his wife Rhama Muhammad a-Samouni, 45, Talal's son's wife, Maha Muhammad a-Samouni, 19, and her son, Muhammad Hamli a-Samouni, five months, whose whole brain was outside his body, Razqa Muhammad a-Samouni, 50, Hanan Khamis a-Samouni, 30, and Hamdi Majid a-Samouni, 22."

A Red Cross medic who visited Zeitoun described a horrific scene. "Inside the Samouni house I saw about 10 bodies and outside another 60,'' the medic told the Telegraph. "I was not able to count them accurately because there was not much time and we were looking for wounded people.... I could see an Israeli army bulldozer knocking down houses nearby but we ran out of time and the Israeli soldiers started shooting at us."

"We had to leave about eight injured people behind because we could not get to them and it was no longer safe for us to stay.'"

In another building in Zeitoun, the Israelis gathered 80 people together. Survivors report Israeli soldiers gunning people down in cold blood as they later attempted to flee. One man, Atiyeh Samouni, was shot by Israelis after he opened his door to receive them. Then his two-year old son was shot, a survivor said.

Most of the men of Zeitoun were rounded up, blindfolded, and marched away. Some were used as human shields, survivors say.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' statement on the bombing was based on the account of survivors, but it corroborated an AP story and testimony gathered by an Israeli human rights group.

This was the same neighborhood where a day earlier the Red Cross found four half-dead children near the corpses of their mothers. The Red Cross discovered the bodies of 15 other people in a bombed structure, who likely suffered slow and agonizing deaths for lack of medical care. Israeli soldiers were stationed within 100 yards of the dying family.

Aid agencies became aware of the massacre at Zeitoun when surviving members of the Samouni clan arrived in Gaza City early in the week. According to the Telegraph, "A handful of survivors, some wounded, others carrying dead or dying infants, made it on foot to Gaza's main north-south road before they were given lifts to hospital. Three small children were buried in Gaza City that afternoon."

But Israel refused to allow the Red Cross to visit the neighborhood until Wednesday.

One hundred other people in need of medical treatment have been evacuated from Zeitoun—not for injuries, but for dehydration and famine. The town has been without water and food since Israel overran it Sunday evening.

Speaking in Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay condemned the Israeli atrocities in Gaza. Israel claims that all of its actions are justified by Palestinians' ineffective rocket fire from Gaza. But Pillay said that this did not obviate Israel from observing international law. In an interview with BBC, Pillay said Israel's actions appear to have "all the elements of war crimes."

Because the IDF has persistently attacked relief organizations, the UN and the World Food Program have stopped delivery of relief supplies to Gaza. Since Wednesday, Israel has claimed to observe a three-hour cease-fire in order to allow humanitarian workers to reach areas the IDF controls. However, in several instances, the IDF has fired on aid workers during the supposed three-hour lapse.

According to the Geneva Conventions, an invading army is responsible for caring for the sick, wounded, and hungry in the territory it controls. Israel clearly does not observe these conventions, effectively blocking the delivery of food and medicine, firing upon ambulances and preventing them from reaching the wounded, and leaving the sick and wounded under its own control to die.

There are indications that Zeitoun was specifically targeted for exemplary punishment by the IDF. The Telegraph reports that it was a place of known Hamas activity.

In addition to Shimoon Perez, Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni , Anyone who has information about the following criminal names when they are outside of the Israeli borders, should report immediately to:

The Prosecutor
POBox 19519
2500 Hague
Netherlands
Fax +31 70 515 8 555

These criminals are :-
Matan Vilnai Deputy defense minister
Gabi Ashkenazi, the Israel defense Forces chief of staff
Major-General Amir Eshel, the army’s head of strategic planning
Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit
Ma-jor-General Yoav Galant, the chief of Israel’s southern front
Brigadier Eyal Eisenberg The commander of the Gaza Division
The Golani Brigade Commander, Colonel Avi Peled
the Givati Brigade Commander, Colonel Ilan Malka
Yossi Drori, Commander of the IDF's Tzabar regiment in the Givati Brigade

The above have committed crimes against humanity. They directly or indirectly shared in the assassination of helpless children, women & unarmed civilians during the period between the 27th of Dec till the 18th of Jan. They have employed prohibited weapons against civilian targets & refugee assembly zones. They have demolished indiscriminately buildings, schools, worship locations, houses & public infrastructure for no-clear military goals or benefit. They have introduced obstacles to help the wounded or to evacuate the threatened from the areas of milirtary actions. In addition they tried to keep their crimes confidential by preventing the Media from the adequate coverage of the war scenes & denying reporters access to Gaza strip through the crossings ports.

[sploop!]

More on Zeitoun:

Gaza: Palestinian family mourns 48 dead
Members of a Palestinian family which lost 48 members in Israel's military assault on Gaza have given their first full account of the bloodshed.

By Tim Butcher in Zeitoun, Gaza
Last Updated: 3:34PM GMT 19 Jan 2009

The sight of her dead four-year-old son's blood splashed on a breeze-block wall was enough to start Zinad Samouni sobbing.

But the 35-year-old Palestinian mother of eight then composed herself to give the most complete first hand allegation yet of atrocities committed by Israeli forces when they occupied the village of Zeitoun on the outskirts of Gaza City.

Standing in the wreckage of her home she described the cold-blooded shooting of her 46-year-old husband, Atiyeh, and her son, Ahmed, in an incident that could form the core of a war crimes investigation against Israel.

The United Nations commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, has already said Israel should be investigated for what happened in Zeitoun on between Jan 4 and Jan 5.

So far dozens of bodies, mostly women, children and elderly, have been recovered, almost all from the same Samouni extended family.

The 48th – horribly decomposed - corpse was found on Monday but there are fears others lie under the rubble and soil churned up by Israeli armoured vehicles.

"We had been in our houses for days worried about the airstrikes when the soldiers came early on the morning of Sunday 4th January,'' Zinad Samouni told The Daily Telegraph.

"There was shooting outside and we were all afraid so we all hid in this one room.''

Pushing open the bullet-scarred door she listed the people who were there; her husband, his first wife, Zahwe, 42, with her seven sons, a cousin, Hamdi, and herself with her eight children.

"We were terrified as shells hit the roof in other parts of the house but we thought we were lucky because they did not hit our room.

"Eventually we heard soldiers coming in and banging on the door at around 6.30am.

"Atiyeh went to the door with his hands raised holding his ID but they shot him in the doorway and he fell forward.''

Faraj Samouni, 22, Zahwe's son, said that the children inside the room then started to scream as Israeli soldiers entered.

"I shouted 'children, children' in Hebrew but they started shooting,'' he said.

"Ahmed was hit two times. His sister Amal was hit in the head and she is still in hospital.''

Zinad Samouni tearfully pointed at a lick of blood on the wall and then turned over the mattress the children had been sitting on to show more blood.

"I carried him in my arms still bleeding and we had to step over the body of his father,'' she said. "We had to leave Atiyeh but I hoped to save Ahmed.

"He died as I carried him.''

Atiyeh lay decomposing for almost two weeks where he had been shot while Israeli soldiers occupied a four-storey house next door, leaving a collection of racist graffiti.

Most was written in Hebrew but Israeli soldiers had also marked the walls in English, with messages such as "ARabs need 2 die'', "Arabs are pieces of shit'' and "1 is DOWN 999,999 TO GO''.

The house was the only large property allowed to stand by the Israeli army, which set about flattening all the other buildings in Zeitoun including homes, the mosque and a chicken farm.

They used it as an observation post from where to watch the open ground around Zeitoun which guards the southern approaches to Gaza City.

What happened in the house of Wael Samouni, 39, almost opposite the four-storey structure, is also likely to figure in any war crimes investigation.

Survivors alleged that Israeli forces shepherded a large group of about 110 members of the Samouni family inside and they then shelled it. At least 30 bodies were recovered from the wreckage.

It is now barely recognisable as a building because it was flattened by the Israeli armed forces.

Next door Faris Samouni, 59, the father of Wael, picked through the wreckage of his own house and wept as he explained what happened to his wife, Rizka.

"Our house has a corrugated iron roof and she thought it would be safer to go next door to Wael's house because it had a concrete roof,'' he said, with tears welling in his eyes.

"But she was not safer and I was able to runaway but she stayed inside the house and was killed.''

Her badly decayed body was only found on Sunday, after Israeli troops pulled back from Zeitoun and a thorough search of the site was possible.

Ambulance drivers were shot at by Israeli forces when they first tried to reach the dead and wounded in the village.

They have since made four visits, collecting 48 bodies so far.

The International Committee of the Red Cross reminded Israel of its obligations towards civilians under the rules of war when ambulance crew found children in Zeitoun clinging to the corpses of their mothers.

The children had been out in the open for two days and nights but Israeli forces, less than 100 yards away, did nothing.

The Israeli army has denied acting improperly in Zeitoun.

ends

source

Zeitoun becomes a symbol
Witnesses tell of a Palestinian family that lost 29 members during Israel's Gaza offensive.

By Elliott D. Woods - Special to GlobalPost
Published: January 22, 2009 22:56 ET
Updated: January 23, 2009 06:34

ETZEITOUN, Gaza Strip — A month ago, when Abdel Al-Arkan looked out of his living room window, he saw groves of olive and orange trees stretching toward the Israeli border, their branches sagging with fruit.

Al-Arkan’s window is gone now, shattered by an Israeli air strike. The trees are gone, too, torn up by tank treads, replaced by fields of reddish dirt. When he peers through the shards, Al-Arkan, 31, sees the post-apocalyptic wreckage of his neighbors’ homes, reduced to tangled heaps of concrete and re-bar.

And he realizes that his neighbors lost even more than he did. They lost everything.

Twenty-nine members of the Samouni family were killed during the three-week Israeli offensive. Most of them died in the wreckage of their home which, Al-Arkan, several neighbors and two surviving Samouni family members said, was hit with repeated Israeli air strikes in the first part of the offensive which ended with a tenuous truce between Israel and Hamas.

“I never imagined they would do this here,” he said, working a set of worry beads through his fingers.

According to a statement from the Office of the Israeli Defense Forces, Israel acted aggressively in Gaza to “strike a hard blow against Hamas, by controlling areas from which rockets were launched.”

“This was also the purpose of the fighting in Zeitoun,” the statement continued.

IDF officials declined to respond when asked whether the Al-Arkan or the Samouni family homes were a military target, but are reportedly looking into the incident. International Red Cross officials and members of the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem have also been looking into the reports and gathering first-person accounts of the killing at Zeitoun.

Subhi Samouni, 55, described the events that led to the air strikes in which he lost 29 members of his extended family during the three-week conflict. He said after decades of enduring the endless cycles of fighting ,that he was stunned by the brutality of the recent Israel assault.

“In past invasions, the tanks came to the Zeitoun area and stopped. There were no soldiers or bombs, just the threat," he said. "This time they killed and destroyed the land. I don’t know why.”

Al-Arkan and the other neighbors say they are supporters of Fatah, the political rival to Hamas, and thus disputes the presumed Israeli justification for the destruction to not only his property, but hundreds of civilian homes, farms and businesses, especially in areas like Zeitoun, where Hamas had little support before the conflict.

IDF officials refused to give details about the operation in Zeitoun, or the widespread destruction of livestock, farmland, and civilian structures attributed to Israeli soldiers and aircraft. The IDF website confirms that a cache of weapons was found in a mosque in Zeitoun, but few details of the Isareli military operation are provided.

During the three-week Israeli offensive, 1,300 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed, according to UN officials and medical personnel on the ground. Reportedly, 13 Israelis, including 10 soldiers, were killed.

For Rania Samouni, 29, who lost her husband, Eyad, 30, during the offensive, the evidence of the destruction by Israelis remains written on the wall — literally.

After their ground offensive, she said, retreating IDF troops carved into the concrete walls of the family home the words "Death to Arabs," in Hebrew. Puzzlingly one of the soldiers also scrawled, "I am Russian," in English.

They also left the house littered with Israeli candy wrappers and empty bottles of Kosher wine. On the house next door (which also belonged to the Samouni family), they left a cartoon dragon shooting a missile out of its mouth.

A hole was knocked out of the center of each wall, at the joint between the floor and the wall, to serve as a fighting position for a rifleman. On the roof there were sandbags and empty cans of sardines. Pots for cooking had been used as latrines.

As for her husband, Rania left it to her mother, Etidal, 50, to tell of the events of Jan. 5, when a helicopter landed on the roof and Israeli soldiers rushed in, yelling "‘Sheket!” which means “silence” in Hebrew.

Etidal claims IDF soldiers forced 45 cowering Samounis into a cramped room, blindfolded eight of the men, zip-tied their wrists and ordered them to their knees while an Arabic-speaking soldier yelled, “What is your name? Are you with Hamas?”

Rania cuts in, saying the soldiers then ordered the family out into the cold darkness, separating Eyad and two of his cousins from the group and telling them, “Walk to Gaza City, and don’t come back.”

As the wives of the retreating men pleaded frantically with the Israelis, a soldier opened fire, wounding Eyad in the leg, Rania said, while her 3-year-old, Azat, buried his head in her shawl. “Azat saw everything happen," she continued. "He saw his father’s blood in the street. How can I raise my children now? Who will provide for them?”

As the uneasy truce settles over Gaza, attention has turned to the reported recriminations by Hamas loyalists against Fatah supporters in Gaza. Fatah is accused of conspiring with Israel to bring down Hamas.

“I have heard from friends who are with Fatah that Hamas told them to stay at home,” said Salah Sakka, 62, director of a U.S.-based aid organization in Gaza.

Hatim Al-Ghoul, 26, said he fears a strong Hamas backlash against Fatah in Gaza because “Hamas thinks Abu Mazen,” the nickname of Palestinian president and Fatah party leader Mahmoud Abbas, “agreed with Israel to make the war in Gaza.”

Yousri Al-Ghoul, 28, scoffed at his younger brother as he described the recent arrest and suspected execution of a neighbor by Hamas. “Hamas doesn’t care about Fatah now,” he said. “Many people from Al-Aqsa Brigade (Fatah’s paramilitary wing) fought alongside Hamas in this war, and they died as martyrs.”

Yousri Al-Ghoul serves the Hamas government in the Ministry of Culture, one of the few to escape Israeli bombing. “Most of the people who have been arrested were already in jail before the war,” he said. “They escaped when Israel blew up Sariyah prison, and now they are being arrested again.”

Despite the cease-fire, and the human misery enveloping Gaza, neither side in the conflict appears ready to cede fully.

On Sunday, at the mass funeral held for the 29 members of the Samounis clan, a rocket whooshed overhead toward Israel from behind the cemetery as the family began unloading its dead, shrouded in white bodybags.

Subhi Samouni rested on a tomb, exhaustion and sorrow written across his weathered face.

“It would be better to be dead like them than to see this,” he said.

(Elliott D. Woods is reporting from Gaza on a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.)

source

E V I L. I S R A E L I. M U R D E R E R S.

[Dave]

i didn't read any of the articles posted in this thread

[sploop!]

Without reading the posts, I am guessing your contribution to this thread can only go downhill from here on in

[Aekos]

Probably not going to happen. Western war criminals are held to a different standard.

[Decky]

Probably not going to happen. Western war criminals are held to a different standard.

It's not that hey are held to a different standard it's that they are not war criminals. In this postmodern age definitions are malleable and depend more on the who the culprit and the victim was that on the act itself.

[sploop!]

^ But I thought with Obama in the big chair, we were going to stop all this nonsense about re-defining 'torture' and 'enemy' and so on, to suit our purposes. I feel cheated.

[Aekos]

Eh, don't. You can't except Obama to change that, it's just the psychology of the whole region. He doesn't have much power over that.

[Decky]

But I thought with Obama in the big chair, we were going to stop all this nonsense about re-defining 'torture' and 'enemy' and so on, to suit our purposes. I feel cheated.

I sincerely hope that you were being sarcastic. Obama will change nothing, I'm shocked that someone could think that he would.

[sploop!]

Yeah - I was being a dumb-ass. In reality, I am really fucking annoyed that the War Crimes of the West (including Israel) don't count. What's the point of having War Crimes if they only apply to some?

[Dave]

imagine chasing israeli war criminals in mario kart

[Erebus]

i didn't read any of the articles posted in this thread

These posts get better and better.

[Decky]

Yeah - I was being a dumb-ass. In reality, I am really fucking annoyed that the War Crimes of the West (including Israel) don't count. What's the point of having War Crimes if they only apply to some?

The same as the point of any crime. To keep those at the top in power at the expense of the others. War crimes allow the west to demonize the enemy but when we do it it's collateral damage of the dead or imprisoned civilians are conveniently renamed combatants. In the case of unarmed nonuniform children we imprison and torture (Guantanamo) we call them irregular combatants.

In contrast when Iran captured British soldiers on Iranian waters and fed them housed them etc the fact that they had blindfolded one of them was considered torture.

[War Angel]

Good luck persecuting and prosecuting millions of Israelis.

[sploop!]

^ Sounds like we have something in common. We both believe that every adult citizen of Israel is responsible. Our only argument is around what they are responsible for.

[War Angel]

^ Sounds like we have something in common. We both believe that every adult citizen of Israel is responsible.

And that is why you supported terrorist activity against Israeli civilians - they are all inherently evil, in your eyes.

Our only argument is around what they are responsible for.

Meh, scrap the argument - let's see anyone proving, prosecuting and convicting an Israeli of war crimes.

[sploop!]

And that is why you supported terrorist activity against Israeli civilians - they are all inherently evil, in your eyes.

Oh, no! my cover is blown! It's the anti-Semitism argument again. And you just know there is no defence. Damn you, Israel! Damn you to hell!

But to answer the serious part of your reply: Proof isn't the problem. Taking action is.

[War Angel]

But to answer the serious part of your reply: Proof isn't the problem. Taking action is.

You see, sploopy boy, the justice system is based on evidence and proof. 'Taking action' is up Hamas alley, so if you wanna help them, better start training right away...

[Voltaire]

You see, sploopy boy, the justice system is based on evidence and proof. 'Taking action' is up Hamas alley, so if you wanna help them, better start training right away...

War angel, Your name does do great justice to what your beliefs entail.

Israel kills and wages war with any country it wishes, however at the end of the day the Israelis are considered the innocents. Hence the angel.

Now let me ask you this, do you believe in the basic Muslim principle of "2 eyes for an eye and teeth for a tooth"?

Terrorism refers only to those acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants.

Just about sums up Israels war methods

[War Angel]

Israel kills and wages war with any country it wishes, however at the end of the day the Israelis are considered the innocents. Hence the angel.

Israel does not 'wage war with any country it wishes', and Israelis are never referred to as innocent - we are Jews, vermin to most people, and fair game for anyone.

Now let me ask you this, do you believe in the basic Muslim principle of "2 eyes for an eye and teeth for a tooth"?

That is not a Muslim principle - it's a biblical excerpt from the Jewish holy book, the Tanakh\Old Testament. I partially agree with it, but only if it furthers a solution, not as revenge.

Terrorism refers only to those acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants.

Just about sums up Israels war methods

Yes, very objective of you.