UN humanitarian chief visits Sderot, condemns Qassam rocket fire

The United Nations's humanitarian chief toured the Qassam-battered western Negev town of Sderot on Sunday, condemning the rocket fire and urging Gaza's Hamas rulers to end the attacks.

"We condemn absolutely the firing of these rockets. There's no justification for it. They are indiscriminate, there's no military target," John Holmes, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, told The Associated Press after the tour.

During the tour of Sderot, Holmes visited a school, a lookout point onto Gaza and met with trauma victims.

Holmes nodded quietly as residents, some in tears, told their personal stories of anguish. A local men lifted his shirt and showed Holmes a shrapnel wound on his belly as a woman told him how she had lost a fetus after going into shock when a Qassam rocket landed near her. The woman added that a teenage daughter of hers had attempted to cut her wrists after one rocket attack.

Holmes said he felt incredibly sorry for the people of Sderot, noting the traumatic psychological effects the attacks have had on children.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/955015.html

What is one supposed to do, criticize what he said? Silence is agreement in this case.

where are all those "pro-Israeli" posters who regularly denounce the UN as an organization who's seeming sole reason for being is to make Israel "look bad" and/or "deny Israel's right to exist"

Shouldn't they be calling BS on this too, or is it a double standard? When the UN supports Israel or the people of Sderot it's OK when it doesn't it's wrong, is that how it works?

IMHO the UN is right in both cases

i guess the UN finally decided to say something...after all its getting hard and harder to figure out how israel is causing it.....

for contrast just for fun...in the past when a single israeli shell was fired, the condemnations would come fast and harsh....

When has Israel fired a single shell at least in the last 40 years? However are you saying that it is too little too late that would be acceptable and in line with the usual proIsrael line about the UN, otherwise it is a double standard.

A single, one-tonne missile.


12 dead in attack on Hamas

Seven children killed as Israelis assassinate military chief

Suzanne Goldenberg in Jerusalem
The Guardian,
Tuesday July 23 2002

Israeli F-16 warplanes bombed the house of the military commander of Hamas in Gaza City last night, burying him and at least 11 other Palestinians, including seven children, beneath the rubble of a four-storey block of flats, and wounding 120 others.

Last night's assassination of Sheikh Salah Shehadeh is the most serious blow to the military wing of Hamas since the start of the Palestinian uprising nearly two years ago. Shehadeh was among the founders of Hamas's Izzedine al-Qassem Brigades, and spent a decade in Israeli jails.

His killing may also prove to be one of the most lethal acts of assassination by the Israeli army since it embarked on a strategy of killing Palestinian militants.

>snip

In Gaza City, doctors at Shifa hospital said 12 people were killed in the missile strike, including Shehadeh's wife and three sons. At least four of the other dead were also children.

The high death toll - and Shehadeh's importance to Hamas - makes an act of revenge almost inevitable. The Islamist organisation has been the major purveyor of suicide bombings inside Israel.

Witnesses said a single missile streaked across the sky from the two F-16 jet fighters overhead, flattening a building in the Karkash neighbourhood in a huge explosion. At least five other houses were destroyed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jul/23/israel1

What action does Israel have the right to take against these Qassam attacks? What would be an appropriate response?

Another 20,000 jailed? How about a year of only bread and water for Gazans? Banning education? House arrest for everyone in Gaza?

Or Israel could negotiate a ceasefire.

Nah. Napalm? The nuclear option? Ground assault? Mass starvation?

I think a ceasefire would be the best solution at this point. Certainly preferable to the various military options being discussed. From what I understand there are third-party discussions going on via Egypt. There is some concern, I think, for what this would mean for Abbas (Could it be viewed as undercutting his authority for Israel to negotiate with Hamas, even through back-channels?) From what I've been reading, they are trying to work out a deal involving a prisoner exchange in addition to some kind of long-term cease fire. This schism between Hamas and Fatah, and by extension Gaza and the West Bank does complicate the negotiations process to some extent, wouldn't you agree? Have you heard anything regarding the two political parties moving towards reconciliation or some kind of cooperation?

Incidentally, I don't know why there needs to be a sarcastic undertone in this discussion. We are all hoping for (and working towards) a peaceful solution and a life free from conflict for Israelis and Palestinians.

Who will be, excuse me here, but "unmanned" by doing negotiating up front? There have been mumblings about Fatah and Hamas negotiating, but Israel threatens to cut Abu Mazen off by the purse strings for even seriously thinking about it, Hamas is not going away and the people of Sderot and Gaza are tired of the BS, so as it stands Israel holds the cards and will continue to make demands and use Gaza in part as an excuse to stall the peace process and build more settlements on the WB with out giving an inch.

Yes most, but not all on this forum wish for a peaceful solution, however there are facets of the those on both sides with actual power that are too deeply vested in the continuation of hostilities to stop now.

It's also my understanding that Abbas himself is as frustrated with Hamas as Israel is. And it is possible that Hamas could "go away" in the sense that they could be voted out of power by new elections.

If Hamas were interested in pursuing peace with both their Fatah rivals and the Israelis, there are steps that could be taken to facilitate this process.

Undoubtedly, there are things going on behind the scenes that the public can only hypothesize about, however, I've not seen a lot of language from Hamas that indicates that they are committed to any kind of peace process.

I agree with your conclusion that there are those on both side who wish to continue the hostilities.

At the same time, I believe that the majority of Israelis and Palestinians want peace. Hopefully those voices will be heeded.

You say that Israel holds the cards, but Hamas has the power to change everything instantly if it so chose.

Imagine if Hamas stated that they were renouncing violence as a resistance tactic. Imagine if Hamas stated that they are amending the Hamas charter to include recognition of Israel (as the PLO did). These steps alone would radically change the dynamics of the conflict.

The Israeli government, of course, could take steps towards peace that would change the situation dramatically as well.

I would argue that there are lots of cards being held (so to speak) by numerous interested parties involved in this conflict.

Here's a link to something in english:

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=33

Has the Hamas leadership expressed a willingness to negotiate with Israel directly, rather than through a third party?

In the article you linked to, Mr. Yousef says that Hamas is interested in a cease fire but does not indicate whether or not they would be willing to engage in direct negotiations with Israel.

Having read much of the English-language Israeli press online, I have not seen any explicit statements from Hamas suggesting that they would.

It was my understanding that Hamas did not want to negotiate with Israel directly because that may give the impression that Hamas was willing to recognize Israel's existence.

At the very least, the Hamas leadership have sent out mixed signals about what steps they are willing to take in the name of peace.

talk about a ceasefire with the "Zionist entity" that they don't acknowledge exists?

To talk about ten years, during which time they can gather their weapons cache to complete the take over of "all of greater Palestine" as is their stated mission?

Intent means nothing. The Hamas leadership needs to speak the words, acknowledge that a ceasefire means acknowledging that such a ceasefire is WITH Israel, not some nonentity "over there" that they don't see, recognize or believe exists.

The only way forward is through negotiotions and agreeing a reasonable two-state solution.

We should IMO support groups actively seeking peaceful solutions.

www.allmep.org

www.bsst.org.uk

Nothing else will do the job. That means working with Hamas, there is nobody else at present that will serve. That doesn't mean you can't work to replace Hamas with some party more to your liking, but you have to do it democratically, by working to provide a better offering down the road.

If you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting.

without triggering a civil war? One thing that is not clear to me is just how much control Hamas has over the various militant groups.

I just don't see anyone else likely being up to it. What they could do with a motive and suitable cooperation, you'd have to do the experiment to find out. Or you could try to get Hamas and Fatah to work together on it. I mean, what have we got to lose? The present situation sucks. Lives, money, and time are being thrown down a rathole. I'm just saying that the present course is not working, and hasn't been working for a long time. It doesn't have to be a zero-sum game. Hamas has said that it is willing to compete peacefully and leave the final political resolution to future generations. I think that's as good as it's going to get at this point. There isn't going to be some short-term fix. It took a long time to get to the present situation, it will take a long time, generations, to fix it. What concerns me is that I don't see that to be an easy task for either side, politically. The present situation may be as good as it gets.

The United Nations's undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs warned Israel against an invasion of the Gaza Strip and said that the crisis in the South can be solved only by diplomacy.

"The only thing that will make a lasting difference is a peace settlement," he said. "You can't stop these problems militarily. They have to be solved through negotiations."

In an interview with Haaretz after his visit to Sderot, Sir John Holmes said that the response to the Qassam rocket attacks must be proportional from a humanitarian point of view. The former British diplomat, who had been involved in negotiations regarding Northern Ireland, said that despite the terrorism, the British government never considered bombing that region, and sought other means to resolve the crisis. Holmes said he was aware of the domestic pressure on the Israeli government to respond to the Qassam attacks, as well as the differences between the situation here and in Northern Ireland, but said there were no magic formulas.

The senior UN official had requested to meet with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, but was turned down.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/955267.html

Poor Sir John, Tzipi and Ehud say they don't need no steenkeeng negotiations, they have cluster bombs and big, big guns.

2 days ago

GAZA CITY (AFP) — The top UN humanitarian affairs official, John Holmes, visited the Gaza Strip on Friday and said he was "shocked by the miserable things" he had seen.

Holmes, under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, was in Gaza on the second day of a five-day visit to the Palestinian territories and Israel.

He told reporters at a news conference that the misery he saw was the result of the current closed border crossings with Israel and the "limited food and other materials allowed in."

Israel has kept Gaza under effective lockdown since last June following the territory's takeover by the Islamist movement Hamas.

Last month Israel tightened the blockade on Gaza before easing it slightly.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5it8NtASu0wK8uxEsME2NCpDcApGQ