NAHARIYA, Israel – Around 7am on January 8, rockets fired from southern Lebanon landed in Nahariya in northern Israel.  One landed on the roof of the kitchen in a nursing home, lightly injuring one.  In total three Katyusha rockets were fired and two people were injured.

Israel responded by firing five artillery shells into Lebanon, calling it a “pinpoint response at the source of fire.”  Israeli officials suggested that the rocket strike was an isolated incident and that it would not lead to escalation. “We look at it as a local event, something that was predictable,” Cabinet Minister Isaac Herzog said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora condemned the attack and called for the army and the UN to investigate.  A government official said, “Lebanon denounces and condemns the firing of rockets and the retaliatory action and believes that such action is in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701… We have asked the competent authorities to investigate.”  UN Security Council resolution 1701 outlined the truce ending the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah denied any involvement in the attack and Lebanese Information Minister Tarek Mitri told the AFP news agency he was “assured” by the militant group Hezbollah they were not involved in the rocket attacks.  Rather, it is believed that Palestinians living in Lebanon launched the attack.

Israeli military officials also stated that they believe that Palestinians, not Hezbollah, launched the attack.  However, a statement from Israeli Defense Force’s Northern Command said that Israel “holds the government of Lebanon and the Lebanese armed forces responsible for preventing rocket fire into Israel.”

For more information, please see:

Africasia – Lebanese Government Calls for Probe into Rocket Fire – 8 January 2009

Al Bawaba – Lebanon PM Condemns Rocket Attack on Israel – 8 January 2009

BBC – Rockets Hit Israel from Lebanon – 8 January 2009

International Herald Tribune – 2nd Front? Rockets Land in Israel’s North – 8 January 2009

Jerusalem Post – IDF: Israel Holds Lebanese Gov’t  and Armed Forces Responsible for Rockets – 8 January 2009

New York Times – Rockets Fired from Lebanon into Israel – 8 January 2009

The Telegraph – Israel Hits Back After Lebanese Strike Raises Tension – 8 January 2009

Yedioth – IDF Shells Rocket Launching Sites in Lebanon – 8 January 2009

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

GAZA CITY, Gaza – On January 7, after four days of seeking Israeli guarantees of safe passage, a rescue team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) entered Gaza City.  The rescue team searched several homes in a row of ruined houses in Zaytun, the most shelled neighborhood in Gaza City.  In one home, the ICRC found four emaciated children, too weak to stand, next to the corpses of their mothers.  In the home, another survivor was found; he was also too weak to stand. 

Muhammad Shaheen, a volunteer with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said the team found a scene of devastation. They discovered another 10 corpses inside the house and “dozens” more dead lying in the rubble in the area around.

The ICRC statement added that a search of another home revealed 15 other survivors, including several wounded.  A search of a third home found three more dead.  The Zaytun neighborhood was the scene of an Israeli attack on a house on Monday that was known to have killed nine members of the Samouni family. It was the first time medics had been able to reach the scene.

ICRC believes “that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded.”  Their statement called the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable. 

Pierre Wettach, the ICRC’s head of delegation for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said: “The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded.”

In an ICRC news release, the organization stated that “Large earth walls erected by the Israeli army had made it impossible to bring ambulances into the neighborhood. Therefore, the children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart.”  In total, the ICRC/PRCS rescue team evacuated 18 wounded and 12 others who were extremely exhausted.

The statement said the group was told more wounded people were in the neighborhood, and demanded that Israel grant it and the Red Crescent immediate access and safe passage to search for them.  However, the ICRC has still not received confirmation from the Israeli authorities that this will be allowed.

In response to the ICRC’s statement, a spokesman for Israel’s military said that the Red Cross’s news release was the first he had heard of the alleged incident.  The spokesman told CNN that “We do make every effort and our soldiers do put themselves at risk” to help wounded civilians.

On January 6, the ICRC held a press briefing, during which ICRC’s Director of Operations, Pierre Krähenbühl, described the situation of civilians in Gaza as “intolerable.”  He expressed the ICRC’s grave concern over the growing number of civilian deaths and injuries and the increasing amount of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, that have been effected by the Israeli military operations.  Krähenbühl added that direct attacks against civilians are prohibited, as are indiscriminate attacks. Furthermore, military objectives must not be located in or near densely populated areas. 

“The only people that can legitimately be attacked are those who participate directly in the hostilities. Everyone else must be spared. Likewise, essential civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, the water supply and sewage networks must not be directly attacked. Respect for the rules of IHL – respect of civilians, distinction between civilians and combatants, measures of precaution – are of the utmost importance, all the more so when one considers that Gaza is one of the world’s most densely populated areas. As the conflict intensifies, it is becoming ever more dangerous for civilians.”

For more information, please see:

BBC – Israel Accused Over Gaza Wounded – 8 January 2009

Guardian – Medical Teams Find ‘Unbelievable’ Horror Amid Rubble – 8 January 2009 

ICRC – Gaza: ICRC Demands Urgent Access to Wounded as Israeli Army Fails to Assist Wounded Palestinians – 8 January 2008

New York Times – Gaza Children Found With Mothers’ Corpses – 8 January 2009

Press Association – Infants ‘Left With Mothers’ Bodies’ – 8 January 2009

Times – Red Cross Finds Starving Children With 12 Corpses in Gaza – 8 January 2009

CNN – Red Cross Demands Gaza Access, Cites ‘Shocking’ Discoveries – 7 January 2009

ICRC – Gaza: Plight of Civilians Traumatic in ‘Full-Blown Humanitarian Crises’ – 6 January 2009

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

JABALIYA, Gaza – On January 6, the UN reported that several Israeli artillery shells landed outside a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp.  John Ging, the Director of Operations in Gaza for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said the death toll was 30, including several children, with another 55 people injured.  Medical officials at the scene of the incident report that over 40 were killed.

In a statement, an Israeli military spokesperson said that two of the dead were well known Hamas gunmen, Imad and Hassan Abu Askar.  The Israeli military said that, according to initial checks, its soldiers had come under mortar fire from militants inside the al-Fakhura school.

“The force responded with mortars at the source of fire,” the Israeli military said in its statement. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev accused Hamas as using civilians as human shields and added that Hamas was in violation of international humanitarian law.

“Unfortunately tonight’s incident is just another example of how Hamas operates,” said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev. “This is not the first time they have exploited a UN facility. This is not the first time that they have deliberately used innocent civilians as human shields.”  Israeli media also reports that the limited cabinet is considering whether to file a complaint with the United Nations over the use of UNWRA schools made by Hamas.

Fauzi Barhoun, a Hamas spokesman called the allegations that fighters had used the school to attack Israeli forces “baseless.”  He added, “There was no fire of any kind from the school.” 

Ging told reporters that the school had been sheltering 350 refugees.  When Ging was asked whether Hamas militants were in the area of the school at the time of the strike, he said that there were some clashes in the area, so there was “intense military and militant activity.”  Ging added that the UN staff vetted Palestinians seeking shelter at their facilities to make sure militants were not taking advantage of them and so far there have not been any “violations by militants of our facilities.”

The incident at the al-Fakhura school is among the several bombardments of UN buildings since the ground operations began.  The first incident was an airstrike on the Asma Elementary School in Gaza City and killed three men who were among more than 400 people taking refuge in the building.  Another artillery shell landed inside an empty boys school in Jabaliya.

In addition, ten people were also injured at a UN health center in the Bureij refugee camp; seven were staff and three were patients. Ging called for an independent investigation into this and the other incidents. 

According to the UN, nearly 15,000 refugees are being sheltered in 23 UN operated schools in Gaza.

For more information, please see:

Associated Press – Israel Shells Near UN School, Killing At Least 30 – 6 January 2009

BBC – Strike at Gaza School “Kills 30” – 6 January 2009

Belfast Telegraph – Fury as Israeli School Attack Kills More Than 30 – 6 January 2009

International Herald Tribune – Israeli Mortars Kill 40 Palestinian Refugees – 6 January 2009

International Herald Tribune – UN Chief Deplores Gaza Shelling Near UN Facilities – 6 January 2009

New York Times – Israeli Shells Kill 40 at Gaza UN School – 6 January 2009

Reuters – UN Official Says Gaza School was Clearly Marked – 6 January 2009

SwissInfo – Israeli Shells Kill 42 at UN School – 6 January 2009

Times – Gaza School Strike Forces Barack Obama to Break His Silence – 6 January 2009

Yedioth – Israel May File Complaint over Hamas’ Use of Schools – 6 January 2009