Chronological Review of Events/August 2014 – DPR review

Division for Palestinian Rights

Chronological Review of Events Relating to the

Question of Palestine

Monthly media monitoring review

August 2014

1

At least 35 Palestinians have been killed by shelling in Gaza and the Israeli military says one of its soldiers may have been abducted. Israel and Hamas are accusing each other of breaking the ceasefire, which had been announced by the US and the UN and took effect at 8am local time. The fighting broke out less than two hours later. (Times of Malta)

The BBC has seen evidence that appears to confirm that hackers stole several secret military documents from two government-owned Israeli companies that developed the Iron Dome missile defence system. The breaches were first publicised by security blogger Brian Krebs on Monday. The companies denied the incident. However, the team that discovered the incident has given the BBC access to an intelligence report, which indicates that hundreds of files were indeed copied. (BBC)

Robert Serry, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, condemned a serious violation of the humanitarian ceasefire, which was supposed to last for 72 hours. The statement said that Serry called on the Palestinian parties that agreed to the ceasefire to reaffirm their commitment to the ceasefire as soon as possible. “He [Serry] is deeply concerned regarding the serious consequences on the ground that could arise as a result of this incident.” (The Jerusalem Post)

Israel declared on Friday that the 72-hour ceasefire was officially over, prompting the UN to urge the parties to reaffirm their commitment to a truce. Sources close to Gaza factions also said Cairo ceasefire talks planned for Friday have been postponed until further notice. (Reuters, Ynetnews)

“Hamas violated the humanitarian ceasefire which began this morning by firing rockets at Israel from Gaza,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said. A total of 15 rockets and mortar shells have been fired into Israel since the  ceasefire took effect at 8 a.m., according to Israel Radio. Seven rockets were successfully intercepted by Iron Dome. (The Jerusalem Post)

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah criticized the international inaction over Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which he described as involving mass slaughter and “war crimes against humanity”, in a speech read out on his behalf on state television. (The Daily Star)

The death toll in Gaza has topped 1,400, with more than 40 people dying after another day of intense Israeli bombardment from air, sea and land. The toll is now greater than in both previous rounds of fighting between Israel and Hamas. Israeli military losses are also significantly higher. Palestinian officials in Gaza said on Thursday that 8,200 people had been wounded in the four-week operation. Up to 80 per cent of the Palestinian casualties were civilians, according to local non-government organizations and the UN. (The Guardian)

Israel shelled the Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah as it carried out a widespread assault on the southern Gaza Strip town. Witnesses told Ma’an that Israeli shells hit the hospital, but no injuries were reported. Israeli forces have struck hospitals repeatedly over the course of the 25-day assault, including al-Wafa Hospital which was completely destroyed. (Ma’an News Agency)

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has reported that eight members of the al-Farra family have been killed, in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, while at least ten have been injured. (IMEC)

The ongoing outage prompted local and international rights groups to warn of an impending disaster in the Gaza Strip. For the third day in a row, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continue to suffer from an electricity and water outage caused by Israeli attacks on the blockaded territory. (Middle East Monitor)

The Secretary-General condemned in the strongest terms the reported violation by Hamas of the mutually agreed humanitarian ceasefire which commenced this morning. He expressed shock and profound disappointment by those developments. He noted that the UN had no independent means to verify exactly what had happened. According to the latest reports, two IDF soldiers had been killed and one taken captive after the humanitarian ceasefire came into effect. That would constitute a grave violation of the ceasefire, and one that was likely to have very serious consequences for the people of Gaza, Israel and beyond. Such moves called into question the credibility of Hamas’ assurances to the United Nations. The Secretary-General demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the captured soldier. Furthermore, he expressed deep concern about the resumption of Israeli attacks on Gaza and the killing of over 70 Palestinians this morning. Instead of giving both sides, especially Gazan civilians, a much needed reprieve to let them attend to their injured, bury their dead and repair vital infrastructure, that breach of the ceasefire was now leading to a renewed escalation. He urged both sides to show maximum restraint and return to the agreed 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire. He also urged those with influence over the parties to do everything to convince them to observe the humanitarian ceasefire. (http://www.un.org/sg/spokesperson)

The Minister of Social Affairs and Minister of Agriculture of the State of Palestine, Mr. Shawqi Issa and the Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. James W. Rawley, launched the Gaza Crisis Appeal. The Gaza Crisis Appeal presents a preliminary strategy of the humanitarian community to meet the most urgent humanitarian needs that have arisen as a result of the current emergency in the Gaza Strip, focusing on the groups that have been rendered the most vulnerable. This includes displaced persons, the injured, the elderly, children, women, and farmers and fishermen who have lost their livelihoods. (ochaopt.org)

President Obama demanded that Hamas release a captured Israeli soldier unconditionally and expressed pessimism that another  ceasefire could be reached because of the deep reserves of mistrust between the two sides. (The New York Times)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the nearly month-long conflict in Gaza, a Palestinian official in Ramallah reported. (The Jerusalem Post)

2

Israeli troops and tanks pulled out of a central sector of the Gaza Strip and moved closer to the border as its military invited Palestinians to return to one of the hardest-hit areas in the coastal strip. Media reports in Israel suggested the military planned to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza and declare victory in the weeks-long war that Palestinian officials say has killed more than 1,650 people. (Times of Malta)

The Israeli military said that an officer thought to have been captured by Palestinian militants during a deadly clash Friday morning, which shattered a planned 72-hour  ceasefire, was now considered to have been killed in battle. (The New York Times)

84 rockets and mortars were fired into Israel, with six shot down by the Iron Dome system. That number was considered an increase over Friday, when 60 rockets and mortars were fired, and nine were shot down. (The Jerusalem Post)

An IDF strike in Gaza on Saturday night, targeted senior Hamas operative Ahmed Hassan Mabhouh, 29, who was an engineering and explosives officer in Hamas’s Jabalia battalion. Mabhouh was killed in the strike. (The Jerusalem Post)

Protesters took to the streets of Paris on Saturday afternoon to demonstrate against Israel’s offensive in Gaza. They held posters reading “Boycott Israel” and “Free Palestine,” while others carried Palestinian flags and waved pro-Palestinian banners. (The Jerusalem Post)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, in a press statement, expressed sorrow over the continued grave escalation in Gaza as well as over the collapse of the humanitarian  ceasefire brokered by the UN. (Wafa News Agency)

3

As Israel began to redeploy significant numbers of its troops away from populated areas of Gaza, an Israeli Air Force missile struck near the entrance of a United Nations school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Rafah, killing 10 people and wounding 35 others and drawing a new round of international condemnation. (The New York Times)

The United States is “appalled” by the “disgraceful” shelling outside a United Nations school in Gaza that killed at least ten Palestinian civilians, the State Department said. “We once again stress that Israel must do more to meet its own standards and avoid civilian casualties,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement. (Xinhua)

President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership called on the international community, particularly the United Nations, the U.S. administration, the European Union, Russia, China, and the rest of the world countries, to immediately intervene to force Israel to stop its aggression and to respond to the Egyptian initiative. (Wafa News Agency)

A delegation composed of Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, met in Cairo for indirect ceasefire talks with Israel to be conducted through Egyptian officials, Egyptian and Palestinian sources said. Truce talks would include Hamas’ demand that Egypt ease movement across its border with blockaded Gaza. Israel said on Saturday it would not send envoys as scheduled, accusing enemy Palestinian Islamists of misleading international mediators. (Ynetnews)

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond demanded an unconditional ceasefire to resolve the “intolerable” situation in Gaza, adding that the British public was “deeply disturbed” by what it was seeing. (The Economic Times)

President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, urged the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to put an end to violence in the Gaza Strip, a joint statement by the EU top officials said. (RIA NOVOSTI)

Egypt has increased the amount of electricity it provides to Gaza and urged Israel to repair power lines damaged during Israeli bombardment that has left at least one million people without electricity, an Egyptian official said. (Reuters)

The United Nations warned of a “rapidly unfolding health disaster of widespread proportions” in the Gaza Strip, saying that the latter’s medical facilities were on the verge of collapse amid Israel’s non-stop attacks against the strip. “We are now looking at a health and humanitarian disaster,” warned UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory James Rawley in a joint statement with Robert Turner, director of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Operations in the Gaza Strip, and Ambrogio Manenti, acting Head of the Office of World Health Organization operations in the Palestinian territories. (Middle East Monitor)

The Secretary-General strongly condemned the killing of at least 10 Palestinian civilians in shelling outside of an UNRWA school in Rafah providing shelter to thousands of civilians “The attack is yet another gross violation of international humanitarian law, which clearly requires protection by both parties of Palestinian civilians, UN staff and UN premises, among other civilian facilities.

United Nations shelters must be safe zones not combat zones. The Israel Defence Forces have been repeatedly informed of the location of these sites. This attack, along with other breaches of international law, must be swiftly investigated and those responsible held accountable. It is a moral outrage and a criminal act.” The Secretary-General was profoundly dismayed over the appalling escalation of violence and loss of hundreds of Palestinian civilian lives since the breach of the humanitarian ceasefire on 1 August. The resurgence in fighting had only exacerbated the man-made humanitarian and health crisis wreaking havoc in Gaza. Restoring calm can be achieved through resumption of the ceasefire and negotiations by the parties in Cairo to address the underlying issues. The Secretary-General repeated his demand to the parties to immediately end the fighting and return to the path of peace. (un.org)

4

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said that Israel was considering a plan to physically separate itself from the Gaza Strip, using some sort of underground barrier to ward off remaining threats from the enclave. She stated that “There are ways of doing it [separating Gaza from Israel].” (The Jerusalem Post)

Rockets were intercepted over Ashdod and Ashkelon this morning with additional rockets hitting southern Israeli communities, hours before a humanitarian ceasefire was set to come into effect. Additional rockets hit Israel after the deal came into effect (Ynetnews)

In a speech this morning to the Palestine Committee of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani denounced the inaction of the UN Security Council in its response to the “slaughter” of Palestinians in Gaza. (Times of Israel, AFP)

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman suggested that Israel and the Palestinian Authority consider transferring control of the Gaza Strip to the United Nations, Haaretz reports. He stated that “Everyone is asking, what happens after the operation ends? Suppose Israel defeats Hamas. There are a few options. International control of Gaza, by the U.N., should certainly be considered,” he said to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. (Haaretz)

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of deliberately killing Palestinian mothers and warned it would “drown in the blood it sheds,” pulling foreign policy to center stage as a presidential race entered its final week. (Haaretz, The Independent)

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said today that the world powers should impose a political solution to halt the conflict between Israel and Hamas that has claimed hundreds of lives in the Gaza Strip, and dozens on the Israeli side. His statement comes after Palestinians said an Israeli air strike killed 10 people and wounded about 30 on Sunday in a UN-run school in the southern Gaza Strip, and Hamas fired rockets at Israel. He stated “This is why we need a political solution, of which the components are known, and which I believe should be imposed by the international community, because the two parties — despite countless efforts — have unfortunately shown themselves incapable of completing talks,” the statement read. (The Jerusalem Post)

Sixteen Palestinians have been killed in attacks on Gaza since midnight on the 28th day of Israel’s offensive on the Strip, a health official said today. Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement that the death toll in Gaza since the beginning of the assault had risen to 1,822. (Ma’an News Agency)

Israel said it would unilaterally hold fire in most of the Gaza Strip today to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid and allow some of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by an almost four-week-old war to go home. (Reuters)

A seven-hour truce under which Israel would unilaterally hold fire in most of the Gaza Strip went into force on Monday and Palestinians immediately accused Israel of breaking the ceasefire by bombing a house in Gaza City. (The Economic Times)

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that six people were killed this morning and several others injured in a neighborhood north of Gaza city, bringing the number of people killed since midnight to 11, according to the report. (The Jerusalem Post)

The people of Gaza face enormous barriers to accessing primary health care, with only 10 of the government’s 56 Primary Health Care clinics operational, eight of UNRWA’s 22 clinics open, and most NGO clinics closed. (IMEMC)

The conflict in Gaza should not be an excuse for anti-Semitic slurs and attacks, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said late Sunday. The Secretary General “deplores the recent upsurge in anti-Semitic attacks, particularly in Europe, in connection with protests concerning the escalation of violence in Gaza,” read a statement from the UN leader’s spokesman. (The Malaysian Insider)

5

Israel withdrew ground forces from the Gaza Strip starting a 72-hour ceasefire with Hamas as a first step towards negotiations. Minutes before the truce Hamas launched a salvo of rockets from the West Bank, calling them revenge for Israel’s “massacres.” Israel’s anti-missile system shot down one rocket over Jerusalem, police said. Another hit a house in a town near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. There were no casualties. (The Times of Malta)

Israel’s Security Cabinet met in to discuss Israel’s position on the Cairo negotiations. Direct negotiations in Cairo will be conducted by Shin Bet Head Yoram Cohen, the Defense Ministry’s Amos Gilad and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s envoy Yitzhak Molcho. According to Government officials, Israel was concentrating on two main issues: preventing Hamas from rearming in the short term, and demilitarizing Gaza over the long run. Israel will insist on a mechanism to ensure that Hamas was unable to rearm as it has done after previous campaigns. (The Jerusalem Post)

The European Union said in a statement, “We warmly welcome the announcement of a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and call on all parties to respect its terms. There must be an immediate end to the loss of civilian lives. The firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip must stop,”. (europa.eu)

UNICEF Gaza official Pernille Ironside said in a telephone briefing from Gaza to high level personnel at the UN Office in Geneva that nearly 400,000 children in Gaza were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, stressing that although they were committed to help, the situation appeared “extraordinarily bleak.” (Regular Press Briefing by the Information Service)

Israeli radio stations reported that now that cross-border tunnels had been destroyed, the likelihood of Israel agreeing to a longer-term ceasefire has increased. (Israel Army Radio, The Guardian )

Jordan circulated a UN resolution calling for a permanent  ceasefire in Gaza and condemning “all violence and hostilities against civilians.” Jordan’s new UN Ambassador Dina Kawar said the draft resolution, backed by the Palestinians and Arab nations, was submitted to the Security Council in a form that could be put to a vote. (AP)

Palestine’s Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki arrived in The Hague shortly after Israel and