By Eileen Fleming

Palestinian mourners carry the body of five-year-old boy Abdallah Abu Ghazal
during his funeral in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya on July 10, 2014 after
he was killed in an Israeli air strike.

Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

According to the United Nations, more than 100 people have been killed and 340 Palestinian houses have been destroyed during Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’ which began on 8 July 2014.

On Saturday in Gaza, Israel killed nine more people including two disabled women and remains oblivious to mounting international outrage and pressure to negotiate a ceasefire.

In Tel Aviv Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters, “We are weighing all possibilities and preparing for all possibilities. No international pressure will prevent us from acting with all power.”

Hamas leaders responded with a blunt warning to Israel against invading the Gaza Strip by promising that it would kidnap Israeli soldiers.

At least five Palestinian children were among 22 people killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza early today, medics said, with most of the bloodshed in the southern city of Khan Yunis. AFP PHOTO / MAHMUD HAMS

Palestinian mourners carry the body of five-year-old boy Abdallah Abu Ghazal during his funeral in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya on July 10, 2014 after he was killed in an Israeli air strike. AFP PHOTO / MAHMUD HAMS

On Friday, The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee’s praised the House of Representatives for passing a forceful resolution affirming Israel’s right to self-defense and held Hamas responsible for the attacks.

House resolution (H.Res.657) was spearheaded by Reps. Steve Israel (D-NY) and Tom Cole (R-OK).

In the Senate, a resolution defending Israel’s right to defend her citizens against terrorist attacks, (S. Res. 498), has been introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), and Charles Schumer (D-NY). It is expected to be voted on next week.

Greta Berlin

In addition to reaffirming its support for Israel’s defense of its citizens, the House condemned the “unprovoked rocket fire at Israel” and called “on Hamas to immediately cease all rocket and other attacks against Israel.”

AIPAC’s Press Release also claims:

That before implementing Operation Protective Edge, “Israel made multiple efforts to defuse the situation with Hamas, but was rebuffed repeatedly. Hamas, moreover, is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state.”

Last Tuesday a Palestinian source close to Hamas said Hamas was ready to restore calm if Israel met conditions, which included a prisoner release.

What Palestinians want destroyed is Israel’s illegal, immoral, untenable Occupation of their land, resources and denial of their human rights!

Asked by YNetNews whether the Israeli military should “go in Gaza and totally destroy Hamas”, Former British Prime Minister and Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair replied:

You won’t destroy Hamas as a political entity. What I do know is that [the destruction of Hamas] will only happen, if it happens, within the context of a way forward, particularly for the people of Gaza, that gives them some hope for the future.

Answering what actions he would take if he were Israeli Prime Minister, Blair told reporters:

Photo Copyright Mona Elfrra Meca Projects Director
Red Crescent Society

There’s a short-term issue and a longer-term issue. The short term is obviously how we change the existing situation with the rockets coming out of Gaza and then the retaliation going into Gaza, and then in the longer term we’ve got to look at the underlying problems here.

The underlying problem is the illegal, immoral and untenable Occupation of Gaza Palestine!

Dr. Mona El-Farra, MECA Director of Gaza Projects directs one of the hospitals in Gaza who works day and night with her colleagues to provide health care and psychological support, especially for the children.

In an email from Greta Berlin [who gained international attention as a spokesperson for the Free Gaza Movement which she co-founded in 2006] wrote that Dr. Mona El Farra posted the following message in Arabic on her Facebook page this morning:

The insane Israeli bombardment has not stopped. It has been going on all night and all day every day and everywhere, coming from the sea, from the air and from land canons.

Naval bombardment is pouring its lava, targeting the coast of Gaza City and further north.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian,
anti-Nazi dissident

Numbers of the killed and injured continue to go up.
More homes are being destroyed.
A whole population is being subjected to collective punishment.

This is not only a matter of war crime.

We are now facing a real genocide in Gaza.

As the day begins in Gaza, hundreds of ordinary people in need of regular health care are unable to reach health care centres.

Meanwhile hundreds of wounded people, mostly women and children, if they can be taken to hospitals at all would find doctors and other medical staff working in dire and dangerous environments, under constant pressure, and with severe shortages of drugs and other necessary medical supplies.

So I can only say to the people of Gaza: as the morning approaches, make sure to embrace and hug your children and loved ones and tell them how much you love them and Dawn is bound to come…

Mona Elfrra Meca Projects Director Red Crescent Society

Eileen Fleming with Helen Thomas, 26 May 2011

In 2005, Eileen Fleming established WeAreWideAwake.org in response to her first of 8 trips to both sides of The Wall as a public service.

In 2012, Eileen Fleming ran for US HOUSE of Representatives

Eileen is the Administrator for FREE VANUNU and TNT/Telling Nuclear Truths

Follow her at TWITTER, read her fifth book as she lives it HERE

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Eileen Fleming, Citizen of CONSCIENCE for House of Representatives 2012

Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
Staff Member of Salem-news.com, A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com and Columnist for Veteranstoday.com

Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"

Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" and BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu's FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker: 2005-2010

http://www.youtube.com/user/eileenfleming

In Solidarity YES WE CAN begin the world again.