Once upon a time, this beach and the surrounding area was totally off-limits to the 1.5-million Palestinians now living in Gaza – and reserved exclusively for their Jewish neighbors. Five years ago, all that changed when Israel completed its historic pullout of all 8,000 Jewish settlers who had been living in 21 settlements scattered across this tiny coastal enclave flanking the Mediterranean.

Now called Al-Muharara – or “Liberation” – this strip of beach used to be a popular haunt for swimmers from Neve Dekalim, the largest town in the Gush Katif settlement bloc which sprawled across much of southern Gaza. When the settlers left, it opened up a vast area of territory to the Palestinians – an area which is slowly being developed.

Much of the land on which the former settlement bloc stood is empty, an area where animals graze freely among newly planted saplings; some is used for sewage, and other areas serve as a rubbish tip. On part of the land stands a massive fish farm populated with around 1-million fish, many smuggled in through tunnels under the Gaza Strip’s southern border with Egypt. And other areas have been transformed into “secret” military training camps, for militant groups pally with the ruling Islamist movement Hamas, their activities shielded from public view by giant concrete walls.

When the settlers left, almost all of the homes and buildings were razed, leaving hundreds of thousands of tons of rubble strewn across the landscape. Today, most of that is gone and the beginnings of two new cities are just starting to emerge: Asdaah city, which is being built on 500 dunams (5,000 hectares) of land, and Namaa, which will cover 200 dunams.

Elsewhere, the Hamas government has started a number of agricultural projects in 12 of the former settlements. In many ways, these projects chart Hamas’ evolution since the withdrawal: evolving from a purely militant group which took credit for chasing out the Israelis to a fully-fledged government.

When the Israelis completed their pullout in September 2005, much was made of the huge potential for development on the land which was being handed back to the Palestinians after 38 years of Israeli occupation. But six months later, after Hamas’ shock win in Palestinian general elections, Western donors froze aid to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and security deteriorated as factional violence flared.

And development plans were further harmed when Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on the strip in June 2006 after Gaza militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier, in an embargo further tightened when Hamas seized power a year later. Despite the obstacles, the Hamas-run government says it has ambitious plans to build tens of thousands of new housing units in the former settlements. “On the fifth anniversary of the Israeli withdrawal we are determined to establish a model city,” government spokesman Taher al-Nunu said.“We want to transform these liberated lands from a source of death and suffering into one of freedom and hope.”

The government has set aside some 3,000 dunams for the construction of four new “cities” in former settlements, Housing Minister Yussef al-Mani said.“Before 2006, the housing deficit exceeded 63,000 units, and this has doubled since then because of the siege and the Israeli war on Gaza,” he said, referring to a blistering offensive in December 2008-January 2009 to halt rocket attacks.

The government hopes to eventually sell some of the land in installments to low-income buyers, particularly lands near the tense border with Israel “in order to prevent the expansion of the occupation,” Nunu said. He insists that Hamas has made land available to several different organizations regardless of political affiliation, but human-rights groups have complained about the lack of transparency in the land sector.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA is also building in the settlements, but until six months ago its operations were hamstrung by Israeli restrictions on importing vital construction materials.

“We want to build 2,000 homes for those who had their homes destroyed in the war and in Israeli operations prior to it,” UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said. “There are plans to build 100 schools, mostly on this land, as well as health facilities, but the obstacle has been the inability to bring in building materials,” he said.

In March, Israel began allowing in building materials for UN projects and further eased its blockade during the international outcry that followed its deadly May 31 seizure of a Gaza-bound aid fleet. Hamas has meanwhile been establishing projects across the territory by using materials smuggled in from Egypt through a vast network of underground tunnels taxed and regulated by the Islamist-run government. The government hopes to use land from the former settlements – which took up 40 percent of the territory and much of its best farm land – to achieve agricultural self-sufficiency and reduce its reliance on Israeli imports.

“In the middle of 2009 we launched a strategic plan, despite the blockade, so the government could make use of the liberated lands to achieve self-sufficiency,” said Agriculture Minister Mohammad al-Agha. The government is now growing watermelons, cantaloupes, onions, potatoes, olives and different fruits on the settlement land and hopes to achieve complete food independence within 10 years.

“Last year we planted around 150,000 olive and fruit trees, and in the next five years we expect to reach 80 percent self-sufficiency in agricultural production,” Agha said.
By Adel Zaanoun, AFP

“The commanders and soldiers sent to Gaza should know they are safe from various tribunals and Israel will assist them on this front and defend them, just as they protected us with their bodies during the Gaza operation,” Olmert said.

It is well known now that Israel used white phosphorus munitions indiscrimnately in the densely populated areas of Gaza strip. White phosporus can cause extreme burns. Gaza strip is not in the jurisdiction of Internation Criminal Court as it is not state and it will require UN Security Council mandate to investigate any such charges. Any such move is expected to vetoed by Israel’s ally US. Israel’s war in Gaza has already shown marked failure of UN.

Let us see how the international community act on these war crimes by Israel’s defence forces during its 22-days long war in Gaza strip which killed over 1300 Palestinians, wounded thousands and has cuased structural damages worth billions of dolars.

Related blog posts by other bloggers:

Israel Can’t Stop War Crimes Claims-Palestinian Minister
Israel PM seeks to protect soldiers from Gaza war crimes charges
Israel to hide and protect war criminals
Israel vows to defend soldiers against calls for war crimes inquiries
Israel to protect its soldiers from war crimes charges
Olmert Pledges to Defend all IDF Officers who face War Crimes Charges
Israel to provide legal protection to military officers
Israel To Shield Troops From War Crimes Accusations
Israeli PM Promises to Shield Troops From War Crime Trials
Israel Promises Troops Legal Backing over Gaza War Crimes.
If America does it, then it must be legal, right?
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So We’ll Skip a Trip to London; We’re Victims Not Palestinians
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Nearly 300 of those killed are children and at least over 500 are civilians. The only crime of the civilians was that they elected Hamas as their ‘democratic’ government. The countries which claim that they are for democracy in Middle East refused to accept the democratically elected government of Hamas. And as far as children are concerned, their crime was that they were born in Gaza which is the largest outdoor prison on globe controled by Israel.

 Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, speaking at the news conference has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields by saying, “And at the end of the day, even though we try to avoid civilian casualties, these things happen.” 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said its compound, where up to 700 Palestinians were being sheltered, was hit twice by Israeli fire and three staff members were injured.

 Is firing at UN shelters is avoiding civilian casualities? If he is so concerned about civilian casualities then why Israel is even blocking the humantarian aid to Gaza? Israeli navy threatened to open fire on a vessel carrying doctors, aid workers and medical supplies to Gaza. The Greek-flagged ship had to return.

The United Nation has failed to stop these deaths. It took weeks to even condemn Israel’s action and on the other hand the same UN is very quick to issue statements if rockets are fired from Gaza.

The advocates of Israel tell the world that Israelis phone Palestinians before attacking so that Palestinians can take shelter, wounded Palestinians are treated in top notch medical facilities of Israel and Israel takes all the precautions to avoid the common palestinians. Hamas fired over 6000 rockets into Israel since 2005.

How many of the over 3000 wounded are being treated in top notch hospitals in Israel? Israel phones Palestinians to hide in shelters and then start shelling those shelters as many of the Palestinians died as a result of shelling of UN built shelters. Only bombardment by Israel in last few days is way more than that of 6000 rockets in three years. The comparison of death and destruction is not even possible.

Eric Margolis in his column “Israel strikes at Obama“,

“Israel believes its mighty information machine will allow it to weather the storm of worldwide outrage over its Biblical punishment of Gaza. Who remembers Israel’s flattening of parts of the rebellious Palestinian city of Jenin, or the U.S. destruction in Falluja, Iraq? As Stalin liked to say, “the dogs bark, and the caravan moves on.”

He further writes:

“Though Israel’s use of American weapons against Gaza violates the U.S. Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts, the docile U.S. Congress will remain mute. Hamas, the militant but democratically elected government of Gaza, is even less likely to compromise. Its rival, the lapdog Fatah regime on the West Bank installed by the U.S. and Israel after Arafat’s mysterious death, will be further discredited.

Syria has broken off peace talks with Israel. The Muslim world is in a rage. So what? As long as the U.S. gives Israel carte blanche, as the outgoing Bush administration did once more over Gaza, it can do just about anything it wants. Let the dogs bark. “

This is exactly what Israel is doing and US is poisoning relationships with Muslims around the globe to safe Israel’s interest in Middle East region. It did not matter before nor it will make any difference in future to Israel or US even if the rest of the world is against the attacks and wants it to stop.

“I think it’s a monstrosity; there’s no other way to name it. Once again, the world is watching in dismay the dysfunctionality of the Security Council.”

The Security Council once again failed to reach an agreement as US once agained blocked any consensus during the late-night emergency meeting. US blames Hamas for all the violance in Gaza stating Hamas must stop smuggling arms into Gaza and cease rocket attacks on Israel, which were the “root cause” of violence in the region. However, at the same time US ignores that how Israel has been keeping a tight squeez on Gaza during the so called truce. Israel repeatedly invaded Gaza during the truce did its best to make the life miserable for Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel has said its air strikes were prompted by rockets fired into its territory and by Hamas breaching a six-month ceasefire. But the Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency, Karen Abu-Zayd, said last week the rocket attacks followed a covert raid and assassinations by Israeli forces.

Over 500 Palestinians have been dead and thousands have been wounded. There has been large protests in all major cities of the world. However, UN has failed to even issue a statement.

The basic question is if Palestin was doing what Israel is doing, will the UN or USA has acted the same way?