International news in brief

Israeli forces commit war crimes in Gaza

Israeli air power and heavily armed troops extended the settler state’s collective punishment on March 2-3 against the Palestinian people by invading northern Gaza. In the five days ending March 3, Israeli troops had killed at least 118 Palestinians. Gazan medical officials said that there were 22 children among the 118 Palestinians killed since Feb. 27 and that half of the overall total were civilians (Houston Chronicle, March 4). Hundreds more were wounded.

The massacres, carried out by bombs, rockets fired from helicopters and even drone planes as well as by an invading army, aroused revulsion among people all over the world, and especially in the Middle East itself. Videos of bloodied children left to die in front of their parents were broadcast throughout the region.

Israeli forces also arrested 80 people in northern Gaza, mostly young men and all civilians, and took them to the Ashkelon prison. It was reported that they were interrogated by their captors, who attempted to recruit them.

The Israeli regime claims its goal is to eliminate rocket fire on settler villages near Gaza and that it is attacking only armed fighters, an obvious lie. The Israelis won’t even accept the discussions offered by Hamas to end such attacks should the Israelis end their murderous siege of Gaza. The Israeli siege has cut off food, medicine and electric power to Gaza.

Hamas is the political party that won the last elections in Gaza and which now runs the territory.

Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai threatened Gaza’s 1.5 million people with a “Shoah” if rocket fire continues. Shoah is the Hebrew word also used to describe what European Jews suffered under the Nazi occupation of Europe during World War II. Even making such a threat is a war crime—carrying it out is genocide.

If the Israeli regime thought its criminal activity would intimidate the Palestinian people, it found out otherwise. Hamas declared victory (Reuters, March 4). Fawzi Barhoum, speaking for Hamas in Gaza, said that like the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, Hamas had “gone from the stone to the rocket.”

“What we learned from Hezbollah,” Barhoum said, “is that resistance is a choice that can work.” According to some reports, more than 200 rockets were fired into Israel in retaliation for the siege and the slaughter.

“We are very concerned,” said Mark Regev, a spokesperson for Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, “that the role model for Hamas in Gaza is the Lebanese Hezbollah.”

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar told people at a rally on March 3 after the Israeli troops left that his organization would rebuild homes destroyed by the Israeli attacks.

U.S. warships threaten Lebanon

The U.S. Navy announced on Feb. 28 that it was sending the USS Cole from Malta to the eastern Mediterranean waters just off the coast of Lebanon as “a show of support for regional stability.” The Navy also said that two additional ships will follow, including one amphibious assault vessel.

The last time the United States sent forces into Lebanon, in 1982, they were only able to stay until a truck bomb was set off that killed 241 U.S. troops in October of 1983. The USS Cole, while a powerful warship, itself was blown up by two people on a small boat that sailed into the Cole and exploded in 2000.

The reaction from Hezbollah, the organization that led the resistance against the Israeli invasion in 2006 that drove the invaders out, was angry. At a demonstration of thousands on March 3 in the suburbs south of Beirut, Lebanese and Palestinians joined to pledge support to the struggles in Gaza and in Lebanon.

Meanwhile parliament member Hussein Hajj Hasan said, “We don’t succumb to threats and military intimidation practiced by the United States to implement its hegemony over Lebanon.”

Even Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who is supposed to be a U.S. ally, was forced to distance himself from the U.S. war maneuvers, claiming he made no request for the warships.

Communist elected president in Cyprus

For the first time a member state of the European Union has elected a communist president. In Cyprus, with 53.36 percent of the vote, speaker of the Cypriot house of representatives and leader of the left-wing AKEL party Demetris Christofias won the election on Feb. 24, the date for a runoff election.

Cyprus is an island in the eastern Mediterranean with about 800,000 inhabitants, divided between Greek and Turkish communities. A little more than one-third of the island has been occupied by the Turkish army since 1974. At that time a pro-fascist coup engineered from Athens—there was a military regime in Greece then—created a threat, especially to the Turkish community. The government of colonels in Athens was ousted later that year.

Christofias was elected in the Greek part of the island, but he is reported to have friendly relations with the Turkish community. He has promised to work to unify the island and end foreign occupation.

U.S. launches missile attack on Somalia

The Pentagon, which is having a hard time convincing African nations to host the home base for its AFRICOM strike force in the region, gave another example of what increased U.S. attention to Africa really means. On March 3, U.S. forces launched two rockets aimed at alleged “Al-Qaida leaders” that instead killed six Somalis in Dobley, a remote town in southern Somalia. A group of demonstrators in Dobley, near the Kenyan border, chanted anti-U.S. slogans on March 4.

The district commissioner, Ali Hussein Nur, demanded compensation for the damages caused by the U.S. attack that Washington admitted to.

At the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007, Ethiopian forces with U.S. prodding invaded Somalia and dislodged the Islamic Courts government that was beginning to consolidate power at that time. With Ethiopian troops remaining in Somalia, those who supported the courts have begun a resistance movement in parts of the country. Washington’s rocket strikes are aimed at this movement.

In 1993, when U.S. troops were directly involved in Somalia, some 18 U.S. troops were killed when their helicopter was shot down. Washington decided at that time to pull out.