It’s been 18 days since the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip began, since that time there have been 883 deaths and sadly more than a third have been women and children (85 women and 284 children). It seems that the Israeli attacks on the Gaza population have been indiscriminate, missiles have fallen on homes and schools where many civilians have been pummeled. The world is witness to the countless atrocities that are happening, there have been protests all over the world, people expressing their outrage over the war crimes that are occurring. It is even more difficult to think that it is very well possible that Israel will face no consequences and all the countries crimes will go unpunished.
Yesterday the U.N. Human Rights Council issued a statement about the situation in Gaza, condemning Israel for “grave violations” of human rights. The statement said that the council “strongly condemns the ongoing Israeli military operations… which have resulted in massive violations of human rights of the Palestinian people and systematic destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure.” Another outcome was that Secretary General is going to Gaza to investigate the targeting of UN facilities and schools this Wednesday.
Read more about the UN Human Rights Council
- Palestinians wounded in Israeli missile strikes are seen in the emergency area at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008. Israeli warplanes demolished dozens of Hamas security compounds across Gaza on Saturday in unprecedented waves of simultaneous air strikes. Gaza medics said at least 145 people were killed and more than 310 wounded in the single deadliest day in Gaza fighting in recent memory. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
- RAFAH, GAZA STRIP – DECEMBER 27: A Palestinian man carries an injured boy in his arms following an Israeli air strike in the southern town of Rafah on December 27, 2008 in the northern Gaza Strip. Israel’s air force fired about 30 missiles at targets along the Gaza Strip on Saturday, destroying several Hamas police compounds, killing more than 155 people and wounding hundreds. (Photo by Getty Images)
- Bodies of Hamas policemen lie on the ground of their destroyed police compound following an Israeli air strike in Gaza December 27, 2008. Israeli air strikes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday killed at least 195 Palestinians, health officials in Gaza said. REUTERS/Zoher Dolah (GAZA)
- In this image taken from APTN video, an injured man is assisted into hospital as other injured people are unload from vehicles outside the hospital after Israeli aircraft struck Hamas security compounds across Gaza in Gaza City on Saturday Dec. 27, 2008. Hamas and medics reported that dozens of people were killed and that others were still buried under the rubble. The strikes caused widespread panic and confusion, as black clouds of smoke rose above Gaza. (AP Photo/APTN)
- GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP- DECEMBER 27: A wounded man lies on a blood-soaked floor in the Shifa hospital on December 27, 2008 in Gaza City, Gaza. Israel’s air force fired about 30 missiles at targets along the Gaza Strip on Saturday, destroying several Hamas police compounds, killing more than 155 people and wounding hundreds. (Photo by Abid Katib/Getty Images)
- A Palestinian woman wounded in Israeli missile strikes is helped into the emergency area at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008. Israeli warplanes demolished dozens of Hamas security compounds across Gaza on Saturday in unprecedented waves of simultaneous air strikes. Gaza medics said at least 145 people were killed and more than 310 wounded in the single deadliest day in Gaza fighting in recent memory. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
- Palestinians carry a body after removing it from the site of an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on December 27, 2008. At least 155 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip today in massive Israeli air strikes on the Hamas-run enclave, Hamas radio reported. Israeli military spokesman Avi Benayahu told army radio the massive bombardment of Gaza was only just beginning. AFP PHOTO/MAHMUD HAMS (Photo credit should read MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images)
- GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP – DECEMBER 27: (EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS IMAGE CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT) A Palestinian man checks the body of a Palestinian child as he lies among bodies of Palestinians laid out on the ground outside Shifa hospital on December 27, 2008 in Gaza City, Gaza. Israel’s air force fired about 30 missiles at targets along the Gaza Strip on Saturday, destroying several Hamas police compounds, killing more than 200 people and wounding hundreds. (Photo by Abid Katib/Getty Images)
- A wounded Palestinian woman is rushed into hospital in Gaza City December 27, 2008. Israeli war planes and combat helicopters pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 140 people and prompting rocket fire from Palestinian militants that killed an Israeli, medics said. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA)
- A Lebanese Hezbollah supporter, reacts, as other protesters react during a sit-in against the Israeli opperation in Gaza, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on Saturday Dec. 27, 2008. Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of airstrikes Saturday, killing at least 155 and wounding more than 310 in the single bloodiest day of fighting in recent memory. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Tawil)
- Palestinian children and a man wounded in Israeli missile strikes are seen in the emergency area at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008. Israeli warplanes demolished dozens of Hamas security compounds across Gaza on Saturday in unprecedented waves of simultaneous air strikes. Gaza medics said at least 145 people were killed and more than 310 wounded in the single deadliest day in Gaza fighting in recent memory. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
- Palestinian supporters of Hamas cries as they take part in a demonstration against Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip at al-Yarmouk Camp near Damascus December 27,2008. Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed 155 people and wounded 200 others, the head of the Gaza ambulance service said. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA)
- GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP – DECEMBER 31: Palestinians inspect near a mosque following an Israeli air raid December 31, 2008, in Gaza City in the Gaza Strip. Israel continued air strikes within the Hamas ruled Gaza Strip for the fifth day. About 400 Palestinians have been killed in the raids according to reports. (Photo by Abid Katib/Getty Images)
- GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP – DECEMBER 27: Palestinians inspect the presidential building; the office of president Mahmoud Abbas (which is now under Hamas control), after it was destroyed by an Israeli air strike on December 27, 2008 in Gaza City, Gaza. Israel’s air force fired about 30 missiles at targets along the Gaza Strip on Saturday, destroying several Hamas police compounds, killing more than 155 people and wounding hundreds. (Photo by Abid Katib/Getty Images)
- Three Palestinian children from the Balosha family, of five who were all killed in the same Israeli missile strike, are seen in the morgue before their burial at Kamal Edwan hopsital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. Israel’s overwhelming air campaign against the Gaza Strip inched closer to the territory’s Hamas rulers as the assault entered its third day Monday, as missiles struck a house next to the Hamas premier’s home and destroyed symbols of the Islamic movement’s power. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)