#GazaUnderAttack | International Red Cross (@ICRC) abandons residents during al-Shujayeh massacre

Displaced Palestinians from al-Shujayeh neighborhood in the Gaza Strip rest on makeshift beds at the UN school where they and others have taken refuge after fleeing heavy fighting in their area, on July 21, 2014. (Photo: AFP – Marco Longari)

By: Orouba Othman | Al Akhbar English |  Monday, July 21, 2014
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The Gaza Strip’s ordeal under the onslaught of the Israeli bombardment has unmasked international organizations that hide behind the cloak of humanism and protection of human life. Saturday night, corpses and body parts littered the streets and sidewalks of al-Shujayeh neighborhood, east of Gaza City, and blood flowed in its alleyways. But the International Red Cross did not move an inch upon learning of these macabre scenes. The international organization abandoned its responsibility towards the residents of al-Shujayeh in their darkest hour of need, to save its own skin. When residents of Gaza called the Red Cross asking for help to evacuate, their calls went unanswered.

Gaza – The international humanitarian organization passed the responsibility entrusted to it unto local rescue teams who put their lives on the line to reach the injured; trying to save their lives and evacuate them before it is too late. One paramedic even joined the martyrs he was trying to save in al-Shujayeh. While the Red Cross offered its condolences to the families of the three settlers that were killed in the Hebron operation, we see it today reneging on its responsibility to protect the lives of civilians in Gaza.

The Shujayeh massacre, which took the lives of over 70 martyrs, showed that the mottos of the International Committee of the Red Cross are nothing but empty rhetoric.

The Shujayeh massacre, which took the lives of over 70 martyrs, showed that the mottos of the International Committee of the Red Cross are nothing but empty rhetoric. This organization that has been tasked with protecting and assisting victims of armed conflict based on the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Two Additional Protocols of 1977, has exposed itself for what it is after showing “clear bias towards the Israelis,” as activists and journalists who were at al-Shifa medical complex said.Before the war, the organization harped for years on its alleged neutrality, impartiality and advocacy for prisoners. But its decision to leave al-Shujayeh residents to face an Israeli death sentence on their own created a widespread state of popular discontent among Palestinians who considered the Red Cross complicit in the process of wiping them out.

“People are dying in the street, they don’t know what to do, houses are burning and gas is everywhere and the Red Cross hangs up on us and says, it’s not our job. If it is not the job of the Red Cross, then whose job is it? I don’t get it.” With these words and with a tone full of pain and rage, one of the people who witnessed the massacre appealed for help. Palestinians soon shared on social networking sites the desperate pleas he sent out through one of the local radio stations.

Numerous audio recordings appealing for help to evacuate the injured in al-Shujayeh after the International Red Cross failed to fulfil its duty.

Palestinians saw this incident as proof of the Red Cross’ apathy. This was confirmed by the survivors of the massacre. Al-Akhbar met some of the survivors who confirmed that the Red Cross ignored their repeated calls before the communication network stopped completely, isolating al-Shujayeh neighborhood from the outside world.

“Before the artillery shelling on the neighborhood intensified in the early morning hours, we tried to save ourselves and asked for help from the Red Cross but they did not answer our calls,” – Hajja Omm Raafat Abu al-Qumbuz

Hajja Omm Raafat Abu al-Qumbuz said: “Before the artillery shelling on the neighborhood intensified in the early morning hours, we tried to save ourselves and asked for help from the Red Cross but they did not answer our calls,” adding: “Woe to us, my children are under the rubble, send the ambulances. People bled to death in al-Shujayeh.” That is how the massacre began after sunset as Israeli artillery pounded the area at a rate of a shell every minute.The shelling and dropping of flare bombs continued until the early hours of the morning. During the bombardment, news kept coming in that civilian homes were being targeted. Some of the people trapped under fire managed to make calls to journalists and aid workers at al-Shifa Hospital, who in turn tried to send ambulances to the scene but they came under Israeli artillery fire.

As time passed, journalists tried to call the Red Cross staff, but they did not answer their calls. When they finally managed to talk to someone, he said: “This isn’t our responsibility and the Israeli army prevented us from entering the area because it declared it a military zone,” as reported by someone who tried to reach the Red Cross.

When news of the Red Cross’ unresponsiveness appeared on websites, residents in the West Bank town of Hebron called the Red Cross’ main office in Jerusalem, but no one answered. Some Palestinian journalists living abroad tried to contact the Red Cross headquarters in Geneva. They were promised that ambulances will be sent to the area. But the International Red Cross did not keep its promise. Finally, the Palestinian Red Crescent tried to enter al-Shujayeh but they could not reach the injured. Their ambulances kept on waiting until the early morning hours when residents began leaving their homes.

Mudalala al-Dib told Al-Akhbar that her family tried for two continuous hours to call the Red Cross, but to no avail. As these pummeled families lost hope that the international organization was going to save them, they waited till the morning and fled on their own, escaping death for now.

Amid this popular condemnation of the Red Cross’ failure to fulfill its role, the organization tried to allay Palestinian anger by facilitating a humanitarian truce with the Israelis for two hours to pull the bodies from under the rubble in the neighborhood.

But Israel violated the truce after an hour of declaring it. The deadline was then extended until 5:30 pm after it was set from 1:00 pm until 3:00 pm. This attempt by the Red Cross to patch things up did not fool the Palestinians and did not stop them from pouring out their wrath on the organization.

After Al-Akhbar’s persistent efforts to reach the spokesperson of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip, Nasser al-Najjar, his answer was not satisfactory for the families of the martyrs. Rejecting all the testimonies of the neighborhood’s residents, Najjar said: “We made several calls to the Israeli side to evacuate the injured and bring ambulances and civil defense forces to east Gaza city but Israeli firepower prevented us from completing our task.”

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.

Click here to watch the genocide in Gaza – Day by Day -In Photos and Video

For who does not understand the need or concept of resistance of Palestine, recommended read:

The History of Resistance – The Eagle of Palestine

• Special Topic – All Israeli Massacres on Palestinians
• iRemember… – Confirmed Names of Martyrs Occupation 2011 *
• Special Topic – Ethnic Cleansing
• Israeli escalation in Gaza – A “cover-up for settlement activity
• UN: Israel killed 2,300 & injured 7,700 people in Gaza in 5 years – Source
• The Palestinian Right of Self Defense
• Brayer: The Absolute Right of Palestinian Resistance – Source
• No. Israel Does Not Have the Right to Self-Defense In International Law Against Occupied Palestinian Territory – Source

MYTHS & FACTS ABOUT THE ROCKETS FROM GAZA

• The “Rocket” from Gaza Myth – Photography
• More facts about the Rocket from Gaza Myths – Storify
• Half the story: What @IDFSpokesperson leaves out about #Gaza ~ by @yousefmunayyer
• Israel and #Gaza: Context Behind Projectile Fire ~ by @yousefmunayyer
• Truths and lies behind Israel’s attacks on Gaza and its whining about rockets ~ by @AliAbunimah
• Israel is not looking for peace. Nor talks. But: This

FEATURED

• March 23, 2012 | Gaza Siege Harshness Continues. Israel’s committing slow-motion genocide ~ by Stephen Lendman
  
• March 18, 2012 | A “Leaflet” to the World about it’s own “forgotten” Extermination Camp called Gaza
• Sept 5,  2013  | “Slow Death” -International report says collective punishment of Gaza has reached critical stage – Incl Full Report  PDF

PHOTOGRAPHY

Click on the thumbnails to view the full albums

		Photos Gaza Under Attack Nov 21, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Nov 20, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Nov 19, 2012
Photos Gaza Under Attack Nov 18, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Nov 17, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Nov 16, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Nov 15, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Nov 14, 2012
Photos Gaza Under Attack Nov 11, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Nov 10, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Nov 8, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Nov 5, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Oct 29, 2012
Photos Gaza Under Attack Oct 28, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Oct 24, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Oct 22, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Oct 7, 2012	Photos Gaza Under Attack Sept 29, 2012
Photos Gaza Under Attack Sept 19, 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack Sept 10, 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack – Sept 6, 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack Aug 5, 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack July 12, 2012
Photos #Gaza Under Attack June 23, 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack June 1-22, 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack May 17, 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack April 4, 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack March 14, 2012
Photos #Gaza Under Attack March 13, 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack March 12, 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack March 11, 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack March 10, 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack March 20, 2012
Photos #Gaza Under Attack February 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack January 2012	Photos #Gaza Under Attack December 2011	Photos #Gaza Under Attack Oct & Nov 2011	Photos #Gaza Under Attack Aug-Sept 2011
PHOTOS | Israel’s Massacre Cast Lead on Gaza 2008-2009

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ஜ۩۞۩ஜ

Martyred By Israeli Occupation Attacks

انّا للہ و انّا الیه راجعون

May Allah Subhana wa Ta’ ala grant the Shuhada Jannatul Firdaus, and ease it for their families, loved ones and anyone around them. Allahumma Ameen ya Rabbil Alameen. ‘ Inna Lillahi wa ‘ Inna ‘ Ilayhi Raji’un, Allahu Akbar

ஜ۩۞۩ஜ

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* The list of shuhada does not display, the numerous victims of the zionist occupation which are undocumented by media. Nor it displays the victims of the “silent onslaught” due to restrictions of movement, ability to go to hospitals for treatment or life saving surgery, due to lack of medication because of the blockades and so on. For example: The Slow Motion Genocide by the Siege on Gaza only, killed 600 patients since Gaza got under Israeli Siege.

For an overview of All Israeli Massacres Palestinians go here

Neither does this list, display the avoidable mortality. A clear and statistical factual evidence, about the number of deaths due to indecent ruling by occupation forces. For even an occupier has obligations under International Laws, Geneva Convention and the Hague regulations, which it is neglecting. These circumstances, together with deliberate policies of the occupier to neglect and even deny every basic human right, severes avoidable mortality which is totally silenced by media or reporting organisations. While in the Holocaust, 1 on 6 Jewish people directly died of deliberate neglect, so if we believe the facts over 1 million due to avoidable mortality, neither should these same circumstances be ignores which are ongoing in Palestine. For this report displays a avoidable morality of at least 0,5 million Palestinians.

How many more dead corpses of Palestinians does the international community need to see in order to act? How many more cruelties and violations of Human Rights, Regulations and International Law will be needed to intervene so this ongoing warcrime is being stopped once and for all.

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