News: "Israel was accused yesterday of committing a war crime by its destruction of more than 3,000 Palestinian homes in Israel and the occupied territories since the intifada began three and a half years ago.
The damning report from Amnesty International came as the Israeli army killed up to 19 Palestinians - children as well as militants - in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip where General Moshe Ya'alon, the army chief of staff, warned at the weekend that hundreds more homes could be destroyed.
In its critique of the Israeli policy of destroying buildings and 'vast areas' of agricultural land, the report challenges head-on the argument that the destruction is militarily necessary. It also warns that 'punitive forced evictions and house demolitions' are a 'flagrant form of collective punishment' that 'violate a fundamental principle of international law'."

This is terrorism, and Bush defends it. He says Israel has a right to defend itself. What kind of defense is this? "Asmaa Mughayer, 15, and her brother Ahmed, 13, were shot dead yesterday as they fed pigeons on the roof of their house. Their uncle, Mahmoud Mughayer, said that they had been unaware of the extent of the incursion because with the camp's electricity supply cut off by the assault there was no television. Their elder brother, Ali, 24, had shouted at them to come down because it was dangerous. When he heard no response, he climbed the steps to find his sister and brother lying dead in a pool of blood.
Mr Mughayer said: "The snipers fired at him, too. He lay on the ground, and slowly crept pulling them one after another to the third floor." He added that it had taken an ambulance five hours to arrive because of the firing. He added: "This was the biggest crime. Asmaa and Ahmed were not mujahedin. This is the largest injustice, unacceptable by humanity."


- posted by geoff @ #