For more information, please contact:
(Gaza) Ewa Jasiewicz, +972 598 700 497 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(Cyprus) Lubna Masarwa +357 99 081 767 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
(Lebanon) Caoimhe Butterley +961 70 875 727 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
http://www.FreeGaza.org

(Lebanon, Tuesday 30 December) - Today the Free Gaza ship "Dignity" carefully made its way to safe harbor in Tyre, Lebanon's southern-most port city, after receiving serious structural damage when Israeli warships rammed its bow and the port side. Waiting to greet the passengers and crew were thousands of Lebanese who came out to show their solidarity with this attempt to deliver volunteer doctors and desperately needed medical supplies to war-ravaged Gaza. The Lebanese government has pledged to provide a forensic analysis of what happened in the dark morning, when Israel rammed the civilian ship in international waters, and put the people on board in danger of losing their lives.

The Dignity, on a mission of mercy to besieged Gaza, was attacked by the Israeli Navy at approximately 6am (UST) in international waters, roughly 90 miles off the coast of Gaza. Several Israeli warships surrounded the small, human rights boat, firing live ammunition around it, then intentionally ramming it three times. According to ship's captain Denis Healy, the Israeli attack came, ""without any warning, or any provocation."

By Chris Hedges

By Jerome Tyler

By Kevin Gosztola

The death toll in Gaza continues to mount, and, with full U.S. backing, Israeli is declaring much of Gaza – one of the most densely populated and impoverished areas of this planet – a “closed military zone”. Much needed protests against the Israeli assault upon Gaza have begun to take place throughout the world, including in this country. More are scheduled over the next several days. In these dangerous days, it is vital to retain moral clarity, and to act upon it. The following brief report is an initial account of a demonstration in Houston yesterday – more are to follow.

500 - 600 people gathered in the Galleria shopping area of Houston to protest the genocidal attacks on Gaza. This was the largest rally in defense of the Palestinian people in Houston in recent memory, and part of a world-wide mobilization to stop the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

The protest was spirited and defiant. Chants like “Free, Free, Palestine, Occupation is a Crime” rang throughout the district. Many people waved the Palestinian flag, many wore Kefiyehs. Women were particularly outspoken, and leading many of the chants. People spoke bitterness about how Israel can carry out its murderous strangulation of Gaza, it's constant attacks, and the Palestinians are always blamed -- and how the media never tells the truth. One woman had a home made drawing she had done, depicting Ann Frank, a young victim of Nazi atrocities against European Jews, wearing a kafiyeh.

By Larry Everest (with research and assistance from other Revolution correspondents)

Beginning mid-day on Saturday, December 27, waves of U.S.-supplied Israeli warplanes suddenly appeared over the skies of the Palestinian territory of Gaza in broad daylight and unleashed a deadly barrage of bomb and missile attacks that continue as we go to press. This could not be taking place without the approval of the U.S., for whom Israel serves as an enforcer in the Middle East. The U.S.-supplied Israeli F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters attacked all of Gaza’s main towns, including Gaza City, Khan Younis and Rafah, striking more than 210 targets in the first 24 hours of what Israel threatens will be “war to the bitter end.” Police stations—located in the middle of civilian areas—government offices, the Islamic University, and many other sites were hit. By Sunday, over 300 had been killed—including many civilians and an estimated 700 wounded. It was the most Palestinians killed in a single day in decades.

A savage Israeli air assault on impoverished Gaza has begun. At least 250 people are dead, many of them children. While Gaza city was reduced to a “chaotic horror,” the New York Times reported that Israeli defense minster Ehud Barak said that “military operations in Gaza would expand and deepen as necessary.” An Israeli blockade of Gaza, backed by the United States and all the European powers, has resulted in the “near death” of the Gazan economy before this barbaric onslaught. As for the United States and the Bush Regime, Bush spokesman Gordon Johndroe admitted “we were all aware of the authorization (for bombing Gaza) by the Israeli cabinet.” The attacks on the Palestinian people of Gaza are a horrible crime against humanity, with the full cooperation, knowledge, and support of the Bush Regime, and must be condemned and vigorously opposed.

by Kevin Gosztola

By Robert Weitzel

I was the first who wanted to impose Israeli sovereignty . . . I admit it . . . I was not ready to look into all the depths of reality.

- Incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

In a September 30 article in the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronot, Israel's incumbent Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a former member of the right-wing Likud party, said that Israel must withdraw "from almost all of the territories, if not from all the territories. We shall keep in our hands a percentage of these territories, but we shall be compelled to give the Palestinians a similar percentage, because without that there will be no peace."