Emergency solidarity action for Gaza

Friends of Palestine has called an emergency action in solidarity with the people of Gaza and in opposition to the military assault on that besieged strip of land:

Friday 16 November

5:30pm, Murray Street Mall
(outside Perth Underground Station), Perth City

Attend on Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/416825695049703

GLW: Gaza activist: 'Israel has declared war, act now'

Israel has launched a fresh full-scale war on the besieged people of Gaza. As well as assassinating a Hamas spokesperson (and publicly threatening all Hamas representatives), more than 10 people had been killed by November 15. The dead reportedly includes Omar, an 11-month-old baby whose father works for BBC Arabic.

Disturbingly, the Israeli Defense Force is "live tweeting" its murderous assault.

Green Left Weekly's Patrick Harrison and Peter Boyle spoke to Shamikh Badra, a Gaza-based activist with the left-wing Palestine People's Party who recently toured Australia, about Israel's latest killing spree. The interview took place on the morning of November 15, Sydney time.

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What is the situation like in Gaza Strip? Are the attacks taking place across the whole area?

Over the past 48 hours, the Israeli army has escalated their aerial and ground attacks against the Gaza Strip. More than 10 people have been killed so far in the Israeli operation named “Pillar of Defence” within the last seven hours, including countless children such as seven-year-old child Ranan Arafat and an 11-month old baby. More than 50 others, including six women and 12 children, have been wounded.

Four of these deaths and 38 of the injuries, some of them serious, resulted from an Israeli attack in the al-Shoja’iya neighbourhood east of Gaza City which occurred on Sunday.

We’ve seen charred bodies of dead and injured children pouring in to Al Shifa hospital of Gaza City and the other depleted hospitals around the Gaza Strip. There have been at least 50 air strikes all over the Gaza Strip so far. Deafening explosions shook us all as bombs landed close to us in the streets near the Universities -- the windows of my house were broken as a result of Israeli bombing.

Huge explosions are landing all around us in Gaza City now as I write, some entire families have been injured. All the infrastructure of Gaza is coming under attack at this point -- power, water, roads, houses, farms and civilians. We can also hear the shelling of Israeli Gunships. There has been announcements of possible Israeli land invasion very soon. READ MORE