AN Israeli soldier was killed and another injured on Thursday during renewed clashes with Palestinian fighters near the Kisufim military post east of Al-Qarara in the southern Gaza Strip.
Witnesses said that fierce fighting between Palestinian fighters and Israeli soldiers took place 200 metres from the Israeli military installation.
They added that at 8.10am they heard a thunderous explosion and saw an Israeli military jeep completely burned, as if it had driven over a powerful landmine.
According to eyewitnesses, Israeli forces progressed one kilometre in the area firing shells at Palestinian houses.
Meanwhile, a number of UK trade union leaders and MPs have broken their silence about the Gaza massacres carried out by Israel.
UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis has written to foreign secretary David Miliband.
Prentis wrote: ‘The escalation of violence and the deaths of over 100 people, most of them Palestinian civilians, will do nothing to bring peace closer to the Middle East.
‘UNISON is opposed to the use of violence by either side and condemns the rocket attacks on Israel. However, the Israeli response has been completely disproportionate and the level of destruction caused and civilian casualties inflicted by the Israeli Defence Forces cannot be justified.’
Prentis goes on to state that: ‘Israel’s collective punishment of the people of Gaza is a clear breach of international humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention. It is, in effect, a war crime and Israel must be held to account.’
At Wednesday’s emergency demonstration opposite parliament UNISON deputy general secretary Keith Sonnet told News Line: ‘Palestinian civilians are being killed in their droves.’
He added: ‘I think the EU trade deal with Israel should be suspended – I don’t think the Israeli government has shown any respect for Palestinians’ human rights.
‘And we also call on our government to ban the export of arms to Israel.’
Ruqayyah Collector, NUS Black Students Officer, said: ‘Hundreds of innocent Palestinians have been killed or wounded as a result, and our government is doing nothing to stop that.’
She added: ‘I think students across the country need to make Palestine the key issue, because it’s our generation’s South Africa.’
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn also spoke up about Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza, also saying that it ‘amounts to a war crime within the terms of the Geneva Convention’.
Another Labour MP, Richard Burden, said that Israel’s attacks on Gaza were ‘appalling’, adding: ‘It’s time the international community woke up to what’s going on.’
