Israel's most bloody assault on Gaza since 1967 — codenamed "Operation Cast Lead," Mivtza Oferet Yetzukah — began on the morning of 27 December, the 6th day of Hanukkah. The name "cast lead" is taken from a famous poem "To Hanukkah" by the Hebrew writer H. N. Bialik, referring to a gift of a "cast-lead top" as a traditional Hanukkah present for children, familiar as the text of a Hanukkah's children's song. It ravaged Gaza on December 29, in the Muslim calendar Muharram 1, the first day of the first lunar month, Muslim New Year 1430. Muharram is the most sacred Muslim month after Ramadan, and one in which fighting is traditionally prohibited. In its deadly spin, this "cast-lead top" had by 7 January claimed the lives of over 600, with nearly 3,000 injured, a large proportion of whom are civilians, and many children.
There has been massive protest among Palestinians everywhere, including the West Bank. Less reported in the mainstream media is the killing of demonstrators there by the Israeli Occupation Forces. On 28 December, Anarchists Against the Wall activists joined a demonstration in the village of Ni'ilin against Israel's war crimes in Gaza. Israeli forces opened fire on a number of youths, killing one protester and leaving another in critical condition, who died three days later on December 31 (see an AATW activist's description below).
Arafat Rateb Khawaja, 20 years old, was shot in the back with live ammunition, and died in Ramallah Hospital that same day.
(Photo: ActiveStills.org / Used With Permission)
He was buried on 29 December, which AATW described as an "extremely charged funeral in Ni'ilin, followed by a day of clashes with the army."
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