11th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
On the morning of Monday, 10th June, a
Palestinian man was injured by Israeli army fire while working in the
area of Sufa, southern Gaza Strip, near the barrier with Israel.
Amer Abu Hadayed, 20 years, hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit of the European hospital (Photo by Rosa Schiano)
Hadayed Abu Amer, 20, was picking up
rocks and stones to be sold as building material along with his brothers
Yasser and Saher. The three had gone to work at 6:00 am aboard a
tuk-tuk.
An Israeli military jeep approached them
so they left the area, but returned soon after to continue working. At
this point the soldiers started shooting in their direction. At about
7:00am the three men, who were about 30 meters from the barrier that
separates Israel from the Gaza Strip, tried to flee to avoid being hurt,
but Amer was hit in the shoulder by one of the bullets.
Amer and one of his brothers fled while
the third followed them with the tuk-tuk. Amer was subsequently
transported to the hospital.
The three men earn 80 shekels for a day’s
work, of which 15 shekels usually goes to the driver of the tuk-tuk. In
practice the men earn about six euros each daily, working every day in
an area of extreme danger.
Amer is still in the intensive care unit
of the European hospital just south of Khan Younis. He said that the
soldiers had also shot at he and his brothers two weeks previously but
they had been able to escape.
Dr. Ihab Alassal reported that the bullet
entered and exited the body of Amer. His condition is now stable. He
reported an accumulation of blood in the pleural space, that is, the
space between the lung and the chest wall. Dr. Alassal added that Amer
is now under observation and being monitored for vascular access and
blood pressure. He added that if his condition worsens, Amer could
undergo exploratory surgery.
Amer in the hospital (Photo by: Rosa Schiano)
Amer’s family consists of ten members:
two parents, two daughters and six sons. One of the sons, Mahmoud, 24,
works as a barber, while three male children collect stones to be sold.
The rest are unemployed. They live in Khan Younis, in an area called Al
Junra, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Mahmoud was with one of the brothers
outside the intensive care unit. He constantly repeated “I’m desperate,”
talking about the harsh economic conditions prevailing in his family.
He dreams of leaving Gaza, to move to Italy or elsewhere, in hope of a
better future.
“We will never return to pick up stones,”
said Yasser whose eyes told everything about the fear that this attack
had brought about.
The siege that Israel has illegally
imposed on the Gaza Strip has produced a failing economy and then on
another level mass unemployment. The limited amount of construction
material entering through the Karm Abu Salem crossing (Kerem Shalom)
forces Palestinian companies to require people to collect stones for the
construction of buildings. The majority of these stones are found near
the border areas – where Palestinian buildings have been destroyed or
bulldozed by the Israeli army.
The arrangements for the ceasefire of
21st November 2012 established that the Israeli military forces should
“refrain from hitting residents in areas along the border” and “cease
hostilities in the Gaza Strip by land, by sea and by air, including
raids and targeted killings.”
However, Israeli military attacks by land
and sea have followed from the day after the ceasefire, and Israeli
warplanes fly constantly over the sky in the Gaza Strip. In the border
areas four civilians have been killed since the end of the “Pillar of
Defense” military offensive, and at least 90 civilians have been
wounded.
These attacks against the civilian
population of Gaza continue to occur, yet are met with silence by the
international community.
You can read International Action for Palestine’s report
here.
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Al Mezan
11-6-2013
Rubble Collector in Intensive Care Unit from Israeli Forces’ Shot
At approximately 7:00 am on Monday June 10th
2013, Israeli Forces positioned near the separation fence east of Khan
Younis, opened fire towards a number of rubble and gravel collectors
near Sofa Crossing, east of Al Fokhari town, east of Khan Younis. In the
attack, Amer Mazen Shehda Abu Hadayid, 21, was shot and injured with a
bullet entering his left shoulder and exiting his body through his upper
chest. Amer was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Gaza
European Hospital.
According to Sahir Abu Hadayid’s affidavit to Al Mezan, the two,
together with their third brother, Yassir, 19, were collecting rubbles
at a distance of 100 meters from the separation fence. After spending
less than an hour at work, at approximately 7:00 am, Sahir saw an
Israeli military jeep idling inside the separation fence. Four soldiers
got out of the jeep and one of them spoke in Arabic, saying, “leave this
area”. We heard gunshots and we rushed to escape from the area. A few
moments later, Amer told me that he had been shot and he fell to the
ground. I saw blood on his shirt and immediately my brother and I
brought him to Gaza European Hospital. He was admitted to the intensive
care unit.
