Farming under fire

Witnesses: Israel military vehicles enter Gaza

2012-01-10T14:18:00.000-08:00

Israeli tanks patrol the border of northern Gaza. (MaanImages/Moti Milrod, File)

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli military vehicles entered the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, with witnesses reporting heavy gunfire in the area.

Forces accompanied bulldozers around 300 meters inside the border near Jabalia to raze lands in the area, witnesses told Ma'an. No casualties were reported.

An Israeli army spokesman said the incident was "routine activity."

Gunfire was also heard in the southern Gaza Strip early Tuesday, with locals saying Palestinian militants exchanged fire with an Israeli military post near the Kerem Shalom crossing.

The military spokesman said he was not familiar with the incident.

Gaza teen injured in explosion

2012-01-07T01:43:00.000-08:00

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A teenage girl was injured Friday when an ordnance left by the Israeli army exploded east of al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.

Medical officials told Ma'an the 19-year-old was taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and treated for moderate injuries.

[Israeli incursion from Kisufim gate]

2012-01-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

extract from Ma'an article

Meanwhile, Israeli tanks entered the Gaza Strip through the Kisufim gate near Khan Younis and opened fire as bulldozers razed farmland in the area, onlookers told Ma'an.

An military spokeswoman said soldiers identified an explosive device near the border fence and safely detonated it. She said soldiers fired tank shells during the procedure as a "method of deterrence."

The Israeli army holds Hamas fully responsible for maintaining calm in the coastal enclave, she added.

Palestinian man wounded in IOF shooting on last day of 2011

2012-01-01T17:58:00.000-08:00

GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) shot at and wounded a Palestinian man in northern Gaza Strip on Saturday night in the dying hours of 2011, local sources said.
They said that IOF troops stationed north of Beit Hanun town opened fire at its residents wounding the 33-year-old man, who was carried to hospital in moderate condition.

Palestinian Injured By Army Fire In Northern Gaza

Sunday January 01, 2012 01:54 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian medical sources reported Saturday that a Palestinian man was shot and wounded by Israeli military fire, north of Beit Hanoun, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the Arabs48 news website reported.

Image By Arabs48

The sources stated that medics transferred the wounded 32-year-old man to Kamal Odwan Hospital after he was shot in the leg.

Israel imposes an illegal buffer-zone along the border, preventing the Palestinians from entering their own lands that are close to the border fence. Dozens of casualties, including several fatalities were reported in similar attacks.

Despite the fact that when Israel declared this “buffer zone” it stated that it extends to 300 meters along the border with northern Gaza, on the ground, the zone extends to more than 1 kilometer, preventing the residents from planting their own lands, or even entering them.

Witnesses: Israeli tanks shell eastern Gaza Strip

2011-12-30T11:04:00.000-08:00

Residents of Khan Younis inspect damage to their land and houses after an
incursion of Israeli tanks. (MaanImages/Hatem Omar, File)

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli tanks on Friday opened fire on Zaitoun neighborhood south of Gaza City, witnesses said.

Locals reported hearing huge explosions. Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said no injuries had been reported.

An Israeli military spokeswoman was not familiar with the incident.

Israel shells northern Gaza

2011-12-29T09:45:00.001-08:00

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- An Israeli tank fired on northern Gaza on Wednesday, without causing damage or injuries.

Forces launched an artillery shell which landed in an open area in the north of the coastal strip, a Ma'an reporter said.

An Israeli army spokesman said he was not familiar with the incident.

The blast followed two Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening, which killed one man and wounded ten others, as the coastal enclave marked the third anniversary of the Gaza war.

Israel launched a three week war on the Gaza Strip on Dec. 27, 2008.

Nearly 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the military assault, including over 300 children. The majority of those killed were civilians.

13-year-old boy injured by Israeli gunfire in Gaza

2011-12-27T09:43:00.000-08:00

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- A 13-year-old boy in the Gaza Strip was injured by Israeli gunfire on Tuesday.

Medical sources in the Gaza Strip said that Muhammad Talbani was shot in the foot and taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.

Earlier on Tuesday, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, the al-Naser Salah ad-Din Brigades, said in a statement that Israeli forces had crossed the border in the central Gaza Strip.

The group said it had clashed with the soldiers.

An Israeli army spokeswoman had no immediate reports of the incidents.

Urgent Appeal (UA 4/10) - Children of the Gravel

2011-12-23T08:21:00.000-08:00

DCI-Palestine

Posted on: 15 Dec 2011 | Filed under:

Between 26 March 2010 and 13 December 2011, DCI-Palestine has documented 29 cases of children shot whilst collecting building material or working near the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel. In the cases documented by DCI-Palestine, the children report being shot whilst working between 30 to 800 metres from the border fence.
Urgent Appeal (UA 4/10) - Children of the Gravel

Demonstration in the no go zone, Beit Hanoun

2011-12-23T07:55:00.000-08:00

posted on ISM webpage on 22 December 2011

by Nathan Stuckey

20 December 2011

Photo: Rosa Schiano, International Solidarity Movement - Click here for more images

Every Tuesday there is a demonstration against the occupation and the Israeli imposed no go zone that surrounds Gaza, stealing much of Gaza’s best farmland. Today, it was unseasonably warm, it felt almost like summer. We started our march from in front of the destroyed buildings Beit Hanoun Agricultural College. Music played over a megaphone as we marched down the road into the no go zone. As we got closer to the no go zone the music stopped, it got quiet. Usually, when the music starts the chanting begins, but not today. Everyone seemed to be lost in thought, perhaps pondering the green that has recently appeared in the no go zone. The bulldozers haven’t come for many weeks to kill all life in the no go zones. Perhaps they were remembering the olive trees, and orange groves that used to be here. Perhaps they were thinking of the families that used to live in the destroyed houses that we were walking by. Perhaps they were thinking of the houses that no longer exist, the houses that have been completely erased by the Israeli bulldozers.
We entered the no go zone and went to the flag that we left here several weeks ago. It flies in the breeze, a reminder that this land is Palestinian, that while the people of Gaza might have been driven from their homes they have not yet been erased by the Israeli military like the orchards that used to grow in the no go zone. We took the flag down. We marched further into the no go zone, to land which no one had been to since May of 2000. We made our way across the no go zone, land scarred dozens of times by the blades of Israeli bulldozers, to a small hill. We climbed the hill and we planted the flag. The ground was hard, it has not rained lately, but we found a soft spot and drove the flagpole into the earth. We piled rocks around its base to strengthen it. We looked out over 1948, the land which many residents of Beit Hanoun had been driven from 63 years ago.
We began to walk back to Beit Hanoun. Through the no go zone, on land no one had been to in many years. As always, when you go new places in Gaza you see new destruction which you had no inkling of before you stumbled upon, but it was always there, another untold story in the crimes of the occupation. We paused by some rubble that I had seen many times on our marches into the no go zone, I never knew what it had been. It was a well. It had of course been destroyed by an Israeli bulldozer, all of the trees which it used to water ground under the treads of the same bulldozer. The well is dry now. Perhaps someday it will be repaired and orchards will once again thrive on this land. Someday, after the occupation finally disappears into the pages of history. Until then, it stands alongside the hundreds of Palestinian villages destroyed in the Nakba, alongside the thousands of homes destroyed by Israel, as a mute reminder of the crimes of Israel.

Updated on December 22, 2011

PCHR weekly report 15/12 - 21/12/2011: 1 civilian dies trying to escape from gunfire, 1 worker shot and injured

2011-12-23T05:47:00.000-08:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 15/12 - 21/12/2011:

A Palestinian civilian was killed when he fell down from his bicycle as he was attempting to escape Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian civilian was wounded by Israeli gunfire in the northern Gaza Strip.

Friday, 16 December 2011

At approximately 23:40, Israeli soldiers stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip opened fire at Palestinian agricultural land in the vicinity of sewage basins in the east of the camp. Due to the intense shooting, the guard of basins, Majed Mahmoud al-Nabahin, 39, attempted to escape on motorcycle towards the west. While he was driving the motorcycle, he fell down and died, as he suffered from hemorrhage.

Tuesday, 20 December 2011

At approximately 16:20, Israeli soldiers positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Beit Hanoun town opened fire at open areas to the east of al-Farta area, nearly 800 meters from the border. No casualties were reported.

At approximately 23:30, Israeli soldiers positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Beit Hanoun town opened fire at open areas to the east of al-Boura area, nearly 700 meters from the border. No casualties were reported.

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

At approximately 09:30, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towers at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired at a number of Palestinian civilians who were collecting wood, iron and scraps of construction materials in Hammouda area in the northern Gaza Strip. As a result, Hamza Jamal Barakat, 19, from al-Zaytoun neighborhood in the southeast of Gaza City, was wounded by two bullets to the left shoulder and foot.

Israeli shelling east of Khan Younis

2011-12-23T04:33:00.000-08:00

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces shelled on Friday morning east of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Eyewitnesses in the al-Zana area said they heard three explosions that were a result of Israeli shelling in an open area.

Gaza medical official Adham Abu Salmiya told Ma’an there were no injuries.

Incursion reported near Khan Younis, no injuries

2011-12-23T03:52:00.000-08:00

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israeli army vehicles crossed over the border of eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip early Thursday, firing intensively, local residents said.

Onlookers of the brief incursion told Ma'an that seven Israeli tanks in addition to several bulldozers crossed a few dozen meters inside eastern Khan Younis near the Khuzaa, Abasan and Farahin towns.

In addition to the presence of helicopters overhead, gunfire from a military tower at the center of the border fence was overheard particularly in the town of Abasan. No injuries were reported.

Israel's army did not immediately return calls.

Palestinian worker hurt by Israeli gunfire

2011-12-23T03:45:00.000-08:00

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- A Palestinian worker has been injured by Israeli gunfire in the north of the Gaza Strip, local residents said Wednesday.

The 19-year-old worker was collecting stone aggregates when Israeli forces opened fire toward him, injuring his left leg, in the northern Bedouin village in Beit Lahiya, locals said.

He was taken to Kamal Adwan Hospital where doctors said his injuries were moderate.

Israel's army did not immediately return a call late Wednesday.

IOF Opens Fire on Residential Houses Northeast of Beit Hanoun

2011-12-20T07:27:00.000-08:00

20-12-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 11:30 pm on Tuesday 20 December 2011, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened sporadic fire on areas located in the Shurab family area, street number 15, and on residential houses in the Al Amal neighborhood northeast of Beit Hanoun in North Gaza district. The shooting lasted for about 30 minutes. No casualties or injuries were reported.

IOF Opens Fire East of Beit Hanoun

2011-12-20T07:18:00.000-08:00

20-12-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 4:20 pm on Tuesday 20 December 2011, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened heavy fire at the Al Furtta and Qatbaniya areas east of Beit Hanoun in North Gaza district. No casualties or injuries were reported.

Israeli forces detain 3 men trying to cross Gaza border

2011-12-20T03:46:00.000-08:00

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces detained three men overnight Monday in the central Gaza Strip after they reportedly approached the security fence separating Israel and the coastal enclave.

Witnesses said that the men were trying to cross the border illegally to work in Israel. Soldiers fired flares near the border and deployed forces before detaining the men, who were from al-Bureij refugee camp.

An Israeli army spokesman said that three suspects were identified trying to cross the security fence and were arrested by soldiers and transferred to security custody for questioning.

A man in his 20s was seriously wounded last week after being shot by Israeli soldiers east of Gaza City.

The man was hunting for birds in the Shujaiyeh neighborhood, medics said. The Israeli army said a "suspicious individual" had approached the security fence.

Israel maintains a sea, land and air blockade of the Gaza Strip, restricting the import and export of goods and the movement of people.

The blockade has been described as collective punishment by rights agencies and the United Nations.

Palestinian Dies Northeast of Al Bureij Refugee Camp

2011-12-16T07:37:00.000-08:00

16-12-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 11:40 pm on Friday 16 December 2011, the body of Majed Mahmoud An-Nabaheen, 39, was admitted dead on arrival to Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al Balah. According to medical report, there was abrasion around the nose and hemorrhaging around the nose and mouth.

According to eyewitnesses, at approximately 11:00 pm on Friday 16 December 2011, Israeli occupation forces positioned near the separation fence northeast of Al Bureij refugee camp opened fire on the northeast quarter of the camp. An-Nabaheen was working near his house at the time. He is a guard at the waste pools of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility.

Limited IOF Incursion West of Erez Crossing

2011-12-15T07:39:00.000-08:00

15-12-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 8:20 am on Thursday 15 December 2011, seven Israeli tanks accompanied by two armored bulldozers moved under heavy covering fire about 200 meters into a destroyed area west of Erez crossing in North Gaza district. Bulldozers razed lands near the separation wall. At approximately 9:20 am on the same day, the forces withdrew from the area. According to Al Mezan’s field investigations, in the past days the Israeli occupation forces have attacked rubble collectors in the same area.

PCHR weekly report 8/12 - 14/12/2011: a man and 2 children wounded by airstrike, 1 farmer wounded, 1 child worker wounded, 1 bird hunter wounded, 1 incursion

2011-12-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 8/12 - 14/12/2011:

[only attacks near the areas of buffer zone concerning civilians are mentioned]

Sunday, 11 December 2011

At approximately 02:40, an Israeli warplane launched four missiles on a vacant house belonging to a leader of the Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, Imad 'Aqel, 42. The two-storey house is located behind 'Ein Jalout School in al-Zaytoon neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. The four missiles directly hit the roof of the house, damaging it. A neighboring 250-square-meter, two-storey house belonging to Mohammed Mahmoud Badwan, 57, in which 17 individuals live, was heavily damaged. Because of the shrapnel scattered in the house, Ashraf Mohammed Mahmoud Badwan, 35, received shrapnel wounds to the face, and two of his children were also wounded in the incident: Sondos, 10, who was seriously wounded by shrapnel to the head, and Mohammed, 8, who was wounded by shrapnel to the right leg. The two children were wounded while they were asleep on the asbestos contaminated second floor.

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

At approximately 06:30, IOF moved nearly 300 meters into the east of al-Boreij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, under the cover of intense shooting. As a result, Mohye al-Din Mas’oud Abu Jalal, 49, was lightly wounded by a bullet to the chest when he was on his agricultural land, nearly 700 meters away. IOF moved back to the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel at approximately 11:00, after having leveled areas of Palestinian land.

At approximately 07:30, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towers near Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire at a number of Palestinian workers who were collecting scraps of construction materials in the industrial zone, northwest of Beit Hanoun. As a result, Nidal Khalil Hamdan, 14, from Beit Hanoun, was wounded by a bullet to the left shoulder. The workers were nearly 500 meters away from the crossing.

At approximately 11:05 on Tuesday, 13 December 2011, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towers at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the northern Gaza Strip fired at a number of Palestinian civilians and international solidarity activists who demonstrated in the east of Beit Hanoun town. According to Saber al-Za’anin, Coordinator of the Local Initiative in Beit Hanoun, at approximately 10:30 on Tuesday, about 30 demonstrators, including a number of international solidarity activists, gathered in front of the Agricultural School in Beit Hanoun. They moved towards the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to protest to the establishment of a buffer zone by IOF along the border. When the demonstrators got as close as to 100 meters from the border, IOF fired them. The demonstrators left the area and no casualties were reported.

Wednesday, 14 December 2011

At approximately 09:00, Israeli soldiers positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Gaza City fired at Mohammed Mahmoud al-Biltaji, 20, from al-Shuja’iya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, while he was hunting birds nearly one kilometer away from the border. He was wounded by a bullet to the right foot.

Nedal, 14 years old, collected metal to support his family – they shot him from behind

2011-12-14T14:31:00.000-08:00

by Rosa Schiano

13 December 2011 | il blog di Oliva

Nedal Khaleel Hamdan (Photo: Rosa Schiano, il blog di Oliva)

This morning at the Eretz border in Beit Hanoun, Israeli soldiers shot a 14-year-old boy, Nedal Khaleel Hamdan. We went to the hospital to meet him. We found him sitting on the bed with his left shoulder bandaged, surrounded by his family.
Nedal was collecting metal along with other boys in an area near the border. Often young people his age collect metal, then sell it to earn some money and help their families as well. At about 8:30 in the morning, Israeli soldiers started shooting at them; Nedal and the other fled, but while they were running Nedal was hit in the shoulder by a bullet.
He was transported on a cart to Balsam Hospital, which provided first aid, and was then transferred to Kamal Odwaan Hospital in Beit Hanoun. There the doctor told us: “We made an incision to remove the M-16 bullet. There is a total lack of supplies in the emergency room. We have to ration everything. People get a lot less medicine than they need. ”
Nadal’s recovery time will be a month. Fortunately, there have been no complications.
When we asked Nedal why he works there, told us: “We try to sell the metal to give our families the money they need to live.”
His father, Khaleel, has 16 children, and cannot work due to a problem in his legs. Lack of money forces his children to work in these dangerous areas, even if they do not earn more than 10 shekels for the sale of the metal. Sometimes his family depends on this money. Khaleel adds: “We live in a situation of injustice in Palestine and suffer from this occupation, but we want to work and need some way to make money. We hope that this occupation and the siege end soon and we can have a better life.”
How long can such crimes continue? Here they fire on children, while the world keeps its eyes and ears closed.

Updated on December 14, 2011

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13-12-2011

Al Mezan

IOF Opens Fire at Rubble Collectors in Vicinity of Erez Crossing; One Child Injured

At approximately 7:15 am on Tuesday 13 December 2011, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) positioned in concrete watchtowers opened heavy fire on Palestinian civilians who were collecting scrap and rubble from a destroyed area in the vicinity of the Erez crossing. The civilians were about 450 meters away from the separation fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel when the IOF opened fire at them. As a result, Nedal Khalil Attiya Hamdan, 14, sustained a bullet wound in the left shoulder.

According to Al Mezan’s field investigations, Hamdan and his relatives were collecting scrap in the area. After Hamdan was injured he was carried on a donkey-drawn cart to Balsam Hospital, then referred to Kamal Odwan Hospital. Medical sources described his injury as moderate. Hamdan lives on Qarman street in Beit Hanoun.

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Voices from the Occupation: Nedal H. - Injuries

Posted on DCI Palestine: 14 Dec 2011 | Filed under:

Name:                        Nedal H.
Date of incident:      13 December 2011
Age:                            13
Location:                   Erez industrial zone, Gaza
Nature of incident: Shot while collectinig scrap metal

On 13 December 2011, a 13-year-old boy from Gaza is shot in the shoulder whilst collecting scrap metal, about 400 metres from the border with Israel.

Thirteen-year-old Nedal describes his family’s financial situation as “very harsh”. “I was very weak at school,” says Nedal, “and had to drop out last year after only finishing the fifth grade because I failed three times. I dropped out and tried to learn a trade to help me support my family and myself, but I failed.”

“Ahmad is my cousin and my best friend. He is like me, a drop-out. Everyday he collects scrap metal from Erez and earns 30 to 40 shekels, depending on how much he collects,” says Nedal. “I saw Ahmad yesterday evening, 12 December, and told him I would like to join him in collecting scrap metal from the industrial zone, and share the 15 shekel rent for the donkey cart. He told me to be ready the following morning at 7:30 am.”

The next morning the two boys set off to collect scrap metal from the industrial zone as agreed. “We approached Erez Crossing and got off the cart and started walking and looking for scrap metal, about 400 metres from the border fence,” recalls Nedal. “We were not alone. There were around 30 collectors my age. I also saw two Israeli observation towers on the border, but I did not see any soldiers inside.”

“We stopped the cart on the paved road and walked to the industrial zone to the west. Suddenly, shooting erupted from one of the observation towers. I was about 40 to 50 metres west of the paved road, and about 400 metres away from the border fence. The collectors started running because of it. I myself got scared. I turned around and started running away from the border, and headed back to the cart that was parked to the southeast. I kept running fast because the shooting was intensive,” says Nedal. “I ran about 10 metres when I felt something hitting me on the back of my left shoulder, and I felt my left arm had been paralyzed. I looked at it and saw my shoulder bleeding, and realised I had been injured by bullets from the observation towers.”

Another scrap metal collector carried Nedal to a nearby horse cart and he was transferred to Balsam Hospital, and then to Kamal Odwan Hospital. Doctors at the hospital operated to remove the bullet and told Nedal that he would be hospitalised for two to three days. “I will never go back to the industrial zone. I went there to collect scrap metal to help my family, and I got shot on the first day. It is a very dangerous thing to do, and I do not recommend it,” says Nedal. “As for Ahmad, I was told he went back to the industrial zone to get the donkey cart.”

13 December 2011

Planting the seeds of resistance and steadfastness in the no go zone

2011-12-14T08:04:00.000-08:00

posted on ISM webpage on 14 December 2011

by Nathan Stuckey

13 December 2011

Photo: Beit Hanoun Local Initiative - Click here for more images

We set off from in front of the Beit Hanoun Agricultural College under the flags of half a dozen countries, but listening to the music of Palestine. Every Tuesday, for three years, we set off from here into the no go zone, that three hundred meter strip of death which surrounds Gaza. We are a diverse group, the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement, and other Gazans. We march down the road into the no go zone, the tension builds, we play music, we chant.
Today, as we approached the buffer zone a shot rang out. Israeli soldiers shooting into the air, shooting from the concrete towers which line the border of the prison that Israel has created in Gaza. We do not stop, we keep walking into the no go zone. The no go zone is different this week, it is green. Usually it is a dead brown, every couple of weeks Israeli bulldozers come and uproot any plants that manage to sprout, nothing is allowed to live in the no go zone. It is hard to imagine that this used to be an area of thriving orchards, that their used to be houses here, they have all been destroyed, not just destroyed, erased like the hundreds of Palestinian villages which most of the people of Gaza are refugees from were erased after 1948. Just as Palestinians have refused to be erased by the Nakba, the Naqsa, the Occupation, or the war on Gaza, the no go zone steadfastly refuses to become a place of death, green plants emerge from the land after every rain.
We march all the way to the giant ditch which scars the no go zone. We plant a Palestinian flag. It joins the other flags we have left in the no go zone, the orchard of olive trees which we planted here last month. Sabur Zaaneen from the Local Initiative spoke, he vowed to “continue the popular resistance despite the bullets of the occupation, resistance would continue until the liberation of Palestine.” Almost on cue he was answered by the bullets of the soldiers, shots began to ring out, not at us; the soldiers were shooting into the air. We calmly walked back to the road to Beit Hanoun; we still had work to do.
On the road to Beit Hanoun we met a tractor. We had brought the tractor to farm, to plant the land of the no go zone. Israel claims that the no go zone extends only three hundred meters, but in reality the danger extends much farther, just before the demonstration today the Israeli’s had shot a fourteen year old boy from Beit Hanoun while he gathered scrap metal to help support his family, he was not in the no go zone, it didn’t matter, they shot him anyway. We drove the tractor into a large patch of unfarmed land next to the road. We lowered the disc and began to turn the soil. The thistles that grew here were turned under the red soil of Gaza. Young men pulled stones from the field; they were left by the cactuses which mark the border of the land. As soon as the soil was turned young men spread out and began to plant it, barley. When the rains come, the barley will sprout, in four months we will harvest it. We will harvest it under the guns of the Israeli army, just as Palestinians have done for sixty four years, steadfast in their refusal to abandon their land. We are planting not only barley, but also resistance, steadfastness.

Updated on December 14, 2011

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13-12-2011

Al Mezan

IOF Opens Fire at Weekly Demonstration in North Beit Hanoun

At approximately 11:05 am on Tuesday 13 December 2011, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) stationed in concrete watchtowers along the northern separation fence between Gaza and Israel opened heavy fire on a peaceful demonstration of the Popular Campaign against the Buffer Zone. 30 Palestinians and two international solidarity activists had moved to within roughly 150 meters of the northern border, reaching an agricultural area, when the IOF opened fire at them. No casualties or injuries were reported in this incident.

According to Al Mezan’s field investigations, at approximately 10:30 am on Tuesday 13 December 2011, 30 Palestinians and two international solidarity activists, accompanied by a tractor, walked in a march from the Agricultural Secondary School to a point near the border in order to guard a plot of 10,000 square meters of unplanted land about 300 meters away from the separation fence. The demonstrators planted the area with barley, and left the area at approximately midday.

New report documents children under fire in Gaza

2011-12-13T08:17:00.000-08:00

13 December 2011 | AlertNet

Children walk past a poster welcoming freed Palestinian prisoners in Qalandiya refugee camp near the West Bank city of Ramallah, October 19, 2011. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

Twenty-eight cases of children being shot at by the border fence between Israel and the Gaza strip whilst gathering building materials like gravel, or working by the fence, have been documented by Defence for Children International in their latest report ‘Children of Gravel’.
The shootings reportedly took place between March 26 2010 and October 3, 2011, according to Defence for Children International (DCI)-Palestine Section . According to DCI, the Israeli soldiers often fire warning shots to scare off workers by the border. Their report also states that ‘these soldiers sometimes shoot and kill the donkeys used by the workers, and also target the workers, usually, but not always, shooting at their legs.’
‘That children are in a situation where they need to work to help their parents meet basic family needs is an infringement of their rights. That children are in the line of fire to meet these needs is appalling,’ says World Vision Programme Director for Gaza, Siobhan Kimmerle.
Forty percent of Gaza’s population is unemployed and 80% of the population is completely reliant on foreign assistance. In addition, Israeli restrictions limit the amount of construction material entering the Gaza borders for reconstruction and development. As a result, many workers collect gravel and sell it to builders to use for concrete. The children among the gravel collectors earn about US$8-$14 per day to help support their families.
The North Gaza governorate is one of the most impoverished governorates in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) and the neediest in the Gaza Strip. In comparison to the other governorates in the Gaza Strip, North Gaza’s food insecurity rate is the highest at 60% and the unemployment rate the second highest at 39%. World Vision works with communities in North Gaza to help improve family livelihoods and help ensure their children are cared for and protected.
Currently there are 2,411 registered children in World Vision’s North Gaza Area Development Programme, with 7,061 beneficiaries and as many as 22,594 indirect beneficiaries. World Vision’s programming in North Gaza includes rural development, job creation, and child empowerment projects.
The blockade of the Gaza Strip, including Israeli restrictions on items entering the borders, continue to harm Gaza’s deteriorating economy. The Israeli military continues to restrict Palestinians’ access to the land on the Gaza side of the Israeli-Gaza border, maintaining that anyone that comes within 300 metres of the borders puts his/her life at risk, which has had a negative impact on the physical security and livelihoods of Palestinians living in that area. DCI’s documentation indicates that children have been shot at while being between 30 to 800 metres within the Israeli border fence.

To read the DCI’s Urgent Appeal-Children of the Gravel, please visit http://www.dci-palestine.org/documents/urgent-appeal-ua-410-children-gravel.

World Vision continues to work for the well-being of children and advocate for an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. World Vision believes that this conflict threatens the lives of all Palestinian and Israeli children, and one of the greatest obstacles to achieving fullness of life for each and every child is the ongoing conflict and the perpetuation of violence.

Sources:

1) Defence for Children International-Palestine Section, Urgent Appeal-Children of the Gravel, available at
http://www.dci-palestine.org/documents/urgent-appeal-ua-410-children-gravel-1

2) Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook, Gaza Strip, available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gz.html. Last accessed on November 25, 2011.

3) Oxfam International, Crisis in Gaza, available at http://www.oxfam.org/en/emergencies/gaza. Last accessed on December 9, 2011.

Limited IOF Incursion East of Al Bureij Refugee Camp; One Person Injured

2011-12-13T07:42:00.000-08:00

13-12-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 6:30 am on Tuesday 13 December 2011, three Israeli tanks accompanied by three armored bulldozers moved under heavy covering fire about 300 meters into the eastern part of Al Bureij refugee camp in Middle Gaza district, where the bulldozers razed land near the separation fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel. As a result of the incursion, Muhyy Ad-Din Mas’oud Abu Jalal, 49, sustained a bullet wound in the chest while he was about one kilometer away from the separation fence. At approximately 11:00 am on the same day, the Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the area.

IOF Attacks House in Az-Zaitoun Neighborhood; Three People Injured, Including Two Children

2011-12-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

11-12-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 2:40 am on Sunday, 11 December 2011, Israeli aircraft fired about four missiles at the house of Emad ‘Aqel, a leader of the Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement. The two-story house is located in the Az-Zaitoun neighborhood behind Ein Jalout School, east of Az-Zaitoun neighborhood, in the east of Gaza City. As a result, the house was damaged. The residents were not at home when it was attacked.

An adjacent house belonging to Ashraf Badwan, 35, was partially damaged. The two-story house is about 250 square meters in area and hosts about 15 family members. As a result of the attack, Ashraf sustained a shrapnel wound in the face; his daughter Sundus, 10, sustained a critical shrapnel wound in the head; and her brother Mohammed, 8, sustained three shrapnel wounds in the right leg.

Israeli missile hits poultry farm in north Gaza

2011-12-11T03:34:00.000-08:00

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- An Israeli missile hit a poultry and livestock farm in Beit Hanoun on Saturday, a Ma'an correspondent said.

The farm in northern Gaza belonged to Ramadan Abu Ghazaleh. A number of animals were killed and extensive material damage was caused to the structure.

Violence has flared between Gaza and Israel after Israeli airstrikes killed an Islamic Jihad fighter on Wednesday, and two affiliates of Fatah and Hamas' armed wings on Thursday.

A further airstrike on Gaza City on Friday morning hit a site of Hamas' armed group, and flattened a nearby house killing the owner; the man's 12-year-old son was pronounced dead hours later.

The man's wife and five other children were wounded, medics said.

Militants responded with a barrage of rockets that struck southern Israel on Thursday and Friday, without causing injuries.

Cairo is trying to renew a truce to restore calm between its neighbors, Egypt's ambassador to the Palestinian Authority Yasser Othman told Ma'an on Thursday.

PCHR weekly report 1/12 - 7/12/2011: 1 incursion, several attacks

2011-12-08T06:31:00.000-08:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 1/12 - 7/12/2011:

Friday, 02 December 2011

At approximately 16:30, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towers near Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire at a number of bird hunters nearly 300 meters away. The hunters were forced to leave the area and no casualties were reported.

Saturday, 03 December 2011

Also at approximately 17:00, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Rafah opened fire at a number of Palestinian [farmers] near Gaza International Airport in the southeast of Rafah. No casualties were reported.

Monday, 05 December 2011

At approximately 22:00, Israeli soldiers positioned on observation towards at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the north of Beit Hanoun town opened fire at space areas located to the south of the agricultural school. The shooting continued for 20 minutes, but no casualties were reported.

Tuesday, 06 December 2011

At approximately 15:30, IOF moved nearly 300 meters into the east of al-Shuja’iya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. They leveled areas of Palestinian land. During this incursion, IOF clashed with members of the Palestinian resistance, but no casualties were reported. IOF moved back to the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel at approximately 02:30 on the following day.

Wednesday, 07 December 2011

At approximately 07:30, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towers at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire at a number of Palestinian workers who were collecting scraps of construction materials from Erez industrial zone. The worker fled from the area and no casualties were reported.

Commemorating the anniversary of the First Intifada in the no go zone

2011-12-07T08:36:00.000-08:00

by Nathan Stuckey
6 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Photo: Rosa Schiano - Click here for more images

Twenty four years ago, on December 9, 2011 a revolution began. The revolution began in Gaza, it was the First Intifada. After twenty years of Israeli occupation Palestinian resistance exploded in full force. Boycotts, demonstrations, tax refusal, all of these were the strategies of the Intifada. Over one thousand Palestinians would be killed by Israel during the Intifada;over one hundred thousand Palestinians would go to prison during the course of the Intifada. For six years the Intifada burned, Palestinians were united in a massive nationwide campaign of popular resistance.
Today, in Beit Hanoun, we marched in remembrance of the beginning of the Intifada. We gathered near the Beit Hanoun Agricultural College, the same place we have gathered every Tuesday for the last three years. We were about forty people in all, activists from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement, and people from around Gaza. Bella Ciao echoed over the loudspeaker, that was our signal to begin marching. We marched down the road toward the no go zone, the three hundred meter strip of land along Gaza’s border where Israel murders any who dare to enter. Just as we refuse the occupation, we refuse the no go zone, every Tuesday, we march into the no go zone. We began to chant, “No to the Occupation”, “from Beit Hanoun to Bil’in we are all resistance”, and “A steadfast people will never be humiliated”.
As we reached the edge of the no go zone, we paused. Many members of the demonstration wrapped their faces in keffiyehs and empty bottles and sling shots were taken out of bags in honor of the weapons of the First Intifada, the revolution of stones. We march into the buffer zone, our hearts cheered by the Palestine flag that still flies where we planted it several weeks ago, reminding everyone, that this land isn’t naturally dead, that even if the bulldozers come and destroy everything, as they do every couple of weeks, resistance will always rise up anew. We stop by a giant piece of rubble that we have painted with a Palestinian flag. Sabur Zaaneen from the Local Initiative speaks, “this march commemorates the martyrs of the first Intifada, the glorious uprising of stones which began 24 years ago. The revolution continues, the Intifada and the resistance will continue until the Palestinian dream of an independent state with its capital as Jerusalem and the return refugees is achieved.” We march back to Beit Hanoun. Next Tuesday, we will march into the no go zone again if the occupation has not ended by then, but our resistance, will continue every day until the end of occupation and the return of the refugees.

Updated on December 7, 2011

IOF Opens Fire at Shepherds in Rafah

2011-12-03T10:20:00.000-08:00

3-12-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 17:20 on Saturday 3 December 2011, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened sporadic fire at a group of Palestinian shepherds who were herding animals on land near the Gaza International Airport in the Ash-Shawka village, east of Rafah. No casualties or injuries were reported, but the incident scared the shepherds and forced them to abandon their work.

IOF Opens Fire at Palestinian Bird Hunters near Erez Crossing

2011-12-02T10:23:00.000-08:00

2-12-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 16:30 on Friday, 2 December 2011, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened fire at Palestinian bird hunters in Nisanit, the evacuated settlement northwest of Erez crossing. The victims were hunting birds approximately 300 metres from the northern border fence when the IOF opened fire at them. No casualties or injuries were reported but the incident scared the hunters and they left the area immediately.

International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in the no go zone

2011-11-30T08:47:00.000-08:00

by Nathan Stuckey
30 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Photo: Rosa Schiano - Click here for more images

Today, Tuesday, November 29, 2011 is the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. This day commemorates the racist and colonialist proposal of the United Nations to partition Palestine in 1947. All over the world, people stood in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle today. In Beit Hanoun, today, like every Tuesday for the last three years, the popular struggle raised its voice against the occupation. Against the no go zone which surrounds Gaza, which makes the refugees of 1948 and 1967 who live in Beit Hanoun refugees once again, the no go zone which throws them off their land and destroys their houses and orchards. Against the siege on Gaza which is designed to destroy them, their hopes, their dreams, their economy, their future. Under the unceasing gaze of observation balloons and drones, in the shadow of a giant concrete wall studded with gun towers which seem to come out of a futuristic horror film but which is in fact is the present and is no movie, it is Gaza. Against the occupation which can only remind the world of George Orwell’s prediction of what the future would look like, “a boot stamping on a human face, forever”.
We gathered in the shadows of the ruins of the Beit Hanoun Agricultural College, not 100 meters away from the graves of the Beit Hanoun Massacre of 2006. The Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement, and Palestinians from around Gaza gathered to march into the no go zone. We were buoyed by the knowledge that around the world today people were raising their voices in support of Palestine, in support of peace, justice and freedom. The megaphone crackled to life, “We Will Not Go Down” by Michael Heart. In a sea of flags from around the world, Palestine, Ireland, Italy, India, Malaysia and many others, we began our march towards the no go zone.
We enter the no go zone and begin to release balloons with Palestinian flags attached to them. The balloons will float over the walls that surround Gaza, they will take our message farther than our megaphone and our voices can. Perhaps they will be caught in the branches of an orange tree planted by the fathers or grandfathers of the men gathered here, on the land that they were expelled from. There is no risk that they will be caught in the branches of orange trees before they cross the wall, all of those trees have been bulldozed by Israel when it created the no go zone, the zone of death which surrounds Gaza. In the short story “Men in the Sun” by Ghassan Kanafini some Palestinian laborers die in a water tank while waiting to cross a border. The driver of the truck is left lamenting, “Why didn’t they say anything” as they died. We are not silent, even if are voices are lost in the space of the dead zone which Israel created around Gaza, these balloons will carry our message to the outside. Let no one say that they did not know, that we did not say anything while Gaza is strangled to death.
Sabur Zaaneen from the Local Initiative spoke to the crowd. He called upon the people of the world “to isolate Israel internationally and to exert pressure in all its forms until the end of the occupation of Palestine.” Radhika Sainath from the International Solidarity Movement also spoke, “Today the entire free world is against the settlements, the wall and the Israeli occupation. We will continue our work in Palestine with Palestinian activistsuntil we succeed in bringing freedom and justice to Palestine.” Their voices were echoed by the chanting of the crowd, against the occupation, voiced demanding peace, justice and freedom, voicing pledgingsteadfastness in the struggle to the end the occupation.

Updated on November 30, 2011

Witnesses: Israeli army vehicles enter Gaza

2011-11-30T06:05:00.000-08:00

Israeli tanks patrol the border of northern Gaza. (MaanImages/Moti Milrod, File)

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli army vehicles entered the Gaza Strip early Wednesday as soldiers fired from military towers by the border, witnesses said.

Four bulldozers, three tanks and several other military vehicles were seen leveling farm land in the Juhor al-Dik and Maqbola neighborhoods near al-Bureij refugee camp, onlookers told Ma'an.

Meanwhile, several helicopters hovered in the area and soldiers stationed in army watchtowers fired gunshots, they added.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the vehicles were "on routine activity" in the Gaza Strip.

Thanksgiving in Gaza

2011-11-26T08:44:00.000-08:00

by Radhika Sainath
25 November 2011 | Notes from Behind the Blockade

Layla and her daughters with the turkey in Faraheen (Photo: Radhika Sainath, Notes from Behind the Blockade) - Click here for more images

It all started with a simple question from Jabar, a Palestinian farmer from Faraheen, during Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice.
“Is there an American eid (holiday) where you slaughter an animal?” he asked Nathan, a colleague here in Gaza, a few weeks ago.
Thanksgiving and turkeys came to mind.
And so, I found myself celebrating “Thanksgiving,” Gazan-style, this afternoon in the small, southern Gazan village.
Nathan painstakingly put together a variety of ingredients over the past couple of weeks to make a proper meal: turkey, baked beans, sweet potatoes, biscuits and chocolate chip cookies! We had to nix the stuffing, gravy was too difficult, and pie, out of the question.
After six weeks of falafel (delicious as it is), I was really looking forward to Nathan’s Midwestern cuisine. But would it all come together given Gaza’s regular power outages, Israel’s recent shooting at farmers in the area and the lack of key ingredients due to the siege?
We rose early to accompany farmers in Faraheen to their land within Israel’s 300 meter ”buffer zone” – or “kill zone” – as Palestinians here frequently call it.
The week had not been a good one, and I was concerned that our belated Thanksgiving would turn into Black Friday.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army had shot live ammunition in the air when our group went with farmers to the buffer zone in nearby Khuza’a.
The day before, the Israeli army had called the Palestinian Office of Coordination and told them that they “wanted to shoot” us and twenty Palestinians while we were in northern Gaza nonviolently protesting the Israeli occupation, the buffer zone, and 63 years of dispossession in the buffer zone. The Palestinian Authority frantically looked for the phone number of Saber Zanin, the organizer of the weekly Beit Hanoun protests and told him, “We are trying to ask the Israelis not to shoot you. They wanted to shoot you and kill you.”
And yesterday, 3 nautical miles of the coast of Gaza, an Israeli naval warship chased our small humanitarian boat, the Oliva, along with several Palestinian fishing boats, towards the shore for no apparent reason.
Today just couldn’t be good. Would our Gazan Thanksgiving look more like the original Thanksgiving — a symbol of land seizure, dispossession and ethnic cleansing — than the delicious turkey-filled version I was hoping for?
I rose early, gulped down a cup of sugary tea and dry floury date cookies that Jabar’s wife Layla made before heading out to the buffer zone. The sky cleared and I heard Israeli drones overhead.
On the way to the buffer zone, we met 26-year-old Yusef Abu Rjeela, the farmer who want was hoping to sow wheat on his land. We asked him what he wanted to do if the Israelis started shooting.
“Stay on the land,” he said. If the Israelis shot in the air, he didn’t want to run. And if they shot at us, well…
We continued onward, and my cell phone rang. It was Nathan. “I put the beans in the pressure cooker for 30 minutes and they’ve become bean soup!” he exclaimed. “Layla says I shouldn’t have soaked them and used the pressure cooker.”
“Stay calm,” I said. “Do you have more beans?” He did. We continued on our way.
Five of us foreigners donned our yellow vests, and accompanied Yusef and another farmer as one sowed wheat and the other plowed the land. The drones went away.
All seemed quiet on the eastern front.
An Israeli military tower stood in the distance. A white balloon equipped with an aerial surveillance camera flew overhead. The former farmland was dry and brown from years of Israeli bulldozing and tank traffic.
After a while, we made bets on when the Israelis would start shooting. It was 11:25 a.m., and I put in for 11:45 a.m., another person for 11:50 a.m. Hussein, a Palestinian university student who came with us, didn’t think the Israelis would shoot at all.
At noon, the farmers had finished and we all started to walk back to the village. Yusef explained to us the lawsuit his family had filed against the state of Israel for murdering his younger brother the day after Operation Cast Lead ended in January 2009. His father, who had witnessed the murder, had gone to Israel to testify.
As we left the buffer zone, I congratulated Hussein on being right about the shooting. Then we heard it — Israeli army gunfire in the distance. The time: 12:05.
We promptly head back to Jabar’s house in the village. There, Nathan was immersed in a whirlwind of preparation.
“Get the baking soda out of the bag!” he directed.
“You mean baking powder?” I asked him, looking the plastic bag he had brought from Gaza City.
“No, soda.” There was no baking soda. We were in for a biscuit disaster. Moreover, Layla and four of her five children were swirling around the kitchen, unsure of these strange American preparations.
Beans with sugar? In the oven? Nathan opened the ancient iron contraption, and held out a spoon for me. I stuck my tongue out and slurped up the brown deliciousness.
“Is it good?” asked Layla, suspiciously. “Is Nathan a good cook? Can you cook better?”
“Zacky ikthir,” I responded. Very tasty. “Not quite done,” I said to Nathan. “I can cook, but maybe Nathan is better than me,” I added to Layla. She didn’t seem convinced.
Nathan shooed everyone away, but we stayed in the kitchen, it was the warmest room in their small, cement block, metal sheet-roofed house. And, I was clearly the only one cut out for the role of taster. Layla turned to more important questions.
“You’re a lawyer, can you sue Israel for me?” she asked. “All our problems come from Israel. When I was 14, they shot me in the hip. Then they bulldozed our olive trees and took our land. What can we do?” I hadn’t realized that Layla’s limp stemmed from about 1980, when the Israeli army entered her school and shot her as she tried to help a wounded friend.
She turned away to take the turkey out of the pot. The oven wasn’t big enough for a whole bird, which was only sold in pre-cut pieces. All in all, it was a delicious lunch, and no one got shot. And that, is something to be thankful for.

Updated on November 30, 2011

Reporter: Israeli military vehicles cross into north Gaza

2011-11-24T05:53:00.000-08:00

An Israeli tank patrols near the Erez border crossing, between Israel and
the Gaza Strip (MaanImages/Wissam Nassar, File)

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli military vehicles crossed into the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, a Ma'an reporter said.

Sporadic fire was heard, but no injuries were reported, after a number of vehicles entered the Abu Samra area near northern Gaza town Beit Lahiya, he said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said she had no record of the incident.

---------

24-11-2011

Al Mezan

Limited IOF Incursion North of Beit Lahiya

At approximately 01:00 on Thursday 24 November 2011, about 15 Israeli tanks accompanied by armored bulldozers moved about 300 metres into Burat Abu Samra area north of Beit Lahiya, in North Gaza district with sporadic gun fire. Bulldozers leveled lands that had been razed before. The IOF were still in the area as this news was being published at 13:00 on Thursday, 24 November 2011. No casualties or injuries were reported, but the gunfire scared farmers and they abandoned their farms.

IOF Opens Fire at Eastern Part of Deir Al Balah

2011-11-23T06:41:00.000-08:00

23-11-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 11:00 on Sunday, 13 November 2011, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened fire in the eastern part of Deir Al Balah. No casualties or injuries were reported.

IOF Opens Fire at Palestinian Bird Hunters near Erez Crossing

2011-11-23T06:39:00.000-08:00

23-11-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 9:00 on Wednesday, 23 November 2011, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened fire at Palestinian bird hunters in Netzarim, the evacuated settlement northwest of Erez crossing. The victims were hunting birds approximately 300 metres away from the northern border fence when the IOF opened fire at them. No casualties or injuries were reported but the incident scared the hunters and they left their work activities immediately.

IOF Opens Fire at Ash-Shoka Village in Rafah

2011-11-23T06:35:00.000-08:00

23-11-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 09:20 on Wednesday, 23 November 2011, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), stationed at a military watchtower near the Karm Abu Salim (Kerem Shalom) crossing east of Ash-Shoka village, opened fire at Palestinian houses and agricultural fields close to the nearby Gaza International Airport.

At approximately 21:20 on Tuesday, 22 November 2011, the IOF also opened fire in the same area. No casualties or injuries were reported.

Meanwhile in Gaza

2011-11-16T09:02:00.000-08:00

by Radhika S.
15 November 2011 | Notes from Behind the Blockade

Beit Hanoun locals march to Buffer Zone - Click here for more images

I awoke today with the news that the NYPD was clearing out Occupy Wall Street and that Israeli tanks were shelling “northern Gaza.” In the West Bank, Palestinian Freedom Riders, inspired by the US freedom riders of the 1960s, were getting ready to board segregated buses to occupied East Jerusalem.
Here in Gaza, we head to Beit Hanoun for their weekly nonviolent protest in the buffer zone. For three years, Palestinians in the north have been marching into the barren, no-man’s land which encircles the inside of the narrow strip like a slowly-tightening noose.
We arrived around 11 a.m. and gathered in front of a bombed-out house down a dusty road leading to the border. This was my second buffer zone protest. At my first, two weeks ago, the Israeli army had fired a few shots from the military towers at the border. I wondered what would happen today. As a foreigner, I was to don a reflective fluorescent yellow vest and walk in front of the Palestinians, which seemed to provide them a degree of solace. They seem to think that the Israelis were less likely to use lethal violence when Americans, Italians, and Brits walked with them.
I was not so sure.
About two dozen people waving Palestinian flags marched down the dusty path towards the buffer zone. The landscape reminded me of home, of California, with its thorny tumbleweeds and cactus. It was hard to believe that only ten years ago fruit orchards and olive trees filled this area. But Israel had bulldozed it all, claiming it needed 300 kilometers of Gaza’s most fertile land, but in reality taking more.
Onwards we walked, the Palestinians singing songs and holding a giant Palestinian flag. I wondered what was in store for us today as Israel’s concrete wall and military towers became visible. Would they shoot in the air first? Or would they shoot at us? If they shot us, would they shoot someone standing in the middle first (as I was) or someone standing off to the side? Would they shoot us in the legs? And how good was their aim?
We past a small farm and the family waved at us. They were very brave to have stayed, I thought. Another farm had stuck a large white flag in the dirt in front of their house, as I had seen other families near the buffer zone do. Other farm houses had clearly been abandoned.
We were getting close to the buffer zone now, and the journalists that had come along moved from the front to the back. They didn’t want to get shot either. I started to imagine what it felt like to get shot. Excruciatingly painful, I decided.
At that point, I recalled that I had never made a will. If I died intestate, what law would apply? I had just moved from California to New York, but was I officially a resident of New York? And how would Gaza factor into it all? Was Gaza like the West Bank, where Israel applied a strange patchwork of Ottoman, Jordanian and Israeli military law as it pleased? Not that I really had much to bequeath.
We continued on, and I could see the Palestinian flag we had planted in the earth two weeks before. It was a windy day, and the flag billowed beautifully. The Israeli army had not shot it down. About 50 meters behind it loomed the wall and the military towers.
“Our flag is still there!” I exclaimed to Nathan, an American volunteer walking next to me. The Israelis had used the last Palestinian flag as target practice.
“Do you want to sing the star-spangled banner?” he joked. I smiled, I hadn’t intended to make the reference. Yasser Arafat had symbolically declared Palestinian Independence 23 years ago today, on November 15, 1988.
We stopped, well before the flag, at a large cement block painted red, black and green. Sabur Zaaneen from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the leader of the march, had thought the area to be more dangerous in recent days.
He gave a brief speech on Palestinian independence and the countries that were standing in the way of Palestinian freedom. As he spoke, I stared at the Israeli towers and the wall, the Israeli flags on top and of the land beyond it on the other side. I wondered if at that moment, Palestinians were attempting to board Jewish-only buses in the West Bank, facing violence from Israeli settlers not unlike the KKK in the Jim Crow south.
The speech ended and the Israelis had not shot at us. A few of the young men broke into a dabke dance, a Palestinian line dance of sorts, as one of them played the tabla and sung, and the women clapped in rhythm. I didn’t know the words but I clapped along as well.
We head back, and I had the star-spangled banner stuck in my head. “O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
One day, Palestine too would be free.

Updated on November 16, 2011

Independence Day in the Buffer Zone

2011-11-16T08:57:00.000-08:00

by Nathan Stuckey

16 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Photo: Hama Waqum - Click here for more images

Twenty three years ago today the Palestinian declaration of independence was released. Written by Mahmoud Darwish, and unveiled to the world by Yasser Arafat in Algiers where he was living in exile like millions of other Palestinians. Today, in Beit Hanoun, we, the Local Committee of Beit Hanoun, the International Solidarity Movement, and local citizens of Beit Hanoun marched into the no go zone just as we have done every Tuesday for the last three years.
We gathered on the road beside the Agricultural College, raised Palestinian flags, and started to sing as we marched. We were about fifty strong. Men and women, Palestinians and Internationals, marched together to celebrate independence. As we crested the hill that lies on the border of the no go zone the person next to me commented how nice it was that the flag that we had placed in the no go zone was still there, the previous flag had been used by Israeli soldiers for target practice, we had found it laying in the dirt, it’s staff smashed by a bullet. Our flag was still there, the flag that has been flying in the face of Israeli bullets for sixty three years, through the Nakba, the Naqsa, the Occupation, the Intifada’s, the flag still flies.
We marched into the no go zone, this area of life transformed into a place of death. The scarred earth that so little is allowed to live in, ripped up every couple of months by IDF bulldozers. Beyond our flag is giant concrete fence lined with towers full of guns. Above us a giant white balloon to watch our every move. Demonstrations in Gaza are not met my soldiers with batons, or tear gas, or even rubber bullets, they are met with live fire, sometimes with tank shells.
We paused by a giant concrete block that we had painted with the Palestinian flag in an earlier demonstration. Sabur Zaaneen from the Local Initiative of Beit Hanoun climbed onto the block to speak. He vowed that the Palestinian people “continue the popular resistance and the struggle, until the end of the Occupation and the Palestinians gained their freedom and independence.” His message to the world was that “we invite you to work with us in the struggle for freedom in Palestine. Free people of the world must reject political blackmail and bribes from Israel and America as we recently saw in the United Nations.” His speech was followed by a release of balloons into the no go zone and debka dancing.
Palestine is still not free, the Occupation continues. Declarations of Independence are not reserved for peoples that are already free; they are statements of desire, of hope. The United States released its Declaration of Independence only one year into its war for independence, fighting would continue for another three years. Palestine released its declaration of Independence one year into the first Intifada. The struggle has continued for twenty three more years, it will continue until victory.

Updated on November 16, 2011

The Buffer Zone in the Gaza Strip (September 2011)

2011-11-10T21:54:00.000-08:00

PCHR

Friday, 16 September 2011 00:00

The so-called “buffer zone” is a military no-go area that extends along the entire northern and eastern perimeter of the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, inside Palestinian territory, as well as at sea. The precise areas designated by Israel as “buffer zone” are unknown; changing Israeli policy is typically enforced with live fire.

To download the full Fact Sheet click here

Last Updated on Thursday, 27 October 2011 10:12

Occupation opens dams flooding Palestinian homes in Abasan

2011-11-04T22:28:00.000-07:00

[ 04/11/2011 - 10:38 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation authorities opened water dams at Sanati to the east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip causing the flooding of Palestinian homes in the town of Abasan al-Kabira.
The mayor of Abasan, Mustafa al-Shawwaf, told Safa news agency 8 homes in the town were flooded to a height of 70 to 90 cm, and that residents of those homes are being evacuated.
Many streets in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, were also flooded as a result of torrential rain that fell all night in the area.
Medical sources that nine homes were badly flooded in the Amal neighbourhood and that residents of those homes were rescued.
PIC correspondent said that a medical centre near the Red Crescent headquarters in the city was also flooded.
No casualties were reported until the preparation of this report, while the civil defence department said that its teams are helping in pumping the water out of the affected homes.

PCHR weekly report 27/10 - 2/11/2011: 1 shepherd & 1 girl wounded, houses destroyed or damaged, trees uprooted, 1 incursion, airstrikes

2011-11-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 27/10 - 2/11/2011:

3 Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded by IOF in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli war planes launched 17 air strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip.

A country house, a room and two containers were destroyed and a number of houses, shops and fields were damaged.

In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted a limited incursion into the central Gaza Strip, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian land.

Thursday, 27 October 2011

At approximately 03:30, Israeli warplanes fired two missiles at a 50-square-meter agricultural house belonging to Saleem Jalal al-Farra, 41, in Wadi al-Salqa village to the east of the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah. The house was completely destroyed and 10 olive trees belonging to al-Farra and 5 nearby houses were damaged.

At approximately 14:30, Israeli soldiers stationed on an observation tower near Karm Abu Salem (Kerem) Shalom crossing at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired at Mustafa ‘Aayesh Ermailat, 33, who was grazing animals on the land of Gaza International Airport in the southeast of Rafah, nearly 800 meters from the border. He was wounded by a bullet to the left hand.

Saturday, 29 October 2011

At approximately 21:45, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a number of activists of the al-Quds Brigades, south of Wadi al-Salqa, a village located east of the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah. The missile landed near a house, and wounded an activist. Additionally, 15-year-old Rawand Tayseer Abu Mughassib, was lightly wounded in the left hand while she was on her way to her grandmother’s house in the area, according to her father. Three houses were also damaged in the attack.

Sunday, 30 October 2011

Also at approximately 03:00, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a farm in al-Qaraman Street in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. The missile made a crater, and damaged two nearby farms:

1. 60 olive and citrus trees were uprooted, and water pipelines and a part of the fence were destroyed in a farm belonging to Sofian Mousa Hamad; and

2. 45 olive and citrus trees, water pipelines and a part of the fence were destroyed in a farm belonging to ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Mustafa Hamad.

Additionally, a greenhouse belonging to Isma’il Mustafa ‘Abdul Rahman was damaged.

Tuesday, 01 November 2011

At approximately 10:00, Israeli aircraft hovering over the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis dropped warning flyers onto the town. The flyers warned Palestinian civilian not to get as close as to less than 300 meters from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, otherwise they would be endangered, including being shot. A map was placed under the warning. On the back of flyers, there was a message warning civilians of those who launch rockets. It also included a phone number and an e-mail address asking civilian to provide information via them.

At approximately 11:15 on Tuesday, 01 November 2011, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towers at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire at a number of Palestinian civilians and international solidarity activists who demonstrated near the crossing. According to Saber al-Za’anin, Coordinator of the Local Initiative in Beit Hanoun, stated that once the demonstrators got as close as to 70 meters from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel and placed the Palestinian flag on a hill, Israeli soldiers opened fire at them. No casualties were reported.

Wednesday, 02 November 2011

At approximately 06:00, IOF moved nearly 150 meters into the east of Wadi al-Salqa village to the east of the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah. They leveled areas of Palestinian land. They redeployed outside the area two hours later and no casualties were reported.

At approximately 08:30, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towers at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire at Palestinian workers who were collecting scraps of construction materials in the industrial zone, southwest of the crossing. The worker fled and no casualties were reported.

Israel drops missile on North Gaza neighborhood, no one cares

2011-11-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

Radhika Sainath | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Israeli missile strikes Beit Hanoun - Click here for more images

The Israeli Air Force fired a missile into a Beit Hanoun residential neighborhood in north Gaza early Sunday morning. The missile landed in a grove surrounded by homes, creating a crater the size of a tennis court and destroying over forty orange and olive trees. Chunks of shrapnel and oranges lay scattered about the grove
Local children and area residents interviewed appeared to be in shock. Ayman Ismail Hamad explained that “[a]t 3 a.m. we heard a huge boom. It was so scary for the children and women here and they started to shout and cry – such a scary thing for them. When we looked out to see what happened we found everything there totally destroyed … and the windows from the houses in this area – totally nothing. The [Israeli] F-16 didn’t leave anything behind.”
The owner of the farmland, Sufyan Musa Muhammad, reported losing approximately 40 orange and olive trees, not including the uprooted trees at the periphery of the crater, valued at approximately $200 a tree. “It’s not just the price,” he added, gazing sadly at the upturned alien landscape. “It’s that there’s no more fruit.” According to Muhammad, no journalists had approached him regarding the Israeli missile attack, which went unreported.
Thirteen-year-old Amer Ayman Hamad, whose house is about 50 meters away from the impacted area said, “There was boom … I didn’t scream, I just woke up … it was during the night we didn’t hear any plane except for the sound of the drones … after that I went to the bathroom.”
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack which terrorized local residents. No one was injured. Palestinians in the area believe that Israel used an F-16 to bomb the residential neighborhood due to the size of the crater and the thickness of the shrapnel.
When asked if he believed Israel should compensate him for his loss Muhammad replied, ”I don’t want money from the Israelis. Whatever they do to us we are steadfast and strong and we won’t leave our land.”

Updated on November 2, 2011

The Israeli Army shot at me and 3 Palestinian kids in Gaza today

2011-10-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

Children duck to avoid Israeli Army gunfire - Click here for more images

Radhika S.
28 October 2011 | Notes from Behind the Blockade

After a lovely day of drinking excessive amounts of tea with a few families in South Gaza (Faraheen and Khuza’a, to be exact), an Italian colleague, Silvia, who used to live in Khuza’a, suggested walking down the road towards the local school. It was late afternoon, about 4:30 p.m. and dozens of children played in the area. We walked past slices of a giant concrete wall placed in the middle of the road. The slivers reminded me of Israel’s Apartheid Wall in the West Bank — 25 feet of reinforced concrete. The local villagers had apparently retrieved these sections from a former settlement and placed them there so that children could play outside while being (somewhat) protected from Israeli army gunfire.
Silvia pointed to a school farther down the road. “That’s where the children go to school,” she said. The sun was beginning to set and the area was quite beautiful if one didn’t look too hard at the Israeli military towers in the distance. I took some pictures, and even asked Silvia to take a photo of me. Kids played nearby and a donkey cart passed us. I photographed a house that looked like it had been bombed, but the bougainvillea had grown back in vibrant fuchsia. Two boys playing with a piece of plastic ran towards us from farther up the road and begged me to take a photo. I snapped a sloppy photo, and they eagerly checked their digital images on my camera. One in a green sweater thought it was terribly funny that the boy’s in a red hoodie’s head was missing in my photo.
They ran up ahead, and we walked for about 15 seconds when I heard a strange whiz, a whistle, eerily close to my ear. I paused, a bullet? Red hoodie and two younger boys up ahead hit the floor as I momentarily pondered the strange sound.
The kids turned around and yelled at us to stupid foreigners to get down. We bent down and started to walk away — fast — and they yelled at us to get completely on the ground. The Israeli army left us no time to be scared. No gunshots over our heads. No warnings. A second bullet whizzed past the three kids, and then us. The Israelis were shooting at us from the towers 500 meters ahead. This time, we were on the ground. I continued to look at these 9-year-olds or 10-year-olds or whatever they were for cues–walking towards their school under Israeli fire was clearly routine for them and they knew what they were doing. We waited on the ground for several minutes. As I still had my camera in hand, I snapped a quick photo of them from the ground.
A minute or two later a father and his toddler, also further up on the road came towards us and offered a ride on the back of his motorized cart. We jumped in and he “sped” back to behind the wall. Anyway, I got back to my apartment about an hour later, just in time for my Arabic class. Even though I had actually studied this time, I couldn’t concentrate. Why was the Israeli army shooting at our heads?
And I realized this is what Palestinian first, second, third, fourth graders experience daily in Gaza.

Updated on October 29, 2011

Israeli army shoots at children and two ISM activists

2011-10-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

Silvia Todeschini
28 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Witnesses in Gaza today reported an escalation of Israeli aggression in the Khuza’a – Abasan, governate of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. The Israeli army also shot at two ISM activists and local children.
Israeli tanks entered Gaza this morning, from approximately 7.30 to 8.30, moving from the village of Faraheen to Khuza’a. Residents reported hearing numerous gun shots. Suzanne, who lives in the north of Khuza’a, confirmed that in recent days, Israeli tanks have entered Gaza on a daily basis. Another women, Taragi, who lives in the south of Khuza, also confirmed that Israeli gunfire has become more frequent.
The Israeli army shot at two ISM activists and two Palestinian children just in front of them today at approximately 4.30 p.m. as they walked on the road towards the school in the village of Khuza’a, approximately 500 meters from the border. At the time, the area was populated by children and youths, some on foot and others in a cart pulled by a donkey. They were just driving along the road to go home. Without warning of any kind, the Israeli army fired two shots, close enough to the heads of those walking down the street to hear the distinct and strong hiss of the bullets that passed through the air.
Khuza’a is a small farming village and the area around it is not new to raids and attacks by the Israeli army. The school in particular is just a few hundred meters from the border and often children are forced to return home because of gunfire. One village girl lost her kneecap after she was shot by an Israeli bullet as she was walking back home from school. The Israeli army bulldozed the fruit trees in the area ten years ago. Today, Palestinians in Khuza’a cultivate mainly wheat, which requires less attention, so as to avoid being attacked by the Israeli army.
Israeli committed horrific atrocities in Khuza’a during Operation Cast Lead. The majority of the population was forced to leave the village and suffered heavy attacks from white phosphorus. Eight civilians have been deliberately killed in a bombing in the center of the village during the casefire, between them a child. It was in Khuza’a where the Israeli army shot Roya’a Al Najar when she held a white flag while attempting to leave her house after days of siege, and Yasmeen Al Najar and Mahmmod Al Najar while trying to help her.

Updated on October 29, 2011

The Olive and the F-16: Autumn in Gaza

2011-10-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

by Radhika S.
27 October 2011 | Notes from Behind the Blockade

Today completes another week of olive picking in Gaza. Another week of pausing, breaths held, as Israeli tanks the color of sand moved nearby along the buffer zone, another week of children frightened at the sound of roaring F-16s, another week below the watchful eye of the drone.

Gaza harvests despite F-16s - Click here for more images

Together with the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers picked olives with families near the buffer zone in the village of Burej and in two different locations in Beit Hanoun this week.
“We’re here to harvest olives and be with the land because this is our land and we don’t want to abandon it,” said 27-year-old Randa Hilou a local student to came to pick in solidarity with the farmers in Beit Hanoun.
On Wednesday, dozens of local children joined in the picking. I asked the children why they had come. “I’m here to pick olives,” declared 9-year-old Mahmoud, taking a break from dumping olives into a blue plastic crate. “We love olives,” added other children, who gathered around.
At one point in the day, the sound of Israeli F-16s could be heard overhead. “I went picking with my mother and father,” added Bursa, also 9-years-old. “I am not afraid.”
Later in the week, ISM volunteers picked closer the Erez crossing in an area that used to be full of olive, orange and grapefruit groves.
“Before, people came from all over Gaza to pick fruit in this area,” explained Saber Zaaneen, the 33-year-old coordinator of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative explained to me on Thursday as we sat on a plastic tarp picking plucking purple olives of supple branches.
“Why did Israel destroy the groves?” he asked. “To destroy the economy of Gaza. Why the resistance? Because of the occupation.”
I had asked Saber on earlier occasion why the olive trees in Gaza were so skinny. In the West Bank, they’re very big, I explained. He informed me that these trees were new, and that Israel had bulldozed the beautiful old olive trees of Gaza in 2001 and 2002. “Israel does not have a culture of peace,” explained Saber. “They have all of this advanced technology, why do they kill children like this?”
Nine year old Yara, who wants to be a doctor when she grows up expressed a similar sentiment on Wednesday, “They [the Israelis] are always occupying us. They threaten children.”

Radhika S. is an activist with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Updated on October 28, 2011

PCHR weekly report 20/10 - 26/10/2011: shooting against workers

2011-10-27T23:15:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 20/10 - 26/10/2011:

IOF fired at Palestinian workers collecting scraps of construction materials in the northern Gaza Strip.

Sunday, 23 October 2011

At approximately 17:30, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towers at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire at a number of Palestinian workers who were collecting scraps of construction materials from the industrial zone to the southwest of the crossing. The workers were forced to flee from the area and no casualties were reported.

Monday, 24 October 2011

At approximately 10:45, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towers at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire at a number of Palestinian workers who were collecting scraps of construction materials from the industrial zone to the southwest of the crossing. The workers were forced to flee from the area and no casualties were reported.

Palestinian shepherd wounded in IOF shooting

2011-10-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

[ 27/10/2011 - 07:12 PM ]

RAFAH, (PIC)-- A Palestinian shepherd was wounded on Thursday evening when Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired at him east of Rafah south of the Gaza Strip.
Local and medical sources told the PIC that the 32-year-old shepherd was grazing his sheep when the IOF troops fired at him wounding him in his hand and foot.
They said that the shepherd, Mustafa Ermaylat, was taken to hospital in Rafah where his condition was described as moderate.

Medics: Palestinian injured east of Rafah

Published yesterday (updated) 27/10/2011 22:27

An Israeli tank drives near the border between the northern Gaza Strip and
Israel near Kibbutz Mefalsim (MaanImages/Moti Milrod, File)

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- A medical official said a Palestinian man sustained injuries Thursday east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, while Israel's army denied involvement.

Medical spokesman in Gaza Adham Abu Salmiya said a 32-year-old identified only as MA suffered an injury to his left hand after Israeli forces opened fire.

He was taken to Abu Yousef An-Najjar hospital and then to the European hospital.

An army spokeswoman said the military was not aware of the incident.

Earlier, Israeli warplanes launched four airstrikes in central and southern Gaza, witnesses and the army said. No injuries were reported.

Locals told Ma'an that Israeli fighter jets shelled three open areas and a site used by Hamas' armed wing the al-Qassam Brigades in Khan Younis in the south and Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

The Israeli army said its forces targeted "three terror activity sites" in central Gaza and a weapons storage facility in the southern Gaza Strip. "Direct hits were confirmed," the military said in a statement.

The army said the strikes were in response to a grad rocket which landed near the city of Ashdod in southern Israel on Wednesday. A spokeswoman said Wednesday the rocket had caused no injury or damage.

The airstrikes were the first aerial attack on Gaza since Oct. 1, when Israeli fighter jets struck northern Gaza seriously injuring one man and wounding two others.

IOF artillery blasts southern Gaza

2011-10-25T16:57:00.000-07:00

[ 25/10/2011 - 09:37 AM ]

RAFAH, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) opened artillery fire at southern Gaza Strip at a late hour on Monday night targeting the vicinity of the Gaza international airport to the east of Rafah city, local sources said.
They said that IOF army tanks took part in the shelling and fired two projectiles at agricultural land near the airport, adding that no casualties or damages were reported.
IOF soldiers routinely raid the eastern areas of the Strip and fire at random hampering farmers from tending to their agricultural land.

Israeli tanks patrol olive farmers in Gaza

2011-10-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

23 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Olive farmers and volunteers were picking olives on 23 October 2011 when they were circled by two Apache helicopters and were faced by four tanks at certain points in the day. This video shows one of the tanks.

There is no east: Olive harvest in Gaza

2011-10-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

15 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Gaza doesn’t have very much farmland left. The expanding no go zone imposed by Israeli bullets and bulldozers constantly erode the amount of land left for Palestinians to farm in Gaza. Mohamed Ashure Shimbari lives on the edge of the no-go zone. If you look east from his land you see the no go zone, what Israel euphemistically refers to as “the buffer zone.” Little grows there. Israeli bulldozers regularly come to kill anything which has managed to find a life there. You can see the destroyed well which once provided water for the orchards that used to cover the no-go zone. Now, there is no water, and no life, only a zone of death. Israel claims that the buffer zone is “only” 300 meters wide, but Mohamed’s land is about 800 meters from the border, and still he is afraid. The Israelis often shoot into this area, especially at night. The olive harvest has begun in Gaza. The Beit Hanoun Local Initiative and the International Solidarity Movement went to Mohamed’s land to help him harvest his olives today. The trees are pregnant with fruit, green and black olives line the branches. Mohamed’s family depends on these olives to live. We join Mohamed and his sons in the morning, the weather is beautiful and the trees are picturesque. We spread plastic under the trees and begin to pick. Thankfully, it is quiet. The Israeli’s are not shooting today. We work quickly, stripping the branches of olives, climbing up on ladders or into the branches of the trees to get at the higher olives. Unreachable olives are smacked with a stick to knock them off the tree. Any olives that fail to fall onto the plastic sheeting are carefully picked up; these olives are too precious to waste. The olives are transferred into bushel sacks. Tomorrow, they will be processed, either cured for eating or crushed for oil. As the sun climbs higher into the sky and the work becomes hotter we break for tea. We decide to walk over and visit Mohamed’s neighbors, a Bedouin family. We meet their young son Abed who has just come home from school. He walks five kilometers to school every morning, and he walks home at night, he does this with his sister and his brother. Abed is 10 years old. He is a shy kid; he wants to be a dentist when he grows up. He doesn’t seem to think that peace will ever come to his family, that they will ever live a life without worrying about the shooting from the Israeli’s at night. He lives a life of three directions, north, south, and west. There is no east really, you can’t walk that way, you would be killed. His family is forced to truck water from Beit Hanoun, the well that they used to depend on for water has been destroyed by the Israeli’s. His mother comes out; she tells us that she prays for peace, for a life with water and without fear of the bullets.
We return to work the olives. Tree by tree, up and down the rows, we move gathering olives. Mohamed tells us about his life. When the Israeli’s invade Gaza his home is one of the first places they came to. Not because they are afraid that he has guns, but because they want to use his house. He and his family are locked in one room while the soldiers use his house as a base for their attacks on Beit Hanoun. During Cast Lead his family was locked in the room for 23 days while the IDF carried out their slaughter on Gaza. Throughout the world, the olive is a symbol of peace, but in Palestine it is also a symbol of people’s ties to the land. The no-go zone east of Beit Hanoun is constantly expanding. Every year or two the Israeli bulldozers come and destroy even more land. Mohamed’s house is now on the edge of the no-go zone. Maybe next year his house will be destroyed, the olive trees which we are picking from will be uprooted. Yet maybe his house will be spared, after all, if it is destroyed where will the soldiers sleep when they invade Gaza?

Updated on October 16, 2011

PCHR weekly report 6/10 - 12/10/2011: attacks against farmers, 2 incursions

2011-10-13T23:25:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 6/10 - 12/10/2011:

A Palestinian civilian died of wounds he had sustained in the Gaza Strip in 2003.

IOF have continued to fire at Palestinian fishermen and farmers in the Gaza Strip.

In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted a limited incursion into al-Qarara village, northeast of Khan Yunis, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian agricultural land.

Thursday, 06 October 2011

At approximately 07:00, IOF moved nearly 300 meters into Bourat Abu Samra area in the north of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. They leveled areas of Palestinian land which they had already razed, amidst sporadic shooting. At approximately 08:00, they moved eastwards and stationed opposite to the Bedouin Village. They also leveled areas of land there. At approximately 15:00, IOF moved back to the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Saturday, 08 October 2011

At approximately 05:30, IOF stationed on observation towers at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the north of Beit Lahia town opened fire at Palestinian farmers who were on their farms. The farmers were forced to flee from the area and no casualties were reported.

At approximately 07:00, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel opened fire at Palestinian farmers who were on their farms in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. The farmers were forced to flee from the area and no casualties were reported.

At approximately 16:00, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel opened fire at Palestinian farmers in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. The farmers were forced to flee from the area and no casualties were reported.

Sunday, 09 October 2011

At approximately 07:00, IOF positioned on observation towers at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel opened fire at Palestinian farmers who where on their farms in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. The farmers were forced to flee from the area and no casualties were reported.

At approximately 16:30, IOF positioned on observation towers at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel opened fire at Palestinian farmers who where on their farms in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. The farmers were forced to flee from the area and no casualties were reported.

Monday, 03 October 2011

At approximately 08:35, IOF positioned on observation towers at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel opened fire at Palestinian farmers who where on their farms in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. The farmers were forced to flee from the area and no casualties were reported.

At approximately 18:00, IOF moved nearly 300 meters into the east of al-Qarara village, northeast of Khan Yunis. They leveled areas of Palestinian agricultural land, which they had already razed.

Virtual Field Visit: Israel's Enforcement of the Buffer Zone in the Gaza Strip

2011-10-10T20:23:00.001-07:00

This video combines Al-Haq's visual documentation with satellite imagery to create virtual tours of the human rights violations commited in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Each tour is designed to recreate the experience of making a field visit, providing everyone with the opportunity to see the on-the-ground reality of the occupation.

This tour shows how Israeli occupying forces often use live ammunition to enforce the buffer zone in the Gaza Strip, both on land and at sea. Since the beginning of 2010, stone-collectors have been increasingly under attack by Israeli soldiers. In 2009, Al-Haq documented seven cases of rubble collectors injured by live ammunition in the vicinity of the buffer zone, whereas this number was 10 times higher during 2010, when 68 rubble collectors, of whom 15 children, were shot. Fishermen are also targeted on a daily basis with many incidents occurring outside the buffer zone. In some cases, the Israeli occupying forces fire rockets and shoot bullets at the Palestinian boats at sea or on the shore in order to destroy them, thus preventing the fishermen from working.

- View an interactive version of this Virtual Field Visit.
http://alhaq.mits.ps/index.php/virtual-field-visits/buffer-zone

- Read Al-Haq's legal analysis of the Israel Enforcement of the Buffer Zone
http://www.alhaq.org/etemplate.php?id=598

PCHR weekly report 29/9 - 5/10/2011: 1 child, 2 fighters off duty injured, house damaged, 1 incursion

2011-10-06T00:03:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 29/9 - 5/10/2011:

3 Palestinians, including a child, were wounded by IOF in the Gaza Strip.

IOF launched a number of air strikes against civilian facilities and training sites in the Gaza Strip.

Two houses and a warehouse of the Palestinian Telecommunications Company were damaged.

In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted a limited incursion into al-Qarara village, northeast of Khan Yunis, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian agricultural land.

Saturday, 01 October 2011

t approximately 19:00, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a number of Palestinians who were in the garden of a house belonging to ‘Ata ‘Abdul ‘Aati al-Za’anin in al-Wadi Street in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. As a result, two Palestinians who were in a visit to the owner’s son were wounded:

1- Yousef Rafiq Shabat, 28, seriously wounded by shrapnel throughout the body; and

2- ‘Abdullah Akram Abu Harbid, 22, wounded by shrapnel throughout the body.

Sa’diya Sa’id Nasser, 65, who was in the house, also sustained bruises to the head. Additionally, the house was damaged. It should be noted that the two wounded persons are members of the ‘Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas), but they were in an ordinary visit when they were attacked. The Israeli military claimed that it targeted a number of Palestinians who intended to launch home-made rockets into Israeli towns.

Monday, 03 October 2011

Αt approximately 08:10, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Gaza Valley village fired at number of Palestinian workers who were collecting iron, aluminum and plastics from a landfill in the northeast of the village. One of the workers, Mohammed Salman al-Swarka, 17, was wounded by a bullet to the left thigh.

Tuesday, 04 October 2011

At approximately 06:15, IOF moved nearly 300 meters into al-Qarara village, northeast of Khan Yunis. They leveled areas of Palestinian agricultural land in al-Wad area. At approximately 10:30, Israeli helicopter gunships opened fire at the area, but no casualties were reported. IOF moved back to the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel at approximately 15:00.

Gaza: Planting in something dead

2011-10-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

5 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Around Gaza is a 300 meter “buffer zone,” a no go zone, a land of death. Gaza is not just a prison, it is a shrinking prison. Every time that Israel expands this zone, Gaza gets a little smaller. Every Tuesday, the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative and the International Solidarity Movement march into the buffer zone to challenge the occupation and the theft of Palestinian land. Today, we also marched in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners who are on hunger strike in the jails of the occupation.
What could be more logical than one group of prisoners marching in support of another group of prisoners?
We gathered near the Agricultural College of Beit Hanoun at 11 a.m. We loaded olive trees, shovels, and big jugs of water onto the van. There was no space in the van, so all of the goods rode on top of the van. We set off down the road toward the buffer zone, slowly so that nothing would fall off the van as we drove down the rutted road. We reached the buffer zone, stopped the van, and began to unload the olive trees and everything necessary to plant them. These olive trees would join the others that we planted last week. We plan on slowly returning the lands of the buffer zone to what they were before the Israeli’s declared the area a zone of death, we plan on making olive groves flourish in the buffer zone. Our struggle is not just to return life to the buffer zone, but to make a regular life possible in the areas close to the buffer zone.
The buffer zone is now a little greener than yesterday after planting 20 trees in the buffer zone. The death that haunts this area is a result of the occupation and its relentless destroying bulldozers. The same bulldozers that crushed Rachel Corrie to death in Rafah in 2003.
Sabur Zaaneen from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative spoke. He said that we must “affirm our right to land and cultivate and strengthen the resilience of farmers and their return to work the land despite all the terrorist practices of the Israeli occupation.”
“[We] need for a mass movement to support the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”

Gaza: 29 years later, Palestinians march forward

2011-09-22T16:42:00.001-07:00

22 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

For three years the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative and the International Solidarity Movement have marched into the buffer zone north of Beit Hanoun. Tuesday, September 20^th was no different. We gathered near the agricultural college, and at 11 AM we marched north into the buffer zone. There were about thirty of us. The sun was hot, but spirits were high. Over the megaphone we played Bella Ciao and chanted for a free Palestine.
As we crested the hill nearest the buffer zone we were greeted with a new sight. The tower in the wall closest to where we protest had been covered with netting used to hide snipers. We could see the dust of tanks rising from behind the wall. This did not deter us. We marched into the buffer zone. We were propelled both by the horrors of the past and hope for the future. Twenty nine years ago the world was just learning of the massacre of Sabra and Shatilla. Thousands of Palestinian refugees were slaughtered in these two camps by Lebanese Phalangists with the support of their Israeli allies. This massacre will not be forgotten. Today though, was also a day of hope. The Palestinian Authority was going to the UN to seek recognition of the Palestinian State. Hopefully this new initiative will help to bring 44 years of occupation and 63 years of Nakba to an end.
We advanced to about 50 meters from the wall. We stood along the ditch which scars the buffer zone. Sabur Zaaneen from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative spoke of his hope for the future, that the Palestinian people would finally know the justice that has so long been denied to them. He vowed that “we will continue the peaceful popular struggle until the occupation ends.”
As we chanted against the occupation a window on the tower began to open so that the soldiers could shoot at us. We marched back through the buffer zone and into Beit Hanoun. Hopefully, somewhere, someone, heard us, heard our calls for justice, freedom and peace.

Updated on September 22, 2011

PCHR weekly report 15/9 - 21/9/2011: 1 child died of previous wounds by israeli airstrike, 1 incursion

2011-09-22T16:19:00.001-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 15/9 - 21/9/2011:

In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted one incursion on 20 September 2011 into the northern Gaza Strip.

Monday, 19 September 2011

At approximately 15:30, Ibrahim ‘Adnan ‘Abed Rabbu al-Zaza, 14, from al-Tuffah neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, died of a wound he had sustained on 19 August 2011. According to PCHR’s documentation, at approximately 17:30 on Friday, 19 August 2011, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a number of activists of the Palestinian resistance near al-Wafaa’ Hospital in the east of Gaza City. As a result, two children were seriously wounded: Ibrahim ‘Adnan ‘Abed Rabbu al-Zaza, 14; and Mohammed ‘Aatef ‘Abed Rabbu al-Zaza, 15. Ibrahim had received medical treatment in Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for one week before he was transferred to an Israeli hospital, where he received medical treatment until his death.

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

At approximately 08:00, IOF moved nearly 150 meters into Bourat Abu Samra area in the north of Beit Lahia town in the northern Gaza Strip opening fire indiscriminately. No casualties were reported. They moved back to the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel at 13:00.

IOF Opens Fire at Palestinian Farmers North of Beit Hanoun

2011-09-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

21-9-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 4:45 pm on Wednesday 21 September 2011, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened fire at Palestinian farmers who were in their fields in the vicinity of the Erez crossing, near the separation fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel in the north of Beit Hanoun. No casualties or injuries were reported, but the farmers were frightened and abandoned their fields.

Palestinian child succumbs to wounds sustained in Israeli shelling

2011-09-20T15:56:00.000-07:00

[ 20/09/2011 - 08:09 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- A Palestinian child was pronounced dead on Monday night in hospital after suffering serious injuries a month ago in an Israeli shelling of a group of children east of Gaza.
Medical sources said that Ibrahim Adnan Al-Zaza, 14, was wounded along with his cousin Mohammed, 15, in the vicinity of Wafa’a hospital in Gaza city.
Human rights groups recalled that both children were hit with shrapnel wounds all over their bodies.
They were admitted into ICU in Gaza’s Shifa hospital but later transferred to a hospital in 1948 occupied Palestine where Ibrahim was proclaimed dead.

IOF troops raid eastern Gaza

2011-09-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

[ 20/09/2011 - 08:03 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) advanced 300 meters into eastern Gaza on Monday night after claiming that a locally made rocket was fired from Gaza at the western Negev.
Local sources told the PIC reporter that the IOF unit included army tanks and escorted two huge bulldozers that leveled land amidst intermittent firing at nearby areas.
The Hebrew radio said that the rocket blasted in an open area and did not cause any human or material losses.

Protests in Northern Gaza

2011-09-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

15 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

The Palmer Report, recently released by the United Nations, was a moral travesty. It asserted that the naval blockade of Gaza was somehow separate from the land siege of Gaza. The Palmer Report was an attempt to break up the oppression of Gaza into bite size morsels so that it could be consumed without causing one to choke on the injustice of the occupation, of the siege.
Last week, we planted a Palestinian flag in the buffer zone, it stands alone, everything else has been destroyed by Israel. We did not leave it alone; we painted another flag on a large piece of rubble. We moved the flag even farther into the buffer zone, about 30 meters from the wall encircles Gaza.
On Tuesday, September 13, the Local Initiative of Beit Hanoun, fisherman from Beit Lahia, and activists from the International Solidarity Movement gave their response to the Palmer Report. They gathered on the beach near Beit Lahia and marched north, into the buffer zone, land that has been stolen from the people of Gaza and depleted of any fecundity. Across from the buffer zone is the land of the refugees in Gaza from which they were ethnically cleansed 63 years ago.
The buffer zone doesn’t stop on the land, as the Palmer Report may suggest, yet it extends onto the sea. Israel’s disregard for Oslos allotment of 20 miles of sea access to Palestinians has been defamed to a restricted area of three miles off the shore for fisherman to access.
The buffer zone has extended beyond the last grain of Gaza’s beach and continues into the waters under the misnomer of “buffer zone.” Scrap collectors shot to death, farmers murdered, families left without land to support themselves, it is a death zone. After the balloons popped, the flags survived, just as the Palestinian people have survived all of the Israeli violence directed at them.
We gathered at Waha, a hotel complex destroyed by Israeli bombs, at 8 AM and marched north along the beach, towards the wall that marks the northern boundary of the open air prison that is referred to as Gaza. We looked out over the sea that marks the western wall of the prison that is Gaza–the sea where earlier this week the Israeli Navy kidnapped eight fishermen, and then destroyed their boats with gunfire.
At 10:30 we gathered in Beit Hanoun to march north into the same buffer zone. For three years the people of Beit Hanoun have demonstrated weekly against the occupation and against the buffer zone. Participants marched north chanting and playing music over the megaphone into the buffer zone. They carried Palestinian flags attached to balloons. As the balloons floated over the buffer zone trailing their flags, they occasionally fell to earth and popped on the thorn bushes which are the only thing to survive the regular Israeli bulldozing of the buffer zone.
Sabur Zaaneen, from the Local Initiative spoke on the need for a Palestinian state, he urged Palestinian leaders to continue the struggle this September, he urged them not to forget their duty to their people, not to forget the right of the refugees to return, the right of their people to justice. The farmers of Beit Hanoun stand with the fisherman of Beit Lahia, with the people of Bil’in, with the people of Nil’in, we all carry the flag of popular resistance to the occupation. None of us will give up. We will be back next week, together, united in one cause, ending the occupation and justice for the Palestinian people.

Updated on September 22, 2011

PCHR weekly report 8/9 - 14/9/2011: 3 children arrested, later released. House damaged.

2011-09-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 8/9 - 14/9/2011:

IOF arrested and interrogated 3 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, but released them later.

Thursday, 08 September 2011

At approximately 20:30, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Khan Yunis opened fire at al-Qarara village, northeast of Khan Yunis. No casualties were reported.

Saturday, 10 September 2011

At approximately 16:00, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Khan Yunis opened fire at ‘Abassan village, east of Khan Yunis. No casualties were reported.

At approximately 19:30, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Khan Yunis opened fire at 3 Palestinian children who infiltrated through the border. Israeli soldiers ordered the children to stop with their hands up and arrested them. The children were interrogated and they said that they infiltrated through the border to search for jobs in Israel. They were released on the following day morning:

1- Mohammed Nabeel Abu Halib, 17;

2- Mousa Ghazi Abu Lihya, 17; and

3- Ahmed Younis Abu Lihya, 14.

Sunday, 11 September 2011

At approximately 21:25, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired two artillery shells at a space area to the north of the Bedouin village in the northern Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported.

Monday, 12 September 2011

At approximately 07:45, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Juhor al-Din village in the central Gaza Strip opened fire at the east of the village. A number of bullets hit a house belonging to Jaber Abu Sa’id, in which 14 individuals live, but no casualties were reported.

IOF Opens Fire at Security Buffer Zone East of Wadi Gaza Village

2011-09-12T04:15:00.000-07:00

12-9-2011

Al Mezan

At approximately 7:50 am on Monday 12 September 2011, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened fire at the security buffer zone in the east of Wadi Gaza village. A house belonging to the Abu Isa’yeed family was hit by several bullets. No casualties or injuries were reported, but people were terrified.

IOF soldiers open fire at Palestinian houses in central Gaza

2011-09-12T04:14:00.000-07:00

[ 12/09/2011 - 09:19 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stationed to the east of the Gaza Strip opened machine gunfire at Palestinian homes in Juhr Al-Dik in central Gaza on Monday morning with no casualties reported, eyewitnesses said.
They said that the soldiers suddenly opened fire for ten minutes at the citizens' homes and nearby land lots.
The machinegun fire damaged one of the houses that is 320 meters away from the border fence, the witnesses noted, adding that the house was riddled with bullets.
A number of inhabitants and farmers evacuated the targeted areas fearing for their lives.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank IOF soldiers stormed a village to the east of Bethlehem and handed a summons to one of its inhabitants after searching his home.

IOF troops shell northern Gaza Strip

2011-09-12T04:09:00.000-07:00

[ 12/09/2011 - 08:46 AM ]

BEIT LAHIA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired tank shells at an area north of Beit Lahia to the north of Gaza Strip at dawn Monday in a new military escalation causing damage to cultivated land lots but no casualties.
Local sources told the PIC reporter that IOF tanks fired a number of shells at the open agricultural area, adding that the sound of explosion spread panic among the inhabitants.
A Palestinian security source had warned of Israeli military escalation against Gaza to foil any possible visit for Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the coastal enclave in the few coming days.
He said that Israeli intelligence apparatuses were busy studying means of blocking Erdogan's visit to Gaza.

Medics: Israeli forces shell car in southern Gaza

2011-09-12T04:08:00.000-07:00

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Saturday fired an artillery shell at a civilian car in southern Gaza causing no injuries, medics said.

Gaza medical services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said the car was shelled east of Khan Younis.

Locals reported hearing a huge explosion near the border in the area.

An Israeli military spokesman said he was not immediately aware of any shelling in the area but said he would look into it.

Israeli special force abducts five men south of Gaza

2011-09-11T00:28:00.000-07:00

[ 11/09/2011 - 12:06 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- An Israeli military force abducted Saturday night five young Palestinian men east of the Israeli kibbutz Kissufim, adjacent to the southern Gaza Strip, security sources and witnesses said in identical reports.
Israeli jeeps accompanied by reconnaissance aircraft and Apache helicopters briefly entered east of Qarara in the Gaza Strip and swiftly abducted the men, covering themselves by firing heavy ammunition at Palestinians and their property, the sources said.
Later on Sunday morning, three of the abductees were set free by the Israeli security forces after being severely assaulted, security sources said.
The whereabouts of the other two abductees as well as the motives behind the operation remain a mystery.

---------------------

Israeli forces briefly detain 3 boys in central Gaza

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Sunday released three Palestinian boys who were detained overnight near a military base in the central Gaza Strip, a Ma'an correspondent reported.

The boys, aged between 11 and 15, were detained near Kissufim army base south of Deir al-Balah.

Witnesses said at least eight army jeeps entered Gaza near Al-Qarara village and opened fire from military towers before detaining the boys.

The detainees were interrogated for several hours and then released, a Ma'an reporter said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said soldiers apprehended three Palestinians who were trying to cross the security fence into Israel.

IOF troops bombard Gaza suburb, fishing boats

2011-09-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

[ 10/09/2011 - 12:05 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired a number of artillery shells at agricultural land in Shujaia suburb east of Gaza city at an early hour on Friday, local sources said.
They added that no casualties were reported, adding that IOF gunboats also fired at Palestinian fishing boats off the Gaza coast with no injuries reported.
IOF military had shelled Qarara area east of Khan Younis late on Thursday night while warplanes launched mock raids all over the Strip.

Palestinians farming creatively to overcome the ‘buffer zone’

2011-09-09T06:26:00.000-07:00

21 August 2011 | Islam Online, Hama Waqum

On Nakba Day in May, thousands of Palestinians edged towards Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Gaza, demanding their Right of Return, and an end to the Israeli occupation. Many of these protestors would return to demonstrate on the Naksa Day in June.
A major demand put forth by the Gazan demonstrators was the elimination of the ‘buffer zone’, which forbids Palestinians from stepping within three hundred meters of the cement wall that separates Gaza from the outside world.

Farming beyond the Buffer Zone

Gaza’s farmers face dangers in tending to their land, even if it lies beyond the ‘buffer zone’. For this reason, Palestinians and internationals arrange and attend mass farming events where they harvest and plant en masse.
In June, around 200 Palestinian men and women gathered in a small farm outside of Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza. Scrambling through a wheat field to a freshly-ploughed meadow, volunteers from all backgrounds assembled to help the owner of the farm to sow tomato and aubergine plants in the fields closest to the ‘buffer zone’. The three hundred meters of farmland adjacent to the wall is left unfarmed year-round. Those taking a break from crouching in the soil would stand up only to see an Israeli observation balloon, suspended above the horizon beyond the Israeli barrier.
Wisam, a student from Gaza City volunteered, along with several grandfathers, niqabi mothers and international activists. “We came here because we must stand in solidarity with the farmers who are trying to work their land” she explained.
With many hands at work, the land is freshly graced with green saplings in less than two hours and planting time is reduced, which lowers the risks posed to farmers who would otherwise spend days in front of the military outposts planting the saplings.

Farming at gun point

Father-of-six, Jabr Abu Jala lives in the ‘high-risk’ or ‘danger’ zone, meters away from the border in Faraheen, near Khan Younis in southern Gaza. It is farms such as Abu Jala’s that request assistance, so that planting and harvesting can be carried out as quickly as possible, with no intimidation from the nearby military outposts. “We face attacks and shooting almost daily.” Abu Jala explained, “Some days it’s calm, some days it’s not, but, regardless, we are forbidden from tending to a large section of our farmland- and this is a direct result of the occupation.
“They say that the buffer zone is 300 meters, so why do people end up getting shot at when they are 800 meters away from the barrier?”
Nathan Stuckey is an American activist, who had been helping to harvest Abu Jala’s wheat yield and occasionally staying with the family on their farm.
“Last night I was lying in bed, (it was) at about 5:00am and we started hearing a lot of shooting from the north and east sides of Faraheen. It was coming from the towers or Jeeps close to the farmland, right on the border” he said explaining a frequent occurrence. In the village Khozaa, it’s too dangerous for men to come to the field; the Israelis are less likely to shoot women, so that’s why the women do the farm work” he added.

Women till the soil

Despite the conservative nature of Gazan society—which is particularly apparent in smaller farming villages—it is equally acceptable for men and women to tend to land.
Halima is a Gazan mother who tends to a farm at Faraheen, “Many women farm here, we love to work. I’m the only woman here today, because I come to watch over my sons who are harvesting. I worry about their safety. If internationals weren’t here to harvest with us, we’d have to stop at 8 or 9am. If we farm in the evening, we die!” she said, laughing.
Sarah is a student of biology at Al Aqsa University who joined the 200 Palestinians in the planting of saplings in northern Gaza.
“I came here to help the farmers sow their seeds,” she explained, “It is important for women to help in this aspect. As women, we don’t face any trouble coming here to work alongside the men, you can see for yourself that it’s normal; nobody minds.”
20-year old Anwar took part in the Beit Hanoun demonstrations on the ‘Naksa’—or setback—day, near the Erez crossing. “We are here to protest against the occupation in the West Bank and Gaza and in memory of our heritage. We have come here with saaj (traditional bread), Palestinian coffee and dress, and dabka dancers to protest. This is a cultural demonstration.”
Palestinians in Gaza have become creative in their defiance of the ‘buffer zone’, from holding cultural parties to commemorate the Naksa, to flying kites over the forbidden land with messages to Israeli citizens. But, what is most pressing is their desire to be able to farm on their own land without being harassed by Israeli outposts. When large groups are able to mobilize and harvest a field in a couple of hours, this becomes much easier. Sadly, not all farms have access to a network of support and volunteers such as this.

PCHR report 25/8 - 7/9/2011:

2011-09-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR report 25/8 - 7/9/2011:

Thursday, 25 August 2011

At approximately 00:05, Israeli warplanes launched a missile on al-Salama Sports Club near Beit Lahia project's market in the northern Gaza Strip. The attack resulted in the full destruction of the 3-storey building; the first floor includes a gym, the second floor includes the administration offices and a multi-use hall, while the third one includes a football and volleyball field established on a 1,000-square-meter area. Additionally, two Palestinian civilians were killed due to the attack, as they were in the garden of an adjacent house belonging to Abdul Rahman Mohammed al-Masri in the northwestern side of the club. The victims are: Salama Abdul Rahman al-Masri, 18, the son of the house's owner, who died immediately; and Alaa 'Adnan Mohammed al-Jakhbeer, 22, from Jabalya, who was accompanying al-Masri. Al-Jakhbeer suffered from a hemorrhage in the pelvis because of shrapnel and was transferred to the hospital, but he died two hours later. Additionally, 25 Palestinian civilians, including 11 children and 7 women, sustained wounds and bruises due to the falling of smashed glass and stones at them. Moreover, extensive damages were caused to al-Huda Children Complex in Beit Lahia to the north of the club. The Complex established on an area of 1600 square meters consists of a kindergarten and a primary school. Dozens of houses surrounding the Club, 3 stores and 3 vehicles were damaged.

Monday, 29August 2011

At approximately 09:00, Palestinian medical sources declared that Haitham Ahmed Mustafa Ma’rouf, 13, from al-Amal neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, died of a wound he had sustained on 21 August 2011. According to PCHR’s documentation, at approximately 10:50 on Sunday, 21 August 2011, an Israeli drone attacked a number of Palestinian resistance activists after they had launched a home-made rockets into Israeli towns near al-Shaimaa’ School in the north of Beit Lahia. As a result, the child, who was working on his father’s land in the area, was seriously wounded by shrapnel throughout the body. He was evacuated to Kamal ‘Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, and from there he was transferred to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where he was admitted into the ICU. At approximately 20:30 on Wednesday, 24 August 2011, he was transferred to an Israeli hospital where he underwent several surgeries. Nevertheless, he died of his wound at approximately 09:00 on Monday, 29 August 2011. His body was transferred to the Gaza Strip at approximately 17:00 on the same day.

Tuesday, 06 September 2011

At approximately 16:00, IOF moved nearly 300 meters into al-Zanna area in Bani Suhaila and ‘Abassan village, east of Khan Yunis. They searched the area, while helicopters were hovering over it. At approximately 18:30, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a number of Palestinian resistance activists in Mazen Market area, who attempted to confront IOF. As a result, one of the activists, Khaled Ussama Ibrahim Abu Sahmoud, 21, from Bani Suhaila, was instantly killed by shrapnel throughout the body. Additionally, 3 civilian bystanders (an old man and his two children) were wounded:

1- As’ad ‘Abdul Karim al-Shami, 65, wounded by shrapnel to the back and the abdomen;

2- ‘Omat As’ad al-Shami, 10, wounded by shrapnel to the right arm; and

3- Ahmed As’ad al-Shami, 9, wounded by shrapnel to the face.

IOF withdrew from the area at approximately 19:30.

Today we planted in Gaza’s buffer zone

2011-09-08T06:15:00.000-07:00

6 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip

Today, like every Tuesday in Beit Hanoun, we marched into the buffer zone to protest it and the illegal Israeli occupation. In many ways it was the same as every Tuesday. We gathered at the Agricultural College, we marched down the road that leads to the buffer zone, we sang, and we chanted.
What was different this week?
The demonstration was bigger than it has been in a long time, Ramadan is over, and the people are newly energized. Also people were more afraid than they had been in a long time. Israel has just finished its latest round of heavy violence on Gaza. We were worried that Israel would fire on us, we are always afraid of this.
Israel often shoots at us when we go to the buffer zone, and this week we marched with the recent attacks fresh on our minds as we stopped fifty meters from reaching the wall.
Something else was different though.

When we reached the buffer zone it was newly plowed. If you didn’t know better you might have thought that the buffer zone, the zone of death, had disappeared and that farmers had been to their land and readied it for planting.
This wasn’t true though. The buffer zone is still there. The land had been bulldozed by Israel, not to prepare it for planting but instead to make sure that nothing lives in the buffer zone. Neither plants nor people indigenous to the land were allowed to grow here.
We went to the buffer zone to bring life to it, so that people will not forget that their land and history is still living. We went to the buffer zone to remind the world that this strip of death is not natural, the land now called the buffer zone used to be a thriving place of agriculture, people lived there, children played there.

The land was newly bulldozed, but sadly we did not have olive trees with us to plant upon the land, so we planted what we had, a Palestinian flag.

Updated on September 8, 2011

13-year-old Gaza boy dies eight days after Israeli airstrike

2011-09-01T06:29:00.000-07:00

1 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

After clinging to life for eight days, 13-year-old Haitham Ahmed Marouf succumbed to injuries received in an Israeli airstrike on Beit Lahia and died on the morning of Monday, August 29.
The Palestinian boy had been farming with his father, Ahmed Marouf, on Sunday, August 21. Shortly after 11:00 am, a missile fired by an Israeli drone struck the field next to him.
The explosion shredded the left side of Haitham’s body, filling it with shrapnel from his shoulder to his thigh. His left leg was completely destroyed, while his right femur was broken.
His abdomen was so deeply wounded that his uncle Mohammed Marouf, a staff nurse at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, recalled, “I could have put my hand inside it.”
After he received initial treatment at al-Shifa Hospital, Haitham’s family secured permission from the Israeli government to transfer him to a hospital under its control. He was transported through the Erez Crossing on Wednesday, August 24.
Despite the advanced treatment he received in an Israeli Intensive Care Unit, including the surgical extraction of shrapnel and cleaning of his wounds, Haitham died at 10:00 am on August 29.
When he met with the International Solidarity Movement on Wednesday, August 31, Ahmed Marouf was too shaken by the death of his son to comment.

PCHR weekly report 18/8 - 24/8/2011: 1 elder Palestinian farmer killed, 6 civilians injured, including 4 children & 1 woman, in areas close to the bufferzone

2011-08-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 18/8 - 24/8/2011:

Israeli Offensive on the Gaza Strip

[Note: only attacks against civilians at the areas close to the so called "buffer zone" mentioned]

Friday, 19 August 2011

At approximately 01:30, Israeli warplanes bombarded a space area in al-Najjar quarter in Khuza'a village, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis. The bombardment me a large crater in the area and damaged two tin-made rooms belonging to the al-Najjar family. Additionally, glass of a mosque and a number of houses was broken, and a number of water tanks were damaged.

[...]

At approximately 17:30, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a number of activists of the Palestinian resistance near al-Wafa Hospital in the east of Gaza City. As a result, two children living in the area were seriously wounded by shrapnel throughout their bodies: Ibrahim 'Adnan al-Zaza, 14; and Mohammed 'Aatef al- Zaza.

[...]

Also at approximately 17:30, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a space area near Hassanain brick factory in al-Sourani Mount area in al-Tuffah neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. No casualties were reported.

[...]

At approximately 19:10, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Gaza City fired an artillery shell at a number of Palestinians in al-Mansoura Street in al-Shoja'iya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. No casualties were reported.

[...]

At approximately 21:55, Israeli tanks positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, east of Khan Yunis, fired 4 shells at 'Abassan village. The shells landed on agricultural areas, but no casualties were reported.

[...]

At approximately 23:00, Israeli warplanes bombarded a 150-square-meter barrack belonging to Najia Mohammed Abu Zarifa at 'Abassan road in the east of Khan Yunis. The barrack was destroyed and a nearby carwash shop belonging to 'Ammar 'Ali Abu Daqqa and a house were damaged.

Saturday, 20 August 2011

At approximately 00:00, Hussein Mahmoud al-Najjar received a phone call from the Israeli intelligence, in which he was ordered to vacate his 130-square-meter, two-storey house in the east of Khuza'a village, east of Khan Yunis. Al-Najjar and his family immediately vacated the house. Five minutes later, Israeli warplanes fired a missile at the house. The missile hit the western part of the basement, but did not explode. Ten minutes later, Israeli warplanes fired another missile, which hit a nearby sheep farm belonging to Suleiman Mohammed Shnainu and damaged a nearby house. It is worth noting that al-Najjar's house was attacked by an Israeli drone on 24 March 2011.

At approximately 00:20, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a space area in al-Shouka village, east of Rafah. As a result, Anwas Younis al-Sheikh 'Eid, 26, was wounded by shrapnel throughout the body.

At approximately 13:30, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a number of Palestinians who were on a space area in al-Tawahin Street in the east of al-Shuja’iya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. As a result, a woman, a child and an activist of al-Quds Brigades (the armed wing of Islamic Jiahd) were wounded. The activist was in a serious condition and was admitted into the intensive care unit at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The woman and the child were identified as:

1- Fatima Salem Abu al-Ata, 50, wounded by shrapnel throughout the body;

2- Mo’ayad Rami Jundiya, 7, wounded by shrapnel throughout the body.

Sunday, 21 August 2011

At approximately 04:50, Israeli soldiers positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip opened fire at Palestinian fishermen [sic] who were on their lands in Zummu Street in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. No casualties were reported.

At approximately 05:00, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired 7 artillery shells at the vicinity of Gaza International Airport, southeast of Rafah. No casualties were reported.

At approximately 10:50, an Israeli drone attacked a number of Palestinian resistance activists, who launched a home-made rocket into Israeli towns, near al-Shaimaa’ School in the north of Beit Lahia town in the northern Gaza Strip. As a result, Haitham Ahmed Ma’rouf, 13, who was on his father’s land, was seriously wounded by shrapnel throughout the body.

Monday, 22 August 2011

At approximately 04:20, IOF positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired two artillery shells at a space area in the southeast of Juhor al-Dik village, southeast of Gaza City. No casualties were reported.

Wednesday, 24 August 2011

[...]

At approximately 05:00, an Israeli drone fired a missile at an agricultural plot belonging to Eyad al-Khaldi in the northeast of al-Boreij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, nearly 1,500 meters away from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. As a result, Isma’il Nemer Ammoum, 62, a farmer working on the plot, was instantly killed. Palestinian medical crews were able to find his body at approximately 15:00 on the same day.

Israel kills 65-year-old Palestinian man in Gaza

2011-08-25T05:57:00.000-07:00

25-08-2011,01:55

Al Qassam website- Gaza- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) killed an elderly Palestinian man identified as Ismail Ammom, 65- year-old from al Bureij refugee camp at Central Gaza Strip on Wednesday, August25th, 2011.

Adham Abu Silmia, spokesman of medical services in Gaza said that medics have found the body of the martyr as parts, adding that he was killed by Israeli shelling targeted him in Al Bureij refugee camp on Wednesday morning.

Israeli artillery fire hits eastern Gaza

2011-08-20T06:48:00.000-07:00

[ 20/08/2011 - 11:15 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli artillery shells slammed eastern areas of Gaza city on Saturday with no casualties reported, local sources said.
The sources said that a number of shells also hit southern and northern areas of Gaza city.
They said that ambulance cars rushed to the scene but found no casualties.
A series of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed 15 Palestinians and wounded around 40 others since Thursday.

PCHR weekly report 11/8 - 17/8/2011: 1 mentally disabled child killed, 1 fisherman and another civilian injured by gunfire

2011-08-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 11/8 - 17/8/2011:

Monday, 15 August 2011

At approximately 10:30, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towers at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northwest of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia opened fire at a number of Palestinian fishermen who were fishing at the beach. As a result, a fisherman, Yassin ‘Ali Zayed, 41, from al-Salatin area in Beit Lahia, was wounded by a bullet to the right leg. Zayed was nearly 300 meters away from the border.

At approximately 18:00, Israeli soldiers stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired at two Palestinian civilians who were on an agricultural plot in the east of Khuza’a village, east of Khan Yunis., nearly 300 meters away from the border. One of these civilians, Hammouda Sami al-Najjar, 25, was wounded by a bullet to the left thigh.

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

In the evening, IOF killed a Palestinian child from al-Nussairat refugee camp, who was 400 meters from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The victim's family told a PCHR field worker that their child had a mental disability. The victim was in an area that had not been explicitly declared as prohibited.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 18:00, Israeli soldiers stationed at the border northeast of Deir al-Balah opened fire at a Palestinian, who was nearly 400 meters from the border. As a result, he was wounded by 10 bullets in his head and chest. He was left wounded without being offered any first aid. After coordination was made with IOF, at approximately 19:20, medical crews were able to retrieve the body, which was then transferred to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. After four hours later, the child was identified as Sa'd Abdul Rahim Mahmoud al-Majdalwai, 17, from al-Nussairat refugee camp. He was hit by 10 live bullets mostly to the head. In his testimony to PCHR, the victim's father said that his son had been suffering from a mental disability and speech impairment.

In a New Crime, IOF Kills Disabled Child in Central Gaza

2011-08-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

PCHR

Wednesday, 17 August 2011 10:30

Ref: 83/2011

On Tuesday evening, 16 August 2011, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed a Palestinian child from al-Nussairat refugee camp, who was 400 meters from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The victim's family told a PCHR field worker that their child had a mental disability. The victim was in an area that had not been explicitly declared as prohibited.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 18:00 on Tuesday, 16 August 2011, Israeli soldiers stationed at the border northeast of Deir al-Balah opened fire at a Palestinian, who was nearly 400 meters from the border. As a result, he was wounded by 10 bullets in his head and chest. He was left wounded without being offered any first aid. After coordination was made with IOF, at approximately 19:20, medical crews were able to retrieve the body, which was then transferred to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. After four hours later, the child was identified as Sa'd Abdul Rahim Mahmoud al-Majdalwai, 17, from al-Nussairat refugee camp. He was hit by 10 live bullets mostly to the head. In his testimony to PCHR, the victim's father said that his son had been suffering from a mental disability and a speech impairment.

The Israeli radio reported that IOF observed a person approaching the security fence, and shot him. This version of events confirms that IOF could have arrested or used less than lethal force against him, especially as he was wearing civilian clothes and there was nothing to indicate that he was a non-civilian.

It should be noted that on Tuesday morning, the Gaza Strip witnessed several shooting and shelling attacks on civilian areas and military training sites. As a result of this shelling and shooting, a Palestinian resistance man was killed and two others were seriously wounded in Gaza City. A child and another person were wounded in Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.

PCHR condemns and expresses concerned over this crime, and:

1. Asserts that these crimes are part of a series of war crimes committed by IOF in the oPt, which reflect total disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians.

2. Calls upon the international community to take immediate action in order to put an end to such crimes. PCHR further renews its demand for the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligation under Article 1, which stipulates "the High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances," as well as their obligations under Article 146 which requires that the Contracting Parties prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. These grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and under Protocol I Additional to Geneva Conventions.

Medics: Gaza teenager shot dead

2011-08-16T05:10:00.000-07:00

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager near the central Gaza Strip city of Deir Al-Balah late Tuesday, medical officials reported.

Medics said the Palestinian, who was not identified, suffered "more than 10" gunshots to the head and upper body after soldiers east of the Al-Masdar area opened fire.

Gaza health ministry official Adham Abu Salmiya told Ma’an that an ambulance crew transferred the teenager's body to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.

An Israeli military spokeswoman told Ma'an that "IDF forces opened fire at a suspect approaching the security fence. The forces identified a hit," the official said.

The teenager had approached the border east of the refugee camp of Maghazi in central Gaza, Agence France-Presse quoted Palestinian witnesses as saying.

Earlier, Abu Salmiya said Israeli airstrikes killed one man and injured seven others in the central and southern Gaza Strip, in what the army called retaliation for a rocket attack hours before.

75 year old woman shot in Johr al-Dik

2011-08-16T04:42:00.000-07:00

16 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip

Selma Al Sawarka, or Um Ahmad, is an active woman, a mother of seven, and a grandmother of 35, who has never quit working. August 10, 2011 dawned like most days do for her; she went out to graze her family’s goats. She took her neighbor with her, 15 year old Keefa Al Bahabsa.
They went to the same land they usually go to. At 9:30 that morning they saw an Israeli tank and an Israeli jeep near the border. Not an uncommon sight. The tank and jeep left. About 30 minutes later, the jeep returned, three soldiers got out, and opened fire on Um Ahmed and Keefa. Um Ahmed was shot in the leg, Keefa fled to get help. The soldiers also shot ten of the families goats.
Um Ahmed is used to being shot at by the Israelis as her land is only 600 meters from the border. Usually, she says, the soldiers shoot around her, or into the air, trying to drive her from her land; she doesn’t know why today was different, why they shot directly at her, why they shot her in the leg. Her scarf also has bullet holes in it; only through the grace of God is she still here.
It took half an hour for Keefa to return with help, they loaded Um Ahmed onto a donkey cart, and went to the main road to meet a taxi to take her to the hospital. When I met Um Ahmed she was laying on a mat on the floor, recovering from being shot. A pale blue scarf covered her head. Bracelets adorned her wrists. Her daughter sat next to her. The room was simple, some mats on the floor, two chairs for the guests, a dresser, and small stand with a TV.
On the wall was a picture of her son Mustapha. He was killed by the Israeli’s on Dec, 15, 2004. Sometimes, the soldiers, or even the settlers themselves, would close the road near Netzarim settlement, the only way to go anywhere was to leave the road, and walk on the beach by the sea. Mustapha was shot and killed as he walked on the beach. The house we are in used to be Mustapha’s house. Beside the TV is another picture, another of her sons, this one has been in prison for the last ten years. He has eleven years left on his sentence. Um Ahmed, like all Gazan mothers, is not allowed to visit her son in prison, for four years this has been a blanket Israeli policy. Instead, she looks at this picture, she thinks about him in prison, while her leg heals.

Updated on August 17, 2011

As protesters hold Iftar in the “buffer zone,” Israeli bulldozers sever Gaza’s links with the world

2011-08-16T04:21:00.000-07:00

16 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

On Tuesday, August 9, members of the International Solidarity Movement – Gaza Strip joined the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative for its weekly protest by the Erez Crossing against the Israeli-imposed “buffer zone.” During Ramadan, these protests take the form of Iftars with local farmers threatened by Israeli incursions. Protesters observed Israeli military bulldozers operating by the crossing, and later learned that they had severed electronic cables running under it, shutting down the Gaza Strip’s telecommunications and Internet networks for between 12 and 18 hours.
Updated on August 16, 2011

PCHR weekly report 4/8 - 10/8/2011: 1 Palestinian woman injured, 8 sheeps 500 chickens killed, 3 farms bombed by aistrike

2011-08-11T10:50:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 4/8 - 10/8/2011:

IOF wounded a Palestinian woman and killed some of her sheep in the central Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes bombarded a number of civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip.

Two bird farms were completely destroyed and a third one was damaged, 500 chickens were killed and a room was destroyed.

Friday, 05 August 2011

At approximately 01:20, Israeli warplanes fired 4 missiles at 3 bird farms, two of which were empty, in Wadi al-Salqa village in the central Gaza Strip. The two empty farms, which belong to Salem Selmi Abu al-‘Ajin, were completely destroyed, while the third one, which is rented by ‘Alaa’ Hussein al-Louh, was heavily damaged and 500 chickens were killed.

Tuesday, 09 August 2011

At approximately 10:30, Israeli soldiers positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Juhor al-Dik village in the central Gaza Strip fired at Salma Suleiman al-Swarka, 74, while she was grazing animals nearly 500 meters away from the border. She was wounded by a bullet to the right thigh, and 8 sheep were killed.

PCHR weekly report 28/7 - 3/8/2011: 1 Palestinian civilian injured by israeli gunfire

2011-08-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 28/7 - 3/8/2011:

A Palestinian civilian was wounded by IOF in the Gaza Strip.

Saturday, 30 July 2011

Also at approximately 10:30, Israeli soldiers positioned on observation towers at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the north of Beit Lahia opened fire at a number of Palestinian civilians who were collecting straws nearly 400 meters away from the border. As a result, Mousa Ibrahim Abu Dhail, 25, from the Bedouin Village, was lightly wounded by a bullet to the head.

Ramadan in the Buffer Zone

2011-08-04T07:10:00.000-07:00

2 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

The buffer zone is a place of death. 300 meters of destroyed land, land that used to be alive, that used to be filled with orchards, houses, and fields, now, all dead. To enter the buffer zone is to risk your life, even to come close to it, the Israeli’s shoot farmers, shepherds, scrap collectors, anyone who comes close to the buffer zone is in danger. Every Tuesday, the people of Beit Hanoun attempt to bring the buffer zone back to life. They gather at the Agricultural College and march to the buffer zone.
Ramadan began on Monday, in honor of Ramadan, this week’s demonstration would involve going to the buffer zone to pray. We gathered, about thirty of us, under the hot sun. Thankfully, a breeze was blowing. It is summer in Gaza, and Ramadan is particularly hard this year, it isn’t easy to march under the hot sun while you are fasting. We walked to the buffer zone, newly bulldozed by the Israeli’s; our flag planted merely a week before, gone. The men laid down a white cloth, held it down with clumps of dirt, spread prayer rugs, and Abu Issa recited the call the to prayer. It echoed over the buffer zone, joining the symphony of calls from Beit Hanoun. As the men prayed we looked around nervously, today was quieter than usual; maybe because of Ramadan there was none of the usual background noise of construction to repair previous Israeli destruction. After finishing prayers, we marched back to Beit Hanoun, at least for a little while, the buffer zone had been returned to life. For a short while, something lived in it, people prayed in it, may justice come soon.

Updated on August 4, 2011

Activists pray in Gaza's buffer zone

2011-08-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Popular resistance activists held noon prayers on Tuesday in the "buffer zone" in northern Gaza.

International solidarity activists joined dozens of Palestinians to pray on lands recently bulldozed by Israel near Beit Hanoun.

Israeli forces impose a "buffer zone" 300 meters from the border inside Gaza. Israel's army says it considers the area a combat zone and frequently fires at Palestinians who enter the area, killing many civilians.

In practice, the no-go area extends over a kilometer inside the Gaza Strip in some areas. It encompasses around 20 percent of the coastal enclave, including fertile Palestinian farmland.

Activists said they organized prayers in the buffer zone as an act of resistance to Israeli forces who were watching from behind the concrete wall.

PCHR weekly report 21/7 - 27/7/2011: 1 incursion

2011-07-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 21/7 - 27/7/2011:

In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted one limited incursion into the southern Gaza Strip, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian land.

Tuesday, 26 July 2011

At approximately 06:00, IOF moved nearly 300 meters into al-Qarara village, northeast of Khan Yunis. They leveled areas of Palestinian land along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. They withdrew from the area at approximately 09:30 and no casualties were reported.

PCHR weekly report 14/7 - 20/7/2011: 2 incursions

2011-07-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 14/7 - 20/7/2011:

In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted two limited incursion into the southern and central Gaza Strip, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian land.

Sunday, 17 July 2011

At approximately 09:40, IOF moved nearly 200 meters into the east of al-Boreij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. They leveled areas of Palestinian land along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. They moved back to the border at approximately 17:30.

Monday, 18 July 2011

At approximately 01:40, IOF moved nearly 250 meters into the east of Khuza’a village, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis. They leveled areas of Palestinian land along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. They moved back to the border at approximately 07:00.

PCHR weekly report 7/7 - 13/7/2011: 2 women wounded, airstrikes damage stores and houses, 1 incursion

2011-07-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 7/7 - 13/7/2011:

A Palestinian woman was wounded by IOF the northern Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes attacked a number of civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip.
- Two industrial workshops and a warehouse of fodders were destroyed and a number of civilian facilities and houses were damaged.
- A Palestinian woman was injured.

In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted a limited incursion into the southern Gaza Strip, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian land.

Thursday, 07 July 2011

At approximately 06:00, IOF moved nearly 300 meters into the east of ‘Abassan village, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis. They leveled areas of Palestinian land. They then moved southwards to Khuza’a village, and leveled area of Palestinian land there also. During this incursion, IOF opened fire sporadically. IOF pulled back to the border between the Gaza Strip and Israeli nearly 5 hours later.

Saturday, 09 July 2011

At approximately 19:30, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towards at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northwest of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia fired at Tamam Salah Abu Mtair, 31, from al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, when she got close to the border. As a result, she was wounded by a bullet to the right leg. According to her sister, she suffers from a psychological disorder. She had been missing since 16:00 on the same day. Medical crews found her only 5 meters away from the border.

Sunday, 10 July 2011

At approximately 00:05, Israeli warplane fired a missile at a space area near a brick factory belonging to Yousef ‘Abdullah Hassanain in the east of al-Shuja’iya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. The factory and two houses belonging to Mohammed Yousef Hassanain and Ayman Abu ‘Asser were damaged.

Wednesday, 13 July 2011

At approximately 01:30, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a 500-square-meter car greasing workshop belonging to Ashraf Mohammed Loulu in Yaffa Street in the eastr of Gaza City. The workshop was completely destroyed. A nearby 300-square-meter store belonging to Eyad Rajab, a barrack belonging to the Hamada family and a smith workshop belonging to the al-Qassas family were also damaged. Additionally, Amani ‘Essam ‘Ouda, 20, was injured by glass fragments.

At approximately 03:30, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a 250-square-meter iron lathing workshop belonging to Shareef Mohammed Loulu in Yaffa Street in the east of Gaza City. The workshop was completely destroyed.

At approximately 23:10, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a tunnel on the Egyptian border near al-Shouka village, east of Rafah. No casualties were reported.

Three years have come and gone in Beit Hanoun

2011-07-13T05:43:00.000-07:00

12 July 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Three years of protests have come and gone in Beit Hanoun. Every week, for three years, the people of Beit Hanoun have come out to protest against the occupation, against the wall that prevents them from returning to their homes in ’48, against the buffer zone which prevents them from farming their land. Three years isn’t so long though, three years is only a blip in their sixty three year old struggle to return to their land. The people of Beit Hanoun have survived the Nakba, the Naqsa, the Occupation, Cast Lead, and still they have not given up. So every week, every Tuesday, for over three years now, they have marched into the buffer zone to visit their land which they are not allowed to farm, to remind the world that justice has still not been achieved.
We set off at 11 o’clock this morning. About 30 people, residents of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, internationals, set off toward the buffer zone. The sun was beating down, the flags were raised up high, Bella Ciao boomed from the loudspeaker. As always, the march starts out in high spirits, as we get closer to the buffer zone, everyone gets progressively tenser; eyes scan the wall and the hills more carefully. We enter the buffer zone, the dead zone, where every tree has been destroyed by the Israeli’s, where nothing is allowed to live without being attacked regularly by Israeli bulldozers. We stop a short distance inside the buffer zone. Sabur Zaineen from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative gives a short speech, specifically against the collaboration of European governments in perpetuating the siege on Gaza, for stopping the Freedom Flotilla II. The loudspeaker is handed off to someone else and chants against the occupation echo out over the dead zone and toward the Israeli soldiers ensconced in their concrete towers. Hopefully, someone is listening; someone will pause for just a moment in their daily life and think about what a life without justice, what a life under siege feels like. Hopefully, that person will decide to fight for justice.

Updated on July 13, 2011

PCHR weekly report 30/6 - 6/7/2011: airstrike damages stores and a house

2011-07-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 30/6 - 6/7/2011:

Israeli warplanes attacked a number of civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip.
A store of fodders was bombarded and a number of civilian facilities were damaged.

Tuesday, 05 July 2011

At approximately 23:30, Israeli warplanes fired a missile at a number of activists of the Palestinian resistance near a 1,000-squre-meter store of fodders belonging to Isma’il Helmi al-Najjar in the east of Gaza City. The missile hit the store and damaged it. Three activists were also lightly wounded. Additionally, a nearby tire workshop belonging to the Dughmosh family and a house belonging to Hafez ‘Aashour Dughmosh were damaged.

Kite flying in Beit Hanoun

2011-07-03T05:20:00.000-07:00

29 June 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Every Tuesday morning there is a demonstration against the Occupation in Beit Hanoun, when people march into the buffer zone, demand an end to the occupation, and are met with more bullets from the occupation.  Today was different and yet the same; today we didn’t go into the buffer zone, but none the less we were still met with the bullets of the occupation.
School is out for the summer, summer camps for the children are in full swing.  In Beit Hanoun the Vittorio Arrigoni, Stay Human summer camp has been up and running for the last two weeks.  Instead of going into the buffer zone like we do most Tuesdays, today we took the children from the summer camp to fly kites.  The children had prepared beautiful kites, simple colorful geometric designs fringed with strips of paper cut from their old homework.  Kites that remind you how beautiful the simplest things in life can be.

We drove east out of Beit Hanoun, toward the wall that imprisons the people of Gaza. As we left Beit Hanoun we entered a lunar landscape of destruction, no crops, no trees, the occasional destroyed and damaged buildings surrounded by the thistle plants that seem to grow everywhere. This is where farmers had once grown their crops.  The landscape here wasn’t always like this, the fields lining the road used to be full of trees, oranges, and olives mostly. The area used to be green, it used to support life, it used to be beautiful.  Then the Israelis destroyed all of this, with tanks and bulldozers and bombs.  Now, only the thistles remain, that and the green fields of one brave farmer who has not given up, whose fields are an oasis of green among the destruction.  The woman sitting behind me points out the aluminum propellers that the farmer has attached to his fence to scare away birds, they spin quickly in the wind, a reminder that this is someone’s land, that he is still here.
We arrive with the children on a hill about 700 meters from the wall.  There is a restored well nearby, and a shepherd resta under the shade of the only tree on the hill with his sheep.  In the distance you can see Sderot, built on what used to be lands of Beit Hanoun. The children stood poised, ready with their kites. As they prepared to launch their kites the Israeli guns start firing.  The wall is lined with giant Israeli gun towers operated by remote control.  One of them had started to shoot.  Shooting into the ground a couple of hundred meters from us, the shells kicked up giant clouds of dust.
What are they shooting at? Nobody knows, perhaps an unlucky shepherd, perhaps they are shooting to remind the children who the real boss is here, that the skies are not free, that they can shoot at them whenever and wherever they want.
The children launched the kites, with the strong wind kicking them up to sail high.  The kites were amazing, red and green with white streamers fluttering in the wind.  The children had written messages on the kites: “The children of Gaza want to be free,” “No to the occupation,” “No to the siege.”
These were messages for the occupiers, for these kites are not meant merely to be seen in the distance by the soldiers who are firing guns in the distance, they are meant to infiltrate Israel, to breach the wall that imprisons Gaza, the wall that helps hide what Israel does here.  The kites soar higher and higher, the children cut the strings on the kites, the wind takes them, some crash, but some survive, some make it over the wall.
Inshallah they will find themselves caught in the branches of the children’s grandfather’s olive tree, of the orange trees which their grandmothers used to eat from.  They will be found, and their messages will be read with the freedom and the will like the universal wind that carried such messages of hope

Updated on July 3, 2011

PCHR weekly report 23/6 - 29/6/2011: 1 disabled Palestinian arrested in Erez, attack on protesters in Beit Hanoun

2011-06-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 23/6 - 29/6/2011:

IOF arrested a physically disabled young man at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the Gaza Strip.

On 28 June 2011, IOF opened fire at a number of Palestinian civilians and international solidarity activists who demonstrated nearly 500 meters away from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israeli in the northern Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported.

Tuesday, 28 June 2011

At approximately 11:00, Israeli soldiers stationed on observation towers along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip, opened fire near a number of Palestinian civilians and international solidarity activists who were demonstrating in the east of Beit Hanoun town. About 80 persons, including 6 members of the International Solidarity Movement, 13 members of the Local Initiative in Beit Hanoun town, 15 journalists, 10 farmers and 40 children. The children flew kites, which bore a number of slogans calling for freedom for Palestinian children and lifting the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip. When the demonstrators got as close as to 500 meters away from the border, Israeli soldiers fired at them. No casualties were reported.

Arrests at Military Checkpoints

On Thursday evening, 23 June 2011, Israeli soldiers positioned at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the far north of the Gaza Strip, arrested Ayoub Ameen ‘Atallah, 19, from Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip. ‘Atalllah had undergone a plastic surgery on Slovenia, as his right leg was amputated by an Israeli shelling near his house on 28 April 2011. He traveled to Slovenia together with another 16 Palestinians on 01 May 2011, and on that day he was on his way back to the Gaza Strip.

Demonstration in Beit Hanoun

2011-06-24T05:18:00.000-07:00

21 June 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

At 11 A.M. this morning we gathered for the weekly demonstration against the occupation in Beit Hanoun.  This demonstration was different from the other demonstrations though.  Today, a troupe of young girls were joining us.  The girls were part of the Vittorio Arrigoni summer camp that had been organized by the Forsan Al Ghad center in Beit Hanoun.  Earlier in the morning the children had learned to sing Bella Ciao and had a 1K race.  The five fastest children were awarded t shirts as prizes.  The summer camp aims not only to provide a happy refuge for the children, but also to impress upon them the importance of being active, of giving back to their communities.  The camp hopes to inspire the campers through the life of Vittorio, with his devotion to standing in solidarity with the oppressed.  When Vittorio was alive he was a regular at the demonstrations in Beit Hanoun, every Tuesday he would march into the buffer zone to protest the injustice of the occupation.
Today, we gathered, maybe 50 people, the girls holding a giant Palestinian flag over their heads, the rest of us carrying our own Palestinian flags.  Bella Ciao played over a loudspeaker, the girls sang along.  After Bella Ciao we chanted, against the occupation, for justice, in memory of Vittorio.  As always, the closer we got to the buffer zone the more tense everyone became, a jackhammer started work in the distance, everyone flinched, looked around. Everyone was worried that for some unknown reason that the Israeli’s had decided to start shoting even earlier than usual.  Two weeks ago one of the young men in the march was injured by shrapnel from an Israeli shell, since then, everyone is tenser, more worried as we approach the buffer zone.  After realizing that it was just a jackhammer, people relaxed a bit, we continued on, to the edge of the buffer zone.
Usually, we go into the buffer zone, not today.  We stopped at the edge of the buffer zone; the children looked into the distance, into the land from which their grandfathers had been expelled in 1948, at the horrible ugly wall which Israel has erected to keep them from returning to their homes.  We sang, we chanted, Sabur gave a short speech, but we did not press on into the buffer zone, it is too dangerous to take the children there.  It is enough that the Israeli soldiers saw us, that they saw the children of the men their grandfathers had expelled from their homes, and that we raised our voices against injustice.

Updated on June 24, 2011

PCHR weekly report 16/6 - 22/6/2011: airstrike kills 3500 chickens, 2 incursions

2011-06-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 16/6 - 22/6/2011:

Israeli warplanes bombarded a chicken farm in the central Gaza Strip, killing 3,500 chick[en]s.

In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted two limited incursions into Palestinian areas in the central Gaza Strip, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian land.

Monday, 20 June 2011

At approximately 08:30, IOF moved nearly 200 meters into Juhor al-Dik village, southeast of Gaza City. They searched the area for some time and withdrew later.

At approximately 09:00, IOF moved nearly 300 meters into the east of al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. They leveled areas of land along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. They pulled back to the border at approximately 17:00.

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

At approximately 00:25, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a 400-square-meter chicken farm belonging to ‘Alaa’ Hussein al-Louh in Wadi al-Salqa village in the central Gaza Strip. The farm was damaged and 3,500 out of 5,000 chicks were killed.

PCHR weekly report 9/6 - 15/6/2011: 1 incursion

2011-06-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 9/6 - 15/6/2011:

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

At approximately 06:00, IOF moved nearly 200 meters into the east of al-Boreij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. They leveled areas of land along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel amidst intensive shooting. They withdrew from the area at approximately 18:00 and no casualties were reported.

Walking to the Buffer Zone: Inside the Jail of Gaza

2011-06-10T01:57:00.000-07:00

10 June 2011 | CounterPunch, Johnny Barber

We marched to the buffer zone with about 20 others including members of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative who have been organizing non-violent demonstrations for the past three years, as well as several members of GYBO (Gaza Youth Break Out). Carrying flags and alternately chanting, singing and walking in silence we approached the Israeli border. This is a no go zone for Palestinians. Israel has deemed that 300 meters from the wall is a buffer zone, so Palestinian farmland is taken away.
Waving flags and chanting we reached the edge of the buffer zone and continued walking. Almost immediately, dust kicked up just ahead of us, a warning shot rang out. We stopped, daring to go no further. Climbing a small embankment we waved our Palestinian flags and chanted to the soldiers hidden in the guard towers. Not five minutes passed and 2 shots rang out, one kicking up dust at our feet. 19 year old Mohammed Kafarna grabbed his neck, turned, and ran back in the direction we had come. He had been hit with shrapnel.
That effectively ended the demonstration; we turned and headed back toward the village. I was stunned that two dozen people could pose such a threat to Israel that the army would resort to using live rounds of ammunition against us. Of course, we were not a physical threat, I imagine the Israeli soldiers laughed at us as we turned and headed back. But non-violent demonstrations do cause a threat, especially when people walk to the wall and demand access to their land, their olive trees, their resources, and their homes. Israel has only one method to disperse non-violent demonstrators and that is through violent repression.
We often hear of Israel’s need for security, yet the people of Gaza are under occupation by the state of Israel and no one utters a word about their security. For years Palestinians have been killed with impunity, always with the words “Israel has a right to security.” Over the weekend after dozens of unarmed protesters were killed by Israeli forces in the Golan, Netanyahu declared, ‘Unfortunately, extremist forces around us are trying today to breach our borders and threaten our communities and our citizens. We will not let them do that’. The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots into the air after people started approaching the border fence, then issued verbal warnings to protesters to stay away. After some of the protesters reached the fence, soldiers opened fire, ‘with precision’, at their legs. Amongst the dead was a 24 year old woman Enis Shriteh, a fourth year English student. There was no explanation on how she got confused with ‘extremist elements’. There was no explanation of how shots to demonstrator’s legs killed her. There was no questioning of Israeli statements at all. Enis Shriteh’s death did not warrant mention in the mainstream press.
Certainly no one in our group was an extremist, nor were we a threat, merely Palestinian youth and international supporters trying to reach Palestinian land. There is no denying this: Gaza is a jail and Israeli soldiers are the jailers. Imprisoned without charges, the people of Gaza are trapped. Israel would have the world believe they are beneficent and kindly jailers, desperately seeking peace. This is a lie. Gaza is under siege.
You don’t believe me? Come, we’ll walk with the people of Beit Hanoun down to the buffer zone.

PCHR weekly report 2/6 - 8/6/2011: 1 protester wounded

2011-06-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 2/6 - 8/6/2011:

A Palestinian civilian was wounded in the Gaza Strip

Tuesday, 07 June 2011

At approximately 11:25, IOF positioned on observation towers at the border near Beit Hanoun "Erez" crossing, north of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, opened intensive fire at nearly 30 demonstrators, including 7 international solidarity activists, who were near the "landfill", northern the Agricultural School of al-Azhar University in the north of Beit Hanoun. The demonstrators were nearly 300 meters from the border fence. Mohammed Usama Uthman Ahmed (al-Kafarneh), 19, an activist of the Local Initiative from al-Fertah area in Beit Hanoun, sustained shrapnel wounds to the neck, the chest and the right foot. Ahmed was transferred to Beit Hanoun Public Hospital for treatment and his wounds were described to be between light and moderate. Saber al-Zaanin, coordinator for the Local Initiative in Beit Hanoun and supervision over demonstrations organized near the border against the imposition of a buffer zone by IOF to seize Palestinian property, reported that at approximately 10:50 on Tuesday, 07 June 2011, the demonstration started near the Agricultural School in Beit Hanoun and walked to the north to the border. As the demonstrators became nearly 300 meters from the border fence at approximately 11:25, the Israeli occupation soldiers sporadically opened fire into the air to cause fear to demonstrators and they then opened intensive fire near the demonstrators. Ahmed was wounded as a result and the demonstrators were in panic. The demonstrators fled the area especially as the Israeli occupation soldiers started firing directly at them. The Israeli occupation soldiers continue to fire for approximately 10 minutes and the demonstrators then managed to transfer Ahmed to Beit Hanoun Governmental Hospital.

Israeli forces build sand barrier at Gaza border town

2011-06-09T02:10:00.000-07:00

[ 09/06/2011 - 12:04 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) mounting army tanks escorted three military bulldozers while building a huge sand barrier at the entrance to Khuza’a town, east of Khan Younis to the south of the Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
Safa news agency said that the IOF troops fired smoke bombs to cover soldiers who went on foot to escort the workers in building the barrier.
IOF soldiers regularly embark on provocative acts on Gaza’s eastern and southern borders such as shooting, bulldozing, and combing operations in a bid to lure Palestinian resistance fighters into a confrontation then blame it on them.

Palestinian teenager injured near Gaza border

2011-06-07T01:52:00.000-07:00

7 June 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Mohammed Kafarna

19-year-old Mohammed Kafarna was hit in the neck by bullet shrapnel during a weekly non-violent demonstration in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip.
According to the doctor treating him, there were three pieces of metal lodged in his neck, thigh and abdomen. Mohammed is in a stable condition, which will be monitored over the next 24 hours while doctors decide whether or not to operate.
Mohammed was attending a weekly demonstration that has been going for three years. Tamer Zaleen, a member of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative which organises the event, was also at the demonstration. “We were about 150 metres from the border, standing on a mound. A warning shot was fired and then another shot, which was much closer. Shrapnel from the second shot hit Mohammed in the neck.”
Eba’a Razeq, a blogger from Gaza, also attended the protest. She explained, “Mohammed shouted, ‘I’ve been injured!’ but we didn’t really get what was happening. Then he started running towards the car. When he arrived, he fainted.”
The demonstration protests against the Israeli-imposed “buffer zone” which prevents any person from accessing Palestinian land within 300 metres of the border with Israel. Those who enter this zone, even if they hold deeds to the land, are likely to face gunfire.
Zaleen explained, “This is the first time anyone has been injured in this peaceful demonstration since it began in 2008, but it will not stop us. This is just farming land! It is our land and we are not afraid.”

PCHR weekly report 26/5 - 1/6/2011: 1 incursion

2011-06-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

extracts from PCHR weekly report 26/5 - 1/6/2011:

Tuesday, 31 May 2011

At approximately 08:30, IOF moved nearly 300 meters into the east of al-Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip. They conducted bulldozing and leveling works until 13:00. They then redeployed beyond the border fence.

Soldiers disperse protest in north Gaza

2011-06-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces opened fire during a protest in Gaza early Tuesday, activists said.

There were no injuries in the incident in Beit Hanoun, along the border with Israel, the coordinator for the demonstration against Israel's no-go zone, Saber Zaanin, explained.

Residents walk toward the no-go zone each Tuesday demanding access to their farmland. Israel's army says it considers the area a combat zone and frequently opens fire.

Israeli tanks invade central Gaza Strip

2011-05-31T07:48:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, 31 May 2011 07:42

Samar Mohaisen

Gaza Strip, (Pal Telegraph)- Israeli military vehicles invaded Tuesday morning limited areas in the east of al-Buriage refugee camp in central Gaza Strip. No causalities were reported.
According to SAFA News agency, eight Israeli bulldozers accompanied by three tanks stationed at the east of al-Buriage refugee camp and started razing operation to the agricultural lands, terrifying many citizens in fear of being hurt by Israeli fire.
Gaza borders regularly witnessed brutal attacks since Israel targets every moving object got near the border fence, causing great damage to several farmlands that supported hundreds of families.