Video and photos: Israeli bullets and tear gas target popular resistance in Gaza

25th February 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Charlie Andreasson | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

At al-Shifa hospital Mohammed Helles, age 14, is laying in a coma with an uncertain outcome after he was shot, with what appeared, to be a tear-gas canister in the head and parts of it penetrated his brain. He had an operation, but fragments are still left. Kamal hospital reported thirteen injures, from both gunshot wounds in the legs and tear-gas canisters.
Friday’s demonstration on the hillside east of Jabaliya gathered about 400 people, mostly young men in their late teens. Protests against land seizure, mixed with dissent at the consequences of the occupation such as a broken economy, soaring unemployment and loss of hope for the future, were met by tear gas and live ammunition, with ambulances shuttling back and forth .

 

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

Over the slope an Israeli drone hovered at a low altitude, but at an even lower altitude two Palestinian kites floated close over the fence. Cheers and applause broke out when one tore and three Israeli soldiers rushed after it. But it was also the only thing protesters had over which to rejoice. The protests will probably not change the occupying power’s policy towards the Palestinian people. According to figures from OCHA, 17 percent of the Gaza Strip, including 35 percent of its farmland, is unavailable due to the Israeli-established “buffer zone.” More than 100,000 people are directly affected, and the protests against the occupying power, as well as its military response to them, are likely to continue.

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

Video: Israeli troops fire on Palestinian farmers and international activists in Gaza

27th December 2013 | Resistenza Quotidiana, Silvia Todeschini | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

International activists have been accompanying Palestinian farmers to their lands near the separation barrier between the territories occupied in 1948 and the Gaza Strip. We have noticed, in recent days, an increase in the presence of the Zionist occupation forces. A few days ago, we felt more drones and F-16, then Jeeps and bulldozers began to move near the barrier more often. On Sunday, 22nd December, two Jeeps were stationed in front of the area where farmers were seeding and tractors plowing. They fired shots into the air and one the the ground. This video shows the last episode.



Olive,orange and lemon trees grew in these fields until the second Intifada. Then bulldozers and tanks of the occupying forces uprooted them. After “Operation Cast Lead,” the no-go zone was established at 300 meters, but aggression towards Palestinians was not limited to that area. According to UN reports, high-risk areas in some places reach two kilometers from the barrier, and included 35% of all arable land in Gaza. Following the truce concluded after the Zionist attack called “Operation Pillar of Defense,” farmers were able to reach their land up to 100 meters. Now, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, the situation is very similar to that seen before the last offensive: Zionist aggression reaches up to 1,500 meters from the border. The high-risk areas comprise 35% of arable land, and in the restricted areas, 95% is cultivable. Also according to PCHR data, the last farmer killed by the occupation forces while working, Mustafa Abdul Hakim Mustafa Abu Jarad, was 1,200 meters from the barrier. He was killed by a bullet in the head 14th January 2013, one of four people killed this year in the areas near the separation barrier.

(Photo by Silvia Todeschini)

Not only are Palestinian farmers attacked during their work, but the land they farm is itself  destroyed by the passage of bulldozers and tanks. They create deep grooves that make it difficult for a tractor to pass and plow. By doing so, they mix layers, making the land less fertile. In addition, the water tanks which are used for irrigation in this area are all destroyed by Zionist gunfire.
In the separation barrier are installed several instruments of repression. There are turrets with automatic weapons, others on which snipers can stand, tall iron columns with cameras installed and others with radar. There is barbed wire, gates where Zionist military vehicles can enter, balloons equipped with cameras, and more.
The violence of the Zionists towards Palestinian farmers and fishermen are an attack not only on their ability to work, but also on the food sovereignty of all the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.

(Photo by Silvia Todeschini)

The presence of foreign activists sometimes manages to lightly calm the situation, because we are inconvenient witnesses for the Zionist occupation forces. But the heroes are the farmers, who continue to reach their land. Without regular watering, they can grow only wheat, although after it has been cultivated for several years, not much grows anymore. The heroes are the farmers who, generation after generation, continue to say “adha hardy” – “this is my land,” no matter how strong the Zionist repression with all its resources, weapons, armor and surveillance equipment may be.

In video: Brother of Gaza man killed by Israeli sniper speaks out

Published Thursday 26/12/2013 (updated) 28/12/2013 15:25

Raddad Hamad describes how he and his brother were shot.

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The brother of a Palestinian man shot dead by an Israeli sniper last Friday spoke out against the killing in a video released by the Institute for Middle East Understanding on Thursday.

Raddad Hamad, 22, and his brother Odeh, 27, were collecting scrap metal and plastic on Friday, December 20 when Odeh was shot in the head by Israeli forces, killing him.

In the video, Raddad explained that the two were around a kilometer away from the Israeli border fence when his brother was suddenly hit in the head by an Israeli bullet. Raddad was shot in the hand at the same time.

Raddad stressed that the area in which they were shot is regularly frequented by Palestinians looking for bits of metal and plastic to sell.

"We go everyday to collect plastic, to earn a living."

"What crime did he commit for them to shoot him?" he added.

Raddad said that after being shot he fell into a ditch nearby, and although he called out for his brother, Odeh did not respond.

He said that he then crawled for a half hour even as Israeli forces continued shooting in his direction.

He finally managed to crawl far enough and call an ambulance, but once the ambulance arrived Israeli forces would not allow it to cross to get his brother, Raddad said.

"I said we have to get to him, he's dying. My brother is dying inside there. Odeh is dying."

"They didn't let the ambulance enter."



The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said in a statement following the incident, "Israeli forces used excessive force and directly opened fire at them, although it was clear that the two civilians were collecting steels and plastics from the landfill near the border fence."

An Israeli army spokeswoman told Ma'an at the time that "Palestinians caused damage to the northern security fence" and "fired a mortar shell" into Israel, adding that they "rioted and hurled rocks at soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip, and neared the fence in an attempt to enter Israel."

On the same day, four other Palestinians were also shot near the borders of the Gaza Strip, in a major escalation of violence against Palestinian civilians.

On Tuesday, when a Palestinian sniper shot an Israeli Defense Ministry employee working at the border fence, Israel responded with air strikes against the Gaza Strip, killing 3-year-old, Hala Abu Sbeikha while she was playing in the yard of her home in al-Maghazi refugee camp, and injuring her mother and brother.

Four other Gazans were also injured in a series of Israeli attacks on that day.

Israeli forces frequently shoot at farmers and other civilians inside the Gaza Strip if they approach large swathes of land near the border that the Israeli military has deemed off-limits to Palestinians.

The "security buffer zone" extends between 500 meters and 1500 meters into the Strip, effectively turning local farms into no-go zones.

According to UNOCHA, 17% of Gaza's total land area and 35% of its agricultural land were within the buffer zone as of 2010, directly affecting the lives and livelihoods of more than 100,000 Gazans.

The Gaza Strip has been under a severe economic blockade imposed by the State of Israel since 2006.

Farming in Khuza’a, Gaza Strip

5th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Gal·la | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Farmers are working in Gaza buffer zone under threat of Israeli soldiers, tanks, bullets, etc. This video shows the difficulty of daily life for farmers in Khuza’a, south of Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces fire on Gaza farmers and internationals in Khuza’a [Update: Video Added]

12th December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Khuza’a, Besieged Gaza.

Gaza- Israeli forces fired live ammunition and tear gas at unarmed farmers andinternational solidarity activists working in Khuza’a, a small village outside of Khan Younis located near the Israeli border.  At 10:30 AM, the farmers arrived and began to plough approximately 100 meters from the separation fence while internationals lined up in between the border and the farmers. They were quickly met by an Israeli military jeep and transport vehicle. An Israeli soldier issued a warning in Arabic to leave the area and then fired two rounds into the air. The farmers and internationals remained calm and continued their work and the Israeli soldiers left the area.
At around 11 AM, approximately 20 Palestinians and farmers gathered around 300meters back from the fence. Two military jeeps returned to the area.  One soldier exited his vehicle and fired four shots in the direction of the farmers and activists.  The fourth shot crossed the line of the activists and landed in the field being ploughed.  Again, the Palestinians and internationals were not deterred. The Israeli jeeps left and the farmers finished working on this section of land and moved on to an adjacent plot.
Fifteen minutes later, two Israeli jeeps returned, one equipped with an automatic machine gun.  A soldier fired three canisters of tear gas directly in front of the activists.  He proceeded to shoot at the tractor, damaging its engine and bringing the work to a halt.  An international was accompanying the driver aboard the tractor. The accompaniment team included participants from Spain, Italy, France, England, Scotland, Germany and the United States
Gazan farmers successfully ploughed and sowed wheat in adjacent plots, with the presence of internationals, during the two days prior to the incident.  Though they were issued warnings by Israeli forces to stay 100 meters from the fence, they were not fired upon in a similar fashion. “This incident is a prime example of the military harassment and unpredictability of the Israeli occupation forces that farmers routinely face while working their land in Gaza,” said a solidarity activist from Spain.  For a report from the previous days farming, see http://palsolidarity.org/2012/12/gazan-farmers-at-work-in-kuzaa/.
Residents from Khuza’a said they have not planted in this area, declared a closed military zone by Israel, for the past thirteen years.  Formerly an orchard, Israeli forces bulldozed the field multiple times during military incursions and regularly shoots at farmers who attempt to work there.  Farmers were under the impression that this area was now accessible after the November 21st ceasefire’s stipulations that Israeli forces would “refrain from targeting residents in the border areas” and to “stop all hostilities in the Gaza Strip land, sea and air including incursions and targeting of individuals.”  This is the optimum season for planting wheat and the Gazan farmers only have a small window of time in which to work before the land will be rendered unusable.


 

Updated on December 13, 2012

IOF Shooting a Young Palestinian in Khan Younis Nov. 22nd Ceasefire Breached

Israeli tank shells kill 4, wound 30 in Gaza

A wounded man is carried into a hospital in Gaza City following
Israeli shelling November 10, 2012. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli tank shells killed 4 Palestinians and wounded 30 in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, medics and witnesses said.

Ahmad al-Dardasawi, 18, and Muhammad Hararah, 17, were killed in Gaza City, and two unidentified men later died from injuries sustained in the attack.

At least 26 people were wounded in the shelling, with 10 said to be in a serious condition.

Residents said a crowded mourning tent in the al-Shujaiyeh neighborhood near Gaza City was full of people paying respects to a bereaved family man when a shell struck.

Four people were also wounded in Khan Younis as Israel's army targeted an area east of city, witnesses said.

"The occupation's targeting of civilians was a grave escalation that must not pass in silence," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.

"Resistance must be reinforced in order to block the aggression."

The casualty toll is one of the highest in a single incident in Gaza in recent months.

Israel's army said four soldiers were injured when an "anti-tank missile was fired at an IDF patrol along the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip."

Two soldiers were seriously wounded and two moderately injured, Israeli media said.

Israeli forces targeted several sites in response, the statement added.

The Popular Resistance Committees said it had fired four rockets at communities close to the border and the towns of Sderot and Netivot in southern Israel, in what it called "the revenge invoice" for the deaths in Gaza.

The attacks took place during a period of increased violence along the Israel-Gaza border.

Hamid Younis Abu Daqqa, 13, was killed on Thursday after Israeli forces targeted houses and farms east of Khan Younis, according to Ashraf al-Qidra, a medical spokesman in Gaza.

On Tuesday, three Israeli soldiers were wounded by an explosive device in the southern Gaza Strip, Israel's army said.

A day earlier, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 20-year-old Palestinian man who approached a fence near Gaza's border with Israel, medics said.

Reuters contributed to this report

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Staying: Palestinian Fishers and Farmers in Gaza

This film, produced by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in Palestine, looks at the impact of Israeli siege on Palestinian fishers and farmers in Gaza, and the fishers' and farmers' steadfastness and resistance on their land and the Gaza sea.

Welcome to the Buffer Zone - Harry Fear for GazaReport.com

http://fb.com/harryfear - Harry Fear speaks with Gazans living next to Buffer Zone bordering Israel - © http://GazaReport.com - Camera: Salah El Haw

Beit Hanoun remembers Vittorio: “When he spoke you had to listen”

by Nathan Stuckey

11 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

One year ago Vittorio Arrigoni was murdered.  Since coming to Gaza, Vik, as everyone knew him, had been a regular at Beit Hanoun’s weekly demonstrations against the no go zone and the occupation.  Vik had devoted his life to ending the occupation.  Sadly, he did not live to see his goal accomplished.  The people of Beit Hanoun have not given up though, they continue to demonstrate, they continue to risk their lives every Tuesday in demonstrations against the occupation.  This week, the demonstration was in memory of Vik.

We gathered at the same place we have gathered for the last three years, on the road outside the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural College.  The early arrivals seated on a low stone bench beside a wall on the east side of the road.  Finally, the t shirts arrived, in memory of Vik we had prepared t shirts with his photo for everyone to wear.  People quickly pulled the shirts over their own and we gathered in the road.  Bella Ciao started to play over the megaphone.  Young men with flags and a large photo of Vik led the procession toward the no go zone.  How many times had Vik taken this walk with these people?  We marched into the no go zone, we made our way down the paths that our previous demonstrations had worn through shoulder high thistles.  No one is allowed in the no go zone on pain of death, people are shot for even being close to the no go zone.  Want was once some of the most productive farmland in Gaza, home to large orchards, has been reduced to a giant field of thistles.  The houses that used to do the no go zone have all been ground to dust under the treads of bulldozers.  The ethnic cleansing that gained steam after the massacre of Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948 has never stopped in Palestine; the land we walked on was a land that had been ethnically cleansed.

We stopped at the ditch that bisects the no zone.  The flags that we had left on previous demonstrations almost hidden by thistles, the photos Rachel Corrie and Hana Shalabi were gone.  Sabur Zaaneen from the Local Initiative of Beit Hanoun spoke, “From Rome, to Chicago, to Ireland, people remember Vittorio, he is not forgotten and the struggle to which he devoted his life will continue until the occupation disappears.”  When he finished the crowd broke out in chanting, “Vittorio is not dead,” “Vittorio is with the fisherman, Vittorio is with the farmers.”  Rosa, an Italian activist spoke, “Vittorio is still with us, I know this, I feel it even more strongly today, I feel it every time I go out with the fisherman.”  Derrick, an Irish activist spoke, “Vittorio was a giant, and not just in size, when he spoke you had to listen.”  I pray that the world listens, for what Vittorio said again and again is a vital message, the occupation must end, we must have justice, Israeli crimes must not be allowed to continue.  There really isn’t much more to say, every week we gather for this protest, and everything that we say is basically a repeat of that, the occupation must end, we must have justice.  This we say, only this.

Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

The seen and unseen in the No Go Zone

by Nathan Stuckey

7 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Today, like ever Tuesday, we marched into the no go zone north of Beit Hanoun.  We gathered by the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural College and marched north, towards Jerusalem.  A Jerusalem that few of the protesters have ever seen, they have never been allowed to go to Jerusalem, it is forbidden to them, just as the land in the no go zone is forbidden to them.  Jerusalem and Al Aqsa are unseen.  We demonstrated for Al Aqsa and the prisoners.  The prisoners too are unseen; Gazans are not allowed to visit their sons and brothers and held in the prisons of the occupation.  As we walked down the road toward the no go zone a giant balloon rose over the wall.  We are the seen, watched from giant balloons, watched from soldiers in the towers that line the wall, seen from the sights of guns, an Apache helicopter roars in the distance.  Local herders tell us that there are tanks behind the wall.  For us, the soldiers who look at us through rifle scopes are yet unseen.  Later, they will make their appearance.  In the sky floats the black flag which flies over the occupation, most of the world refuses to see it, they refuse to recognize it for what it is, but for the people of Palestine it always floats in the sky, like the second moon in a Murakami novel.

We enter the no go zone and walk toward the flags that we have left during previous demonstrations.  There are about forty of us, we have no guns, only our voices and our flags.  We stop by row of flags we left last week.  Sabur Zaaneen from the Local Initiative of Beit Hanoun starts to speak, “Khader Adnan told us that honor is more important than food, Hana Shalabi reminds us that freedom is more important than food, we will continue the struggle.”  Both of them are held in Israeli prisons, neither of them have been charges with any crime.  Three months ago few people knew who either of them were, they were unseen, but they still existed, within them both was a great power and a great determination.  Both of them refuse to be oppressed in silence, their hunger strikes are calls for justice, for honor.  They are inspirations to us all.

We sit down under the flags.  Our goal is to spend twenty minutes in the no go zone.  After only a couple of minutes the unseen Israeli soldiers start to shoot at us.  Bullets whistle over our heads, thirty maybe forty of them.  We stand up, retreat down a small hill and stop.  The young men begin to chant, against the occupation, pledging their lives to defend Al Aqsa, an Al Aqsa that few of them have ever seen, in support of Hana Shalabi, a woman none of us has ever seen.  It doesn’t matter that most of them have never seen Al Aqsa, or Jenin, or  Hebron, or Jaffa, that they have never seen the homes from which their grandfathers were driven, the orange trees that fed their grandmothers, those things are still theirs, they are still inside of them.  Theft does not change possession.

We leave the no go zone when we want, we are not driven out by the Israeli bullets which whistle over our heads.  As we leave the no go zone the soldiers come out of hiding and watch us from atop their tower, we see them with our bare eyes, they see us through rifle sights. We have done what we set out to do today, we have tried in our small way to remind people that closing your eyes and saying that you don’t see something does not make it disappear.  What is unseen is often more important than what is seen.  Food we can all see, honor, none of us can see, but honor is more important than food.  Al Aqsa is something that many of the people here have never seen, but it is something for which we are willing to give our lives.  Justice cannot be seen, but all of us are willing to fight for it.  The struggle will go on, a struggle mostly for unseen things, often unseeable things.  It is a struggle for the only things really worth fighting for, justice, freedom, and peace.  I have never seen Khader Adnan or Hana Shalabi but I would like to thank them both, for showing us what heroism looks like.  Even those that have never seen Al Aqsa know that it is beautiful, that it is worth dying for.

Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

Updated on March 8, 2012

Solidarity with Khader Adnan in the No Go Zone

by Nathan Stuckey
14 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement,

Two months ago, few of us knew the name Khader Adnan.  Today, he is an inspiration to all of us.  Two months ago he was kidnapped from his home by Israel.  He was charged with no crime.  He was abused by his captors and interrogators from the moment he was arrested.  None of this is unusual in Palestine, every day people are kidnapped from their homes, abused, and held without charge.  Torture is a routine matter for prisoners of the occupation.  None of the abuse that Israel inflicted on Khader Adnan was new, it has happened to thousands, really hundreds of thousands of Palestinians under the occupation.

It was all so routine that no one would bother to report on it, that is a specialty of the occupation, to make crimes so routine that they are not news.  Khader Adnan, a thirty three year old Palestinian baker, stood up, he said no.  He is willing to give his life for dignity; a life without dignity is not life.  Khader Adnan has been on hunger strike for 59 days, he lies near death in an Israeli hospital chained to his bed.  He has still not been charged with any crime.

Khader Adnan is not striking only for himself, as he said, “I hereby assert that I am confronting the occupiers not for my own sake as an individual, but for the sake of thousands of prisoners who are being deprived of their simplest human rights while the world and international community look on.”

He could die at any time.

Protests have been held to support him around the world.  Hundreds of Palestinians have joined hunger strikes in solidarity with him.  Today, in Beit Hanoun, we marched in solidarity with him.  We gathered by the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural College, we passed out posters of Khader Adnan, we raised the Palestinian flag, and we set off into the buffer zone.  Above us were three Israel Apaches, a drone, and an observation balloon, in front of us was a giant concrete wall with towers full of soldiers, and a jeep and a tank on a hill.

This did not deter us.  Israel has a history of shooting missiles into demonstrations and shooting live ammunition into unarmed demonstrations is a regular occurrence, especially in Gaza.  We marched down the road into the no go zone.

The no go zone is a place of death.  Israel has forced out everyone who used to live there, it has destroyed their houses, bulldozed their orchards, and now it claims the right to shoot anyone who enters it.  The land is scarred by the blades of bulldozers, by the tracks of tanks.  We marched across it, toward Erez, toward the wall that surrounds Gaza, toward the wall that reminds us all that Gaza is a giant prison.  We walked until we were about 50 meters from the wall.

Khader Adnan’s wife called us, she thanked us for our support, and described her husband’s suffering, “He is chained to a bed, he is in constant pain, he looks like a ghost.  Still he does not give up.”

Sabur Zaaneen from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative spoke, “Israel does not respect human rights, the crimes of the occupation are unending, but so will be our resistance to the occupation, the popular resistance will continue until the end of the occupation.”  We chanted our support for Khader, for a man willing to die to live in honor, for a man willing to give his life for his people’s right to live in honor, for a man willing to give his life in his struggle against the occupation.

After the demonstration Sabur received a call from the Palestinian police at the Erez crossing.  The Israeli army had called them threatening to fire on the demonstration unless we left the area.  They threatened to fire on an unarmed demonstration in support of a man who has been on hunger strike for 59 days, a man who could die at any moment, a man who has not even been charged with any crime.  Just as 800,000 Palestinians were forced from their land in 1948 today Israel threatens unarmed demonstrators on their land with death unless they leave their land.

Just as Khader Adnan is steadfast in his hunger strike, we will be steadfast in our resistance to the occupation, like him, we struggle for a life of dignity, a dignity denied by the occupation.  Khader Adnan is our hero; his steadfastness is an inspiration to all of us.

Thank you Khader Adnan.

Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

Updated on February 15, 2012

Beit Hanoun demonstration under fire

by Nathan Stuckey

25 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip

Gaza was treated to a strange new sight today, not really new, but something that has not been seen in Gaza in a long time: tear gas.  In Gaza protests are not smashed with tear gas and clubs like in the West Bank, they are met with live ammunition.  In a continuation of Israel’s policy to separate the West Bank from Gaza, nothing is overlooked.  The sub-human status they wish to cement in the world’s mind when it comes to the people of Gaza is adhered to brutally.  On May 15^th 2011, when over a hundred demonstrators were shot near Erez, only one canister of tear gas was fired. Before that the protesters faced live ammunition and tank fire.  In the three years that regular demonstrations have been carried out near Erez by the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, regulars tell me that this was the first time they had seen tear gas.

 

The demonstration started like all the others.  We gathered near the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural College and marched towards the no go zone.  There were about forty of us, men and women together.  As always, the demonstrators were armed only with a megaphone and our voices.  Today, we planned to hike from Erez to the east of Beit Hanoun, near the site where two young men were murdered last week while catching birds and collecting rubble near the no go zone.  The no go zone, which used to be an area of flourishing orchards has been reduced to yielding rubble to recycle into concrete.

Israel bans the import of concrete into Gaza.  Only humans would need concrete to rebuild the thousands of houses Israel destroyed in the 2008-2009 massacres they carried out in Gaza.  In Israeli eyes, Gazans aren’t really full people; they are half people to be murdered at will for even thinking of coming close to the no go zone.

This is why we march, we deny the no go zone, and we deny the occupation.  The refugees of Gaza, thrown from their homes during the Nakba, want to return to their homes.

We walked down the muddy road that leads to the no go zone.  As we got close to the no go zone, the shooting began.  Shooting is not unexpected; bullets are the language of the occupation, at least the language that you hear.  Ethnic cleansing, oppression, and torture are also languages the occupation speaks, but the loudest voices of the occupation are the bullets and the bombs.  The bullets passed over our heads; they slammed into the dirt in front of us.  Then, the unexpected happened; the tear gas began to fall.  The clouds of tear gas were smaller than I remember from protests in the West Bank. Perhaps the shells are old, they are used so seldom in Gaza that maybe the inventory is old.

This isn’t an issue in the West Bank, there the protests are coated in tear gas, men are killed or severely injured by tear gas canisters shot at them like Mustafa Tamimi and Bassem Abu Rahma who both passed away, or Tristan Anderson, who survived. Women are suffocated by it, woman like Jawaher Abu Rahma.  It is fired into houses, schools, fields, villages; tear gas is omnipresent.  In Gaza, tear gas is a blast from the past, here the occupation has discarded that language, in Gaza, it only speaks with bullets and bombs.

At first it wasn’t clear if the protest would continue. People were shocked by the use of the new weapon.  Quickly though, a decision was reached: We would continue.  We walked east along the edge of the buffer zone.  Soldiers in concrete towers hundreds of meters away fired live ammunition at unarmed protesters walking on their own land–soldiers in concrete towers built on the land these protesters were ethnically cleansed from.

The black flag that flies over the occupation did not come down after the massacre of Kfar Kassem, it is still there, it is just that it has been flying for so long that no one remembers anything else. the black flag is like the sun, people do not remember a day before it was in the sky.

Walking in the no go zone isn’t easy.  The ground is uneven from the constant destruction of the bulldozers which Israel uses to make sure that nothing takes root there.  The ground is littered with the past: irrigation pipes, metal rods and concrete rubble from the destroyed houses.  Slowly all of this is ground up under the blades of bulldozers and treads of tanks.  We walked east, the shooting stopped for a bit.  Two soldiers appeared on a hill to the north, they raised their guns.  They lost sight of us behind a hill.  We emerged from behind a hill: we saw a tank on another hill.  Jeeps sped along the border.  The shooting began again.  Bullets flew over our heads.

Beit Hanoun demonstration under fire - Click here for more images

We reached the eastern edge of our prison and turned south.  Soldiers appeared again on a new hill.  Shooting resumed, tear gas canisters from 500 meters arced over our heads.  We stopped and reminded the soldiers that this was a nonviolent demonstration by people on their land.

They continued to shoot, then the soldiers on the hill began to yell at us with a megaphone, “Gazans are donkeys.”  Gazans are not donkeys, they are people, but perhaps if you repeat a lie often enough, people will start to believe, people like these soldiers.  We passed the carcass of a horse, rotting.  A donkey grazed to the east of the dead horse.  At least the donkey was still alive.

The soldiers continued to shoot at us, bullets and tear gas. Just as Gaza did not kneel after the 23 day massacre three years ago, we will not be stopped by bullets and tear gas.  We will continue to protest until the occupation disappears.  We will continue to protest until we achieve justice.  Without the end of the occupation and true justice, peace is impossible.  We will not accept the peace of silent oppression.  We will never accept the occupation.  Gaza will not kneel.

Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

Updated on January 25, 2012

Further into the No Go Zone

ISM website

by Nathan Stuckey
19 January 2012

Every Tuesday we gather next to the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural College.  At eleven o’clock, we set out into the no go zone.  This week there were about thirty of us, members of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement, and other activists from Gaza.  At eleven o’clock the megaphone starts to play Bella Ciao and the flags are hoisted in the air, soon we start to march down the road into the no go zone.  Today feels strange, something is different, there is only one body in the sky, the Israeli blimp that constantly hangs over Beit Hanoun watching our every move is missing, today only the sun is over us in the sky, the sun and some Israeli F16’s.
Entering the no go zone is always a strange experience.  First, you always remember the danger, Israel claims the right to shoot anyone who enters the no go zone, every week, someone is shot for doing what we are doing.  They are shot for going to their land, sometimes to gather cement to rebuild the houses shattered during the massacre the Israeli’s call Cast Lead, sometimes searching for metal to recycle and sell for a few shekels, sometimes shepherds with their sheep.  The no go zone is like a dystopian future, the people who used to live there have all been expelled, they live as internal refugees in the prison that is Gaza.  When you walk in the no go zone you are sometimes reminded that people used to live here, you find shredded irrigation pipes, wells, the foundations of houses, and today, for the first time, I saw an old quarry that used to provide rocks for building.  The orchards and fields that used to cover the no go zone have been thoroughly erased, there is no more evidence that they even existed.  In 1948 the Zionists plant forests to hide the ethnically cleansed Palestine villages, in Gaza, they do not bother, they just grind the evidence up under the treads of bulldozers.  The orchards have already disappeared, there is no trace of them, most of the houses have disappeared, with time even the wells and the remaining foundations will slowly be ground to nothing.  Only the quarry will remain.  The land here is not like the rest of Gaza, walking is difficult, the bulldozers have left it completely scarred, jagged mini hills and ridges are everywhere.
Today, we walk deep into the no go zone.  Deeper than we have ever gone before, to land no Palestinian has been on since 2000.  Sometimes it feels like a nature walk, instead of watching out for tigers or lions we watch out for jeeps or tanks.  We finally reach the barbed wire that lays about 20 meters in front of the wall, there is no way through it.  A smaller balloon than the usual one begins to rise over the wall.  Sabur Zaaneen from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative speaks, “We would like to welcome all of the activists who have to come to Gaza with the Miles of Smiles Convoy, I hope that many more activists come to Palestine to work in the towns and refugee camps of Palestine where they can confront the state terrorism of Israel directly.”  We climb a nearby hill and plant a flag.  We spot a jeep; it drives up to the concrete tower embedded in the wall.  The soldiers climb the stairs and begin to shoot at us.  We begin to walk back to Beit Hanoun.  The soldiers climb down from the tower, get in their jeep and drive to higher hill overlooking the no go zone.  They get out, and aim their guns at us again.  It does not matter that they are under no threat, that we are a completely nonviolent demonstration of civilians on their own land.  In Gaza, the occupation is reduced to its most basic, the tracks of bulldozers and the crack of rifles.  The bulldozers erase all evidence that anybody ever lived there, the rifles erase the people that live here.  We will not be erased.  The olive trees that we plant in the no go zone will feed the children of Gaza.  The martyrs will live on in our hearts.  The popular resistance will outlast the occupation.

Updated on January 21, 2012

Israeli tanks patrol olive farmers in Gaza

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.

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

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

Palestinian teenager injured near Gaza border

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.”

Israelis shoot at demonstrators in Gaza - Ken O'Keefe, Beit Hanoun, Gaza 29-11-10

B'Tselem Video: No-go zones along the perimeter fence in the Gaza Strip

B'Tselem

The Gaza Strip is narrow, elongated, and densely populated. One of the main agricultural areas in the Gaza Strip runs along the eastern border with Israel, adjacent to the perimeter fence. In recent years, B'Tselem has gathered testimonies indicating that the Israeli security forces have defined broad swaths of these areas as no-go zones, where the open-fire regulations permit live fire at anyone who enters, even persons who pose no danger.

Length: 3.19 mins

Gaza deaths protest comes under heavy live fire from Israeli snipers

15 September 2010 | ISM Gaza
Over 100 rounds of live ammunition were fired at peaceful protesters in a Tuesday demonstration in the Gaza strip. The protest at the Erez border area near Beit Hanoun yesterday included Palestinian activists from the Local Initiative group, local residents and 4 members of the International Solidarity Movement who marched into the site of the recent fatal Israeli incursion. The demonstrators had a view of the area where only a few days earlier, a Grandfather Ibrahim Abu Sayed and his 17 year-old grandson were killed by Israeli tank shelling.



The peaceful demonstration was joined by several young Palestinians, who were also protesting their right to their land, much of which is now lost or out of bounds by the Israeli imposed “buffer-zone.” This buffer-zone is 300 metres wide and stretches along the entire border fence on the frontier with Israel. According to the recent United Nations Report “Between the Fence and a Hard Place” the violence used to restrict Palestinians from accessing their land covers areas up to 1500m from the border fence, meaning that over 35% of Gaza’s most agricultural land is in a high risk area causing severe losses of food production and livelihoods.
On a previous demonstration, the activists had managed to partly remove a barbed wire fence, which had prevented them from entering their own farm land. This was met by an Israeli incursion days later, in which tanks and bulldozers unearthed a huge trench in front of the fence, about one kilometre long, three meters deep and two meters wide.
Having marched to the wire fence, 100 metres from the border wall, the demonstrators chanted and waved flags, planting one Palestinian flag beyond the wire fence. They had brought shovels and begun to refill the trench, when the Israel army suddenly opened fire around them. Under heavy shooting with life ammunition, the participants stood their ground, communicating through a megaphone, some crouching low for cover amidst the gunfire that came within 5 metres.
“We attend these demonstration because of the huge border area that takes Palestinian land”, eighteen year-old Hussam told us. “We don’t want it to be separated from our own land, it’s farmland and people are killed for trying to harvest it. Because of that we came to make them feel secure again.”
The shooting created an atmosphere of terror and fear among the demonstrators, as they had no safe place to hide around in the forcibly neglected area. Nevertheless they managed to hold up their message to the world: “Boycott Israel”. The ongoing attacks against civilians in the buffer zone, destroying livelihoods and wiping out land, have continued for too long despite the awareness of the criminally silent international community.
“We call upon the International community not to stay idle any more, but to take their responsibility to stop the ongoing crimes against humanity, and the violation of International law”, Saber Al Za’anin, the General Coordinator of the Local Initiative stated.
The security situation in the area has been deteriorating. The three innocent civilians were murdered about 700 meters away from the fence while doing their daily check on their land and animals which graze next to the remains of his former home. They were killed instantly, Ibrahim suffered severe shrapnel injuries to his face, chest and stomach and his grandson Hossam had the back of his head blown away.
The Abu Sayed family had been victims of the violent attacks in the “buffer-zone” for decades, culminating in their death. The last decade had been the hardest as their house was destroyed in 2000 by Israeli bulldozers and their rebuilt house destroyed in the 3-week Israeli war on Gaza over the New Year of 2009 that killed a further 1400 Palestinians.
While all the inhabitants of Gaza are victims of Israel’s ‘collective punishment’, a crime against humanity according to article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (of which Israel is a signatory), these people are the latest to be murdered with complete impunity.
Today’s demonstration, met with the same violence, was a message to the world which shows the unbreakable public resistance. “We will keep supporting the farmers here, who are suffering from ongoing attacks on their land, olive trees, thyme and lives, despite the terrorist power we are facing”, announced Saber Al Za’ain.
“We are going to return back to our farms and hold on to our rights on this land.”