Gaza: 29 years later, Palestinians march forward

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

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

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

[ 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

[ 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

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.

 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

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

[ 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

[ 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.