Monday, May 31, 2010

IOF Opens Fire on Palestinian Civilians who were Collecting Rubble in the Vicinity of Erez Crossing

31-5-2010


At app. 11:30am on Monday 31 May 2010, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF), positioned in the vicinity of Erez crossing at the northern border between Gaza and Israel, continued its sporadic fire on Palestinian civilians who were 100 meters away from the border fence near the industrial area. These civilians were collecting rubble from destroyed buildings in the areato sell it to brick factories, which recycle it into bricks, or to people who need to use it for construction. This is the only source of materials  for making bricks and concrete for construction that is available in the Gaza Strip, which suffers from an acute shortage of construction materials due the Israeli siege. No casualties or injuries were reported.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Israel shells Gazan farmers, injuring six

International Solidarity Movement
28 May 2010
Baraka Al Mugrabi was hit with shrapel, shattering his lower arm 
and causing a spinal injury
Baraka Al Mugrabi was hit with shrapel, shattering his lower arm and causing a spinal injury
Yesterday, Thursday the 27 May ’10, three people were wounded in the Zeytoun neighborhood of Gaza City which was bombed by the Israeli Apache helicopters and six farmers from the same area were wounded by the tank artillery fire while farming near the border. This morning (Friday 28th), two ISM activists visited two of the wounded farmers in the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Baraka Mihammad AL Mugrabi, age 53 and Musa Ashad Badawi, age 28 are neighbors, and went to farm yesterday at 6 a.m. Because they have small plots of land they were quite near each other and a part of a larger group of about 30 people.
Baraka has 5 dunums of land and Musa 12, and they grow olives, apricots and other fruits as well as vegetables and some wheat.
Both of them are farmers with no other source of income and large numbers of people depend on their farming income. In Musa’s case, this includes over 20 members of his family including his parents and younger siblings.
Baraka supports a large family of 10 children, his parents and several older relatives.
Soon after they started farming, earth-to earth missiles fired at them from 10 Israeli tanks. “There were helicopters, drones, many army jeeps, 10 tanks and 10 bulldozers which later entered our land to level the mounds their artillery shells created”, said Baraka. “The firing was both heavy and sudden. About 25 artillery shells hit the area where we were and without any prior warning”.
According to Musa, farmers are shot at almost daily but this was the first time they fired from the tanks.
Artillery shrapnel hit Baraka’s lower arm, shattering the bone in several places and caused nerve damage. He also suffered a spinal injury in a fall following the wounding.
Musa Badawi's thigh bone was fractured, leaving a 
several-centimeter gap between bone fragments
Musa Badawi's thigh bone was fractured, leaving a several-centimeter gap between bone fragments
Musa’s thigh bone was broken, and the x-ray shows a large fracture with two parts of the bone several centimeters away from each other. Both Baraka and Musa were in lots of pain following surgeries they had undergone yesterday and they were told that they would both have to spend at least six weeks in the hospital to ensure recovery.
Musa had no feeling in his leg and Baraka was worried that the nerve damage would leave him permanently without use of his arm.
Both will have to return to the place where they suffered shock and so much pain.
They have no choice; they are farmers and they have no other options. What preoccupies both of them already is the time they will be unable to work because of their injuries, and they are unsure how their families will manage financially.
Musa was told that his recovery will take a whole year and Baraka’ at least six months.
Gaza Buffer Zone Background
While unemployment levels hover near 42% in Gaza and 60% of its 1.5 million residents lack food security,¹ Israel’s illegal buffer zone greatly exacerbates the humanitarian crisis. 30% of Gaza’s arable farmland, and some of its most fertile, lies within the buffer zone.² Farmers who attempt to work in the zone face live fire and crop destruction. The number of crops grown in the zone has consequently been reduced from a diverse range to wheat and other less labor-intensive harvests, which further negatively impacts the nutrition and economic condition of Gazans. An additional 17% of farmland was destroyed in Israel’s war of aggression,³ making 47% (nearly half) of Gaza’s farmland now marginally usable.
The buffer zone has also reduced Gaza’s fishing zones to 1-3 miles offshore. In the first four months of 2010, 19 naval attacks led to two shootings and three arrests, as well as numerous confiscations of fishing equipment. The narrow fishing zone, in which over 3,600 fishermen work daily, is gravely over-fished.²
Israel’s decision to instate a 300-meter buffer zone is in violation of Oslo Accords, and people are routinely shot as far as two kilometers from the border. Israeli attacks in the buffer zone injured 50 persons and killed 14 between January and April 2010. In the past twelve months, at least 220 Israeli attacks have been carried out, with 116 coming since the beginning of 2010 (as of April 30th).²

¹ PCHR Fact Sheet: The Illegal Closure of the Gaza Strip
² PCHR Fact Sheet: The Buffer Zone in the Gaza Strip
³ Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses
Updated on May 28, 2010

Thursday, May 27, 2010

PCHR weekly report 20/5 - 26/5/2010: 5 workers, including 1 child injured by gunfire, incursions, destructions, airstrikes

extracts from PCHR weekly report 20/5 - 26/5/2010

IOF continued to fire at Palestinian farmers and workers in border areas of the Gaza Strip.
- 5 Palestinian worker, including a child, were wounded by IOF.
 IOF conducted 2 limited incursions into the Gaza Strip.
IOF razed a 2-donum area of agricultural land and demolished a house and a bird farm in Khan Yunis.

 Friday, 21 May 2010 


At approximately 01:25, Israeli warplanes bombarded a tract of agricultural land in Khuza'a village, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis. The bombardment left a large crater in the area, but no casualties were reported. 

At approximately 01:30, Israeli warplanes bombarded a tract of agricultural land in 'Abassan village, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis. The bombardment left a large crater in the area, but no casualties were reported.

At approximately 01:40, Israeli warplanes bombarded a training site belonging the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) in the center of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. The site was heavily damaged. The nearby Beit Hanoun sports club was also damaged.


  
At approximately 13:20, an exchange of fire erupted between IOF and two Palestinian militants near the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of 'Abassan village, east of Khan Yunis. A few minutes later, IOF declared that the two militants were killed. At approximately 16:00, IOF moved nearly 800 meters into 'Abassan village, where they razed a 2-donum area of agricultural land planted with olives, palms and vegetable, demolished an 185-square-meter house that was under construction belonging to Harb Mohammed Qdaih, and destroyed a bird farm belonging to Jaber Qdaih. At approximately 02:00 on Saturday, 22 May 2010, IOF delivered the bodies of the two Palestinian militants to Palestinian medical crews. According to medical sources, the two militants were hit by gunshots throughout their bodies. They were identified as:

1. Nader 'Aadel 'Abdul Karim Abu Daqqa, 17; and
2. Hamdi 'Aadel 'Ali Abu Hamad, 16.

Saturday, 22 May 2010 


At approximately 06:30, Israeli troops stationed at an observation tower on the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, to the northwest of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoaun, opened fire at Palestinian workers who were collecting bricks and construction aggregate from the debris of destroyed buildings in the industrial zone. As a result, Hassan Khaled Abu Warda, 22, from Jabalya town, was wounded by a bullet to the right foot; he was approximately 400 meters from the border when wounded. 

At approximately 09:00, Israeli troops stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the to the north and northwest of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia opened fire at a number of Palestinian workers who were gathering bricks and construction aggregate in the area. No casualties were reported. 

  Sunday, 23 May 2010 


At approximately 07:30, Israeli troops stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, to the east of the Bedouin Village, opened fire at Palestinian workers who were gathering bricks and construction aggregate from the site where the Israeli settlements of "Elli Sinai" and "Nissanit" used to stand before their evacuation in 2005. As a result, Mohammed Mohammed Sa'dallahh, 24, from Jabalya town, was wounded by a gunshot to the left foot.

Monday, 24 May 2010 


In the morning, Israeli troops stationed at an observation tower on the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, to the northwest of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoaun, opened fire at a number of Palestinian workers who were collecting bricks and construction aggregate from the debris of destroyed buildings in the industrial zone. No casualties were reported. 

Tuesday, 25 May 2010 


At approximately 07:00 and 10:00, Israeli troops stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, to the east of the Bedouin Village, opened fire at Palestinian workers who were gathering bricks and construction aggregate from the site where the Israeli settlements of "Elli Sinai" and "Nissanit" used to stand before their evacuation in 2005. No casualties were reported.

· Also at approximately 10:00, Israeli troops stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel opened fire at Palestinian farmers near the border area to the northwest of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. No casualties were reported.

· At approximately 11:15, IOF moved nearly 300 meters into Bourat Abu Samra area in the north of Beit Lahia town. They searched the area and opened fire.

Wednesday, 26 May 2010

At approximately 00:20, Israeli warplanes fired a missile at Gaza International Airport, southeast of Rafah; ten minutes later, they fired another missile at the airport. A building was destroyed, but no casualties were reported.

At approximately 01:50, Israeli warplanes fired two missiles at a site of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) in the center of Beit Hanoun town. The site was completely destroyed, 15 Palestinian civilians were injured by fragments of glass, and 15 others were shocked. Among the injured were 9 children and 6 women. Additionally, 26 houses and 23 shops were heavily damaged and two vehicles and a truck were destroyed. Three civilians facilities were also heavily damaged: Al-Quds Clinic of the Union of Health Work Committees, Beit Hanoun Sports Club, and the Municipality of Beit Hanoun. The electricity network of the area was also damaged. It is worth noting that Israeli warplanes bombarded the same site a few days earlier.  

At approximately 07:30, Israeli troops stationed at an observation tower on the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, to the northwest of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, opened fire at a Palestinian workers who were collecting bricks and construction aggregate from destroyed buildings in the industrial zone. As a result, Rafeeq 'Awadh Sa'dallah, 21, from Jabalya town, was wounded by a gunshot to the left foot, when he was nearly 700 meters away from the border.

· At approximately 10:55, Israeli troops stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Jabalya town opened fire at a number of Palestinian workers who were collecting construction "base course" in the east of the town. Two workers, including a child, were wounded:

1. Salama Tayseer Eslim, 16, from Gaza City, wounded by a gunshot to the left foot; and
2. Saqer Ahmed Msabbeh, 23, from Gaza City, wounded by a gunshot to the left foot.



IOF Attacks Areas south of Al Muntar (Karni) Crossing; Two Persons Injured

27-5-2010


At app. 6am on Thursday 27 May 2010, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and the Israeli Air Force (IAF) fired several missiles on an open area in the south of Al Muntar (Karni) crossing, near the Abu Ajwa family lands. As a result, Mosa Badawi and Baraka Mohammed Al Mughrabi (28 and 55 respectively) were injured.

Limited IOF Incursion East Rafah

27-5-2010


At app. 7pm on Wednesday 27 May 2010, six Israeli tanks and two bulldozers moved about 100 meters inside  Al Shoka village, which is east of Rafah town. The tanks fired flares before   passing the Al Mtabaq crossing, which is north of Karm Abu Salim (Kerem Shalom) crossing.. The Israeli tanks fired several tanks shells in the open area near Al Shoka village.  The Israeli bulldozers leveled the agricultural lands in the area. Two hours later, the Israeli tanks and bulldozers withdrew from the area.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

IOF Opens Fire on Palestinian Workers at Erez Crossing; One Person Injured

26-5-2010


At app. 8am on Wednesday 26 May 2010, Israeli occupation forces (IOF), positioned at the northern separation fence, opened fire on Palestinian workers who were 200 meters away from the separation fence. As a result, Rafeq Awadallah Sa'adalla, 21, was shot in the left leg. According to medical sources at Kamal Odwan Hospital, his injuries are described as moderate.
The IOF has opened almost daily sporadic fire on Palestinian workers who collect rubble to sell to brick factories, which recycles it into bricks. This is the only source of bricks for construction that is available in the Gaza Strip, which suffers from an acute shortage of construction materials due the Israeli siege.

IOF Opens Fire on Palestinian Workers; Two persons Injured

26-5-2010


At app. 11am on Wednesday 26 May 2010, Israeli occupation forces (IOF), positioned at the southern separation fence, opened fire on Palestinian workers who were 250 meters away from the separation fence in the vicinity of the Islamic Martyrs Cemetery, east of Jabalia town. As a result, Saqer Ahmed Msabih, 23, who lives in the Al Shija'aia neighborhood in Gaza, was shot in the left leg and Salama Taiseer Isleem, 16, who lives in the Al Sha'af neighborhood in Gaza, was also shot in the left leg. According to medical sources at Kamal Odwan Hospital, their injuries are described as moderate.
The IOF has opened almost daily sporadic fire on Palestinian workers who collect rubble to sell to brick factories, which recycles it into bricks. This is the only source of bricks for construction that is available in the Gaza Strip, which suffers from an acute shortage of construction materials due the Israeli siege. 

Monday, May 24, 2010

Worker injured by Israeli fire in Gaza

Gaza – Ma'an – A young Palestinian worker sustained gunshot wound injuries on Sunday, after Israeli forces reportedly opened fire at a group of workers in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip.

Witnesses said Muhammad Sa'dallah, 19, was hit by Israeli machine-gun fire, as workers collected stones and rocks for construction, left behind by Israel forces following the evacuation of illegal Gaza settlements in 2005.

Sa'dallah was transferred to the Kamal Udwan Hospital in Jabaliya where he was described as in moderate condition.

Several Palestinian workers and protesters have been killed or injured near the border following Israel's creation of a buffer zone, which Gaza officials say enters 300 meters into the Strip and devours 20 percent of arable land. Nearly bi-weekly protests are held against the no-go zone, which Israel considers a combat zone.

An Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an that earlier Sunday morning an Israeli force "identified a number of suspects approaching" near the border, and fired warning shots in the air to dissuade them from approaching further. After failing to move back, the representative said, the Israeli force fired shots toward the suspects' lower body in order to not cause a lethal hit, and identified hitting one of the suspects. "The suspects eventually turned back," he said.

The army representative said the area adjacent to the border is often used by what he described as terrorist organizations to plant explosives and cause harm to Israeli soldiers and civilians, pointing to recent killing of two Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters attempting to infiltrate through the central Gaza Strip.

More destruction in Faraheen

excerpt from article on the blog In Gaza


“I still come back to the house to work a small piece of my land that is 700 metres from the border. But even then I get shot at by the Israelis,” says Jaber Abu Rjila. His home and poultry farm east of Khan Younis lie just under 500 metres from the border. They were destroyed in a May 2008 Israeli invasion into the farming community. Soon after, the family fled, renting a house to escape the regular Israeli attacks.
On May 18, Israeli soldiers set land near Rjila’s fields on fire, burning the wheat crops of the Abu Tabbash family. The Nakba is not just about memory.
UPDATE:
On 21 May 2010, Israeli bulldozers destroyed Jaber Abu Rjila’s remaining chicken farm, killing 150 chickens, 200 pigeons, 60 rabbits, and 5 sheep, and destroying 3 tons of wheat and rye as well as an estimated 10,000 shekels worth of onions, said Rjila. The land in question is over 600 metres from the border fence.
The Israeli bulldozers also destroyed a home roughly 1 km from the border. 14 people lived in the house, including a man who was ready to marry and bring his bride to the home.

remarkable urgency

In Gaza

*wheat crops bulldozed in a roughly 15 metre wide track clawed into the land by Israeli military bulldozers and tanks.
A dry winter with very late rains –at the end of January, the last possible time for planting, the farmers said –followed by a dry spring evolved into the beginnings of a dry summer.
Called yesterday to accompany farmers in the Faraheen and Khoza’a regions, each east of Khan Younis, we were suddenly busy again.  So it goes with the farmers who’ve been forced to give up high-maintenance agriculture and try for the lowest-maintenance crops possible: wheat, rye, lentils.  No more trees, they’ve all been bulldozed too many times.  Not so many potatoes, nor much parsley–they require more water than the sparse rains provided or the destroyed water cisterns, wells and piping allowed for.
Whereas before the heightened Israeli army aggressions against these visibly unarmed farmers they would live on their land, at the very least daily visit and work on it, they are now resigned to rushed attempts at sowing and harvesting some of Gaza’s richest soils, under the thud and whiz of Israeli army bullets.
We were to join Leila Abu Dagga’s sister to harvest 5 dunams of lentils.  But when we arrived were told, “it’s gone, the Israelis bulldozed it all”. [The land in question is near where the young, deaf farmer was shot by an Israeli soldier last year.  Over 500 metres from the border, I remember it well (and remember the shock of the Israeli soldiers having shot around us to reach this unarmed farmer just trying to earn 20 shekels a day. The horror: shit, is he dead? The disbelief: but they saw us farming for over 2 hours... why shoot now? The disgust: this kid is just trying to add to his large family's small income)]
*a roughly 15 metre wide track clawed into the land by Israeli military bulldozers and tanks.

So we moved to Abu Tabbash land, roughly 12 dunams of wheat which we had accompanied the elderly farmer on four months ago. Then, the Israeli army jeeps had lorded atop earth mounds just across the Green Line border fence as Abu Khader walked the length of his accessible land, back and forth, hand-spraying wheat seeds.
*Faraheen farmland [photo: Rada Daniell]
As we arrive, shortly after 7 am, he tells us “we started at 5 am.  The jeeps were there, but no shooting yet”.  He is neither surprised nor grateful, just matter of fact.  Matter of fact is the Israeli soldiers can appear at any moment and shoot at any moment, any whim.  There is no pattern, no predictability, and the only seeming reason, quite obviously, is pure harrassment with the intent of driving Palestinians off their land and destroying the agricultural sector.
So farmers like Abu Khader risk working on their land, abadoning the tens, hundreds for some families, of dunams lost to within and near the Israeli-imposed “buffer zone”.  But they do so at frantic paces, determined to work even the smallest section of their land.
“It’s quite remarkable,” says Adie, one of us accompanying the farmers. “It’s unbelievable that the Israeli army would fire on a scene like this.  It’s one of the most tranquil things you could be doing, this hand-harvesting.”

Abu Khader has the bearing, humility, and cracked heels of someone who has toiled the land all his life.  His dignity shines, as does his sense of urgency to harvest the crop, and he wastes no time with small-talk or breaks.
Working with three other family members, he hand-plucks the wheat from its earth, noting “it’s so meagre this year.  It should be up to here,” gesturing near head level.
They rip, pile and bundle wheat and the dry hay-grass which will serve as animal feed.  The bundles are stuffed into large sacs or piled on too-small donkey carts and hauled off.





Day one they’ve harvested from 5 am to 10 am and call it a day.  Day two –”there was shooting this morning,” we are told, and an hour and a half another round of shots at visibly unarmed farmers –they work roughly the same, with same intensity, saying “tomorrow we’ll finish, just need an hour and a half”.
We leave, some of the plucked wheat still in small piles to be collected the next morning.
We learn hours later that after farmers and accompaniers left the land, Israeli bulldozers crushed in and lit afire by incendiary devices the land in and along the “buffer zone” including Abu Khader Abu Tabbash’s remaining wheat.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

IOF Opens Fire on Palestinian Workers; One Person Injured

22-5-2010


At app. 6:30am on Saturday 22 May 2010, Israeli occupation forces (IOF), positioned at the northern separation fence, opened fire on Palestinian workers who were 200 meters away from the separation fence. As a result, Khalid Mohammed Hasan Abu Warda, 22, was shot in the right leg. According to medical sources at Kamal Odwan Hospital, his injuries are described as moderate. These workers were collecting and removing rubble from destroyed buildings in the vicinity of Erez crossing, in the North Gaza District. The IOF has opened almost daily sporadic fire on Palestinian workers who collect rubble to sell to brick factories, which recycles it into bricks. This is the only source of bricks for construction that is available in the Gaza Strip, which suffers from an acute shortage of construction materials due the Israeli siege.  

Friday, May 21, 2010

IOF troops bulldoze more land in Gaza

[ 20/05/2010 - 11:07 AM ]


GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) advanced into eastern Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip on Thursday morning amidst intermittent shelling, local sources reported.
They told the PIC reporter that four IOF tanks escorted four military bulldozers that advanced 200 meters into Wadi Al-Salaqa area.
The soldiers bulldozed land lots in the area and along the security fence toward east of the Maghazi refuge camps, the sources said.

Israeli Air Forces Attack Open Areas East of Khan Younis

21-5-2010

At app. 1:20am on Friday 21 May 2010, Israeli air forces (IAF) fired a missile on an open area east of Khuza'a village, east of Khan Younis.
Ten minutes later, the IAF attacked an open area in Absaan village, east of Khan Younis. As a result,  a house belonging to Marzoq Mohammed Abu Farhana was slightly damaged. No casualties or injuries were reported.

IOF Open Fire on Palestinians and Kill Two Palestinians

21-5-2010

At app. 1:20pm on Friday 21 May 2010, armed clashes erupted between Israeli occupation forces and two armed Palestinians who reached the separation fence east of the Al Fraheen neighborhood, east of Khan Younis. The clash continued for several minutes. The clash ended when the IOF announced the death of the two Palestinians. The whereabouts of the two dead bodies  was unknown.
At app. 4pm on the same day, Israeli tanks and bulldozers moved about 800 meters in the same area. Israeli bulldozers leveled agricultural lands planted with olives, palms trees and vegetables. The Israeli tanks also destroyed a one storey house that was under construction and  is about 185 square meters belonging to Harb Mohammed Salim Qdeh, 60.  The IOF also destroyed an unused chicken farm belonging to Jabr Qdeh.
At app. 2am on Saturday 22 May 2010, the IOF, with coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross, delivered the two dead bodies to Palestinian medical teams at the Al Fraheen gate.  The two dead bodies were shot in different parts of the body. The bodies were identified as follows:
·         Adel Abdel Karem Abu Daqa,17, and
·         Hamdi Adel Ali Abu Hamd,16

Thursday, May 20, 2010

PCHR weekly report 13/5 - 19/5/2010: 1 elderly Palestinian civilian killed, 1 injured

extract from PCHR weekly report 13/5 - 19/5/2010

 IOF continued to fire at Palestinian farmers and workers in border areas of the Gaza Strip.

Friday, 14 May 2010

In the morning, Israeli troops stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Jabalya town shot dead an elderly Palestinian man when he approached the border.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 10:00, Fu'ad Ahmed Yousef Abu Matar, 76, from Beit Lahia town, left his house. By 19:00, he had not returned back home, so his family began looking for him. On Saturday morning, 15 May 2010, his family was informed that his body had been found near the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of Jabalya town. At approximately 12:25, his body was transported to Kamal 'Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia. According to medical sources, the victim was hit by several heavy gunshots to the back, the shoulders and the limbs. The time of his death was estimated to have been at least 12 hours before the arrival of his body at the hospital. According to the victim's son, his father did not suffer from any mental or psychological disorder. He assumed that his father had gone to the eastern cemetery, 500 meters from the border, to visit his grandfather's grave. He could did not know why exactly his father got close so close to the border. 

Saturday, 15 May 2010 

At approximately 08:00, Israeli troops stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, to the east of the Bedouin Village, opened fire at a number of Palestinian workers who were gathering bricks and construction aggregate from the site, on which the Israeli settlements "Elli Sinai" and "Nissanit" stood before their evacuation in 2005. As a result, Mohammed Mahmoud Abu Warda, 23, from al-Twam area in the northern Gaza Strip, was wounded by a gunshot to the right foot and shrapnel to the left foot.

Monday, 17 May 2010 

At approximately 09:00, IOF moved approximately 300 meters into the east of al-Qarara village, east of Khan Yunis. They leveled areas of Palestinian land and withdrew from the area at approximately 16:00. 

Tuesday, 18 May 2010 

 At approximately 10:30, IOF moved approximately 300 meters into the east of al-Qarara village, east of Khan Yunis. They leveled areas of Palestinian land and withdrew from the area at approximately 17:30. 

At approximately 11:15, at least 170 Palestinian civilians and international solidarity activists, including a number of journalists, gathered near al-Shaimaa' School in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. They traveled in 3 buses towards a site where "Elli Sinai" settlement was located before the evacuation of Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip. The site is approximately 700 meters from Gaza's border with Israel. The group then moved forward until they arrived in an area approximately 30 meters from the border, protesting against the establishment of a buffer zone along the border. They attempted to raise the Palestinian flag at the border. Immediately, Israeli troops fired at them. No casualties were reported.          

Limited IOF Incursion east of the Al Salqa Valley

20-5-2010

At app. 8:30am on Thursday 20 May 2010, four Israeli tanks and two bulldozers moved about 300 meters inside the area east of the Al Salqa valley, east of Deir Al Balah town. The Israeli tanks leveled the agricultural lands in that area.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

An Explosion in East Khan Younis Injures One Child

18-5-2010

At app. 6pm on Tuesday 18 May 2010, Hasan Thabit Abu Frhana, 16, was injured when an unknown device  exploded. He was injured by shrapnel in the head, abdomen, and  limbs. Hasan, his father and some of his family members were harvesting wheat in an agricultural land that is located 250 meters away from the separation fence in the Al Faraheen neighborhood, east Abbsan village, east of Khan Younis. Abu Frhana received first aid at Al Karama Military Hospital. Then he was referred to the European Gaza Hospital. His medical condition is described as moderate. It worth mentioning that the area where the explosion took place had been invaded and shelled several times by the Israeli occupation forces.   

Limited Israeli incursion reported in southern Gaza

Gaza – Ma'an – Israeli forces reportedly entered close to the buffer zone southeast of Gaza, entering nearly 500 meters near Khan Younis, according to locals.

The force, which sources said was comprised of three Israeli tanks and four military bulldozers, reportedly opened fire at residents' homes, with no injuries reported.

Locals further said land was bulldozed in the Qarara village east of Khan Younis.

An Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an that army is not familiar with the incident, nor with reports that Israeli forces opened fire toward buildings. The representative added that the area in question along the Gaza-Israel border is considered a combat zone, with militants using the area on several occasions to plant explosives.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

IOF Kills an Elderly Man east of Jabalia

15-5-2010

Al Mezan 

On Friday evening 14 May 2010, Israeli occupation forces (IOF), positioned at the eastern separation fence, opened fire on Fouad Abu Mattar, 75, who was near the separation fence.
According to Al Mezan's field investigations, on the morning of Saturday 15 May 2010, the Accident and Emergency department of the Ministry of Health in North Gaza District was informed about the existence of a dead body at the Islamic Martyrs Cemetery in the east of Jabalia. On the same day, medical teams found the dead body of Fouad Abu Mattar. According to medical sources at Kamal Odwan Hospital, Abu Mattar was shot in different parts of the body.

IOF troops kill Palestinian old man, settlers assault shepherds
[ 15/05/2010 - 04:16 PM ]


GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian paramedics on Saturday evacuated the body of a Palestinian old man, who was killed by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) to the north of Gaza Strip on Friday night.
Director of the health ministry's ambulance and emergency Dr. Muawiya Hasanein said that the paramedics recovered the body of a 65-year-old man east of Jabalia north of the Strip.
The Israeli liaison had informed the ambulance department that a Palestinian was killed in that area, Hasanein added.
IOF troops had raided the area backed by armored vehicles and bulldozed Palestinian fields on Friday night.
Meanwhile, Jewish settlers assaulted Palestinian shepherds in the Jordan Valley in the West Bank on Friday night and took away some of the sheep as part of their routine attacks on Bedouins in the area to block the sheep grazing, local sources reported on Saturday.

Gaza medics: Elderly man killed by Israel forces
 
Published Saturday 15/05/2010 (updated) 16/05/2010 10:07
Gaza - Ma'an - A Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulance retrieved the body of an elderly man on Saturday after he was reportedly shot dead by Israeli forces east of Gaza City, medics said.

Muawiya Hassanein, chief of ambulance and emergency services in Gaza, identified the deceased as 78-year-old Fuad Ahmad Matar, and that the evacuation was coordinated by Israeli forces who told Palestinian officials that the man had opened fire near the border area.

Hassanein said Matar's body was "riddled with gunshot wounds."

An Israeli military spokesman said he would look into the report.

On Friday, an Israeli force opened fire at a Palestinian man approaching the Gaza-Israel border near the northern Karni crossing.

Israel's Army Radio said an armed Palestinian man was killed after an exchange of fire, apparently quoting sources in the Gaza Strip

According to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth Israel forces on lookout spotted a Palestinian approaching the border area, opened fire and searched the area, confirming that the Palestinian was hit. There were no injuries among the soldiers.

An Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an that an Israeli force identified a suspicious person approaching the security border near the Karni crossing, confirming that the man was shot.

The army representative said Israeli forces consider the no-go area a combat zone and that Palestinian fighters "use civilians to cover their activities."

 

IOF Continues its Attacks on Palestinian Workers, one Person Injured in North Beit Lahyia

15-5-2010


At app. 9:30am on Saturday 15 May 2010, Israeli occupation forces, positioned at the northern separation fence, opened fire on Palestinian workers who were 200 meters away from the separation fence. As a result, Mohammed Mahmoud Abu Warda,22, was shot in the left leg and sustained shrapnel in the right leg. According to medical sources at Kamal Odwan Hospital, his injuries are described as moderate. These workers were collecting and removing rubble from destroyed buildings in the vicinity of the evacuated Ele Sinai settlement in north Beit Lahyia, in North Gaza District.  
According to Al Mezan's field investigations, the IOF continued to open fire on Palestinian workers and arrested dozens of them.

The pretext of “security” along Gaza’s buffer zone


May 7, 2010
Ahmed Deeb after he was fatally shot by an Israeli soldier at a protest in the occupied Gaza Strip. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages)
The Electronic Intifada
“There was a single shot without any warning, and a young man was carried away,” Adie Mormech explained.
Mormech, currently in Gaza, is a British activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). He was an eyewitness at the 28 April demonstration at Nahal Oz, east of Gaza City, when Ahmed Deeb was fatally shot by an Israeli soldier.
“I could see the bullet had blown apart a large section of the top his leg, with a large amount of blood. He was carried about 100 meters with blood pouring down his leg before a waiting ambulance drove him away.”
Hours after being shot in the femoral artery by an Israeli soldier, Deeb died of blood loss.
Deeb, 21, was the ninth protester shot by Israeli soldiers during nonviolent demonstrations in the border regions against the Israeli-imposed “buffer zone.” With the Israeli threat to shoot with live ammunition at anyone within 300 meters of the border, this buffer zone violently restricts Palestinians from accessing land in the border areas.
Prior to Deeb’s killing, in the space of less than one month, eight unarmed protesters have been shot by Israeli soldiers, including a young Palestinian woman and a female ISM activist. Although aware of the likelihood that Israeli soldiers will open fire on the crowd, demonstrators like Deeb participate to protest the siege and theft of their land.
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), the buffer zone was established during the Oslo accords, taking 50 meters of land on the Palestinian side only and all along the border. In 2000, this was unilaterally expanded by the Israelis to 150 meters on the Palestinian side only, expanded again to 300 meters with the threat to shoot anyone found within that distance in January 2009, a threat reiterated by air-dropped leaflets in May 2009.
The buffer zone renders inaccessible approximately 30 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land. Tens of Palestinian farmers, workers and residents living in or near the buffer zone have been injured and killed by Israeli soldiers’ shooting and shelling.
The World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said anywhere from 35 percent to 60 percent of the agriculture industry was destroyed during Israel’s winter 2008-09 attacks on Gaza. PCHR and international agencies say that 60,000-75,000 dunams of farmland has been damaged or is unusable following the Israeli assault on Gaza and decades of Israeli bulldozing of Palestinian land. A dunam is the equivalent of 1,000 square meters.
The farmers and civilians living in the buffer zone largely have no options to relocate. For the majority, this is their only source of income. Those farmers who do not own or rent the land are working on it as paid laborers, taking home at best $5 a day.
From the end of the Israeli war on Gaza through 2009, PCHR reports 166 attacks in the buffer zone and at sea, including 19 bulldozing attacks. Farmers in the border regions report that such bulldozing attacks occur regularly, potentially putting the number of razing incursions higher, taking into consideration unreported attacks.
The severity of the buffer zone’s impact on Palestinians’ ability to be self-sufficient and the rise of Palestinian civilian casualties have largely gone unreported in the media.
With more than 80 percent of Palestinians in Gaza dependent on food aid handouts, the issue of agricultural land in the border regions within and outside of the buffer zone could not be more relevant and worthy of international scrutiny.
Unemployment soars at 60 percent as a result of the closed borders under the Israeli-led and internationally-complicit siege of Gaza and the destruction of 95 percent of industry and factories in the tiny coastal strip. As a result, Gaza’s poorest have taken to scavenging the border regions for concrete and steel from demolished buildings. Like farmers, these workers are put in danger out of their necessity to work and by the decision by the Israeli military to shoot without question or explanation anyone near the border, including outside of the 300-meter limit.
Popular, unarmed demonstrations against the buffer zone began in September 2009 and expanded with growing numbers and venues in January 2010. Currently, demonstrations occur four or five times per week in areas throughout the buffer zone, from Gaza’s northwest to southeast, organized by the Local Initiative in Beit Hanoun and the newly-formed Popular Campaign for Security in the Buffer Zone, an umbrella organization that includes organizations representing farmers and residents in areas throughout the border region.
It is with knowledge of Israel’s destructive incursions and of the daily danger posed to anyone near the borders, even up to two kilometers away, that Palestinians like Ahmed Deeb join demonstrations against the buffer zone.
Of roughly 200 participants, Deeb was among the approximately 15 protesters closest to the border fence, roughly 20 meters away, when he was shot in the leg. A “dum dum” bullet — designed to expand upon impact — hit his femoral artery, exploding inside and severing it, causing massive bleeding, said Dr. Abdullah al-Attar of Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital.

*protesters at Nahal Oz shortly before Ahmed Deeb is murdered. [photo: Max Ajl]
*Israeli soldier and military guard tower from where shots are fired on the unarmed demonstrators. [photo: Max Ajl]
ISM activists filmed the 28 April protest from a nearby boulder, around which many protesters stood chanting, waving flags. A few of the young men lobbed rocks in vain at the heavily-armed soldiers, none of which cleared the fence. Even including the few protestors throwing rocks, they posed no danger to the armed Israeli soldiers. After he was shot, protesters carried the fatally-injured Deeb to an ambulance waiting 100 meters away. With the rising number of protesters being shot, organizers had arranged for ambulances to be on site, expecting a brutal response by Israeli soldiers.
Hind al-Akra, 22, survived her injury, but required an operation to remove the shrapnel lodged in her stomach after she was shot at a demonstration east of the Meghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on 24 April. During the same demonstration, Nidal al-Naql, 18, and Bianca Zammit, 28, an ISM activist from Malta, were targeted and shot in their legs by Israeli soldiers. Zammit was left with a gaping wound in her left thigh, and Naql in his right thigh.
“It was my first demonstration,” said Naql from his crowded home in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp. Still in high school, the teen worries about falling behind in his classes. His unemployed father worries about how to pay for the medicine his son must take to recover.
“I’ll go back,” said the teen, “as soon as I’m healed.”
Mohammed Otti, 21, from the same refugee camp, was shot and injured on 20 March, when three other demonstrators were also wounded. “Last time they shouted at us and mostly fired in the air,” Otti said, referring to the demonstration a week earlier. “This time, they didn’t say anything or give any warning. They just shot me.”
Otti’s injury has also had an impact on his brother.
“We were at a peaceful demonstration in the buffer zone,” he said. “My brother is fine now, thank God, but what if it had been worse? What if he had died, or lost a leg? Why do they shoot young people?” he asked.
Israel’s imposition of the buffer zone, and the lethal restrictions that go with it, is illegal, as is Israel’s use of live ammunition on unarmed civilians who pose no threat. Yet until now there has been no sufficient international condemnation of the land annexation and the Palestinian casualties resulting from Israeli attacks.
Left with no choice but to resist Israel’s 35-month siege, Palestinians continue to hold nonviolent demonstrations and risk their lives for basic human rights. While protesters are being maimed and slaughtered as a result, the international community remains silent and complicit.
Using live ammunition for crowd dispersal is never justified, but this is what Israeli soldiers do along Gaza’s border zone on a daily basis, all under the pretext of “security.”


Ahmed Deeb, shortly before dying of blood loss from his gunshot wound. [photo: Max Ajl]
Ahmed Deeb [photo: Max Ajl]

loaded opposition

In Gaza


One can imagine that were US soldiers to open fire with live ammunition on American protesters, this would not be acceptable.  Likewise for Canada and most democratic nations.
Yet somehow there is a void, a gaping hole in the media into which fall most potential reports on Israeli soldiers shooting with live ammunition on visibly unarmed demonstraters.
When Palestine is too far away, too “over there” and mired in “age-old conflict” for mild news viewers and readers to understand, perhaps the simple comparison of “would we accept this for ourselves?” is more apt.
Would we accept that a young man in his early twenties is shot dead for prancing on his land, gleefully laughing in the faces of armed (Israeli) soldiers, delighting in accessing land that had been unilaterally cut off from him and its owners… should be shot dead for it?
Sure, it was a shot in the leg…but then it was aimed at the artery, wasn’t it?  And don’t most people understand that arteries bleed hard and heavily, that one can die from a wound to the artery.  Israeli soldiers certainly know this, which is most likely why the sniper aimed for the artery.
Would we accept that another group, carrying a large and clearly printed banner on more unilaterally-forbidden land, be shot at with live ammunition?  That the bullets would pierce the banner, endangering the lives of those holding and behind it?  That puffs of dust would arise from bullets striking just metres from our feet?
Would we accept this land annexation in the first place?  Give up our right to live on, work, and access our land, because a bullying state said it is for their security?  Would we be able to look across the devasted, bulldozed, rendered-lifeless land, across a fortified fence to lush, fragrant land being worked with tractors on the other side…and believe that the destruction of our land was actually for ‘security’?
No, we’d cry racism.  We’d scream for our rights.  We’d demand the media take notice.  We’d demand the support of other “freedom-loving, democratic”  nations.
Who the hell is not freedom-loving?  Who doesn’t want to access their land? Who doesn’t die inside because they cannot provide for their children?
Would we be as composed, gracious, generous and welcoming as Palestinians if we had endured the decades of suffering, mockery, dispossession, lies, broken promises, massacres, and being the black sheep of the media?
It is never acceptable for Israeli soldiers to use live ammunition against unarmed protesters, not in Gaza, not in the occupied West Bank or East Jerusalem.
But they do, and it’s no diversion from Israeli policy.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Israeli forces penetrate Rafah following explosion

Gaza – Ma'an - An Israeli military vehicle was hit when an explosive charge detonated beneath it during a patrol of the Gaza buffer area north of Rafah on Friday morning.

No injuries were documented by Israeli forces, and no armed faction has claimed the reported attack.

Following the report, however, Palestinians in Gaza said eight Israeli tanks and four military bulldozers penetrated nearly 500 meters in to Gaza, beyond the unilaterally declared no-go zone, and destroyed lands amid gunfire.

An Israeli military spokesman said he would look into the report, and noted "constant attempts to harm Israeli soldiers" in the no-go area.

The targeted vehicle was inside the Gaza Strip at the time of the reported explosion, on a tour of a no-go area that military officials have designated a "combat zone."

The area, restricted to farmers and civilians, comprises some 20% of the arable lands in the Gaza Strip, whose agricultural sector was already in poor shape following the Israeli-imposed ban on fertilizers, seeds and agricultural equipment. The fishing industry was similarly hit when Israeli naval ships began enforcing a 3 nautical mile fishing limit off the Gaza coast, forcing the Mediterranean community to import fish from Egypt via the smuggling tunnels for the first time in its history.

Protesters in Gaza have gathered every week, sometimes more often, demanding Israeli forces relinquish control of the no-go zone, which is inside the Gaza border, from which Israel claims to have withdrawn in 2005.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Limited Israeli Incursion into Al Muntar (Karni) Crossing east of Gaza City

13-5-2010


At app. 6am on Thursday 13 May 2010, five Israeli tanks and a bulldozer moved under heavy fire about 100 meters inside the Palestinian lands,  north of Karni crossing near the electricity power plant.  The Israeli bulldozer leveled lands in that area. At app. 2pm on the same day, the Israeli Occupation Forces withdrew. No casualties or injuries were reported.


PCHR weekly report 6/5 - 12/5/2010 airstrikes, shooting

extracts from PCHR weekly report 6/5 - 12/5/2010


IOF continued to fire at Palestinian farmers and workers in border areas of the Gaza Strip.

Sunday, 09 May 2010  

At approximately 10:35, Israeli troops stationed on observation towers at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northwest of Beit Lahia opened fire at a number of Palestinian farmers who were working on a tract of agricultural land belonging to the Abu Halima clan, approximately 500 meters from the border.  The farmers were forced to take shelter behind agricultural wells; no casualties were reported.  

At approximately 23:25, Israeli warplanes fired at least one missile at al-Shouka village near the Egyptian border, southeast of Rafah.  The attack targeted a tunnel in the area.  No casualties were reported.

 Monday, 10 May 2010 

At approximately 00:35, Israeli warplanes fired at least one missile at al-Shouka village near the Egyptian border, southeast of Rafah.  The attack targeted a tunnel in the area.  No casualties were reported. 

Sunday, May 9, 2010

IOF Opens Fire on Palestinian Farmers in North Beit Lahyia

9-5-2010

At app. 10:50am on Sunday 9 May 2010, Israeli occupation forces positioned at the northern separation fence opened fire on Palestinian farmers who were in their agricultural lands in north Beit Lahyia, in North Gaza District. No casualties or injuries were reported but farmers left the area without finishing their work.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

PCHR weekly report 29/4 - 5/5/2010: 1 worker injured

extracts from PCHR weekly report 29/4 - 5/5/2010

Sunday, 02 May 2010

At approximately 06:30, an IOF infantry unit moved nearly 250 meters into al-Sayafa area in the northwest of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. Israeli troops fired at a number of Palestinian workers who were collecting bricks and stones from a site of the former Israeli settlements "Dogit" and "Elli Sinai". As a result, 'Aayesh As'ad al-Sous, 25, was wounded by a bullet to the right foot and shrapnel to the left foot. Al-Sous was positioned at least 450 meters from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel when he was wounded. 


Tuesday, 04 May 2010 

At approximately 12:50, Israeli troops stationed in the vicinity of Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in the northern Gaza Strip fired sporadically for two hours at Ahmed 'Ouda Abu Shallouf, 42, and Fareed Mohammed Sha'ban, who were stranded at the crossing and protesting their deportation to the Gaza Strip. The two Palestinians demanded that IOF allow them to return to the Israeli town of Be'r al-Saba' to join their families. IOF had deported the two Palestinians because they had allegedly been living in Israel illegally. The two men were forced to move 150 meters from the crossing and at approximately 17:00, were forced to enter Gaza. 

 

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

IOF Open Fire on Two Palestinian Deportees at Erez Crossing

4-5-2010

At app. 12:50pm on Tuesday 4 May 2010, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) opened fire on two Palestinian deportees while they were near the Erez crossing protesting against their expulsion. Ahmed Oda Abu Shalouf, 42, and Farid Mohammed Sha'ban, 31, went to Erez crossing and asked the IOF to open the crossing and to allow them to go to their families in the West Bank. Whenever the deportees got close to the fence the IOF opened sporadic fire on them. 
At app.1:30pm on the same day, Israeli authorities informed the Palestinian Coordination and Liaison Office that the area near the Erez crossing was a closed military area and all Palestinians should leave the area. Therefore the staff of the Palestinian Coordination and Liaison office, Palestinian travelers and taxi drivers left the area. The two deportees did not leave the area and continued their protest. At app. 5pm on the same day, the two deportees left the area.

Limited Israeli Incursion in the Ash-Shoka Village

4-5-2010

At app. 7:40am on Tuesday 4 May 2010, eight Israeli tanks and two bulldozers moved about 200 meters inside of the border,  east of Ash-Shoka village, in Rafah town. This area is inside the Gaza Strip and the IOF has declared it  a security 'buffer zone'. The tanks combed the area. The IOF were still in the area as this news was published. At app. 11:30am on the same day, the IOF withdrew from the area. No casualties or injuries were reported.