SEPTEMBER 2006
photo www.rafah.virtualactivism.net
WHY NO UN PEACE PLAN FOR GAZA?
Irish Times Newspaper 21 Sept ends article on Chavez
Speech in UN with the following : "Tens of thousands
of Israel supporters protested against Dr. Ahmedinejad
outside the UN building yesterday."[Deaglan de
Breadun Foreign Affairs Correspondent in New York]
How is it that this news
of such a huge protest goes unreported in English
newspapers. Was it reported in USA?Israel has not signed
any of the Treaty papers re control or inspection of
nuclear facilities that they pos sess and with which they
are threatening International Politicians with a Middle
East and European Nuclear War if they don't get exactly
what they want......
Sept 22nd:
21 September 2006
Time: 11:30 GMT In less than 9 hours:
IOF Kill 5 Civilians in the Gaza Strip, including 3 Children, & Injures 7 others; Two of the Victims Bled to Death when IOF Prevented Ambulances from Rescuing them
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has used excessive force in the north and south of the Gaza Strip during a 9-hour span today, Thursday, 21 September 2006, resulting in the death of 5 Palestinian civilians and the injury of 7 others, including a father and 2 of his children. Two of the victims including a woman were killed in cold blood in Rafah. They were left to bleed to death inside their houses. The other 3 victims were children from the town of Jabalia who were killed by a surface-to-surface rocket as they were herding sheep.
PCHR seriously views this latest escalation by IOF, which comes within the context of the open ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip for the past three months, which inflicted hundreds of casualties among the civilian population. In addition, the IOF attacks have inflicted great material damage on civilian property and infrastructure.
PCHR's preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 1:20 on Thursday, 21 September 2006, IOF armored vehicles moved approximately 3 kilometers into the village of Um El-Naser, northeast of Rafah. The forces cut off the Khan Yunis-Rafah section of Salah El-Deen Road in the area. The force surrounded the house of Nathmi Hussein Zo'rob, a Hamas activist. IOF also fired indiscriminately at houses in the area. At approximately 2:00, IOF chased a number of youth who gathered in the area. The youth fled into a house; and IOF stormed the house, and beat the house owner who is deaf. When the man's wife, Itemad Ismail Abu Mo'ammar (35), protested the attack, one of the soldiers fired directly at her. She was hit by multiple bullets in different parts of the body. She was left to bleed death in the house, and died at 6:00. IOF prevented a Palestinian ambulance from reaching the area to save the woman. Eight civilians were injured by the indiscriminate firing in the area, including a father and 2 of his children. At approximately 10:00, one of the injured, Mohammad Suliman Abu Mo'ammar (28), bled to death from gunshot wounds in the left thigh and right hand.
Palestinian medical sources informed PCHR's fieldworker that IOF prevented Palestinian ambulances from entering the area of operations. In addition, IOF refused to coordinate the entry of emergency services with the Red Cross. Thus, two of the injured bled for more than four hours, leading to their death.
At approximately 12:30, IOF left the area after completely destroying 13 houses and the infrastructure in the area. In addition, IOF detained 5 civilians, including a 13-year old boy and the wife of the Hamas activist.
In another incident at approximately 8:50, IOF stationed along the Gaza Strip border to the east of Jabalia fired a surface-to-surface rocket at three children herding sheep in the Abu Safeyya area, east of Jabalia town. The area is located about 2 kilometers away from the border. The children were killed and their bodies torn to pieces. They are:
Ala Saqer Dahrouj Abu Dahrouj (15);
Zeidan Rafiq Mohammad Abu Rashid (16); and
Mohammad Selmi Mohammad Masalha (17).
PCHR's preliminary investigation indicates that, while herding, the children had come near an abandoned rocket stand used earlier by Palestinian gunmen to fire a homemade rocket. It is noted that another civilian was killed yesterday in similar circumstances. Thus, the number of Palestinian civilians killed under similar circumstances over the past 3 months has reached 15 victims.
PCHR strongly condemns IOF killing of Palestinian civilians, and considers these actions to be a form of reprisal and collective punishment, which violate article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. PCHR condemns today's crimes, and: Expresses serious concern over the lives of Palestinian civilians due to the escalating use of force by IOF against civilians; Reminds of the past IOF crimes against civilians, and the continued failure to discriminate between civilians and combatants by IOF during operations; and Calls upon the international community and High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to intervene immediately and effectively to protect Palestinian civilians.
Sept.20th:
Rafah
and it's the early morning here, or to be more accurate,
2 o'clock in the morning, I was wondering what an Israeli
F16's pilot is doing at this moment, hovering over the
sky of Gaza and making all these scary sonic bombs. Ten
minutes later, the same F16s bombed a house at Al Barazil
neighborhood in Rafah, which is close to the borderline.
Of course, I was unable to sleep, as ambulances started
moving around. They expected something to happen, but
nothing happened. The house was empty and the Israeli F16
bombed it in a strike that woke people up the entire
night.
In Gaza City, it was not different. Five Palestinian
intelligence officers have been gunned down by unknown
attackers in Gaza City near the home of Palestinian Prime
Minister Ismail Haniya this morning. The five men, one a
General, were driving in a car in the Al Shati Refugee
camp in Gaza City when unknown gunmen in a jeep raked
their vehicle with gunfire, killing them instantly.
One of the victims was Jihad Tayah, a colonel responsible for international relations department within the intelligence security service, which is considered part of the Palestinian Authority organization. The five bodies were wearing civilian clothes. They were immediately transferred to Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City. No more information has been given about this issue.
In Gaza City also, a big fire erupted in one of the 10 floor building where most of the media offices and news agencies are located. The fire caused damage to the Aramex Postal Service Office. One person was burned and died inside the office. No cause for the fire is known.
This morning, three bombs by unknown groups exploded near the old Church in Gaza City, leaving damage to nearby buildings. The Palestinian police are investigating, but no more information was given about the attack.
Weddings amid devastation!
This
morning, 84 Palestinian couples from Rafah are getting
married in a collective wedding party. The wedding party
is still going on despite of the fact that Palestinians
are under international economic siege and blockade
imposed by the international community, the US, the EU
and other courtiers.: "We will celebrate our
weddings in spite of the bad situation," said one of
the grooms at the wedding. "We want to prove to the
world, that we still want to get married, love, and keep
living," he added.
Mohammed Omer www.rafah.virtualactivism.net
Sept.16th:
GAZA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Five Palestinian security officers, including a senior one, were shot dead on Friday afternoon by unknown Palestinian militants in western Gaza City, medics and eyewitnesses reported.
Witnesses said that an unknown vehicle blocked the car rode by Colonel Jihad Tayeh, from the Palestinian Security Intelligence Service, and four other security officers in an area known as the Beach camp near Haneya's heavily guarded compound before masked militants from the vehicle showered the ambushed car with gunfire.
The militants killed all of the five officers in the car, and then got into their vehicle and disappeared, witnesses said.
The bodies of the five were later taken to Shiffa Hospital in the city by Palestinian ambulances, and there were no other casualties, said the eyewitnesses.
Large number of Palestinian security forces arrived at the scene, and an investigation was immediately underway.
The circumstances of killing Tayeh, who was in charge of foreign relations in the Palestinian security intelligence, and the four security officers, were not immediately known.
The shooting took place as Prime Minister Haneya from the governing Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) reached an agreement earlier this week with President Mahmoud Abbas on forming acoalition government in order to end international aid embargo and halting political and economic crisis the Hamas-led cabinet is facing. Enditem
****************
14th Sept.:Since
the Israeli army's latest assaults against Gaza, fishing
boats are not allowed to go fishing. Few take the risk of
sailing too close to the seaside. But all the time they
are threatened by the warships' direct shooting.
Yesterday one of those boats was under fire from the
warships ,and was completely destroyed and burned.
Fishermen on board were not hurt and they jumped into the
sea. I could not sleep, shooting continued all through
the night, so continuous and close to my building that my
daughter was frightened. We both chose to sleep on the
floor of my bedroom. I hardly slept. The fishing industry
in Gaza has been paralysed for the last 8 weeks. Since
the capture of the Israeli soldier, 3000 fishermen are
not allowed to go fishing, and 35.000 people who rely on
this industry are jobless. There is no fish in the Gaza
markets, though Gaza is famous for fish meals. This is
all over for the time being as anyway people do not have
the cash to buy a non-existing nice fish meal. We can
have fish and other goodies only in our dreams.
Israel can never stop us dreaming .
12th Sept BBC WorldNews:
Palestinian militants say they have killed an Israeli soldier and injured others in an ambush in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army have confirmed that a soldier was killed in a clash Gaza. The clash took place near the Kissufim crossing with Israel in central Gaza during an Israeli military incursion. A joint statement by Hamas' military wing and the Popular Resistance Committees said the ambush occurred just 500m inside Gaza. The militant groups say that they have captured the dead soldier's weapon. Israeli forces have carried out many incursions and air strikes on Gaza since the capture in late June of Israeli Cpl Gilad Shalit in a cross border raid by Palestinian militants.
The Israeli soldier is the second to
die in Gaza since the capture of Cpl Shalit. The other
soldier was killed in a friendly fire incident. Over this
period, Gaza has been largely sealed off. A senior US
official recently warned that living conditions for
Palestinians in Gaza have reached breaking point. Israel
says the campaign in Gaza aims to secure the release of
its soldier and stop militants from firing rocket in
Israel. The Palestinian militant groups say that their
attacks are a response to Israeli air strikes, raids,
arrests and killings, both in Gaza and the West Bank.
Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli air strike destroyed the
two-floor home in central Gaza. No-one was injured. The
building belonged to a senior security official in the
Palestinian Authority's interior ministry. An
Israeli army spokesman said the house was targeted
because it was being used to store weapons
UPDATE11th Sept.:
Again in Gaza and as usual, I can hardly sleep: bombings, closures, poverty and internal chaos. Life with lack of electricity is the most awful thing here. For a student to do his/her homework when there is no electricity, that's painful. It is equally painful for someone like Umm Kamal, 46, who is no longer able to save her medicine in the refrigerator.
Last night was particularly awful. F16s and helicopters were sharing the mission to assassinate five members of Hamas. The latest strike on a vehicle killed Ali Issa Al Nachar, a Hamas member aged 20 from the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades. Another man also died but he is as yet unknown. Many passers by were injured in the strike which happened while people were asleep in the middle of the night.
An hour earlier an Israeli drone had fired two rockets at a vehicle carrying two other members from the Brigades, killing one of them, 28 year old Ahmed Abdelkarim Ashour, and seriously wounding the other. Medical sources said that 25 people were injured and another 5 killed in less than three hours. The killing in Gaza is still ongoing with Israeli escalation and open war.
On the other hand, tens of thousands of workers took to the streets yesterday demonstrating against the Palestinian government and asking them to give them their salaries. The PA employees were holding signs and banners telling the Palestinian government that they can no longer wait after more than 7 months without salaries. Approximately 170,000 PA employees have not gotten their salaries yet. So when a man and his family starve and no longer have any food at home, what are they expected to do in the end? A question that I will leave for you to answer, or it might be tough on you to keep yourself from not eating for one or two days. But remember that families here in Gaza do that as a daily routine.
"I don’t know if the Americans who are supporting the Israeli Occupation know about the hell we are going through" said Umm Ismail Hamdan, 42, while participating in a demonstration. A woman next to her who preferred to remain anonymous answered her: "Yes of course they know, but they have reached that level where they don’t want to see where their taxes are going."
Now,
I will have to leave, F16s are hovering again and it
seems a new update will come again about more war crimes
by Israeli helicopters.
Mohammed Omer www.rafah.virtualactivism.net
UPDATE 8th Sept.:
Yes this is Gaza and some excerpts
from Patrick Cockburns article in the English Independent
today - which newspaper is missing from several
newsagents I visited this morning as its sales, as has
happened before, are
limited or banned by political interference of some kind.
"Gaza is dying. the Israeli siege of the Palestinian
enclave is so tight that its people are on the edge of
starvation....a great tragedy is taking place....A whole
society is being destroyed.... This bloody conflict in
Gaza has so far received only a fraction of attention by
the international media......A farmer: They destroyed
groves of olive,citrus and almond trees " They even
destroyed 22 of my beehives and killed four
sheep".....They killed on of my neighbours; a man of
56 who went outside for water." Crime is increasing.
Israeli troops kicked out the Palestinian police - they
were replaced by looters....the remains of factories that
once employed hundreds. ... People are already
starving....They try to live on bread and falafel and a
few tomatoes and cucumbers they have grown.
The Gaza strips 1.3 million inhabitants, 33% of whom live in refugee camps have been under attack for 74 days....Warplanes have launched more than 250 raids on Gaza hitting the two power stations and the Foreign and Information Ministries....120 structures have been demolished, houses workshops and greenhouses and 160 structures damaged; $180bn in damage to the electricity grid and leaving no access to drinking water (....a family was drinking from a fishpond...). In August of 76 killed 19 were children - non participants, unarmed. No payment for Palestinian soldiers, police, security men or school teachers exists and Abbas the President is arranging militant and aggressive marches against Hamas - to whom he lost the DEMOCRATIC election ordered by USA, UK and Israel. quotes from Patrick Cockburn's columns in the Independent where there is also a strong leader on "A brutal seige the world must ignore no longer...."
UPDATE SEPT.6TH:
R elative of Imsail Abu Odah, who was killed with his father today
I
have not slept yet. The Israeli attack on the Eastern
part of Gaza is ongoing, and the world is, as usual
silent. Israel public opinion is falling and
international community is no longer moving from its
murderous silence. To whom should we complain? The
Palestinian Authority? They are already broken and have
no control. The USA? They are no longer interested in
stability in the region. The EU or the Security Council?
That is, of course, none of their business, since they
have other things to care about.
In the past few days tens of people were killed and the
number is increasing even as I type this text. This is
the result of ongoing Israeli attacks. Schools have
started and the children have no new uniforms or school
bags; even the teachers have not been paid for the last
six months. " I don’t know how I'm going to
manage without a salary, where should I go and how should
I feed my family?" asked the school teacher Majdi
Salem, 29. He is a new teacher working for a governmental
school, together with other 170,000 other employees,
doctors, teachers and other security members. There are
simply no salaries. Ismail Haneya, the Palestinian Prime
Minister went to visit schools today.
In the past few days, tens of people were killed and many were injured in the attack targeting Al Shejaia area, the eastern part of Gaza City. Earlier today, two Palestinians were shot and killed at Beit Hanun during an Israeli incursion into the north of the Gaza Strip, medical and security sources said. The victims were Mohammed Abu Oda, 60, and his son Ismail, 28.
At the same time, an Israeli air strike hit another area of Beit Hanoun wounded three Palestinians. Two of the injured were children, wounded by shrapnel, said the medical sources here in the hospital.
The world is full of hatred, no humane feelings exist any more. Should Israeli helicopters bomb all of Gaza, killing everybody, at the end of the day, only a few hundred will take to the streets in Washington DC and other European capitals. And that will be it
M.Omer
http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm
Since the June 26 military attack codenamed
'Summer Rains' has begun, the Israeli occupation army has
killed 203 Palestinians, including 58 children and 25
women, and wounded 783 others,including 281 children, and
86 women. Seventy-two of the injured have had limbs
amputated.
UPDATE 1st Sept.
Ex-chief of Palestinian Military Intelligence assassinated Popular Resistance Committees claim responsibility
The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) claimed responsibility for killing the of Mousa Arafat, former chief of Military intelligence, former head of the national security forces and the military advisor for the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his house in Gaza city, Wednesday before dawn, Palestinian sources reported.The PRC also claimed responsibility for abducting Arafat's son, Manhal.
EARLIER REPORT:The former chief of the Palestinian Military Intelligence, and cousin to the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, was killed and his son was kidnapped when dozens of unknown gunmen stormed his house in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Palestinian sources reported.65-year-old Mousa Arafat was shot dead and his son Manhal, 29, who is his right arm, was kidnapped by the gunmen in Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza city.
Palestinian security sources said, at least 20 loaded
vehicles participated in the attack.
Eyewitnesses said, they heard an intensive shooting, and
explosions. The witnesses believe an exchange of
fire erupted between the gunmen and Arafat's guards
before he was killed. Palestine News Network (PNN)
reported that a security officer, who arrived at the
scene soon after the assailants left, told PNN "The
two-story house was extremely damaged and I went into
Arafat's office and saw traces of blood leading to
outside the house." "Apparently, they
shot him and dragged him outside the house later,"
he added. "Arafat received a fatal bullet to the
back of his head," said the officer who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
Arafat was the head of the military intelligence, and play a key role in the security forces in the past ten year. He was forcefully-retired upon orders by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last March, before he was promoted to become the Head of the National Security Forces. Following his retirement, Arafat served as a military advisor to the Abbas. In his first response to the assassination, Abbas called emergency meeting of security commanders and his Prime Minsiter Ahmed Qurei. Arafat survived an assassination attempt last year, when a car exploded near his house as he was coming back from his office in Gaza city.
:International donors meeting in
the Swedish capital, Stockholm, have promised $500m
(£262m) in aid for the Palestinian territories. UN
aid chief Jan Egeland, who warned that lack of aid had
made Gaza a "time bomb", welcomed the news but
said a new peace process with Israel was vital.
Palestinian aid has been hit since Hamas, which many
Western countries say is a terrorist group, won power. On
Thursday, donors pledged $940m of help to rebuild
Lebanon. Reporting from Stockholm, the BBC's Alix Kroeger
notes that donations for the Palestinian territories have
been significantly less. Mr Egeland had earlier told the
conference that the Palestinians needed at least as much
aid and money as the Lebanese.
In Gaza, Israeli missile
strikes Reuters vehicle and wounds two
Press Release, CPJ,
28 August 2006The Committee to Protect Journalists is
alarmed by the apparent targeting of two Palestinian
cameramen by Israeli forces in Gaza City late Saturday. A
missile struck their armored car in the densely populated
Shijaiyah neighborhood, seriously wounding Fadel Shana, a
freelance cameraman for Reuters, and Sabbah Hmaida, a
cameraman with a private Palestinian TV facilities house,
Media Group. Reuters said the vehicle was clearly marked
"Press" on all sides. The missile struck the
letter "P" of the bright red "Press"
sign on the car's roof, the news agency added. Shana lost
consciousness for several hours and suffered shrapnel
wounds in his right hand and leg, Reuters reported.
Hmaida sustained serious leg wounds from shrapnel. Shana
had rushed out to film a suspected Israeli air strike. He
was about 1,300 yards (1,200 meters) from the nearest
Israeli soldiers when the vehicle was struck, Reuters
reported. "We condemn this missile strike on a
vehicle that was clearly identified as press," said
CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "The Israeli
military must investigate this attack and hold those
responsible accountable." An Israel Defense Force
(IDF) spokesperson said the car had aroused suspicion
because it was near soldiers in a combat area at night,
Reuters reported. "This car was not identified by
the army as a press vehicle," army spokeswoman Capt.
Noa Meir told Reuters. "If journalists were hurt, we
regret it." The Foreign Press Association (FPA) in
Israel called the attack an "outrageous
targeting" and demanded a full investigation,
adding, "there is a serious risk that relations
between the FPA and the IDF will be significantly
damaged." Other allegations of deliberate targeting
of journalists covering fighting in Gaza and south
Lebanon have been made against the Israeli army over the
past two months. On July 27, Palestine Television
cameraman Ibrahim al-Atla was seriously wounded by an
Israeli tank shell during a lull in shooting between
Palestinian militants and Israeli forces in Shijaiyah.
In Lebanon, crews from four Arab television stations told
CPJ that Israeli aircraft fired missiles within 80 yards
(75 meters) of them on July 22 to prevent them from
covering the effects of Israel's bombardment of the area
around the town of Khiam, in the eastern sector of the
Israel-Lebanon border.
"Whereas
it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have
recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny
and oppression, that human rights should be protected by
the rule of law" (From Preamble to the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights of 1948)
Twilight Zone / Deadly
diaries
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/756772.html
By Gideon Levy
Shifa Hospital in Gaza, the fourth floor. Two brothers.
Their parents and siblings were all killed while they
were sleeping. Only the brothers were saved from the
inferno caused by two missiles dropped by a plane on
their house in the middle of the night. Awad, 19, is
seriously injured; Mohammed, 20, uninjured, tends him.
Their parents and all seven of their younger siblings,
including a disabled sister, were killed. Just try to
imagine.
The signs of shock and grief are obvious on the two
orphaned brothers. They stare at the floor, speak very
softly; their faces are pale and lifeless, even six weeks
after that bloody night. On the wall of the hospital room
they've taped a picture of their father, taken with
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
Dr. Nabil Abu Salmiya was a lecturer in mathematics at
the Islamic University in Gaza and a Hamas activist. The
wanted man Mohammed Deif visited the family's home in the
middle of the night - and the air force bombed it. Deif
was wounded, but survived. A family was almost entirely
wiped out. This was on the day that the war broke out in
Lebanon; no one paid any attention to the killing in the
south.
The wounded and the dead continue to arrive at Shifa.
This week, ambulance after ambulance pulled up, carrying
the victims of Israel Defense Forces' actions - this time
in the Sajiyeh quarter of Gaza City - followed by
distraught family members. The atmosphere was bleak and
threatening, with dozens of armed Hamas soldiers in their
blue camouflage uniforms securing the place, Kalashnikovs
cocked, on the surrounding roofs, in the hospital yard
and corridors. Relatives of the injured lay on the floors
of the rooms. The only hospital in Gaza is full to
bursting.
A stench permeates the city streets. The garbage hasn't
been collected for many days, due to a strike by
municipal employees who haven't received their wages for
months. The smell filters into the hospital. The
electricity only works for a few hours a day, since the
air force bombed the only power station in the Gaza
Strip; the heat is oppressive. The elevator is either
stuck or barely moves.
Awad Abu Salmiya lies with both legs in bandages in a bed
by the window. A faint breeze from the sea offers the
only bit of relief.
Not far away, in Beit Lahia, Ahmed al-Attar, 17, sits in
a wheelchair. His father pleads with Israel and the world
for someone to see that his son gets prosthetic legs.
Ahmed was injured when the air force fired a missile that
hit the mule-drawn wagon in which he was riding with his
mother and nephew. They were on the way to pick figs from
the family plot near the sea. His mother and the other
boy were killed outright; Ahmed lost both legs.
This also happened in the course of Operation Summer
Rains, whose end appears to be nowhere in sight; no one
in Israel seems very interested in it. Meanwhile, the IDF
goes on killing - nine members of the Abu Salmiya family,
two members of the Al-Attar family. Together, they're 11
out of 212 people who were killed, including 50 children
and teenagers, between the abduction of Gilad Shalit at
the end of June, and the end of August.
An empty lot in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood. A
two-story house used to stand here. Unlike other places,
all the rubble here has already been cleared away. The
back part of the house was completely destroyed; the
front was left tilting on its side. Two missiles.
Mohammed and Awad were sleeping in the front of the
house, which faced the street. The rest of the family was
asleep in the back and was killed. Perhaps only the
father was still awake, together with Deif. No one knows.
No one will say. It was 3 A.M. Neighbor Ibrahim Samur had
gone with Dr. Abu Salmiya to the mosque that evening to
pray, and afterward they'd chatted a little in front of
the house. They parted at nine. No one saw Deif, of
course. In the middle of the night the neighbors were
awakened by a tremendous explosion, followed immediately
by another one. They say the blast shook them out of
their beds. The houses are that close to one another.
In a rented office on the ground floor of the house next
door, which serves as a public court for settling
conflicts in the neighborhood, a picture of Abdel Aziz
al-Rantisi hangs on the wall; a water cooler with
Israeli-brand Eden spring water sits below it. Here,
Abdullah Samur, an 18-year-old, describes what happened
that night at the neighbors' house. The children crowding
about outside are all wearing T-shirts from the Hamas
summer camp. One wears a shirt bearing the likeness of
the late Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Abdullah went to sleep at midnight that night and woke up
at 3 A.M. to the noise of a plane overhead. He lives on
the third floor. It was July 12, a few hours before the
outbreak of the war in Lebanon. The boom jolted him out
of his bed. The windows shattered and the doors came off
their hinges. Smoke filled his house from the fire that
broke out next door, and his parents yelled for the
children to flee.
Outside, Abdullah saw the destroyed house next door and
the smoke coming from it. He knew the neighbors well.
Nabil and his wife Salwa and all the kids he grew up with
- Nasser, 6, Aya, 7, Uda, 8, Iman, 11, Yihyeh, 13, and
Basma, 15.
And there was Sumiya, too, a disabled 12-year-old, who
used to get picked up by a special car that took her to
school. She was also killed. Abdullah had been with Awad
and Mohammed that afternoon - the only ones who survived.
That night Abdullah helped his father extricate the
bodies. They found Awad rolled up inside a carpet. And
Mohammed Deif? "I don't know him at all," the
neighbor says.
The Israeli papers reported that the wounded Deif was
pulled from the wreckage and rushed to Shifa. According
to the reports, the rescue vehicle was also hit by a
missile from the air.
Abdullah's uncle, Ibrahim Samur, also says he's never
seen Deif and has no idea what he looks like. Ibrahim
lives on the second floor. His 3-year-old son, Mutaz, was
lightly wounded by shrapnel, and so was his wife. He
rushed them to Shifa while his neighbors' house continued
to burn. Since then, all the children have been sleeping
in their parents' room. Mutaz cries when he hears a
plane.
"He was a good person," Ibrahim says about his
neighbor, Abu Salmiya. "He was active in Hamas, but
not in its military wing. He was a teacher who helped his
poor neighbors." Ibrahim recalls that in their last
conversation, on the way back from the mosque, they
didn't talk about politics, Abu Salmiya didn't mention
any meeting he was supposed to have during the night.
The IDF Spokesman's comment: "In a joint operation
of the IDF and the Shin Bet security service, an attack
on a house in the northern Gaza Strip was carried out in
the early hours of July 12. The house served as a hideout
for senior activists in the military wing of Hamas, who
planned and carried out acts of terror and the firing of
Qassam rockets. At the time of the strike on the house,
those present were involved in planning the continued
military activity of Hamas. One of those present was
Mohammed Deif, who sustained wounds of unknown
severity."
The unpaved street is now named for Nabil Abu Salmiya.
Before we say good-bye to head over to the hospital and
see the two surviving brothers, Ibrahim mentions a name:
Nissim Mizrahi. Nissim Mizrahi from the bankrupt Rosh
Indiani clothing business, who left Ibrahim - who ran a
sewing workshop that has since closed down - with a debt
of NIS 130,000.
Ahmed al-Attar sits in a wheelchair. The stumps of his
legs are still bandaged. The pain bothers him and he
presses on them to find some relief. On July 24, Ahmed
and his mother and nephew set out, as they did every day,
to the family plot near the sea, to pick some figs. It
was around 3 P.M.; they proceeded slowly in their
mule-drawn wagon.
"Suddenly we got hit by a missile," he recalls.
"After that I didn't see anything. I woke up in the
hospital and they told me that my mother and Nadi were
killed and that my legs were amputated."
After three days in Shifa, he was transferred to Ichilov
Hospital in Tel Aviv, but they couldn't save his legs
there either. He also suffered burns on his head and
other parts of his body, and these wounds are still
bandaged. Ahmed is a 12th-grader who, two months before
the tragedy, married a 16-year-old named Zeina. His
mother, Hiriya, was 58; his nephew, Nadi - his mother's
grandson - was 12. Ahmed heard that Nadi was thrown
dozens of meters from the wagon, and that his mother's
body was torn to pieces as a result of the direct hit.
The IDF Spokesman: "On the morning of July 24, two
Qassam rocket launchings were identified as originating
next to the Agricultural College in Beit Hanun. The two
rockets were fired at Sderot, and one landed next to a
school in the city. Later that same day, IDF forces
identified two terrorists, who arrived at that location
and loaded the launchers on a mule-drawn wagon. The IDF
fired accurately at the point where the terrorists were
and at the wagon with the launchers, and verified a hit.
At the time of the firing, an older woman and her
grandson were not seen in the wagon. In the event that
they were riding in the same wagon, then it was the
terror organizations that are the ones who took no pity
on their lives, and engaged in terror activity directed
at Israeli civilians under the cover of noncombatants,
exploiting them as a human shield."
Hiriya left nine children and some 50 grandchildren. She
was a peddler in the Jabalya market, where she sold figs,
grapes and strawberries, and cheese that she made
herself. On the wall in the Beit Lahia home hangs a
picture of a cousin, Mohammed, 23, who was killed by an
IDF bullet while standing at the window of his home,
exactly three weeks before the grandmother and grandson
were killed.
In the memorial picture of Nadi that hangs in the street,
one sees the boy's face and that of the killed leader of
the Popular Front, Abu Ali Mustafa, in the background.
Why the Popular Front? "Because they supplied the
family with food during the four days of mourning,"
Ahmed's father, also named Nadi, explains. Instead of a
picture of Hiriya, there is a poster with a drawing of a
red rose. Here, pictures of women are not displayed, even
after their death. They won't show us a picture of Ahmed
from his wedding either, so that we won't see his young
bride.
Nadi heard about the tragedy on the radio, when he was in
the city. This morning he went back to fishing for the
first time, but since 5 A.M. he hadn't caught anything.
Someone brings a picture from the scene of the tragedy: a
dead mule. The photo is on the cover of the weekly
report, No. 29, of the Palestinian Center for Human
Rights in Gaza, 2006. In the background an ambulance is
visible. The mule lies on the sand, at the foot of the
wrecked wagon. A direct hit.
FOR 40 DAYS THE ISRAELIS ATTACKED THE VILLAGE - SHOUKA
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5527.shtml
Located in the furthest reaches of eastern Rafah City, in
the southernmost part of Gaza Strip, lies the village of
Shouka, population 14,000. Reaching the village at night
time is difficult for strangers, as taxi drivers decline
to take people there.
It was almost night time when the driver took me to the
nearest place, the Salah Eldin Road, eastern Rafah. I got
out of his taxi, looking for another driver, Awni, a
local Shouka resident and driver who is aware of every
single corner in Shouka, and we began our drive through
dusty roads and trees.
Torn water pipes of green houses, scattered bricks and
cut trees were lying everywhere en route to the village's
mayor, Mansour Braika. But we managed to reach the
mayor's house, and asked him about the Israeli occupation
army invasion of Shouka that lasted over a month, until
the army finally pulled out of Shouka on August 2.
"Silence, mixed with battered farms and destroyed
houses, have been the main features of our small village
since the Israeli forces left 10 days ago".
Mayor Mansour pointed out that "for more than 40
days, the Shouka rural area has been under Israeli
attack, as the Israeli tanks have been firing, by day and
night, on the people's houses and farms."
"The damages are immense; 129 green houses have been
destroyed, 58 houses were torn down, while many of our
village's inhabitants have been evacuated to safe
shelters at local UNRWA [United Nations Refugee and Works
Agency] schools. The water networks in the village have
been totally destroyed. Shouka is a traumatized
village", Mayor Mansour confirmed.
The Mayor refuted Israeli allegations that the village is
used for launching home-made rockets on Israeli
territory.
"This is a rural area, where families are bound by
tribal connections; no strangers can enter at night time,
therefore, we are refuting the Israeli side's allegations
that the area is used for launching rockets. The farmers
here are protecting their livelihoods. We don't have any
strangers in the village -- resistance forces, thieves,
or anyone".
Twenty-six-year-old local farmer Toufic Albraikat,
described the destruction he has suffered. "Two
thousand square meters of green houses plus 4,000 square
meters of electronically-irrigated garlic crops, plus
nine sheep and 2,000 bricks, as well as a barbed-wire
fence around my land, all have been destroyed by the
Israeli tanks".
We drove back from the village on our way to the main
local Rafah hospital of Abu Yousef Alnajjar, where Dr.
Ali Mousa, the hospital's director was waiting to talk of
the human losses the Shouka village has suffered in the
latest Israeli attack.
"The last invasion of Shouka by the Israeli military
forces resulted in a total of 17 dead, 50 injured. Around
25 of the dead and injured are children under the age of
15. We found that in this attack that the Israeli forces
used a new weapon, as most or even all of the dead
received by the hospital had been shot by missiles and
tank bombs. The bodies of the victims had been torn
apart, covered with burns. Fifteen of the wounded are in
critical condition, having each had at least one limb
amputated."
"We have never seen these types of injuries before
in the past six years of open conflict. Here we are
unable to diagnose the nature of these injuries due to
the severe lack of specialized medical centers, but we
are sure that this is an illegal weapon. Therefore, we
call on all international institutions and the United
Nations to examine this type of weapon, which is being
used for the first time in Palestine".
In Gaza City, the next day, Silvia Pevetti, of the
Gaza-based Office of World Health Organization, said that
her organization is gathering information on the issue of
banned weaponry, after having received an official
request from the Palestinian government, but has not
issued a report as of yet.
Graciela Lopez, Acting Head of Gaza Sub-delegation of the
International Committee of the Red Cross said: "In
general, we are here to remind the warring parties of
their obligations under International Humanitarian Law to
respect the civilian populations at all times and to make
all possible distinctions between persons directly
involved in the hostilities and the civilian
population."
Asked about possible Israeli use of illegal weapons
against the Palestinian population in Gaza, Lopez
maintained: "We are in contact with hospitals and
with the Palestinian Red Crescent Societies, working in
the medical field, and it is our concern to follow up on
these allegations of the use of a new type of weapons. At
this moment, we cannot confirm the use of any particular
type of new weapon. We are following the situation and
take these allegations seriously".
According to the latest Palestinian Health Ministry
reports, since the June 26 military attack codenamed
'Summer Rains' has begun, the Israeli occupation army has
killed 203 Palestinians, including 58 children and 25
women, and wounded 783 others, including 281 children,
and 86 women. Seventy-two of the injured have had limbs
amputated.
Since June 27, the Israeli occupation army has waged a
massive military operation across the Gaza Strip for the
purpose of liberating a soldier of its own, who was held
in an unprecedented Palestinian resistance attack on a
military base, south of Gaza Strip. The operation has
resulted in a widespread destruction of Gaza's
infrastructure including the main power plant,
ministerial buildings, bridges, houses and farms.
Rami Almeghari is currently a Senior Translator at the
Translation Department of the Gaza-based State
Information Service (SIS) and former Editor in Chief of
the SIS-linked International Press Center's
English site. He can be contacted at
rami_almeghari@hotmail.com