Thursday, June 25, 2009

Palestinian kids with kites reclaiming land and rights

ISM Gaza Strip activists participated in a children event/protest organized by the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, close to the so called "buffer zone" that Israeli occupation forces are trying to impose all along the Green Line. Among the ruble of recently demolished homes, with other children watching from their homes full of bullet holes, the children of Beit Hanoun launched their kites, defying the siege and the buffer zone and reclaiming land and rights. The Israeli occupation forces participated also to the event with their military balloons...

Beit Hanoun Local Initiative press release of Tuesday June 23, 2009 (translation by ISM Gaza Strip)

Beit Hanoun Local Initiative launches its Children's activities: Let me Play Freely, in Beit Hanoun

On Tuesday June 23, 2009, the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative group organized a kite competition with the participation of Beit Hanoun children. Six organizations participated in this event, which are from Beit Hanoun: Family Development Centre, Izbet Beit Hanoun Development and Progress centre, Adham Charity centre, Jerusalem Centre for health and society, Taghreed Association for Culture & Development, and the Promising Generation group.
Five children from each organization were chosen to hold big colourful kites, some with the colours of the Palestinian national flag, while other kites had slogans such as: The Children of Palestine Have a Right to Life, a Right to Play, We Refuse Occupation, We want to live like other children in the world, No to the Israeli Occupation.
The "Let me Play Freely" activities was launched in a march beginning from the centre of the town, till the buffer zone east of Beit Hanoun, near Sderot. There, the children released their kites in the air.
Children who are physically challenged and those with special needs participated in the activity too. They played and released kites in the air.
Palestine... we shall remain here despite all the damage and the siege
The Beit Hanoun Local Initiative coordinator, Saber Al Zaaneen, certified that the activities and events shall continue in the buffer zone despite the occupation forces' policies that aim at forced removal of familes, and farmers from their places of residence. He called upon the Intenational community to take on a move to stand with the Palestinian people against occupation and neo-colonialism.
On his part, the coordinator of league for activities and events in the Beit Hanoun local initiative stated that the initiative will work during the summer period in organizing and launching children's activities and events.
At the end of the day's activity, the initiative and fellow solidarity workers distributed modest gifts to the children who won the "Let me Play Freely" competition.

Beit Hanoun Local Initiative
Media Committee- Beit Hanoun, GS-Palestine


Monday, June 22, 2009

IOF Penetrates in Eastern Al-Bureij Camp

21-6-2009

Al Mezan


Time: 2.30pm

At around 10.30am, on 21 June 2009, four IOF vehicles and three bulldozers, entered 200 meters into Al-Bureij Camp, and started bulldozing lands in the area. The IOF are still there as this news is issued.

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

Israeli forces invade central Gaza after mortar fire
Date: 21 / 06 / 2009 Time: 15:40

Israeli tanks [Ma'anImages - Archive]
Gaza - Ma’an – Israeli forces invaded deep into Al-Bureij Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday after Palestinian fighters launched two mortar shells at forces along the border.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the incursion, in the east of the camp.

The Israeli military also said that it defused four exposive devices along the border.

The armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, the Nasser Salah Ad-Din Brigades claimed responsibility for launching the mortars at the Israeli position east of Al-Bureij.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Gaza: Israeli artillery strikes hit central Strip; destroy agricultural equipment

Date: 20 / 06 / 2009 Time: 09:44

[Ma'anImages]
Gaza – Ma’an – Israeli forces launched artillery shells at Al-Maghazi in the central Gaza Strip overnight Friday, damaging agricultural equipment, Palestinian sources said.

No casualties were reported, though extensive damage was done to equipment for crop harvesting.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Rotting in the "Buffer Zone" or "The Shalom of Israel"



Ahmed Abu Hashish, a Bedouin teenager of 18 years from a rural community in the northern Gaza Strip had been missing for 54 days.

A shepherd then noticed a murder of crows on a patch of land from which there was also a foul stench emanating, but he could not approach close enough to investigate. This patch of land is in what Israel calls the “buffer zone”. A strip of land within “The Strip” which abuts the border with Israel, and in which the Israeli military enforce a no-go decree by shooting, from positions on their side of the border, at anyone who breaks it. It feels like a no-mans land, typically empty of people - or at least the living.

Of course most Gazans now choose not to go there. Others go out of necessity, desperation, or a resolve not to be forced off their land. Usually they survive. The soldiers don’t always shoot with the firm intent to kill. Often the shooting‘s just very, very close - enough to terrify. Enough to make one believe that the intention of the shots are to kill, and that the next one might. And the fact is that the next one might.

Ahmed’s father, Abu Ayesh, knew that this patch of land was most likely where his son now lay, slowly decomposing in the hot summer heat. No “official” organisations could or would help him search for his son’s body in this area - even the International Committee of the Red Cross who might normally coordinate with the Israeli Military in matters such as this had refused. He then requested assistance from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, and from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).

On Sunday 14th June, members of Ahmed’s family including his father, and volunteers from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative and the ISM ventured “out” into the “buffer zone“. As we arranged ourselves into a line to sweep along, and scour the land for a corpse, we could see Israeli jeeps and hummers congregating just across the border fence next to us. N from the ISM communicated with the soldiers over a megaphone, informing them of our purpose, and of our status as civilians. Many of our number were high visibility vests, drawing attention to the fact that we were a group of civilians.

Within minutes of starting our search however, the first shots rang out.

This land over which we were treading was rough, and speckled with thorn bushes. Maintaining our line, and ensuring that we didn’t pass some spot of ground unnoticed proved to be very challenging in these conditions - navigating our way through the the scrub, scanning the ground around us for a corpse, and instinctively attempting to avoid the bullets that split the air with an audible hiss.

We pressed on, and the gunfire waxed and waned - sometimes from assault rifles, sometimes from a machine gun, and punctuated with the odd explosion. Soldiers were visible on top of their jeeps, and on foot right up against the fence. N continued to communicate with them, requesting that they stop shooting at us.

Suddenly we spotted Ahmed’s body. As two of the Bedouins approached and began crouching down to examine it, more shots suddenly rang out which were obviously directed at them. They dived for cover away from the body. More of our group converged on the spot where the body was. We began wrapping it in a sheet, to carry it off the field. The stench of decay was nauseating, and a quick glance at the state of the corpse after lying there open to the elements for 54 days, was enough to induce an urge to retch.

As we rushed to take Ahmed’s body away, the shooting only intensified. We were all heading away from the fence. We’d told the soldiers over the megaphone, that we’d found the body and that we were going. Ahmed’s father hurriedly and in anguish attempted to catch up with the bearers of his son’s corpse, wailing and lamenting his loss as he did so. Still the bullets whistled past our heads, or into the ground behind us.

It struck me, when we finally got out of range of the soldiers’ guns, that our presence in that area that day must not have come as any surprise to them. It was most likely them who had shot Ahmed in cold blood some 54 days previously. They would have known where his body lay. The Israeli military never informed anyone of this. They did not pass on news of Ahmed’s murder to his family. Instead, they waited for almost two months, knowing that at some point and despite the danger, a search party might come looking for the corpse.

Was it necessary to shoot at a group of civilians on a humanitarian mission? Was it necessary to continue shooting at us as they left? Was it necessary for their bullets to force a grieving father to face his own mortality in the very moment he was compelled to recognise that of his son.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Beit Hanoun Local Initiative Volunteers & International solidarity workers subjected to IOF shootings and grenades eastern Beit Hanoun and found body

Press Release:
Beit Hanoun Local Initiative Volunteers & International solidarity workers subjected to IOF shootings and grenades
eastern Beit Hanoun and found body of martyr reported missing for more than 50 days
Beit Hanoun- A group of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative along with some members of the ISM headed to eastern area of the Beit Hanoun to buffer zone on the borders near a military base of the IOF called the Nasb el Tithkary.
The volunteers and solidarity workers headed to the area based on a humanitarian request from the family of the missing person and martyr, Ahmad Salama Eid Abu Hashish, 18 years, who is a resident of the Abu Safiyya region of the south eastern beit hanoun area . after the volunteers and solidarity workers arrived, the IOF began shooting directly at them to force them to stop moving towards the border. however, despite the threat, they headed towards the fence. after that, many soldiers headed to the fence and there was about eight jeeps and a hummer where the soldiers in them shot at the volunteers and solidarity workers in addition to using grenades that they bombed near the fence. But, the volunteers and solidarity workers continued their search and found the body of the young man decomposed as it is at about 50 metres from the fence in the shrubs. when the volunteers were picking up the body, the occupation forces began shooting at them directly, but that did not stop the volunteers from continuing their work and after managing to pick up the body, they ran towards the west away from the death and bullets that were targeting them.
saber al zaanneen, the beit hanoun local initiative coordinator, stated that "we are volunteers serving humanity and society, a call issued by the abu hashish requesting finding their missing son whom they have searched endlessly for everywhere with no result, asked us to help them in their search at the buffer zone. at once, we set search with ISM members who joined us on Sunday the 14th of June along with the father of the martyr and two other family members . We were subject to the shooting of bullets and grenades. Despite that, we continued our humane mission."
The martyr, Ahmad Abu Hashish's, body was transfered by an ambulance from the Beit hanoun hospital after the volunteers were capable of carrying the body from the buffer zone to around a kilometre of walking by foot. the local initiative expresses its condolences to the family of the martyr and wishes them patience and strength during this difficult time.
The Media Office- Beit Hanoun Local Initiative 14/6/2009

Shot at Point of Desperation

Moments of Gaza

Ahmed Abu Hashish, 20 years old bedouin, is his parents' youngest child out of three other young men. He worked in a laundry shop, and lived in utter poverty with his mother, father and three elder brothers.

We went to the funeral and his mother, Umm Ayyash, had a few things to say.
Ahmed, as usual, came back home from work at around four o'clock on the 21st of April, 2009. He left home without telling his mother anything about his whereabouts, and did not return. Umm Ayyash fixed his mattress and pillow, and it was around 11 in the evening with no word from Ahmed. After two days of searching the neighborhoods, and checking with friends and relatives with no word from Ahmed, Abou Ayyash went to the Beit Hanoun police station to report his youngest son missing. The family also went to the Red Cross to ask if Ahmed had been abducted and imprisoned by the Israelis. The Red Cross checked with the prison administrators, but no word of Ahmed. The local police found nothing within the Strip about him.

His family supposed that he had tried to cross the fence to get into the 1948 lands to find work and try to surpass their daily income of around 8 shekels, which is around 2 USD. He had spoken previously about his want to find better job oppurtunities and, thus, a better life style. Previously, Palestinians in Gaza used to work in the 1948 lands before the second Initifada, definitely under cheap labor, with discrimination against them being Arabs, and under harsh working conditions. Yet, to many, despite these discriminatory and slavish circumstances, it provided meals on the table with the lack of job oppurtunities in the occupied Strip.

"The day he went missing, neighbors and friends said that there was much shooting near the fence," She stopped to wipe her tears and shake hands with people leaving the funeral. "It was 53 days before sheperds near that area said there was a foul odour near the fence and crows were gathering in the area." She lowers her head, " thank God you found his body, at least we know what happened to him... they killed him, like they kill everything else."

The Red Cross refused to get to the area at the fence, knowing that it is much less than 300 metres. Yet, the Red Cross has previously cooridinated with the IOF in such cases and to get bodies- despite being shot at. The Red Cross paramedics were afraid to get to the fence to search for the body, for fear of being killed or injured as the IOF usually does that despite previous coordination.

It was the volunteers at the Local Beit Hanoun Initiative along with members of ISM Gaza with some relatives of Ahmed who went up to the fence.

If you watch the video below, which was taken by an ISM Gaza, you will notice that despite the soldiers knowing that we are UNARMED CIVILIANS and "searching for a body," they shot at us directly and close, particularly once the body was found. They went out of their jeeps and hummers, thus, knowing that we pose not threat to them, shooting was whimsical. They shoot according to their moods and whims.

"They [Israelis] knew that they shot an unarmed boy. They knew they killed him. They said no word of it!" said Umm Ayyash as she strongly takes a stand. She wipes her tears and looks me in the eye, "they are criminals. They kill children, women and civilians... They killed a pious boy, a respectable person, my little Ahmed. They shot him, he's dead."

We left the funeral hugging Umm Ayyash and holding her hands tight in ours. Her fist was strong, her face was clear, her eyes were wide open. "God will keep you sturdy," Keep strong" her friends, neighbors and relatives told her heartily. She showed no fear as she kept repeating, "they will be judged, they will be judged."

Natalie Abou Shakra


Tuesday, June 16, 2009

54 days

In Gaza

June 14, 2009, 4:52 pm
Filed under: the "buffer zone"

DSC06334

Today, on my birthday, we (ISM) went with Beit Hanoun ‘Local Initiative’ volunteers to retrieve the long-decomposed body of a man who didn’t live to see his 19th birthday.

Ahmed Abu Hashih disappeared on April 21st. His family believed that he had been killed somewhere in the north-eastern border region, the Israeli-imposed ‘buffer zone’ where Israeli soldiers routinely shoot at Palestinian farmers and residents. Since then, his parents and others have searched, unsuccessfully, for his body, fearing the worst.

Sixteen of us (family, international accompaniment from the ISM, and local rights activists and volunteers from Beit Hanoun) set out this morning to comb the land for the missing youth. The terrain is dry weeds and tall, prickly scrub, making walking difficult.

We accompanied the father -Abu Ayesh- and a local who knew the area well, filming and attempting to convey to the soldiers shooting at us from jeeps that we had come to retrieve a corpse.

DSC06323

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The shooting, along with 2 loud explosions, likely sound grenades, became more intense and closer when the body was actually spotted and the team started to load it onto a white sheet. As we quickly loaded Abu Hashish onto his cloth stretcher, the shooting continued.

Abu Ayesh had been further off, and thankfully missed the scene of his son’s body, 54 days decomposed, falling apart, head falling off.

Muslims place great importance in burying the dead immediately. Nearly 2 months after his death, the anguish of the Ahmed Abu Hashish family is great, his body desecrated by the elements, they denied access to it due to the threat of being shot by Israeli soldiers at the border –who indeed did shoot when we retrieved the body.

I wanted to know, what was he doing in the area close to the border. Was he resistance?

No, I was told, he was a Bedouin youth, poor family, probably wanted to try to cross into Israel to look for work. “Hua zift min el dinnia,” –he was worn down by this life.

The exact circumstances of his death are yet unknown, but it can be assumed that Ahmed Abu Hashih died from gunshot wounds, shot by Israeli soldiers at the border hundreds of metres off.

As we returned with his dead son, Abu Ayesh cried out, uttering phrases of grief and mourning. Soon after reaching the road, a donkey cart arrived to take away the corpse. At the same time, Ayesh, Ahmed’s brother, arrived, dropping his motorbike, and began to wail his sorrow in a high-pitched woman’s shriek.

DSC06343

*listen for the father’s anguished lamentations, the brother’s shrill wail (at the end of the clip)

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Gaza farmers brave Israeli bullets

Electronic Intifada

Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 8 June 2009

Mustafa al-Buhairi's family are unable to work their land because of Israeli army threats. (Rami Almeghari)

For more than six decades, the al-Buhairi has family lived on and farmed their land near the boundary with Israel, to the east of Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Last week Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets warning individuals not to set foot in a 300-meter-wide (1,000 foot) strip of land on the Gaza side of the border.

"We have been here for many years planting peppers, watermelon and wheat," said Mustafa al-Buhairi, 38, standing amidst pepper plants near his home. But "after the last Israeli war against this region in January," he said, "we began to see new Israeli restrictions against our area."

In the last month, Israeli warplanes dropped thousands of similar leaflets on borderline communities from Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip all the way to Beit Hanoun in the north.

"Suddenly, Israeli F-16 fighter jets made a loud noise then dropped a box that exploded in the sky spreading papers all over our farmland," al-Buhairi recalled.

Al-Buhairi voiced his anger over the Israeli measure explaining that his entire family, including his six children and two brothers, have been badly affected because they are unable to safely work their land.

Despite the risk, al-Buhairi said the family has to continue trying to farm the land because their livelihood depends on it "Yet we are working under risk," he said.

"Four days ago I was irrigating some olive trees which are located beyond the designated limit of 300 meters. Three bullets were shot from that military post on the hilltop," al-Buhairi said, indicating the direction. "One went to the left of me, one to the right and the third over my head."

The leaflets are accompanied by Israeli soldiers patrolling the border area with tanks and jeeps and surveilling the area from watchtowers.

The soldiers have shot at al-Buhairi and his family members with increasing frequency despite the fact that the family's house and land are about 700 meters (2,300 feet) from the border.

Al-Buhairi said the soldiers shoot even up to one kilometer from the border which has made it extremely difficult to harvest produce. He asserted that since the leaflets were dropped, production has fallen sharply.

Nevertheless, al-Buhairi and other farmers harvest their wheat, even under fire: "When they open fire we disappear, and when they stop, we come back."

The al-Buhairi family already lost half of its livestock as Israeli tanks shelled the area near the family home during last winter's invasion of Gaza.

"You see that rubble," al-Buhairi said, pointing to the remains of a building. "That used to be our livestock pen with more than 50 sheep. A tank shell destroyed it, killing 25 of them."

Al-Buhairi and his 80-year-old father echoed a similar sentiment: they had nowhere else to go during the Israeli attack. "We have no other choice, either we live here or we die here."

According to international organizations, the amount of damage on the border area in eastern Gaza Strip could not be properly assessed. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that the area is too dangerous due to continued Israeli army actions and indiscriminate fire against such rural areas.

More than a decade ago, when Israeli occupation forces were present inside Gaza, rather than on the perimeter, Israel declared a one-kilometer buffer zone in an attempt to prevent attacks by resistance forces targeting border patrols.

The current 300-meter limit swallows more than 30 percent of Gaza's arable land, according to the FAO.

Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.

Missing Palestinian man discovered dead in Beit Hanoun

Date: 14 / 06 / 2009 Time: 13:12
تكبير الخط تصغير الخط
[Ma'anImages]
Gaza - Ma’an - A Palestinian man who went missing 50 days ago was found dead in the Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanoun on Sunday, volunteers announced.

The body of 19-year-old Ahmad Abu Hasheesh was transferred to Beit Hanoun Hospital, according to Saber Az-Zaghneen, who headed up the committee of volunteers who were searching for the man who went missing on 21 April.

Az-Zaghaneen added, "Israel fired on the the group's volunteers and a foreigners' delegation while Abu Hasheesh's body was removed."

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Bedouin Family to Search for the Body of their Missing Son.

A Bedouin teenager - Ahmed Salama Eid Abu Hashish, 18 - from the border area east of Beit Hanoun has been missing since 21st April, 2009. His family believe that he may have been killed in the "buffer zone" - an area of Gaza next to the border that Israeli soldiers attempt to prohibit access to by shooting at people. Tomorrow Sunday 14th June his family, along with members of The Local Initiative from Beit Hanoun, and volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement - Gaza Strip will attempt to search for his body in this area.


The ISM is aware of 18 people who have been injured by Israeli gunfire or shelling whilst working in fields close to the border (in addition to 3 Palestinians killed) since the "cease-fire" in January.



5 June 2009, Shoka, Rafah: Khaled Ismail Mohammed Jahjuh was shot in his lower spine by the Israeli army

3 June 2009, Beit Hanoun: 'Ali Mohammed al-Zummara, 65, injured by shrapnel in the back.

3 June 2009, Beit Hanoun: Saleh Mohammed al-Zummara, 66, injured by a gunshot to the left hand

3 June 2009, Bedouin village 'Um An-Nassir': Ahmed Tawfiq Abu Hashish, 17, injured by shrapnel to the left shoulder and foot.

3 June 2009, Bedouin village 'Um An-Nassir': Saleh Ahmed al-Madani, 17, seriously injured by shrapnel to the neck and the left shoulder

20 May 2009, Beit Hanoun: Ziad Salem abu Hadayid, 23, was shot in his legs with live ammunition by Israeli forces.

7 May 2009, Rafah: Randa Shaloof, 32, was shot in her hand and chest with live ammunition by Israeli forces.

3 May 2009, Beit Hanoun: Mohamed Harb Shamia, 12, was injured in his leg and abducted by Israeli forces.

3 May 2009, East of Jabalya: 30-year-old Mona Selmi As-Sawarka was injured by shrapnel wounds to her chest

2 May 2009, Khoza'a: Nafith Abu T'eima, 35, injured in his neck by shrapnel from Israeli forces.

10 March 2009, al-Maghazi refugee camp: Muhannad Sehi Abu Mandil, 24, was shot in the left foot with live ammunition by Israeli forces.

24 February 2009, Khoza'a: Wafa Al Najar, 17, was shot in the kneecap with live ammuntion by Israeli forces.

18 February 2009, Al Faraheen: Mohammad al-Ibrim, 20, was shot in the right leg with live ammunition by Israeli forces.

14 February 2009, Jabaliya: Hammad Barrak Salem Silmiya, 13, was killed when Israeli forces shot him in the head with live ammunition.

27 January 2009, Al Faraheen: Anwar al Ibrim, 27, was killed when Israeli forces shot him in the neck with live ammunition.

27 January 2009, east of Deir Al Balah: Mohammed Salama al-Ma'ni, 21, was wounded by a gunshot to the left thigh.

25 January 2009, Khoza'a: Subhi Tafesh Qudaih, 55, was wounded by a gunshot to the back

23 January 2009, Khoza'a: Nabeel Ibrahim al-Najjar, 40, was wounded by shrapnel from a gunshot to the left hand by Israeli forces.

22 January 2009, Sheyjaiee: 7 year old Ahmed Hassanian shot in the head

20 January 2009, al-Qarara: Israeli soldiers shot Waleed al-Astal, 42, in his right foot.

18 January 2009, Khoza'a:Maher 'Abdul 'Azim Abu Rjaila, 23, was killed when Israeli forces shot him in the chest with live ammunition.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Incentives for farmers to return to reclaimed land in the Gaza Strip boundary areas

10.06.09 - 14:12

Hiba Lama for PNN - Farmers in Gaza have lost thousands of dunams of land due to confiscation by Israeli forces.

A further loss is incurred when land nearby that which has been subjected to theft is deserted due to destruction and danger. A project to create jobs is being organized by the Agricultural Relief organization in Gaza, providing work for the many farmers in the region who lost land through confiscation along the boundary area.

Director of projects and cooperation in Agricultural Relief, Ahmed Sourani said today that the aim is to support Palestinian farmers and to motivate them to return to and reinvest in their lands. The project provides farmers with the most basic of agricultural supplies and tools, which can then lead to replanting and rehabilitation of agricultural land and to more security for the future.

This strategy gives priority to those who have lost their agricultural land within the first 500 meters bordering the fence.

Agricultural Relief’s project, according to Sourani, will include the rehabilitation of thousands of dunams of the agricultural sector in many different regions in Gaza. Afflicted areas being specifically focused on include Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and southeastern Rafah.

The operation includes the participation of hundreds of farmers, eventually leading to a reclaiming of the land and the continued provision of employment.

IOF opens Fire at Different areas in Beit Lahia

Al Mezan

10-6-2009

At around 11pm, on 10 June 2009, the IOF, stationed on the northern borderline, opened fire at areas in the north of Beit Lahia, but no injuries were reported. At around 11.30 on the same day, IOF gunboats opened fire sporadically at Beit Lahia beach. The shooting continued till the early morning of the next days, but no injuries were reported.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

excerpt from Ma'an article

Early on Tuesday morning Israeli military vehicles invaded Gaza northeast of the Kerem Shalom crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Eyewitnesses reported that they saw Israeli vehicles accompanied by bulldozers razing farmland, noting that there are no houses in the area. The bulldozers knocked down trees and plants to clear space for Israeli forces operating at the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Another farmer injured by Israeli army whilst working in his field




On Friday 5th June 2009, Khaled Ismail Mohammed Jahjuh was shot in his lower spine by the Israeli army as he was leaving his fields in the village of Shoka in Rafah.

Khaled had been working in his fields which are located 1.5 kilometers from the Israeli border, together with his seven year old son Ahmed, since the early morning. At around 10 am they loaded the crops on their jeep and as soon as they started to drive an explosive bullet measuring 800 millimeters, was shot which entered the jeep through the left side door, passed through the driver's seat and entered Khaled's body. Families living in Shoka witnessed the incident and reported seeing an Israeli army hammer shoot. The bullet has damaged Khaled's nerve system leaving him with a dropped foot and unable to walk. The exit wound on his back is too large to be closed. He will require a year and a half to recover if the operations are successful. His 7 years old son Ahmed is now suffering from psychological problems.

Khaled's field used to consist of 225 trees ranging from oranges to olives. During the massacre on Gaza earlier this year, the Israeli Army entered Rafah and destroyed most of these trees. Only 10 trees were spared. Khaled is the 18th person to be injured whilst working in fields close to the border (in addition to 3 Palestinians killed) since the end of the massacre in Gaza which ISM is aware of.

Several farmers have been shot by Israeli forces while farming their lands.

· 5 June 2009, Shoka, Rafah: Khaled Ismail Mohammed Jahjuh was shot in his lower spine by the Israeli army

· 3 June 2009, Beit Hanoun: 'Ali Mohammed al-Zummara, 65, injured by shrapnel in the back.

· 3 June 2009, Beit Hanoun: Saleh Mohammed al-Zummara, 66, injured by a gunshot to the left hand

· 3 June 2009, Bedouin village 'Um An-Nassir': Ahmed Tawfiq Abu Hashish, 17, injured by shrapnel to the left shoulder and foot.

· 3 June 2009, Bedouin village 'Um An-Nassir': Saleh Ahmed al-Madani, 17, seriously injured by shrapnel to the neck and the left shoulder

· 20 May 2009, Beit Hanoun: Ziad Salem abu Hadayid, 23, was shot in his legs with live ammunition by Israeli forces.

· 7 May 2009, Rafah: Randa Shaloof, 32, was shot in her hand and chest with live ammunition by Israeli forces.

· 3 May 2009, Beit Hanoun: Mohamed Harb Shamia, 12, was injured in his leg and abducted by Israeli forces.

· 3 May 2009, East of Jabalya: 30-year-old Mona Selmi As-Sawarka was injured by shrapnel wounds to her chest

· 2 May 2009, Khoza'a: Nafith Abu T'eima, 35, injured in his neck by shrapnel from Israeli forces.

· 10 March 2009, al-Maghazi refugee camp: Muhannad Sehi Abu Mandil, 24, was shot in the left foot with live ammunition by Israeli forces.

· 24 February 2009, Khoza'a: Wafa Al Najar, 17, was shot in the kneecap with live ammuntion by Israeli forces.

· 18 February 2009, Al Faraheen: Mohammad al-Ibrim, 20, was shot in the right leg with live ammunition by Israeli forces.

· 14 February 2009, Jabaliya: Hammad Barrak Salem Silmiya, 13, was killed when Israeli forces shot him in the head with live ammunition.

· 27 January 2009, Al Faraheen: Anwar al Ibrim, 27, was killed when Israeli forces shot him in the neck with live ammunition.

· 27 January 2009, east of Deir Al Balah: Mohammed Salama al-Ma'ni, 21, was wounded by a gunshot to the left thigh.

· 25 January 2009, Khoza'a: Subhi Tafesh Qudaih, 55, was wounded by a gunshot to the back

· 23 January 2009, Khoza'a: Nabeel Ibrahim al-Najjar, 40, was wounded by shrapnel from a gunshot to the left hand by Israeli forces.

· 22 January 2009, Sheyjaiee: 7 year old Ahmed Hassanian shot in the head

· 20 January 2009, al-Qarara: Israeli soldiers shot Waleed al-Astal, 42, in his right foot.

· 18 January 2009, Khoza'a:Maher 'Abdul 'Azim Abu Rjaila, 23, was killed when Israeli forces shot him in the chest with live ammunition.


ISM Gaza Strip

Photos: Shadi Slman





Wednesday, June 3, 2009

4 Palestinian farmers 2 of them children injured by IOF fire

IOF opens fire on a group of farmers in northern beit Hanoun

The occupation forces opened fire on a group of farmers who were working in their land, harvesting their crops, which lead to the injury of 4 civilians in the back, hands and legs who were immediately taken to Kamal Udwan Hospital and Beit Hanoun Hospital. The farmers were NOT in the areas the IOF previously stated were "security zones"
The Beit Hanoun Local Initiative group condemns this criminal act of violence against Palestinian farmers, and state that the farmers were harvesting their lands and were at a great distance away from the security zone that the IOF claimed to shoot all of whom enters it.
The Local Initiative urge the international community and civil society associations to take immediate action to stop these crimes against Palestinian farmers.
-Beit Hanoun Local Initiative Group
The Beit Hanoun Local Initiative Group are an ad hoc group of volunteers based in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip. They volunteer to accompany farmers and residents to the buffer zone, and work with children, the development of women;s role in society, and the youth. They document and follow up on IOF violations in the northern area of the Strip.
Please consider supporting them

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3-6-2009

Al Mezan

IOF Shells Bedouin Village with Artillery, Injuring Two Children

At around12.15am, on 3 June 2009, the IOF, stationed on the northern borderline, fired four artillery shells that landed in the north of the Bedouin village 'Um An-Nassir'. This attack injured Ahmed Tawfiq Abu Hashish, 17, with shrapnel to his left arm, and Saleh Ahmed Al-Madani, 17, with shrapnel to his neck. The two children were transported to Kamal Odwan hospital to undergo medical treatment. The latter, then, was referred to Shifa hospital as he sustained serious injury. According to Kamal Odwan hospital, the shrapnel were nails, which indicate that the bombs fired were nail bombs.

Al Mezan

IOF Opens Fire at Palestinian Farmers and Sets Fire to Agricultural land in Northern Beit Hanoun

At around 6.35pm, on 3 June 2009, the IOF, stationed on the northern borderline, opened fire at Palestinian farmers in an area located to the north of the Agricultural School in the north of Beit Hanoun town. The shooting injured Saleh Mohammed Az-Zummara, 65, with a bullet to his back, and his brother Ali, 60, with a bullet to his rights hand. Both were reported to have sustained moderate injuries. The farmers were harvesting barley and wheat in the area. Packs of haulm were set on fire as a result of the shooting, but civil defense teams managed to reach the area 30 minutes later and quench the fire.


From PCHR weekly report
Wednesday, 03 June 2009
At approximately 00:00, IOF troops positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel

fired four flechette shells at a Bedouin village in the northern Gaza Strip. The shells landed near
a number of Palestinian civilians who were beside their houses, approximately 1,000 metres from the border. As a result, two children were injured:

1. Saleh Ahmed al-Madani, 17, seriously injured by shrapnel to the neck and the left shoulder; and

2. Ahmed Tawfiq Abu Hashish, 17, injured by shrapnel to the left shoulder and foot.


At approximately 18:10, IOF troops positioned at military observation towers to the north of

Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip opened fire at a number of Palestinian farmers who

were working on agricultural lands belonging to the Zummara family, nearly 1,000 metres from

the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. As a result, two Palestinian farmers were injured:

1. Saleh Mohammed al-Zummara, 66, injured by a gunshot to the left hand; and

2. 'Ali Mohammed al-Zummara, 65, injured by shrapnel in the back.

Additionally, fire broke out in the area, but civil defense crews were able to extinguish it in half an hour.


Army shells open areas in northern Gaza, two residents injured

Wednesday June 03, 2009 06:02 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies
A Palestinian medical source at Kamal Adwan hospital reported on Wednesday at dawn that two Palestinians suffered minor injuries after the Israeli army fired artillery shells at open areas in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

The source stated that resident Mahmoud Abu Hashish and Saleh Al Madani, both 18, were hospitalized after they were hit by fragments of shells fired by Israeli tanks stationed at the northern border of the Gaza Strip.

Eyewitnesses reported that the army fired several shells at different areas in northern Gaza.

In related news, the Al Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fateh movement, stated that a group of its fighters exchanged fire with under-cover Israeli forces operating near the Nahal Oz crossing, east of Gaza; no injuries were reported.

The brigades said that the clashes are a natural response to the ongoing Israeli violations and the ongoing military offensives in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.



Israeli army wounds 4 palestinians north of Gaza


Gaza, June 3, 2009 (Ramattan) – Four Palestinians were injured on Wednesday morning as the Israeli army fired artillery shells north of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said.

The sources indicated that Israeli forces fired several artillery shells at the city of Bait Hanoun north of Gaza, wounding four.

Local sources reported that two members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fateh, and two fighters from the Democratic Front of for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) were wounded in the attack.

Earlier, the Israeli navy opened heavy fire at the Gazan fishermen in the northern coast of Gaza, no injuries were reported.


Four Palestinians wounded in IOF shelling
[ 03/06/2009 - 10:26 AM ]

BEIT LAHIA, (PIC)-- Four Palestinians were wounded at dawn Wednesday when Israeli occupation forces stationed north of the Gaza Strip opened artillery fire at the Bedouin village north of the Strip.

Local sources told PIC reporter that an IOF special force tried to infiltrate into north of Beit Lahia but was repelled by resistance fighters stationed in the area.

The sources added that the force withdrew amidst violent artillery bombardment that inflicted the casualties.

The IOF soldiers in the West Bank rounded up 13 Palestinians on Tuesday including seven from Silwad village, east of Ramallah, and four from Ni'lin village, also in Ramallah district.


UN: Israeli buffer zone eats up 30 percent of Gaza's arable land

Gaza City, Gaza – Israel's warning came from the sky, as it often does in the Gaza Strip. But this time warplanes dropped neither bombs nor missiles on the impoverished Palestinian territory, but thousands of tiny leaflets warning Gaza's residents to keep away from the 30-mile-long border they share with Israel.

Stay at least 300 meters (1,000 feet) from the border, the May 25 pamphlets advised Palestinians, or risk being shot by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Once a plush scene of rolling olive, citrus, and pomegranate groves, much of the border region is now just a barren landscape, marked only by the presence of IDF tanks, military watchtowers, and the occasional pop of gunfire.

Farmers and their families have been displaced, too afraid to return to their fields, while international humanitarian organizations are unable to make an assessment of the needs and damages of the area in the aftermath of the assault.

"We haven't been able to visit this area. No organization has," says Mohammed al-Shattali, project manager for the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in the Gaza Strip.

"The war increased the amount of land destroyed, particularly in the border areas, and the farmers can't replant anything because it's too dangerous," he says. "The Israeli soldiers, they shoot at everything – dogs, sheep. They are very tense."

An Israeli-imposed buffer zone in the already narrow enclave was established more than a decade ago to thwart attacks by Palestinian militants, who use the border areas to launch homemade rockets at Israeli towns or dig tunnels to carry out attacks against IDF troops stationed at the border.

But what was previously just a sliver of fortified land on the strip's northern and eastern perimeters now, in the aftermath of Israel's January offensive in the territory, swallows roughly 30 percent of Gaza's arable farmland, according to the FAO.

It stretches as deep as 1.25 miles inside Gaza's territory in the north and half a mile in the east, despite the 300-meter figure declared on the leaflets, the organization says. Gaza is just 25 miles long and slightly more than six miles wide.

Israel's rationale: prevent terrorism, future wars
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit officially declined to comment on actions taken in the buffer zone, as well as on whether or not warning leaflets had in fact been dropped.

But Shlomo Brom, an IDF veteran and senior research fellow at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, says Israeli army policy in the buffer zone is perfectly reasonable given the frequency of attacks by Palestinian fighters.

According to IDF statistics, more than 7,000 rockets have been launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip since 2005. In 2006, Palestinian militants who dug a tunnel under the Israeli-Gazan border captured Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who has yet to be released.

"The buffer zone makes the digging of such tunnels much more complicated and much more difficult," says Brig. Gen. Brom (ret.). "And Israel established the zone mainly because Palestinian armed groups were attacking Israeli patrols with explosive charges on the Israeli side of the border."

Brom says stricter enforcement of the buffer zone in the wake of Israel's military assault is not aimed at making life more difficult for the people of Gaza, but to prevent them from suffering another similar attack in the future.

"The IDF is now more strict in maintaining this buffer zone because one of the reasons the recent military offensive was launched is because we allowed terrorist activities from Gaza to continue," says Brom. "If we are more strict and we don't allow the situation to deteriorate, then we can avoid a repeat of the last war. There is a smaller probability the fighting will escalate in Gaza."

Dwindling supplies of fresh food
Both Israel's January offensive and the newly expanded buffer zone have devastated Gaza's agricultural sector, the FAO says.

Officially aimed at weakening the power of the Islamist movement Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, the three-week military assault destroyed much of the strip's already dilapidated infrastructure, including wide swaths of agricultural land that are now part of the buffer zone.

The World Food Program (WFP) says the inability of Gaza's farmers to cultivate their land in the wake of the assault is depriving the territory's 1.5 million residents of an important source of otherwise scarce fresh food.

Already sparse after a 2-year economic siege, Gaza's local food markets face dwindling supplies of the parsley, spinach, chickpeas, dates, carrots, and pomegranates once grown on plots of land near the border.

Despite the buffer zone's disastrous effects on the local population, Amnesty International's head researcher for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories says Israel's expansion of it is not without merit.

"The movement westward of the danger zone, or Israel's buffer zone if you'd like, didn't just come out of the blue," Donatella Rovera says.

"Israeli actions are linked somewhat to the fact that on the Palestinian side, there are people who go to these areas simply to farm their land and there are people who go and do other things," she says. "And the latter are legitimate targets, because they are combatants."

But Ms. Rovera says Israel's further encroachment on Gaza's land is disproportionate to the threat involved, suggesting unmanned drones as a possible alternative method of surveillance.

'There has to be a way'
Since the operation ended on Jan. 18, 12 Palestinian civilians have been shot – three of them fatally – in areas within 3,000 feet of the border, according to human rights activists and medical officials here.

Nabeel al-Najjar, a farmer from the rural village of Khuzaa, 15 miles southeast of Gaza City, was shot in the hand on Jan. 23 when he returned to the rubble of his home less than a mile from the border.

"I came back to see if I could get a few things from my house, and they shot me," Mr. Najjar said. "How can I continue to live here knowing I am close enough for them to kill me whenever they want?"

In Jaher Al-Deek, a Bedouin farming village south of Gaza City, Omar Suliman has abandoned his decades-old olive grove, located a quarter mile from the Israeli border, for fear of being shot.

"When I was a kid, we used to be able to go to the border," Mr. Suliman says over the crackle of gunfire from a nearby Israeli observation post.

"We would joke with the Israeli soldiers and give them grapes from our field. They would give us chocolate," he says. "Now, they just shoot at us every day."

Without guarantees for their safety, Gaza's farmers are unlikely to return to the buffer zone in high numbers anytime soon, says the FAO's Mr. Shattali.

"The situation is very sensitive, for both sides," he acknowledges. "But there has to be a way people can cultivate their land without being killed."

Monday, June 1, 2009

Harvest challenges

In Gaza

June 1, 2009, 1:40 pm
Filed under: the "buffer zone"

photo story:

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Just after 7 am on May 30th, Palestinian farmers in Khoza’a, east of Khan Younis, returned to the land they’d been menaced off of 5 days earlier. “The same day the Israelis dropped papers saying they would shoot at us for being on our land they did shoot at us,” Ahmed, a 22 year old farmer explained. It was around 10:30, he said. “They were shooting so much that the dirt rose in clouds of dust.”

When we arrive on May 30th, the bales of wheat are ready, all neatly and compactly hand-bundled, covering 30 dunums (1 dunum=1000 square metres) of land belonging to Radi Abu Rayder. He has another 140 dunums which he can no longer access because it lies too close to the border, within the Israel-imposed “buffer zone”.

The farmers will take 2 days to clear the bundles from the field.

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The farmers today are two 18 year olds, two 22 year olds, and two men in their late 30s/early 40s.

They work steadily, carrying bales of wheat to the waiting tractor trailer. It is piled as high and full as manageable, then trundles off to a storage field hundreds of metres away, further from the Green Line and the potential danger from Israeli soldiers.

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*each time the tractor and trailer amble off, Fathi, one of the men, calls out “yalla, rohe! Gulli ‘yarub’!” [Let's go! Say 'my God' (help us)]

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While most of the 30 dunums has been harvested, a small section remains. As some of the farmers off-load the trailer, the others resume hand-picking the wheat, ripping in bunches and laying for bundling.

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As they work, they tell us of how the land used to be. “This area used to be so filled with trees you couldn’t see the fence,” Ahmed recalled, gesturing at the naked fields around us. He spoke of how they adapted to the razing of trees and grew, instead, many types of vegetables. “We grew tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and beans, among other things. We used to fill 17-20 trucks (4 tons each) of produce each day,” he said.

Amazingly, as he recounts their losses, he speaks without audibe bitterness or anger. This is something I’ve come across countless times, whether speaking of razed farmland or a bombed house. The tone, when emotion is evident, is fatigue and confusion: why do they attack us? how are we supposed to live? how can I feed my children?

But Ahmed recounts with a soft smile, just telling how it used to be.

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Some time later, we notice thick smoke rising from the direction of the tractor. Moving to see what’s happened, we arrive to find blackened, burnt wheat spread along the dirt track, laid there as the panicked farmers put out the fire. Upon inspection, they see that the tractor crossed under a low-hanging electrical wire which immediately set the dry wheat alight. It’s not hard to imagine how the wheat and barley in Johr ad Dik blazed just weeks ago, after Israeli soldiers shot incendiary bombs into farmers’ fields.

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Fathi takes it in stride, accustomed to the struggles of farming in Palestine, though the main obstacles are the siege and the Israeli soldiers’ attacks.

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*one of the young farm workers

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*the tractor driver and his son.

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After two days, the group has successfully brought all of the bales to safety. We are pleased their harvest hasn’t been lost, but not disillusioned to think that this is a victory. Their situation remains the same: each time they go onto their land near the Green Line border fence they face the danger of being targeted by Israeli soldiers from jeeps or from their watchtowers.

A heavy price to pay for working on your land.

Six days earlier, on May 24th, we joined 7 farmers, including women and 1 youth, in a different area of Khoza’a, on land of Nasser abu Rjla a few hundred metres from the border fence. They, too, were harvesting the wheat they had already bundled, though they were forced to bring it in without the luxury of a tractor.

At around 7:45 am the shooting began, coming from one of the mechanical watchtowers this time. These towers are a recent addition to the military landscape: remotely-operated by soldiers, the towers guns can shoot as dangerously close as the guns of Israeli soldiers at the jeeps.

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Fifteen year old Mohammed led one of the donkeys hired to haul out the wheat. The tractor driver who’d originally come to take the wheat sprinted off after the heavy shooting, preferring to save himself and his tractor rather than make some shekels.

But others, like Mohammed, are desperate for the work and will take the risk. ‘Take the risk’… how absurd… in any other situation, steering a donkey onto farmland wouldn’t be considered ‘risky’.

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Two young boys (not working with our farmers) led donkeys onto the farmland, also needing to take the risk in order to survive.

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*Slightly south of the rough track, a house skeleton from the bombardment of Gaza.

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The track, aside from being dirt with desert scrub, is mangled by the Israeli tanks and bulldozers which occupied the region during Israel’s war on Gaza. The rickety donkey carts met their match with this terrain, slowing to a crawl to pass over the swells and deep ruts, still repeatedly spilled their loads, causing the wary farmers to stop to re-load. Between the challenges of the track and the tiny cart-space, what would have taken two tractor loads and little time took 8 loads and a good 5 hours, back and forth under the blazing sun, always wary that the shooting could renew at any moment.

ruts

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Each load was brought to a safer area on the road, and unloaded onto tarps, the carts going out into the fray anew. Eventually, the harvest was brought in, thankfully without further incident.

The amount of time, worry, and effort still staggers, though by now we’ve seen so many incidents of intense shooting from the Israeli prison-keepers that it has become normal. Palestinian farmers farm to survive, and just barely survive to farm.

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