Gaza Strip

No day is women's day in Gaza



GAZA CITY, 7 March (IPS) - Mahasen Darduna suffers in ways the world recognizes; her suffering comes at the hands of the Israelis. But there are many Palestinian women whose suffering the world does not see, because their hell is inflicted on them by fellow Palestinians. One way or another, no day is woman’s day in Gaza. For a week, Mahasen Darduna, 30, has sat day and night by her son’s bedside in the hospital. The boy, Yahiya, nine, was among a group of children hit by an Israeli missile while playing football on a field at the Jabaliya refugee camp. 

Israeli missiles silence baby's laughter in Gaza



The innocent laughter of six-month-old baby Mohammed al-Bor’i stopped forever on Wednesday night when shrapnel from an Israeli missile and rubble struck the infant in the head, minutes after he enjoyed his last meal. “The baby sucked milk, he was playing with his mother; I was reading a book when a rocket hit the Ministry of Interior,” said Nasser al-Bor’i, the baby’s father. Sami Abu Salem reports from Gaza. 

A human chain against the siege



On 25 February, the besieged people of Gaza spoke out against the Israeli-imposed closure of their territory when thousands of Palestinian men, women, schoolchildren and members of parliament formed a human chain on the main roads along the border with Israel. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from Gaza. 

For some, jobs but no salaries



“The powdered milk, provided by [the UN agency for Palestine refugees] UNRWA every three months, is not enough. The lack of my salary for the past two months has affected my living conditions,” said Mohammad al-Saftwai, a resident of northern Gaza. EI correspondent in Gaza Rami Almeghari reports on the Ramallah appointed government’s suspending of the salaries of some civil servants in Gaza. 

Fueling disaster



At the bus stop at Palestine Square, in the bustling heart of Gaza City, 25-year-old Said Ramadan cried to passersby, “Fuel, fuel, fuel! Come and buy!” Last week Ramadan took advantage of the blasting through of the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and the brief respite from months of siege to travel to the nearby Egyptian town of al-Arish and stock up on gallons of fuel. Rami Almeghari reports from Gaza. 

Gaza scrambles for supplies as border forced open



Three kids, their mother and their aunt hurried towards the Salah al-Din gate in southern Gaza on Wednesday. The mother, in her early thirties, explained in a rush, “We are heading to al-Arish [the Egypt border town] to follow my mom and brother who entered today after the borders were reopened.” The family was not alone; thousands of other Palestinians thronged nearby, on their way to al-Arish, following the blasting through of the Israeli-built steel walls by Palestinian resistance fighters earlier that day. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the Egypt-Gaza border. 

What Bush left behind



Since US President George W. Bush’s visit to this part of the world, at least 38 Gazans were killed and another 1,500 were injured as a result of Israeli military attacks. This escalation of violence came right after Bush’s trip to Israel and Ramallah, as Israel enjoyed an obvious green light from the US as the Arab world sat by and watched. For anyone who might believe that Bush’s visit would improve the lives of Palestinians in general and of Gazans in particular, let me assure you that the opposite has occurred. EI contributor Mohammed Ali writes from Gaza. 

Gaza's fate left to the whim of an Israeli court



It’s almost midnight. I rushed to my laptop when I saw the glow of the lamp after almost 12 hours darkness following one of the electricity cuts that hundreds of thousands of Gazans like myself have been subjected to over the past week or so. As a journalist in Gaza, I was keen to file to my editors a story on the electricity cuts. I did the job, I talked with the people, I collected the material but when I went to my office and sat down in front of my PC, there was no electricity. EI correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from Gaza. 

Witnessing the siege



It is supposed that one can build factual perception by reading the statistics and getting all the hard evidence, but I recently realized that a complete cognitive process relies first and foremost on visuals — seeing the picture for oneself. I joined a camera crew and producer shooting footage for a first-person interview on the Israeli siege on Gaza. The interviewee was Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, head of the Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, a coalition of organizations and individuals set out to do just that. Safa Joudeh writes from Gaza. 

George W. Bush: You are not welcome



While I was driving in the car the other day, there was a radio report that the Israeli high court has approved to cut off the electricity from Gaza and leave Gaza in darkness to intensify the collective punishment on Gaza. When the Israeli high court previously agreed to ban the transfer to Gaza of fuel to supply the main power plant, there were power cuts for at least eight hours a day. Power and fuel cuts mean that hospitals, factories and other essential services suffer as a result. Mohammed Ali writes from Gaza. 

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