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Palestinian development forum initiates aid projects for Gaza

12 October 2004


A new $3 million project to help rehabilitate Palestinian farmlands was announced today in conjunction with a United Nations-backed international forum meeting in Beirut to address the damaging effects of the Israeli occupation. The Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Mervat Tallawy, said the new initiative will be carried out by the Iitilaf Al-Kheir association. Her comments came during a press conference where the Islamic Development Bank, working in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, also announced a new Gaza Initiative - with a starting fund of $26 million - aimed at providing direct assistance to the Palestinian people. 

Double standards that kill

Hasan Abu Nimah 13 October 2004


As usual, there has been a disproportionate and unbalanced reaction to recent and ongoing violence in our region. EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah looks at the media, official and UN reactions to Israel’s massacres in Gaza and US attacks in Iraq on the one hand, and the Taba bombings and attacks on westerners in Iraq on the other. More and more we see a world in which those who possess high-tech weaponry and uniforms are entitled to kill people far from their shores with absolute impunity and call it “self-defence” while those who challenge them in their own streets and villages in any way are labelled “terrorists”. 

US can't ignore Palestine-Israel conflict forever

Ali Abunimah 13 October 2004


President Bush and Senator John Kerry have avoided mentioning the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in their campaigns. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah writes that while this is politically understandable, the next president will not be able to ignore it for long. US actions, combined with recent statements by a top Israeli official have only reinforced the worst suspicions of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims that the United States is in cahoots with Israel to allow Israel to complete the colonization of the West Bank. Is there a way forward? 

Girl shot in UNRWA school dies

13 October 2004


At 9.15 this morning, Ghadeer Jaber Mokheimer, a grade five pupil at UNRWA’s Co-Ed Elementary D School in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip died of her injuries from a gunshot wound received while sitting at her desk in an UNRWA school. She had been hit in the stomach by a shot from an Israeli military position on the outskirts of Khan Younis camp. Ghadeer would have been ten years old on December 9. The nine year old is the second young child in recent weeks to die after being shot while sitting at her desk in an UNRWA school. 

Annan laments ongoing violence in Gaza as another girl is hit by Israeli gunfire

12 October 2004


In a statement issued by his spokesman, Mr. Annan said he deplored the “high toll of death and injuries among the civilian population” and grieved “for the many children who have been killed or wounded” during the Israeli military operations in the north of the Gaza Strip. The Secretary-General said he was disturbed by the destruction of civilian property, infrastructure and agricultural land during the operations and called on the Israeli Government to do its utmost to avoid harming Palestinian civilians. Reminding both sides of their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians, he urged them to cease all forms of violence and search for a peaceful settlement. 

Experts urge Arab-international partnership to help Palestinians

10 October 2004


With Palestinians’ living conditions deteriorating drastically, hundreds of experts gathered at the United Nations headquarters in Beirut today to kick off a four-day meeting aimed at generating long-term solutions to their plight. Officially called “The Arab International Forum on Rehabilitation and Development in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: Towards an Independent State,” the unprecedented event aimed at helping to build a secure, sustainable and sovereign Palestine. Organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the Arab League and the PA, the meeting drew more than 700 participants, including senior officials from across the region. 

Israeli gunfire hits 11-year old girl sitting at her desk in an UNRWA school

12 October 2004


A child sitting in the classroom of an UN-flagged school has been struck in the stomach by gunfire from an Israeli position in the Gaza Strip. This is the fourth such incident in under two years, last month an 11-year old girl died after being hit at her desk in Khan Younis. At 10:45hrs this morning, two shots were heard from the direction of an Israeli army position on the border of the Gush Katif settlement block and overlooking Khan Younis refugee camp. One of the shots hit Ghadeer Jaber Mokheimer, a grade five pupil at UNRWA’s Co-Ed Elementary D School. Ghadeer was immediately taken to hospital and into emergency surgery. Her condition is currently reported as stable. 

Amin Salem 1969 - 2004: UHWC staff member killed during Israeli operation

Mona El-Farra Gaza Strip 12 October 2004


Yesterday I arrived at work to the most shocking news. A colleague of mine, Amin Salem from the human resources department, was killed when an Israeli army tank shelled his home in Beit Lahia. Amin’s uncle also died in the shelling and three family members were seriously injured. Everyone at the office is in a state of disbelief. I still cannot come to terms with our loss. Only a few hours before he was killed, Amin walked into my office with some paper work, smiling as usual despite the unbearable situation caused by the occupation army. 

Gaza families live in the shadow of death

Laila El-Haddad Gaza 11 October 2004


The last thing that young Suha Ayub Ibayd remembers before a barrage of tank fire ripped through her home is huddling together with her parents and eight brothers and sisters. They had taken cover in the middle of their living-room floor hoping to find shelter from the mass of military machines that had rumbled into their neighbourhood minutes earlier on October 6. Now she lies listlessly in her hospital bed, trying to absorb as well as any nine-year-old could the events of that morning. She survived with relatively light wounds. The same cannot be said, however, about her younger sister, fighting for her life in the hospital’s intensive care unit, or about many of her neighbours. 

Israeli assault on Gaza leaves scores dead and many homeless

6 October 2004


The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has drastically deteriorated in the past few days during one of the biggest Israeli assaults on the Occupied Palestinian Territories for years. Israeli troops mounted Operation Days of Penitence on 1 October, three days after two Israeli children were killed in the Israeli settlement town of Sderot from a rocket fired from the Palestinian Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza. About 2,000 Israeli troops, with 200 tanks and armoured vehicles, have been deployed in the area. Hundreds of Palestinian homes have been demolished and acres of agricultural land destroyed, according to British media reports.