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The long road back to school for children in southern Lebanon

Kitty Logan 11 September 2006


Now that the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has ceased, the children of southern Lebanon are trying to return to normal life. But the challenges are enormous. In the village of Srifa, half the buildings have been damaged or destroyed. The local high school is unusable after a bomb hit the house next door. A massive crater has dented the ground just a few metres away. The explosion shattered every pane of glass in the building. Exterior walls were blown in and cracked walls lean precariously. The classrooms are full of debris. 

A Year After 'Disengagement': Gaza Still Occupied and Under Attack

11 September 2006


One year ago, on 12 September 2005, Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip under the ‘Disengagement Plan’. In the year that followed, the Gaza Strip endured military incursions, shelling, attacks on infrastructure, targeted assassinations, sonic booms, aerial surveillance, border closures, and fishing restrictions. Also Israel retains control of the civil population registry. The unilateral withdrawal aimed to establish that the Gaza Strip was no longer occupied, thereby relieving Israel of its duties as the Occupying Power. In reality, Israel has retained effective control of the Gaza Strip and consequently has never ceased its occupation. 

Report: Settlers continue to commit violence against Palestinians with impunity

11 September 2006


Since the 1980’s many reports have been published on law enforcement upon Israelis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. All of the reports - whether published by official government bodies or produced by human rights organizations - warned against the failure of the authorities to enforce the law effectively upon Israeli offenders, especially those who committed offenses against Palestinian civilians. The conclusion that arises from all the reports is serious: Israel is abusing its obligation to defend the Palestinian civilian population in the OPT against the criminality of Israeli civilians. 

Powerless in Gaza

10 September 2006


Mohammed Aqdeir drinks a glass of lukewarm water despite the summer heat. The room is sweltering - but above his head the rotor blades of the fan are motionless. “I am going crazy without electricity. There is even a shortage of candles now - I had to use the two my wife and I had received from our marriage. I worry about [starting a] fire,” said the 36-year-old from Beit Lahiya. For the past two months, Gaza residents like Aqdeir have lived without a regular supply of electricity after the Israeli military bombed Gaza’s only power station on 28 June. 

UN conference adopts action plan to help Palestinians living under occupation

8 September 2006


A two-day United Nations International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People concluded in Geneva today with the adoption of a Plan of Action aimed at addressing their plight. The Plan of Action commits civil society organizations to ending the Israeli occupation and to achieving the rights of self-determination and return of the Palestinian people. It acknowledges that the war against Lebanon and the continuing assault on Gaza have created new realities. The Plan notes that the conditions of Palestinians under occupation continue to deteriorate and Palestinian refugees continue to be denied their international rights. 

Deported from our own homeland

Ida Audeh Amman, Jordan 10 September 2006


On the night of Sunday, July 30, my husband and I became deportees. We had left the West Bank a few days earlier when our one-month visa was due to expire. Since arriving in Ramallah in January 2005, we had been leaving the occupied territories right before our visa expired and re-entering the country to get a new visa at the border. But since the Hamas victory in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections, we had been hearing about other US passport holders who were being denied re-entry when they left to renew their visas. We left nervously but still thinking we would be able to return, if only for a month. 

Weekly Report of Human Rights Violations

10 September 2006


As the international community has remained silent, IOF have continued to wage a full scale offensive on the Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip. During the reported period, IOF have continued their attacks on Palestinian civilians and property. IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT; IOF have imposed a tightened siege on the Gaza Strip and there have been shortages of foodstuffs and fuels; and IOF positioned at a various checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 4 Palestinians, including Head of the Presidential Guard in Ramallah. 11 Palestinians, including a child and a man and his son, were killed by IOF. 

Refugees displaced by military offensive

7 September 2006


Palestinian Rashida al-Malalha, 65, never imagined she would become displaced from her refugee camp. The mother-of-six was forced to flee her house in Shouka, a remote area in the south of the Gaza Strip, after Israeli troops took over the neighbouring Gaza Airport in late July to use it as a base from which to launch military operations in the rest of the Gaza Strip. “The Israeli army warned us that we must leave our houses as soon as possible because they were going to enter the area and reoccupy it together with Gaza Airport,” said al-Malalha. 

Lebanese struggle to repair far wider damage than destroyed houses

Reem Alsalem 9 September 2006


From a distance, the lack of obvious destruction lends a deceptive look of normality to towns like Marjayoun. Look closer and you discover that interiors of houses have been wrecked, services like electricity are non-existent, rotting rubbish lies uncollected and the fields cannot be entered because of unexploded munitions. “What we had here was a tsunami. That is the only way to explain it,” said the mayor of Marjayoun, Fouad Hamra. A convoy of 3,000 fleeing inhabitants came under air attack as they tried to leave on August 11. “The problem is that since there are few destroyed houses, people think that we have not been that much affected by the war.” 

Muhsin's voice is heard

7 September 2006


Muhsin Melhem will never forget the tragedy of 12 August. Just two days before a United Nations-brokered ceasefire brought hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah to an end, Israeli jets fired on Al-Haikha Bridge in Akkar, 40 km north-east of Beirut. Melhem’s son Ali, 18, was instantly killed in the air strike. His other two sons, Mohammad, 13, and Ghassan, 27, were severely wounded. “I don’t know how can we survive and overcome this tragedy,” said Melhem when IRIN first spoke to him on 17 August. Melhem is a poor farmer from the village of Akkar, around 40 km north-east of the capital. He depended on his working sons to support the family.