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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. 

Gaza Daily Update, 7.00 PM

10 October 2004


Since the wide-scale Israeli military assault on the northern part of the Gaza Strip, 111 Palestinians have been killed, including 29 children and 16 Palestinians in other parts of Gaza. At least 360 Palestinians, including 124 children were injured. Numerous homes and private property have also been destroyed as IOF utilize air force and heavy tanks in this military operation. In addition, as the incursion continues, the civilian population of the area suffer shortage in food and water supply. In the areas which IOF occupy civilians lack the most basic needs. Al Mezan is still receiving plights from people who have been in urgent need for medicine and water. 

Journey for Justice diaries: Bethlehem and Anata

Nathan Wright Bethlehem 14 October 2004


Four days ago, it was one month since I arrived in Palestine and it will be one year in total when it comes time to leave. Inshallah means, roughly, “God Willing.” Always I say inshallah when I say one year. Inshallah because one year is a long time. Inshallah because the longest visa I can get is three months. Inshallah because you never know in this land. I’m an international, an American, and I arrived one month and four days ago. That was one month and four days, though, and that’s not what this is about. Journey for Justice started yesterday, and it’s going to go for eight days. 

Killing in Jabaliya, "As Usual"

Sami Abu Salem Jabaliya refugee camp 10 October 2004


This morning I was at the kitchen making breakfast for my mother and myself at my apartment near al-Kholafa’ Mosque in Jabaliya Refugee Camp (population 106,000), north of Gaza. The provocative buzz of Israeli drones have not ceased since more than ten days hovering over the camp. I was carrying the teapot when an unprecedented explosion shook our quarter. The glass of the windows smashed, my mum shouted at me but I did not reply as I was frozen and carefully listening to the cries of the neighborhood children. 

NGOs urge governments, UN to tackle lack of protection for Palestinian refugees

8 October 2004


Governments usually guarantee protection for their citizens: basic human rights and physical security but Palestinians have no state or international body to provide for their protection. A group of non-governmental organizations, in a statement to the UNHCR Executive Committee meeting in Geneva 4-8 October, drew attention to the “continuing plight of millions of forcibly displaced Palestinians. Their situation is unique amongst forcibly displaced persons, as millions of them fall into a protection gap.” 

Médecins Sans Frontières asks for access to its patients in Gaza

9 October 2004


Since the beginning of this operation, Médecins Sans Frontières has received numerous calls asking for help to secure food, water and medicines for people blocked in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and Jabalia. In these zones, which remain isolated from the rest of Gaza, all movements have been impossible since September, 28. For the past eight days, MSF teams, who have both the capacity to treat and to provide food supplies for the families they are supporting, are unable to do so, for lack of authorization by the Israeli Defense Forces. Once again, MSF asks for access to its patients in the Gaza Strip. 

Gaza Daily Update, 7.00 PM

9 October 2004


Since the wide-scale Israeli military assault on the northern part of the Gaza Strip, 107 Palestinians have been killed, including 29 children and 16 Palestinians in other parts of Gaza. At least 340 Palestinians, including 120 children were injured. Numerous homes and private property have also been destroyed as IOF utilize air force and heavy tanks in this military operation. In addition, as the incursion continues, the civilian population of the area suffer shortage in food and water supply. In the areas which IOF occupy civilians lack the most basic needs. Al Mezan is still receiving plights from people who have been in urgent need for medicine and water. 

Assassination in Khan Yunis, death toll Israeli raid northern Gaza rises to 83

9 October 2004


Israeli occupying troops committed an extra-judicial execution in Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinians. This latest attack, which was the fourth of its kind in the Gaza Strip in one week, came in the context of an unprecedented level of escalation of attacks by Israeli occupying troops against Palestinian civilians and their property, especially in the northern Gaza Strip. Israeli occupying troops have continued their wide scale offensive on the northern Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have killed so far at least 83 Palestinians, including 25 children, and wounding at least 300 others, including nearly 110 children. 

The ICG report on Hamas: a shallow approach to a complex issue

Hasan Abu Nimah 10 February 2004


The prestigious International Crisis Group (ICG) has published a report entitled “Dealing with Hamas.” EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah reviewed it hoping to find an original and independent approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Instead, he finds little more than repetition of clichés and shallow recommendations based on an analysis that does not scratch the surface of misguided conventional widsom. One of its flaws is evident in its title - its authors seem to accept and endorse the widely-held view that had it not been for Hamas and suicide bombings, the region would be much closer to peace and security. This assumption has the attraction of being simple, and politically uncontroversial in the west, but it is also wrong.