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The ghostly streets, the ghostly skies

Laila El-Haddad Gaza City, Palestine 18 May 2007


17 May 2007 —We’re used to things going from bad to worse very quickly here. But we never expected the situation to get as bad as it has over the past few days.After a terrifying 24 hours, we awoke this morning to sporadic gunfire, and ghostly streets. It was a welcome change. Sleep-deprived and anxious, my colleague Saeed, on his first visit to Gaza, and myself headed to Rafah in the southern part of the Strip to continue shooting a series of documentaries we are working on. 

UNHCR highlights Palestinian refugees' plight in desert camp

18 May 2007


Hundreds of Palestinian refugees stranded at al-Waleed makeshift camp in no-man’s land between the desert borders of Iraq and Syria are living in precarious conditions and people could die if they do not get medical treatment, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on 15 May.”We are particularly worried about the lack of medical facilities - many of the camp’s 942 residents need urgent medical attention, including a mother of seven who suffers from leukemia and a teenage diabetic boy,” UNHCR spokesperson, Jennifer Pagonis, said in a statement on Tuesday. 

Gaza violence hampering aid deliveries

18 May 2007


Humanitarian aid agencies are expressing concern as renewed intense Palestinian infighting between the Fatah and Hamas factions enters its fifth day, during which nearly as many ceasefires have been broken, and over 40 Palestinians killed. Two Israeli air strikes on Thursday in central Gaza City have left at least three Palestinians dead, and injured 30 more, including civilians, as Israel steps up its retaliatory actions against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. 

Cross Country: Leaving Iraq, Engaging Iran

Rob Anderson 14 May 2007


In the Christian Science Monitor, Ali Abunimah cites the successes of South Africa’s and Ireland’s unity governments as evidence that a single Israeli-Palestinian state could work: “In both places,” he observes, “it was only when the dominant group dropped its insistence on supremacy that a political settlement could be reached. What was once unimaginable happened.” 

Weekly Report on Human Rights Violations

17 May 2007


During the reporting period six Palestinians were killed by IOF in the Gaza Strip. Five of the victims were killed by IOF aerial attacks. Thirty-six Palestinians were wounded by IOF gunfire in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The IOF conducted 26 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and one incursion into the Gaza Strip. Forty-three Palestinian civilians, including seven children were arrested in the OPT. 

The Jordan Valley and Israel's Invisible Wall

Anna Baltzer Jordan Valley 4 June 2007


15 May 2007 — A few weeks ago I attended an event commemorating Palestinian Prisoner’s Day at Al Far’a Refugee Camp in the Tubas area. To enter the theatrical and cultural spectacle we had to pass through a makeshift checkpoint with soldiers pointing their guns in our faces and screaming in Hebrew for us to get back. Although I knew these were Palestinian actors role-playing the harassment they experience daily, it was very frightening to have men with guns yell at me in a foreign language and stick killing machines in my face. 

Jordan blocks newspaper edition over story on 'secret' Abbas plan

30 April 2007


Jordanian authorities should lift their ban on today’s edition of an independent paper, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Fahd al-Rimawi, editor of the weekly Al-Majd, told CPJ that security agents moved Sunday to prevent printing of the edition because of a front-page story about a “secret plan” to oust the Hamas-led Palestinian government. Al-Rimawi said security officials told him they would ban the April 30 edition if he did not remove the article, The Associated Press reported. 

38 Killed in Week of Gaza Infighting

17 May 2007


Violence escalated to the peak in the past two days, especially in Gaza City, as 32 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others wounded. Thus, the number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of this latest wave of violence on Sunday, 13 May 2007, has mounted to 38, in addition to dozens of others who have been wounded. The casualties have included several civilians, including women and children. Armed clashes erupted between militants from both movements in various areas in Gaza City. 

Father of Christian Zionism Leaves the Building

Bill Berkowitz 17 May 2007


OAKLAND, United States, May 16 (IPS) - The right-wing U.S. Christian evangelist Jerry Falwell, who died Tuesday at the age of 73, is perhaps best known for his fundamentalist social positions and tirades against lesbians, gays and feminists, not to mention “pagans”, “abortionists” and assorted other miscreants. But Falwell also had a significant impact on U.S. foreign policy over the last 30 years, and was one of the founding fathers here of so-called Christian Zionism — the belief that the modern state of Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical “End Times” prophecy and thus deserving of political, financial and religious support. 

As Gaza Burns

Laila El-Haddad Gaza City, Palestine 16 May 2007


Things have been crazy in Gaza over the past two days. Very crazy. In between working and actually trying to keep our wits about us as we’ve been holed up indoors for two days no, I’ve had little time to blog. Things are tenusouly calm at the moment with on-again-off-again gunfire, which is better than it was only a few hours ago. But things in Gaza have a way of changing very quickly-for better or for worse. Volatility is its defining characteristic. We happen to be sort of be in the eye of the storm as it were.