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Photostory: Ramadan in Ramallah

Rima Merriman Ramallah, Palestine 19 October 2006



With the coming of Eid al Fiter and in spite of the depressed economy and Israel’s chokehold on Palestinian revenues and customs, traders and vendors in Ramallah are hoping to make some money. Some of them are children, since government schools have yet to open in the West Bank because of the strike by government employees. The vendors’ merchandise is all cheap, but it is colorful and maybe affordable. Popular items appear to be plastic weapons — plastic guns and swords. To Palestinian children, the scene in downtown Ramallah is as exciting as any Christmas season is in downtown New York to American children. 

Hardy souls return to clean up the mess in southern Lebanon

Annette Rehrl 18 October 2006



Haddatha is a mess. Located close to Lebanon’s border with Israel, the village was heavily damaged during the five-week conflict that ravaged the eastern Mediterranean country this summer. The village centre is unrecognisable, with a mosque, shops and about 100 houses reduced to rubble. Some families have returned to rebuild their homes, but with winter approaching and their rural livelihoods destroyed others of Haddatha’s displaced inhabitants whose homes were ruined are staying away. One of the returnees, Mustafa Nasser sits in what is left of his family’s living room. 

New school year gets underway with few hitches

16 October 2006



Thousands of children returned to school across Lebanon on Monday after a summer of war, destruction and displacement. “I am happy to be back in school,” said 11-year-old Fatima Aasi, who goes to school in her home town of Ansariyeh, 30km south of Beirut. “During the war we were very scared, but now I feel like things will be normal again.” After the United Nations-brokered ceasefire that ended the 34-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah on 14 August, the Ministry of Education, in partnership with UNICEF, initiated a national back-to-school campaign with a commitment to ensuring that children in public schools could begin classes on October 16 - three weeks later than the usual start date. 

Lebanon's new disabled

18 October 2006



The fighting may be over, for now, between Hezbollah and the Israeli army but the scars of the devastation caused in Lebanon may never heal. Beyond the destroyed buildings, collapsed bridges and the estimated million pieces of unexploded ordnance littering the countryside, are the personal stories of injury, disfigurement and disability. ‘There are children who have been left disabled by the war and are now in wheelchairs,’ said Nizar Amine of Christian Aid partner Mouvement Social, which is repairing three schools damaged by bombing in the southern Lebanese village of Srifa. 

Report on failures of October 2000 investigations submitted to Israeli Atty. Gen.

18 October 2006



Today, Adalah submitted a comprehensive report entitled “The Accused” to the Attorney General of Israel, Menachem Mazuz. The report addresses the shortcomings and failures of the law enforcement authorities - first and foremost the Ministry of Justice’s Police Investigation Unit (“Mahash”) - in investigating the killings of 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel and the injury to of hundreds of others during the October 2000 protest demonstrations. The 133-page report primarily exposes Mahash’s negligent work and its failure to fulfill its duty to investigate the criminal offenses committed by police officers and commanders in October 2000. 

Israeli forces kill four in Gaza; major expansion of operations is feared

18 October 2006



In the midst of increasing assertions by Israeli government officials over the smuggling of arms in the Gaza Strip and impending military operations inside it, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) escalated its attacks on Gaza and killed four Palestinians during new incursions last night and today. According to field reports, at approximately 6pm yesterday, 17 October 2006, about 15 IOF tanks and armored vehicles entered the Ezbet Abedrabu neighborhood in the east of Jabalia, some 2km from the borderline. They leveled land and streets in the area under heavy firing. 

West Bank patients grow increasingly desperate for medical treatment

18 October 2006



According to international aid organisations, a five week health workers’ strike in the West Bank has prompted some Palestinians to threaten medical staff into treating them. “The strike has had a huge impact on health services. People are knocking on the doors of doctors who are at home and offering to pay for treatment,” said David, Shearer, head of the United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Jerusalem. “People are also threatening medical staff to try to get themselves treated - and it’s going to get worse. We don’t have any numbers on how many people may actually have died, or how many babies may have died in childbirth, as they are not being registered.” 

Child dies and seven injured as a result of family clashes in Gaza

17 October 2006



At approximately 10:45 on Tuesday, 17 October 2006, armed clashes were resumed between the families of al-Masri and Abu Taha near the desalination plant in Khan Yunis. As a result, a child and a woman passing by the area were wounded. At approximately 13:30 on Sunday, 15 October 2006, members of the al-Masri family burnt to a house and four shops belonging to the Abu Taha family during the funeral procession of Eyad Maher al-Masri, 13, who died from a wound he had sustained on 8 October 2006 during clashes between the two families. Soon after, armed clashes erupted between the two families in Jourat al-Lout area. 

Denial of Entry: Rice's Probe and the Israeli Administration

Rima Merriman 17 October 2006



The good news that Condoleezza Rice “wants the Israeli government to explain restrictions on Palestinian-Americans traveling on U.S. passports in Israel and the Palestinian territories” spread like wildfire in the occupied Palestinian territories. Rice has apparently listened to something from the Palestinian side! Maybe she saw the ads that the Palestinian grassroots Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re-Entry into the oPt had placed in all the local papers during her most recent visit - a photograph of her and Abbas with the caption “Wish we could be there to help you!”, meaning that Americans, and Palestinian-Americans especially, are being denied entry to the oPt, and so are also denied the opportunity to play a role in the peacemaking she was seeking. 

Ten Palestinians Killed in Gaza Past Two Days

15 October 2006



In the past two days, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed 10 Palestinians and wounded 11 others, including a child, in the Gaza Strip. Six of the victims, including two civilians, were killed during an incursion conducted by IOF into the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabalya. The remaining victims were extra-judicially executed by IOF in Beit Lahia and Gaza City. According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 09:20 on Friday, 13 October 2006, an IOF drone fired a missile at a civilian car that was traveling in the center of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia.