“I think the sea probably is polluted. Sometimes I get strange white marks on my skin, but we come down to the beach every day because we have nowhere else to go.” Samer and his friends are hanging out on the beach in Gaza City, just about to jump in next to the old fishing harbor. Less than a hundred meters away, a sewage pipe pours mucky water into streams of dark waste that flows towards the sea where Samer and his friends swim. Read more about Swimming in sewage
GAZACITY (IPS) - Mohammed Omer, the Gaza correspondent of IPS, and joint winner of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, was strip-searched at gunpoint, assaulted and abused by Israeli security officials at the Allenby border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on Thursday as he tried to return home to Gaza. Omer, a resident of Rafah in the south of Gaza, was returning from London where he had just collected his Gellhorn Prize, Read more about Israelis assault award winning journalist
11:00am, Thursday, 19 June. The tahdiya (or “lull”) between Hamas and Israel started just hours ago at 6:00 this morning. At Sofa Crossing, in the south eastern Gaza Strip, it looks like business as usual for the Gazan drivers who are patiently waiting to collect their cargo so they can start distributing across the Gaza Strip. Read more about Drivers at Sofa crossing wait in hope
After the announcement of the Israeli government to put out new tenders for construction in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement expressing his deep concern, stating that “the government of Israel’s continued construction in settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory is contrary to international law and to its commitments under the Road Map and the Annapolis process.” Read more about Israel, EU and the US disregard international law
On 17 June 2008, Adalah filed a petition to the Israeli high court on behalf of eight family members of Palestinian political prisoners from the Gaza Strip, the Al Mezan and the Association for the Palestinian Prisoners demanding that residents of Gaza be permitted to visit their relatives being held in Israeli prisons on a regular basis. The case was filed by Adalah attorney Abeer Baker against the defense minister, the commander of the Israeli army for the southern district and the interior minister. Read more about Palestinian prisoners in Israel isolated from outside world
GAZACITY (IPS) - The girl, about 16, is wandering about Jabaliya refugee camp, picking up anything she thinks can burn. She cannot find enough bits of wood, so she gathers plastic bags, old notebooks and even a pair of broken plastic sandals. “I want to heat some water,” she said. “I want a bath.” Read more about Anything for a bath, anything for fuel
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) escalated their aggression against the Gaza Strip by launching several attacks yesterday, 17 June 2008, which killed six Palestinians in separate attacks in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah. According to data collected and compiled by Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, the number of Palestinians killed by IOF since the start of 2008 has reached 357. Since 1 June 2008 25 Palestinians have been killed by IOF. Read more about Israeli forces extrajudicially execute six in Gaza
On 11 June, eight-year-old Hadeel al-Sumairi was killed when her home in southeastern Gaza was shelled by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Less than a week earlier, eight-year-old Aya Hamdan al-Najjar was killed by a rocket fired from an IOF helicopter. Their violent deaths highlight both the continual dangers facing families who live anywhere near the Israeli border. Read more about "We could not even bury our daughter"
GAZACITY, 16 June (IPS) - When the broiling sun sinks behind the rolling Mediterranean sea in Gaza, hundreds of fishing boats turn on their motors and assemble ragged nets to round up the evening catch. Flickering blue lights scatter across the shallow seas as the boats gather offshore in close quarters. Mackerel, sardine and grey mullet are caught in nets and dumped into plastic crates to be sold in the street markets. Read more about Net tightens around Gaza fishermen
GAZACITY, 15 June (IPS) - Mahmoud Abu Teior, 13, knows it’s Abdullah’s kite up in the skies, though he has never seen Abdullah. But that kite rises into the skies from across the Egyptian side of the border across from Gaza. And, Mahmoud knows Abdullah’s voice because they speak sometimes. They have never met, and likely never will, but they are connected through their kites. Read more about Kites rise above the divisions in Gaza
