Gaza City

Israel's revenge in Zaytoun, Gaza

Eóin Murray Gaza City, Palestine 15 May 2004


Our taxi wove through the narrow streets of Gaza, our driver giving us a brief tour of the horrors.  We saw the house of Sheikh Yassin and the point where he was executed.  Demolished Mosques, homes and businesses point the direction to the Zaytoun neighbourhood in south central Gaza City. The past few nights have been sleepless.  The Israeli forces have attacked from land, sea and air.  My home, close to the sea, echoed and shook with the pounding of the shelling on the nearby Beach Camp.  Further into the centre of Gaza the people of Zaytoun (which means ‘olive’) have been imprisoned in the scene of some of the most intense fighting since the Intifada began. 

Al-Sayafa: A Case Study in Dispossession

Jacob Pace Gaza City, Palestine 7 October 2003


We were sitting outside a small shack at the edge of a Bedouin community in the Northern Gaza Strip region of Al-Sayafa. Abu Housa, one of the Bedouin elders, sat with us speaking in quick, expressive Arabic phrases, spreading his arms and flinging his hands about, the gestures adding emotional context to words that, for the most part, I could not understand. When we first arrived at the community we were quickly invited to sit in the shade of the shack and offered tea, as is customary here. Jacob Pace writes from Gaza City. 

Gaza: The coming tidal wave

Gaza City 18 September 2003


One of my recurring nightmares is about a coming tidal wave. It’s my second least favorite recurring nightmare. My least favorite being the ones about the end of the world. In my tidal wave dreams, the scariest part is the waiting. I know it’s coming. I can see it and I know it will be bad but I also know i can’t run fast enough to get out of the way. Alternatively, I’m stuck and can’t move. Either way the dream sucks… 

Israeli military continues to kill through "cease fire"

Kristen Ess Gaza City, Gaza Strip 10 June 2003

“Since the current situation and both recent and long-term history have proven that in the eyes of the Israelis, all Palestinians are wanted, they can continue to kill whichever Palestinians they want. Their target today was Al-Rantisi from Hamas. They killed a little girl and a woman instead.” Kristen Ess writes from Bethlehem. 

Myriad forms of ethnic cleansing

Kristen Ess Gaza City, Palestine 27 March 2003

At 3am the Israeli military invaded the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun with Apache helicopters and tanks. The bulldozers demolished 100s of trees, further desecrating the land. If one were not watching this happen, it might be easy to arrive here next year and truly believe that this was a land without a people. The Israeli military has destroyed thousands of dunams of orange and olive trees, shrubs, grass, and life. The US donated helicopters fired missiles into the Beit Hanoun Palestinian National Security building, killing two men who were at work. Kristen Ess writes from Gaza. 

In Exile: Bethlehem to Gaza

Kristen Ess Gaza City, Palestine 22 October 2002

Those Palestinians who were banished following Israel’s siege of the Church of the Nativity languish in Gaza, their families in Bethlehem. Kristen Ess crosses from Bethlehem to Gaza, to report on how families are dealing with the separation. 

Wanted: Solidarity, not Tears

Khalil Abu Shammala Gaza City 2 October 2002

The Palestinian people have begun to lose all hope and trust in the institutions and mechanisms of the international community. A society that has always valued large families, healthy children, and hospitality is now unable to provide even a minimal amount of milk for its babies. It is time for solidarity, not just sympathy, from the international community. 

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