Gaza Strip

Audio: A reporter tries to buy new equipment in Gaza



In late 2008, I needed to replace my old recording equipment that had poor sound quality and purchase a new audio recorder. Unfortunately, with the ongoing Israeli siege, this simple task of obtaining a new recorder was nearly impossible. The following audio diary tells the story of my efforts to receive a new audio recorder from the US so that I could continue documenting the many untold stories of the people of Gaza. Rami Almeghari writes from the Gaza Strip. 

I'll fly away



A friend recently told me that the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish once said that every night before he fell asleep he would walk the streets of his stolen city of al-Birwa in his mind. More than one Palestinian here has told me that they have a similar nighttime routine, except when they close their eyes they float up from their beds, through their windows, beyond the lights of the patrolling Israeli ships and armored trucks, and out into the night sky, free to roam the world. Emily Ratner writes from the Gaza Strip. 

Gaza farmers brave Israeli bullets



For more than six decades, the al-Buhairi has family lived on and farmed their land near the boundary with Israel, to the east of Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Last week Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets warning individuals not to set foot in a 300-meter-wide (1,000 foot) strip of land on the Gaza side of the border. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

In Gaza, women filmmakers find strength behind the camera



“My career has always been a challenge for me — simply ‘to be or not to be’ — especially under such very difficult circumstances,” says Etimad Wshah. Wshah lives in the Jabaliya refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, and is one of a small number of women filmmakers in Gaza. Since 1994 she has trained other women filmmakers at the Palestinian Women’s Affairs Center in Gaza City. Rami Almeghari reports for The Electronic Intifada. 

"The next generation must continue our struggle"


Dr. Abdullah al-Hourani (Rami Almeghari)
Dr. Abdullah al-Hourani is a Palestinian politician and researcher based in the Gaza Strip. He is the director of the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for National Studies in Gaza and chairman of the Palestinian Popular Committee for the Defense of the Right to Return. On the occasion of the 61st aniversary of the disposession of Palestine, The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari interviewed Dr. al-Hourani at his Gaza City office. 

Living amongst the dead in Gaza



The scene of Mahmoud Jilu, four years old, rolling his ball with friends doesn’t seem weird at all until you see where he is playing. Mahmoud runs after the ball into a backyard full of graves forming the cemetery where his family has lived since they can remember. The six-member Jilu family are all jammed together in a tiny house with one bedroom and a small space for the kitchen with a tomb next to it. 

Palestinian refugee family demands to return home



“Only if we return to our homeland, can there be peace. But as long as [Israel] keeps us refugees, we have no choice to resist them now and for generations to come, until we are back in Beir al-Saba,” said 75-year-old Suleiman Abu Jazzar in his home in the Brazil refugee camp in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. Rami Almeghari reports for The Electronic Intifada. 

Gaza laborers injured in Israel left to dry



More than 700 Palestinian workers in Gaza who suffered on-the-job accidents inside Israel used to receive monthly disability payments from Israeli employers. But in January 2009, workers stopped receiving these payments as the Israeli courts decided that Israeli insurance companies are no longer liable towards Palestinians living in what the state has declared a “hostile entity.” Rami Almeghari reports for The Electronic Intifada. 

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