TELAVIV (IRIN) - Reports published recently by various organizations paint a grim picture of life in Gaza more than four months after the 23-day Israeli offensive ended on 18 January. At the end of April 2009, UNRWA and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) completed their assessments of damage caused during the offensive: Some 3,500 houses were totally destroyed or are beyond repair and many others have yet to be repaired. Read more about Gaza housing, water situation still dire
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - “I heard voices, I turned around to look, and saw a group of Israeli settlers assaulting my brother Hammad,” says Abdallah Wahadin, 82, a Palestinian farmer from Beit Ummar near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. “Three of them surrounded me, while a fourth threw a rock at the back of my head. Lots of blood ran down onto my clothes. Other settlers then joined them,” Wahadin told the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. Read more about West Bank rights violations on the rise
Omar Barghouti is an independent Palestinian researcher, commentator and human rights activist and a leader of the Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to force Israel to uphold international law and universal human rights. Barghouti discussed the growing worldwide campaign with The Electronic Intifada contributor Ali Mustafa. Read more about "Boycotts work": An interview with Omar Barghouti
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani28 May 2009
CAIRO (IPS) - Residents along Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip are still awaiting compensation for property damaged by air strikes during Israel’s recent onslaught against the Hamas-run enclave. “The Egyptian government wasn’t responsible for the damage, which came entirely as a result of Israel’s assault on Gaza,” Governor of North Sinai Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha told IPS. “The situation, therefore, is complicated.” Read more about Israeli strikes threaten Egyptian border towns
JERUSALEM (IPS) - A showdown over Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is looming between Israel and the United States barely a week after the encounter at the White House between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What’s becoming increasingly clear is that the 18 May encounter was no friendly “getting-to-know-you” meeting between a new president and a new prime minister of the Middle East’s most enduring alliance. Read more about US pressures Israel over settlements
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - While the US appears to be optimistic about Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, inter-Palestinian rivalry, a recalcitrant Israeli government, and an international community with its own agenda could well scuttle a settlement. For the first time in decades the US, under President Barack Obama’s new administration, appears to be putting pressure on Israel through Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his new hard-line and far-right government. Read more about The PA's small window of opportunity
GAZACITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - A banking and liquidity crisis is affecting the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip: Civil servants are struggling to get their salaries, and humanitarian aid is being delayed. Thousands of welfare benefit recipients are not getting their dues. This week Israel allowed the transfer of 50 million new Israeli shekels (NIS - equivalent to $12.7 million) to Gaza towards the payment of 65,000 employees of the Ramallah (West Bank)-based Palestinian Authority. Read more about Gaza banking system on verge of collapse
TELAVIV (IRIN) - Israeli army bases in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and Israel are contaminating land and water sources, says a letter addressed to Major General Gadi Shamni, commander-in-chief of the central command in Israel. According to the 12 May letter signed by Issac Ben David, deputy director at the Ministry of the Environment, and seen by IRIN, five bases in the OPT are a major source of contamination due to poor handling of diesel fuel and oil. Read more about Israeli army contaminating water sources
*GAZACITY (IPS) - The lives of hundreds of critically ill Gazans continue to be jeopardized by the power struggle between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, and political blackmail by Israel. Mohammed Zibdeh, 12, who has cancer of the brain is waiting in Gaza City for a permit to travel to Israel for advanced treatment. He is dependent on a ventilator connected to his throat for survival. Last year Mohammed was able to secure a permit to travel to an Israeli hospital where he received chemotherapy for his brain tumor, causing the tumor to shrink significantly. Read more about Power struggle killing patients
On the morning of 4 May 2009, Israeli troops set fire to Palestinian crops along Gaza’s eastern border with Israel. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported that 200,000 square meters of crops were destroyed, including wheat and barley ready for harvest, as well as vegetables, olive and pomegranate trees. Local farmers report that the blaze carried over a four-kilometer stretch on the Palestinian side of the eastern border land. Eva Bartlett reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Israel destroying Gaza's farmlands
