The Electronic Intifada 5 February 2013
A boy holds a picture of three of four children who were killed along with their parents after a fire swept through their house in Gaza City on 31 January. Hazem Dheir, his wife Sahar and their four young children were killed in the fire that is believed to have started by a candle. It is not the first such tragedy caused by a candle or generator during one of Gaza’s frequent power outages, as a result of the fuel crisis brought upon by Israel’s siege.
APA imagesThe first month of 2013 ended with anger over the tragic deaths of a Gaza family of six, including four small children, who perished in a fire in their home. The fire was reportedly caused by a candle lit after the family’s electricity was cut off because they were unable to pay their bill.
Five deaths in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were attributed to a severe winter storm which badly damaged or destroyed 200 homes and temporarily displaced 650 persons, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance. Forty percent of the average annual rainfall fell in the first 48 hours of the storm, according to UN OCHA (“Winter Storm Situation Report,” 16 January).
Israeli forces killed six young Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The victims, all civilians, include Lubna Hanash, a university student killed near Arroub refugee camp in the West Bank; 15-year-old Saleh al-Amareen shot in the head at Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem; 16-year-old Samir Awad who was shot multiple times in Budrus village; 21-year-old Uday Darwish from Dura village near Hebron, who was shot while attempting to cross into Israel for work; 22-year-old Anwar al-Mamlouk, who was shot near the boundary with Israel in the northern Gaza Strip; and 21-year-old Mustafa Abu Jarad, who was killed when Israeli forces opened fire at a group of farmers working their land in northern Gaza.
Palestinians carry the body of Lubna Hanash during her funeral in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, 23 January. Israeli soldiers shot and killed Hanash, a 21-year-old student, near Hebron on Wednesday and wounded another local youth, Palestinian medics said.
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Relatives of Palestinian Mustafa Abu Jarad mourn during his funeral in the northern Gaza Strip, 15 January. The 21-year-old was killed after Israeli forces opened fire at a group of farmers working their fields in Beit Lahiya, approximately 500 meters from the boundary fence with Israel.
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Mourners carry the body of 21-year-old Uday Kamil Muhammad Darwish in the village of Dura, south of the West Bank city of Hebron, 13 January. Darwish, a Palestinian laborer, was shot while attempting to cross into Israel for work.
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Samir Awad, 16, is rushed to the hospital after he was shot by Israeli troops not far from Israel’s wall in the West Bank village of Budrus, 15 January. The boy died of his wounds after being hit multiple times.
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Mourners carry the body of Anwar al-Mamlouk, 22, during his funeral in Gaza City on 12 January. Israeli army gunfire killed al-Mamluk and wounded another man, both civilians, in the northern Gaza Strip.
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An Israeli prison guard escorts Samer Issawi, a Palestinian political prisoner, out of his court hearing in Jerusalem’s civil court, 16 January. Samer Issawi has refused food since August in protest of his detention without charge or trial.
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Jihad Obeidi flashes victory sign in Jerusalem following his release from an Israeli jail after serving 25 years, 20 January.
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Photojournalist Mohammed Othman is welcomed by his mother upon his arrival at Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, 27 January. Othman was shot and seriously wounded by an Israeli sniper while covering clashes between the Israeli military and Palestinians near the Erez crossing in May 2011.
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Two caravans form a new Israeli colony outpost on land belonging to the West Bank village of Jayyous, 28 January. The structures were placed just one week prior, and are already being connected to water lines from the nearby settlement Zufin. The location was likely chosen to disrupt implementation of a 2009 Israeli court decision to re-route Israel’s wall, returning a portion of Jayyous’ land to the other side of the barrier.
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A bulldozer demolishes a house in the neighborhood of Sur Baher in East Jerusalem, 15 January. Israeli forces demolished the Ameera family’s home claiming it was built without a permit.
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A Palestinian family sit on the ground after border police prevent them from accessing their pasture land, Umm al-Arayes, South Hebron Hills, West Bank, 26 January.
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An Israeli soldier throws stones at sheep as the army prevents farmers from accessing their pasture land, Umm al-Arayes, South Hebron Hills, West Bank, 26 January.
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Members of the Atiyat family outside their demolished house. Twelve members of the family were displaced after their house was demolished by the Israeli authorities in the South Hebron Hills village of al-Deirat on 14 January. The Israeli authorities demolished four houses in the South Hebron Hills area, leaving 36 persons homeless.
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Children walk on the rubble of their house after it was demolished in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina on 15 January. Israeli forces demolished the al-Rajabi family home claiming it was built without a permit.
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Palestinians stand close to a wall sprayed with Hebrew-language graffiti in the village of Beit Ommar, north of the West Bank city of Hebron, 1 January. Vandals believed to be Jewish extremists set a car on fire and scrawled racist graffiti on a nearby wall. The graffiti reads: “Price tag,” “A good Arab is a dead Arab,” “Today in property, tomorrow — lives,” and “Revenge from Yitzhar (a settlement in the northern West Bank).”
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“Who are you leaving it to?” asks a billboard erected by a Palestinian party in Israel to encourage Palestinian citizens to vote in Israel’s general elections. The billboard features portraits of anti-Palestinian, right-wing leaders.
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A family stands outside their flooded in Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, 9 January.
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Palestinians play in the snow next to a section of Israel’s wall in Qalandiya village between Jerusalem and the West bank city of Ramallah, 10 January.
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Palestinian activists arrive to the “Bab al-Shams” (Gate of the Sun) protest village in the occupied West Bank, 12 January. The camp was later forcibly evacuated by Israeli forces.
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Palestinian activists warm themselves near the newly erected encampment set up in the West Bank village of Beit Iksa to protest against Israel’s intention to confiscate land, 20 January. Activists say the Israeli army recently announced that it would confiscate more than 500 dunams (124 acres, 50 hectares) of village land, located on the northwestern outskirts of Jerusalem.
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Residents of Beit Safafa protest the four-lane highway which that will cut through their town in Jerusalem, 16 January. The road is being constructed on privately-owned land designated for building houses in the densely-populated town and will connect the various Jewish settlement colonies in the Hebron area to Jerusalem.
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An Israeli soldier attacks a Palestinian activist during the weekly demonstration against Israel’s wall in the West Bank village of al-Maasara, 18 January. If completed as planned, the wall would cut off the village from its agricultural lands.
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Israeli soldiers arrest a child during the weekly demonstration in Kfar Qaddum, a West Bank village located east of Qalqiliya, on 25 January. There have been regular demonstrations in the village since July 2011 in protest of Israel’s blocking of the main road east of the village which used to link it to Nablus. The child was later released.
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Palestinians protest against US and Israel during a demonstration in support of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Jerusalem, 12 January.
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A pro-Syrian opposition rally organized by the Hamas movement in the northern Gaza Strip, 18 January.
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Palestinians in Gaza City rally to mark the 48th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah movement, 4 January. The rival Hamas party has ruled the enclave since 2007.
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A man collects rubbish for resale at a dump site in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, 29 January. Some Palestinians, driven by poverty exacerbated by the Israeli blockade, have resorted to combing landfill sites for bits and pieces of rubbish and scrap to sell.
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Palestinians work at a construction site in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on 16 January. Israel allowed the entry of gravel into the Gaza Strip on 30 December 2012 for the first time since it imposed a tight blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory in 2007.
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Greek Archbishop Alexious leads prayers during Christmas celebrations in Gaza City on 7 January. According to the Gregorian calendar, Orthodox Christmas falls 13 days after the 25 December feast celebrated in line with the Julian calendar.
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Scouts play musical instruments as they parade through the Old City of Jerusalem during a ceremony commemorating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, 24 January.
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A woman takes pictures for the poster of the film <em>5 Broken Cameras</em> in the West Bank city of Ramallah, 29 January. The film, which intimately portrays the grassroots struggle against Israel’s wall and settlements in Bilin village, was nominated for the Academy Award for best feature-length documentary.
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A shoemaker works in the West Bank city of Hebron, 24 January. Hebron is a hub of West Bank trade, responsible for roughly a third of the area’s gross domestic product.
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Members of the Palestinian naval police extract ancient columns and artifacts in the port of Gaza City, 23 January.
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The Jerusalem Youth Orchestra perform in the West Bank city of Ramallah, 27 January.
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A vendor displays his goods at al-Zawiya market in Gaza City, 26 January.
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