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October 1, 2003: October 18, 2003: |
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27 August 04
During the funeral
Destruction in Al Shua't niegbourhood after withdarwal As usual Apache helicopters are hovering over Rafah skies and this indicates that this hovering is going to end but not without shedding blood. This time the incursion targeted again Al Shoua't neighborhood with several tanks, bulldozers and Apache helicopters leaving 7 demolished buildings and three injured people, one of them seriously. One hour ago, Abu Youisf Al Najjar hospital announced the death of 19 year old Hazim Abu Zohri who was injured during the incursion last night.Eyewitnesses sai d that Abu Zohri get wounded by Israeli snipers while helping relatives removed the remains of their house after it was demolished. Abu Zohri is a second year university student. Last night also Israel apaches helicopter shelled one rocket at least targeting a militant leader in Islamic Jihad Mohammed Al Sheikh Khalil whose hand had already been amputated. This time he was slightly injured in his leg, according medical sources in Rafah. The rocket had fallen in the wrong place over Al Kurd family building, leaving the breadwinner of the house 70 year old Jadou Al Kurd killed after sustaining a serious injury to his head, in addition to other children whom whose names are Palestine, Fouad and Marwan. Israel announced the closure of the Rafah crossing point and a large number of travellers are not permitted to get into Gaza Strip. The crossing is usually very crowded at this time of year because of people returning after their summer vacations or to the students who had been studying abroad in other Arab countries.. 23 August 04
Palestinian boy with his hands symbolically chained takes part in a Rafah demonstrations in support of the hunger strike of the Palestinians prisoners " I want my father, I want my father, I want my father, why doesn't the world want to understand that?!" with these words began a 14 year old girl screaming at the cameras during a demonstration of support for her father and other inmates on hunger strike in Israeli jails. Children of Rafah staged their hunger strike and are now refusing to eat, and live in tents specifically set up for protestors. " I didn’t cook any food for my children, because w e don't want to eat when my husband is not eating in the Israeli jails," said one of the mothers, protesting for the 7th day in Rafah and everywhere in Gaza Strip and West Bank as well. The Palestinian prisoners hunger strike that is escalating has so far seized hearts, thoughts and pens of authors, governments and newspapers in both inside and outside Palestine. The prisoners are protesting in their jails to get their simple and basic rights or to die, which is also one of their aims in such hard and tough circumstances. The Prisoners want to be given visiting rights, as well as demanding an end to humiliating body searches and the removal of glass barriers in visiting rooms, and an end to punishment confining prisoner in tiny cells. The Israeli government commented about the hunger strike by saying "The Palestinian prisoners can starve to death, as far as I know," the Internal Security Minister Tazahi Hanegbi announced to the media. Anxious to break the inmate's resolve as soon as possible Israeli prison officers were trying to tempt the Palestinian inmates with the aromas of barbecued meat and fresh backed bread, in addition to making the guards of the prisons eating Falafel sandwiches near the prisoners. I wish if... In an interview with released Palestinians prisoners from Rafah who prefers not to mention his name, as I asked about what kind of torture he faced in Israeli jails, " Ah, Ah, where do you want me to begin? but I think I still have some effects of torture in my body where you can see what it means being in Israeli jails" he said. "They cuffed our legs and hands and made us hang in the roof of the rooms naked" he added. "It was one of my dreams to see the sun" he added. "Oh, I forget to tell you about the injection that they gave me which has an effect and I became a sterile" he added.. I wish if I was able to photograph what other prisoners faced from all kind of torture.... I wish if I have anything to photograph and show those people who are calling for democracy and human rights. A child's message: Tears were falling down from her eyes while she was giving a talk in the demonstration. She began talking about her father: my message to parents who kiss their children every morning: Where is my father? isn't it my right to have a father like your children?!, where is your heart? don't you have feelings?! I need my father, I need my father to get back to our house from the Israeli jails." Amal is 15 years old, and she began talking while the whole crowd listened to her and was torn by what they were hearing . Amal is one of thousands of children waiting their fathers to get back from the Israeli jails. In an interview with a 9 year old, he said: "I don’t want to eat anything, and I will not eat anything till I die or to see my father!"
19 August 04
Final moments: Ahmed Al Hams's mother during his funeral It was 14:20 when Ahmed Al Hams, 17, challenged the bullets of the Israeli soldiers and went to help an injured child who was yelling: "Mom, Help, Help!". Al Hums was injured by a bullet in his heart when he went to rescue the life of an injured child who was bleeding in Yebna during the shelling. A few days ago, 12 year old Saif Barhoum died due to the injuries sustained in his head when one of the Israeli snipers shot him during the last incursion in Al Shuaat area. Al Hums's body arrived at the hospital already dead. The funeral came at the same time when there was a very large demonstration in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners. Last Night — Wedding Party! Israeli Forces, accompanied by 12 tanks, 3 bulldozers and 2 apaches in the sky began shelling Hay Al Salam neighborhood. The band and the invitees were the first who left the wedding party when the apaches shot in a closed backyard in the area, and they left the musical instruments in the streets. Abu Taha family wedding turned into a ghost area, as the streets became so empty when the bulldozers began demolishing the houses, trees and everything in their way.. The tanks and the bulldozers withdrew from the area, demolishing Al Kafrawi ice-cream factory, another café, and two water wells that provide the area with water, in addition to three demolished houses. Tens of trees were destroyed also in the incursion and another two brothers were injured, as the Abu Youisf Al Najjar hospital said. The two brothers are 27 year old Mohammed Khafaja and his brother Khaled who were injured by a tank shell during the first hour of the incursion.
12 August 04
The difference is clear: That photo shows the different between those living under occupation and those enjoying their freedom, as on the Egyptian side. An Egyptian house is standing, trees are growing, people enjoying their time, but at the same moment, a group of children from Rafah taking cover from Israeli bullets when the watching posts shot at them as they tried to get into their demolished houses. The middle of the night: the sky is black and a red light fell from the sky onto the ground, the black sky background looks very beautiful with that red light which has a beautiful look but with gruesome consequences. Over 15 times these lights fell from the Israeli apaches warplanes targeting civilian homes at Al Shua'at and Block J areas in the beginning of the incursion . As a result of that, hundreds of families began escaping from their houses when the bulldozers and tanks began invading the area. Medical sources at Abu Youisf Al Najjar said that 16 year old Ahmed Al Quiq was killed near the Sufa crossing point. Also two children arrived at the hospital after being injured by the bullets of the Israeli Army: 7 year old Ala Zanoun, injured in his right hand and leg, and Yara Al Bilbisi injured in her right shoulder. It's the second incursion for the same area in less than four days, as the area is now completely devastated, even if still some houses are standing, that means they are standing only until the next incursion. War crimes! Over 20 tanks, 3 bulldozers and 2 apache planes participated in the last two incursions leaving 25 completely demolished houses, and 15 partially demol ished, in addition to damaging the infrastructure, phone, electricity and water providers in the city.. Todays' incursion came only few hours after the EU considered Palestinian home demoliting a violation of International Law. In Tal Al Sultan, Israeli apaches shelled the house of Eid Abu Ayash with one rocket in the upper part of his house. Abu Ayash is known as a judge at Gaza Strip's local courts. The Isareli forces reopened the Rafah crossing point for a few days, then closed it again this morning.
7 August 04 Apache warplanes and tanks began shelling Block "J" once again in a new incursion that targeted civilian buildings. 6 August 04
Under the ground: A now-homeless boy is trying to jump into a basement which is about to collapse due to the heavy rubble on top of the house. His house was completely demolished during the Israeli incursion The Israeli Army withdrew from Yebna Camp in Rafah leaving 5 dead, 22 injured, and over 21 demolished buildings. "I don’t know what they want exactly from us!" said Yasir Juda who wa s trying to get out his Mercedes taxi cab that was demolished under the rubble of his house. "If they want us to leave here, then it is no, because death is much easier than leaving our country." Yassir is a pharmacist who had borrowed money from all his relatives to buy a cab and work. He has nothing, but he was not lucky to get a job as a pharmacy graduate in Saudi Arabia. Seeing children searching under the rubble of their homes for whatever they can find is heartbreaking. On the same day medical sources at Abu Youisf Al Najjar said that 12 year old Iman Barhoum had died from injuries to her head by Israeli random shelling. The last incursion demolished all the infrastructure of Rafah, including phone lines, water supplies, electricity providers, trees and all the streets. There were some damages at Al Mustafa mosque, in addition to four retail shops that belonged to Rushdi Abu T aha, Sabri Abu Tiour, and Samir Daban. Rafah Crossing: Again and again the catastrophe has no end: three pregnant women lost their babies at the crossing, and the fourth gave birth and called her baby child by a strange name which is: "Crossing Point." Medical sources said today that Sabah Jamal, 40 years old, lost her baby due to lack of medical care at the Rafah crossing. Najah Ezzeden, 29 years old, was was the same, and so was Sabah Abdelwahab, 32. The Israli aramy denied entrance permission for the body of Yusra Abdelfatah, a 52 year old who died after waiting over 19 days on her way back form an operation in one of the hospitals in Cairo.
4 August 04 The Apaches shelled with missiles and tanks with heavy bullets - and 19 year old Jihad Al Bess was fatally wounded in the head. 4 people died: 18 year old Mohammed Abu Nada, 19 year old Mysarah Abu Snimah, and Akram Al Habibi 31 year old, in addition to the one mentioned before, and over 20 have been injured people up till now. The shelling is getting heavier each time, and people are all scared of Apache shelling at civilian houses, and especially when UNRWA pulled out its foreign staff from the Gaza Strip headquarters. Something similar to an earthquake happens every hour in Rafah, and as a result of that tens of families began leaving their homes that are about to get demolished due to shelling. Many people are moving to UNRWA schools, but still the incursion continues and the Israeli side keeps providing the same reasons for invading Rafah: the pretext of " smuggling weapons through tunnels from Egypt into the Gaza Strip".
3 August 04 11.30 a.m.: Heavy incursion again in Rafah and many people still don’t have the ability to go to hospitals. The injured and the dead are still lying bleeding everywhere, and journalists left the area after Reuter's cameraman, Basaam Masoud, was injured during the Apache shelling. 3 human shreds just arrived the hospital. From minute to minute, the number of the dead keeps changing because the Apaches are continuing their shelling, and for the first time since the last incursion, 8 bulldozers and 25 tanks began an incursion that targeted civilians houses. 10 a.m.: A 14 year old girl was injured during random shelling and shooting at her house and the whole area in Block "J" area. 19 buildings were demolished in that incursion, 14 totally demolished and another 5 partially demolished. The first belong to Faiq, Faiz, Ahmed, Saed, Mohammed, Khamis, Rafeq, Zaki Al Bana and their sister Sadia Al Bana lived a few meters away. Also the buildings of Mohammed Al Azazi, Jamak Hasouna, Suliman Barhoum, Mussa Al Srafandi, and Abdullah Shuman were demolished. The incursion was through shelling from apaches warplanes, and over 10 tanks and 4 bulldozers. Later Israel announced that these houses were empty when the bulldozers began demolishing them. Mohammed Al Uker, a 12 year old, arrived at the hospital injured in his leg, and 14 year old Hanin Adwan injured in her head, and Khaled Al Aidi (20) injured in his shoulders, Ayman Abu Hmaid (18) injured in his right leg, in addit ion to Iyaad Abu Matar (34) injured in his right hand during the shelling.
1 August 04
Passengers selling their gifts to buy foods for their families at Rafah crossing who are under siege. Skin diseases are now spreading between over 2500 passengers, and you can smell a stench coming from them as you get closere. " Where is the world in the middle of this tragedy?… Where are peace callers.. where are the believers in freedom? & #8230; for heaven's sake rescue us this time." With these words began 65 year old Abu Omar as I interviewed him. Abu Omar traveled to Egypt for an urgent operation in Egyptian hospitals because he has On the Palestinian side, a woman was tired and frustrated searching a place in the shade where where she can sit with her kids to protect them from the burning sunshine. "I want to complain about my pains, but who will listen?!" she said "I must travel to my relatives outside and I have been waiting so long time here, we became as a person clutching a straw." Nothing to eat: " We have run out of money and could not by any food here" said Mahmoud Al Masri stuck on the Egyptian and Israeli crossing and waiting to get into his home in Gaza Strip. The number of passengers are increasing daily. "I came here to see my uncle who is terminally ill" said a businessman and owner of an oil company in the Gulf.. The soldiers would not allow him to get into Gaza Strip and to see his uncle who is about to die. He has a small platinum part that is in his bone which makes the xray machines beep when he passes through the security machines at Rafah crossing. He tried explaining to the Israelis that this small part is only in his Common diseases in Rafah: Most of the passengers have acquired skin diseases that spread as a result of mosquitoes, absence of showers, and lack of medicine. The Egyptian council member. Mohammed Al Kashef described the life of the passengers a s "a real catastrophe" where "children, women and old people are all sleeping in a small area and have only one toilet because we had been renewing our buildings."
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