October 1, 2003:
Mohammed's younger brother
Issam was seriously injured
and was taken to the hospital
about a week ago. His leg
was amputated and he is
undergoing medical treatment.

October 18, 2003:
Mohammad's younger brother,
Hussam [17 yrs old], was killed
by the Israeli army today.

Hussam was sitting at home
when he was shot in the face,
chest, back, legs. He had
nothing to do with any violent
or even political movement.

Hussam's crime is that he was
a Palestinian.

— The Webmaster

29 April 05

The controversial ionizing radiation screening device used by the Israeli Army to screen all Palestinians passing through the Gaza/Egypt border crossing at Rafah apparently claimed its first victim when Fatmah Abu Ebaed, a woman of 56, died during the screening. Over a month ago, doctors in Gaza City raised the alarm about the possible harmful effectsùimmediate and long-termùon the Palestinians forced to enter the lead-shielded room for multiple screening photographs taken by an Israeli Army operator safely outside the room. They had seen a number of cases of headache, dizziness, and nausea experienced by passengers soon after screening, and also expressed concern about long-term effects, especially on children, the elderly, pregnant women, and medical patients. After the Israeli group, Physicians for Human Rights, and other human rights groups joined the protest, the IOF agreed to stop using the machineùthen quietly resumed forcing all travelers to pass through the so-called "death chamber" a few weeks later. The Palestinian government department that controls Rafah crossing, in an unprecedented move, shut the crossing for a few hours this week to protest Israeli foot-dragging. The Palestinian Authority issued a formal request to the World Health Organization to send a multi-national group of experts to evaluate the safety of the machine.

Human rights organizations have also protested the fact that these screening machines produce a nude image on the screening monitor. Worldwide, people of many backgrounds and cultures find such a procedure offensive, but it is especially humiliating to observant Moslems whose ingrained aversion to casual nudity is a matter of both custom and religious law.

Palestinian Minister of Health Al Wuheidi said today that the Ministry of Health has not yet managed to collect enough solid data about the screening device the Israeli forces are using at Rafah border terminal, as well as the one used at Erez Checkpoint, in the north of the Gaza Strip. But, he added, "What we saw with our own eyes during our traveling was shocking. We asked some colleagues who were screened and they told us that they were photographed by the device more than 10 times, indicated by the ticking of the camera. Orders are given to the screened individual by a microphone inside the room. The ticking soun ds suggest the use of radiation inside the device," the Minister said. He added that the issue was not about the type or quantity of the radiation used; as they don't yet have that information. It was rather the duration of exposure to radiation, stressed Dr. Wuheidi.

"The preliminary information we obtained indicate that they can take photos penetrating the s kin into the deep la yers of the body, reaching to the bones. Even if we hypothetically assume there is no harm in that, we are looking at an appalling infringement of the Palestinian people's human rights and religious codes," Dr. Wuheidi said.

The Minister said that he had recently heard that Israeli forces had a pregnant Israeli soldier walk through the device to convince the Palestinian travelers it was safe. Dr. Wuheidi dismissed this as a farce, since the Israeli Army routinely gives its soldiers maternity leave late in pregnancy. "Any amount of radiation can affect growing fetuses and might cause mutations during the first four months of pregnancy," said the health minister. Even worse, many Palestinian women who travel abroad while pregnant are seeking specialized treatment for complications of pregnancy, so are at unusually high risk.

A similar screening machine is in use at the Erez checkpoint, where Palestinian workers in the industrial zone must cross twice daily. Dr. Wuheidi said that the Ministry of Health will start dra wing blood and tissue samples from the workers passing through Erez and examine them thoroughly, then draw new samples a month later to check for negative effects of repeated exposure to this screening device. Early in April, the Erez checkpoint opened a new "secondary" tunnel for press, foreign visitors and members of NGOs allowed into Gaza, which is completely hidden from the area where Palestinians cross. So there is now no chance that press or international visitors can see exactly what happens to Palestinian travelers.

Ironically, while the Palestinian authorities shut down Rafah crossing in protest, thousands more Gazans have been stranded at the closed Abu Holi checkpoint in the central Gaza Strip. There have been hundreds of Israeli settlers at Gush Katif staging protest demonstrations against their upcoming relocation. It has been a week of slow death by strangulation for the people of Gazaùworkers unable to get to jobs and losing their pay, university students missing all their classes. Students in North Gaza who can reach their sc hools in Gaza City often find there is no class beca use their teachers are stuc k on the wrong side of Abu Holi. The Israeli Army recognizes no exceptionsùeven patients needing emergency medical care cannot pass. All these clear violations of the Geneva Conventions are still met mainly by silence from the rest of the world.

23 April 05

Israeli Tank Passing through Abu Holi Checkpoint, thousands of
people were waiting for the Israeli soldiers to reopen the checkpoint
which is the only road that connects North and South Gaza Strip

Under a broiling sun, thousands of people were waiting at Abu Holi checkpoint which separates the north and south areas of Gaza. Everyone in southern Gaza with business in Gaza City — that means all university students and everyone with jobs or family in the north, and all northern Gazans with work, fri ends, family in the south, or a need to travel abr oad throu gh the Rafah crossing, must enter the concrete and barbed wire corridors guarded by Israeli soldiers in sniper towers and pass the Abu Holi checkpoint. Indeed, some make — or try to make — the round trip daily.

Nothing moved for hour after hour. This morning, Abdelkader Abu Libdah, 48, was injured by Israeli soldiers. Exactly why they attacked him is unclear, but before the incident was over, a number of others waiting to cross were also injured by teargas inhalation. In addition to the normal traffic, a number of ambulances transporting patients to hospitals in Gaza City were stuck in the long lines, plus many busloads of school children. Finally, in the late afternoon, a loudspeaker made the dreaded announcement that the checkpoint would not open at all today, and drivers backed slowly away to return to their points of origin.

Once again, the Israeli Army has tightened the noose of occupation around the economy and civil life of all Gaza. However difficult for the 1.3 milli on Palestinians here, it is not that surprising. The Jewish eight-day holiday of Passover begins at sundown Saturday, and Gaza is usually subject to checkpoint closures during Israeli holidays. To make matters worse, three Israeli soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb near Karni crossing in north Gaza. Karni is the entryway for merchandise and industrial goods into Gaza, and the Israeli soldiers were patrolling the fenced Gaza/Israel border nearby when a roadside explosive device went off near their jeep, injuring three. No Palestinian militant group has claimed responsibility and the major militant factions have observed a ceasefire, despite the IOF's killing three Rafah teenagers earlier this month. The Israeli Army responded to the bombing at Karni by firing into a nearby Gaza City district. People throughout Gaza are braced for more retaliation and hardship. When the checkpoints are closed, and the borders sealed, it means slow death for people here.

16 April 05

Demonstrations all over the Gaza Strip at "Al Aqsa in Danger day" —
all the Gaza Strip and West Bank demonstrated

In a move designed to re-ignite the intifada and destroy the Gaza withdrawal plans, the extremist settlers declared their intention to attack the Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem on Sunday, April 10. The Haram al Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, is actually a 35 acre compound including the Dome of the Rock, the Al Aqsa Mosque, courtyards, gardens, a museum, and many other artistic and religious treasures. All Palestinians feel an obligation to safeguard these Islamic holy places not just for the world's Moslems but for all people of good will.

Tens of thousands of Gaza residents, as well as Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, o rganized peaceful demonstrations protesting the planned outrage. "We will sacrifice our blood and bodies for the sake of our Holy Land," said 41-year-old Abu Adham of Khan Younis. "We are standing alone in the face of injustice, but we will never, never allow those people to attack our holy places."

His feelings were echoed all over Occupied Palestine by thousands of students and citizens of all ages who attended the demonstrations. In Jerusalem, thousands of Palestinians stayed within the mosque after Friday prayers, while hundreds more, many of them older people who survived the attacks of 1948, got past the Israeli security cordon into the mosque on Saturday and stayed there overnight to defend the Noble Sanctuary from possible attack.. The Israeli police forbade the demonstration on Sunday, and arrested some of the extremist settlers who defied their orders to disperse.

10 April 05

Young men are identifying the bodies of the boys killed
while playing football at Rafah refugee Camp

Children's corpses in the hospital again, major shelling and the threat of death from the circling Apaches again—all the fear, all the horror--it is happening again and the people of Rafah are hiding in their houses.

The cease-fire, announced on March 17 by all the militant factions, was never absolutely respected by the Israeli army But the level of shelling, the pace of gunfire, did slow to the point where people felt some cautious hope. Here in Rafah, people living in areas near the Israeli s ettlements found themselves under sporadic fire—from both the Israeli Army and the settlers themselves—with some frequency.

But things have taken a huge jump back today toward the horrors we hoped were over when three teenagers were killed by Israeli Army gunfire near the border in Tal-Al-Sultan. A group of boys in their mid-teens were playing soccer in a playground in the Block J area about 150 feet from the border fence. Palestinian witnesses and medics say the ball was kicked out of bounds and some of the boys chased it into the border zone. The Israeli army snipers in the guard towers opened fire. Two boys were killed immediately. The ambulances were prevented from reaching the boys for some time and a third boy survived long enough to have surgery at Rafah's Al Najjar Hospital, but ultimately died of his wounds. They are Khaled Ghanaam, 14, Ashraf Mussa, 14, and Hassan Abu Zaid, 15. Other boys in the soccer game fled to safety and explained what had happened to the Palestinian security forces.

Sources at the hosp ital said the boys had multiple gunshot wounds in the chest and neck. Initial report s from the Israe li Army called the boys "arms smugglers" and said they ignored warning shots. Palestinian witnesses said they were simply playing soccer and trying to retrieve a ball.

There are sketchy reports I can get by walki-talki that some of the militants have sworn revenge and are firing Qassams at the Israeli settlements, while higher-ranking militant leaders have said they will still try to preserve the cease-fire. President Abbas has said, "We cannot accept that our children are being killed."

People here have been worried and tense all week at reports that an extremist right-wing Israeli group is threatening to attack the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem tomorrow. Whatever is happening in Jerusalem, whatever the leaders are saying, the reality here is terrible. Last night, a 30-year-old man was seriously injured by Israeli fire as he was on his way home in a border neighborhood. Last night, all of Rafah came under shelling, and the sky is full of Apaches as I write.

I just learned by phone from medical workers in Khan Younis that three children have been shot there in one of the areas near an Israeli settlement. The ambulances cannot reach them. I think it is too dangerous to try to get to Khan Younis and investigate in person. People here are distraught. I can hear shelling quite close to the internet café and should leave.

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