August 06  Report

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27 August 06

A press conference for the released journalists

Ismail Haneya with the two journalists following their release

Reporter Steve Centanni, a US national, and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig from New Zealand, were driven to their Beach hotel in Gaza City to embraces from colleagues and rushed inside by black-clad Palestinian security officials this afternoon.

Describing the ordeal as a "trauma", Centanni burst into tears as he walked into the hotel. The two men spent 13 days as captives of the previously unknown Holy Jihad Brigades, which had demanded that all Muslim prisoners be freed from US jails. The Palestinian prime minister Ismail Hanyeh gave orders to all police members to investigate and find the two foreign journalists who were kidnapped by unknown people. Hanyeh was there to welcome the two journalists at Beach Hotel in Gaza City after they were released together with the wife of one of the journalists who was waiting for her husband Steve Centanni to come back.

The Reuters car completely destroyed by Israeli helicopters

In another incident in the Eatsern part of Gaza, Israeli war crimes continue as two Hamas members were killed and 7 others injured including two journalists who were inside a car belonging to the Reuter News Agency.

The damage caused by the Israeli helicopters hit the bullet-proof car leaving damage to the car as well as two journalists seriously injured. The two Palestinian journalists are Fadel Shanaa, 22. and Sad Al Sabah, 26. Targetting journalists while covering events is not a new crime in Palestine.

23 August 06

Damage caused by Israeli helicopters in Rafah

I srael tanks on the way back to gaza

A Palestinian family carrying what remains of their bombed houseand load it into a donky cart. The house had been targeted by the isareli helicopters

A Palestinian man on the top of his house after it wa bombed by the isareli army

Rafah Destruction

Rafah destruction

WAR ON GAZA STILL GOING ON : Israeli soldiers backed by helicopter shelling, tanks and armored personnel carriers, moved into Palestinian-controlled areas near the main Israeli crossing next to Karni Crossing.

Gaza is running out of food, water and there are electricity shortages in most of the areas. It is expected that Egypt will provide the Eastern part of Gaza with electricity, but it seems that the Israeli Army is not letting this happen.

So far, five Palestinians have been wounded, including three Islamic Jihad members, and some Palestinian security sources said that three Palestinians were arrested by the Israeli Army.

"They took two of my cousins and asked them about militants and tunnels that we don’t know about at all said the old farmer Ahmed Heles, 65, while cleaning the remains of his green houses, as the Israeli bulldozers demolished all his olive trees. ”We will stay strong and survive until we die in our land” he added.

The man was waiting for the harvest time to come, so he can continue his dream and see his grandson getting married, but Israeli bulldozers made this dream impossible by demolishing his olive trees and all his belongings.

I sit and wonder what this old man has done to the Israelis, and why demolish the olive trees that were one day a symbol of peace between Palestinians and Israelis?

In Khan Younis City, the Israeli Occupation Forces moved into farmlands near the town of Khan Younis with tens of tanks and bulldozers, firing machine guns into the fields as the farmers ran away from their house. The shooting targetted a cameramen and journalists who were filming the Israeli crimes.

This morning also, two Palestinians were killed by the Israeli soldiers in Khan Younies, the bombing in the north and Israeli warships bombing and shooting at the Palestinian fishermen yesterday and today morning.

20 August 06

A Palestinain child inspecting a car after the air raid by the Israeli helicopters taregtting
one of the houses in the Eatstern part of Gaza

P alestinian children have nothing to do, but play around the rubble of demolsihed houses
looking for whatever remains from their home

Gaza

Palestinian police in Gaza

Where will these Palestinians live after all this damage?

The mobile phone rings and my friend Abed is screaming into the phone: "Mohammed, explosion here in Gaza city, many injured many killed. There are no ambulances and many have been injured and killed." It was the house of Iyad Al Masri, a Palestinian man living in the Eastern part of Gaza City. The explosion killed one person and many were injured.

The attacks in Gaza are continuing, while the world is busy watching the ceasefire in Lebanon. War is intensifying in Gaza with heavier shelling all over!

In the North of Gaza Strip, three Palestinian farmers were killed by Israeli artillery shelling—the farmers were working in their fields and greenhouses. They were expected to come back to their families with food and some money of what they have managed to sell, but sadly, they were brought as body parts of human flesh, arms, legs and fingers. Palestinian children then have their last farewell moments by looking at the bodies of their family members.

Imagine when you can't get back into your own home:

The Rafah border is still closed, and thousands of people are stuck on the border waiting for Israel to allow the European Union observers come back and continue their mission in Gaza—the Rafah crossing border has been closed for many days and many people have been warning of the humanitarian crisis over there!

In Al Burij, a bomb struck a civilian house — no further information is available about the attack until this moment. The Israeli helicopter fired at least one missile on a workshop—the damage is all over and around the workshop in Gaza City.

Also in Al Burij camp, in a different incident, a Palestinian boy was shot by Israeli soldiers—his body was riddled with bullets and he was brought to his mother.

The war is still going on, the public opinion of the world is falling; the USA and the silence of the governments before Israeli war crimes against humanity can only mean giving the green light to Israel to carry on more and more crimes against civilians while the civilized world is watching!!

10 August 06

The attack on Gaza is still ongoing. Rafah border opened for just three hours allowing Palestinians to leave, then it closed again because of Israeli threats.

Last night was an awful nigh in Gaza city. There have been multiple attacks and incursions in the Gaza Strip. 3 Palestinian were killed, one of them a 5 years old child [a girl]. A Palestinian car which was bombed by Israeli F16s belonged to the Popular Resistance Committee—civilians were injured and killed in the attack.

Blood, legs, arms and fingers are all scattered across Palestinian streets after an Israeli helicopter strike. This is not new for Gaza. Israeli public opinion against Olmert is rising, and the media is ignoring Gaza. The US administration is very strongly supporting the war as an option in the Middle East while the international community is watching what's going on in Gaza and staying silent.

The Egyptian-Gaza border was closed today because of what Israel always calls an 'Israeli alert'. This means more death for people on the border, more suffering and starvation in the worst cases where there is no food, no place to sleep and no medicine for the children and the elderly who need medicine.

Gaza is still the same. It is lit up on fire by the taxes paid for by the civilized world. Where will this end up, and when? I can no longer answer, but the international community should better have an answer.

3 August 06

Gaza children.. daily suffering under Occupation

A Palestinian girl sleeping on the floor at an UNRWA school where she sought refuge from the shelling in Rafah Refugee Camp

Children running to an UNRWA school

Damage in Rafah

Even coffee shops were targetted

Fatima Jadallah, 55, killed by Israeli bullets while in her own home in Rafah Refugee Camp

Here in the Gaza Strip, the only taste is of fear under the Israeli occupation. As a mother, you would, of course, worry what to feed your family for the next day. As a father, one might wonder what to do with the school and university tuitions. A child might think about where to go to play that would be safe. As a student one might look for the safest way to get to school without being killed or injured. But even the “safest” route may bring death or injury.

Life in Palestine is full of troubles wherever one goes, and here the Palestinians are paying the cost by being hit by Israeli helicopters and US-made rockets and artillery shells. If you would ask any child who got injured or even paralyzed by a US made rocket how they felt, what do you expect the answer to be … complaining? Appealing to Americans to stop the war? Or even crying and begging them to put pressure on Israel or what?

It's enough to say, "THANK YOU AMERICA!!"

This is the most simple thing that a Palestinian child can say, who, a few hours before went to buy some falafels for his mom but failed to bring them home. Instead of falafels, she heard a voice on the phone from the hospital saying, "Your 8 year old child, Samer, got injured and is in the hospital now." Then the mother would have to run to the hospital and all she would find was her child lying down in a comma with a critical injury to his leg. Shall we ask her what she thinks? Or how she feels when she knows that her son got injured by a US made rocket? I guess that would not be the right time to ask her these questions, even though we all know what her answers would be!

Over the past few hours, north of Beit Hanoun, two civilians were killed and four others wounded as Israeli F16 fighters hit a civilian car northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun area.

Medical sources at Kamal Adwan hospital said that Ahmed Abu Qoaideh 15, and Mervat Abu Sharkh 24, were killed and four others were wounded in the bombarding of the car.

The war is still going on. Large numbers of people and casualties are being hospitalized as a result of the daily attacks on Gaza Strip by the Israeli Occupation Troops!

Right now in Rafah, I have seen people and children who had been bleeding for 12 hours, laying on the ground, while ambulances are no longer able to evacuate their bodies. The attack is still ongoing in the last 15 hours and so far more than 12 people were killed and over 40 were injured. the attack is still going on up till now, and the numbers of victims is increasing minute by minute. People in Rafah are appealing to the world and all humans who have hearts and mind to stop Israeli from killing and targeting people inside their houses.

Rafah has turned into a hell as a result of the incursion which seems to be a very heavy with a number of 70 tanks and bulldozers as well as the Israeli helicopters and F16s hovering allover the night and bombing all related to humans.

No water, no electricity in most of the areas in Rafah, as most of the families have evacuated to the schools runs by UNRWA in Rafah refugee camp, but so far and the number of the victims is increasing and many of the people whom injured and killed where very close to Abu Yousef Al Najjar hospital, which is the only hospital and when it comes not to be safe for a medical worker to get into the area or a journalist to get into the spot, then here we can say that this is the end of the most democratic country in the world!