Breaking news: 11 pm - Israeli F16s hit police station building in Khan Younies, leaving at least 4 police members killed and others injured. The dead have not yet been identified but only fragments and piece of human bodies are scattered all over the area and under the rubble of the building. The Israeli F16s are still hovering here.
Earlier in the day:
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| Al Shifa operation room in Gaza suffer lack of medicine due to the clousre |
Palestinian children dead in the morgue - killed by Israeli warplane rockets |
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| Palestinian woman siting next to her son's grave in Gaza |
Palestinian woman reacts to the killing of two boys in the north of Gaza Strip |
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| Palestinian police inspect the remains of a destroyed vehicle of Mobarak Al Hasanat who was assisnated by Israeli warplanes while driving on beach road |
Surgeons inspect the machines inside an operation room in Al Shifa hospital in Gaza as doctors expect the operation rooms to stop operating due to sanctions |
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| Palestinian relatives gather around the bodies of two boys who were killed in the north of Gaza Strip by Israeli rockets |
Surgeon at Al Shifa hospital is seen inside the operation room in Gaza's biggest hospital |
Gaza: Bombing Everywhere, Fuel and Electricity Shortages Everywhere
Civilians of the Gaza Strip, a zone of land solely highlighted in the media for the takeover of Hamas and past fighting attributed to factional rivalries, are dying, abruptly ignored by the world’s media. The attention they are still receiving comes in the form of ongoing bombing, shelling, and the constant hovering of Israeli warplanes. Israeli tanks and bulldozers have invaded the southern, northern, and eastern parts of the Gaza Strip, including Shejaia camp, where many people have been killed and injured by the IOF. Bulldozers have razed vital agricultural land.
Two Palestinian children, aged 2 and 13, and a young woman were killed Saturday in an explosion damaging two houses in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younies. A Ministry of Interior spokesman cited the source of the attack as an Israeli missile which targeted one of the Khan Younies houses on Saturday morning.
Six other Palestinians, including two children aged 3 and 4, were injured in the blast that partly destroyed one home and damaged several neighboring houses in Al Qarara area east of Khan Younies. Numerous others were transferred to hospital, suffering from shock.
Nasser Hospital reported the deceased victims as 2 year old infant Bara Tayssir Al Sumairi, her 13 year old brother Najah Al Sumairi, and 20 year old Samah Nawaf abu Thabit.
This comes after a week of Israeli attacks, leaving another 6 Palestinians dead in IOF incursions Wednesday and Thursday.
In addition to the many Palestinians killed in the past few days, and the numerous injured, the Gaza Strip is still under siege, with severe shortages in electricity, water, and basic needs from the market.
Even things as simple as a bottle of milk, cola, or any soft drink are no longer available in the local markets in Gaza. Things are getting harder under these grim circumstances, borders closed and ill people deprived of the right to medicine and medical treatment. Israel is not allowing sick people in critical need of medical treatments, many who have cancer and heart conditions, as was the case with an elderly man who died Tuesday due to Israeli belligerence at the Gaza-Israel Erez border crossing. The 77 year old man had secured permission for transfer to an Israeli hospital for treatment but was twice turned back at the border. He succumbed to a heart attack, dying at the border.
Medicine, Electricity and Bread:
Senior Palestinian officials appealed for international intervention Sunday after Israel approved a plan to disrupt power supplies to the Gaza Strip in response to continuing lunching of home made rocket attacks.
The Israeli plan, authorized Thursday night by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, is expected to be implemented immediately after the next rocket attack occurs. It seems that the plan started, as electricity has been cut off repeatedly in northern Gaza. Indeed, the Israeli energy company, Dor Alon, confirmed receiving orders to begin to cut off fuel from the Israeli Defense Ministry.
Israel provides Gaza Strip with two thirds of Gaza’s electricity, for which the Palestinian Authority must pay. The remaining third, derived from electricity generators, became scarce in the past few months, with Israel’s closing of the Nahl Ozz crossing, a transit point for liquids and gas.
The United Nations and other international bodies joined Palestinians in denouncing the new measures as collective punishment of the residents of an enclave closed off by the Israeli Occupation Forces. Even before the latest crackdown, Gaza's residents have endured restrictions of travel and shortages of food and supplies imposed by the Israel, backed by Western nations after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip.
“There is no milk in the shop, no medicine in the hospital, and bread is getting more expensive,” said 43 year old Abu Adli. He was complaining to his neighbour, Fuad, who replied: “Yes, Israel wants to make life impossible for us, and they don’t ever open the borders for us to go and find some other solution. The aim is to kill us inside our borders, to starve us to death,” he said.
“The world is silent and is thus supporting Israel’s decision to make us starve,” commented Wael. The 40 year old man sat in the dark on a street in one of Rafah’s camps. The electricity is cut off, leaving it a black night where all you can hear are Israeli warplanes hovering over your head, and all you can wonder is, as usual, when will this strangulation of Gaza’s human beings be enough? When will our suffering be too great for the world? How many will have died before this time finally arrives?
As I’m writing this news update, 4 Palestinians were killed, and other twenty were injured in Rafah and Biet Lahya attacks. Two are Hamas members, and one who is 17 years old boy and was killed while on his way to school in the north of Gaza Strip.
Mahmoud Abu Taha, 20 years old died after waiting 8 hours at Erez crossing, trying to cross to an Israeli hospital for medical treatment for colon cancer. Israel has denied his entry since October 18. His father was has been also arrested in the same day he tried to cross o Israeli hospital.
Mohammed Al Susei, 13 years old, and Mohammed Hillis, an armed member of the clan, were killed during the fighting in Gaza City. The father of the boy was also among the casualties.
Hamas officials said the fighting began when members of the Hillis family fired at a vehicle carrying Hamas’ Palestinian policemen.
Nonstop Fighting:
Palestinian security forces had demanded the clan surrender members who were involved in clashes on Wednesday in which at least three Palestinians were killed.
Mediators from other Palestinian factions said they had brokered a ceasefire agreement, but areas of the eastern part of Gaza City remained closed off.
Police, Al Qassam Brigades members, and Hillis clan members, patrolled Gaza’s streets carrying guns and closing off the main streets in the eastern part of Gaza.
Gaza’s police forces, formerly known as the Executive Forces, but now officially known as the Palestinian Police, are managed by the Ministry of Interior.
Ihab Al Ghouseen, spokesman for the Ministry, stated: “Since last night the members of the Hillis family have shown they have no intention of implementing our agreement and have erected sand blockades, laid mines, and taken up arms.”
Yet, by Sunday the Ministry announced a ceasefire with Hillis family members. in Rafah, a 50 years old Palestinian mother was killed and more than 17 have been wounded during clashes between Palestinian police , Hamas members and Islamic Jihad members. Heavy clashes are still going on all-over Rafah during all night.
Ever Grim:
The situation in Gaza is dire at the moment, with the border closures locking in scores of people who need to get out for medical operations into West Bank and Israeli hospitals. Medical emergencies or not, Israel has closed the border on them, on the age-old pretext of ‘security reasons.’
This applies even to the child whose neck was broken in a car accident, waiting bleeding at the Erez crossing in the north of Gaza. Inevitably, she had to go back to the hospital after a long wait at the Israel-controlled crossing which ended in her receiving no medical care.
A further two Palestinians, Raed Shamlakh and Nizar Abu Arab, both young men of 22 years, fell to Israeli forces when the Israeli navy fired a missile on a Palestinian fishing boat.
Further Attacks:
IOF soldiers which had invaded Rafah Friday left Saturday morning from the area near the non-functional Gaza airport.
Also on Friday, the IOF shelled and destroyed an electricity transformer, the main one, in the north of Gaza, leaving civilians powerless and without light.
While some Gaza citizens are plunged in darkness, and others subjected to invasions and IOF attacks, all are affected by the months-long Israeli closure of border crossings and Israel’s severe limitation of the entry of vital supplies.
Sunday, the Health Ministry announced they no longer had nitrous oxide necessary for surgery, resulting in another tragedy for those Palestinians who are not even trying to seek medical care in Israel: they can now not even have basic surgery because of Israel’s iron fist and iron wall.
Eid El Fitr Begins; Gazans See Little to Celebrate
While Muslims all over the world Friday marked the beginning of the Eid holiday with gifts and feasts, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip instead felt the tightening grip of an Israeli embargo. Gazans at the same time mourned the dead from fighting which ended last June with Hamas taking control of Gaza, and the West Bank coming under the control of Fatah, under by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
“We mark a very sad Eid. We remember our loved ones who were killed and we miss them,” Majdi, a 46 year old from Rafah, said while holding his grandson. The infant’s father was killed in the internal factional fighting in Gaza in last June.
Eid day came at the end of the Ramadan holy month. A break of the month-long fasting, this should be the happiest day for Palestinians.
But in fact, the smiles you see when people greet each other belie their sadness. Talking to different people, you realize that the wounds are deep, much deeper than we all thought. The one who has lost his house, dwells in memories of his house; the one who has lost his child, is lost in memories of his child.
At one of Gaza’s graveyards, 8 year old Sameh is carrying flowers and watering the grass on the grave of his father. “It’s a sad day. I have been waiting since early morning to visit my dad’s grave. I wanted to be with him all day long,” he said. His father was killed by Israeli warplanes in Gaza City, in one of their many air raids throughout the Strip. Even sadder is that under this ground, where the body of his dad should be lying, there are instead just some fragments of flesh. Yet, for a moment the child smiles, looking up and saying: “I will take care of my mom and two sisters, as my dad did, when I grow up.”
This week, Fatah has rejected a new call for dialogue from the Hamas elected Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh renewed his message to thousands of worshippers assembled for Eid prayers saying in his speech: “There are wounds in every house but we need to rise above the pain. Let’s shake hands and let love and harmony prevail.”
It doesn’t seem that Haniyeh’s words on love and harmony will find any willing ears from Fatah, or from the US-backed government in Ramallah.
Yes, instead Gaza’s borders remain virtually sealed to all but the most essential supplies, casting a dark shadow over the holiday.
Shortages
New clothes, a traditional purchase at this time of year, were hard to find in Gaza this week, and prices for old stock have soared to more than double in some places.
Palestinians traditionally eat fish on the first day of Eid. This year, though, fish is no longer affordable for most people, despite living beside the sea. “Per kilo of fish, it’s 60 Shekels. How can I buy it for my kids when we have no income, when my husband is ill and no one works?” asked Samirah Abdelrauf. She depends instead on a welfare program from the Ministry of Social Affairs in Gaza, as well affected by the siege: orphans and widows are now also not getting the wages needed to keep them surviving.
Attacks
During Eid, a 21 year old Hamas member, Hassan Naim, was killed, with five others injured. Family and friends held a funeral, as Palestinians seem to be doing every day in Gaza. The difference this time was that he was killed on the day of joy and happiness, when he should have been visiting his sisters, brothers, and relatives.
He should have been spending time visiting friends and neighbors, sharing rare moments of joy in besieged Gaza. Yet, even these moments were cut off, taken away with the unleasing of another Israeli missile, in a string of military incursions on Gaza that continued through Ramadan and even on Eid.
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| we want our fathers releazed from Israeli jails a cry by the palestinian children and relatives during a protest in Gaza City |
Palestinians waiting at the gate of Cairo Amman Bank as the news spread that money is coming in fro PA employees |
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| Palestinian youngmen carrying a Palestinian child who was injured at Erez Crossing during the releaze of 29 palestinian prisoners. |
Palestinian women lamenting during the funeral of Fatah movement member Husam AL Hoehi who was killed by Israeli tank shell |
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| Palestinian women lamenting over the body of Rami Ayad |
palestinian woman begging in one of the main Palestinian streets in Gaza City |
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| Palestinian mourners take part during the funeral of Fatah movement member Husam Al Hoehi |
Palestinian man selling clothes as preperation for Eid in the last days of Holy Ramadan Month |
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| Palestinian leader Dr Zakaria Al Aghaa during a meeting for Fatah in Gaza City |
Farewell funeral |
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| Rami Ayad's funeral |
palestinian priest reading the Bible standing by the body of Palestinian Christian Rami Ayad who was killed by uknown gunmen as many political factions call for investigation to reveal criminals |
Three Palestinians were killed this week when their car exploded outside Al Muntada security compound close to Gaza’s fishing harbor. Hamas, which holds control over the Gaza Strip, accused Fatah rivals of trying to plant a bomb near a Hamas security post.
A Hamas security official said the three Palestinians who were killed in the blast belonged to Fatah and accused the group of attempting to plant a bomb near one of its security posts when the Fatah vehicle exploded. This appears to be a breaking trend, as during the past week a number of cars have exploded in the streets of Gaza, leaving many injured and others killed. These explosions occur suddenly, with no indication on who is behind the blasts or what their motives are.
“The bombing was so loud—I felt as if the roof our house was the target,” said Yahya, a taxi driver from Gaza City who lives close to the harbor. “The children were asleep, but all of us woke up with the terrifying blast of the bomb,” he added.
Hamas officials said at least one of the men was a senior Fatah militant. This comes in addition to other incidents of killings in the Gaza Strip: another Hamas member, Mohammed Hassan, was killed when the Israel Occupation Forces fighter planes fired missiles at a vehicle carrying Hamas members in the southern Gaza Strip near the city of Rafah. Yet another man was killed during an exchange of fire with the Israeli army near the Khan Younis border.
"Thank God we were released,” said Abdel Hadi Hasaneen, hugging family members while giving an interview. “I hope that all other prisoners from all other factions will be freed.” Hasaneen was imprisoned in Israeli jails for 14 years. This is his first time breathing Gaza’s air since then.
His release came when Israel sent 29 Palestinian prisoners back home to the Gaza Strip, along with a number of prisoners to the West Bank. Many people consider this “good will gesture” as but a drop of water in the ocean, as there are over 11, 000 prisoners still in Israeli jails, including women and children.
“Most of those who were released by Israel were approaching the end of their sentence and would have been released in some weeks anyhow,” said a family member waiting at Erez crossing. He was kept waiting at the crossing for his brother, but eventually he realized that his brother was not among those on the list, so he had to return home without the imprisoned brother.
“They are all liars. Israel wants to cheat us and the world by showing they release prisoners. But the fact is that they should have been released and some even should have been released last week, but were kept until today,” he said, refusing to reveal his name.
The release comes ahead of the November meeting in Washington, a meeting which is receiving much media hype already as the newest possibility for a peace accord, in a long succession of discarded accords and UN resolutions. As with the removal of a token number of roadblocks in the West Bank, in hand with the increase overall of roadblocks, this release of a small number of prisoners seems to be little more than an overture to the media and politicians, presenting a good face for Israel.
During the welcome-back celebrations, women, children and young men hugged the prisoners and carried flags with victory signs. As soon as people got too close to the Israeli barrier at Erez crossing, they were met by Israeli gunfire from the Israeli posts, injuring Reuters photojournalist Mohammed Jadallah, who was shot in the leg.
Doctors at Shifa hospital said that he is in stable condition, but recommend transferring him to more well-equipped hospital in Israel to stop internal bleeding.
And yet the borders remain closed to all but the most dire of medical emergencies, rendering it unlikely that such a “minor” issue as internal bleeding will be considered for passage to an Israeli hospital.
Today, Palestinian Christian Rami Ayad, was killed by unknown militants in Gaza City, as different political factions protest against the crime and call Palestinian police for investigation to bring the criminals to justice.
