Tag: Beit Hanoun

End medical apartheid: Israel banning entry of Gaza patient Abd al-Kareem

10th November 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Gaza, occupied Palestine

Abd al-Kareem Nahid Abu Halloub, a 32 year old paitent had a heart attack on 6/10/2016 and is in a coma for about 36 days now as a result of a sudden fall to the floor. He was convulsed. His health condition is extremely serious as the doctors stated and has to get his treatment in the West Bank. Though, the paitent was denied access through Erez crossing twice.

“We took him directly to Al-Awda hospital and they made him Artificial ventilation to assist him to breath until his heart worked again. In the evening, we took him to the Indonesian hospital in Tal al-Za’tar – north Gaza and the doctors there helped my son with all what they can possibly do. But they advised us to treat him in the West Bank.” Explained the paitents father.

The hospitals in Gaza have limited medical equipment that the medical device needed for treating the paitent Abu Halloub, is not found in Gaza. The paitent needs to get his treatment in a hospital where all medical devices needed for his situation in available as the doctors explained to the paitent’s family.

“We waited 72 hours as the doctors requires and then we sent his medical reports to hospitals in the West Bank and we got an approval from al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron on the reception of the patient. We also had an approval from Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, we received a denial from entry from the Israeli side, they refused to give the patient permission to enter through Erez crossing.” The father added.

The paitent Abd al-Kareem Abu Halloub while in the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza

After a week, the family received another refusal for the paitents entry through Erez crossing to get his treatment. However, they are looking for any other ways to make him travel for treatment.

It’s worth mentioning that the Israeli seige of the Gaza Strip that began in mid 2007 has serious repercussion on the Palestinian health sector, resulting in an aggravation of the humanitarian situation facing Gaza’s 2 million people.

According to the International Hummaitarian Law and International Human Rights Law, Israel is obliged to protect civilian people, the wounded and sick in times of armed conflicts. It must prevent the deterioration of the humanitarian situation and allow the free passage of all consignment of medical stores with a decent medical care. However, the Israeli occupation continues to violate these rights. Consequently, the request for permits to recieve treatment outside the Gaza Strip increased.

Gazan families struggle to survive in wreckage left by Israel’s 2014 attack

22nd January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Beit Hanoun, Gaza strip, occupied Palestine

During the latest massacre in Gaza 60-year-old Fatma was one of the many Gazans who lost her home.

She was sheltering in an UNRWA school along with her husband and 4 daughters when the Israeli occupation forces bombed their home. Once the aggression was over a relative allowed them to settle in the house he was building. Two weeks after moving there, Fatma’s husband died due to the overwhelming pain and sadness of watching his wife and daughters living in such despicable conditions.

When the Zionist army entered Beit Hanoun a year and a half ago, this family was forced to leave their home along with all its belongings, just as their grandparents had been forced to leave in 1948, and travel by foot the almost 10 km between Beit Hanoun and Gaza City.

Now they have spent all the money they had in refurbishing as much as they could two of the rooms of the house they are surviving in. Because of this they almost do not have money buy food.

Raida, Fatma’s eldest daughter, told the ISM team that “during the last war I wasn’t scared because I was with my father, but if there’s another war I don’t know how I’ll react, because he won’t be with me anymore. I don’t know if then I’ll be brave as I’ve been in all the wars until now … But I’m sure about one thing, if there’s another war I won’t leave my home, after all, the zionists follow us wherever we go. If they want to bomb my home they can do it with me inside.”

Raida, behind the UN school where one baby died after being burned alive in a fire due to the bad conditions of the electrical installation

29-year-old Nagy Kamal Hamdan also lives in Beit Hanoun with his 3 children. His home was also bombed; he now survives along with his wife and children in a room at his parents’ home. That home was also attacked, but most of it is still stands.

Nagy's and Jamil's mother shows the shots made by an israeli sniper when she opened this same door during the aggression wm — Nagy and Jamil’s mother points to the shots Israeli snipers fired into the door when she opened it during the 2014 assault

Nagy's children at the rooms where they survive nowadays with their parents wm — Nagy’s children in the rooms where they now live with their parents

Nagy’s 17-year-old brother Jamil, also lives in the house. “We saw the Israelis arrive from our street,” he recalled, “they were shooting gas and live fire against us. We saw how they bombed the mosque in front of our home.”

Jamil at his parents' home — Jamil at his parents’ home

Shortly after the end of the 2014 attack Jamil started to suffer epileptic seizures and became unable to see with his left eye. His memory has also been affected. “Many times he doesn’t recognize the people, even his own father,” his mother told the ISM team. “He also forgets things that has just done. Recently came back to school, but has a lot of problems paying attention.”

nagy's children wm — Nagy’s young children

Senseless Israeli violence against demonstrators in Gaza

17th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Gaza, occupied Palestine

At yesterday’s demonstrations in Nahel Oz (east of Shijaia) and Erez Border (Beit Hanoun), 2 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and almost one hundred were injured.
Yahiya Abd al-Qader Farhat, 24 years old, and Mahmoud Hatim Hmeid, 22 years old were killed by Israeli forces. More than 90 persons have been injured, including journalists and paramedics. Ambulances and paramedics were repeatedly directly targeted by the Israeli forces.

Israeli army jeep with device to shoot tear gas, directed at Palestinian demonstrators

Demonstrators as seen through clouds of tear gas

Injured person carried away to an ambulance

Demonstrators with Palestinian flags at the border wall

Medics carrying an injured person to an ambulance

Ambulances and medics targeted by Israeli forces

Ambulances and first aid personnel suffering from tear gas directed at them by Israeli forces

Israeli soldiers open fire on 13 year-old boy in Gaza

11th August 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Maher Shitat, 13 years old, was shot in the leg on Friday night by the occupation forces.

Hi’s father sent him to bring his brother from a relative’s home and on the way there the soldiers shot him without previous advice. He was shot in El Zeraa area, in Beit Hanoun, at 8pm. He was walking at 500m from the fence when he was shot, on a frequently used road.

He was first taken to Beit Hanoun Hospital, where due to the lack of medical equipment the doctors where unable to treat him. After that he was transferred to Kamal Adwan Hospital, where the doctors decided not to remove the bullet, as they said it’s located very near to a vein, and removing it would most probably end up with his leg amputated.

Now they are trying to stabilize his condition. After a while they hope he will be able to walk again, and after 15 years, when his leg and veins are stronger, they’ll try to remove the bullet.

For the moment Maher is not allowed to walk, so he spends his days lying on a mattress.

His mother explains: “he is very afraid… he doesn’t want to speak and today spent more than 30 minutes just shaking.”

shot1 — Maher on the matress in is his home.

But as his family says, that’s not just because of this attack. During the last aggression his home was bombed, his cousin was killed and his father was injured in the leg.

They were not at home when it was bombed, they were already at the UNRWA shelter/school, but they were at home when the one next to theirs was bombed. Since that day Maher’s family says that his personality has changed. They think he has a trauma. In his short life Maher has already suffered 3 massive Zionist aggressions against the Gaza Strip.

Her mother explains that since the last massacre, and until now, he can’t go alone to the bathroom, as he is afraid the zionist soldiers will be inside.

She also explains how Maher and his brothers ask her all the time why the Israelis want to kill them, and that they keep crying because they don’t want to die.

The psychological effect of those aggressions are obvious on Maher, as on most of Gaza’s children, before the last massacre he had always been one of the first in his class, but this year he had very bad results in his exams and will have to repeat the course.

Last summer’s Israeli aggression is sending Gaza back to the Middle Ages

31st March | Miguel Hernández | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Zionist colonisers destroy the tools for self-sufficiency of Palestinians in Gaza

Months after the last massive Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, thanks to the social and independent media, everyone has read news and seen pictures of the attacks from the zionist regime against residential buildings, United Nations shelter-schools, hospitals, ambulances, mosques, churches and thousands of family homes.

However, little has been said about the almost complete destruction of Gaza’s industry and economy. As the Israeli Minister of Interior Eli Yishai said, the objective of the last operation was to “send Gaza back to the Middle Ages, destroying all of its infrastructure.” One of the more terrible blows committed towards this end has been the total destruction of the Beit Hanoun industrial area.

Screen Shot 2015-03-31 at 15.05.00 — Factory for construction materials bombed by Israel last summer, in the Industrial Area of Beit Hanoun – photo by Miguel Hernández

There were around 50 factories in Beit Hanoun, from which only three have been able to resume work seven months after the end of the assault.

Screen Shot 2015-03-31 at 15.05.10 — This factory for canned foods was also attacked – photo by Miguel Hernández

The factories in this industrial area provided work for 25% to 30% of Gaza’s population. Among the destroyed factories are those for paper, construction materials, clothing, medical equipment, plastic products, food and livestock products.

Screen Shot 2015-03-31 at 15.05.28 — Owner of the Afanah company presented photos of some of the 800 cows killed by Israeli attacks – photo by Miguel Hernández

The agricultural industry has also been wounded by Israel’s summer attacks on Gaza. The owner of the Afanah Company showed us the pictures of his 800 cows killed by Israeli attacks during the last war on Gaza. Each cow was going to feed 7 families during the Eid holiday. Besides losing all his cows, Israel also destroyed the four fridges of the company, which contained 400 tons of meat.

Abu Fakhri Abu Ghais, from Beit Hanoun, explained how during the last massacre Israel killed his 17 sheep, and all his sons’ sheep, they destroyed all his farming equipment, worth over 15,000 US dollars. Israeli forces also destroyed the pumps for extracting the groundwater and the 20 tons of reserve of wheat seeds that Abu Fakhri had stored for the current year. The occupation also demolished the cabling that brought electricity to his village, Abu Safiya. He and his family now live in a tent without water or electricity, as his home was also destroyed.

Screen Shot 2015-03-31 at 15.05.37 — Abu Fakhri stands next to the remains of one of his seeding machines; the price of this machine is 10,000$ – photo by Miguel Hernández

He and his family now live in a tent without water or electricity, as his home was also destroyed. Given the blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip, the struggling government of Hamas informed him that they don’t know when they’ll be able to restore the power supply, as they do not have available wire that is long enough.

In a Bedouin village located at the North of Beit Lahia, Hassan Sharadkha invited the author and his companions for a cup of tea in the wood cabin that he has built next to the rubble of his home. He showed us the pictures of everything he lost during the last summer at the hands of the Zionist occupation forces: 32 dunums of fruit and olive trees, 27 sheep and their stable, 2 cows, a 200 chicken farm, a horse, the water pump and the car he had just bought.

His older son, an electric engineer, was made unemployed because the solar panel company he worked for has also been bombed.

Screen Shot 2015-03-31 at 15.05.48 — Hassan Sharadkha and one of his grandsons show us the ruins of his home. He lived in this 4 story house with three of his sons and their families – photo by Miguel Hernández

Ninety per cent of the Palestinian farmers in Gaza live in similar or worse circumstances.

Screen Shot 2015-03-31 at 15.05.58 — Tractors and other farming equipment were clear targets for Israel during its last operation against the Gaza Strip – photo by Miguel Hernández

These attacks – against factories, farms, farming equipment and homes – were not by chance or accidental. These attacks demonstrate once again that the target of the genocidal Israeli colonialism is the Palestinian people itself, and that the war that has been waging the last 66 years, under cover of Europe and the US, is against a nation, Palestine, that they seek to wipe off the map.