Category: Gaza - Page 46 - International Solidarity Movement

Israeli gunfire wounds a Palestinian and injures a child in a resulting accident

25th November 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Mohammed Adel Afana. (Photo by Rosa Schiano)

On the afternoon of Friday, 22th November 2013, Mohammed Adel Afana, age 22, was injured by Israeli gunfire east of the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

Adel Afana had gone there with friends. Each Friday, many Palestinians go to the cemetery, which is located about 300 meters from the fence that separates the Gaza Strip from territory occupied by Israel in 1948.

It was between 3:30 and 4:00 pm. Some youths began to throw stones at Israeli soldiers. Adel Afana joined them. In the hospital, he said there had been three Israeli jeeps and about 10 soldiers. A soldier shot his right thigh. The bullet entered and exited, but cut the nerves and left shrapnel inside the limb.

The young men with him called an ambulance. It transported Adel Afana to Kamal Odwan hospital in Jabalia. He was later transferred to the Beit Hanoun hospital for surgery. There doctors removed the shrapnel from his leg and cleaned the still-open wound.

Adel Afana will probably need another surgery due to the severed nerves. Before the interviewed ended, he was transferred to Kamal Odwan hospital again.

He works in a bakery. His family is has 10 members.

Adel Afana was previously wounded on 30th March 2012, Land Day, during the Global March to Jerusalem at the Erez checkpoint in Beit Hanoun. It was a bloody day, with Israeli soldiers targeting and shooting the arms and legs of young protesters. Mahmoud Zaqout, age 19, was killed by a bullet to his chest.

Adel Afana says he was shot in his his right thigh, the same place he was injured on Friday.

In addition, one of his brothers was wounded during Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead” military offensive against the Gaza Strip in 2008-2009. One of his legs was amputated.

“All the gunshot wounds caused by the Israeli army are in sensitive areas of the body,” said Dr. Fayez al-Barrawi in Beit Hanoun hospital. “I have 17 years’ experience in surgery at many hospitals. Most wounds are in the head, chest and legs. More than 95% of them have no hope of cure, even abroad.”

“There is not much hope of recovery,” Dr. al-Barrawi said of Adel Afana’s wound. “It is difficult to reconnect nerves and bring the situation to what it was before.”

Hamada Suleiman al-Barrawi with his mother. (Photo by Rosa Schiano)

The second injured patient lay in the same hospital room as Adel Afana. Hamada Suleiman al-Barrawi, age 15, complained of pain, despite the administration of analgesics.

Hamada saw Adel Afana’s injury. In hysterics, and near a nervous breakdown, he began running aimlessly until he fell. The fall has fractured his right arm and some veins. He already underwent one surgery and will face another.

Hamada already experienced a tragic story. His cousin Bilal al-Barrawi, age 20, was killed by Israeli forces in November, during their “Operation Pillar of Defense” military offensive. When Hamada saw his body, he began having hysterical reaction to the sight of injuries. He doesn’t control his movement and his memory is affected. A doctor said his case is difficult due to the rupture of his veins.

The ceasefire of 21st November 2012 established that Israeli occupation forces should “refrain from hitting residents in areas along the border” and “cease hostilities in the Gaza Strip by land, by sea and by air, including raids and targeted killings.”

However, Israeli military attacks by land and sea followed from the day after the ceasefire, and Israeli warplanes fly constantly over the Gaza Strip. Seven civilians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces since the end of their last major offensive, “Operation Pillar of Defense,” and more than 130 have been wounded.

These attacks on the Gaza Strip continue amid international silence.

The water in Gaza is not only water

22nd November 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Charlie Andreasson | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

I was just going to make dinner when I realized the filtered water in my tank was almost done. Perhaps it would be enough if I used the last of my bottled water. But then I would have nothing to drink with my meal. And there would be no coffee, not after the food and not for breakfast. Glances at the tap, I considered diluting the filtered water with tapwater, in order to save time and to avoid having to walk two blocks to fill the tank. It was dark outside, and the shop with water might be closed.

Tapwater cannot be used for cooking, or should not be used for cooking. I avoid doing it anyway. I wash dishes in it, but do not use it to cook my rice. It’s salt. Saltwater penetrates the underground aquifier, which it is larger than the natural supply of fresh water can fill. But the seawater is not its only contaminant. According to the United Nation, chemicals and sewage also pollute it, which is not surprising when 90,000 cubic meters of untreated sewage gush out every day. Sewage, from the toilets, back in the taps. With water treatment plants, that works. But in Gaza, the problem is that there is not enough diesel to run the generators around the clock. And for those Israel has bombed, well, it also stops the import of replacement parts. Meanwhile seawater, chemicals and sewage increase in the water supply. By 2016, UN expects the water to become completely unusable. Only three years are left until then. And at 2020, no one they say, no one will be able to live here.

I open the fridge, hoping to find something that does not require water for cooking. I close it again. Maybe the store is open, but the cistern outside it is empty. It’s not just me who needs water. And some families have to spend as much as a third of their income on it. They must use the contaminated tapwater far more than I do. When I first came here, I used tapwater to brush my teeth. That was a mistake I will not repeat. But I rinse the toothbrush in it afterwards, shaking it carefully. I think that’s okay. A Swiss woman visiting Gaza asked if I drank the filtered water. It should be drinkable, but someone told me it is only filtered from salt. I do not want to find out how things are, do not want to know. I buy the more expensive bottled water. But I wash my clothes in water from the plumbing system, like everyone else here is forced to do. I wash my hands in it, my face. I take my showers in it, washing off my salty sweat with contaminated water, polluted not only by salt, like everyone else here must.

It becomes more polluted every year. The farmers have problems with it. It’s too salty for citrus seeds to germinate, and causes harvests to decline for the products that still grow. Tanker trucks drive to those who can afford to pay. Israel says it’s concerned, has plans to pull in a pipeline and talks about desalination plants, the same plants it keeps from entering. And I think about what will happen when the disaster strikes, when no one can live here, when everyone is forced to flee: a new Nakba, caused not by the force of arms but by the siege. Where can they go? Who is prepared to receive them? And what will happen then? Will Israel then will take over the empty land, this terra nullius, pumping in water, getting the desert to bloom? I hear it as an echo.

Sewage flows in Gaza streets for 18 hours a day

21st November 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

The lack of electricity in the Gaza Strip is also creating an environmental crisis. Wastewater treatment facilities have stopped due to the lack of fuel. In the Zeitoun neighborhood, in the east of Gaza City, a sewage pumping station has stopped working due to the lack of electricity. The wastewater flooded the streets and houses in the neighborhood.

In the few hours when electricity is on, the water is again partially collected from the plant, leaving mud and putrid slime on which children walk to reach their homes. In some cases, inhabitants have built small bridges. In others, where this is not possible, people have to look for alternate routes through the neighborhood. When the system stops, sewage again starts to submerge the streets.

At the entrance one building, residents had placed wooden boards to walk on until they reach the stairs. The building was partially evacuated, with only a few families remaining.

“We have lived here a month, and we would like to leave,” Nadia, a young mother, said shortly before the electricity cut. “We haven’t gone out for a week. My kids are sick. I needed to take them to the hospital to see what they had. The doctor told me they contracted an infection due to the dirty water. They had high fevers. Their temperature was over 40 degrees.” Nadia has three daughters and one son. During the night, they can’t sleep because of the stench of sewage. There are also insects and rats.

The waste water also flooded a farmland on which many olive trees are planted. If the emergency is not solved, the land will be irreversibly contaminated. The pumping station, which is used to transfer wastewater from the center to the south of Gaza City, was flooded.

Much of the fuel arrived in Gaza through the underground tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt, now almost totally destroyed by the Egyptian army. Israeli fuel, which is twice as much, costs too much for most in Gaza to afford.

The Energy Authority in Gaza had started to buy fuel from Israel through the Energy Authority in Ramallah, which exempted fuel purchases from taxes. But Ramallah Authority demanded the Gaza Authority pay taxes on the fuel due to the Palestinian Authority’s current financial crisis. The Energy Authority in Gaza, which cannot pay the costs, refused.

The only power plant in the Gaza Strip can work for limited periods. In coming days, the supply of electricity is expected to be further reduced from six to four hours per day. “A disaster, a catastrophe,” children in the Zeitoun neighborhood repeated. Employees of the municipality worked with boots and gloves. Other wasterwater treatment facilities may stop if their generators also run out of fuel.

The humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip are deteriorating. The energy crisis affects all the daily needs of the population. Israel has kept the Gaza Strip under siege for over seven years, imposing restrictions on exports (almost zero) and imports of goods, fuel, building materials and other necessities, thus creating increases in unemployment, poverty and aid dependency.

Israeli forces capture two Palestinian fishermen and seize their boat off Gaza

21st November 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Ammar Asad al-Sultan (left) and Mohsen Zayed. (Photo by Rosa Schiano)

On Sunday, 17th November 2013, two Palestinian fishermen were captured by Israeli naval forces, who also confiscated their boat, in Gaza waters.

Ammar Asad al-Sultan, age 19, and Mohsen Zayed, age 25, were on a small fishing boat, or hasaka, without an engine, about one mile off the coast of Soudanya in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces released them about 3:00 am the following day.

Ammar Asad al-Sultan lives in an area called Salatin, in the north of the Gaza Strip.

“We went fishing at 5:00 pm,” he said there Tuesday. “Around 6.30 pm, an Israeli gunboat approached our boat and the Israeli soldiers opened fire into the water. We tried to quickly pull our nets in order to escape, but we could not.”

Without a motor, the two fishermen could not escape. “I’m 25, and I have never experienced something so terrifying in my life,” Moshen said. “I was afraid of losing my life.”

The Israeli soldiers forced the two fishermen to undress and jump into the water. “It was very cold,” Ammar said. “It was freezing. They told us to jump into the water and swim 30 meters towards the Israeli gunboat.”

On board, the Israeli soldiers brought the fishermen to the bow of the boat, cuffed their hands and feet, and covered their heads. A soldier asked them their names. The gunboat didn’t go directly to Ashdod, but moved south before doubling back and and reaching the Israeli port of Ashdod.

“In Ashdod, two soldiers took us to a small room,” Mohsen said. “They removed the handcuffs. Then, a military doctor checked our health, blood pressure and temperature. Then we were kept handcuffed again for about 30 minutes in a room, before they separated us and we were questioned individually. They removed the handcuffs and the hood from my head, and asked me about my family, my work, everything about my private life, how many children I had. Then an investigator asked me which political party I support. And he asked me how many brothers I have. ‘Eight,’ I replied. ‘You are a liar,’ he told me. ‘I’m not,’ I said. He insulted me and said, ‘You have nine brothers.’ I told him one of my brothers died when he was five years old, so I had not counted him.'”

After the interrogation, soldiers handcuffed the two fishermen, covered their heads and took them to another room. Ammar said soldier asked him to undress, then he checked his body with an explosive detector alarm able to detect weapons and even gunpowder. “The investigator, whose the name was Jamal, asked me why I was fishing in the forbidden area,” Ammar said. “Then he showed me a printed map and told me to mark my home. He asked me about my brothers and their work, and if I knew someone who works for Hamas. He said, ‘One of your brothers works for Hamas. We follow his steps every day.’ I told him that I don’t know anyone and my brother is not working for Hamas. The investigator told me, ‘I know everything happens in Gaza. We are watching at you. We could attach you, because your brother works with a terrorist organization.’ Then he told me to tell my brother to stay away from certain people because the whole family will be in danger if he is not be far away from them. The investigator repeated the same things 10 times. Then the soldiers handcuffed me.”

Two Palestinian fishermen paddle off the Gaza seaport. (Photo by Charlie Andreasson)

Israeli forces took the two fishermen to the Erez checkpoint before releasing them.

Their families depend on their fishing, they said. Without their boat, they don’t have any other means of subsistence.

Ammar’s father said this is the third time he lost his fishing nets. Israeli soldiers confiscated them, along with other boats. He went into debt to afford them.

“I call on the international community to allow us to live like people in the rest of the world outside Gaza,” he said. “I appeal the world to stop these crimes and help the fishermen of Gaza, especially the fishermen of the north of the Gaza Strip. Our children need clothes and shoes. Children do not know our problems. They do not understand why cannot have what they need. Now the winter is coming and I have no money to buy them new clothes.”

This is the second Israeli attack on Palestinian fishermen in only a week, as well as the second consecutive attack against fishermen on a boat without an engine one to two nautical miles off the northern coast of the Gaza Strip. Israeli forcesseem determined to prevent fishermen from accessing waters in the northern Gaza Strip. The actual limit imposed by Israel on waters north of Gaza is not six nautical miles, but one to two.

Background

Israel has progressively imposed restrictions on Palestinian fishermen’s access to the sea. The 20 nautical miles established under the Jericho agreements, between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1994, were reduced to 12 miles in the Bertini Agreement of 2002. In 2006, the area Israel allowed for fishing was reduced to six nautical miles from the coast. After its military offensive “Operation Cast Lead” (December 2008 – January 2009) Israel imposed a limit of three nautical miles from the coast, preventing Palestinians from accessing 85% of the water to which they are entitled under the Jericho agreements of 1994.

Under the ceasefire agreement reached by Israel and the Palestinian resistance after the Israeli military offensive “Operation Pillar of Defense” (November 2012), Israel agreed that Palestinian fishermen could again sail six nautical miles from the coast. Despite these agreements, the Israeli navy has not stopped its attacks on fishermen, even within this limit. In March 2013, Israel once again imposed a limit of three nautical miles from the coast. On 22 May, Israeli military authorities announced a decision to extend the limit to six nautical miles again.

Gazan farmers and fisherfolk call for food sovereignty and an end to Israeli attacks

20th November 2013 | Corporate Watch, Tom Anderson and Therezia Cooper | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Palestinians demonstrate outside UNSCO – 20/11/13. (Photo by Corporate Watch)

On 20th November 2013, hundreds of farmers and fisherfolk gathered outside the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East (UNSCO) in Gaza City to demand that the international community take action to prevent the Israeli military’s attacks against them and to end the occupation.

One fisherman told Corporate Watch, “We are only looking for our daily food and a livelihood. We want to ask the UN to pressure the Israeli occupation not to attack us. We are just trying to earn a living for our families.”

Saad El-Deen Ziada, Farmer and Fishermen Coordinator for the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, said, “This demonstration was the start of a Palestinian and international campaign to access our lands and control our water. To achieve what we call food sovereignty.

“We want to send a message to the international community and the General Secretary of the United Nations that it is time to stop the Israeli attacks against Palestinian farmers and to activate human rights law. International human rights law gives us the chance to sanction the occupation government and to support the Palestinians to stay on their land. The international community must deal with the situation as a political issue and not a humanitarian one. First of all we need to end the Israeli occupation. We condemn the international community’s silence at the crimes we are subjected to.”

Several of the speakers at the demonstration also emphasised the importance of the international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli apartheid.

A delegation from the demonstration delivered a letter to a representative of Ban Ki-moon articulating the protesters’ demands.