Category: Gaza - Page 70 - International Solidarity Movement

Casualties of the last attacks on Gaza: Visit to Shifa Hospital

by Rosa Schiano

15 March 2012 | il Blog di Oliva

This morning we went to pay a visit to the wounded at the Shifa Hospital. Most of them have fractures and burns.

Hani Al-Qanoo, 15

His mother, Reda, tells that on Sunday morning around 9am Hani and his brother went to school, but there were no classes. They were coming back home when a drone fired a missile on the same road where they were walking, Al Khorondar street.

Reda lives with her 7 children in difficult living conditions. Her husband died some time ago.

“We were coming back from school along with 6 of our companions when suddenly a drone hit us,” said Hani. “I had the sensation of flying.”

The doctor told us that Hani has a fractured femur in his right leg and several burns caused by the missile.

Moyad Al-Qanoo, 16

Moyad, was injured along with other friends, and one of their comrades, Nayif Qarmout,15, was killed. Moyad, who is Hani’s brother, reports injuries caused by second degree burns on the face and on the legs. He has shrapnel in various parts of his body.

Saleh Qarmout, 15

Saleh Qarmout, 15 | Photo courtesy Rosa Schiano, 2012

Even Saleh Qarmout, 15, came home from school that day along with other classmates. The doctor told us that during the attack, a child had died, Nayif Qarmout, and 9 children were injured. Five children were taken to Shifa Hospital, and four children have been transferred at Kamal Odwan Hospital.

Tamer Azzam, 17

Tamer Azzam, 17, was coming back from school with them. We found him lying on a bed, and on his face showed the grimaces of pain. He has shrapnel to the face and side and burns to both legs. The doctor told us that they were obliged to partially remove his intestine. His recovery may take a long time. Tamer has 9 brothers and 2 sisters. His father is unemployed because he is sick.

Before I left, Tamer constantly set his eyes incessantly on mine. I looked at him, but because of the pain I felt, I looked away for a while. When I turned my look towards him again, I found his eyes still fixed on mine.

He stared at me in silence, aching, just like he was asking me some help through his eyes. I wanted to beat my fists against the wall, I wanted to shout and cry. I will never forget his gaze for the rest of my life.

Alaa Al Looh, 34

Alaa Al-Looh, 34, has a fractured tibia and burns to his face, caused by an Israeli attack that, on the same day killed a father and his daughter inside their factory. Mohammed Mostafa El Husseini was 85 and his daughter only 30.

Alaa was riding his motorcycle when he heard a loud explosion. He bounced on the ground and he woke up at the hospital. Alaa is married and has three children, two males and one female, and works in a fruit and vegetable shop.

When the doctor showed us his fracture, Alaa screamed in pain.

Hussien Omer Abo Aqla, 26

On the same day, Sunday 12 March, around 8am, Hussien was going back home after work. Hussien delivers food to the schools early in the morning. Suddenly a drone hit the road where he was travelling, Salah Addin Street, in the Al-Zeitouni neighborhood of east Gaza city. Hussien was injured in the back and he suffers from pressure to his chest.

Moath Nofal Abo El-Eash, 20

On Monday around 1:30AM two missiles hit Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza city. The first attack was carried out by a drone.

The missile hit the Hammad family home. More than 30 people have been injured, including 21 children. The house has been completely destroyed and others have been damaged.

Abo El- Eash’s house was close to the the Hammad’s family. Moath had heard the explosions, and his neighbors asked him to go out to try to save Hammad’s family. As soon when he got out of his home an F-16 launched another missile.

Moath has injuries from burns all over his body, particularly on his face and splinters in several parts of his body.

I asked him if he felt like telling a message to the world after what had happened to him.

Moath replied, “My image is enough to tell the world”.

Dr. Maher Sukkar, vice president of the plastic surgery department at Shifa Hospital, told us that they will ask to analyze the splinters from the weapons used in order to determine if they are carcinogenic.

Before saying goodbye, he told us that the weapons used are American.

“We need some freedom. Tell the world what you have seen in this hospital–why our children cannot have some room to play. Is it because we are Palestinians? My wife and I lived abroad for some time, but then we came back to Gaza despite the difficult living conditions, because our country needs us.”

Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

The mourning tent of a martyr

by Nathan Stuckey

14 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip

Nayif Qarmout was murdered yesterday; he was also buried yesterday, in a small cemetery in the heart of Jabalia, the refugee camp where he lived. He was only 14 years old. He was murdered by an Israeli missile while playing football with his friends. He was a handsome young man, the photo on his martyr posters make that obvious. It was something that I never would have guessed at his funeral, looking at his bloody bruised face.

Today, Nayif’s family mourned. The reception line of men lining the entrance to the mourning tent was the most shattered group of men I have ever seen. Their faces were blank, dead, as though Nayif was not the only murdered yesterday. Nayif’s photo was on the wall, he looks so young, a child just turning into a man. We sat down and ate dates as a young man brought coffee around. Nayif’s uncle, Abdullah came over to talk to us.

Abdullah tells us that not only was Nayif a handsome child, but he was also a joyful child. He was always laughing, always making jokes, always helping his parents with his younger brothers and sisters. Nayif was the oldest child; he had three younger brothers and two younger sisters. He was not only the oldest child, but also the oldest grandchild; he was named after his grandfather. After school he worked with his father in family’s pharmacy, helping customers and keeping track of the accounts. Nayif hoped to run this pharmacy someday, after university, when he was a man. That is a chance that Nayif will never have.

Monday morning Nayif woke early. He got dressed and went to school, after school he was supposed to come to the shop to help his father. When he arrived at school, he found it closed because of the Israeli attacks. He met some of his friends; they went to play football before they went home for the day. While they were playing football an Israeli drone fired a missile at them, at six children playing football on a day off from school. Nayif’s family received a call that Nayif had been injured and was on the way to the hospital. They all rushed to the hospital, but there was nothing to be done, they did not even have the chance to say goodbye to their son, he was dead when they arrived at the hospital.

Nayif’s family is left with their sadness; nothing will bring back their son. Perhaps, though, as Um Nayif asked us, something can be done to save other children, “stop the killing of children, don’t abandon Palestine. Nayif went to the school, he was a student and Israel killed him. I know that now he’s gone to God. His brothers and sisters cry because they lost their elder brother.”

Nathan is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Beit Furik, Nablus: Family unable to attend funeral for son killed in recent Gaza air strikes

by Jonas Weber

13 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

“We called him Nassr, but I think his real name was Mahmoud,” says Ahmed while we were on the bus from the Beit Furik municipality building. Outside the bus window, the walls of the little town just outside of Nablus are plastered with freshly printed martyr posters. The picture shows a middle aged man photoshopped between the Dome of the Rock and the Palestinian flag.

Ali Hannini, the cousin of Mahmoud Hanin who was kiled by Israeli rocket fire.

It has just been a few days since Mahmoud Hanini was killed by an Israeli rocket while in a car in the Gaza Strip.

“He was suspected of being affiliated with a militant group in the West Bank in 2005 and was forced to flee to Jordan and then on to Egypt and Gaza where he worked with the resistance against the occupation,” Ahmed continues.

In the stairwell leading up to the Hanini residence, one of the landings is cluttered up with shoes and a somber song is playing from the apartment. The family is still in mourning. We are shown to the roof where Mahmoud’s cousin, Ali, serves us coffee and dates.

“Things are going to be hard for this family now,” he said.

Mahmoud only had one brother and eleven sisters. It will be economically difficult for them. Mahmoud also had three children in Beit Furik and two daughters in Gaza.

When Mahmoud was killed on Friday, he was in a car with Zuhair al-Qaissi, the leader of the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committee, the group responsible for the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

The body of Mahmoud Hanini will remain in Gaza, and his family will have to face the pain of not being able to visit his grave.

“It would be extremely expensive and difficult for us,” says Ali.

In the midst of military escalation in Gaza and the grief at home, the Hanini family still carry some hope for the future.

“We want to say a message to the people of the outside world: that the only thing we long for is peace. We only resist to win our freedom. This is not an issue of a conflict between religions. The issue is that Israel is occupying our lands in violation of international laws.”

The murder of Mahmoud Hanini, Zuhair al-Qaissi, and their driver set ablaze the region as groups throughout the Gaza strip responded by firing nearly a hundred rockets into Israeli territory. Most of these were intercepted by Israeli air defence, but one Israeli was killed by the rockets. Israel in turn responded with attacks against Gaza that since Friday have taken the lives of dozens of Palestinians.

Jonas Weber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Official Release: “The New Black” by The Mavrix

13 March 2012 | Palestine Solidarity Alliance and PACBI

In a first ever musical collaboration between South Africa and Palestine, South African band, The Mavrix, and Palestinian Oud player, Mohammed Omar, have released a music video called “The New Black”. The song is taken from The Mavrix’ upcoming album,”Pura Vida”, due for release in June 2012.

Written and composed by Jeremy Karodia and Ayub Mayet, the song was a musical reaction to the horror of the Gaza Massacre of 2008/2009 and then subsequently inspired by the book “Mornings in Jenin”, authored by Susan Abulhawa. Mayet had penned the first lyrics in 2009 after the Massacre and the song went into musical hibernation. Having read the novel, “Mornings in Jenin”, he then re-wrote the lyrics and the song evolved into its current version.

Haidar Eid, a Gaza based BDS activist and friend of the band, heard the song in 2011 and urged the band to do a collaboration with Palestinian Oud player, Mohamed Omar. He also suggested that the band do a video highlighting the collaboration between South African and Palestinian musicians and also the similarities in the two struggles.

The song was recorded by The Mavrix in South Africa whilst Mohamed recorded the Oud in Gaza and, although never having had the opportunity to meet, the musical interplay between the musicians so far apart illustrates the empathy the musicians feel in solidarity with each other.

Produced by The Palestinian Solidarity Alliance (South Africa) and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) along with written endorsements from Haidar Eid of PACBI, Omar Barghouti of the BDS Movement, Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada and Susan Abulhawa, author of “Mornings in Jenin”, the song represents a message of support from South Africans, who having transgressed and crossed over their own oppression under apartheid, stand in solidarity with Palestinians who are currently experiencing their own oppression under Israeli apartheid.

The video will be launched on the 12 March 2012 at 2.30pm SA time from Gaza at the start of Israeli Apartheid Week Palestine and will be on youtube following the official launch.

In addition to the digital upload, the PSA will be handing out hardcopies of the DVD as well.

Burying Nayif Qarmout

13 March 2012 | Nathan Stuckey, International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Nayif Qarmout was killed by an Israeli missile today at 9:30 A.M. He was 14 years old. Five other teenagers with him were injured, Tamer Azzam, 16, Mu’ayyad al-Qanou’, 18, Hani al-Qanou’, 16, Salih Qarmout, 14; and Sa’eed al-Attar, 14. The boys were reportedly playing football in a playground when the missile struck. Nayif was buried today in Jabalia.

The same mosque that yesterday hosted the funeral of twelve year old Ayoub Useila today was the site of the funeral of Nayif. Hundreds of people gathered for noon prayers before the funeral. The street outside of the mosque was full of people. After prayers Nayif’s body was brought out, born on the shoulders of his friends and relatives. His face was the only thing visible, it was bloody and swollen. His body was wrapped in white cloth. Around him rose the green flags of Hamas.

This time, we did not set out toward the cemetery near the border. We went through the heart of Jabalia. The streets were narrow and crowded. Cries of “God is great” and “there is no God but God” rang out. The men raised one arm in the air, one finger extended, there is one God it said. From the windows of second and third stories people looked down onto the procession, onto the shattered body of Nayif Qarmout. Nayif Qarmout, who this morning had been playing football with his friends, who had still been alive, was now, a bloody body on a stretcher.

The procession moved quickly, with the energy that the processions of martyrs seem to have. Until we passed by Nayif’s house, the procession slowed, and stopped, women crowded the alley crying. This would be the last time they would see the body of their son, their cousin, their nephew, Nayif. Then, the procession moved onward to the cemetery.

The cemetery was Nayif was buried is an old cemetery. It is already crowded with graves. The procession slowed as the men picked their way among the grave, until they found the place where Nayif was to be buried. The grave was dug. Nayif was lowered into it and men began to shovel earth over him. When they were finished there was a human shaped mound of earth. Even if you did not know what had happened, you would know what this was, the grave of a child. A young red haired man sat by the grave, he did not cry but the grief was obvious. Nayif was someone that meant a lot to him. Nayif was stolen from him by an Israeli missile.

Nathan Stuckey and Rosa Schiano are volunteers with International Solidarity Movement.