11th July 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Charlie Andreasson | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
We managed to get a lift in an armoured Land Rover belonging to French journalists, and at crazy speed we went through intersections with only the cat horn as protection. The goal was Jabalya refugee camp and the latest targeting killing using a drone.
Ambulances left the site shortly after we arrived, and the fire brigade were just about to pull away from the car. Or what had once been a car.
Photo by Charlie Andreasson
What was in front of me was a complete wreck with twisted metal parts. Although the real shock and disgust came when I saw the license plate. It ended with 22. It had been a taxi.
Photo by Charlie Andreasson
We caught a ride with another journalist to Kamal Hospital, where the bodies of the three men, Mahmoud Walaid, Hazim Balouska, Alaa Abdelnabi, were taken. On a stretcher was one of the men, crumbling, burnt, with no identity left, he would now be placed into cold storage.
Photo by Charlie Andreasson
But there were problems. The storage was full. Too many people have been killed in the past three days since “Operation Defensive Edge” began.
As I’m writing the number of people murdered is 80 [the number has now risen], the cold storage is full, awaiting their funerals.
Two bodies were lying on the same stretcher.
Now we no longer had a car from the press to hitch a ride with. By taxi, we headed to the border crossing at Erez, which we heard had been attacked earlier.
It was the first time I’d seen the gate stand wide open on the Palestinian side, and the building appeared deserted. We didn’t step out of the taxi.
To walk into the area towards the Israeli part of the border crossing, although it’s a kilometer apart, is not a good idea.
Instead we went on to another one of Israel’s bombing target from the day before. Opposite a petrol station was an enormous crater among overturned and broken citrus trees, and from the apartment building next to it, a lemon tree hung upside down with the roots wedged on the roof.
Photo by Charlie Andreasson
We looked at each other, and all felt that it was enough death and destruction for one day, and when the driver asked if we wanted to go to the next bombed place, we said no in a unified voice.
2nd March 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
In recent weeks, protests for both sick Palestinian detainees and those engaging in long-term hunger strikes have increased in the Gaza Strip.
(Photo by Joe Catron)
Last Monday morning, following a regular weekly sit-in in the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Gaza office, demonstrators rallied by a protest tent erected outside.
(Photo by Joe Catron)
On 18th February, Addameer reported hunger strikes by seven detainees. Today the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said three additional prisoners had launched strikes against their administrative detentions.
(Photo by Joe Catron)
Demonstrations in solidarity with the detainees have also been held elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, including yesterday by the Erez checkpoint in Beit Hanoun.
27th January 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
On Monday, 20th January, at about 6:00 am, Yousef Amin Abo Warda (age 18) and his cousin Ahmad Kamal Abo Warda (age 16) left their house to go fishing in a small boat without an engine.
Around 7:30 am they were fishing in front of the al-Waha area, in the northern Gaza Strip, and sank their fishing nets about three kilometers, or 1.6 nautical miles, offshore.
The arrest
Yousef said two large Israeli gunboats approached the fishing boats. While other fishermen were able to escape, for Yousef and Ahmad it was impossible, as their boat had no engine and was made heavy seawater seeping through a hole.
“Soldiers from one of the gunboats began shooting into the water, while the second gunboat quickly turned around us to create waves,” Yousef said.
The soldiers, as they usually do when they want to arrest fishermen, asked the two young Palestinians to undress, dive into the water and swim to the Israeli ship.
“I tried to get closer to their ship by swimming, but the ship moved away, so it became hard for me,” Yousef said. “I cried that I was tired moving my arms. I could no longer swim. The ship stopped. I went directly to the ladder that they putdown and I climbed on board the ship.”
“They made me kneel down and handcuffed my hands behind my back,” Yousef added. “They gave me some clothes and helped me put them on. They yelled to my cousin Ahmad to swim toward the ship. After about half hour Ahmad was sitting behind me. Our hands and feet were tied.” Moreover, the soldiers kicked the two fishermen on their back.
The arrival at the port of Ashdod
After about half an hour the ship reached the Israeli port of Ashdod. The soldiers removed the bandages from the fishermen’s eyes, as well as their cuffs, to allow them to get off the ship. On shore, the fishermen were again handcuffed and blindfolded. They were asked personal information: their names, place of residence, dates of birth, phone numbers. Some soldiers wrote this information in Hebrew on a paper. They asked Yousef to hold the paper in his hands and took a picture of him. Yousef and Ahmad were held in two separate rooms for about three hours. Then some soldiers took Yousef into the room where Ahmad was detained. They left them handcuffed in a room for another three hours. Then some soldiers made the fishermen get in a Jeep and brought them to Erez.
Erez and the interrogation
At Erez, the two fishermen were brought into a room and interrogated separately.
The investigator asked Yousef about his name, his family, his brothers, the age of his relatives, his work and other personal information. “The detective showed me on a computer a map of the city of Jabalia, he told me the name of the streets with specific details,” he said. “He asked me to select my house. He showed me a house in which some people working for Hamas and the al-Qassam brigades are living, and he asked me if I know them. I said no. Then he showed me other houses belonging to people connected with Hamas. He indicated more than two houses. He was trying to get information from me. I said I don’t know anything. He told me ‘Are you afraid? You are in a safe place and you can tell us everything. These people are trying to destroy your life, they are terrorists.’ He indicated about six families that live in my neighborhood”.
The investigator showed him also the beach and asked him on which part of the beach he usually works and where he keeps his boat. The investigator also asked him also about a police site in the area and how many people work there. Yousef replied that he knows only two policemen, to whom the fishermen show their permits on the beach, and that he doesn’t go to the governmental site. The investigator asked Yousef about a training site of the al-Qassam brigades. Yousef replied that he doesn’t know anything about it. “The investigator then showed me photos of some hasakat [small fishing boats] and asked me to whom they belong, and he asked me about some cafes on the beach and about the harbor. I told him that I don’t know anything about the harbor and I don’t go there. The investigator asked me ‘In Jabalia refugee camp there is a site that belongs to Hamas?’ I told him that I don’t know.”
“The investigator asked me what I thought of al-Sisi [commander of the Egyptian armed forces] and how the relation are between Hamas and al-Sisi. I told him that I do not follow the news or politics. I said,‘I go to fish and I go home’.
“The detective told me ‘If you are near the border and you get shot by the army, who will you blame and would you consider responsible?’ ‘You are responsible,’ I said. He replied ‘Hamas should be blamed, not us.’”
“The investigator then asked me, ‘What do you think of the Hamas government and what is your opinion of it in comparison with Fatah? Do you feel comfortable? Why did you elected them? You were happy under the Israeli government. Many Palestinians came here to work and had money. Can you compare your current life to the life in which Israel controlled Gaza?’ I told him that I’m only 18 years old. I can’t know and I have never gone to Israel.”
The investigator then asked Yousef about the tunnels , Yousef replied that he’s just a fisherman and has never seen one. Finally, the investigator asked him if he was feeling hungry. Yousef said yes. The soldiers brought him a shawarma sandwich and a Coke.
Yousef was then taken to another room and remained there for an hour. Meanwhile, investigators had questioned his cousin Ahmad. The soldiers then accompanied the two young fishermen to the Erez gate and told them to return to the Gaza Strip.
“They closed the door behind us,” he said.
Their relatives, frightened by the lack of news, had tried to contact the International Committee of the Red Cross and other organizations. They also asked some fishermen to look for them in the sea. But only around 11:00 pm did the ICRC inform them that the two had been arrested.
Escalation
The fishermen told us that since the beginning of 2014, there has been an increase in Israeli attacks on Gaza fishermen and the situation is worsening day by day. According to the fishermen, Israeli attacks increase during fishing seasons.
Loss and hope
The large family Abo Warda, whose name is also used to denote the area where it lives, includes about 35 fishermen, of whom about half have been arrested.
In November, two other young men from the same family, Saddam and Mahmoud Abo Warda, were also arrested. One of them suffered a light injury inthe abdomen caused by Israeli gunfire. Both were attacked while fishing on a boat without an engine, and were therefore unable to escape.
Several of the family’s boats have been confiscated and are currently in the Israeli port of Ashdod.
Yousef and Ahmad have lost their fishing nets.
“Before, we had three boats with nets,” Yousef said. “Now my family has only one boat and no nets. I ask the international community to stop these Israeli attacks.”
“Eight persons in this house are fishermen,” another fisherman said. “One of our boats was damaged during Israel’s ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’ in November 2012. We can’t fix it and need to buy new nets.”
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.
5th November 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Charlie Andreasson | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
A hero return to Gaza (Photo by Joe Catron)
What could be a more appropriate theme for this Monday demonstration for prisoners than those recently released by Israel? Would it have been possible to have a different one? Possible, but hardly appropriate. On the street outside the Red Cross, a temporary stage with a lectern had been erected and draped with banners. Loudspeakers were deployed on it, as if for a rock concert, and together with rows of plastic chairs, it effectively blocked the street from traffic.
A hero return to Gaza (Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
Speeches were made, the media were in place, and more groups joined with their banners, even some that had no representative among the newly freed prisoners. The released detainees themselves had to give speeches, which were applauded by the audience, and finally, placards were handed out.
During one of the speeches, I was asked if I was interested in coming along to the Erez crossing, or the Beit Hanoun crossing as it is called here, to witness another release, which I accepted. But I doubted I had understood correctly. It was difficult to hear anything at all because of the volume of the speakers, and it was not yet time for the next group of 26 prisoners to be released as part of the agreement for the resumption of peace negotiations.
A hero return to Gaza (Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
Anyway, I stepped into a hired bus as placards were distributed for the five, who had given 20 years or more of their lives in the struggle against the occupation, and for a second time in a week ended up at the northern crossing. And though I have been there recently, everything was very different except the crowds and banners.
Now, during the day, I could even see the wall that cuts off the landscape, that according to the Israeli dialectic is not a wall but a barrier. But while we waited, a growing number of taxis or private cars, motorcycles, tuk-tuks, and even an open truck, overcrowded with people waving flags of yellow, the Fatah color, appeared. The only noticeable difference was the absence of the press. As the only westerner, and with a camera too, I could not help but notice my position was unique.
A hero return to Gaza (Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
Suddenly the murmur raised to a cheer as the crowd rushed through the open gates to meet 51-year-old Mohammed Abu Amsha, married with eight children, who had just been released after seven years in prison. It was his third prison term, and he has been denied adequate medical care for his heart and lung problems. But now he was a free man, and soon he was sitting in a car followed by us, among the narrow streets in the nearby village of Beit Hanoun, while children and adults alike curiously lined the walls and hung out of windows.
A hero return to Gaza (Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
Women ululated as a tuk-tuk drove forward with big, booming speakers. A large celebration tent had been raised outside Abu Amsha’s family home. Those who had not found a place in any of all the plastic chairs patiently huddled in anticipation of getting in to express their congratulations, kiss Abu Amsha and be photographed with him.
I could not melt in. I was too different, and I’m afraid I stole some of the attention when children flocked around me, curious and smiling, and asked in faltering English how I felt, my name, and where I was from. Nothing could make them as happy and proud as when I agreed to their request to photograph them. But then someone took my hand and dragged me past the line of people waiting to get into the house, up the stairs and into the reception room.
A hero return to Gaza (Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
Smiling people took turns hugging and touching Abu Amsha, a man who, after so many years in prison, is forced to wait another few days before he gets to be alone with his family. For it is a great day, not only for him, but for all those who see him as a hero in the struggle against the occupation. The focus of next Monday’s demonstration outside the Red Cross is already a given.
30th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Charlie Andreasson | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
As part of the resumption of negotiation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, 26 Palestinian prisoners were released overnight Wednesday from Ofer prison in Israel. Five were transferred to the Gaza Strip via the Erez checkpoint in Beit Hanoun. This was the second of four planned releases of a total of 104 Palestinian prisoners, nearly all imprisoned before the beginning of the Oslo system in 1994. The 26 released in this round have been detained from 19 to 28 years, and are between 38 and 58 years old. But they could have regained their freedom long ago. As part of the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum in 1999, all Palestinians captured and sentenced before Oslo should have been freed.
(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
The five men returning to the Gaza Strip were hailed as heroes for their resistance against the occupation by the 400-500 Palestinians gathered at Erez to greet them. The scene in Israel, however, was entirely different. On Monday, thousands gathered outside Ofer prison to protest against plans to release the 26 prisoners, all but two sentenced to life.
Even within Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, there have been strong disagreements about the release. The Jewish Home party, an ultra-right coalition member, unsuccessfully proposed legislation to bar future releases. Its leader, Naftali Bennett, criticized Israeli justice minister Tzipi Livni, one of the negotiators, in strong terms, saying that stopping the release of Palestinian prisoners was far more important than than Livni’s continued presence in the cabinet. Less extremist elements within the coalition said that Netanyahu could have prevented the release by accepting a freeze on the construction of new settlements in the occupied West Bank, or negotiations based on its boundaries as the borders of a future Palestinian state. This is a view shared by opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich, who claimed that Netanyahu’s Likud prefers to release prisoners than freeze settlement construction.
(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
A freeze on the construction of new settlements and the expansion of existing ones, all illegal under international law, has always been a demand of Palestinians to continue negotiations. It was Israel’s refusal to meet this requirement that crashed the talks 2010, and only after the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s mediation were the parties were able to return to the negotiating table. But Netanyahu has already stated that permission will be given for more settlements. It is speculated that this will include between 1,200 and 1,700 units of settler housing. How this will affect the negotiations remains to be seen.
(Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
A spokesman for the Hamas-led government in Gaza, Fawzi Barhoum, accused the Israeli government of using the release of prisoners as a smokescreen for house demolitions, the construction of the wall, changing the status of Jerusalem, obstructing the right of return, and seizing even more Palestinian land. Hamas is not part of the negotiations. Barhoum’s claim expresses what many believe, that Israel hopes to change the focus of the negotiations. A resolution giving Israel the opportunity to expand settlements on occupied territory is an agreement between a pacified Palestinian authority and an occupying power. With the announcement escalated settlement expansion, the Netanyahu government has proven what it wants out of the talks.
