Tag: Free Gaza Movement - Page 5 - International Solidarity Movement

Gaza, a constant slaughter: Testimonies of a genocidal aggression

19th September 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Khuzaa, Gaza Strip, Occupied Palestine

It only depends on us that this mother’s cry of pain does not drown in the silence.

“My paralyzed daughter was murdered by Israeli soldiers and I couldn’t save her” she told us, looking at us with clear eyes veiled with tears of pain, the other of a paraplegic girl, just 18 years old, massacred in her wheelchair by Zionist occupation forces during the ground invasion in Khuzaa, in southern Gaza Strip.

The mother’s voice is like her eyes, clear and painful, sad and intense. In her tone there is much suffering – although she is a victim of the zionist atrocities – there is also a lot of guilt for failing to rescue her daughter from a terrible death under the fire of one of the most powerful armies of the planet: the Israeli Occupation Forces.

“My daughter asked me not to leave her, but she was in a crater formed by a bomb explosion in the middle of the street and I couldn’t move her from there, I didn’t have the strength to carry her in my arms, and the Israeli soldiers were coming back, shooting with tanks, guns, with everything. Crying I told her that I had to leave her and prayed to God.”

What happened next is so cruel and vicious as the crime itself: an officer of the Israeli forces communicated by telephone with the family to say the girl was with them in one of the houses that they had occupied n Khuzaa “Come and get her, she is unharmed”, said the officer. The family was so happy that one brother decided to leave the house where they were sheltering with the intention of picking up the girl, but when he opened the door, multiple shots from the occupation forces began to impact the house.

The Zionist’s macabre game is repeated, they call again to tell the family to look for the paralyzed teen and again they open fire when one of the brothers tries to leave the house to rescue his sister.

“This kind of inhuman mockery of Palestinians is common from the Israeli Army”, explain various witnesses of the Zionist crimes. Not content just to kill with impunity, they also like to torture their victims, tease them and laugh at the suffering of the families.”

It hurts, but is not surprising, knowing that she had never been safe in the hands of the occupying forces, she had been murdered in cold blood and she lies near her wheelchair with multiple gunshots in her limbs, heart and head, when she was found days later by her family in an advanced state of decomposition on the main street of the devastated village of Khuzaa, southern Gaza Strip, a place where life is worthless, where the slaughtering of Palestinians is a coward game without consequences for this criminal army.

Testimony of Khuzaa’s massacre

8th September 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Khuzaa, Gaza Strip, Occupied Palestine

One year after Israel’s attacks in the Gaza Strip, the massacre in Khuzaa is vividly remembered by one of its inhabitants.

Dr Mohammed Qudaih lived with his family in Khuzaa, in the southern Gaza Strip, less than a kilometre away from the Israeli fence, the military turrets, and from the Palestinian land occupied in 1948.

Dr. Mohammad in his office. Photo by ISM

Mohammed, who is a surgeon, worked in his little clinic when the Israeli aggression started last July. He and his family decided to stay in Khuzaa despite the bombings were getting worse. “They raged specially over homes, schools, hospitals, ambulances… Israel’s favourite targets”.

Suddenly his tiny clinic was full of wounded people and neighbours, who believed that a health care centre would be a safe refuge against the one-ton bombs thrown by the F16 planes. Sadly they were wrong. Many of the wounded families were attacked again when the occupation forces launched the ground invasion with their powerful war machine, funded by the so-called “Western Democracies”.

Many villagers of Khuzaa, survivors from the horror of the first attack, wounded but able to survive, were killed when they were receiving medical treatment by Dr Mohammed. Both the office and Dr Mohammed’s house were crowded with hundreds of refugees and wounded people. Women’s hijabs were transformed under the snipers’ fire into bandages to stop the bleeding of children, women and wounded men. The kitchen table was quickly transformed into a surgery table, the windowless bathrooms in useless shelters against the barrage of bombs and gunshots.

Ahmed, the younger brother of Mohammed, who was only 22 years old, bled to death from a mortar while helping a woman in the clinic courtyard. 130 people were cowardly murdered by the occupying forces only in that area of Khuzaa. 520 more were wounded, mostly children and women, all of them severely injured, in face of the ruthless war weapons used by Israel against an unarmed and defenseless civilian population. More than 500 homes were completely razed in Khuzaa during the 51 days of the slaughter. But one year after Dr Mohammed clarifies “the massacre continues. Gaza is still blocked by land, sea and air, closed up tight. Where are the UN and the other agencies supposedly responsible for protecting human rights? Where are the International community and the Media? Where is the reconstruction? Where is our freedom? We won’t stop resisting as long as they keep oppressing us. We hope all these sacrifice will bring us our freedom…”.

Dr. Mohammed's father holding the picture of his 22 year old martyred son, Ahmed and pointing to the exact place where he was murdered while trying to help a woman. Photo ISM — Dr. Mohammed’s father holding the picture of his 22 year old martyred son, Ahmed and pointing to the exact place where he was murdered while trying to help a woman. Photo ISM

Dr. Mohammed's home. Photo ISM — Dr. Mohammed’s home. Photo ISM

Violent arrest of Palestinian man in al-Khalil (Hebron)

29th August 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil Team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

A 52-year old Palestinian man was arrested at Shuhada checkpoint in al-Khalil (Hebron) yesterday, for ‘not obeying soldiers’ orders. Israeli forces painfully handcuffed and blindfolded him.

Around 1:30 pm, Hisham Azzeh walked through Shuhada Checkpoint in order to reach his house that is located up the hill next to the illegal settlement in Tel Rumeida. At this first checkpoint on his way home, Hisham passed through the metal detector without it beeping to indicate he had to go back and pass again. Therefore, he continued on his way, but Israeli soldiers yelled at him to go back and pass through the checkpoint again for no reason.

When he did not immediately comply with the soldiers orders, they arrested him. Israeli soldiers painfully handcuffed him with his hands behind his back with plastic handcuffs, without any regard for a recent operation on his hand. The soldiers also blindfolded him, so he was unable to see what happened to him and where he was brought. On the way up the hill towards the military base, the pain, caused by the plastic handcuffs, was so intense, that Israeli soldiers had to allow Azzeh to sit down on the ground, as he was unable to continue walking.

Palestinian man sitting on the ground in pain

Palestinians observing the arrest were continously telling soldiers about Azzeh’s recent operation on his hand and the plate that had to be inserted during this operation. Even though they were explaining the immense pain the plastic handcuffs were causing to Azzeh due to this operation, the Israeli soldiers shouted at them to leave the area and be quiet. Various requests to call an ambulance were denied. Only after Azzeh’s brother, who is a medical professional, arrived and reasoned with the soldiers, they attempted to cut the handcuffs. As the soldiers put the handcuffs too tight, they were struggling to cut the handcuffs without cutting Azzeh’s hands, making the procedure even longer and more painful, with Azzeh suffering immensely and crying out in pain.

Hisham's hand showing scars from the operation. Photo credit: Youth against settlement — Hisham’s hand showing scars from the operation. Photo credit: Youth against settlement

In the meantime, a civil police car was driving past on a regular patrol and got stopped by the Palestinians in an attempt to alleviate the situation for Hisham. After the handcuffs were finally cut off, by-standers cooled his hand first with a bottle of cold water until an ice-pack was brought for him. The police took Hisham Azzeh to the police station after a long discussion. After about an hour, Azzeh was released. He is now doing okay, but is still suffering from pain in his hands.

Police, bystanders and the soldiers standing around Hisham

Harassment like this in al-Khalil (Hebron) is not unusual. Palestinians have to pass through various checkpoints on their way home or to work and often get detained for long periods of time.

Watch the video here

Surviving in Gaza’s caravan houses

27th May | Miguel Hernández | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

The family El Najjar was expelled during the Nakba from the Palestinian village of Salamah. This village was the subject of a total ethnic cleansing by the Zionist colonizers.

Nowadays just ten houses remain from the almost 2000 that formed the village. In its place today we can find the Tel Aviv suburb known as Kfar Shalem.

Refugees since 1948, many of them established themselves in Khuza’a, a peasant village in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. For the last eight months a great part of the family has been living in caravans, as more than 45 homes belonging to the El Najjar family were bombed during the 2014 massacre.

In one of those, ISM members met Ashraf El Najjar, member of the family who also lost his home during the umpteenth Zionist massacre.
Ashraf is 41 years old and has seen how the Zionist entity bombed his home two times already. The first one was in 2009, during the massacre known as “Operation Cast Lead”, in which Israel also murdered one of his brothers. After that it took him several years to rebuild his home. However, once rebuilt, he could enjoy it just for 18 months, as in 2014 the Israeli occupation once again reduced it to a pile of rubble. This time they also murdered his father, two brothers, two sisters and his cousin.

With a smile on his face, despite his terrible circumstances, he shows ISM the caravans were most of his relatives survive nowadays. “We don’t have any hope regarding the reconstruction. No one has been here to check about our situation or needs”.

The first caravan he shows ISM is the one of Youssef El Najjar, who is now in the Hospital accompanied by his wife.
In the caravan we find Youssef’s daughter Azhar, 18 years old, taking care of the rest of the family. She is responsible of her grandmother, who lies disabled in the only bed in the caravan, and her younger siblings. The youngest, four years old, can only move around by crawling on the ground, as a birth defect prevents him from walking.
Azhar explains ISM how the life is in the caravans, “In winter we suffered a lot from the cold and the caravan flooded every time it rained. One time the water reached more than one meter’s height. Another time when the water rose the floods dragged all the sewage into the caravan. Now, in summer, the heat is unbearable, as an oven. I feel like I’m living in a grave”.

The next caravan we visited is the one of Asisa El Najjar, 65 years old. She lives there along with eight more people, five of whom are children. Her husband is in the hospital as well, therefore, he cannot work.
Three of the five children belong to Wasfi El Najjar, son of Asisa who was killed by the Zionist army during the last massacre, being just 26 years old. The older one is four years old and the youngest, who is only five months old, never met his father.
Asisa tells ISM how she and her husband suffer from asthma since they live in the caravan. She also shows us how the sewage of the bathroom goes to the only room of the caravan.

A few meters from there we find Mohamed and Suher El Najjar with their five children. Mohamed is unemployed, and the five children suffer from respiratory problems since they live in the caravan.

Hasma El Najjar, 75 years old, lives alone in a caravan that like all the other has the wooden floor completely rotten by the last winter rains. Which has caused her to fall several times already.

Finally ISM visits the caravan of Khadia EL Najjar, 53 years old, who lives with her husband and her grown children. One of the daughters has cancer and due to the criminal blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt she can’t receive the treatment needed.

Ironically, these caravans have been provided by the UK government. The same country that colonized Palestine for 26 years and later on handed it over to the Zionists, opening the doors to 67 years of land theft, occupation and genocide.

Text and photos: Miguel Hernández

Marianne heads for Gaza today!

10th May 2015 | Ship to Gaza | Gothenburg, Sweden

Marianne of Gothenburg will leave her home port at 7 pm on the 10 of May. The trawler, which has been acquired by Ship to Gaza Sweden and Ship to Gaza Norway jointly, departs for a voyage of almost 5000 nautical miles to eastern Mediterranean and the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Marianne will join other ships and together they will form the “Freedom Flotilla III” in order to perform a peaceful, nonviolent action to break the illegal and inhumane blockade of the Gaza Strip.

In passing Marianne will call at European ports for manifestations against the blockade. The First three ports will be Helsingborg, Malmö and Copenhagen. The subsequent ports will be announced in press releases.

Cargo
Marianne is not a cargo-ship, but she will bring a limited cargo of, among other things, solar cell panels and medical equipment.

The solar cell panels are a gift from ETC-El. In the blockaded Gaza Strip, where the infrastructure has been demolished, solar cells will thus provide an opportunity to independent local production of clean energy. The sun can not be blockaded.

Delegates
In addition to a crew of five people, Marianne will have up to eight delegates as passengers in each section of the route. The names of these individuals will be announced as time progress. In the first section are among others:

Maria Svensson, pro. tem. spokesperson, Feministiskt initiativ
Mikael M Karlsson, Chairperson, Ship to Gaza Sweden
Henry Ascher, professor of Public Health, paediatrician
Lennart Berggren, filmmaker
Dror Feiler, musician, spokesperson of Ship to Gaza