Tag: Gaza Siege - Page 6 - International Solidarity Movement

Five year anniversary of the death of Vittorio Arrigoni

18th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza, occupied Palestine

Last Thursday 14^th April marked four years since the disappearance of Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza, under the Israeli blockade. According to subsequent statements and investigations carried out by Hamas, ISM activist Vittorio’s body was discovered the following day, having been kidnapped and executed by the previously unheard of “Brigade of the Gallant Companion of the Prophet Mohammed bin Muslima,” a Salafist splinter-group. His alleged murderers were eventually arrested and sentenced to life-imprisonment (reduced to fifteen years on appeal).

Vittorio wearing a keffiyeh — Vittorio wearing a kaffiyeh

Before his death Vittorio was a committed, passionate ISM activist who spent the best part of three years of his life in Gaza between 2008 and 2011, working in solidarity with the Palestinian people suffering from the Israeli blockade. He first went to Gaza as part of the Free Gaza flotilla that broke the blockade in August 2008. Vittorio worked in solidarity with farmers and fishermen, attended demonstrations and documented, for both ISM and other media outlets, the countless examples of Israeli human rights abuses that he witnessed. This was none more evident than in his work during Operation Cast Lead, in which hundreds of civilians were massacred.

Despite the difficulties he encountered in his work Vittorio was an incredibly positive, happy and optimistic person. He described the breaking of the blockade in 2008 as the happiest moment of his life, stating that, “it became clear, not only to the world but Palestinians also, that there are people who are willing to spend their lives to come and hug their brothers here in Gaza.”

Vittorio was a born activist whose grandfathers “fought and died struggling against occupation, a fascist Nazi one. For that reason presumably in my DNA, my blood, there are particles that push me to struggle for freedom and human rights.”

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in Gaza last week, where Vittorio is considered a Martyr to the cause of peaceful resistance, to commemorate the anniversary of Vittorio’s death- singing, dancing and showing a film dedicated to his life. Vittorio’s memory is still honoured in Gaza by the street and school that carry his name. A book of Vittorio’s daily dispatches to Italian media – “Gaza: Stay Human” – was first published in 2010 with an introduction by Ilan Pappe.

ISM continue in Vittorio’s spirit, to support and show solidarity to the Palestinian people in their peaceful, non-violent opposition to the blockade of Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank.

“We must remain human, even in the most difficult times … Because, despite everything, there must always be humanity within us. We have to bring it to others.”

Vittorio Arrigoni

4^th February 1975 – 15^th April 2011

Israeli airstrike kills 10 year old boy and injures others in Gaza

12th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil Team |Ma’an, Occupied Gaza

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Update

Isra Abu Khosa, 6 year old sister of Yassin Abu Khusa, has died from the injuries she sustained in the bombing raid on Gaza by Israeli forces on Friday.

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Children were the latest victims of last nights continued assault on besieged Gaza by Israel. The young boy who was killed in the attacks has been identified as Yassin Abu Khusa, 10 years old. His sister Isra Abu Khusa, 6 years old, was wounded in the same attack, suffering severe head injuries and is in critical condition while another brother, Ayub Abu Khusa, 13 years old, is also seriously injured.

A young boy amidst the damage of the home in which a young child was killed

A Ma’an reporter based in Gaza said the children were in their house at the time the strike happened, located in northwestern Beit Lahiya. The family was still living in their home that was partially destroyed during the most recent offensive on the strip by the zionist regime in 2014.

Rubble from the attack — Rubble and a blood soaked mattress from the attack

The Israeli army claims the Israeli air force targeted four Hamas sites in the northern Gaza Strip after four rockets were reportedly fired from the strip on Friday evening.

Several rockets were fired from the blockaded coastal territory into southern Israel last year, with the Israeli military launching retaliatory air strikes in virtually every case with signature excessive force and more often than not leading to the deaths of many innocent civilians.

Children in the war torn buildings left by Israeli forces

Although the majority of last years’ rocket fire was attributed to small, rather insignificant militant groups operating in Gaza, Israel consistently holds the territory’s de facto leaders Hamas responsible, targeting the group’s military infrastructure in response.

Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria seek home in Gaza

February 11, 2016| International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Khan Younis, Gaza strip, occupied Palestine

Palestinian refugee Heesham Ahmed El Khoranin and his family have already survived 2 Israeli assaults against the Gaza Strip since he returned after fleeing from Syria in 2011.

Heesham grandparents were born in Masmiya, 42km north of Gaza, one of the many villages wiped out by the Zionist militias during the Nakba. In 1948 they were forced to flee and settled in Khan Younis, where Heesham was born. He lived there until the Israeli army occupied Gaza in 1967 and forced his parents to flee from Palestine. They then moved to the Syrian city of Daraa, where he married a Syrian woman and had 6 children.

They lived in peace until 2011, when the war started in Syria, Heesham explained. “Snipers were shooting anything that moved in our city, people, animals . . . they killed children as young as 10 years old in front of my eyes.” Several of their neighbours were kidnapped and tortured by the Syrian army, including children. Heesham spoke of how “one of the fathers refused to handle his 13 years old son to the army, so they took both of them and the father could listen how they tortured his son.”

Heesham's neighborhood in Daraa — Heesham’s neighborhood in Daraa, after the bombing

Four months after the beginning of the war Heesham and his family managed to escape to Egypt and entered Gaza through the tunnels. Once in Gaza he received the news that “our home and my small factory had been bombed . . . we had lost all we had.” A few months later, in another bombing, one of his sons who had stayed in Syria was killed.

Heesham's son killed in Syria wm 2 — Heesham’s son, killed in Syria

In Gaza they lived 3 years in a rented flat, until they ran out of money and were kicked out by the owner. A few months before the 2014 Israeli attack they moved to a caravan provided by an NGO and settled on land that the government ceded to them. “Now I just want to find a job and live in peace with my family… I hope we’ll be able to build a home and stay in Gaza” Heesham said. “[W]e don’t have a place where to return in Syria and at least here we are in Palestine, our homeland.”

Heesham's caravan in Gaza wm — Heesham’s caravan in Gaza

Support for political prisoner, Mohamad AlQueeq, after more than 70 days of hunger strike

4th Feburary 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, occupied Palestine

Yesterday there were several events in Gaza supporting the Palestinian political prisoner Mohamed AlQeeq, who is actually in the 72nd day of hunger strike and has lost his sight and hearing.

Palestinians protesting for the release of political prisoners

Moataz Dalul, spokesman for the prisoners, stressed that “Mohamed AlQeeq is not fighting just for him but for all the prisoners and the freedom of Palestine” and “we want the Palestinians inside the green line to support him and stand with him until his freedom”. He also demanded the human rights organizations inside and outside Palestine to “just say the truth… we don’t need your support, we just want you to tell the truth”.

After Tahsin AlAstal, official of the journalists union, claimed “we speak a lot with international associations and organizations for human rights, but we are quite certain that this is useless, as they don’t do anything. Everyday Mohamed is dying and the Red Cross and the high commissioner of the UN are silent. People in Palestine is understanding that all those NGO and associations don’t move a finger for them, so we question them, what’s their reason to be here?” “We don’t need the people to say that they are worried for Mohamed or to denounce with empty words, we just need real moves and our prisoners to be saved”.

PCHR and other human rights associations, on their side, denounced Mohamed situation “administrative detention is a crime, as it is force feeding, and Israel is using both of them with Mohamed and other palestinians in front of the eyes of all the world, but they choose to look to the other side. Mohamed united all the spectrum of the Palestinian people under the motto: freedom or martyrdom”.

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.”