Tag: Gaza Strip

Mosques, churches, protests: Gaza on the Balfour Declaration’s 102nd anniversary

3rd November | Wafa Aludaini | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Gazans march in protest on the 102nd anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.

On the 102nd anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, churches rang bells and mosques called for prayer at the same time, while tens of thousands of Palestinians entered the buffer zone this Friday between the besieged Gaza Strip and Israel in the massive weekly Great March of Return protest.

This 81st week of protests was called “Down with the Balfour Declaration!”. It marks the 102nd anniversary of the British declaration announcing support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. Palestinian masses now are calling on Britain to not only apologize but also rectify this major historical disregard for Palestinian self determination and statehood.

Palestinian children at the 81st week of the Great March of Return in Gaza.

Ali Salim, 55, stated that the Balfour Declaration, in fact, is the cause and source of all the Palestinian tragedies and sufferings since then: “The 102nd anniversary means 102 years of displacement, expulsion, massacres, and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.”

Khawla Khalil added, “We came here today to confirm our rights, and our rejection of Balfour! These days, we are experiencing the declaration through Trump’s Deal of the Century, when he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”

Palestinian women holds a key, symbolizing the right of return for Palestinian refugees, at a protest in Gaza on Friday, November 1st.

Duaa Abdellateef — spokesperson for the Women’s Committee adjunct to the Committee for the Great Return March — said the weekly marches will continue until Palestinian rights and demands are met.

“We will defeat all the local and international conspiracies that aim at liquidating our Palestinian national cause, including the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, disregard of the internationally recognized right of return, and the proposed Israeli annexation of the West Bank.”

On Thursday afternoon, October 31^st, mosques in Gaza called for prayers at precisely the same time local churches rang their bells, marking the 102nd anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. The public statement was intended to show all faiths in Gaza renewing their rejection of the British empire’s edict. The coordinated actions by mosques and churches across Gaza were organized by the Great Return March’s higher committee.

One of the churches in Gaza which took part in the coordinated actions for the 102nd anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.

Wafa Aludaini is a journalist and activist in Gaza who writes a weekly column for ISM on the Great March of Return.

School shooting a near miss in Gaza

15th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza, occupied Palestine

On the 2^nd of March at 2pm, Israeli occupation forces fired into Beit Dajan School, located in Shijaia, near the annexation wall.

The students that were in the class when the occupation forces shot at the school

Bilal Abu Asser was giving a lesson to his students when a bullet passed just next to his head. “Suddenly I heard a huge explosion, in that moment all the children started to scream, some started to run, others hid under the table, others were in shock… I tried to calm them down and went out from the class to see what had happened, as in the first moment I thought it had been a bomb outside the school. I met the head of the school who started to speak with me but I couldn’t hear anything because of the explosion. Then I returned to my class, where one of my students showed me the bullet on the ground. I tried to hide it from the other students and we moved into the laboratory, on the first floor”.

Bilal Abu Asser shows the bullet — Bilal Abu Asser shows where the bullet entered

Since the day of the shooting, many children have become scared and are afraid of coming back to the school. Children come some days but not others; the attendance level is never constant. “Those kids live without any kind of security, neither economic nor physical. They can’t feel safe at home, they can’t feel safe at the school… the occupation doesn’t respect anything.”

Another teacher points out, “as you can see the bullet didn’t explode completely… if it had at least 10 children would be dead”.

The head of the school points out where the bullet hit

The head of the school, Sami Khalil Radwan, says that they always hear the shooting against the farmers working near there, and that often they have to evacuate the school due to the tear gas that the occupation shoots directly against the school or next to it, but that it’s the first time that something like this has happened since the end of the war.

Turret from where the bullet might have been shot

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.

Israeli forces continue slaughtering Gazan protesters

30th December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza strip, occupied Palestine

Last Friday, 25th of December another youth, 22-year-old Hani Wahdan, was killed in Shijaia in Gaza. One week before, 20-year-old Mohamed El Agha was killed in El Faraheen in Gaza.

Since the beginning of October Israeli snipers have killed unarmed demonstrators along Gaza’s fence almost every week, and injured hundreds with live fire.

Mohamed Abu Taima, 22 years old, is one of those injured by the Israeli snipers. He was shot in the leg minutes before the killing of Mohamed El Agha took place in the same area.

In the European Hospital of Khan Younees, 19-year-old Abdel Kareem Kalwaji lies in a bed beside Mohamed’s. He was shot a week before Mohamed; unfortunately the explosive dum-dum bullets used by the occupation completely destroyed both bones in one of his legs and one bone in the other leg. He has already undergone two surgeries and doctors say that he’ll need a lot of rehabilitation in order to move around by himself again.

When questioned regarding their reasons to demonstrate despite the high risk of getting shot, both answered that they do it for the liberation of Al Quds and Al Aqsa Mosque and in support of their brothers and sisters in the West Bank.

Rare cancer caused by Israeli bombs in Gaza

21st July 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

During the 2012 Zionist massacre in Gaza, named by the occupation as Operation Pillar of Defense, many buildings near Mohamed’s home were bombed. Less than a year after the aggression, while playing with him, Mohamed’s mother found a lump in his neck. At this time he was eight years old.

They went to Shifa hospital, where he was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer. There he underwent the first surgery, but the operation was not successful.

After that he was allowed to travel to the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, in order to be treated in the Hospital of Haifa. Where he underwent a second surgery and received radiotherapy, unavailable in Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority pays the treatment to the Israeli hospital. For this reason, according to Mohamed’s family, the Palestinian Authority tries to prevent every journey of Mohamed from Gaza to Haifa’s hospital.

As Mohamed’s mother says, the Israeli doctors told them that this kind of cancer is due to the bombings near their home. They also told her that in 2016 the cancer rates in Gaza will rise 70% more, and that for the following 4 years it will keep growing.

Since the 2012 aggression Mohamed’s father has developed asthma as well.

The land bombed next to Mohamed's home. — The land bombed next to Mohamed’s home.

In 2014 Mohamed’s home was attacked by Zionist warships. Luckily they weren’t at home in this moment.

Mohamed’s family referred ISM to Fatimah, a 50 years old woman, mother of six children, who lives near them.

During the 2008 massacre, a mosque, a government building and a home were bombed next to her house. Four years ago she was diagnosed as well with thyroid cancer.

The home next to Fatima's that was bombed. — The home next to Fatima’s that was bombed.

The two oncologists interviewed by ISM in Shifa Hospital and Rantisi Children Hospital, in Gaza, agreed that these kinds of cancer are due to the Zionist bombs, and explained that they were very rare before the massive aggressions against the Gaza Strip.

* The names have been changed, as Mohamed and Fatimah are afraid of losing the permission to leave the Strip to receive the treatment.