27 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Ahmed Mahmoud Jarboh
At 12:30 pm, Ahmed Mahmoud Jarboh, aged 26, was shot in the back of the left knee by the Israeli Offensive Forces while fishing at the shore of Beit Lahya, in the north of the Gaza Strip. He is currently hospitalized in Kamal Udwan, in the neighboring town Jabalya, where his condition is being monitored.
Beit Lahya borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the 1949 Armistice Line with Israel to the north. The village’s economical resources are crippled by Israeli policies that restrict the fishing zone to three nautical miles and impose a 300 meter buffer zone on Palestinian land.
For over a year Ahmed has daily frequented the same area to fish with a small cast net. Today he and two of his colleagues were fishing from the shore at approximately 350 meters from the border fence. This incident again exemplifies a recent UN report conclusion that the danger zone does not halt at 300 meters: it can reach up to 1.5 kilometers.
“For over a year I have come here daily to fish. The soldiers in the watchtower see me every day: they know I am only a fisher! There was no reason for them to be suspicious as this is a normal, daily scene. Nothing special was going on.”
Even though the IOF soldiers should be familiar with Ahmed’s face, he was shot without warning:
“The only shot that was fired was the one that hit my leg”, he states.
When they heard the bullet being fired, the two other fishermen ran away to find shelter. As soon as they considered the situation “safe” again, they realized what had happened. They went to pick up Ahmed from the water and brought him to the hospital. The wound is stitched now, but probably surgery will not be necessary. It is still uncertain how long Ahmed will have to remain in the hospital and how long it will take for him to fully recover from this injury.
“I’m a father of two and I am the sole provider for my family. We have nothing else than what I gain from fishing.”
The 3 nautical mile restriction has resulted in a depletion of revenues which pushes people into the dangerous buffer zone. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, there have been nine people injured this month while working in the buffer zone. Ahmed Mahmoud Jarboh marks the tenth victim of IOF buffer zone aggression in four weeks.
21 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
House bombed in Deir al-Balah
Rubble of bombed house in Deir al-Balah
The afternoon of November 19th an Israeli fighter plane bombed a house in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The house of the Dar Shorafa family, located 400 meters from the border fence, has disappeared. At the center of the date palm garden is a 3 m deep crater with the rubble of the former house scattered around.
At the time of attack the residents were absent, but the neighbors witnessed the attack. The Abu Mustafa family lives opposite them, approximately 50 meters from the bombed house. When the strike happened they were in the back yard hosting visitors. A moderate strike was heard and while the family was looking for shelter, a loud explosion rocketed debris through the air. Four people were hit and the roof of the family’s basic house was pierced five times.
3 meter deep crater at the centre of the date palm garden, scattered with rubble of the destroyed house
Rokia Shaban, a 52 year old woman, was hit in the abdomen, the upper leg, and on the shoulder. She left the hospital this morning and is now recovering in her damaged home. Wijdan Samir (29), Abdal Aziz (20) and two year old Ibrahim Sulayman were slightly injured. Because the scene is close to the buffer zone, it took the ambulance more than 30 minutes to arrive. Palestinian public services, like police cars and ambulances, cannot come this near to the border without coordinating with the Israeli authorities on the risk of being shot. The buffer zone runs along the Israeli fence and “officially” has a width of 300 meters on the Palestinian side. Israel claims this is a no-go-zone and deems it legitimate to shoot people within the area. However, according to a recent UN report the danger zone runs up to 1.5 km.
Sulaiman Ibrahim Abu Mustafa, the head of the family, firmly states that there is absolutely no resistance taking place on this site, contradicting the terrorist accusations of the Israeli military spokesperson.
Rubble in place of obliterated house in Deir al-Balah
“The Israelis are lying by claiming that resistance is taking place here. This is but an agricultural zone: we grow olives and eggplants. Even during the attacks in Cast Lead, we were spared. I don’t know why we were attacked; it comes totally unexpected; we are normal civilians trying to live off our land.”
Israeli tanks hold daily incursions on the Palestinian side of the barrier here, but today the army has remained invisible.
“Maybe they finally went to sleep after they bombed us”, laughs Suleiman Ibrahim while comforting his crying two year old son.
Farmhouse bombed in Khan Younis
31 year old farmhouse guard Mohammed Abdel Hassan Abuhussien in Europa (Khan Younis) hospital bed, shrapnel in his side and shoulder
The previous night, a suspected Israeli drone bombed a farmhouse in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, severely injuring a man and mildly a child.
The shelling of the farmhouse began approximately at midnight on Friday night. The first hit next to the livestock farm and 31 year old Mohammed Abdel Hassan Abuhussien, on guard duty, tried to scramble for cover as the shrapnel flew scattering into the surrounding walls and roof, injuring 2 bulls and a cow. The second followed quickly after and this time Mohammed could not avoid the shrapnel flying directly at him. Luckilty his co-worker who was nearby came to rescue him.
“It’s just a farm yard, it’s a deserted place, that’s all there is there. It has never been a dangerous place – just livestock and a few factories. They have no idea why they’d hit the farm,” said his brother at the hospital. Mohammed was lying with his eyes half closed unable to communicate. He had a piece of shrapnel embedded in his shoulder and another in his right side that had penetrated his lung.
Livestock hit by shrapnel in Khan Younis farmhouse
His wife, four months pregnant, and two young sons and daughter were at his bedside. They say it will be hard for them now and much will depend on Mohammed’s father to handle the situation. His brother was injured in the first intifada when he was 5 years old and still has the bullet inside his body. “We expect nothing less from Israel than to just attack innocent people like this— a guy sitting as a watchman for some cows and bulls. He’s just a worker with a growing family. His life was difficult enough,” he told us.
On the visit to the farm there were two holes in the roof of the barnyard where the shells landed; one made a dent in the concrete floor between two bull pens. It was apparently another attack from an Israeli drone and the explosive impact sent shrapnel flying around the farmhouse, injuring 2 bulls and a cow. The shrapnel is still inside the large animals’ bodies, and one is now unable to walk. At the time of the attack, the security guard Mohammed had been sitting between them at one side. The roof of the barnyard is littered with holes.
Hole in roof of Khan Younis farmhouse
“It will cost 20,000 U.S. dollars to fix the roof,” said the farm owner Salah Saleem Afana. But this is not the first time for Salah. The Israeli forces destroyed 2 dunums of his land next to the border with Egypt during the war, turning to rubble a 400m2 house he had there.
“We also lost hundreds of animals and two relatives were injured when the car they were in was bombed. The cost of all that was 120,000 US$ — and our crime? Living and farming near to the border? Just like what will happen for us here, there was no compensation and no justice. It’s the same way the international community treats all the crimes against us everyday from the siege, the bombings, the destruction and the killings. When it’s the Palestinians they just look away.”
A wounded Palestinian woman is carried into a hospital after Israeli warplanes struck in the central Gaza Strip November 19, 2010.
Israeli warplanes struck three targets in the Gaza Strip Friday in response to militant rocket and mortar fire, the Israeli army said.
At least four people, three women and a boy, were hurt in one attack in the central Gaza Strip when an uninhabited building close to where they were standing collapsed after being hit, local residents said.
The injuries were not considered to be life threatening, a Gaza hospital source said.
The two other strikes were aimed at targets near the town of Khan Younis in the southern part of the territory, one of which was a training camp belonging to the Islamic Jihad militant group. There were no reports of casualties.
An Israeli military spokesman said three air strikes had been carried out against militant targets in the coastal strip.
“Two of the three targets were smuggling tunnels that were being built and they were destroyed,” said the spokesman, who declined to specify the nature of the third target.
He added that nine mortar shells and one longer-range rocket were fired over the past 24 hours, the highest number in a concentrated period for several months.
The Popular Resistance Committees, a Palestinian militant group, claimed responsibility for the mortar fire, saying it was in retaliation for Israel’s killing of two militant leaders of the Army of Islam in Gaza Wednesday.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Ori Lewis and Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Myra MacDonald)
17 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
28 year old Ibrahim Yousef Ghaben from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, personifies the trials of life for Palestinians and their families, and the multitude of hardships brought by Israel’s siege and violent attacks. It would not normally have been Ibrahim’s choice to collect rubble with a donkey cart as a means of providing for his sick mother, wife and 8 young children. But in Gaza, external pressures force people to make choices that anywhere else would be deemed beyond reason and perhaps beyond imagination.
Collecting rocks near the Erez Border, Beit Hanoun
Ibrahim Yousef Ghaben, 28, from Beit Lahia
Bassem Qassem 23 years old, from Beit Hanoun
Omar Sabri Hamad 24 years old, from Beit Hanoun
Nazmi Salim Tanboura, 50 years old, from Beit Lahia
The shooting on the 10th of November was the latest setback for Ibrahim, the most recent of the 10 rock collectors shot near or in the Israeli imposed ‘buffer zone’ during the last 3 weeks. The buffer zone is a 300m wide strip of land that runs along the border from where Israel justifies shooting those who enter, although according to a recent United Nations report people are at risk up to 1500 metres from the border. Ibrahim couldn’t speak because he was in so much pain, as he lay in his hospital bed with his right leg plastered and bolted.
His brother Atif described, “he was shot by Israeli soldiers stationed at a border control tower in his right leg when he was about 600 metres from the fence. Friends put him on a donkey cart and took him to an ambulance. The bones in the lower part of his leg have been shattered, and the doctors think it was a ‘dum dum’ (explode on impact) bullet. He had been collecting rubble for 5 months with his donkey cart in the Beit Hanoun border area.”
Every day hundreds of men and youth collect stones, metal, pieces of concrete and brick in the border areas despite common knowledge that Israeli snipers are at every control tower. They get around 50 shekels for a donkey cart but, like Ibrahim, many of them end up in a hospital bed with a cast wrapped around their bullet wounds.
So why do they do it? The recurring reasons given by scrap and rock-collectors is a complete lack of available work.
Israel’s siege has torn the economy apart and left 67% of the population without jobs. The few imports allowed in are costly and Israel continues to ban all exports from the Strip. The economic value in Gaza of ‘rubble’ has emerged only over the last two years, due to the huge demand for building materials and the very limited supply. Israel allows literally no concrete and building materials to enter the Gaza Strip and although inefficient, recycling the stones and rocks is still cheaper than the small amounts of high priced concrete brought in through the Rafah tunnels from Egypt.
Most of the rubble collectors are based in the North in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya where incursions are frequent, hence the larger number of border side houses and other buildings that have been bulldozed or bombed by the Israeli Occupation Forces. What’s more in Beit Hanoun near the Erez crossing was the site of an industrial centre built by Israel before their forces were redeployed to the border areas in 2005, an area with a high concentration of concrete and stone.
Intensifying the dire need for building material was Israel’s operation: ‘Cast Lead’: the 3 week bombing and land assault over the new year of 2009 that destroyed or damaged beyond repair over 20,000 houses, schools, universities, hospitals, office buildings and mosques. The attack also killed 1400 people including over 400 children; a further 5300 were injured. Ibrahim’s house in Beit Lahiya was destroyed by shelling during the attacks nearly 2 years ago and on Wednesday he became the tenth rock collector in three weeks to be shot collecting rubble.
On Thursday 21st October, we met 23 year old Bassem Gassem and 24 year old and Omar Sabri Hamad who that morning had both been shot in their right foot in Beit Hanoun near to Erez crossing. They were near to the Israeli imposed ‘buffer-zone’.
“There were 50 rock collectors around the area I was shot, without a warning.” Bassem told us. “I was hot and walking so didn’t feel the pain initially, but once I came to the hospital the pain began. He had plied this trade for nearly one and a half years and still can’t see another option once he has recovered. “I used to work the markets with fruit and veg from Erez crossing when it was open but that work dried up. So I began collecting rocks after the war. This is part of life for our families, the siege, the shootings of people guilty of nothing but hard work when there are not jobs. People around the world see the circumstances we have here but they do nothing.”
His mother by his bedside explained the responsibility that was on Bassem’s shoulders: “His father was injured and paralysed during the war. There are 14 family members altogether and he’s the only one providing a regular wage for us. But he’s a strong boy; he’s been working for the family since the 5th grade. I told him not to do this job because of the danger and go back to the markets – but he knows that 30-40 shekels a day is not enough for the family.”
“I will go back there, it’s the only work there for me”, said Bassem
Omar from Beit Hanoun is married with 2 children and the bullet broke bones in his foot, requiring surgery. He will not be going back. “It was my first day collecting rubble, I need the money for my family and there’s no jobs here, no means of providing for my family. A few hundred metres from the control tower at 9am with no warning they shot me in the leg and friends had to carry me out. That’s it for me, I’ll never do that again.”
The other area with numerous border attacks is around Beit Lahiya where Nazmi Salim Tanboura, a 50 year old father of 10 was shot through his thighs at 8:15am on Sunday 31st October. He was approximately 800m from the fence when one bullet went through the back of both of his thighs. “I caught a glimpse of two Israeli soldiers stationed on a small hill. They shot me and I was shouting for my son but he was far away. A friend nearby came and put me on a donkey cart. I was taken to Beit Lahiya corner where an ambulance arrived and took me to the hospital. I’m the only one supporting the family and my sons are all married.”
Like the others, the circumstances around him had left Nazmi with no choice. “There are no jobs, there’s no work. Many people go there despite all the stories of people getting shot. My cousin was shot collecting rocks last month but I didn’t think of stopping. But I’m old now. I’ll buy a new donkey for my cart and try going back to work on the vegetable markets. I don’t depend on people on the outside because we’re always sending messages out but the world doesn’t see us or listen to us. Look how we live! I only have God to turn to here.”
Last Wednesday, as we left Ibrahim in Beit Lahiya hospital, his father was wiping his son’s brow while his 10 year old son stood crying at his bedside. There was a fear as to the ordeal still ahead for Ibrahim’s slow and painful road to recovery. Brother Atif said he and his brothers’ families would take care of him and his children but doesn’t see much hope for Ibrahim to go back to work. “The doctor said his leg is smashed and he’ll be in this condition for 6 months. We don’t know what he’ll be capable of doing in 6 months, or what he has the will to do. Before this he was a farm labourer.”
A cousin Mohammed was not hopeful that the hardships faced due to the Israeli occupation and siege would recede any time soon: “The only thing Ibrahim cared about was earning a wage to provide for his family. If the siege was ended and the concrete and building materials could arrive like in any other country, people like my brother wouldn’t be forced to risk their lives doing this. And the response – bullets while the world watches.”
Atif said that everyone faces danger no matter how they try and live in Gaza: “We have large families in Gaza and we want to work but we’re deprived of our livelihoods, our dignity. Its not just rock collecting. People in the cities are all at risk from bombing, shelling. I’m a University graduate in Psychology, I have no job and I now may work in the Rafah tunnels where there are frequent casualties from Israeli attacks, just to make ends meet.”
13 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement -Gaza
The demonstration in the Beit Hanoun Buffer-zone tuesday remembered the brutal Israeli shelling in the area 4 years earlier that killed 20 civilians and injured 60. Palestinians of the Local Initiative group and 4 International Solidarity Movement activists approached the wall at Erez crossing and passed rock collectors in the buffer zone some 100 metres from the border. The next day, Israeli soldiers positioned on observation towers near the crossing fired at the workers, shot 28 year old Ibrahim Yousef Ghaben, 28, in his right leg, breaking his bone and bringing the total number of rock collectors shot by Israeli snipers to 10 in 3 weeks, 7 injured in the Beit Hanoun border area alone.
Once the demonstrators reached the border, chanting and waving flags, they planted a Palestinian flag on the outer wall of the Erez crossing tunnel. Saber Al Za’anin, the General Coordinator of the Local Initiative group spoke of the tragedy that devastated families in the Beit Hanoun area on the 9th of November. “We are here today to ensure that the families, the men, women and children killed, injured and left behind from the massacre on November 2006 are never forgotten, and we will carry on with our struggle to bring justice for these crimes and all of the others that have befallen our people.”
He was referring to one of the most horrific massacres that took place in Gaza’s recent history before Israel’s assault in operation ‘Cast Lead’ during the winter of 2009.
The Israeli operation was called ‘Autumn Clouds’. One day after the Israeli army declared that it had finished the operation in Beit Hanoun after international pressue, 20 people were killed and at least 45 were injured as a large number of shells were fired at the town. Many of the victims were women and children and 11 were from the same Al-A’athamein family.
Local initiative demonstaters at Erez crossing
The massacre took place after a siege and street occupation by Israeli ground troops between the 2nd and 8th of November 2006. The soldiers searched house-to-house, arresting, imprisoning and interrogating males over the age of 16 years. Families were forced to stay together in a single room while Israeli soldiers took over floors and rooftops of the buildings, electricity and gas were cut and people often had not access to toilets.
A group of 1500 unarmed women demonstrated during the 7 day siege of the town in an effort to free men gathered in a mosque, only for Israeli troops to open fire on them too. 2 of the women were killed and a further 20 injured, highlighting that however the peaceful the resistance is, the same brutality applies.
Casualties arrived at Al Awda hospital in Jabalya from the beginning of the siege, but delays by soldiers to evacuate them meant some died needlessly, and those that made it to the hospital had no family members to accompany them.
It was the early morning of 9th November, when the 20 civilians were killed as Israeli forces shelled an apartment building which housed around 120 people. Majdi El Athamina lost three brothers and one of his sons, 9 year old Sa’ad – his wife and another son were seriously injured.
Dr Mona El Farra who was receiving the casualties at the Al Awda hospital remembers the horrors that emerged during the week:
“Dina El-Athamina 2 year old toddler, she had bad fractures in the pelvis – there was no father and mother with her because she lost both. The killed and the injured arrived day by day, it was horrific, the hospital was chaos. It was only civilians killed – 7 children and later the army admitted ‘it was a mistake’ Even a rescue worker and a neighbor who went to rescue the family were shot and killed. Ambulances were not allowed into the villages.
I remember one mother was in full labour – noone was allowed in or out of village. After 4 hours waiting to be allowed to leave the village, she left and came to hospital and gave birth. The army was in the village shelling and storming houses, so noone could visit. She returned home with baby in her arms to find her house was demolished. “
People couldn’t imagine the violence increasing but according to Dr Mona after the 2006 bombing, the violence has actually intensified, epitomized by the huge civilian casualties in Cast Lead. “They have no limits, no boundaries for their brutality, no ideas of safety for civilians and health workers. It is a racist, colonial regime that has no respect for international law. We believe that we have our rights and we know that justice is on our side and will one day arrive with the help of the huge solidarity around the world and the growing international boycott, divestment and sanction movement that more and more people of conscience are joining.”
Tuesday’s demonstration ended without incident despite shootings there being a regular occurrence in the previous weeks. For the rock collectors working near to where the protest took place, the perils of occupation continue. An industry only created by the blockade of concrete and the fact 17000 home were so badly damaged, they now turn to this work to help feed their families
