Tag: Gaza

Free Gaza Movement: “We’re back!” – Fourth successful voyage breaks through siege of Gaza

(GAZA, 9 December 2008) – The Free Gaza Movement ship “Dignity” successfully broke through the Israeli blockade for the fourth time since August, arriving in Gaza Port at 2:45pm, Tuesday 9 December. The ship carried one ton of medical supplies and high-protein baby formula, in addition to a delegation of international academics, humanitarian and human rights workers. Three earlier missions made landfall in Gaza in August, October, and November through the power of non-violent direct action and civil resistance. The Free Gaza ships are the first international ships to reach the Gaza Strip in over 41 years.

Ewa Jasiewicz, a Free Gaza organizer, journalist, and solidarity worker, pointed out that, “Tomorrow is International Human Rights Day, and it’s high time the world turned its rhetoric on human rights into reality. We mounted this mission to give our solidarity to the people of Palestine and to highlight the strangulating conditions Israel causes in besieged Gaza. The inhumane effects of this siege threaten to stunt an entire generation – both in terms of physical and mental growth due to malnutrition, terrorization by bomb attacks, incursions and the use of sonic booms – but also in terms of the generation of students which have won places at academic institutions around the world but cannot fulfill them, and those undermined on the ground in Gaza by a lack of food, medicine, electricity, materials, and the peace and space to make use of them in.”

For over two years, Israel has imposed an increasingly severe blockade on Gaza, dramatically increasing poverty and malnutrition rates among the 1.5 million human people who live in this tiny, coastal region. The World Bank recently warned that the entire banking system in Gaza may soon collapse resulting in “serious humanitarian implications.” Already, over eighty percent of Gazan families are dependent on international food aid in order to feed their children.

Lubna Masarwa, another Free Gaza organizer and the current delegation’s leader, pointed out that, “The Palestinians of Gaza don’t need charity. What they need is effective political action that changes their lives and ends the Occupation. We can’t bring electricity to Gaza on our boats. We can’t import freedom of movement or safety. But we can get into Gaza and we are intent to keep coming. We will come again and again and again until the world breaks its silence and we shatter this siege once and for all.”

Ynet: Police seize boat ahead of Gaza sail

Arab Knesset members, left-wing activists planning to sail south from Jaffa in bid to ‘break the blockade’, transfer humanitarian equipment to Strip stopped by Israel Police; vessel transferred to Tel Aviv marina. ‘This is a coward move; all we wanted was to deliver medicines,’ says MK Tibi

To view original article, published by Ynet on the 7th December, click here

Police prevent Gaza sail: A boat scheduled to leave the Jaffa Port on Sunday morning with several Arab Knesset members and sail to the Gaza Strip was seized by the police early Sunday and transferred to the Tel Aviv marina, Ynet has learned.

The police also seized a truck carrying equipment and medications and detained three suspects for questioning.

Left-wing activists and several Arab MKs were planning to dock in the Strip a day before the Muslim Festival of Sacrifice (Eid al-Adha) in protest of the “Israeli blockade” and transfer humanitarian equipment, including medications, food and toys.

Police officials explained that they acted according to clause 24 in the “disengagement implementation law”, which states that Israelis will not enter Gaza without a permit.

There were no reports of clashes in the area, but the police boosted their forces in Jaffa for fear of riots. Police officials estimated that was the only boat scheduled to sail to Gaza.

Hadash Chairman Mohammad Barakeh was on his way to Jaffa when he heard about the police operation from Ynet.

“If this is the state of things, the strong Israel must be afraid of a humanitarian act,” he said. “We wanted to show the world that there is a different Israel, but it appears that the authorities insist on presenting Israel in its ugliness.”

‘Illegal move’

Zahi Nujaidat of the Committee against the Siege, which initiated the move, claimed that the police operation had no illegal basis. “No one told us, ‘Don’t sail.’ Every person in Israel can pay a boat owner and sail and travel to Gaza’s waters, just like anyone can sail to Akko and Tiberias,” he said.

United Arab List-Ta’al Chairman Ahmad Tibi, who joined the sail initiative at the last moment, said this was “a coward and anti-Democratic move by people and an establishment fearing the supply of medicines to a Gaza hospital.

“This is the same institution which turns a blind eye and silently agrees – recently more intensely – to the riots and pogroms of Jewish fascists from the settlements, and is the one preventing a ship of medications carrying a human message to sail to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza in order to deliver the medicines.”

Tibi stressed that the sail was not a political one and that there were no scheduled meetings with members of movements which do not recognize Israel (i.e. Hamas).

“This was a symbolic sail aimed at breaking the siege. We support the lull and we succeed in the humanitarian test, while the occupation fails once and again.”

MKs Wasal Taha and Jamal Zahalka (Balad) said in a statement, “We will continue our efforts to send aid boats to Gaza from Israel and abroad and won’t give up. “Gaza is hungry on the eve of the Festival of Sacrifice and this is humanitarian aid.”

3 sails despite truce

Last week, Libya demanded that the United Nations Security Council hold an emergency session to discuss Israel’s refusal to allow a Libyan vessel carrying humanitarian supplies to dock on Gaza’s shore.

During the discussion, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev responded to the claims on damaging peace efforts, saying, “You’re adapting yourselves to Hizbullah and al-Qaeda.

In the past Israel allowed ships to transfer equipment to Gaza, but has apparently decided to increase the pressure on Hamas following the recent attacks on Israel.

Three sails have reached the Strip’s shores in recent months, despite the Israeli siege. The first sail of peace activists arrived in Gaza in August with Israel’s approval.

In November, another group of activists reported that it had managed to reach the Strip’s shores after sailing from Cyprus. Several weeks later, 11 European parliament members from Britain, Ireland, Switzerland and Italy also decided to visit Gaza via sea in order to examine the humanitarian situation in the Strip.

Child Martyrs

ISM Gaza Strip

On Tuesday 2nd December 2008 Gaza Strip, Palestine added two more child martyrs to its already long list of thousands of dead children, the products of U.S. tax-payer money providing the ways and the means for Israel to continue its genocidal occupation and siege.


Omar Abu-Hamad

15 year-old Omar Abu-Hamad, born 28th January 1993 and 19 year-old Ramzi El Dahini were blown to bits standing in the street outside their homes – they both lived in the same neighborhood and were also cousins. Two other children were seriously injured and taken to Al-Najar hospital in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Their injuries were so serious that they are being transferred to a hospital inside Israel, since the hospitals in Gaza are so very limited in the treatment they can give to those who need urgent emergency care.

According to Omar’s family, he and his mother were home when they both heard an explosion. It sounded like a gas canister and they went out to see what happened. An Israeli remote operated drone plane had shot a missile nearby. Omar’s mother came back into the house and heard another explosion. She had thought that Omar had come back into the house with her, but he wasn’t around. She went back outside looking for him. She questioned the people in the street about Omar and the neighbors said that he wasn’t there in the street among the dead, for her to look elsewhere. But her heart told her that he was there in the street, blown to bits by the remote controlled missile. She saw a shoe in the street and recognized it as her son’s and knew that he was dead.

She went to the hospital and asked about her son, they didn’t want to let her see him, he was in parts, no longer in one recognizable body.

Omar’s brothers, 17 year-old Emad, 12 year-old Ibrahim, and 10 year-old Mahmoud told everyone how they had found out about Omar’s death. Emad was at home when the shooting took place. He went outside and was told like his mother that Omar was not dead, but Emad insisted on going to the hospital. Once there he went to the morgue and told the technicians to open the refrigerator where they store the dead bodies. He saw Omar’s pants and one of his legs and before seeing the rest of the blown apart body knew that it was Omar. Ibrahim had come home from school and asked about Omar, his mother told him that he had been killed. Mahmoud came home from school and found a house full of women and he was told “your brother was killed”. The people in the street also told him that Omar was dead.

Amal, Omar’s 18 year-old sister was at the clinic the day he was killed. She came home from the clinic and they chatted and then he went outside and was killed. She didn’t believe that he was dead.

ISM Gaza Strip volunteers had gone to the home of Omar to pay respects and some of the family were reminiscing about him. When Omar was still going to school, in the morning he would stop by at a poor woman’s house in the neighborhood and bring her bread. One day when he went there he found her dead in her bed. After looking closer he saw bullet holes in her wall and saw that she had been killed by being shot by a bullet. This incident impacted him so strongly that he couldn’t focus on his studies and stopped going to school.

His mother reminisced that he was very clever, he could fix anything – the computer, the closet – just give it to him and he would find a way to fix something broken or to build something that was needed. He was also very clever in school.

His sister, Amal, talked about his personality – he would make jokes and he was very helpful. Everyday he would get up at 6:00am and go to his step-mother’s house to take his step brother to the store. She remembered that he had planted the trees outside of their home and had painted his name on the walls of the house. How can they continue to live in this house now?

The family continued to talk about Omar, saying that he had a sheep which had recently had a lamb. The family had decided to not sacrifice the sheep or the lamb for Eid Al-Adha, but to keep them both in remembrance of Omar.

The family talked about the relationship of the father with Omar. The father has been in an Israeli prison for the last 9-10 months and he still does not know that Omar has been killed, murdered by the Israeli occupation force army. His health is suffering and the family is concerned about how the news might affect him. The father used to say that Omar was his right arm and in his letters to the family he would mention how much he depended on him. The family also mentioned that the father had told Omar to write a letter expressing how he felt. Omar asked him to whom he should write the letter and the father told him to write it to a good friend. Omar said the children are my friends. The family remembered that Omar would call a 10 month-old child his son and one of Omar’s younger brothers would call him “Ba”, another Arabic name for father.

Ramzi was at home before the incident, when a friend called by and asked him to go to help repair his bicycle. He joined a group of young people who were sitting on a fence at the side of the road just in front of his house, chatting. A few minutes later the Israeli drone fired a missile. People in the neighborhood had observed the drone flying west, away from the area, and thought it was safe. But then the drone returned. Ramzi’s mother said she heard a loud explosion and ran out of the house to see what had happened. She saw the bodies of the teenagers not realizing that one of them was her son. She went back into her house to get some blankets to cover the bodies as the ambulance hadn’t arrived yet. Ramzi’s brother was on the scene. She asked him if Ramzi was one of the people killed and he told her that he was. It was a huge shock. She later commented that she raised her son for nineteen years only for the Israeli army to steal his future.

The families of Omar and Ramzi are still in shock over the sudden loses of their beloved sons, brothers, cousins and uncles. Unarmed children standing in a field after one explosion hit the area, torn to smithereens by a second murderous missile. These families will have a gaping hole of loss for the rest of their lives. It was a genocidal attack that killed also the future generations of these two man-children. The loss of life reverberates throughout the world – this genocide of Palestinians can be stopped, it must be stopped, the only question is when?!

For more information contact:

Donna Wallach, contributed to article, cell: +972-59-88-36-420, email: cats4jazz@gmail.com

Maan: Blockade-busting voyages to Gaza planned from Qatar, Israel, Yemen, Cyprus, Jordan

To view original article, published by Maan News Agency on the 3rd November, click here

Gaza – A series of ships sailing Qatar, Israel, Yemen, and Cyprus, and Jordan will challenge the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip over the next two months, said Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Jamal Al-Khudari on Tuesday.

On Friday a ship sailing from Qatar is scheduled to make landfall in Gaza. On Saturday, a ship sailing from Haifa, in northern Israel will reach Gaza carrying five tons of humanitarian aid, including medicine, said Al-Khudari, who is the leader of the Popular Committee Against the Siege of Gaza.

The ships will further test Israel’s willingness to block shipments of vital goods to the coastal territory. After allowing a group of international and Palestinian activists to sail to Gaza three times since August, Israel gunboats forced a Libyan ship carrying 3,000 tons of aid to turn back on Tuesday.

On 18 December the Islamic Parliamentary Union will dispatch a ship from Larnaca, Cyprus. Two days later, Jordanian activists will send a boat from the Red Sea port of Aqaba.

A Yemeni vessel will set sail in January.

Al-Khudari said, in a statement that the Israeli blockade of Gaza has left 70% Gaza residents without electricity.

After nearly a year and a half of closure, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on 4 November, preventing deliveries of aid by land, sea, and air. The territory’s sole power plant has frequently shut down, and the United Nations was forced to suspend a food aid program that feeds 750,000 Palestinians.

Candle-light vigil held in Nablus in solidarity with Gaza

On the evening of November 30th, Palestinians from the West Bank city of Nablus assembled in the city centre to show support for the people of Gaza, who have been denied access to food, water, medicine and electricity as a result of the complete closure of the Gaza Strip by Israeli authorities.

To commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People, over 100 Nablus residents, together with international activists, lit candles and held signs saying “Long Live Gaza,” and “Stop Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine”, referring to the systematic Israeli attempt to further expel Palestinians from their homelands and diminish Palestinian national identity.

The demonstration, organized by a coalition of different Palestinian political parties and organisations, called for unity against the Israeli occupation, chanting, “One flag, one homeland”. Many speakers pointed out that although it does not match the totality of the siege on Gaza, Nablus too is under siege from Israeli checkpoints and closures.

Solidarity was also expressed between the refugee camps in Nablus and those in Gaza, with the crowd chanting “From Nablus to Gaza, we will live with dignity!”.

In a clear act of collective punishment and violation of international law, the Gaza Strip has been almost completely sealed, making de-facto prisoners out of the region’s 1.5 million people. These policies have already cost hundreds of lives, and destroyed the livelihood of hundreds of thousands, leaving over 80% of the population below the poverty line, and facing imminent starvation as much needed food supplies are denied.