Tag: Rafah

Action Alert: tell Egypt to open Rafah crossing

19 February 2011 | Gazan human rights organizations

The International Solidarity Movement has received a request from Palestinians in Gaza that concerned people contact the Egyptian embassies to ask them to reopen the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza. They have prepared a statement which you can sign and fax to your embassy in order to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis caused by the closing of the crossing. Below is the email correspondence, and a link to a document containing the statement.

“Please read this letter from Gaza and try and get an organisation/civil society group to endorse it or sign it individually and send it on to your Egyptian embassies. It’s about the continuing Rafah crossing that seems to be the last thing on the Egyptian agenda now. Thousands of Palestinians are stranded at the Cairo airport, and all over the world. Some have gone on hunger strike and the last decision taken by the deposed government was to ban Palestinians from renting in Egypt. You could also send the letter to your local Member of Parliament or representative.

We call on you to sign the attached letter and fax it to the Egyptian embassy where you are based. If you don’t have a fax, please email. Obviously in light of recent events recommencing the movement of goods and people through both directions of the Rafah border with Gaza is a priority, given the devastating effects of the blockade of the Gaza Strip now inside its fourth year. Demand immediate action.

Best,
Palestinians in Gaza

The London Fax number for the Egyptian Embassy in UK is: 020 7491 1542
TEL: 020 7499 3304/2401
The Washington Fax number for the Egyptian Embassy in US is: 202.244.4319, 202.244.5131
TEL: 202.895.5400
The Dublin Fax number for the Egyptian Embassy in Ireland is: 00353-1-6683745
TEL: 00353-1-6606718

Some other Egyptian Embassy contact details can be found here:
http://egypt.embassyhomepage.com/”

“Open the Rafah crossing” letter

Ynet: Bulldozer driver testifies in Rachel Corrie case

21 October 2010 | YNet News

The bulldozer driver who ran over Rachel Corrie in Gaza in 2003 said Thursday he did not realize he had trampled the American left-wing activist to death until he heard what had happened over the radio network.

Photo displayed during court hearing (Photo: Avisag Shear Yeshuv)

The driver, whose name has not been released, testified during a Haifa District Court hearing on a civil wrongful-death lawsuit filed in March by the activist’s parents, Cindy and Craig, against the State of Israel and Defense Ministry. The driver testified from behind a wooden partition to keep his identity secret.

The 23-year-old Corrie was run over and killed by an Israeli bulldozer while attempting to prevent Palestinian homes from being demolished along with other members of the International Solidarity Movement. The driver said he did not see her, and her death was ruled an accident by the IDF.

The Corries are demanding $324,000 from the State, which claims the activists endangered IDF soldiers and were in a closed military zone at the time of the incident.

During Thursday’s hearing, Attorney Hussein Abu Hussein, who is representing the parents, spoke of inconsistencies between the driver’s testimony during the IDF investigation and the affidavit he submitted to the court. According to the attorney, the driver told military investigators he had reported the incident over the radio system, while he told the court he heard of Corrie’s death over the network.

The lawyer also pointed to discrepancies in the driver’s testimony regarding how far he continued driving after crushing Corrie. The driver told the court he drove another 20 meters (66 feet) before stopping, but in his affidavit he said he stopped after three meters (10 feet). In addition, the driver claimed Corrie’s body was found between the bulldozer and a mound of dirt, while another soldier said the body was behind the mound. During the hearing, Attorney Hussein displayed a photo in which no mound of dirt can be seen at all.

Meanwhile, Cindy Corrie slammed the state, saying Israel is hiding behind individual soldiers who are hiding behind partitions

Israel bombs Gaza on the eve of Eid ul-Fitr – the second attack since peace talks resumed

Palestinians walking along the edge of the bomb crater in Gaza City - Photo: Tilde de Wandel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

10 September 2010

Gaza City, GAZA STRIP

The Israeli military carried out air strikes on three regions of the Gaza Strip late last night, as inhabitants were preparing to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end the holy month of Ramadan that starts today. It constitute the second missile attack by Israel on Gaza since negotiations resumed on 2 September 2010.

Just before 11PM (midnight Israeli time) last night (9 Sept. 2010) Israel dropped two missiles on Gaza City, three on Rafah, one on Beit Hanoun and a further missile on Deir Al Balah, a second central Gaza location.

Following the Gaza City bombing, which witnesses on the scene said landed inches from the spot of a previous missile attack near Arafat’s Compound one month ago, only two slight injuries have been reported so far.

However in Rafah, in south Gaza, it is feared that there may be casualties as there are currently reports of missing persons, predominantly among men who work in the tunnels connecting the besieged Gaza Strip to Egypt. The Jerusalem Post reported that Palestinian security forces had announced at least five injured.

As well as the missile dropped from the air on Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Gaza Strip, an Israeli tank also fired six shells. The target was a military training site of the armed wing of Hamas.

There are also unconfirmed reports of missiles in Khan Younis.

At the time of writing, one hour after the attacks, war planes were still hovering over Gaza, and residents said they feared further attacks.

Background

Media contacts:
ISM Gaza, Adie Nistelrooy: 05977 176 96
ISM Media Office, Ramallah: 05461 800 56

A bomb crater in Gaza City - Photo: Tilde de Wandel

The lucky ones had third degree burns: survivors of Israel’s latest Rafah tunnel bombing tell their story

8 September 2010 | ISM Gaza

Peace talks started on September 2nd. Following the resumption of negotiations, Israel refrained from attacking Gaza for just 2 days. Then it ordered the bombing of 2 Rafah tunnels, killed 2 workers, and left 2 severely injured. ISM activists filed this report

“Out of the blue, the tunnel was bombed, there was an enormous crash and I fell unconscious, I didn’t feel anything. When I woke up, I found myself at the tunnel entrance, screaming for help. There was fire all over the place, fire over me.”

This was 22 year old college student Ali Al-Khodary describing the horror of Israel’s bomb attack on Gazan tunnels four days ago (4 September 2010 – two days after ‘peace talks’ resumed) which left him and another man, Hassan Abu Armana, covered in severe burns. The bombing set alight the entrance of the tunnel – where they were delivering gasoline.

Yet it could be said that they were lucky. Two of their co-workers, Salim Al Khatab and Khaled Halawa, were killed in the same strike. According to witnesses, at 11:30pm Saturday night, Israeli F16s flew over the area to observe it. At midnight they returned and bombed 2 tunnels, one a tunnel for gasoline and the other for delivery of goods into Gaza. The missiles they used were silent in flight, making it impossible for people to escape. Each pierced a large hole in the tunnel before exploding inside.

“I was at a house above ground and the owner took me to hospital”, explains Ali. “The medics came inside and pulled out another person, also burned. I heard later that 2 people were still trapped in the collapsed tunnel.”  Large parts of Ali’s body were severely burned: he had 3rd degree burns covering his face, hands and arms.

His father, Alaa Al-Khodary, was against his son working in the tunnels. But to continue his studies (in sociology, at the University of Al Quds) Ali needed a source of income. “I started to work in the tunnels because there are no jobs in Gaza, there was no place else to work in this region.” said Ali.

“Thank god he came out in one piece. We hope he will recover from his injuries and the burns”, his mother told us.

Tunnel workers are not just young men, Hassan Abu Armana, 45 years old and married with 12 children, also suffered second degree burns stretching from his chest to his head and across his arms. He started working in the tunnels 3 or 4 months ago in an attempt to earn more money for his family than he could in his previous job as a taxi driver. When his wife was informed of the attack, she was terrified and ran immediately from the house to take a car to the hospital.

Nineteen year old Khalil Muhammad Al-Hattab from Bureij Refugee Camp, central Gaza, did not survive. He had decided to begin in the tunnels only 3 weeks before. When we visited the mourning tent in Bureij, his uncle, Hussien Al-Hattab, told us that Khalil was killed while working at the petrol tunnel and was burnt to death once the petrol caught alight. Khalil had a large family who were very poor; he had wanted to contribute to his family’s welfare, so he took the job.

When Khalil’s brother, who had been working in the tunnels for over 4 years, heard about the bomb he went to search for his brother and began digging for him. After over an hour, 30 metres below the ground, he saw some of his brother’s body and he was able to bring him up.

His uncle Hussien also had a brother, Gazy Badowy Al-Hattab, killed when he was 19 – during the first intifada. He was walking in the street with his sister when he was shot during an Israeli Incursion.

“Israel can’t reach the armed resistance in Gaza so they just attack civilians”, Hussien told us.

The second person killed was 35-year-old Khalid Abed Al-Kareem Al-Khateeb, married, and the father of three daughters and one son. His brother told us he was killed directly by the missile’s impact, in the goods delivery tunnel where the workers were operating. Their family discovered this at 2am early Sunday morning. Then they went to the hospital to see his body and take it back to Al-Bureij. Khalid also had a brother, Waleed Al-Khateeb, killed in 2003 during an Israeli incursion on Bureij camp.

“Israel wants complete control of the people of Gaza with the siege and bombings. Israel decides what it wants to do against us no matter how violent, with full support from America. The situation is so bad, if people were allowed to leave they would because of this oppression,” says Alaa, the father of the badly burned Ali.

“Why are tragedies allowed to continue like this?”

For much of the Western media the 2 dead Palestinian workers and 2 severely injured during the Israeli Occupation Force bombings in Rafah on Saturday night were merely faceless, disposable lives of the Middle East “impasse”. Meeting their distraught family members reminds us that they are brothers and fathers loved by their families, guilty only of having hopes for a better life when all their educational and job opportunities have been taken away from them. They were driven to work in the tunnels transporting goods from Egypt to Gaza not because they wanted to, but because of the dire conditions imposed on the Gaza Strip, which have seen their economy and infrastructure intentionally sucked dry by the four year Israeli siege.

But Palestinian civilian loss of life – even in violence that occurs at a time when Israel is presenting itself as in pursuit of peace – is apparently acceptable to the international community and to the Western media, as compared to the outrage that erupts over the much rarer cases which involve Israeli casualties. When the same scrutiny of, empathy with, and action to prevent Palestinian casualties exists, and the siege on Gaza, the 47 years of occupation and the 62 years of dispossession of Palestinian land are taken seriously as the crimes they are, the day might come when Middle East peace summits attempt real justice for the people of Palestine.

All photos: Tilde de Wandel

Tulkarem and Ramallah mark the seventh anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie

16 March 2010

Newly dedicated Rachel Corrie Street in Ramallah.
Newly dedicated Rachel Corrie Street in Ramallah.
On March 16th 2003, an Israeli bulldozer killed the American activist Rachel Corrie in Rafah, Gaza. Today, in Kafr Sur, near Tulkarem, and in Ramallah, family, friends and supporters gathered together to commemorate the anniversary of her murder.

Students of Kafr Sur Secondary School, who have been working on a research project about Rachel’s life and death, today marked the anniversary with a march to a memorial stone at the entrance to the village. The students were joined by children from the nearby primary school, as the stone was unveiled and speeches were delivered by the headmaster, one of the students, and an ISM activist.

A boy in Tulkarem smiles and holds photos of Rachel.
A boy in Tulkarem smiles and holds photos of Rachel.
Approximately fifty Palestinians, Internationals and media then joined Craig and Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s parents, for the inauguration ceremony of Rachel Corrie Street in Ramallah. Speeches were delivered by both the Mayor and Governor of Ramallah, the Minister of State, National Parties’ Coordinator, an ISM activist and Rachel’s parents.

At both events, speakers talked of the lasting impact left by Rachel, as an inspiration to those involved with the non-violent resistance in Palestine and across the world. Rachel’s mother spoke about how her daughter has become a symbol for the anti-Occupation movement, and of how grateful she and her family are to the Palestinians they have come to know and love over the past seven years for their unfailing support, despite the suffering they themselves continue to experience.

The coming weeks also mark the seventh anniversaries of the shootings of the British activist Thomas Hurndall, who was shot in the head whilst shielding children in Rafah from Israeli sniper fire, and who died in hospital nine months later, and Brian Avery, an American who was shot in the face in Jenin, but who mercifully survived. Last weekend saw the one year anniversary of Tristan Anderson being hit in the head with a high velocity tear gas canister in Nilin. Tristan is still recovering in an Israeli hospital.