October 1, 2003:
Mohammed's younger brother
Issam was seriously injured
and was taken to the hospital
about a week ago. His leg
was amputated and he is
undergoing medical treatment.

October 18, 2003:
Mohammad's younger brother,
Hussam [17 yrs old], was killed
by the Israeli army today.

Hussam was sitting at home
when he was shot in the face,
chest, back, legs. He had
nothing to do with any violent
or even political movement.

Hussam's crime is that he was
a Palestinian.

— The Webmaster

28 July 05

Nada Abu Khalil Siam, 4, in hospital after being seriously injured last night during the
IOF shelling of Rafah. She was in her home when she was shot in the head.

Again, there has been heavy shelling of civilian neighborhoods in Rafah and a continuing buildup of Israeli army forces despite the Israeli disengagement plan scheduled to start next month. Wednesday night, there was shelling all night long in many areas of Rafah targeting civilian homes, and helicopters circling continuously. The same was true in nearby Khan Yunis.

Nada Khalil Siam 4 years old, was at home, in her own room late last night when she was shot in the head. Eyewitnesses said during the lengthy shelling, her mother was holding her to offer some comfort. She was in her mother's arms when she was shot.

She was rushed to al Najjar Hospital in Rafah where it was determined her injury was severe. She was transferred to the larger, better-equipped European Hospital in Khan Younis where she remains in serious condition.

Another civilian, Hanaa Hijazi, 21, was also wounded last night during the Israeli shelling..

19 July 05

Hamas and Fateh leaders at a recent press conference

Nights of Fire, Uneasy Days

The whine of bullets, the unearthly shrieks of missiles streaking through the air, the sky painted red with garish fire unknown in nature, the sharp odor of cordite, dust, heat—every sense was assaulted at once and the gears of a mind jolted from jet-lagged sleep locked, froze, refused to comprehend. The media routinely call these events "clashes" but the word doesn't begin to do justice to the din, the confusion, the strange feeling of alert numbness.

Tuesday night's firefight in our neighborhood was typical of the new violence sweeping through Gaza. It was a double conflict of sorts. For over a week, various militant factions had been firing Qassam rockets at Gaza's illegal Israeli settlements in retaliation for Israe l's resumption of targeted assassinations of militants from Hamas and other factions.

Since the Bader camp, a new neighborhood of UNRWA-built houses, is just across a fortified road from the Rafeh Yam settlement, it was inevitable that as the fragile truce unraveled over the last two weeks, sooner or later, Palestinian militants would decide to use the neighborhood as a launch site. So when the Hamas fighters arrived, residents shouted, begged, pleaded till they moved off to the nearby sand dunes, but their two mortars still drew an inferno of missiles from Rafeh Yam onto the neighborhood.

But then, even the smallest children in Rafah know that the Israeli war machine doesn't need logical reasons to destroy a house, a street, an entire neighborhood. If pressed, they may cite tunnels, or militant activity, or the ever useful "security reasons," but basically, the IOF destroys whatever it wants, whenever it wants. Over the last ten days, horror and chaos has swamped Palestine again.

Teenager Killed at Checkpoint

Yesterday a Palestinian teenager, Raghed el-Abe d el-Masri, was shot dead by an Israeli soldier in the sniper tower guarding the Abu Holi checkpoint. Initially, the Israeli Army said they had fired "warning shots in the air," but not at the cars, when Palestinian traffic attempted to cross without permission. However, Dr. Ibrahim Masadar, director of the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital, said Raghed had been shot in the back, the live bullet exiting through his heart and chest. The Occupation forces spokesman conceded that Palestinian Civilian Authorities had complained that the 14-year-old had been killed, as well as several others injured in the same incident, and said they were "still investigating."

According to Aljazeera, the Israeli authorities have also reinstated a travel ban on Palestinian men and boys between the ages of 16 and 35 from leaving Gaza through the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only route to the outside world. In north Gaza, the Erez Crossing into Israel has been sealed as well, preventing some 7000 Palestinian workers who have permits to travel to their jobs in the industrial zone, from getting to work. All of these restrictions are considered "collective punishment" and are forbidden by international law.

Tuesday, in and around Jebalia, there were further clashes between Palestinian security forces and militants, with 13 wounded. Predictably, perhaps, each side blamed the other, while in nearby Gaza City, Abbas and the militants seemed to be reaching agreement. In any case, both sides withdrew their armed fighters from the street, realizing, many hoped, that a Palestinian civil war would help no one but the Israeli hard-liners. And while the powerful discuss, debate, talk with the press, and jockey for power, the men, women, and children of Gaza brace themselves for a long and frightening summer.

17 July 05

Gaza City civilians gather around the wreckage left after the
Israeli Army resumed "extrajudicial assassinations" this afternoon. The charred
mass in the foreground is all that was left of a Volkswagen carrying four
Hamas members that was destroyed by at least two rockets fired from Israeli Army
Apache gunships. Six pedestrians were also injured in the attack.

Horror Again in Gaza

After cautious hope, blood, fire, and fear has become the norm again in Gaza. Back to counting the dead, counting the injured, phoning the medics to try to learn the names of the casualties. For the Palestinian civilians, it is bac k to sleepless nights trying to judge how close the shooting and bombing is, or trying to sleep at closed Israeli checkpoints.

Where did it start this time? Should we go back to the suicide bombing this week in Netanya? The Israeli Army has been routinely arresting members of militant factions and staging incursions into areas under Palestinian control despite the supposed cease-fire. The young militant who carried out the Netanya bombing said he was "responding" to the Israeli crimes in the West Bank. Of course, IOF activity only increased after the Netanya attack on the 12th, while in Gaza, the militant factions increased their Qassam launches in — yes, that word again — "response.".

Thursday night, an Israeli woman, Dana Glakowitz, 22 who lived in a town near the Gaza border, was killed by a Qassam strike as she sat on the porch of her home. The Palestinia n Interior Minister declared a state of emergency and ordered the PA police to stop the militants from firing on Israeli settlements and towns hear the border. The IOF immediately closed the checkpoints, dividing Gaza into three sealed sections and shortly after midnight launched four rocket strikes on Gaza within an hour. Three were in northern Gaza, one on a cemetery in Khan Younis that the Israeli military claims is being used as a launch site by the militants. In Gaza City the headquarters of an Islamic charity was destroyed—the IOF claimed it was "pro-Hamas."

There were heavy clashes all night between PA police and masked militants, with cars carrying Hamas members attacked and, in retaliation, militant a ttacks on police stations and police cars. Tragically, in the Zeytoun neighborhood of Gaza City, two bystanders, a teenager and a child, were killed during a firefight between militants and the PA police.

With the dawn, the police-militant conflict largely ceased, but civilians were burning tires in an effort to blind the Israeli unmanned surveillance drones. In mid-afternoon, the Israeli helicopters resumed extrajudicial assassinations by rocket attacks an hour apart on two cars carrying Hamas members—one near Nablus, and one in Gaza City. In the Gaza City airstrike around 4pm, four Hamas members were killed, their white Volkswagen reduced to barely -recognizable rubble, and six pedestrians were also injured. Eyewitnesses said body parts and shredded flesh of the four passengers were scattered over a wide area.

Witnesses report Israeli troops and tanks are massing at the sealed borders.

Emotions run high among Rafah's scondary school graduates
as they await the Tawjihi exam results

Early this morning, two Israeli soldiers were wounded, one critically, when a roadside bomb exploded and hit an Israeli military jeep near the Matahen checkpoint, south of Deir El Balah. The jeep was patrolling near the Netzer Hazani settlement in south Gaza. No militant faction or group has claimed responsibility.

The Israeli occupation forces immediately closed the Salahedin Road, the main north-south artery through Gaza, and closed the Abu Holi and Matahen checkpoints, causing huge traffic jams. Eyewitnesses also report one citizen arrested in Khan Younis.

In a separate incident north of Khan Younis, four militants and two civilians were wounded near the Al Amal neighborhood while trying to fire homemade rockets at the Israeli Gani Tal settlement. This makeshift ordnance contains organic material and chemical fertilizer and becomes unstable in very hot weather, making prema ture detonation more likely. The Palestinian Interior Ministry once more urged all the militant groups to respect the truce.

A final act of violence — which may have profound effects on all of Gaza — took place in the Israeli seaside resort town of Netanya where an 18-year-old suicide bomber from the West Bank detonated his explosives on a busy street corner outside a shopping mall, killing two young women along with himself and wounding as many as 50 people. Some media reports say the Islamic Jihad faction is claiming responsibility; others say nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack. Palestinian President Abbas was quick to condemn the suicide attack. Reuters reported the bomber was Ahmed Abu Khalil, 18, from Tulkarm in the West Bank, and said in his video statement: "We reiterate our commitment to calm, but we have to retaliate for Israeli violations." Of course, if the Israeli army answers with overwhelming force, almost certainly they will say they "have to" retaliate. Throughout Gaza, people are bracing for the almost inevitable border closures and the resulting hardships.

Rafah leads Tawjihi exam results.

There were shouts of joy as mothers passed out sweets, car horns honked, tears of happiness were shed throughout Rafah as the Tawjihi exam results brought the amazing news that besieged Rafah had the highest exam scores in all of Gaza. The Tawjihi exams — an ordeal, milestone, and rite of passage — are taken by all graduating secondary school students and a passing grade is necessary to go on to university. Despite the incursion and frequent shelling, Rafah students had the highest scores in both the Art and Science sections, taking the top nine places. Many of the high-scoring students come from the devastated neighborhoods on the Gaza/Egypt border. Ghada Shabana, from the Shafa Amar School for Girls, had the highest mark in the Art Stream, 98.2, while Safa Alghoul of the Al Aqdasia School for Girls scored highest in Science with 99.5.

Preparing for the Tawjihi exams often involves the wh ole family, as radios and TVs are silenced for weeks on end and all the family members do their utmost to give the studying seniors the peace and quiet they need. Even when there is an attack nearby, most students refuse to let it disrupt their work. If the power is cut, they continue by candlelight. If the shelling is too close for it to be safe to show a light, they shutter the windows and, if necessary, learn to ignore stifling heat. For so many parents, students, and teachers in Rafah, preserving normalcy, refusing to let the Occupation invade even our minds and studies, is our own rejection of oppression, our own victory over injustice.

7 July 05

A number of Israeli bulldozers and tanks invaded the western part of Rafah Refugee Camp, and left only after heavy shooting. Ess am Al Abed, 21, was taken to Abu Yousuf Al Najjar hospital where doctors reported he had two bullet wounds in his left leg.

In the Tal Al Sultan neighborhood, also in western Rafah, twenty well-equipped Israeli soldiers, backed by armored vehicles, came from the nearby Israeli settlements and tried to enter the neighborhood. Gunfire was exchanged with militants.

In the Al Mawasi camp, which is cut off from the sea and from the rest of Gaza by Israeli settlements, se ttlers, backed up by anti-disengagement supporters from Israeli and overseas, tried to occupy houses in Al Mawasi and burn the Palestinians' fishing boats. The Israeli army separated the scuffling groups, but according to witnesses and the press, beat the Palestinians while dealing fairly gently with the settlers.

That same weekend, some forty militants from the al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, the armed wing of the ruling Fatah party, took over the Palestine Legislative Council office building in Rafah. Although they were masked and carried rifles, their four-hour "occupation" was non-violent. The action was a protest against the authorities' foot-dragging on fulfilling its promise to find jobs for the militants.

Late in June, a Bedouin soldier serving in the Israeli Army was convicted of manslaughter in the death of photographer and peace activist Tom Hurndall in Rafah two years ago, and received a 20-year prison sentence. Hurndall's father, a British attorney, conducted his own investigation of events in Rafah and had the backing of the British government in pushing for a serious investigation. After the verdict, he told reporters that the case had underlined a culture of impunity for Israeli soldiers operating in Gaza. "We are concerned that there is a policy which seems to be prevalent in Gaza among the Israeli soldiers and army that they feel able to shoot civilians really without any accountability whatsoever. So there are two issues here: one, the apparent tacit policy that seems to be in place that the Palestinian civilians are fair game; and that there is no accountability."

The Israeli human rights group Btselem said that innocent Palestinian victims were much less likely to receive justice, saying that Israeli forces had killed at least 1,722 Palestinians not involved in hostilities but in only two cases were soldiers convicted of causing the death of a Palestinian.

Rafah r esidents, particularly those in areas near the Israeli settlements, are braced for difficulties during the coming evacuation, as at least some of the settlers seem bent on offering violent resistance. Shooting from the settlements toward Palestinian civilians is a common occurrence. No one is sure if the Israeli army will seal off Gaza to prevent the settlers from gathering reinforcements, but border closures always mean shortages and hardship for everyone in Gaza.

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