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

21 February 05

Four Palestinians were injured at the Rafah Refugee Camp during random shelling in the middle of the Camp in Ra fah.

On the other hand, a 25 years old Palestinians security sources get killed when a tunnel collapsed over his head, while he was inspecting one of the houses and found a tunnel, eyewitnesses said.

"The idea of the tunnels is not right, and the Palestinian Authority demolished some houses and claim that there are tunnels in order to satisfy Israel" said one of the eyewitnesses.

On the other hand, the families of the Palestinians prisoners in Rafah appeals to the whole world and international community to crack down on Israel and find an urgent solution for the prisoners.

Rafah during the morning hours witnesses heavy shelling and shooting, despite of the Israeli announcement of ceasefire. The shelling goes as so long as there is fog in the night and morning hours, that thing which make the school students scared to go to their schools in every morning.

17 February 05

The continuous nightmare haunting Palestinian children every day and night,
as the number of studen ts and children killed by the IOF increases

Palestinian medic worker getting the body of a youngPalestinian
man killed in recent random shooting. Palestinians are getting killed
every day even under what is called “ peace talks".

Despite all the optimistic media reports and the omnipresent photos of Sharon and Abbas shaking hands, the killing continues in Rafah.

The latest victim was Ibrahim Abu Jazar, killed by Israeli soldiers while he stood near a childrens' playground in Rafah. He was wearing earphones and listening to local news on a small portable radio when he was shot. One of the children who was there s aid, "While we were playing football [soccer], the soldiers started shooting at us, so we all ran away." Apparently, Abu Jazar didn't hear the shots fast enough.

A few days earlier, Alaa Abu Jazzar, a little girl three years old, sustained a serious head injury from Israeli army fire while she was playing in her neighborhood. Khaled Al Shaer, 26, was wounded in the right shoulder near the Salah Al Deen Israeli gate. Of course, there is an official cease-fire in place, and the international press claims things are "calm" in Gaza, but the word doesn't seem to have reached the Israeli soldiers on the Rafah/Egypt border and guarding the Israeli settlements. Shelling of the civilian neighborhoods of Rafah near the border is still a daily event.

Technically, the Rafah Crossing on the Gaza/Egypt border has been re-opened but the ban on travel for Palestinians under 35 is still absolute. Israel has been pressed to ease the restriction, especially for people seeking medical care overseas, but there is so far no indication of a change in Israeli policy.

Another water well destroyed

This morning, Israeli shelling from the Morag s ettlement destroyed a fresh-water well and the building around it. Throughout the intifada, Rafah's water wells and pumping stations have often been targeted, and municipal workers trying to repair them have been fired on as well.

A day of funerals

As an outgro wth of the Sharm al Sheik summit last week, yesterday Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians killed during the last four years. It was never clear why those bodies had been withheld from their families for so long. As a result, there were funerals all through Gaza today.

2 February 05

Schoolgirls see and feel the death of their classmate —
the classmate of Noran Deeb, who was killed inside the school

Another schoolgirl, Aysha Al Khatib, was injured in the hand by a second bullet fired at the same time.

At the time of the incident, firing had been heard from the direction of the Israeli-controlled border area. The school’s teaching staff were trying to get the children out of the schoolyard to safety when Noran was hit in the face.

This is the fifth time in the last two years that children have been killed or seriously injured inside UNRWA school premises in the Gaza Strip. Two girls wer e killed in separate incidents in Rafah and Khan Younis last year; fifth grade boys were shot in their Rafah classroom last year, and a little girl was permanently blinded in Khan Younis in March 2003.

Dr. Ali Musa, director of the Abu Youif Al Najjar hospital in Rafah confirmed that Noran Eyad Deeb "was shot in the face by Israeli snipers. Her classmate with a bullet wound in her hand is still hospitalized."

An old man lamenting over the body of one of the children who was killed

The Palestinian Authority officially condemned the ongoing targeting of children and once again asked Isarel to halt its aggression against civilians. "Killing this schoolgirl is a crime and a bad message to the world," said Prime Minster Ahmed Qorie. "We hope that the international community will make Israel respond positively to the Palestinian initiatives and the concrete steps taken by the Palestinian Authority to ensure calm," he added.

Elderly man killed

While the Palestinian Authority's new president Mahmoud Abbas has deployed 3000 Palestinian police on the Egypt/Gaza borderline and near the Israeli settlements to prevent attacks by militants, the Israeli soldiers are still targeting civilian nei ghborhoods in all parts of Rafah. Eid Abu Jarabea, 65, was shot dead while he walked in the Al Brazil area of Rafah which is near the border.

Palestinians soldiers spreaded at the border line are carrying the body of
the 65 year old man whom wad killed by the Israeli bullets.

The Israeli soldiers reported seeing the body of the elderly man to the Palestinians National Forces, but it took more than three hours for the ambulances and medics to locate Jarabea's body. They finally found him in the rubble of demolished houses.

Abdelrahman Abu Shamalah, a boy of 13, and his mother, Amira Abu Shamalah, 50, were two more recent victims of random Israeli shooting. Both were injured near the Abu Holi checkpoint while on their way from Rafah to Gaza City.

Whatever the rhetoric from the Israeli government, events on the ground seem to indicate the Israeli army is still blind to the very deep hope of peace among the Palestinians. But what will induce the soldiers to change their ways--to stop shooting at people waiting at checkpoints, picking off people going about their ordinary business in the border neighborhoods, shooting at schoolchildren--when they seem to have the tacit support of the US and Europe?

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