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Al-Jazeera Video: Palestinians break out
from Gaza seige - 23 Jan 07
In pictures: Gaza border break
Thousands cross Rafah borders;
Hamas says it's the decision of the people
Thousands of Palestinians residents of the Gaza
strip managed to cross into Egypt in the early hours
of Wednesday after the Palestinian resistance destroyed
part of the Wall located on the southern Gaza Egypt borders.
UN: Some 350,000 Gazans stream into
Egypt as Palestinians blast border wall
Some 350,000 Palestinians poured out of Gaza and
into Egypt early Wednesday, the United Nations said,
after masked gunmen blew dozens of holes in the
wall delineating the border.
Gazans knock down border, flee to Egypt
RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Tens of thousands of Palestinians
on foot and on donkey carts poured into Egypt from Gaza
Wednesday after masked gunmen used land mines to blast
down a seven-mile barrier dividing the border town of Rafah.
ACTION ALERT: END THE
CLOSURE OF GAZA NOW!
1 Minute to Help 1.5 Million Gazans.
Gaza siege intensified after
collapse of natural gas deal
Israel has dramatically intensified its military campaign
in the Gaza Strip, stepping up air strikes and shelling
of the beleaguered coastal strip. UN officials and human
rights advocates warn that Gazans now face a humanitarian
disaster of unprecedented magnitude with widespread
disease and famine rapidly becoming reality as electricity
generation, water supply, sewage treatment, food supplies
and medical services grind to a halt as a consequence of the
ever tighter Israeli blockade.
After a one day respite on Tuesday, Israel
resumes fuel blockade of Gaza strip
Israeli sources announced on Wednesday that the Israeli
army had stopped all fuel and food supplies shipments
from interring the Gaza strip on Wednesday.
Humanitarian impact of Israel's
blockade of Gaza
Gaza's 1.5 million residents are struggling to
cope without electricity and other basic necessities
on the fourth day of an Israeli blockade.
censure of Gaza blockade
The United Nations Security Council will not approve
a resolution condemning Israel over the closure of the
Gaza Strip, due to pressure applied by the United States.
Report: Dozens hurt in Rafah
Crossing clashes
Egyptian troops fight off Palestinian protestors
gathered at crossing, calling for its immediate opening
as means to ease Israeli siege on Gaza. Egyptians use
dogs, water hoses to scatter protestors; several
Palestinians arrested.
Rafah Crossing: Gunfire, Tears, Anger
Nearly 60 Palestinian women and eleven Egyptian
policemen were injured, including one from gunfire
and the other 10 from rocks thrown at them.
Palestinians blow up wall between Gaza
and Egypt, witnesses report
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: Masked Palestinian gunmen
detonated explosives early Wednesday next to the
border wall separating Gaza and Egypt causing several
holes in the iron barrier, witnesses said. Dozens of
residents gathered at the border waiting to cross as
Hamas forces gathered on the scene and prevented
people from getting through, the witnesses reported.
On the other side, Egypt deployed troops to block any
infiltration attempts from Gaza.
Britain condemns Israeli
blockade of Gaza
LONDON: Britain has condemned the escalation
of suffering, as Israel blockades Gaza in response
to a series of rocket attacks. A call for an end to the
aggression came in a joint statement by Foreign
Secretary, David Miliband and Secretary of State
for International Development Douglas Alexander.
"The recent escalation of violence between Gazans
and Israelis is extremely grave," it said.
Scores of Palestinian women protest at
the Rafah Crossing southern Gaza
Egyptian police and troops attacked the protest
using water canon and batons, medical sources
reported that at least 20 women suffered injures
so far and had to be moved to hospitals inside the
Gaza Strip.
Palestinian sources: 50 female
protestors hurt at Rafah Crossing
Palestinian sources reported Tuesday that at
least 50 female protestors were injured during
clashes with Egyptian security forces at Rafah
Crossing and taken to the Strip's hospitals unconscious.
Some 3,000 protestors, mostly woman, gathered at the
crossing and demanded Egypt open it in order to ease
the Israeli siege on Gaza.
'The cold keeps the food from going bad'
Gaza Strip residents yesterday moved from worrying
about the electricity cuts of the previous 40 hours to
worrying about a water shortage. The municipality
needs electricity to bring water to homes and the
houses need it to pump water to the roof tanks.
Hence 40 percent of Gaza Strip homes - 600,000 people
- had no running water yesterday, the Palestinian water
authority said.
Sewage goes untreated in Gaza
Thirty thousand cubic metres of untreated
sewage from the Gaza Strip was dumped into
the Mediterranean as a direct result of the
four-day total embargo on fuel and humanitarian
supplies, Palestinian water executives said yesterday.
Stench wafts through Gaza as
sewage system falters
Yussef Al-Jayar jolted awake this week when gallons
of raw sewage spewed out of the pumping station
next door and started to seep under his door and
into his mattress. "We had to grab buckets and get
the neighbours to help bail us out," the 74-year-old
Palestinian said at his house in Gaza City, pointing
to a mark about a metre above the floor where the
rancid water reached. "It stank."
Karen Koning AbuZayd: This brutal
siege of Gaza can only breed violence
Palestinian suffering has reached new depths.
Peace cannot be built by reducing 1.5m people
to a state of abject destitution.
Death, despair in West Bank camp
Yet, despite the depression and the distressed faces
of the young men who carried Sanakreh's coffin in
the funeral procession in Balata the following day,
some still dare to dream. "I want to go to university,
get a good education perhaps as a medic, and then
hopefully find a job with a Palestinian company or
in the hospital," Farrah said. Surely, if the hopeless
cycle of death and destruction is to be broken, it is
crucial that the needs and aspirations of young men
such as these are met, so that the prospects of
violence and fanaticism hold less appeal.
of the young men who carried Sanakreh's coffin in
the funeral procession in Balata the following day,
some still dare to dream. "I want to go to university,
get a good education perhaps as a medic, and then
hopefully find a job with a Palestinian company or
in the hospital," Farrah said. Surely, if the hopeless
cycle of death and destruction is to be broken, it is
crucial that the needs and aspirations of young men
such as these are met, so that the prospects of
violence and fanaticism hold less appeal.
Abbas: halting talks with Israel is not helpful;
we condemn the Israeli attacks
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated on
Tuesday that the latest Israeli shipment of fuel that
entered that the Gaza strip today is not enough, and
demanded that Israel immediately ends the siege its
army is imposing on the Coastal Region.
United Nations plans statement
condemning Israel over Gaza
NEW YORK - The UN Security Council is expected to
issue a presidential statement Wednesday denouncing
Israel's conduct in the Gaza Strip. The council held an
emergency session yesterday on the humanitarian
situation in Gaza, at the Arab states' request, and
the debate was expected to continue far into the night.
UNSC fails to agree on draft statement
on Gaza crisis
·UN Security Council failed to reach an agreement
on draft statement on Gaza crisis.
·The nonbinding text calls on Israel to ensure access
for humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
·Western diplomats doubted any adoption of the text
in its current form.
Mayor okays 7,300 new homes in
east Jerusalem: TV
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski has given the okay
for the construction of 7,300 new homes in occupied
Arab east Jerusalem, private television Channel Two
reported on Tuesday. The decision was taken after
consultations with the municipality's building and
planning commissions, but not with Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert, the television added, without citing a source.
W.Bank court jails Palestinians
for killing Israelis
A Palestinian Authority court in the occupied
West Bank sentenced two Palestinians on Tuesday
to 15 years in jail for killing two Israelis last month,
a security official said. The gunmen shot two off-duty
Israeli soldiers who were hiking near the West Bank
city of Hebron last month. Two Palestinian gunmen
were also killed in the gun battle.
Abbas fights political battles
for statehood
President Mahmoud Abbas, politically weakened
by the loss of the Gaza Strip to Hamas Islamists,
is waging a two-front battle in his quest for a deal
with Israel on Palestinian statehood.
Britain praises "courageous leadership"
of Palestinian premier
London - The humanitarian crisis in Gaza was at the centre of talks in London Tuesday between British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Salam Fayyad, the acting Palestinian prime minister.
Palestinian negotiator: border closure
violates Israel's guarantee to Abbas
Israel's closure of all Gaza border crossings
had violated Israel's guarantee to Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel would
not stop basic humanitarian aid inflow into the
Hamas-run Gaza Strip, said Palestinian negotiator
Saeb Erekat on Tuesday.
Scores of Palestinians and internationals
protest in Bethlehem against the Siege imposed on Gaza
About 150 Palestinians and internationals gathered
on Tuesday evening in front of the Nativity church
located in the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem
in protest of the Israeli imposed Siege of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Arabs protest Gaza crisis;
Rightists stage counter-protest
Hundreds of Israeli Arabs demonstrated on
Tuesday near the Erez crossing on the Gaza
border, protesting Israel's blockade on Gaza
and calling it a "war crime," Army Radio reported.
Protests staged in Lebanon, Jordan
EIN AL HELWEH, Lebanon: Thousands of Palestinians
took to the streets of refugee camps in Lebanon
yesterday in protest at Israel's siege of Gaza, some
baying for revenge and setting Israeli and US flags
ablaze. "Oh Arabs, where is your compassion?
They are slaughtering our people in Gaza,"
chanted hundreds of demonstrators in the largest
camp of Ein Al Helweh, carrying banners calling
for Arab states and international rights groups
to intervene.
demonstrators with water cannons at Rafah
Egyptian security forces on Tuesday dispersed
with water cannons hundreds of Palestinian women,
children and patients who tried to break through the
closed Rafah crossing on Gaza-Egypt border in a protest.
Sudanese demonstrate in front of
UN building in solidarity with Gaza
Several hundred Sudanese demonstrated Tuesday
in front of a UN building here to show their solidarity
with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and demand the
United Nations intervene in the crisis. The protesters,
many of whom were students, shouted slogans
including "No for the killing of Palestinians. No
for the killing of civilians." They also handed over
a letter to the UN office that was addressed
to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, calling
on him to try to end the Israeli blockade
against the Palestinians.
PCAS launches extensive
activities to end Siege
Popular committee Against Siege (PCAS) launched
extensive activities in the last few days. A 2-day of
activities was in the ground in Gaza Strip in which tens
of thousands of elderly men, women and children
took part.
The Popular Committees appeals the international
Community to save Gaza from imminent disaster
The Palestinian Popular (Folk) Committees issued a press
release on Tuesday appealing the International Community
to intervene and save the Gaza Strip from an imminent humanitarian
disaster as the unjust Israeli siege continues as the coastal region
is still without access to water, electricity, food and medical supplies.
regional anger
For pan-Arab news networks like al-Jazeera there has
only been one story of significance in the past few days.
Pictures of Gaza's darkened streets have dominated television
screens in the Arab World, with Palestinian pleas for support
echoing across the region. "O Arabs! O Muslims! O humanity!"
cried a young girl in a Gaza crowd interviewed by al-Jazeera.
"Is it a disgrace to tell the truth openly?"
Gaza situation statement
JERUSALEM-WESTBANK-GAZA - World Vision
Jerusalem is increasingly concerned by the isolation
and consequential steady deterioration in the living
conditions of Gaza's civilian population. The current
isolation has generated a serious crisis for the people of
Gaza, particularly as a result of a rapidly deteriorating
health situation and a worsening food crisis. Maintaining
the current isolation and limited access drives the
population into deeper poverty, increases dependency
on external aid and places civilians in
life-threatening situations.
Israeli, Palestinian envoys
trade charges at U.N.
Israeli and Palestinian envoys traded accusations
of blame in the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday
for the recent wave of violence in Gaza, which
threatens to torpedo a fragile Middle East peace
process. Israel said it shut all Gaza border crossings
on Friday in response to Palestinian rocket attacks.
On Tuesday, Israel resumed fuel supplies to Gaza's
main power plant, offering limited respite from the
blockade that plunged much of the Hamas-ruled
territory into darkness and touched off international
protests.
Hamas: Rafah demo reflects
level of Gaza suffering
GAZA, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement on Tuesday
said that the female demonstration at the Rafah
crossing earlier today coupled with the sit-in staged
by patients reflected the "real suffering" of the
Gaza inhabitants due to the suffocating siege.
Hamas in a statement asked the world not to be
deceived by Israeli attempts to portray a rosy
image in Gaza after supplying it with simple
quantities of fuel.
Hamas says won't abandon rockets
under Israel attack
Palestinians will keep targeting Israel with
rockets as long as the Jewish state continues
its "onslaught" on Gaza and the West Bank,
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Tuesday.
Resistance fires homemade
shells at settlements near the Gaza Strip
The Al Quds brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad,
claimed responsibility on Tuesday evening of firing several
homemade shells at Kfar Azza settlement, east of the Gaza
Strip, and Al Majdal town, north of the Gaza Strip.
control of Gaza border
A senior U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday the United
States backed the idea of letting President Mahmoud
Abbas's Palestinian Authority control main border
crossings in Hamas-run Gaza to help ease local hardship.
Gaza's last gasp
By now, people watching their news programs
around the world would have caught a glimpse of
Gaza City in candle-lit darkness. A pretty sight indeed if
it were not for the fact that most of the people in the
Gaza Strip will have to depend on these candles as their
only source of light now that the power plant servicing
much of Gaza's population has shut down completely.
There is no fuel to keep the plant running because Israel
has imposed a complete lock-down of this most densely
populated place on earth. That means no movement in
or out of the Gaza Strip for people, or any kind of shipments in
of vital food, fuel supplies and medicines. It is more than a
miserable existence: it is a slow death.
7300 housing Units to be constructed in Israeli
settlements located inside and around Jerusalem
The Israeli municipality controlling the occupied
city of Jerusalem approved 7300 new housing
units to be added to five Israeli settlements located
inside and around the city of Jerusalem.
Israel authorises 2,500 new
settler homes in Jerusalem
Israel has authorised the construction of nearly 2,500
new housing units in settlements in annexed east
Jerusalem, the city authorities said on Wednesday.
Israeli forces kill Palestinian
in Gaza-Hamas
Israeli troops killed a Hamas militant in a clash in the
Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Hamas sources said. Hamas
and Gaza residents said Israeli troops exchanged fire
with Hamas militants inside the coastal strip near a
border crossing between Israel and southern Gaza.
Eight Palestinian kidnapped by the army
during invasion in several parts of the West Bank
Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli
army conducted several pre-dawn invasions that
targeted Palestinian cities and villages located in
the northern and central parts of the West Bank
and kidnapped eight Palestinians on Wednesday.
Israeli army kills and one and injuries
four in invasion to eastern Rafah
Israeli forces invaded the border area of Karm Abu
Mo'amar, east of Rafah on Wednesday morning,
leaving one Palestinian dead and another four injured.
Palestinian in Nablus dies of injuries
On Wednesday, Ahmad Abu Hantash,33 from
the northern West Bank city of Nablus died of
wounds sustained during the Israeli invasion
of the city last Friday.
The Israeli army kills two Palestinians in
two separate attacks on the Gaza Strip
The Israeli army killed two Palestinians on Wednesday
in two separate attacks in the Gaza Strip.
An appeal to save the life of a sick detainee
Family of detainee Ali Rajih Asfour, 31, from Ya'bod
town near the northern West Bank city of Jenin,
voiced an appealed to human rights groups to intervene
for the release of their son from Majiddo Israeli prison,
in order to ensure that he receives the needed open-heart
surgery, in addition to the needed treatment for his kidney
failure and blood pressure.
Israeli policemen arrest the advisor
of Palestinian P.M
The Israeli Police arrested on Tuesday, Hatim Abdul-Qader,
the advisor of president Mahmoud Abbas for Jerusalem Affairs, and
interrogated him in Al Maskobiyya Israeli prison in Jerusalem after he
participated in a protest held by Fateh movement against the Israeli
siege over the Gaza Strip and latest Israeli violation of cutting power
supply over the coastal region.
detainee, freed
This is not fiction or a tale meant for amusement or
to make the reader sad; it is one of the real-time stories
of the suffering of the Palestinian people, living under
unjust and illegal Israeli occupation of their land.
Today, Tuesday January 22, 2008, Aisha, 3 years
old, was "set free", three years after she was born in detention.
Undercover Israeli troops invade
Bethlehem and Kidnap two Palestinians
An Israeli army undercover force invaded the
southern West Bank city of Bethlehem and
kidnapped two Palestinians on Wednesday morning.
ISRAEL-OPT: UN, aid agencies appeal
for US$461 million for oPt
UN agencies and aid organisations launched a
US$461.9 million appeal on 22 January for the occupied
Palestinian territory (oPt). The appeal by 12 UN
agencies, 15 international aid groups and 13 local
ones was a "realistic figure" said Max Gaylard,
the UN's humanitarian coordinator, noting an
increase in poverty rates as well as unemployment.
Refugee stories - Letters from
Gaza (3) ... no expectations
All around the world there are people, and organizations,
who believe in human rights. Some fight to their last breath to
protect these rights. I ask myself if we in Gaza are included in the
group of "human beings", or if we are excluded from the ranks of
those who should enjoy such rights? Today the beliefs and values
I developed in my childhood have disintegrated; I have no choice
now but to believe that the Palestinians of Gaza were created to suffer.
They neither see nor remember
The security establishment was quick on Monday to boast
of the success of its tactic of escalation against Gaza: Look,
the number of Qassams declined. By the time these lines are
published, the security establishment may spin another
logical axiom: Since we renewed the supply of diesel fuel
on a one-time basis, the Palestinians have gone back to
firing Qassams. The conclusion: Continue the escalation.
The logic of escalation is the middle name of the current
defense minister, Ehud Barak, and many Israelis are adopting it.
Jenin, Jenin
It's cold in the alleys of the Jenin refugee camp; it's even
colder indoors. Cold that is absorbed between the thin walls at
night is trapped in the unheated, frozen spaces, even when the
sun rises. Wrapped in their coats, their teeth chattering from
the cold, the people sit and switch between Al-Aqsa, the Hamas
TV channel, and Falastin, the Fatah channel, spending their
empty days staring. One sees mainly dead bodies on these
channels. Bodies carried to ambulances, bodies lying in
refrigerators, and for the sake of variety, the injured being
rushed to neglected hospitals, mainly in Gaza. A daily loop of death.
Who's Dismantling Whom?
It is hard to believe that when Defense Minister Ehud Barak
is offering to legalize some of the outposts, he does not
remember what was written in the road map agreement.
Just to make sure, here is a quotation from the document
: "The Government of Israel will immediately dismantle
settlement outposts erected since March 2001. ...
Consistent with the Mitchell Report, GOI freezes all
settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)."
Border Control / From bad to worse
While Palestinians and Israelis are arguing whether
cutting off Gaza's electricity supply will lead to a
humanitarian disaster or if it is just a cynical attempt
by Hamas to gain points at the expense of unfortunate
children, the largest Palestinian emergency appeal ever,
to raise funds to cover the population's basic needs, was
announced yesterday.
A Mideast lesson for Bush
PRESIDENT BUSH'S trip to the Middle East last week seems to
have been an effort to blow some air into his sagging,
anti-Iranian balloon. His Sunni allies in the region are
indeed worried about the rising power and belligerency
of Shi'ite Iran, but they also know that it was Bush's war in
Iraq that empowered Iran, and they are not sure they
trust him to come up with a solution.
Life and wildlife in the Jordan Valley
The Palestine Wildlife Society has recently installed 64
nesting boxes for barn owls and kestrels in the Jordan
Valley, in the area around Atuf village. Imad F. Atrash,
director of the society, arranged for a public event on
2 January 2008, to celebrate the completion of this
project at Atuf school.
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