70 bodies found in Rafah as death toll hits 1,810

GAZA CITY -- The death toll on the 27th day of Israel's offensive on Gaza hit at least 120 on Sunday as health officials reported that over 70 bodies had been recovered in Rafah, a day after the city came under fierce, prolonged bombardment by Israeli forces.

Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra told Ma'an that the bodies of 70 Palestinians had been recovered from the city in southern Gaza, while 55 other Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks across the Strip Sunday.

The continuing attacks brought the total death toll in the assault to 1,810 with nearly 10,000 injured.

Al-Qidra had earlier put the number of dead at 1,830, but later issued a correction on his official Facebook page.

Israel began targeting Rafah with airstrikes and shelling Friday, killing dozens in the city hours before a 72-hour ceasefire was to come into place. When the ceasefire collapsed, Israel continued its bombardment on Rafah throughout Friday and into Saturday, killing more than hundred Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Israeli shelling and airstrikes did not let up on Sunday even as ground forces withdrew from major cities in Gaza.

An afternoon strike on the al-Majdalawi family home in Beir al-Naaja in northern Gaza left four dead, two of whom were identified as Mahmoud and Rawan al-Majdalawi.

Additionally, Mohammad Shaldan was killed and two others injured in an airstrike on the al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City. In another attack, a Palestinian was killed in a strike on a car in the Janeina neighborhood of Rafah, which has been hit heavily in the Israeli assault.

The attacks come after Israeli forces shelled a UNRWA school where thousands were taking refuge earlier in the day, killing at least ten. UN chief Ban Ki-Moon condemned the attack as "a moral outrage and a criminal attack."

Al-Qidra identified the victims as Muhammad Abu Rajal, Sami Abdullah Qashta, Sami Ismail Abu Shalouf, Ahmad Khaled Abu Harba, Muhammad Musaid Qashta, Hazem Abd al-Basit Halal, Omar Tariq Abu al-Roos, Ahmad Kamal al-Nahal, Yousef Akram Sakafi, and Tariq Said Abu al-Roos.

A Palestinian carries an injured child following an Israeli military strike
on a UN school in the southern Gaza city of Rafah,
on Aug. 3, 2014

Ongoing arrest campaign

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Prisoner's Affairs said on Sunday that the number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails had risen dramatically throughout the assault on Gaza and the month leading up to it.

Abd al-Nasser Farwana, director of the ministry's statistics bureau, said in a statement Sunday that more than 1,500 Palestinians had been arrested by Israeli forces since June across the Palestinian territories.

Many more than 200 have been arrested in Gaza, although not all of them were still being held. Not all of the arrests have yet been accounted for, Farwana added.

An Israeli army spokeswomen did not have information about the number of Palestinians arrested in Gaza throughout the offensive. She said Palestinians had been "taken to facilities for questioning," but refused to say whether they had been imprisoned or released.

The arrests bring the number of Palestinians in Israeli jails up to around 6,500, among whom are 250 children, 37 members of parliament, and 75 prisoners who were freed in the 2011 Shalit deal but rearrested, many of them in June.

Israeli forces arrested hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, throughout its search for three youths who were kidnapped and killed in June.

The stated goal of the campaign was to "crush Hamas," and militant factions in Gaza heavily increased rocket fire on Israel as Hamas members were arrested and airstrikes on the Strip became a regular occurrence. Then, on July 7, Israel began its military offensive on Gaza.

Situation 'intolerable'

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Sunday demanded an unconditional ceasefire to resolve the "intolerable" situation in Gaza, adding that the British public was "deeply disturbed" by what it was seeing.

Hammond, who took over from William Hague last month, told the Sunday Telegraph that the killing had to stop, having already said he was "gravely concerned" by the number of civilian casualties from Israel's military operation in Gaza.

"The British public has a strong sense that the situation of the civilian population in Gaza is intolerable and must be addressed -- and we agree with them," he told the newspaper.

"It's a broad swathe of British public opinion that feels deeply disturbed by what it is seeing on its television screens," he added.

The former defense minister acknowledged the concerns of both Hamas and Israel, but insisted that they could not be allowed to stand in the way of a humanitarian ceasefire.

"We have to get the killing to stop," he told the paper.
AFP contributed to this report

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Dozens of Palestinians murdered by Israeli Forces as they go on a killing spree in Rafah

Palestinians, who were displaced from their houses due to fighting
between Israel's army and Hamas fighters, return to inspect the
condition of their homes in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip on Aug.
1, 2014 (AFP Mohammed Abed)

 GAZA CITY (Ma'an) Israeli forces continued its assault on Gaza for a 26th day on Saturday, killing over 50 Palestinians as airstrikes and artillery shelling targeted houses and mosques across the Strip.

At least 35 of the Palestinians killed overnight were slain in Rafah, a day after an incident in the southern city led to the collapse of an agreed-upon 72-hour ceasefire.

Medical sources said Israeli raids on UN-funded public housing buildings in the Saudi neighborhood west of Rafah killed at least 23 people after midnight. About 15 dead bodies from the attack on the neighborhood were taken to the Emirati Hospital in the city and eight others were evacuated to the Kuwaiti Hospital.

Additionally, five people including three children were killed by a Israeli airstrike on the home of al-Nayrub family in the Sabra neighborhood of Rafah.

The death toll since the beginning of the Israeli offensive has surpassed 1,650, according to the ministry of health. Over 8,700 Palestinians ave been injured.

Israeli forces had also targeted Rafah on Friday after Palestinian militants carried out an operation in the city which left two soldiers dead and one missing.

Hamas' militant wing says the operation took place at 7:00 a.m., an hour before the ceasefire was to start.

"What happened east of Rafah Friday morning was that occupation forces took advantage of the alleged humanitarian ceasefire to penetrate our land for more than two kilometers," a statement from the al-Qassam Brigades said early Saturday.

"We estimate that our fighters who were in the area clashed with the Israeli troops around 7:00 a.m before the alleged ceasefire went into effect. Then, Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling targeted Palestinian civilians after 10:00 a.m breaching the ceasefire under the pretext of searching for a missing soldier."

"We lost contact with a group of fighters ... when Israeli occupation forces penetrated east of Rafah. We suspect that they were all killed by Israeli shelling, including the Israeli soldier who, supposedly, was abducted by the group."

The Israeli army said that "an attack ... executed against (Israeli) forces operating to decommission a tunnel" occurred at 9:30 a.m.

"Initial indication suggests that an (army) soldier has been abducted by terrorists during the incident," the army said in a statement.

US condemns capture of soldier

Though Hamas spokespeople challenged the chronology of events put forward by the Israeli army, the United States took Israel's version of Friday's incident at face value, and a White House spokesman called the Hamas attack a "barbaric violation of the ceasefire."

President Barack Obama said the US "unequivocally condemned Hamas and the Palestinian factions that were responsible for killing two Israeli soldiers, and abducting a third almost minutes after a ceasefire had been announced."

"If they are serious about trying to trying to resolve this situation, that soldier needs to be unconditionally released, as soon as possible."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, for its part, accused Hamas and other Gaza militants of "flagrantly violating" the ceasefire.

But Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum responded that "it is the (Israeli) occupation which violated the ceasefire. The Palestinian resistance acted based on ... the right to self defense."

US Secretary of State John Kerry had said that once the ceasefire was under way, Israeli and Palestinian representatives, including from Hamas, would begin talks in Cairo on a more durable truce.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad later said Egypt was postponing the talks after news of the Israeli soldier's capture, but Cairo said the invitation to talk was "still in place."

And president Mahmoud Abbas said a joint delegation, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, would travel to Cairo Saturday for talks despite the renewed fighting.

Death toll continues to rise

The morning after one of the bloodiest days of the Israeli offensive on Gaza, the death toll soared as Israeli forces continued attacks.

Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra identified some of the victims of heavy Israeli bombardment on Rafah early Saturday as Asil Shaban Gheith, 3, Sufyan Farouq Gheith, 35, his father Farouq Gheith, 65, Ahlam Numan Zurub, 30, Amir Raafat Zurub, 18, Subhiyya Zurub, 55, Rawan Nashat Siyam, 12, Udayy Raafat Zurub, 7, Suad Numan Zurub, 34, Shah Raafat Zurub, 10 and Khalid Raafat Zurub, 8.

Additionally, Israeli strikes on the northern town of Jabaliya killed Fuad Muhammad Addada, 28, and Dawood Zakariyya Suleiman, 54.

Addada was killed by an airstrike on his home, while Suleiman was killed by raids on al-Umari mosque in the town.

Seven members of al-Shaer family in Bashit refugee camp south of Rafah were also killed by Israeli attacks.

Israeli warplanes also hit Imam al-Shafee Mosque in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City. 

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The Rafah crossing has been closed by Israel I mean Egypt Or Do I?

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Egyptian authorities closed the Rafah crossing with Gaza on Friday, having opened it for one day to allow Palestinians injured in Israel's military assault to seek treatment.

"We received orders from the Egyptian authorities to close the Rafah crossing after we partially opened it on Thursday," spokesman for Gaza's interior ministry Iyad al-Buzm told Ma'an.

The ministry strongly condemned the decision by Egypt as it had prepared buses and ambulances to take wounded Palestinians to the crossing.

Only 11 Palestinians were able to cross Rafah on Thursday when Egypt opened the crossing, al-Buzm added.

Over 600 Palestinians have been injured in Israel's assault on Gaza with hospitals in the besieged enclave struggling to cope with the amount of casualties.

During Israel's 2012 assault on Gaza, Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi condemned "Israeli aggression" and sent his prime minister to Gaza in a show of support for the Palestinians.

Since the military overthrew him in July 2013, Cairo has cracked down on smuggling tunnels to the Gaza Strip and accused Hamas of aiding the Brotherhood in militant attacks inside Egypt.

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Gaza: The Rafah Gate Lies Open

Julie Webb-Pullman - 
World attention became focused on the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza strip following the murderous Israeli attack in May 2010 on aid personnel attempting to deliver desperately-needed supplies by sea to alleviate the Gazan humanitarian crisis. As a result of the Mavi Marmara Massacre, as it is now known, and in light of international outrage at the plight of the Gazan people and the complicity of neighbouring countries in enabling Israel’s illegal blockade (which is itself in breach of international humanitarian law ), Egypt loudly proclaimed that the Rafah land crossing, between Egypt and the Gaza strip, was now open. 

Why, then, was former US Attorney-General Ramsey Clark refused entry into Gaza through the Rafah gate last week, only being granted permission after three days of international publicity and pressure? Why then are hundreds turned away each day, every day? Why, then, was I refused entry on Thursday to present a paper to the International Forum on Gaza Reconstruction this weekend? And not only I, but also many other international participants in this forum designed to get Gaza back on its feet?
Why was I refused entry? On booking my fare I had rung the Egyptian Embassy to New Zealand, located in Canberra, Australia, to enquire about visa requirements and documentation needed to enter Egypt, and what I needed to do to pass through the Rafah gate into Gaza. I was told by staff at the Egyptian Embassy that I could buy a visa for Egypt on arrival at Cairo airport, and that I did not need anything for entry to Gaza, I just had to go to Rafah, as the Rafah gate is open.
That was clearly a lie.
A few days before leaving New Zealand I received an email from another New Zealander who had received the same information from the Egyptian Embassy in Canberra, informing me he had just tried to enter Gaza through Rafah and had been told he needed a ‘tanseek’. This required him as a person travelling on a New Zealand passport to provide the New Zealand Embassy in Cairo with a copy of his passport, the dates he wished to enter and leave Gaza, and his reasons for going. The New Zealand Embassy then had to write a letter to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeking permission for him to enter, and the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs would notify the NZ Embassy whether he could enter Gaza.
One can only wonder why Egypt decides who enters Gaza – it is like the Australian government deciding who enters New Zealand, or the Canadian government deciding who enters the United States of America…nevertheless, in the interests of attending the forum to present my paper, I complied.
I immediately contacted the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Wellington to confirm this requirement (which they in turn had to contact Cairo for, never having heard of it themselves), and some ten days before the forum was to start I provided the NZ Embassy in Cairo with a copy of my passport, my letter of acceptance from the forum organisers, and the dates I wished to enter and leave Gaza. The NZ Embassy informed me that it usually took at least a week, but they would stress the urgency given that the forum was the following weekend. I caught my flight a couple of days later, bought my Egyptian visa at the airport, and contacted the NZ embassy the next morning to see whether Egyptian Foreign Affairs had replied. They had not.
Each day I called the NZ Embassy, each day the NZ Embassy contacted the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (or so they told me, and I have no reason to doubt them), and each day the answer was the same – no reply.
As the Rafah gate is closed on Fridays and Saturdays, and as the forum is on Saturday and Sunday, I clearly had to cross the border on Thursday, if I was to attend the forum I had come halfway around the world, and at considerable expense, to present at. It is a six-hour journey from Cairo to Rafah, so I had to get the 7.30am bus to Al-Arish then a taxi the additional 40km, and hope that the ‘tanseek’ would arrive during the day and be faxed to Rafah, or that, as the Egyptian Embassy to New Zealand in Canberra insisted, the border was indeed open, and as a NZer I could just turn up, and pass through.
I struck out on both counts. I was not permitted to just pass through. Worse still, I was told by the border official that I had been refused entry by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I then borrowed a cell phone from another person also refused passage, to call the NZ Embassy in Cairo (they have a quaint habit of blocking phones with global roaming at the border, to ensure the maximum inconvenience to people refused entry). The NZ Embassy informed me that what the border official said was not true, that I had NOT been refused entry. Lie number two from Egyptian officialdom.
After three days of hanging around Cairo waiting for a response from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a request marked ‘URGENT’, and after four hours of waiting at Rafah, I was no nearer attending the forum. The Rafah gate closed at 6pm, and that was it. I and several other people refused entry took taxis back to Al-Arish. Some gave up and returned to from whence they came, others, like me, went back to Al-Arish to try again on Sunday, when the border again opens. Others have slept on the ground here for three nights already, waiting, waiting, waiting....
After being lied to by Egyptian Embassy staff in Canberra who should reasonably be expected to know their own country’s documentation requirements, after being lied to by an Egyptian border official about the status of my ‘tanseek’, I am not overly confident of receiving a transparent, fair, and honest appraisal of my application for entry to Gaza.
Like Ramsey Clark, like most of the Palestinians here, I have committed no crime. I came to Egypt to enter Gaza in good faith on the advice of the Egyptian authorities, and have every right to expect my application for entry to be successful, given the established right in international law to freedom of movement, particularly my right to enter to participate in the humanitarian task of the reconstruction of the decimated Gaza. The Palestinians have even more right – to enter their own country!
On Sunday I returned. Many of the same people from Thursday were there again, still waiting. Again I was refused, again others were refused, especially foreigners. Over the course of the afternoon several Palestinians, many who had been trying literally for a week, were finally allowed through. A man with Australian and Palestinian citizenship trying to visit his parents, who he had not seen for eleven years, was refused entry, while his sister was allowed through. A Gazan woman trying to visit her parents with her Lebanese husband was finally granted entry after four days – but told if she went in, she would not be permitted to leave, and her husband was not permitted to enter at all. Faced with the choice of an effective divorce or seeing her parents, she remained outside with her husband. In two days at the Rafah gate, we saw the princely total of only THREE trucks of aid enter Gaza, one carrying medical supplies - boxes of saline solution from Holland.
I have missed the forum at which I was to present my paper, but that is a minor, if expensive, inconvenience compared to that faced daily by hundreds of Palestinians trying to exercise their human right to freely enter or leave their own country, let alone the daily torment faced by the overwhelming majority of Gazans in desperate need of food, medicines and all of the other materials prevented from entering their territory. They, at least, are under no illusions as to Israel’s intentions and Egypt’s complicity in them.
But I, New Zealander, remain bewildered by the Egyptian authorities’ prevarications to me, and to the rest of the world. Does the Rafah gate lie open, as the Egyptian government insists, or is it just an open lie?
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is the result of a blockade that the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict designated “collective punishment intentionally inflicted by the Government of Israel” (sec 1878 pp 404-5), which has been compounded by Operation Cast Lead, a three-week military offensive between December 2008 and January 2009 that was “a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability.” (sec 1893 p 408). The report can be found here.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A-HRC-12-48.pdf
UNSC Resolution 1502 (2003) Article 4 requires states in close proximity “to allow full unimpeded access by humanitarian personnel to all people in need of assistance, and to make available, as far as possible, all necessary facilities for their operations, and to promote the safety, security and freedom of movement of humanitarian personnel and United Nations and its associated personnel and their assets.” It can be found here:
http://daccessods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=S/RES/1502%20%282003%29&Lang=E&Area=UNDOC


The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

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Rachel Corrie's parents denied entry to Gaza for Memorial Soccer Cup

Egyptian Rafah - Ma'an - The parents of slain American activist Rachel Corrie were denied entry into the Gaza Strip Tuesday, following day-long efforts to secure their entry and cheer on teams at the Rachel Corrie Ramadan Soccer Tournament.

The Corries and a delegation accompanying them continue to wait at the Rafah border at Egypt, but have thus far been denied entry. Egyptian crossing authorities have given various reasons for the delegation's delay, despite the group having previously coordinated with Egyptian authorities, who said they informed crossings officials that the delegation had been cleared for passage.

“After weeks of coordination with the US State Department and through them to the US Embassy in Cairo and with the Egyptian Embassy in Washington and the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, I stand tonight at 7pm before the Rafah crossing,” Craig Corrie, Rachel's father said.

“I talked to my friend two miles away on the other side of this border, in a prison he cannot leave and I cannot enter. My heart goes out to him and his family and to all those in Gaza. I wish more than words can say that we could have been with them today at Unity Fields for the final game of the Rachel Corrie Ramadan Soccer Tournament, we would have liked to have shared that with our friends and insha allah we will be with them tomorrow."

Rachel Corrie was run over by an armored Israeli caterpillar bulldozer as she tried to protect the home of Rafah resident Samir Nasrallah from demolition on 16 March 2003. Corrie went to Gaza as part of the International Solidarity Movement, and was standing alongside six other international activists when the incident occurred.

Corrie's parents have visited the Gaza Strip three times, the first in September 2003, shortly after the death of their daughter, then again in 2006, and 2008 with the CODEPINK delegation. They keep in regular contact with the family whose home Rachel was protecting when she was killed.

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I still have a dream...

.Open The Rafah Border I still have a dream

Tribute to the Palestinians who want to get in or out of Gaza.
The rafah crossing must become the official border with Egypt without foreign involvement

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For the first time in 3 years, the Rafah crossing is open 5 days in a row !

Since last Monday, the Rafah crossing, the border between Gaza and Egypt is open and will be still open today, a situation that never happened since 3 years, and we hope it will not be closed again.

Thousands people crossed the border and get in and out Gaza.

It is always a mess but the situation is better than last month, June 27, 28 & 29^th, when the border has been opened.

Some people are still denied to enter. For sample, A Palestinian and his son who lives in Germany has been allowed to get in but his wife who has a German passport has been denied to enter. And a lot of people in Gaza were not allowed to get out!

Anyway, all the people had to wait hours to cross. Even the Palestinian football national team had to wait and they came and visit our camp, as many people did. Our camp is full of people

There were police trucks and vehicles everywhere. The police set up 3 blockades on the road to the border crossing, and some local kids tried to get money and worked as porter. Some of them tapped one barging for 350 EP to carry Palestinian’s luggage for 10m to the gate!

Unfortunately, this is a consequence of the misery.

Yesterday, the border was opened to the foreign passport holders accompanying children under age 16 to cross.

Some trucks have also been allowed to cross the border.

But as people were entering into Gaza, the Zionists were bombing Rafah area and we heard 2 explosions.

Sorry to be late to send this short report, but our activists on the ground have no internet connection or power source and it is difficult for them to send us news.

We ALL must work to keep the Rafah border open everyday and for everybody. Let continue to make pressure on our governements. Palestinians must have the right to freedom of movement and to live as the other human beeings.

The Rafah border has to be a normal border between Palestine and Egypt as all the other borders in the world !

To see pics from our camp :

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/photo_search.php?oid=9986479902&view=all

Contacts at the border :
Nada Kassass (0020) 0122504611 Arabic/English
Iman Badawi (0020) 0197910753 Arabic/English

As more and more people are joining us, we had to set rules : you will find them below.

If you are coming, please contact us at : intmorb@googlemail.com, we will help you to reach the Rafah border.

As the Palestinian Authority is talking about to cut aid to the Gaza strip, the permanent opening of the Rafah crossing is vital !

Read : Palestinian Authority to Stop Financing Gaza Strip

http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=17668

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Israeli gunboats shell Palestinian fishing boats [AGAIN}

RAFAH, (PIC)--

Palestinian fishermen on Monday barely escaped death when Israeli navy gunboats fired heavy machineguns at their boats off the coast of Rafah,

to the south of the Gaza Strip.

Security sources told PIC reporter that the intensified shooting damaged the fishing boats and the fishermen hurriedly escaped the area.

They pointed out that the fishermen were at sea during the incident and miraculously survived the barrage.

The Israeli occupation forces frequently harass the Palestinian fishermen off the coasts of the Gaza Strip and kidnap and fire at them to deny them fishing

more than three nautical miles from the beach.

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Announcement: UPDATE~ ACTION TO OPEN RAFAH BORDER

Micheline Garreau posted an announcement to the cause Palestinian & International Campaign - End the Siege & Lift Blockade of Gaza .

Peace
More and more people from all over the world will join us in the coming weeks at the Rafah crossing, Egyptian side, to pressure all the world leaders to end the Gaza Siege and to open the Gaza borders, specially the Rafah border.

Early in May, human rights activists from Jordan, France, Italy and other Europeans countries will join Egyptian human rights activists at the Rafah border.

We will also support the European Campaign to End the Siege in Gaza (ECESG)’s Hope For Gaza Convoy which will land in Alexandria on May 9th. Activists in Alexandria will welcome them and some of our activists will join the convoy till the Rafah Crossing. (see below)

Mi-may, groups from Canada, Europe, Syria and US will also join the activists already here. We will update you about these activities which will be organised in cooperation with people in Gaza.

During its three-week long, criminal attack, Israel devastated the entire infrastructure of the Gaza Strip and left its 1.4 million inhabitants in dire straits. Now, 3 months later, more than 10.000 people are still living under tents, families are separated, hospitals, schools, factories, houses need to be rebuild.

The border crossings must be opened to allow essential humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials free entry.

For the human rights activists and individuals who want to come and join us here in Rafah, please don’t forget to bring camping materials like:

- sleeping bags
- tents
- camping stoves
- and so on

For those who didn’t register them yet, please contact us at : intmorb@googlemail.com


Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December, 10th 1948)
Article 13.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Convoy Update: Ambulances and Medical Aids to Gaza
www.savegaza.eu

London, April 23, 2009 –

As part of its activities, The European Campaign to End the Siege in Gaza (ECESG), is restlessly preparing, in race against time, a convoy of medical aid to Gaza.

A convoy of tens of trucks, which has been widely received, will be going to Gaza to support the besieged people. Several European NGO's, MPs and individuals announced they are going to participate in "Hope For Gaza Convoy"

Khaled Yousef, representative of the convoy in Sweden said that some Arabic and Islamic associations donated several trucks containing wheelchairs and medical equipments for the People of Gaza, along with 2 ambulances.

In the United Kingdom, Birmingham city will send a number of doctors and medical specialists to help Palestinians in Gaza. Also, four trucks of strongly needed medications and medical equipments. Many Individual and human right activists will join the convoy. UK participants will leave late in April to Italy where the convoy is gathering.

The number of medical vehicles and ambulances has so far come to 12. It’s expected that more will be included to the convoy. The dozens of trucks will be loaded with medical items and equipments for disabled children from the latest Israeli war in Gaza.

“We have got tens of requests from people to join the convoy from across Europe. People are yearning to visit Gaza to give a helping hand for the crushed besieged people over there. ECESG will give priority for doctors, human rights activists and journalists in the first place. Ramy Abdu, convoy coordinator said

In the official level, around 10 European and British MPs are expected to participate in the convoy. According to Abdu, some more might join in the next few days.

In the meantime, some trucks and vans have already arrived into Italy, Milan from many European countries. The rest would arrive in couple of days as the convoy will move as scheduled early in May from Milan then Alexandria then Gaza.

The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, (ECESG)
Info@savegaza.eu
Website: www.savegaza.eu


Dernières informations

De plus en plus de personnes du monde entier vont venir nous rejoindre dans les semaines à venir au point de passage de Rafah, côté égyptien, pour faire pression sur les dirigeants du monde entier jusqu’à la levée du au siège de Gaza et l’ouverture de ses frontières, en particulier la frontière de Rafah.
Début Mai, des militants des droits de l'homme jordaniens, français, italiens et autres pays européens viendront rejoindre les militants égyptiens à la frontière de Rafah.

Ensuite, nous soutiendrons le convoi « Espoir pour Gaza » de la Campagne Européenne pour la levée du Siège de Gaza (ECESG) qui accostera à Alexandrie le 9 Mai. Les militants les accueilleront à...

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Massive woman march in Gaza calls for opening Rafah crossing

GAZA, (PIC)-- The woman sector within Hamas organized Saturday afternoon a massive march to call for opening the Rafah border crossing and breaking the siege immediately to alleviate the suffering of Gaza people. In a speech delivered during the march, Umm Mohamed Al-Rantisi, a prominent Hamas leader, called on Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and his government to open the Rafah crossing and also urged human rights organizations and Arab states to pressure the besieging parties to lift the unjust siege on Gaza. Rantisi underlined that the closure of the Rafah crossing negatively affected the lives of Gaza people especially the patients, where the Israeli siege claimed the lives of hundreds of them. Meanwhile, Huwaida Arraf, an activist of the Free Gaza Movement, said in a televised meeting on Friday night that the humanitarian situation in Gaza due to the Israeli siege was unbearable, highlighting that Israel commits a war crime against humanitarian law. Arraf added that she and other activists visited many areas in Gaza and saw the suffering of its people especially patients and also witnessed the suffering of students who need to catch up with their studies abroad but cannot travel through the Rafah crossing as well as farmers who are targeted by Israeli troops and thus cannot go to their lands near the Gaza borders. On behalf of all Free Gaza activists, she affirmed that the activists will carry the messages they received from Palestinian citizens in Gaza all over the world in order to mobilize global solidarity to confront the siege, noting that in the meantime another anti-siege boat is getting ready to arrive in the Strip.

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Calling On Egypt To Open The Rafah Crossing

http://www.petitiononline.com/pal2008/petition.html

The petition link above calls on Egypt to open the Rafah Crossing. Please sign it and forward to your contacts lists.

Many thanks,


Petition from Palestinians in Al Arish

Some people in Arish have written a petition in protest of the Rafah closure, to be delivered to the egyptian authorities, asking Mubarak/Suleiman to have it opened immediately. on the other hand, most do not want to sign their names because they are worried about repercussions from Egypt.

[i helped in the writing, in case you're wondering about the English.]

please forward widely

thank you!

eva

22 August, 2008

To the Honorable President Hosni Mubarak, Honorable Omar Suleiman,Interior Minister Habib Ibrahim El Adly and Members of Cabinet,

We, the hundreds of Palestinians waiting at the Rafah crossing in Egypt, call upon your honorable government to allow the entrance of over 600 Palestinians stuck in Egypt and separated from our homes in Gaza due to the continued Rafah border closure.

Egypt has historically played an integral and active role in the Palestinian struggle for justice, holding numerous negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli leaders, as well as between our different Palestinian political parties. We greatly appreciate this support which has meant an alleviation of some of our problems and the resumption of stalled peace discussions, as well as the continuous efforts of the Egyptian government to help reunite Palestinians.

But, as we wait and suffer, silent and out of the international spotlight, we state clearly that Palestinian suffering should not be politicized. The closure of Gaza for over one year, including the continued closure of Rafah, has created a humanitarian crisis that Egypt has a very tangible role in solving, immediately. Egypt should not partake in the immoral sanctions and border closures imposed on Palestinians, sanctions which the justice-seeking people of the international community have recognized as collective punishment imposed because Hamas is in power.

We beseech you, above all, to keep in mind that the politicians who may be sparring, vying for power, are not in the same dire situation as the thousands of civilians stuck at the border on either side, people waiting only to enter to be with families or to exit for medical treatment, schooling, work...

Our money is running out –for many it is completely depleted –as we have waited for weeks, without working. Many of us have come from countries where we have work permits, taking vacation time to visit families not seen in years. We risk losing our jobs and our residency permits, or otherwise leaving Egypt without having seen our families in Gaza. Indeed, we are now merely running on hope and faith that the border will open one day.
But we are weary and that faith is worn-out.

There are approximately 450 Palestinians in Al Arish waiting to enter Gaza. There are approximately another 100 in Cairo. Most of us have been waiting since June 1st. Others among us have been exiled in Egypt for over a year, outside of Gaza when the border was sealed closed in June 2007 after Hamas took control. Approximately 200 of the Palestinians waiting to re-enter Gaza are in dire financial circumstances, many of whom must beg for and borrow money, some of whom are sleeping in the streets. This is without even mentioning the over 3,500 terminally ill Palestinians within Gaza who await the opening of the Rafah Crossing for treatment in hospitals outside Gaza. Nor does it include the thousands of others who need to leave Gaza to study and work in other countries where they hold residency permits.

On Wednesday morning, one of the hundreds stuck in Al Arish lost his father to a chronic illness. The son had been waiting for the border to open so that his father could see his grandchild and the son could say a last goodbye. He has lost this chance. The pain of his father's death is amplified by the knowledge that if the border had been opened two days earlier as promised, let alone months earlier, he would have been able to bid his father farewell.

It is with overwhelming sadness that we acknowledge that this man's loss is not an isolated case. As we sit, just 50 km from our land, we ask again and again: "when will the border be opened? Why are we, the people, being punished? Will our Egyptian brothers and sisters see us waiting close but cut off from our land as our families die, get married, go on with their lives separated.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in May of this year that the international community's "silence and complicity on the situation in Gaza shames us all." As the honorable Tutu said, "Gaza needs the engagement of the outside world." We add that Palestinians need the engagement of Egypt to open the Rafah border and end this inhumane situation.

Respectfully,

The Palestinians waiting in Al Arish for the Rafah Crossing to Open

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Print Email Hamas: Continued closure of Rafah crossing turns Gaza into a big prison

GAZA, (PIC)-- The continued closure of the Rafah border terminal between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, which is the only gate for Gazans to the outside world, is turning Gaza into a big prison, Hamas said on Tuesday.

Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in the Strip, was commenting on the formation of an Arab committee to break the siege on Gaza and to demand the opening of Rafah border crossing.

He appreciated the committee's stands and its demand for the immediate opening of Rafah crossing, describing it as an important demand since the crossing should be under Arab control.

The committee had called for allocating next Friday 8/8/2008 as an Arab and an international day to break the Gaza siege and open Rafah crossing.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank IOF troops rounded up five Hamas supporters in Fare refugee camp south of Tobas city on Tuesday.

The soldiers also kidnapped four Palestinians in Nablus city three at dawn and one in the afternoon.

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Shades of Checkpoint Charlie at Rafah Crossing

Haidar Eid writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine.

On Monday 30 June, Gaza was abuzz with the sudden announcement that Egypt would open Rafah Crossing -- the only gateway for 1.5 million Palestinians who have been imprisoned here for almost two years -- for three short days. Although I had good reasons to use the crossing to leave Gaza, I was unsure about pressing my luck to escape, if only for a short while. Past experience has made me graphically and painfully aware that thousands of my fellow Gazans would also try to capitalize on this very rare opportunity suddenly available to us.

On the one hand, I had also already asked my university to add my name to the list of academics who intended to travel to Egypt to further their studies as I had accepted an invitation to a conference -- to be held at University of Brighton -- in London in September. Moreover, I wanted to be with my wife who is in South Africa, and whom I have not seen for almost two years as a result of the siege. On the other hand, the story of failed attempts to leave Gaza through Rafah Crossing is an agonizingly familiar one to every family in Gaza.

Nevertheless, the temptation was too great and hope triumphed over experience. At 2pm, on Monday, I called the university's public relations officer. I was told in two short sentences to be at the Rafah crossing at 2am on Tuesday morning. The reason for this strange departure hour was not explained and I did not question it. If one wants to leave Gaza after two years, one simply follows orders.

My mind went immediately to the myriad tasks that must be completed in preparation for a journey: money, packing, goodbyes, tickets -- how would all this happen in less than 12 hours? I was not prepared at all and the banks were closed. I allowed myself 10 minutes to think about the steps I should take to ensure that I would be at Rafah Crossing -- 40 kilometers from my home at the end of badly damaged and unlit roads at 2am the next morning.

I then remembered that the bank manager is my neighbor; when I called with my unusual request outside of normal banking hours, he was so helpful that getting the money I needed turned out to be the easiest step. I then called my niece to help me pack and prepare for my unexpected journey. Dozens of phone calls were made, but I did not call my wife because I did not want to raise her hopes only to have them dashed as has happened so many times during this siege of Gaza. I, myself, did not have high expectations but I wanted to try because in Gaza one never knows for sure. It could go either way.

I made another call to our public relations officer just to find out what I was supposed to do on arrival at the crossing. "Wait with the other academics," was the answer. At around 11pm on Monday night, a colleague called to tell me to delay my departure until morning. His sources at the crossing had informed him that our names were not on the list sent to them by the Egyptians. He suggested I wait for more instructions in the morning. I did not sleep that night. In the morning, I got a call from another colleague, who was also leaving Gaza with me as he had to attend a conference in London. He suggested, on the advice of the public relations officer and another colleague who has contacts on the Palestinian side of the crossing, that we go to Rafah and wait for someone to help us enter the crossing because "our names are on the list."

We left Gaza City at about noon and drove straight to Rafah. Our taxi was stopped by Palestinian policemen at a mobile checkpoint five kilometers before the crossing. We were asked to leave the taxi and wait along with other people. I was encouraged to see only a few people -- perhaps the list was being used and we would be able to leave after all.

As it is almost impossible to go anywhere in Gaza without bumping into familiar faces, true to form, I immediately saw my cousin, whose wife has cancer, waving at me. He said he had been at this checkpoint since the night before! Needless to say, this was not good news. My colleague and I then called our friend who has contacts on the Palestinian side. He told us to wait there because one of the policemen at the checkpoint would be informed by his senior to allow us to walk to the crossing. That call never came.

Our contact himself then called to get our exact location because he was on his way to fetch us. What relief! Three hours later, we were still waiting and the mobile checkpoint was disbanded. We decided to drive to the crossing itself.

That is when reality hit us: tens of thousands of people were waiting there, children, old people, women, and worst of all, terminally ill people, all sitting under the baking hot sun of this semi-desert area. My heart sank! But we had to try our contact again -- how could we not, when the crossing itself was so tantalizingly mere meters away now? And if we passed, what freedoms awaited us: bookshops, movies, theatre, chocolate, friends, fuel, food, fruits and of course, in my case, my long-suffering partner. Our contact gave us more hope by asking us to move closer to the electronic gate and ask a policeman named Bassam to let us in.

The next problem on this long journey was trying to reach the gate through the masses of people jealously guarding their spots on the way to the gate. Finally we got to the gate which is where we realized that it would not open for us. The authorities would not open to let a small group of academics through -- list or no list -- simply because the waiting crowd would surge through the gate en masse. In any event we never did find Bassam to open the gate for us.

But we waited. The heat became even worse, children cried, and the sick and the elderly sat desperately on the ground -- they could no longer stand and would have to sit on the ground to wait for the gate to open. I decided to join them because it was clear that the wait would be a long one.

Worse news was to follow: our names were not on the list -- and the crossing was, in fact, closed! We had to wait outside until somebody allowed us to go inside the Palestinian hall to spend the night there. I was so tired and felt ill. I was also desperate for a toilet as none had been made available to us for all these hours.

Next to me was an old woman talking on her cellphone about the pain she was in. Next to her was the family with seven daughters, all on their way to Jordan. Opposite me was an ambulance with a cancer patient -- they had been waiting there for 12 hours. The place was so hot and sticky. After three hours I felt a sudden sharp pain in my stomach; I stood up to lean against the wall while yellow circles danced in front of me and a humming began in my ear. Then, everything went blank. I must have fainted. When I opened my eyes, people were giving me water, chocolate, cheese and asking me to eat and drink. Some pronounced it a diabetic episode, others were convinced it was low blood pressure. I was sure it was sunstroke. Whatever it was, I resolved to go back home right away.

On my return home, I was so relieved to see my bed -- and my flat felt like Paradise! That night I wanted to cry; cry for myself, for my dignity; cry for the old woman sitting next to me; cry for my cousin's wife; cry for the patient in the ambulance and for the 50,000 desperate people at the gates of Rafah Crossing.

The horror at the crossing continued after I left. Many people spent the entire night there, only to be told the following day that the crossing was still closed and that they should leave. It took me almost two days to feel physically better, but every single muscle of my body still hurts. I am angry and sad and do not have the words to express the depth of my feelings about this experience.

The situation that the tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children faced at the Rafah border crossing this week was inhumane and unconscionable. Nothing can justify this. Most rushed to Rafah Crossing in as short a time as I did with similar stories of frenzied activity and hope. More than 3,500 of them are terminally ill patients in urgent need of medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals. Others hold residency permits in other countries and have been trapped in Gaza for at least a year. Some are academics and students, traveling abroad to attend conferences or further their studies.

So, instead of giving them a chance to do these very ordinary things: go to a hospital, study, go to a conference or work, go back to other homes and other loved ones, the failure to open the Rafah Crossing, instead, increased their misery. Many of them spent three sleepless nights hoping to be allowed to cross into Egypt. Like me, many fainted, or suffered from dehydration and sun stroke. The failure to open Rafah Crossing reminded them of their imprisonment and their lack of human rights; it reminded them that they move at the whim of others and it reminded them that the siege of the Gaza Strip has still not been broken.

All the people who were at the Rafah border are civilians. Under the Geneva Conventions they are entitled to freedom of movement and protection from
collective punishment.

During the Cold War, much was made of Checkpoint Charlie as the dividing line: we have a new Checkpoint Charlie today and it is called Rafah Crossing.

Haidar Eid is an Associate Professor in Cultural Studies at Al-Aqsa University-Palestine.

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Israel Missile Attack kills enitre family, plus 3 neighbors, plus wounding 50

And none of this is being reported in the press here!
In North America!

Marlene

Israelis Missile Attack Kills Father,
Mother and Their 3 Children
One Palestinian Killed in IOF incursion into Rafah

-- Sustaining their military escalation against the Gaza Strip,
the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) before dawn Sunday
infiltrated houses east of the town of Rafah in southern Gaza Strip
killing at least one Palestinian and wounding nine others, two
days after their aircraft fired missiles at a building in the
Al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza Strip on Friday evening,
killing Ayman Fayyad, 42, his wife, three-year-old daughter,
two sons aged five and 18 and three neighbors, and
wounding more than fifty civilians, including around 20 children.

Palestinian medical sources announced that Ibrahim Sabbah,21,
Abdelsalam Abu Sosin, Abdelkarim Alhalban, Naser Abu Shabab,
and more than 15 others were wounded early Sunday while
encountering the IOF incursion into eastern Rafah city in
southern Gaza Strip.

The Fayyad house was completely destroyed Friday in the
IOF missile attack and at least 10 other houses were
damaged by the blast, witnesses and an AFP
correspondent said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and
Palestinian organizations, including both
Hamas and Fatah, issued statements blaming
Israel for the attack.

The impoverished Gaza Strip is home to eight refugee camps,
and Bureij is both the smallest and the most populated.

Meanwhile, Palestinian man Ala'a Abu Haddaf, 21,
was announced dead Saturday of wounds he sustained
earlier during a clash with IOF soldiers in Gaza Strip.

According to United Nations statistics, in the third
week of January, Israeli security forces killed 23
Palestinians and wounded 70 in Gaza, compared
with 3 Israeli civilians injured by Qassam rockets. I
srael also sent in tanks, one of which fired shells
at a high school in Beit Hanun, killing a teacher and
wounding three students. Other tanks, backed by
helicopters, carried out raids in parts of Gaza City,
wounding several Palestinian anti-occupation activists.

The total number of Palestinians, mostly from Gaza Strip,
killed since the US brokered peace talks in Annapolis last
November is more than 168 and gets higher by the day.

---

PMC © All Rights Reserved

"Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law" (From Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948)

__,_._,___

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Five African migrants shot dead crossing Egypt-Israel border

Press Release:

Amnesty International supporters are sending
appeals to the Egyptian authorities expressing
concern that three men and two women have
been shot dead by Egyptian security forces since
the beginning of 2008, as they attempted to
cross the border into Israel.

On 19 February Egyptian security forces shot dead
a Sudanese man trying to cross into Israel bringing
the total to five. Security officials said 50-year-old
Ermeniry Khasheef was shot in the back after he
ignored orders to stop as he attempted to cross
barbed wire near the border town of Rafah, in the
north of the Sinai Peninsula.

Three days earlier, an Eritrean woman, Mervat Mer
Hatover was shot dead after she ignored orders to
stop as she was attempting to jump over the barbed
wire in the El Kuntilla border region, in south-eastern
Sinai Peninsula.

According to security officials, Mervat Mer Hatover and
her two daughters - aged eight and 10 - had been among
a group of Africans who paid smugglers to help them
cross into Israel. All were arrested. The military prosecutor
has reportedly ordered an autopsy on Mervat Mer Hatover
but no proper investigation is known to have taken place.

An Amnesty International spokesperson said:
'We're concerned that the Egyptian border police are
disregarding their duty in opening fire on people
who may have in no way presented an immediate
threat to life.

'The international standards are clear: if lives are in
immediate danger, then lethal force is permissible.
If not, it is not.

'Desperate migrants should not be at
the mercy of border guards who disregard
basic international standards over
using their weapons.'

On 30 January two migrants from Ivory Cost were
shot and killed trying to cross the border south of
Rafah. According to the Egyptian security forces,
a 22-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman bled
to death before an ambulance could reach them.
Six Eritreans and two Ethiopians were also arrested.
On 19 January, another man from Ivory Cost bled to
death after he was shot in the thigh at the border with
Israel. A Sudanese and a Guinean were arrested.

Thousands of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers,
mostly from Sudan and Eritrea or other parts of
sub-Saharan Africa, try to cross from Egypt to
Israel each year. Their numbers have been
increasing since 2007. In July 2007 alone, over
230 mostly Sudanese migrants were arrested
trying to cross into Israel without official permission.
According to the UNHCR some two to three million
Sudanese nationals live in Egypt; most of them are
migrants but they also include thousands of refugees
who have fled persecution in Sudan. Israel has put
pressure on Egypt to reduce the flow of people
crossing the border into its territory without
authorization.

Amnesty supporters will be calling on the authorities
to order a thorough and impartial investigation into
the killings in line with UN principles.

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Israeli army invades southern Gaza; kidnaps 30 civilians

by Ghassan Bannoura

The Israeli army invaded the eastern side
of the city of Rafah in the southern part
of the Gaza Strip and kidnapped 30
Palestinian civilians on Thursday morning.

An undercover Israeli force attacked
and searched Palestinian homes
located near Gaza International
Airport, an area which has suffered frequent Israeli attacks
since the beginning of the Palestinian Intifada
['uprising'] in September 2000.

Troops rounded up 30 men between the ages of 15 and 50,
and took them to a nearby military base on the Rafah-Israel border.

On Wednesday Israeli tanks attacked the same area and
clashed for several hours with local Palestinian
resistance fighters. One resistance fighter was
reported injured during the clashes.

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Israeli forces roll into destroyed Rafah airport in S Gaza

A number of Israeli army tanks on Wednesday
rolled into the destroyed airport of Rafah town in
southern Gaza Strip after withdrawing last night
following clashes, witnesses said.

Five tanks and two bulldozers took up positions
in the airport, the only airport in the Gaza Strip
which operated from 1998 until it was closed in
2001, said the witnesses.

In the past years, Israel destroyed large parts
of the airport, including the control tower and the runway.

It was reported that clashes erupted between
Palestinian militants and the Israeli troops on
Tuesday before the vehicles retreating at midnight.

The armed wing of the Democratic Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said that one of its
fighters was injured during the last night clashes,
who was transferred to a Gaza hospital.

Meanwhile, the military wing of Islamic Hamas
movement claimed responsibility for firing several
mortar shells toward the invading forces.

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Hamas accepts Egypt call for summit with Fatah

Hamas accepted on Friday an
invitation by Egypt to hold talks
with President Mahmoud Abbas'
Fatah faction to solve the internal
Palestinian rift. "I and all the
brothers in the Hamas leadership
welcome participating and will
seek to make the dialogue a
success," Hamas leader Khaled
Meshaal told Reuters.

Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak, in an interview to be
published on Saturday, invited the
two sides to hold talks in Egypt.

Arab press reports said Mubarak was seeking to hold what
it described as a summit between Meshaal and Abbas in Cairo.

Meshaal said Hamas has not been informed about when
the meeting could be held. "We are responding to the
Egyptian invitation as we heard about it. The details and
any follow-up are up to them," Meshaal said in an
interview to al Usbu' magazine.

Regarding the tense situation along Egypt-Gaza border,
Meshaal played down any potential for conflict with
Egypt and said Hamas would be willing to share
control of the main Rafah crossing point with
Fatah and the Egyptian authorities. "We thank
Egypt and urge it to continue to deal with wisdom
with this emergency, brought about by the harsh siege,"
he said.

"The security concerns of Egyptian officials are understandable
and we have said that we are ready to share management of the
Rafah crossing," Meshaal said.

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What's behind the bread and electricity crisis in Gaza?

Sabri Saidam
It is clear that the issue of Gaza is beyond electricity, bread and
humanitarian needs. Israel nowadays could possibly be involved in
attempting to force Egypt to resume control of Gaza that ended
upon Israel's occupation in 1967. It is doing so by creating a
de-facto crisis which the Egyptian can not but respond with
loosening up their borders.

Israel if successful, would have relieved itself from the horrors of
administrating Gaza (even remotely through passage of goods and
humans as well as supply of services) and most importantly would have
shattered the hopes of a united Palestine. Future negotiations
(if the US Administration forces Israel to pursue) will then be confined to
final settlement on the West Bank ALONE. However what Israel is keen to
do is to exercise its utmost efforts to derail talks and finish off wall
construction in the West Bank so swiftly and declare a unilateral withdrawal
(a re-run of what happened in Gaza in September 2005).
Palestinians in Israel's view will then be forced to accept the newly
imposed withdrawal and what remains of their land.

On the Rafah borders front, there are so far two unlikely
(for many) but possible scenarios:

Scenario I: The Egyptians close Rafah by force (if need be)
within few days. Yet given the looseness within the Palestinian society
and the mounting pressures on Gaza upon re-closure of borders,
Palestinians masses will re-try to cross the borders but will be faced by force.
It is possible that fighting will erupt across borders between hungry Palestinians
and the Egyptian border control guards. Egypt will call upon Israel to uphold the
Camp David Treaty, Israel will respond by deeming this issue an Egyptian matter
leaving Egypt with no option but to deploy more troops and step up its army
operations to lawfully control its borders and utilize more effective military
measures and means. If such a scenario prevails, Israel will then declare
that Egypt violated its agreement with Israel by its unilateral decision to deploy more
troops and weapons along the borders in defiance of the Camp David Treaty.
Border clashes situation escalate leading to Egyptian army's partial control of southern
parts of the Gaza Strip to push back border infiltration and therefore be dragged deeper
into the mud of Gaza. This in Israel's inclinations is hoped to become a lasting formula
that gives it the excuse to relinquish all of its responsibilities towards the Strip.

Scenario II: Egypt finds itself pushed to open up Rafah crossing through direct
engagement with Hamas so to avoid any military intervention or direct
Palestinian- Egyptian clashes. Israel will therefore, declare the Rafah Crossing protocol
signed in 2005 dead and use that as an excuse to consolidate its cut off of all ties with
Gaza and turn to the UN to officially announce that Gaza is no longer part of any direct
or indirect Israeli responsibility and that it has become under the full Egyptian
administration or supervision.

In both scenarios, our national aspirations are endangered and Israel would
have fulfilled its long-awaited dream of deposing Gaza and shattering the
Palestinian strive for a state. The only move that can strike a cord in such
scenarios is restoring Palestinian unity IMMEDIATELY. Easier said than
done- Maybe!. However, if no serious moves are made in that direction,
the new map of the Middle East is going to continue to be drawn and
again on the expense of the bewildered Palestinians and their painful cause!

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Trouble is Double for Georgette Harb...Bring Georgette her afflicted family!

Trouble is Double for Georgette Harb

Bring Georgette her afflicted family!

Palestinians have consistently lived through the traumas of home destruction, nearly all families have its martyrs from life under occupation these last 60 years. The existing siege only helps them to relive the negative experiences all over again and Georgette is no exception.

A simple modest family came to settle in its home town of Rafah City, Palestine. The family maintained the slogan, " East or west home is best, to have a rest in your own nest" The father made all efforts to secure a very nice house for his family. He didn't care about the location, which was near the military posts of the Israeli border. He thought that they were protected by the International Laws of the UN Charter and that the 4th Geneva Convention is recognized during time of War! Yet, life turned upside down!

Georgette Harb is the name of a young Palestinian woman in the Gaza strip. Her name is a little bit strange, her story is strange as well. We met Georgette who seemed to be exhausted and tired of her new tasks, the family's sole breadwinner and she started narrating her story:

" My name is Georgette because I have a Romanian mother whom I've never known. Before, 21 years ago, a new flower was planted in the garden of life but unfortunately, it didn't have any mercy from the one who planted it. "That flower is me." I lost my mother when I was one year old when my father decided to leave Romania and return back to his country, Palestine. My mother refused to go, and said; "Palestine is your country and your daughter's as well. So, take your daughter and leave my country and go back whence you came."

Her father picked her up and left Romania for Palestine. Here we are, and so the story begins…

He went to the place where his first wife, sons and daughters lived. He went to Yemen because he was a refugee who is banned from entering into Palestine. Georgette went on telling her story, tears streamed like a crazy river and her voice was trembling like that of a very tormented woman!

In 1994, Georgette and her family reached Palestine after the Oslo peace agreement.

"We lived in the outskirts in what a so-called rented flat, in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Our dream to have our house was finally achieved 3 years ago. Oh… what a dream but Israeli ghosts damaged that dream with no mercy. The 9th of June 2007, 6:00 a.m was a baleful day for us when Israeli armed soldiers backed by tanks stormed our house. My father and brothers fled the house with fear of enemy assault and aggression." Said the panic stricken Georgette.

Georgette and the rest of her siblings hid themselves in a bedroom, reckoning it was safe. Yet, the Israeli army was fast like the wind and demolished the external wall of that room. "Into the other room, let us move, hurry up…hurry up… Georgette told her siblings." But sure enough the soldiers were waiting for the innocent family.

Finally, we tried waving a white banner through to the soldiers as they sat inside on our garden. We were harmless ladies and children, no men and no guns with us. Half hour under the heat of the sun before an order to return back to the house came where we found to our surprise more than a hundred soldiers were encircling the house. Although the room wall was destroyed, they made us sit amongst the rubble and then brought another 30 captives to the house. While we were about 60 people in this small room without food, water, not even milk for the children, the soldiers outside the room were destroying and stealing everything. They stole jewellery, any monies, a computer and even mobile phones. After the desolation, and torment of the robbery process, the two days of nightmare went away. We thought it over and done but it wasn't to be.

On the 27th of Nov 2007, it was another ugly day when Israeli forces came again and took our only treasure. Tuesday 3:30 a.m, Israeli tanks restricted a big area surrounding our home. All men who lived there escaped to safer areas, my father and 3 brothers escaped also. But their fate was completely different to that of the others. While they were escaping, the IDF were waiting for them, first they caught Ramzy and told him to keep silent, Ramzy shouted "what, what do you want?" To try and warn his father and brother, but it was too late. They caught my father, Mohammed and my two brothers Saeed and Ibraheem. Mohammed was shot in his leg and abdomen, Saeed was shot in his leg and jaw and Ibraheem was shot in his leg. Occupation has no mercy, they arrested them all, although they had been dangerously hurt, they left them bleeding for about two hours before taking them to an unknown place. One can only imagine of their wellbeing.

It's now been over four weeks and we still don't know anything of there whereabouts. The questions have to be asked, "Where are our human rights? Is animal better than human?

When can we know anything about them? Is there no advocacy or law to defend them? Who will support 6 ladies and three children financially ruined? We need all help and support we can find."

Support Georgette:

00972599530699

www.freegaza.ps

freegaza.ps@gmail.com

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