2525 November 06

Award-Winning Gazan Journalist Mohammed Omer
On First U.S. Speaking Tour.
If you would like to attend Mohammed's testimony, please view the schedule
here [and as Word document here]

Mohammed has just arrived in DC last evening and is ready for his speaking tour.

13 November

During a funeral, sad moments when 18 civilans were killed at once

Palestinian children, Rima Athamneh , 1, and Ala Athamneh , 1, were killed by the Israeli tank shells in gaza togather with most of their family

Palestinian woman walking by a wall riddled with bullets and tank shells in Beit Hanoun

Mosque demolished by the Israeli bullodozers

“How long will Israel be allowed to continue to kill our women, children and old men inside their houses, villages and camps? How long should we continue to be slaughtered while the world watches?” asked Ms. Al Atamneh, one of the survivors of a family recently killed by Israeli Occupation Forces. Through a veil of tears, she then showed the damage to her house caused by Israeli tank shells. “Where is the world, God? Why are we getting killed? My little nephew, Amjad, while sleeping, was killed by the Israelis right here,” she said crying and pointing to where his bed was.

“The child was simply sleeping, possibly having a nice dream. But he never woke up. Neither were ambulance workers allowed to reach him even if there was any hope of saving him. Amjad’s arm was missing. No one could find it.”

Amjad’s younger sister was murdered by Israeli soldiers using rockets as well. Unites States made and paid tank shells splattered her little body all over the house. Her brains were all over her bed. Fingers, arms, legs and pieces of human flesh were all over the place.

"No one can believe the image—I tried to help, but I was also injured in my leg, but everyone is dead by the tank shells which hit all the child and every body, even my mother who's 70 years old woman, a woman who lived peacefully and have nothing to do with the army, she got killed, she did nothing, nothing, nothing, but she got killed by the Israeli tank shell" she added.

Even the animals, cows and goats were killed by the attack when the Israeli bulldozers demolished a small animal farm of the family. The Israeli soldiers also destroyed the van of her father which cost 11 Jordanian Deinar. She said even that would be fine as long as our children and we survive.

"I can believe it, my own mother who raise me, there was a moment where I was not able to see even look at her before she got buried" the young woman said crying. She was obviously angry. " It's not only the tanks shells, but also the drone planes which hit our house from all over see here, look here and there and see our lives—see the wholes and the damaged furniture, look at the blood in the walls, see even the Palestinian flag is a witness on the crimes"

She continued talking with a tone of anger and stress. What really angered her is the fact that the Israelis knew there were children in the house. “It was one day when the soldiers were inside our home and they imposed siege on us, they didn’t let us go out and they kept telling us to shut up or they were going to shoot us. The soldiers purposely kept scaring the children by pointing their weapons at them. The children were not even allowed to go to the bathroom while the soldiers were there.” Holding a Palestinian flag in her hands she said, “This is the reason we are being killed, we are Palestinians. The soldiers are angry because we have the flag of our country.” The Israeli soldiers told her they did not want Palestinians to live. While crying, she put the bullet-ridden Palestinian flag back on the wall saying, “But Israel who kills innocents will not kill the spirit of the Palestinians who remain alive. Shame on America which provides Israel with weapons. Shame on America for remaining silent while their Israeli allies murder innocent civilians and commit crimes against humanity. She then prepared to go to another one of many funerals in occupied Palestine.

9 November

A Palestinian woman carrying the body of her child injured by the Israeli occupation forces

A targeted car by the Israeli helicopters

Blood and human flesh is everywhere, we are getting killed

Palesinian children are looking at blood pool of their friends killed by the Isareli tank shells

Palestinian workers trying to help Palestinian man

Palestinian young men gathering around a car that was bombed by Israeli helicopters

We, Palestinians, whether Christian, Moslem or otherwise, are being killed every single day in Palestine . Our houses are being demolished, our roads being destroyed, our children being slaughtered, our lives being taken away by the Israeli helicopters, bulldozers, tank shells, and airplane rockets. Our lives are violently, yet quietly being taken away by the Israeli Occupation Forces. The murder here is loud and graphically violent, yet scarcely a whisper of these atrocities is heard through the news organizations of the West.

The situation here is completely insane. Day after day, Israelis come to our homeland and kill, kill, kill as if Gaza was a shooting gallery in a carnival. All over Gaza are leftovers of the Israeli frenzy to shoot at anything that moves. Legs and arms of innocent Palestinian children laying on streets and remaining rubble from what was once someone’s house. What was once tiny soft pliable fingers from a baby can be found hardened like rocks on Palestinian soil. One can find a piece of a head with the brains oozing out like a melon.

Our children’s blood runs through the streets of Palestine and no one cares, certainly not Israeli and Jews in America or Britain . Why do these children have to die? New born babes in Beit Hanoune were welcomed into this world by Israeli artillery fire. Israeli tanks blew up their homes while they were asleep.

Where is the American and British Press? Where is the outcry from the lands of Democracy? How many Palestinian children must be murdered, yes, murdered before someone in the West says “Enough!” What level of butchery must the Israelis rise to before the world can’t stomach the carnage anymore? Let the 13 family members hear it, even if they have to hear it in hospital refrigerators.

The blood is everywhere. In few minutes more than 21 people were killed this early morning while the children were sleeping -- 60 people were injured.

The brother of two people who were injured was heard screaming in a hospital, “Why, why, Israel is killing us, why my brother?"

6 November

Mohammed wrote to me last night saying: 'We are getting killed'. [The RafahToday.org Webmaster]

Fear of death during funerals

H ow will you answer this child when she ask you why her brother was killed

Israeli tanks in Beit Hanoun

P alestinian boys watching the body of victim killed by the Israeli bullets in Beit Hanoun

P alestinian medical workers carrying the body of one of the victims

P alestinian women break the siege to get out their sons

Talal Naser, a Palestinian citizen who lived in Beit Hanoun village was arrested by the Israeli army, his wife, his family were killed when the Israeli occupation forces have demolished the house over their heads—as a result, two of daughters were killed and there is no information about the rest of the family—this is part of the ongoing Israeli incursion against humanity which is going on till now by many people whom were killed and injured. the attack is still going on and the numbers of people whom were killed is increasing from one minute to another—the fact that there is no food, no water, sewage system has flooded, electricity stations have been demolished and nothing remains, but a ghost village after it was one of the most beautiful agricultural places

Zaher Shabat and his brother Ayman were both arrested when the Israeli occupation forces call for all men between the age of 16-45 to get out, but they were released and asked to go home by the Israeli soldiers, in the way while they are back to their home, the Israeli soldiers patrolling in other place killed both of them by the shelling which continue for the whole night.

Beit Hanoun: From Summer Rains operation to Autumn's Clouds operation, both are the Israeli attacks targeting Gaza Strip to kill humans, demolish all standing, damage infrastructure and make life no longer meaningful. In addition, people are deprived as a result of the ongoing attack as many of the families whom are under siege have run out of food and water when the fact that the Israeli bulldozers target the water pipes that are a life giving source, cut of electricity and telephone networks in Beir Hanoun village in the northern part of Gaza .

ETHNIC CLEANSING

Umm Al Naser mosque has a different story with the siege, right after the Israeli soldier's louder speakers announced for every male Palestinian from the age of 14- 45 should gather in a stadium and then transferred into holes dug by the Israeli bulldozers for investigations and interrogations... as a result, many men who chose not to give up to the Israeli loud speakers as they decided not to be herded like cattle, fled inside the mosque instead. The Israeli bulldozers came and demolished part of the mosque while the men were under siege inside. As soon as the news started to spread about the threat of killing all the people who refused to surrender under the mosque. To the surprise of the Israeli's, hundreds of Palestinian women took to the streets and headed to break the Israeli siege of Beit Hanoun mosque and helped to get out the Palestinian men who were inside the mosque. The women did it and succeeded in leading a demonstration in front of the tanks and bulldozers which were shooting very heavily on the mosque, but women's willingness and great courage was obviously stronger than the Israeli bullets.As the Israeli tanks shells fired into the crowd, 2 women were killed and 17 women were injured as well as a local cameraman, according to medical sources at Kamal Adwan hospital. The mosque collapsed shortly after the 12-hour siege ended by the help of Palestinian women with their brave determination.

PALESTINIAN WOMEN BREAK THE SIEGE!

One of the demonstrators, Umm Eyad Al Ashkar 45 years old in an interview said :"We decided to take the streets to save the lives of our sons, even if we are women, we should have our role to the break the Zionist siege" she said as she said with a strong tone of voice as her 14 years old daughter accompanied with her to the demonstration. How many women, who live in countries in relative peace, would have the courage to stand up against tanks firing live ammunition at them?
Not many! It is a known fact that most women hidebehind their husbands for protection. Evidently, the
Palestinian women have a strong spirit and faith filled with brave determination to fight off the
ruthless, cold-blooded Israeli's who are trying to kill off all the Palestinians, from innocent children, to any one who is breathing.

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

The incursions continue with more tension, with helicopters hovering endlessly, bombings and firing of tank shells against all related to humanity without any differentiation. In a phone interview with the director of Beit Hanoun's hospital, he said: "We know about many cases of injured victims who need help, but our ambulance drivers are no longer able to do it, as
the hospital is under siege." he said.

Beit Hanoun, the area which is located in the north of Gaza Strip by the population of 30.000 inhabitants, and mostly depending on agriculture as the only source for income for it's residents. As long as the attack keeps going till this moment, the numbers of people being killed is increasing from minute to minute, and now, over 50 people were killed and more than 230 people were injured, many of them civilians whom were killed even inside their houses. How many Palestinians should get killed before international community and the world put pressure against Israel to stop its continuous aggression against Palestinians? When will the civilized world wake up and stand up to the aggressors? As the international political leaders all talk about this atrocity against the Palestinians, why is there no action being taken?

A Palestinian child has to go through all these nightmares and horrible experiences, when child ask his mother when is this war is going to end, will you have an answer to satisfy your child's innocence?

19 May 06

The Keys of Catastrophe

“They come into our house and tell us we don’t live there anymore.” — Statement in the Oscar® Winning Film, Shindler’s List describing how the Nazis appropriated the homes of Jews without compensation, warning or compassion.

An old man, his once thick black hair, thinning and peppered white sits quietly. Slumped over from years of disappointment, his back arched near permanence in the shape of a crescent, he speaks slowly, the weight of lament wheezing between each word.

"We are getting old; time is running out,” he states. Though aging, his memory remains clear, transporting him back to a time he was young. “It seems only a few weeks or months ago we were kicked out from our homes in Yebna village. It seems, yet it has been 58 years since then".



Refugees in Gaza are still waitting for hope to reutern to their orginal homes


The old man looks up, spying his grandchildren running across the street. Within their hands they clutch the wooden keys symbolizing the lost homes, businesses and life of a time since past. Each year these wooden keys serve as commemoration of the anniversary of Al Nakba. Beside him, with admiration of a newlywed bride, his Umm Zuheer (wife) sits silently, allowing her husband to speak.

He stares as his grandchildren disappear further into the Rafah refugee camp, a tattered sigh escaping his lips. Reluctantly his head sways side to side.

"The people of our village (Yebna) realized too late the guests we allowed were in truth gangs of occupiers, armed with British guns and weapons. We had the tools of farmers, axes and scythe for harvesting as weapons. Yet we resisted, creating sand barriers and obstacles in attempts to protect our homes." he begins.

"In our village seven martyrs were killed by the Jewish gangs. Israel did not exist yet. Many were killed by the Jewish gangs throughout the area" he adds.

"In our village, rather than attack us, they lay siege, surrounding our village on three sides with the fourth flank left open for the British tanks that showered our village with canon fire day and night. The power of the tanks, we were no match for this. We were kicked out from our homes beginning with Yebna, then Al Isdud, Al Majadal and here. Ultimately we ended up in Gaza. Here we live since 1948 in this refugee camp, supported by the donation of the United Nations.”

Professor Ibrahim Abu Jaber, author of “The Future of Palestine and Al-Aqsa Mosque " states, “The number of the Palestinian refugees around the world is seven million with 1.8 million living as refugees within the Palestinian territories.

FACTS ON THE GROUND

Jaffa based Israeli politician and secretary for the Israeli- Palestinian Committee Dialogue, Mr. Latif Dori comments on Al Nakba.

"It's a catastrophe to the Palestinians who were kicked out by force from their homes in 1948,” he acknowledges before quickly adding the obligatory deflection.

‘But don’t forget that it’s a catastrophe for the Jewish people. What I mean by that, it is a catastrophe for the Jewish people because of what was done to them by the Nazis in World War II."

In 1935 laws were passed in Germany that instituted a ten year persecution of persons of the Jewish faith along with Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill, handicap, Catholics, Communists and Poles. This persecution, resulting in millions of deaths, hardships and loss, mercifully ended ten years later in 1945. This pogrom against the Jewish people and others deemed racial enemies to National Socialism provided the final catalyst for the establishment of Israel. The Palestinians were not involved in this event.

Asked to comment on the status of Israel and Palestine, Dori replies: "Israel has no right to be in this land,” he observes.

“But what should we do? More than fifty years have past since we began living here. For the Palestinians to return to their homes…this is not a practical solution. I know that without resolving the refugees right to return, there will be no peace in the whole region" he admits.

Dori goes on to mention that within Jaffa city 40,000 Jews currently reside within the city. Of these, fifty percent occupy houses originally owned and taken from Palestinians whose families often occupied these homes and land for centuries. In most cases, the homes were appropriated by force or flight (simply being absent for twenty-four hours was enough to declare the home ‘abandoned’). These homes were taken without consideration. Today their Jewish residents enjoy living in secure and well appointed homes, while the majority of the real owners have been removed and relegated to the hell of refugee camps.

Challenging his logic as a friend I asked, ‘If I Mohammed Omer, a Palestinian refugee, could prove the home you currently live in is the property of my grandparents, would you leave?’

Dori responds, “I would say welcome, and you can have it!” He offers enthusiastically before continuing with the inevitable ‘but’.

“Though from a humanitarian or emotional viewpoint this may sound right, it (relinquishing the home I live in to the real owners upon proof) would not be a practical solution. Emotions will not solve these problems. And unfortunately, I don’t have the ability to set the wheels of history in reverse.”

Pausing for a moment he further rationalizes, “I would imagine you would allow me to keep the house. After all, I have been living here for fifty years."

Surviving rather than Living

In the Swedish village section of the Rafah refugee camp, a few hundred Palestinian families carve out a living atop the filth and waste of a long neglected sewage system, the smell of fecal matter, rotting food and a bacterial stew seeping through the ground. Parents watch as their children become instantly sick. The stench is constant, increasing in pungency with each escalating degree centigrade. It is a smell to which no one will become accustom.

Amanh Abu Sulimah, now a seventy-five year old woman and refugee most of her life remembers the day in 1948 when she was forced to leave her home on the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt in Al Jauura.





"We were forced to leave,” she begins. “My family and I moved into a school and eventually into this refugee camp.” Her words still carry a jagged sense of disbelief. "As you know,” she states pointing to the rickety home around her. “My sons and I are living in this tiny house, where my 25 grandchildren are sleeping all inside this one room"

Justice’s key

Nestled today in nearly a million Palestinian pockets, jingling between coins, papers and cash rests a key. A key representing the love of a land, a society, a culture still present yet temporarily out of reach. For fifty eight years the Palestinians have waited to return home. The United Nations agreements with Israel prior to statehood provided for their care and dignity, to be treated as equals. To be given a home. To be protected from racism, prejudice and injustice. Still they wait, hope yet never despair, a simple key symbolizing their dream.

This key, a legacy held by an old man passes to the young, the representation of justice, a symbol of the inevitable ending. As the symbol transcends generations, the hopes and dreams it represents cradles within the young hands of the future. Ever protective of the fragile realities it represents, the old man softly closes tiny fingers around the cut metal and whispers, “Next year, in our home. Next year in Palestine, next year.”

With keys held in hand, tucked safely in boxes or hidden from view, the Palestinians continue to demand. They continue to hope for the day when their precious keys of the catastrophe may once again unlock the doors to their homes and businesses allowing them to live as human beings and prosper in peace. They look to the day when independence no longer equates with catastrophe. They look to the day when their keys will again open the doors to their homes. </td>

10 May 06

I have heard from a friend in the U.S. who has told me "Judith passed away."

I was thinking this is impossible. She is alive, her voice is still in my mind when she is telling me: "It will improve Mohammed, this injustice will end one day" and even her simple Arabic words are still coming to my mind.

The mother of the little Rolla fell on the floor when I told her about this.

Goodbye, Judith. Thank you for all you've done and for your patient, kind, and gentle voice -- for the love you shared with us all. Safe travels, be well...and thank you.

.......

Judith was known to many as "Erika" on her blog, RafahNotes, and in the blogosphere at large. She will be horribly missed.

2 May 2006

No different from yesterday's situation -- the same as usual.

Two people have been killed and four others were injured in a blast at a security forces compound in northern Gaza.

It is not yet clear what caused the explosion which destroyed a building and killed two people. Ambulances arrived on the scene to take the injured and the bodies of the dead. A Palestinian interior ministry spokesman said the explosion in a compound in the Jabaliya refugee camp could have been caused by artillery fire from Israel.




A man mournes the death of his brother, a Palestinian security officer.


"We have suspicions that it was an Israeli shell but an investigation is underway to determine the circumstances of the explosion," Khaled Abu Hilal said today.

Another suggestion -- though unconfirmed -- was that the blast may have been caused by unexploded Israeli artillery shells, which were being stored in preparation for their destruction.

In the north of Gaza, 8 Palestinians were injured as well by the artillery shelling which caused damage throughout the area. Most of the injured are children under the age of 15 as well as a 50 year old woman named Intisar Abu Audeh, who was injured along with three of her children while they were inside their house.

The lives of Palestinian people are so cheap here. It seems as though Palestinian people have no right to live while the United States and Europe boycott and punish Palestinians for their democratic choice. And here again, we would still call it the democratic US and Europe?

27 April 2006

Bloodshed continues.

At least one citizen was killed and six others were wounded when Israeli warplanes raided the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, firing on a car.









Israeli warplanes have raided the same area three times. The first time they fired two missiles on a Mercedes car traveling along the coastal road between Deir Al Balah and Al Zawaida towns. In that instance, the passengers managed to escape safely.

A few minutes later, the warplanes targeted a group of citizens were who were crowded near the damaged car. Wa'el Nassar, aged 28, was killed and six other people were wounded, two seriously.







As paramedics and ambulances rushed to the scene to vacate the wounded, the Israeli warplanes re-appeared and fired a third missile on an empty Peugeot car parked on the road. The car was set ablaze.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Confined to a wheel-chair, Amena Ghaith complains bitterly from inside Al Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip after doctors told her that she would need to look elsewhere for medication. Ghaith, age 60, had her left foot amputated recently after an illness. She also suffers from chronic high blood pressure.

Gaza's main hospital doesn't have what she needs, the Palestinian mother of seven said.

"I will die. Without medicine I will die," Ghaith cried out, as her son Hani, a police officer whose salary is nearly a month overdue, pushed her along a hospital corridor.

23 April 2006

Emotional exhaustion among children and women.

Twenty-five people, mainly children in addition to eight women, arrived at the Hospital after being affected with prostration.
Many of them were physiologically affected by the daily shelling as well.






An Israeli rocket hit the sewage system in the north of Gaza
and the whole area smells bad.



A war of words has lead to the setting of Gaza alight, again.

The artillery shelling is still going on and there have even been clashes on the campus of our University.

The Islamic University of Gaza, where I've had my last semester of studies, is where the clashes are this time. Students and supporters of both Hamas and Fateh movement had statred the problem with verbal arguements, and ended up with thirty-one people injured in the clashes.

Dr. Mawia Hassanin, the director of Emergency and Ambulance in Gaza City, said that the hospital received 6 people injured by Israeli tank shells in Gaza City. One of them, a 21 year old man, was seriously injured in his neck while he was outside his house in the North of Gaza.

The rounds of artillery shelling continue till this moment.

No salaries, no life.

It has been noticed over the last few days that internal conflicts are increasing as a result of U.S. and E.U. cutting AID for the Palestinian Authority.









This, of course, is affecting the education, health and welfare sectors. The Ministry of Education, for example, has postponed mid-term exams as a result of shortages in exam papers, affecting the education of hundreds of students in the Gaza Strip.

The Ministry of Health has no way to afford medicine for people whom are facing cancer and other diseases. Normal citizens have nowhere to go to.

Even a taxi driver would find it impossible to find passengers to pay for a taxi. This affects them negatively and restricts transportation movement in Gaza.

This is a war targeting children!

Amar Al Kass, 14 years old, and his friend, Mohammed Abu Tabaq, were not able to make it out to enjoy playing in front of their house. Both boys were injured by the Israeli artillery shelling.

Mamdouh Abeed, 16 years old, died as a result his injuries. Rounds of Israeli artillery killed Abeed few days ago while he was playing with other kids in Al Shiekh Zaied village.

As usual, deaths of children caused by the Israeli shelling never come to an end.

There is never any condemnation from the international community and the so-called "Human Rights Organizations". It seems that there are Human Rights organizations functioning and there is something called Human Rights, but that is not in Palestine.



The sister of Mahmoud Abeed, mourning his death in their house in Gaza.
Mahmoud, age 16, was killed by Israeli shelling in the North of Gaza.

Israeli helicopters launched at least one missile on Tuesday at a workshop to the east of Gaza City. The missile caused great damage, but no causalities were reported. Witnesses in the area said that fire erupted in the workshop and firemen rushed to extinguish the fire. A state of fear and panic spread among citizens, particularly children and women.

Israeli warships have shelled the Rafah shores and the houses close to the beach with 8 missiles so far. People are appealling to the international community to crack down on Israel to stop such attacks against civilians. Such shelling has caused fear and horror among children, women and elderly people in the whole refugee camp.



An Israeli warship in the waters off Rafah beach -- the presence of warships is unusual.
This photo was taken with a zoom lens from a distance away.

About 3,000 people took to the streets of Gaza City in a show of solidarity for fellow Palestinians held behind bars in Israel as part of events to mark Prisoners' Day.

The protestors first rallied outside the local headquarters of the International Committee for the Red Cross before making their way to the Gaza branch of the Palestinian Parliament, chanting "Free Our Prisoners" and carrying banners proclaiming "The Prisoners are the Heart of the Palestinians".

Some of those taking part in the rally carried portraits of Ahmed Saadat, the leader of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who is being held in a jail near Jerusalem after being controversially kidnapped from a prison in the Palestinian town of Jericho last month.



These women are protesting the United Nations decision to cut Aid for Palestinians

Others carried posters of Marwan Barghuti, the head of the Fateh faction in the West Bank who is regarded as the inspiration behind the Palestinian uprising, and is now serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison.

In a letter addressed to the ICRC, information minister Yussef Rizqa urged the organization to put pressure on Israel to release Palestinian prisoners as well as improve their conditions. "Israel is always hindering the visits for the families of prisoners," said Rizqa who also accused the prison authorities of obstructing the work of inmates' lawyers.

A total of 9,400 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to the Palestinian central bureau of statistics. The figure includes 369 Palestinians who were jailed before the 1993 Oslo autonomy accords.

MPs held a Parliament session on Monday devoted to the plight of the prisoners. Rallies were also expected to take place in the West Bank.

From: Joudi (Original Message) Sent: 4/15/2006 5:20 AM
Hello everyone,

In the past couple of weeks, Israel has been heavily shelling and attacking many parts of Gaza. Attacks by Apache helicoptors have been reported and also that Israel may be dropping special operations commandos into the strip. There have been demonstrations by peace groups, including Gush Shalom, in Tel Aviv, but almost no news here.

Here is a link to a BBC news story:
** Israel 'to step up Gaza shelling' **
Israel says it will step up its bombardment of the Gaza Strip to deter
rocket attacks, as a Palestinian child victim is buried.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4900796.stm >

Al Jazeera link:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/CD6AE488-DB27-417A-B3A1-7DBF45E9A471.htm


Also, the following series of reports has been recevied from someone visiting Gaza.
Saturday morning

Tanks incursion into the eastern part of Gaza city. Special fornces in the eastern graveyard of Gaza city! Shelling continues.

Friday
Dozens of thousands in every town and camp marched after Friday prayers in support of and loyality for HAMAS government.

Friday 14th April 2005 (11:30 p.m.)
Israeli tanks and buldozers incursions in two areas in the south and middle of Gaza Strip. Right now, a shelling can be heared everywhere in the city of Gaza. Military heliocapters fly overheads. No reported casulaities so far. A large family in Rafah clashes with the police and national army. Fighters from other factions support the police against the family.

Thursday, April 13:
I thiink that the worst is yet to come in Gaza. For instance, all local banks, small and big have refused to deal with HAMAS. They are not sure of HAMAS success, and they also work business.

Because of the religious Jewish pass over shelling on Gaza has been put into a halt.

In general, people here are happy for the newly elected Italian permier and his statment regarding the situation in the PA territories.

There are anticipations of special military operations by well-trained and well-equipped Isareli army units, but it would not be easy for them to achieve their goals in the thickly populated areas of Gaza Strip. Geographic sand demographic situation in Gaza varies from that of the WB. If something of that takes place, then, it could be fulfilled at the border with Egypt (Rafah town) on in the north of Gaza Strip.

As from yesterday, the border crossing with Israel has been totally closed for a week. There was a little opening that reached one or two hours everyday wher they allowed 4-5 or a little more trucks of Israeli goods to pass through to Gaza. Then, for declared reason but security allegations and pretexts, they close for a day or two. Its a play of hide and seek! Well, with the closure of the border crossings, stores are runing out of all needs for life. This is neither a sentimental statement nor an exaggeration.

Best,

SA



- A new round of shelling on Gaza today. This time new kind of shells is used. It produces a horrible sound when it explode; then another horible sound echos! Two shells per minutes. An Isreali official complaint that everyday shelling costs Israel $500,000!!! Shelling comes from the sea and artillery. There are air raids on moving targets when needed. The Palestinians have no anit-aircraft facilities at all! All what they have is primitive kind of local made rockets.

- Yeserday and the day before, some shells targeted two local factories. Also some homes were hit. Yesterday, 9 years-old girl died from boimbing and 9 others of the same family were injured.

- Situation is getting tougher on us. UNRWA spokesman declared that around 760000 refugess will not be able to receive basic humanitarian aids this month and UNRWA may not be capable to run the primary and elemetary schools in Gaza Strip (He said: Study may halt!).

- Having said this littel about the deteriorating situation is Gaza Strip, I stress that is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. Not only photocopy paper has become meager in the city but also saniraty napkins! Late alone many other things like electric appliances and the likes. Cooking gas is soaring and there are official warnings of fuel problems. In days cars will stop running.

- Gaza is a large prison right now. Ruthless poverty creeps towards villages and refugee camps under the eyes of the whole world, USA , the European Union, Japan and even Arabs allies of USA. Unfortunately, they want to punish the Palestinian people because they elected HAMAS! There are too many reasons behind HAMMAS winning. One of those reasons is the massive corruption that Arafat and his governments, if I may say, have caused to the society. I am not enthusiatic to HAMAS but beleive me that HAMAS's social, educational and cultural programs are the best in terms of planning and implementing. I wonder why all US educational aids were given to the Islamic University of Gaza. From that place 23 staff members won the general elections to the legisalative council; other staff members have been selected for governmental positions.

SA

Gaza children are being murdered with Israeli tanks and missiles, America's taxes, and the World's silence.

People -- Are you there?

Can you hear the yelling of the children appealing to you to stop the mounting Israeli aggression?

Here in Gaza, the loud Israeli helicopters continue to hover in the sky. In the meantime, Israeli tank shells are bombarding the north and eastern part of Gaza Strip.

The cannon shelling resulted in the murder of Hadil Ghaban, a 9 year old little girl who was killed while she was inside her home. During the bombing, her brothers and sisters were injured as well.

In a later interview with Rafah Today, Hadil's father stated that an Israeli official from the Israeli Occupation Forces called him on the phone and, in very fluent Arabic, apologized for the killing of his 9 year old daughter and for the damage to his house.

The Israeli official suggested that Hadil's father would be given permission to go to work inside Israel as a compensation for the killing of his daughter.

Hadil's father responded to him, saying: "I can't sell the blood of my 9 years old daughter for getting permission (to work). We are all born here for the sake of liberating our land from the Israeli occupation."









Ghaban's family and his pregnant wife were all injured in the Northern part of Gaza Strip, where the daily shelling from tanks and helicopters is continuing up until this moment. In the last seven days, tens of people were injured or killed in different parts of Gaza Strip. The tank cannon shelling continues as this update is written from Gaza City.





An Israeli Apache helicopter fired a missile into an apartment before dawn. The apartment, which belongs to the Fatah youth movement, was destroyed. No injuries were reported.

Helicopters hovered over Gaza City for a time before one fired into the apartment. A huge explosion was heard, and firefighters and rescue teams rushed to the scene, said the witnesses, who reported seeing flames and smoke rising from the targeted apartment.

Human flesh scattered here and there!

Israel has launched 900 artillery shells at northern Gaza since Thursday, the army said. During that time, the militants fired 10 rockets at Israel.

Israel pounded the northern, South and Middle of Gaza Strip with artillery fire today, killing a Palestinian police officer and wounding nine people as Israel escalated its aggression in the past few days.

Over 15 people were killed in the last 48 hours and many other hundreds were injured in different attacks in Gaza Strip.

I have been taking photos and writing about yesterday's incursion into Rafah, which is one of the most gory places. It smells everywhere inside the hospital and in the targeted area of burned flesh, exactly that of humans. Men, women, and even children's flesh burned when the Israeli airplanes shelled with three rockets, at least one of which targeting the Popular Resistance Committee leaders in Rafah.

The attack killed an entire family while they were passing together by the old Israeli settlement of Rafeh Yam. The family were on their way back from Gaza City.

Inside the ambulance, there is only a part of a small head. It looks like a child's head and there is another piece which is part of a leg. In addition, there are smaller pieces of flesh scattered all over in the streets. It took long hours for the medics to collect the pieces of flesh in the street.

This attack has resulted in random demonstrations all over Rafah. People are sadly going into the streets and appealing for help to stop the Israeli helicopters attacks!

In Khan Younies, over 6 people were killed and many were injured. The daily attacks, closure of the borders and the starvation of Palestinians are examples of what Israel insists on doing.

A few hours ago, a police officer named Yasser Abu Jarad, aged 28, was trying to evacuate colleagues from a makeshift military post when a shell hit his car and killed him, Palestinian security officials said. The army said it had warned Palestinian security officers posted near launching sites that they could be in danger from Israeli retaliation.

While Israel has been pressuring Hamas with military strikes, the US and European Union cut off of hundreds of millions of dollars in desperately needed aid to the Palestinian Authority. The US and EU classify Hamas as a terror group.

Shortly after Hamas won the January 25th Palestinian Parliamentary elections, Israel suspended the monthly transfer of some 65 million euros in taxes that it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. It also banned Hamas leaders from traveling between the West Bank and Gaza.




The wreckage of the car belonging to murdered police officer Yasser Abu Jarad, aged 28, killed by an Israeli shell.








Israeli soldiers shelled the police officer's car as he was trying to evacuate
several of his colleagues from a makeshift military post.

..........................................

PLEASE NOTE that although the following photos are graphic and
upsetting images, Mohammed has made a point of witholding worse images
in consideration for viewers' feelings.

..........................................

I'm so busy now,

People's flesh, heads, legs and arms are scattered allover the streets. Children being killed. I have been taking horrible photos. I have got photos exclusive by France Press and AP. My photos were in many newspapers and mainly in the news agencies web pages yesterday at 12 o'clock! I should run NOW, apaches shelling!

It's very tough here. more bombings by the helicopters!

mohhamdmd

"The world is a dangerous place to live;
not because of the people who are evil,
but because of the people who don't
do anything about it."
www.rafahtoday.org

Israeli aircraft fired two missiles into the compound of the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Gaza City, wounding two people, Palestinian security sources said.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, who was in the West Bank at the time of the attack, condemned the strike and called on the international community to intervene to stop what he called Israel's escalation.

The military has stepped up artillery shelling of a self-declared "no-go zone" in northern Gaza since an unprecedented attack last week with a Katyusha rocket, which has a much longer range than the normal makeshift missiles. The shelling is still going by sonic bombs and daily attacks against the Gaza Strip—many people were injured in different attacks and tanks shells in the Northern part of Gaza.

Palestinian coffers empty

On the other hand, Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said on Wednesday that the Palestinian coffers were completely empty as he hosted the first regular cabinet meeting of his Hamas-led government.



Prime Minister Ismail Haniya

"We inherited a situation in which we not only have no money in the treasury but a whole load of debts," he added.

Haniya said his administration would struggle to pay government salaries as a result of a financial crisis, partly brought on by Israel's refusal to hand over customs duties that it used to collect for the Palestinian Authority, now the administration is led by the radical Islamist movement.

"We are making every effort to pay the government employees despite the financial crisis," Haniya said at the start of the meeting in Gaza City.

The European Union and United States have both threatened to slash funding to the Palestinian Authority unless Hamas commits itself to non-violence and acknowledges Israel's right to exist.

In a statement later issued by his office, Haniya said that he himself would not take a salary while others went unpaid.

"The government and (myself) in particular as prime minister will not receive salaries before the government employees receive theirs," he said.

Three Palestinians dead in Gaza clashes.

Two Palestinians were killed on Friday in clashes in Gaza between gunmen and security forces after a top militant died in a car explosion, medical sources at Al Shifa hospital said said.









The clashes were triggered by the death of Abu Youssef AL Quqa, a top commander in the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella militant group often responsible for rocket attacks against Israel.

Gunmen loyal to Al Quqa blamed Israel for the killing but also said members of the Palestinian security services were involved. Israel has denied any involvement in the explosion.






Israeli helicopters and bombing is still going on in the Gaza Strip, and the last target was a football stadium in the Gaza City which ended by all the audience run away out from the football stadium.

Gaza at the moment is under shelling. The new Prime minister Ismail Hanyieh has asked all disarm all militants from the Palestinian streets.

24 March 2006

The killing senesce is repeated again and again during an international silence. The Islamic Jihad group, which targets, named the dead members as Mahmud Salah Ayad, 25, and Fares Sofian Abu Gharaba, 24, and confirmed they were trying to carry out an attack.





Medics at the Deir AL Balah hospital in the central Gaza Strip confirmed they had received the bodies of the two slain members scattered into small pieces.

Their deaths brought to thousands of people killed, and tens of thousands were injured, in addition to thousands of houses have been demolsihed since the eruption of the Intifada in September 2000.

On the other hand, Bird flu has been detected among poultry in Gaza but tests have yet to prove whether the virus is the H5N1 strain deadly to humans, the Israeli and Palestinian agriculture ministries said yesterday.





Representatives from the Israeli and Palestinian agriculture ministries and veterinary services met later yesterday at the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip to discuss how to combat the bird flu.

Palestinian agriculture ministry official Azzam Tbeileh said tests on 30 chickens found dead on Tuesday in the eastern Gaza Strip proved with “near certainty” that the poultry suffered from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.





“Medical teams are prepared to quarantine the area and exterminate 35,000 poultry from the farm if the results of the first tests provide confirmation,” Tbeileh added.

He said there was no indication of any human contamination.

The Palestinian health service was placed on a state of alert on Tuesday following the discovery in Israel of the H5N1 strain deadly to humans.

22 March 06

"Five shekels worth of bread, please! Five shekels worth! Please!"

The small woman's voice has more resignation than urgency by now, as she is jostled in a long line of would-be customers, most of them men, at the Al Kholi Bakery in Gaza City. Amneh Abdelal, a housewife of 37 from the beach refugee camp, braved the crowds herself with her youngest child, a toddler just starting to walk, since her husband, crippled in the Intifada, is housebound.

"I had been making bread at home," she explained, "but used the last of our flour yesterday. None of the grocers have any flour at all, so I've been here in line for hours now."





Ameh Abdelal, a Palestinian woman, is waiting with her baby
in line to get bread for her family in the Beach Camp.



Whether she would be one of the fortunate few to get any bread was an open question. The bakery owner had used the last of his flour that day and was rationing the amount of bread sold to each customer, trying to serve as many as possible before closing his doors.

For several weeks now, Palestinian officials, UNRWA, various NGOs and the flour mill owners themselves had been telling anyone who would listen that the prolonged closure of the Karni commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel, had put the Gaza Strip on a collision course with a humanitarian crisis. Normally, Gaza's seven flour mills keep an emergency stock of 30 to 60 days' supply of wheat. Most bakery owners keep a similar stock of flour. The mills were using up their critical emergency inventory, but the Israeli government kept the Karni crossing closed, as it had been for over six weeks, citing security reasons.

The alarm has been sounded for weeks of growing shortages of items normally imported from Israel -- dairy products, powdered milk, rice and sugar. Finally, all those items were gone. Then, worst of all, wheat, flour, and bread were nowhere to be found. By the afternoon on Saturday, March 18, you could walk for hours around Gaza City, checking bakery after bakery, and finding nothing at all. That did not prevent long lines forming on the streets by each bakery, hoping against hope to find bread.




Men lining up for the last stocks of bread in Gaza.


As always, the most vulnerable are most severely affected. Even middle-class Gazans have trouble imagining a meal without bread, but for the poorest citizens, very often bread is not just their main foodstuff, but their only food.

Forty percent of Palestinian children are already malnourished -- missing meals entirely for a few days can easily send them into serious illness. Right now, Gaza's doctors and hospitals can do little to help them, as regular delivery of vital drugs and medical supplies have been choked off, as well by the prolonged closure of the Karni commercial terminal.

The Gaza agricultural sector has also been devastated, as farmers have watched their harvest of vegetables, strawberries and cut flowers, packed on trucks for export to European markets, rot in the sun as they waited in vain for the border to open. Gaza's economy has been losing between US$500,000 and US$600,000 daily during the closure.

Mustapha Shurab, general director of the Palestinian Flour Mill Company in north Gaza, normally supplies flour for more than half the bakeries in the Gaza Strip. His company also has contracts to supply all the flour for the World Food Program in Gaza and half the flour supply for UNRWA's food distribution program.

On Monday, Shurab said, "We are now completely out of wheat. I had to close when the very last of my inventory was gone. The World Food distribution and UNRWA's normal aid programs are halted. I personally know 20 bakeries who have had to close, and others will use the last of their emergency supplies in a matter of hours."








Mustapha Shurabm, the director of the Palestinian Flour Mills Company,
is showing the last amount of wheat which his factory produced for people.
He expects Gaza starvation if the closure continues.

Asked if this constituted a crisis, Shurab replied, "It is very painful to say yes. Even worse when hungry people have come directly to my mill and I cannot help them. I know many families in Gaza who depend on the charity of bakery owners -- many small neighborhood shops quietly help the poorest people. But what will those people do now?"

The Israeli government is fond of pointing out it has repeatedly offered to send food and medicine through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the far south of Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority has refused.

Cynical observers speculate that the PA refusal is based on the fact it cannot charge its usual inflated fees at Kerem Shalom, but it is irrefutable that the Kerem Shalom cargo crossing is only a fraction of the size of the Karni cargo terminal. Even if Kerem Shalom operated at peak capacity and efficiency, sufficient food and medicine to meet the minimal needs of Gaza's 1.3 million people could never be processed through the small facility.

In a surprising but welcome move, the American Ambassador to Israel called an emergency meeting for Israeli, Palestinian, EU and UN representatives in his Tel Aviv home Sunday evening in which the Palestinian side agreed to an emergency opening of Kerem Shalom while pressing for continuing talks on a reliable re-opening of the Karmi crossing.

The word early Monday was that Karni would re-open for two hours that afternoon to admit trucks of flour and sugar. Mustapha Shurab, and his UNRWA contacts all agreed this concession was more cosmetic than practical. "This does not begin to normalize the situation," he said. "With our stocks totally depleted, operating Karni at peak capacity around the clock for a week would not bring things back to normal."




A Palestinian boy in Rafah refugee camp holds bread during
a protest against Israeli closure of Karni crossing.


In fact, while the Karni crossing did open Monday, the Israelis closed the border after only 30 minutes, citing a security alert. Only a few trucks loaded with flour actually made it into Palestine, "Not even enough to feed five hundred families!" exclaimed Mr. Shurab. He pointed out that the average family of eight uses about 50 kilos of flour in a month. The Israeli authorities said they might re-open Karni at 8am Tuesday, "depending on the security situation."

The Tel Aviv government insists this extended border closure and the resulting impending famine in Gaza is purely due to security concerns. However, in Gaza, the border closure is widely seen as collective punishment for the January election results that gave the Islamist Hamas party a solid majority in the Palestinian Parliament. One wonders, though, how to parse out the nuances -- should we call it a "crisis" now when hungry people are lining up outside bakeries throughout Gaza, and save the term "disaster" for the day when Gazans die of starvation?

These fine points of reporting, however, probably matter little to Mrs. Abdelal and hundreds of thousands like her who, if not Saturday night, then on Sunday, had to explain to her little boy why he had to go to bed hungry.

16 March 2006

Photos used by other websites that were sent by friends and photographers in the West Bank —




Prisoners taken from the Jericho jail were ordered to remove their clothing.

15 March 2006

A blitz of foreign kidnappings and furious attacks on Western interests erupted in the Palestinian territories after Israeli troops raided a West Bank prison deserted by British monitors.

At least nine people were still kidnapped in the Gaza Strip after the massive Israeli raid ended in the oasis town of Jericho with the arrests of Palestinian militants wanted for the 2001 assassination of an Israeli minister.

The abductions followed hot on the heels of warnings from militants for all British and US nationals to quit the West Bank and Gaza Strip "immediately".



An American boy being evacuated by a preventative security forces bodyguard.



Families were escorted out of the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Authority after the Popular Front for Palestine Liberation demonstrated with demands that British and Americans leave Gaza as soon as possible.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, currently on a tour of key European capitals, appealed for calm and urged Palestinians to refrain from attacking foreign and EU interests in the Palestinian territories.

But the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine vowed that the siege in which their detained chief Ahmed Saadat surrendered to Israeli troops, will not go unpunished, sparking fears of heightened Middle East violence.

"It will not pass without retaliation," politburo leader Kaid Al Said. "These are dangerous events -- Israel is not respecting agreements. We will discuss our response," he added.

It was the worst day of foreign abductions in the increasingly chaotic and hostage-prone Gaza Strip since Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from the territory last September, following a 38-year occupation.

"We call on all British and US nationals to leave the Palestinian territories immediately on pain of unprecedented consequences," the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades warned earlier in Gaza City.



With the rampant insecurity increasingly threatening to escalate out of control, Palestinian police shot dead a militant from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and wounded seven others in the Gaza Strip. Yasser Abu Rihan, 30, died and four militants were wounded in clashes with police acting on new live fire orders in response to clashes, medics said. The other three militants were wounded in a firefight close to the Jordanian embassy.

Two French women doctors, a Swiss who headed the Red Cross mission in the depressed town of Khan Yunis and four other foreigners were grabbed at gunpoint from a luxury Al Dierah hotel were snatched in the Gaza Strip. A French reporter and a French photographer were also kidnapped during the day. Two Australian nationals were briefly kidnapped in the Gaza Strip. PFLP militants also snatched a US citizen for minutes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun before Palestinian security forces recovered the man.

PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat, who was detained under Anglo-US supervision for the 2001 accusation of murdering of far-right Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi, and five other militants were the focus of the Israeli assault.

Hundreds of furious Palestinians mobbed the British cultural centre in Gaza City and set fire to the building after an angry protest in which gunmen pumped a volley of bullets into the air.

Protestors also swarmed into the British consulate in Gaza City, while other furious Palestinians attacked the British Council office and a branch of the HSBC bank in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The British Council said its centre in Gaza City was "very badly damaged" after a mob set it ablaze, gutting its ground and second floors.






A car on fire outside the British Council, which was later also gutted by fire.

Abbas, who has failed to deliver on repeated promises to end the security chaos dogging the territories, could only urge restraint from a European tour. "President Abbas calls on all Palestinian people not to turn the protest against the Israeli attack on the Jericho prison into violent action against cultural centres of the European Union or any other country," a statement said.

16 February 06

Today, Israeli Occupation Forces shot and wounded a mentally deranged citizen in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanuon.

Medical sources at Al Shifa Hospital said that the mentally ill man, Mufeed Arafat, age 25, was wounded with a metal bullet in his body while he was near the fence, north the city. He was taken to Al Shifa Hospital and his condition is reported to be moderate.



Mufeed Arafat surrounded by medical personnel at Al Shifa Hospital after he was shot.

In the past few weeks, there have been several other shootings. A few days ago on February 14, a 25-year-old woman named Nayfa Abu Msa'ed was shot and killed when she was allegedly standing several hundred meters from the barrier. A few weeks earlier on January 27, a little girl named Aya-Al Astal was shot dead near the border and left for several hours until her body was found by medics and brought to Nasser Hospital. She was nine years old.

Yesterday, the IOF killed a mentally deranged citizen in cold blood in the West Bank city of Qabatiya.

The situation here in Gaza is getting worse with helicopters shelling and bombing all over. Last week witnessed many air strikes that targeted Fatah and Islamic Jihad, while Hamas, on the other hand, is busy in forming the new Palestinian government.

6 February 06

BREAKING NEWS —

Israeli Apache helicopters have been shelling different parts of the Gaza Strip.





Two members of Al Aqsa Martyers brigades were assassinated by Israeli helicopters in the north of the Gaza Strip and many other people have been injured, medical sources stated.

Shelling by Israeli Apaches continues at these moments (leading up to midnight) in different parts of Gaza.





A child runs past a car targeted by the Israeli Army in Jabaliya Refugee Camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian security source identified the dead as Rami Hannouna, aged 25, and Hassan Asfour, aged 27.

The two men were local commanders of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of the Fatah faction that has helped spearhead a five-year uprising.

Al Aqsa vowed revenge. "Our answer is open war on all Zionists, soldiers and civilians," a spokesman for the group, Abu Qusai, said.

Israel killed five Gaza militants in two similar air strikes over the weekend. Shelling by Israeli tanks continues in the north of the Gaza Strip.



Palestinians carrying an injured person into Al Shifa Hospital during the shelling in the north of Gaza

The raid followed the killing of three Palestinian fighters overnight in Israel's first air strike on the Gaza Strip since Islamist group Hamas' sweeping victory in parliamentary elections last month.

Only hours before this, Israeli Occupation Forces had fired dozens of artillery rounds at northern Gaza and eastern Gaza City

6 February 2006

According to eyewitnesses, Israeli helicapters targeted and shelled an Islamic Jihad leader while he was driving in Gaza City.

Two people were killed. An additional three people were injured.

5 February 2006

Three people were killed in Gaza when Israeli armed forces launched a helicopter attack on a building used by the AL Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, forcing people into the street.



The sister of one of Al Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members who was killed this morning by the Israeli Apaches in Gaza City

Five others were wounded in the attack on Gaza City early on Sunday.

The Israeli military said the attack was designed to stop Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, after a strike which wounded three on Friday.

Palestinians sources in Gaza City said the building was an Al Aqsa sports club and sports training camp. A car was hit moments after Israeli rockets hit the building.

Four of the wounded were security personnel guarding the Palestinians' Preventive Security headquarters near the Al Aqsa facility, medical sources at Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City said.

The strike by Israeli forces came in the middle of waves of demonstrations against cartoons of the prophet Mohammed published in some European newspapers.

2 February 2006

Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated Tuesday at the urging of the faction Islamic Jihad to denounce caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that appeared in Danish and Norwegian publications.

A large picture of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen was set alight during the protest outside the UN compound in Gaza City.

Angry protestors also torched pictures of Israel's Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US President George W. Bush while gunmen fired the customary volleys of bullets into the air.



People demonstrating against Denmark.

"This barbarous offensive on Islam is the result of a campaign of incitement against Islam waged by Bush," Nafez Azzam, a Jihad leader, told reporters.

Dozens of people, including two Arab Israeli MPs and leaders of the Israeli Islamist movement, also demonstrated outside the Danish embassy in Tel Aviv.

"It is forbidden to harm the Prophet and the symbols of Islam ... We are ready to die for our Prophet," the demonstrators shouted before submitting a petition and demanding a formal apology from the Danish government.

On Monday, dozens of gunmen demonstrated outside the EU offices in Gaza to protest against the controversial caricatures.





Fatah gunmen during a demonstration in Gaza City.

The protests led Denmark to evacuate all its nationals from the Gaza Strip and recommend those in the occupied West Bank to also leave.

The controversy over the depiction in cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed was ignited by conservative Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September.

On January 10, the Norwegian Christian publication, Magazinet, reprinted the 12 satirical cartoons as a gesture of solidarity.

The caricatures include a portrayal of the Muslim prophet wearing a time-bomb shaped turban and show him as a wild-eyed, knife-wielding bedouin flanked by two women shrouded in black.

Muslims consider any images of Mohammed as blasphemous.

26 January 2006

Abu Zuhri, a Hamas political leader: "The time has came for Hamas to build the bridge towards the West"

After a long election day in Palestine, the result appears as the Islamist movement of Hamas is ahead of the ruling Fatah faction in the Palestinian parliamentary election, a source in the central elections commission said Thursday.

"Hamas is ahead of Fatah, particularly in the constituencies," the official said on condition of anonymity.





Half of the 132 deputies in the Ramallah-based parliament were being elected in constituencies while the other 66 will come from party lists.

With Hamas headed for victory, Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei announced his resignation and said the Islamist movement must form the next government.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said that the result of the general election must be respected.

The election commission said the vote count was now close to completion. "The counting of the ballots has nearly finished," the source stated.



An elderly woman places her vote in a ballot box.



Voters' fingers are dipped in ink.

Hamas called for the U.S. to respect the result of the elections and 'the will of the Palestinian people.'

"I call on the American administration to respect...the will of the Palestinian people and the result of the ballot," chief Hamas candidate Ismail Haniya said.

"Hamas is not going to work alone, but with the other groups who represent the Palestinian people," he said.

Meanwhile, Israel was in shock over the likely Palestinian electoral victory of Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis and advocates the destruction of the Jewish state.

Israel's Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert prepared to convene an emergency security meeting.

Late Wednesday, he announced that Israel could not allow Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state and which has vowed not to disarm, to join the Palestinian Authority in its current form.

The right-wing opposition poured scorn on the government for standing by as Hamas took part in the election, which threatens to have profound consequences on Israel's own general election on March 28.

The government was biding its time Thursday and waiting for the official results, not expected until 7 pm (1700 GMT), before reacting further. Radio and television stations devoted their morning coverage to special programming.



A supporter of Hamas diplays her inked finger, prooving that her vote has been cast.

22 January 2006

A Palestinian man has been killed in Gaza City when an Israeli missile slammed into the car he was traveling in, medical and security said this evening. Another seven civilians were injured in the same attack.

Witnesses and security sources said the missile hit a civilian car, completely destroying it.

The victim was named as 22-year-old Mohammed Abdullah, but it was not immediately clear if he belonged to any particular faction.

The Israeli army denied any involvement in the strike Sunday, which took place three days before Palestinians go to the polls to elect a new parliament.



Palestinians during election campaigns in Gaza City. Many Palestinians are preparing for legislative elections on the 25th of January.

The latest death has risen to 4,935 the number of people killed since the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in September 2000. More than three-quarters have been Palestinians.

Violence and shooting day and night in the North of Gaza Strip is still going on during the preparation of the Palestinian legislative elections on the 25th of January. The elections started a few days ago for police and security forces. Elections will be held on the 25th of January for all Palestinians in Gaza Strip, West Bank and Jerusalem.



A Palestinian election employee gives instructions to the police and security guards in Gaza City today.

14 January 2006

Dozens of gunmen, including off-duty policemen, have blocked two main roads in the Gaza Strip, demanding retribution for the killing of a policeman in a drug raid a week ago.

The Palestinian interior ministry said the protests held up traffic on Gaza's two main north-south roads for about an hour on Saturday.

The incidents were the latest sign of a growing wave of chaos gripping the coastal strip in the run-up to elections on 25 January.

The protesters, who included relatives and former colleagues of the dead officer, demanded that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, popularly known as Abu Mazen, impose order in Gaza.



Abbas speaking to the media.

They also called for the resignation of Nasser Yousef, the interior minister, who oversees Palestinian security.

A spokesman for the gunmen, identifying himself as Abu Wasfi said: "This is a first step and a message to Abu Mazen ... we ask him to use the force of law also and arrest the killers and execute them."

The gunmen opened the roads after about an hour. Abbas has called for an end to the lawlessness. But his security forces, weakened by internal divisions and fighting with Israel, have been unable to restore order.

The plainclothes officers said they are members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group linked to Abbas's Fatah party.

Al Aqsa was set up shortly after the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, and was largely controlled by Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian president.

Many of the recruits were members of the Fatah and the security forces.

9 January 2006

One Palestinian was killed and three others injured on Saturday in clashes between gunmen and policemen in Gaza City, security and medical sources said.

The shooting broke out when gunmen tried to enter a Palestinian Authority building in Gaza City after nightfall, a security source said.

Medical sources at the main hospital in Gaza City confirmed that one person was killed and three others injured.

The identities of the victims were not immediately clear, but security sources said that the dead man was neither a gunman nor a police officer.

Persistent security chaos in the Gaza Strip has skyrocketed since Israel withdrew all troops and settlers from the Palestinian territory in September following a 38-year occupation.



Hamas leaders during election campagion and activities against internal violence and kidnapping

The economy beats feebly, filling the streets with armed men and markets and chaotic traffic during the day and emptying them but for scattered police patrols and idle young men at night. The Palestinian Authority, charged with governing the territory together with the West Bank, maintains tenuous control.

"The intifada has ended, but the violent energy is still there," said Eyad Sarraj, a psychiatrist and human rights activist living here.

In Gaza City on Saturday night, one man was killed during a gun battle between armed militants and the police, while elsewhere in town another armed group threatened to destroy the local offices of the satellite television station Al Arabiya, which is based in Dubai. The men were angry at the station for broadcasting a documentary that suggested that female Palestinian suicide bombers had been put under pressure by male relatives.

31 December 2005

NOTE: Mohammed had an interview earlier today with BBC World.



Kate Burton's father (left) and mother as they are released

It was around 3 o'clock in the morning when the Palestinian Authority announced that the three British citizens were released in Gaza.

A previously unknown group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of Kate Burton and her parents Hugh and Helen, shortly after their release late Friday.

The group, calling itself the Mujahadeen Bayt Al-Maqdes Brigades, released a video showing a masked gunman reading a statement with Burton, 24, standing silently next to him with her hands behind her back.



Kate Burton

Their capture was greeted with anger and dismay by many ordinary Palestinians and also their political leaders who are attempting to attract aid workers to the Gaza Strip.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat branded the abductions as "shameful" and damaging to Palestinian interests.

"I'm happy that this despicable, shameful act is over. These people are friends and I hope that this will be the last (such event)," he said.



Dr. Saeb Erikat from the Palestinian Authority

30 December 2005

Mohammed's five-year old brother, Abdullah, has been hit in the eye with a bullet.

His eye has been destroyed and he has been transferred by the Ministry of Health to Egypt for medical care. At this point, the doctors have been unsuccessful at removing the bullet and the child may need to travel to Europe for further treatment.

NOTE: Mohammed will have a live radio interview with BBC Radio Scotland on Friday, 30th December 2005. He will have another interview with BBC Radio London around 11:00.
Direct links to the interviews are unfortunately not available.

.....

Helicopters are hovering over the sky of north of Gaza. Shelling can be heard form time to time in the North.

The Israeli army on Wednesday set a deadline of 1600 GMT for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip not to enter a no-man's land security zone in the north of the territory.

The warning was issued on leaflets airdropped over the northern Gaza Strip, written in Arabic and accompanied by a detailed map indicating the confines of the security zone in uninhabited areas of the far north.

The zone incorporates an area where three Jewish settlements stood until they were demolished over the summer.

"For your own safety, read this statement carefully and act accordingly," said the leaflet signed by the Israeli army command.

"The army is prepared to wage intensive operations in the north of the Gaza Strip against terrorist elements who fire rockets into the territory of the State of Israel.

"For your security you are warned to avoid the sectors indicated on the map from 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) December 28 until further notice," said the leaflets.

Given a somewhat less than watertight Palestinian truce, an upsurge in violence is predicted ahead of parliamentary elections next month.

A Palestinian child has been killed during internal conflicts between gunmen and police station in Gaza City. The gunmen protest against Palestinian Authority to get jobs. The PA has not responded officially to the demands and clashes have taken place instead.

For the moment, the British family whom were kidnapped in Rafah while they were in Rafah border have not yet been released.

Human rights worker Kate Burton, her mother and her father were snatched at gunpoint and bundled into a white Mercedes in the flashpoint southern Gaza town of Rafah close to the border with Egypt on Wednesday.



A hand out photo of Kate Burton which has been provided by Al Mizan Center for Human Rights in Gaza.

Unlike many kidnappings of foreigners in Gaza that have been resolved in a few hours, there has been no official claim of responsibility, no ransom demand and no contact with the kidnappers, British and Palestinian sources said.

British diplomats were on the ground helping the Palestinian Authority to secure their release.

A spokesman for the Al Mazen human rights centre named one of the hostages as Kate Burton, 24, from Scotland, saying she worked for them.

Burton had spent the last three months working in Gaza and was believed to be showing her parents around when they were snatched, a British official said.

More than a dozen foreigners, mostly journalists and aid workers, have been abducted in Gaza this year, including a Briton kidnapped in August.

They have all been freed unharmed, usually within a matter of hours, after their abductors submitted demands for jobs or payment from the Palestinian Authority.

Normally, the reasons of kidnapping internationals by gunmen is to put pressure on the Palestinian Authority to afford the demands of those kidnappers and the demand is always to get jobs.

In an interview few minutes ago with the spokesman of Ministry of Interior in Palestine, Tawfeq Abu Khusaa: "Of course, PA and all Palestinian are against such inhuman actions which damage the reputation of the Palestinian among the world"

"We are doing our best to release the hostage, but no information on this issue so far, and no contact us for any demands".

When I asked him if Palestinian Authority afford such demands in case there is any, he answered: "No, we should put those criminals in jail instead, and we will use force if it's necessary."

Political parties in Gaza condemned the kidnapping of the 3 British people during a demonstration near the legislative council in Gaza City yesterday.



A Palestinian police officer checks vehicles in Gaza, searching for signs of the three British citizens who were kidnapped in Gaza on Wednesday, December 28.

29 December 2005

NOTE: Mohammed will have a live radio interview with BBC Radio Scotland on Friday, 30th December 2005 around 9:25 Palestine time and 7:25 UK time. He will have another interview with BBC Radio London around 11:00.

.....

Apache shelling is still ongoing in the north of the Gaza Strip and many people have been injured in the last few days.

Israel has threatened to invade the north of Gaza and cut electricity in the north in case homemade rockets keep being launched by Palestinian militants towards Isarel.

Three British citizens were kidnapped by unknown Palestinian militants. All political factions condemned the action. The PA are setting up checkpoints in their search for the three British people.



An Israeli Army tank preparing for shelling the North of Gaza Strip, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanon (photo by ..... ).