Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 3, 2015

Last year's war on Gaza displaced half a million people and left parts of the strip destroyed [EPA]

Gaza could be "uninhabitable" in less than five years if current economic trends continue,according to a new United Nations report.

The report released on Tuesday by the UN Conference on Trade and Development points to the eight-year economic blockade of Gaza as well as the three wars there over the past six years.

The humanitarian catastrophe is man-made. The answer is only through are man-made policies.

Hamdi Shaqqura, the deputy director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

Last year's Israeli war on Gaza displaced half a million people and left parts of the strip destroyed.

The war "has effectively eliminated what was left of the middle class, sending almost all of the population into destitution and dependence on international humanitarian aid," the new report says.

Gaza's GDP dropped 15 percent last year, and unemployment reached a record high of 44 percent. Seventy-two percent of households are food insecure.

The wars have shattered Gaza's ability to export and produce for the domestic market and left no time for reconstruction, the report says. It notes that Gaza's "de-development," or development in reverse, has been accelerated.

Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade of Gaza since the armed group Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.

"The humanitarian catastrophe is man-made. The answer is only through are man-made policies,"Hamdi Shaqqura, the deputy director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, told Al Jazeera.

Shaqqurasaid that donations from the international community have been "very useful", but need to be coupled with "real political policies" to effectively help Gaza.

"The answer to Gaza is not dumping money into it. We have great potentials in Gaza for economic policies. What hinder economic development is merely Israeli policies, the closure (blockade) and other restrictions imposed on Gaza."

Gaza remains unders siege a decade after Israel's withdrawal

A year after the war on Gaza, less than 2 percent of the required materials have been allowed into Gaza.

The report comes as Egyptian military bulldozers press ahead with a project that effectively would fill Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip with water and flood the last remaining cross-border underground smuggling tunnels, which have brought both commercial items and weapons into Gaza.

The report calls the economic prospects for 2015 for the Palestinian territories "bleak" because of the unstable political situation, reduced aid and the slow pace of reconstruction.

Source:Al Jazeera and agencies

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UN: Gaza may be uninhabitable by 2020 on current trends - Al ...

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Posted By admin on September 3, 2015

A new United Nations report says Gaza could be "uninhabitable" in less than five years if current economic trends continue.

The report released Tuesday by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development points to the eight years of economic blockade of Gaza as well as the three wars between Israel and the Palestinians there over the past six years.

Last year's war displaced half a million people and left parts of Gaza destroyed.

The war "has effectively eliminated what was left of the middle class, sending almost all of the population into destitution and dependence on international humanitarian aid," the new report says.

Gaza's GDP dropped 15 percent last year, and unemployment reached a record high of 44 percent. Seventy-two percent of households are food insecure.

The wars have shattered Gaza's ability to export and produce for the domestic market and left no time for reconstruction, the report says. It notes that Gaza's "de-development," or development in reverse, has been accelerated.

Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade of Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.

The report comes as Egyptian military bulldozers press ahead with a project that effectively would fill Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip with water and flood the last remaining cross-border underground smuggling tunnels, which have brought both commercial items and weapons into Gaza.

The report calls the economic prospects for 2015 for the Palestinian territories "bleak" because of the unstable political situation, reduced aid and the slow pace of reconstruction.

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UN: Gaza Could Be 'Uninhabitable' by 2020 If Trends Continue

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Posted By admin on September 3, 2015

Kate on August 26, 2015

Maan and MEMO report: The healthcare system in the Gaza Strip is on the verge of collapse, Gazas Ministry of Health said Monday, warning that hospitals could stop operating within hours due to the territorys energy crisis. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the ministry, said that Shifa Hospital, Kamal Adwan hospital, the European Gaza Hospital, and Rantisi Hospital could stop offering services because they are about to run out of fuel. The Ministry holds the national unity government accountable for any harm that may befall their patients due to the governments lack of responsibility.

Robert Ross on August 26, 2015

Robert Ross reports from a recent trip to Gaza: Indeed, despite 12 months of relative peace, Gazans are still enduring the aftermath of three Israeli wars in the past six years, an ongoing Israeli and Egyptian imposed blockade, a crippled economy, and internal political strife. Everyone here100 percent of the peopleare suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Hamza said. Just moments earlier, he and his brother instinctively ducked their heads upon hearing a nearby firework explode. This sentiment was echoed numerous times by the doctors, public health officials, journalists, artists, and aid workers I spoke with throughout my visit to Gaza.

Isra Saleh El-Namy on August 21, 2015

Egypt recently opened the Rafah crossing with Gaza for four days; the first time it had been open in over two months. Isra Saleh El-Namy interviews people trying to leave Gaza through Rafah, including families trying to receive medical treatment, students attempting to return to school and workers hoping to return to jobs. Suhaib Sameh, a university student who had been stranded in Gaza says, I started to feel as if I am living in a nightmare.

Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi on August 19, 2015

Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi writes about his friend Ali Abu Afash, who was killed by an unexploded Israeli missile last summer in Gaza: Ali, you were killed by a missile but you still live in my mind and heart. I will continue fight for freedom and defend journalists rights, and in this way your work and journalistic spirit will continue.

Dr. Belal Dabour on August 17, 2015

A new disturbing report released by UNRWA shows once again the toll the Israeli siege exacts on the Gaza population. For the first time in five decades, the infant mortality rate in Gaza has reversed trend and risen. The UN cites the blockade imposed on the strip as a factor which may be contributing to the trend.

Isra Saleh El-Namy on August 10, 2015

Said Al-Yacoubi on August 10, 2015

18 students in Gaza who were supposed to travel to study in Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan and Germany have been prevented from doing so. Said al-Yacoubi was one of the lucky ones.

Shrouq El-Aila on July 24, 2015

Shrouq El-Eila from the We Are Not Numbers project writes about Gaza musicians Ghada Shoman, 20, and her brother Mohammed, 16. Now my voice and my brothers guitar are our weapons, Ghada says. During the last offensive on Gaza (in the summer of 2014), the resistance was inspired by national songs of bravery and a vision of future freedom. And now, so are we.

Jonathan Cook on July 22, 2015

Catherine Baker on July 15, 2015

The spirits of the more than 2,000 Palestinians who were killed in Israels 50-day military operation against Gaza last summer have been immortalized in the posters that have emerged from the conflict. Catherine Baker from the Palestine Poster Project Archives discusses 10 posters created in response to last summers attacks that demonstrate the power with which artists wield their tools to record history, influence the discourse, and effect action.

Josh Ruebner on July 14, 2015

Five children in the Abu Jarad family were killed, and a family erased by an Israeli Apache helicopter attack a year ago. The U.S. funds Israels military machine, and insures that there is never accountability for war crimes. A Capitol Hill briefing on July 29 led by the US Campaign to End the Occupation aims to end that immunity.

Allison Deger on July 10, 2015

For months rumors have circulated that Hamas has held two Israeli citizens and the remains of two soldiers captive in the Gaza Strip for almost a year. Following a motion filed by the Israeli daily Haaretz, a gag order concealing the cases was lifted yesterday prompting Israeli officials to addressed the matter publicly for the first time. Israel confirmed Ethiopian-Israeli Avraham Mengitsu, 28, and one other are detained in Gaza, along with the bodies of two soldier killed during the summer war.

Annie Robbins on July 8, 2015

Dan Cohen on July 7, 2015

Refaat Alareer and Laila El-Haddad on July 7, 2015

In the course of fifty-one dark days last summer, nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed in Gaza; about a quarter of them were children, many of whom were deliberately targeted during Israeli Operation Protective Edge. Read the introduction to the new book Gaza Unsilenced edited by Refaat Alareer and Laila El-Haddad which seeks to share an accurate and humanistic narration of the Palestinian story that is Gaza.

Dan Cohen on June 29, 2015

Every Monday, Palestinians in Nuseirat refugee camp rummage through piles of secondhand Israeli junk in the cheapest market in the Gaza Strip. Dan Cohen finds several t-shirts that include military insignia for the army that slaughtered so many in Gaza.

Allison Deger on June 25, 2015

Anas Jnena on June 24, 2015

The Palestine News Network announced this week that the suicide rate in the Occupied Territories jumped 68.4 percent last year. In Gaza, Al-Shifa Hospital said that at least one person attempted suicide every day. Gaza writer Anas Jnena shares one story of an attempted suicide in the besieged Gaza Strip that helps sheds light on the statistics.

Allison Deger on June 24, 2015

Jerome Slater on June 22, 2015

The UN Human Rights Commission report on last summers Gaza war is inappropriately balanced. It is more or less equally critical of Israeli and Hamas actions, without regard to the differences between the vast and horrific extent of civilian destruction caused by Israel and the far lesser civilian deaths and destruction that resulted from the largely ineffective Hamas attacks. Scholar Jerome Slater

Allison Deger on June 15, 2015

Dan Cohen on June 13, 2015

Contrary to popular media portrayal of Hamas and IS battling for control of Gaza, IS is a small unpopular group and though it has the capability to make major waves, it is not about to wrest control of the Gaza Strip

Hayley Pearce on June 11, 2015

For 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza, of whom over 1.2 million are refugees, the Israeli siege and cyclical violence are insufferable. And yet, in addition to spreading the stories about suffering, the local and independent media landscape in Gaza has taken to reflecting the areas more multifaceted nature instead of the narrative we commonly see in the West. By alternating between beauty and sadness, journalists in Gaza are providing a jarring but honest representation of what living there really means.

Dan Cohen on June 4, 2015

Dan Cohen on May 22, 2015

Leila Najjar is 25 years old and six months pregnant. She and her husband Mohammed Sulaiman want to be together for their childs birth, but she may not see him for years. Thats because Najjar lives in Gaza and Israeli authorities wont let her pass through the Erez crossing to join Sulaiman who is studying in Australia. Najjar and her husband are not alone. Countless other Palestinian families are separated by Israeli restrictions as well.

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Gaza Mondoweiss

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Posted By admin on September 3, 2015

JABALYA Refugee Camp, Northern Gaza -- Children that are left behind are usually taken on by extended family members, but the scars prove hard to heal. The trauma of losing a limb, or a loved one, is likely to endure long after the smell of explosives and decomposing bodies begins to fade.

One year into the cease-fire agreement that ended last summer's 50-day war in the Gaza Strip, Israel and Hamas appear to be advancing toward a series of understandings -- an agreement, even -- that would practically end the siege on the Gaza Strip and bring long-term quiet to the area. The agreement talks are being mediated by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who three months ago stepped down as the longtime envoy of the international Quartet.

Daniel Sobelman

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard Kennedy Schools Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

How can the international community allow Israel to continue to invade Gaza, over and over again, and inflict such massive pain and devastation on the Palestinians with total impunity? Is there any moral basis left to Israel's prosecution of this uneven "war" and to the international community's inaction?

Three years ago, the United Nations issued a report predicting that the Gaza Strip would be uninhabitable by 2020. Thanks to Israel's recent attack, this warning appears to have arrived sooner than expected.

Rubble. That's been the one constant for the Awajah family for as long as I've known them. Four months ago, their home was demolished by the Israeli military -- and it wasn't the first time that Kamal, Wafaa, and their children had been through this.

Jen Marlowe

award-winning documentary filmmaker, author

If donors want to finally contribute to a just and lasting peace, then they need to take a more balanced approach that includes inviting Hamas into the political process and holding Israel accountable for its actions.

Alaa Tartir

Program Director, Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network; PhD researcher, London School of Economics (LSE)

When donor countries meet to rebuild Gaza for the third time in six years, one thing should be clear: Money alone will not fix it.

Jan Egeland

Secretary General, Norwegian Refugee Council; Former Special Advisor, UN Secretary General for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (2006-2008)

The Gaza war has unveiled my displaced status. Most of my American friends seem helpless in the face of my predicament, yet some are provoked in ways that are mysterious to me.

While I can humanly and psychologically understand why fear pushes many Israelis to the right, I cannot help feeling, along with many of my friends, that the country is moving so far away from our ideals and values that we are becoming strangers in our own land.

Carlo Strenger

Professor of Psychology and Philosophy, Tel Aviv University

The Arab-Israeli conflict has been there my whole life, but this latest war has been more destabilizing than any other, disrupting any effort to manufacture the illusion of individuality, the illusion that we are not only subjects of history and nationhood.

Palestinian soccer clubs and non-governmental organizations have called on European soccer governor UEFA to this week shy away from awarding Israel the right to host the 2020 UEFA European Championship.

James Dorsey

Senior fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

On Tuesday morning, my cousin Adele Raemer who lives on Kibbutz Nirim along the Gaza Border, heard the all-too-familiar "Tzeva Adom," red alert, with the usual explosions following ten seconds later.

Gil Troy

American presidential historian, McGill professor, author of eight books on US history, working on a book about Clinton and the 1990s

Israel believes if it squeezes hard it will win. Israel's intention is clear: weaken Hamas and never give them the credit of ending the siege. To pursue this goal, Israel is killing more children, women, and elderly, completely destroying whole parts of Gaza and its infrastructure.

Taghreed El-Khodary

Editor at Fanack.com; Fmr. correspondent for the New York Times in Gaza (2001-09)

Returning Gaza to the Stone Age has not stopped Hamas, the Islamist militia in control of the territory, from inflicting significant political and psychological damage on Israel.

James Dorsey

Senior fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

Wars inevitably spark change. That is no truer than in the war in Gaza, no matter what Hamas and Israel say.

James Dorsey

Senior fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

The campaign to pressure FIFA to sanction Israel was part of a broader Israeli Palestinian move to gain recognition of Palestinian statehood through membership in international organizations and isolate Israel in the wake of the breakdown in April of US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

James Dorsey

Senior fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

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Gaza War: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News

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Posted By admin on September 3, 2015

Of all the bizarre encounters the Palestinian conflict has generated, Tony Blair's four meetings in Doha with Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader must surely rank as one of the oddest.

Here was the Quartet's Middle East envoy breaking the Quartet's own rules about talking to Hamas until it recognises Israel - rules that Blair and Jack Straw , enforced as prime minister and foreign secretary by pressing the EU to declare Hamas a terrorist organisation. Two of the four meetings were held before Blair resigned as envoy.

Here was Blair, the man linked in mind, body, and soul to the military coup in Egypt ( he said the army intervened " at the will of the people" to bring democracy to Egypt) attempting to mediate between Hamas, Israel and Egypt - the two countries that have kept a stranglehold around Gaza's neck. The Egyptian leader has been an even more zealous enforcer of the blockade than Netanyahu is .

In a British context, Blair's dialogue with Hamas took place as his supporters accused the far left candidate in the Labour leadership race Jeremy Corbyn of making Labour unelectable if he became leader. Corbyn had advocated talks with Hamas and Hezbollah - a crime of which the man who won power three times was a repeat offender.

Blair did not just talk to Meshaal. He invited him to London, offering him a specific date in June, on which the current prime minister David Cameron must have agreed. This is the same prime minister who has strived and failed, so far, to publish a report branding the Muslim Brotherhood presence in Britain as extremist. Bizarre.

And yet Blair kept going, even after the existence of the talks was revealed by the Middle East Eye, In the last few days he has still been pushing the deal in Cairo . Why ?

His motivation is not obvious. It is surely not out any belated humanitarian concern for 1.8m Gazans . As prime minister and peace envoy, Blair has provided Israel with valuable international cover for one operation in Gaza after another. Nor can it be out of any love for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. He regards Islamism as an ideological enemy. To borrow Peter Mandelson's words, Blair is intensely relaxed about helping dictators with grievous human rights records, in the Emirates, Egypt and Kazakhstan who share his conviction that Islamists must be wiped off the political map.

Blair told Hamas he had secured the agreement of three of the five potential partners to a deal opening up Gaza's borders in exchange for an unlimited ceasefire - the Saudis, Emiratis and Jordanians. But without Israel and Egypt no deal could be said to exist.

After four meetings, Blair and Hamas discussed the possibility of continuing the ceasefire that is currently in place in exchange for an immediate opening of all borders andthe immediate payment of the salaries of all government workers in Gaza. These two steps would be followed by talks about a seaport, an airport and the reconstruction of the enclave.

Everything else was off the table: Hamas did not agree, as Blair had been pressing them, to any form of words about political negotiations being the way forward, or anything that would reanimate an Oslo process now considered to be dead; Hamas would only agree to a continuation of the ceasefire, not a hudna with a minimum stated time limit; the ceasefire would only affect Gaza, not the West Bank, where Hamas said resistance to the settlers and the Israeli army would continue; the proposed deal would have had no bearing on a prisoner exchange.

Meshaal took a rain check on the offer of a trip to London. Hamas told Blair they would only take this process forward if it had the backing of Israel and Egypt. That, Blair has failed to achieve and the process is regarded to have reached a dead end, sources told the MEE on Tuesday.

" The army can wipe out Hamas. We have a strong people which is telling the leadership 'do whatever it takes to get it over with"

"Egypt and the Palestinian Authority want things to be bad in Gaza so that we will continue fighting; it is good for them," said Bennett. "But at this stage I am against it. The situation is that Hamas is there."

There were others: the Israeli president Reuven Rivlin, Yisrael Katz, the transportation and intelligence Minister, Yuval Diskin, the former head of Shin Bet; Shaul Mofaz, former defence minister, former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Naveh, Efraim Halevy the former head of Mossad - have all expressed support for talks with Hamas, direct or indirect.

Netanyahu and the government itself remains staunchly opposed. This can either be because Netanyahu can not accept a deal in which Hamas remains as an active combatant in the West Bank or because he never intended to reach a deal in the first place. The process of reaching a deal with Hamas was always going to be more inviting to him than the result. The process would mean Hamas having an incentive to keep the quiet , and Netanyahu would be also be responding to pressure from citizens in southern Israel. The result would mean abandoning a policy to isolate and weaken Hamas, of which he has been one of the most effective enforcers.

On this, Netanyahu can not be accused of inconsistency. He makes no distinction here between which brand of Palestinian leader he is dealing with, one who recognises Israel or one who does not. Netanyahu's record on the national issue is clear : talks never reach a conclusion. They are never anything more than a way of buying time.

He is not alone. If a deal were to be secured that allowed Hamas's 50,000 government workers to be paid , it would be over Mahmoud Abbas 's dead body. As the International Crisis Group argues in its latest report, the PA have much to lose from ending the blockade and little to gain. Since mid 2013 when nearly all the tunnels under the Rafah border with Egypt have been closed, the PA's revenue which Israel collects on goods going into Gaza on its behalf has greatly increased. It quotes a minister in the national consensus government, appointed by Fatah and involved in Gaza's reconstruction, who attributes primary responsibility for the stasis to the Palestinian president's office, which, he said, "has no intention of rebuilding Gaza or taking responsibility for it".

The signals from Egypt are just as bleak. In June, the head of Egyptian intelligence was all smiles as he met a delegation from Hamas , and the Rafah border remained open for that week. That was before the attack on July 1 by Sinai jihadis , for which Egypt blamed Hamas. The latest signal was the abduction of four members of the Qassam brigades travelling through Northern Sinai, which Hamas blames on the Egyptian military - not IS.

Who gains from this brief interlude of talks? Obviously, the Quartet's conditions for excluding Hamas from negotiations have now been breached, as has the EU declaration on Hamas as a terrorist organisation. Blair irritated the Swiss, who see themselves as the chief conduit for negotiations with Hamas, even more than he did Mahmoud Abbas.

However it styled its war on Gaza last year, the Blair talks are a sign that Israel does not want to repeat the experience, at least any time soon. Hamas has become the address to go to in Gaza, and preferable to any available alternative, certainly to the chaos of militias competing with each other to fire rockets off at Israel and the prospect that one day the IS could inherit Hamas' mantle. Mohamed Dahlan's efforts to buy himself back into favour in Gaza by funding weddings has largely been at Abbas's expense.

For Netanyahu, Blair may have been useful in testing the waters, but it looks as if he has reached his limits as a go between. For Egypt, the opening of the Rafah border would mean surrendering its chief foreign policy card. There are no signs it is prepared to do this .

Which brings us back to Blair. What was in it for him? This has everyone scratching their heads. But there are some clues.

Last year months before the start of the Doha talks, an academic with access to Khaled Meshaal was approached by Israelis at a conference in Europe . They wanted him to pass on a specific request. If British Gas developed the gas field in Gaza Marine, (a field between 27 and 33 kilometres off the coast of Gaza thought to contain I trillion cubic feet of gas) would Hamas attack it? The academic wanted to know who was asking the question - the Israeli government? No, the reply came: " It was Tony Blair". The academic refused to pass the message on and told them Tony Blair should contact Meshaal himself.

How curious. Blair privately claims he got involved in the talks at Hamas' request - as a result of a letter Hamas sent to the UN peace process envoy Robert Serry. But his interest in the gas off Gaza's coast predates that. British Gas Group are clients of JP Morgan , for which Blair was paid as a senior adviser.

This field is in the words of the Foreign Office, by far the most valuable Palestinian natural resource. Revenues from its output were estimated in 2007 to be worth $4bn. Ariel Sharon was always against its development and when he pulled out of Gaza, British Gas signed a memorandum with the Egyptian company Egas to sell it there in 2005.

The deal was cancelled a year later when Blair intervened at the behest of the then Israeli premier Ehud Olmert. Thirty times as much has now been discovered in a field off Egypt. Who knows what the fields of Gaza could contain. No conflict? Plenty of interest.

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Blair, Gaza And All That Gas | David Hearst

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Posted By admin on September 3, 2015

August 26, 2015

This Monday 24th of August, as every Monday, the families of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have gathered at the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza City. Tens of people joined them in order to show their support, denounce the ...

August 11, 2015

11th August 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine Two days ago, on Sundays night at 3am, the occupation forces kidnapped fishermen Mohamed Ismail Sharafi, 34 years old, and Mohamed Saidi, 22 years old, in Gaza ...

August 11, 2015

11th August 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine Maher Shitat, 13 years old, was shot in the leg on Friday night by the occupation forces. His father sent him to bring his brother from a ...

July 27, 2015

27th July 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine Ahmed: Once I recover Ill go fishing again Ismail (Ahmeds father): No, you wont! Thats enough As Ismail tells ISM, the occupation establishes the fishing limits according ...

July 21, 2015

21st July 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine During the 2012 Zionist massacre in Gaza, named by the occupation as OperationPillar of Defense, many buildings near Mohameds home were bombed.Less than a year after the ...

July 21, 2015

21st July 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine At 3:00 AM on the 21st of July 2015, Israeli forces once again opened fire on fishermen in the Gaza city area. 20 year old Ahmed Ismail ...

July 10, 2015

10th July 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine No private hospital in Gaza treats cancer, only the public ones, and that the treatment is free of charge. At Shifa Oncology Department we treat everyday 150 ...

June 29, 2015

29th June 2015 | Freedom Flotilla Coalition | International Waters, off the coast of Occupied Palestine At 02:06AM today (Gaza time) the Marianne contacted Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and informed us that three boats of the Israeli navy had surrounded ...

June 29, 2015

29th June 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine Today, the weekly concentration in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails focused on the last victory of Khader Adnan. Spokesmen from different factions and ...

June 13, 2015

13th June 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine During the last weeks, the Israeli military has been shooting at the fishermen of Gaza almost daily with rubber coated steel-bullets and live ammunition. They also kidnapped ...

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Gaza | International Solidarity Movement

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Posted By admin on September 3, 2015

Egyptian authorities intend to fill the tunnels with water to prevent smuggling into Gaza. (AFP/File)

The Egyptian military is continuing its crackdown on the underground smuggling tunnels connecting the Sinai and Gaza, and has launched a new project in this regard,The Associated Press (AP)reported on Monday.

According to the news agency, bulldozers have been digging through the sand along Egypt's border with Gaza in recent days, as part of a project billed as an Egyptian military-operated fish farm.

Military officials toldAPthe project would effectively fill the border area with water and is designed to put an end to the last remaining cross-border underground smuggling tunnels.

The new excavations seem to be "a tightening of the grip of siege on Gaza," Hamas official Mushir al-Masri said in response, adding that Egypt "should not slide into this cliff that agrees with the Israeli policies of siege."

For several years, Egypt tolerated a smuggling industry, allowing hundreds of tunnels to bring in goods like cigarettes and spare motorbike parts, as well as weapons, into the Hamas-controlled Strip.

These tunnels were a lifeline for Hamas, which collected millions of dollars in taxes and revenues from the smuggled goods. The tunnels continued to thrive after former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011 and the Islamist Mohammed Morsi won the country's first free presidential election.

Things changed, however, after the Egyptian army ousted Morsi, a key ally of Hamas, in 2013. Since that time, Egypthas been cracking downon the smuggling tunnels as part of an ongoing security campaign in the northern Sinai against terrorists launching attacks on Egyptian police and military personnel.

After a bombing killed more than 30 Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai in October 2014, the military stepped up the campaign to build a buffer zone along the border, as it accused Hamasof supporting the groupthat carried out the attack, which Hamas has strenuously denied.

The buffer zone was initially planned to be 500 meters wide, but Egypt later decidedto expand itby another 500 meters.

As part of the establishment of the buffer zone, Egypt has demolished hundreds of homes and evicted thousands of residents as it destroyed more tunnels. Today,

The violence, however, has continued. Last month, Islamic State-linked (ISIS) jihadists struck Egyptian army outposts in a coordinated wave of suicide bombings and battles, in some of Sinai's deadliest fighting in decades.

Now, Egypt is trying to finish off the tunnels for good, the officials toldAP.

Egypt's army began digging last week what officials said will be 18 fisheries along the 9-mile (14-kilometer) border with Gaza, with the purpose of making digging underground tunnels impossible. The military officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

On Sunday, diggers and bulldozers operated in several locations along the border, according to the news agency. Pairs of 15-inch black steel pipes were scattered in the construction area. Previous plans to dig a small canal were abandoned after studies showed that the water would eventually flood the border completely, the officials said.

The new construction work has had an immediate effect on Gaza's tunnel smuggling trade. One smuggler, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want trouble with the Egyptians, toldAPhe bought a shipment of motorbike parts for $6,000, but paid $10,000 to get it smuggled into Gaza because the operation has become very risky.

Before the excavation began two weeks ago, ten packs of cigarettes smuggled through the tunnels from the Sinai Peninsula sold in Gaza for around 110 shekels, or about $28. Now the price has jumped to 125 shekels, or nearly $32.

Hamas-appointed Rafah mayor Subhi Radwan said if the Egyptians filled the wells with sea water, it would damage the aquifer feeding Gaza, a charge Egyptian military officials dismissed. Radwan also said the fisheries would threaten to collapse homes on the Gaza side of the border.

"We appeal to our brothers in Egypt to stop the work that endangers the people of Gaza," Radwan toldAP. "Gaza has enough problems: wars, siege and a difficult economic situation."

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Egypt continues crackdown on Gaza tunnels | Al Bawaba

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Posted By simmons on September 2, 2015

After years of war and crippling economic blockades from Israel, the Gaza Strip could be uninhabitable for current residents as soon as 2020, according to an annual United Nations report released Tuesday. The 139-square-milestrip of land tucked between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea is home to 1.8 million Palestinians, many of whom could be displaced if conditions remain severe.

"The social, health and security-related ramifications of the high population density and overcrowding are among the factors that may render Gaza unlivable by 2020," the annual U.N. Conference on Trade and Development wrote. "Gaza could become uninhabitable by 2020 if current economic trends persist."

The blockade was established by Israel in 2007 to disrupt the flow of goods and supplies into the Palestinian territory, which is a heavily disputed swath of land. While Egypt has allowed occasional movement acrossits border withthe Gaza Strip, Israel has worked to stop transportation by air, land and water. Most ofGazaborders either Israelor the Mediterranean.

The blockade means that, aside from weapons, the Palestinians also have a difficult time receiving food aid from the United Nations. In 2008, a U.N.spokesmansaid the blockade had "become a blockade against the United Nations itself."

Palestinians bake bread on a clay oven in the city of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, Aug. 25, 2015. Reuters

Gaza has been hit by three Israeli military attacks in the past six years, which has exacerbated conditions for Palestinians. Residents couldn't repair their infrastructure, which already was debilitated fromthe blockade. That leaves an already poor population withoutneeded resources and facing a lack of goods flowing into theterritory.

"Short of ending the blockade, donor aid ... will not reverse the ongoing de-development and impoverishment of Gaza," the report read.

The most recent war, in 2014, killed an estimated 2,200 Palestinians and displaced half a million more. It also left 73 Israelis dead, and decimated homes, schools, hospitals and primary healthcare centers. Commercial centers and factories also were destroyed.

Follow me on Twitter: @ClarkMindock

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Gaza Strip Could Be Unlivable By 2020: Israel Blockade And ...

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Posted By simmons on September 2, 2015

GENEVA: The Gaza Strip, ravaged by wars and nearly a decade of a gruelling Israeli blockade, could become uninhabitable for residents within just five years, the United Nations development agency said today.

"The social, health and security-related ramifications of the high population density and overcrowding are among the factors that may render Gaza unliveable by 2020," the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) wrote in its annual report.

Gaza, a tiny enclave of just 362 square kilometres (about 225 square miles) squeezed between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea that is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians, counts one of the highest population densities in the world.

"Gaza could become uninhabitable by 2020 if current economic trends persist," the report said.

While the high density is not new, the situation has been exacerbated by three Israeli military operations in the past six years and nearly a decade-long economic blockade.

The blockade had "ravaged the already debilitated infrastructure of Gaza, shattered its productive base, left no time for meaningful reconstruction or economic recovery and impoverished the Palestinian population in Gaza," the report said.

"Short of ending the blockade, donor aid... will not reverse the ongoing de-development and impoverishment in Gaza," it said.

Socio-economic conditions in Gaza today are currently "at their lowest point since 1967," when Israel seized the territory from Egypt in its Six-Day War, according to the report.

The report estimated that the three military operations, including last year's devastating war that killed some 2,200 Palestinians and displaced half a million more, had caused economic losses close to three times the size of Gaza's local gross domestic product.

The 2014 war, which also left 73 Israelis dead, destroyed or severely damaged more than 20,000 Palestinian homes, 148 schools, 15 hospitals and 45 primary healthcare centres, UNCTAD said.

As many as 247 factories and 300 commercial centres were fully or partially destroyed, and Gaza's only power station sustained severe damage, it said.

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Posted By simmons on September 2, 2015

The UN says socio-economic conditions in Gaza are currently at their worst since 1967.

The Gaza Strip, ravaged by wars and nearly a decade-long Israeli blockade, could become uninhabitable for residents within just five years, the United Nations development agency says.

"The social, health and security-related ramifications of the high population density and overcrowding are among the factors that may render Gaza unliveable by 2020," the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) wrote in its annual report.

Gaza, a tiny enclave of just 362 square kilometres squeezed between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea that is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians, has one of the highest population densities in the world.

"Gaza could become uninhabitable by 2020 if current economic trends persist," the report said.

While the high density is not new, the situation has been exacerbated by three Israeli military operations in the past six years and nearly a decade-long economic blockade.

The blockade had "ravaged the already debilitated infrastructure of Gaza, shattered its productive base, left no time for meaningful reconstruction or economic recovery and impoverished the Palestinian population in Gaza", the report said.

"Short of ending the blockade, donor aid... will not reverse the ongoing de-development and impoverishment in Gaza," it said.

Socio-economic conditions in Gaza today are currently "at their lowest point since 1967", when Israel seized the territory from Egypt in its Six-Day War, according to the report.

The report estimated that the three military operations, including last year's war that killed some 2,200 Palestinians and displaced half a million more, had caused economic losses close to three times the size of Gaza's local gross domestic product.

The 2014 war, which also left 73 Israelis dead, destroyed or severely damaged more than 20,000 Palestinian homes, 148 schools, 15 hospitals and 45 primary healthcare centres, UNCTAD said.

As many as 247 factories and 300 commercial centres were fully or partially destroyed, and Gaza's only power station sustained severe damage, it said.

AFP

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