- 1 juni 2011
Israeli gunboat fires on fishermen in Gazan waters
Ramadan Zidan, 51, and his son Mohamed, 20 set sail from the harbor in Gaza at seven in the morning, they didn’t plan to go far, only to fish outside of the harbor. For an hour and half everything went well, it was a beautiful morning and they still hoped to have a successful day of fishing.
When the Israeli gunboat first started to approach them at eight thirty a.m. they thought nothing of it, they were close to the port, nowhere near the Israeli imposed three mile limit on Palestinian fisherman. Unexpectedly the gunboat started to shoot around their boat. The boat wasn’t hit, and the gunboat left the area, so the men went back to fishing. Then they saw the gunboat turn around and come at them again. It opened fire on the boat again; the front of their boat was hit several times with bullets.
The gunboat then told the men that they were under arrest. Fearing that after confiscating the boat the Israeli’s would either damage the boat while it was in Ashdod, as routinely happens to the seized boats of Palestinian fisherman, or even worse refuse to return the boat, the fisherman started the engine and began to return to port.
The gunboat shot the engine of the boat, but miraculously the engine didn’t stop working and the fisherman made it safely back to port despite the shell in the engine and the many bullet holes in their ship. They hope to return to fishing soon, they have no other way to support their families.
http://palsolidarity.org/2011/06/18647/
30 oct 2012, 11:25 , Respect -
Maria 1 juni 2011
Israeli Soldiers Storm Hebron Area
HEBRON, (WAFA) – Israeli soldiers Wednesday stormed Beit Amra, a town southwest of Hebron, and are still imposing a curfew there, according to local sources.
Alaa Dais, a 25 year old Palestinian, said that Israeli soldiers raided his home at 2 a.m., destroyed its contents and even some of its walls, and severely beat his 55 year old father. Soldiers are detaining Dais’ parents inside their home until this moment.
Soldiers carried out a similar attack against the home of one of Dais’ relatives.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=16311
30 oct 2012, 11:26 , Respect -
Maria 1 juni 2011
IOF evacuates Jordan Valley village declaring military zone
JORDAN VALLEY, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces used heavy machinery and artillery on Wednesday morning to eject residents of Irza hamlet in the Jordan Valley as it has declared the area a closed military zone.
Locals reported that more than 200 Palestinians were forced to leave their homes in the farming community and warned not to return.
The IOF chose the land for training because its terrain resembles that of southern Lebanon, according to Irza mayor Mukhlis Masaaid.
Several locals were reported to have been killed or injured as gunfire strays through from the three military barracks enclosing the village.
Masaaid said that locals have refused to succumb to the IOF's decision.
In a separate development, Jewish settlers have begun excavations ahead of construction in Dir al-Hatab, located east of Nablus in the northern West Bank.
The settlers came from nearby Alon Moreh settlement, which was erected on lands belonging to the town and other nearby villages.
Around ten bulldozers are being used to excavate 600 dunums of land cultivated with olive groves, said local council head Abdul-Kareem Hussein.
http://fwd4.me/02uU
ISFHR: attacks aimed at striking Palestinian survival
NABLUS, (PIC)-- The International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights said Israel's attacks on the Al-Bara Muslim girls association and the office of the Islamic orphan relief fund on Tuesday morning in Jenin were only the last in a long series of violations targeting organizations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Altogether ISFHR researcher Ahmed al-Beitawi documented 21 attacks on institutions and associations in the Palestinian territories since the onset of 2010. The attacks targeted charities, centers of culture, art, and the media, and village councils.
Most notably, the Israeli occupation forces raided the Al-Maqasid charity society in Jerusalem and the international solidarity movement in Ramallah in late January early February of 2010. In the operation, the IOF arrested foreign activists and deported them.
Later in February, the IOF raided the headquarters of the Hope cancer patient fund.
In most cases, the IOF tampered with and destroyed the organizations' property, the ISFHR report details.
In a bid to torpedo media capabilities, the IOF confiscated a transmitter owned by Radio Bethlehem 2000 and shut down operations in several more centers of the arts and culture in 2011.
Beitawi said that the attacks were aimed at striking Palestinian organizations designed to relieve disadvantaged Palestinians under occupation and help them survive on their land.
The researcher confirmed that the organizations do not pose a security threat to Israel as has been alleged, but rather they are only designed to provide relief and awareness.
http://fwd4.me/02rR
Soldiers disperse protest in north Gaza
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces opened fire during a protest in Gaza early Tuesday, activists said.
There were no injuries in the incident in Beit Hanoun, along the border with Israel, the coordinator for the demonstration against Israel's no-go zone, Saber Zaanin, explained.
Residents walk toward the no-go zone each Tuesday demanding access to their farmland. Israel's army says it considers the area a combat zone and frequently opens fire.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=392583
Israel temporarily expels residents of Jordan Valley village
TUBAS (Ma’an) -- About 200 Palestinians were forced to leave their village in the Jordan Valley on Wednesday, locals said, instructed by Israeli forces to vacate the northern West Bank area as a training mission was conducted.
According to villagers, who said soldiers and civil administration officials instructed them to move two kilometers outside the village of Khirbet Yarza, they were not told when they would be permitted to return.
Residents told Ma'an that they feared the move preempted their permanent expulsion from the area.
The Saudi-Arabia based Arab News service said Wednesday that settlements observer Ahmed Al-As'aad reported the incident, and quoted head of the village council Mokhles Masa’ed as saying the village had been declared a closed military zone.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=392877 30 oct 2012, 11:26 , Respect -
Maria 1 juni 2011
Israeli Police Attack Palestinian Worker in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM, (WAFA) – Israeli border police Wednesday attacked a Palestinian worker in Jerusalem, according to security sources.
The 30 year old man from Bethlehem was working in Sur Baher, a village east of Jerusalem, when Israeli border police raided, led him elsewhere and beat him severely, causing bruises and wounds in his body.
The 30 year old victim was taken to hospital in difficult condition after being released.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=16312
30 oct 2012, 11:26 , Respect -
Maria 1 juni 2011
Soldiers Invade Hebron, Neabry Areas, Kidnap Three Children
Israel arrests Hamas official Hussein Abu Kweik
30 oct 2012, 11:26 , Respect -
Maria 2 juni 2011
Israeli gunboat chases Palestinian fishing boat
RAFAH, (PIC)-- An Israeli gunboat attacked a Palestinian fishing boat off the Rafah coast, south of the Gaza Strip, on Wednesday evening, local sources said.
They added that the Palestinian fishing boat capsized and that a 20-year-old fisherman on board had almost drowned as a result.
The sources said that the 20-year-old fishermen Ahmed Abu Salima was saved by a number of other fishermen at sea.
http://fwd4.me/02w4
Gaza fishermen: Israeli navy hit skiff, 1 injured
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza fishermen said one skiff was hit and sunk Wednesday night by an Israeli naval boat off the Rafah coast.
Fisherman Ahmad Abu Salmiyeh, 20, was injured after sinking with his boat following the collision, which took place near Tal As-Sultan in the southern Gaza Strip, his colleagues told Ma'an.
A group of fellow fishers rushed out to rescue him, Ma'an's correspondent reported.
An Israeli military spokesman said the army was not familiar with the incident, and denied that the navy sank a boat or caused injuries.
Israeli military ships patrol Gaza's Mediterranean shore, enforcing a 3-mile fishing limit and blockade on the strip, with fishermen reporting fire, boat confiscations and detentions by the navy.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=393143
30 oct 2012, 11:27 , Respect -
Maria 2 juni 2011
Hamas, Fatah leaders detained in West Bank
30 oct 2012, 11:27 , Respect -
Maria 3 juni 2011
Israeli navy forces Gazan fishermen to cast nets inland
Bassam El-Najjar once made his living from the seas off Gaza's coast. For two decades he set out each morning to catch tuna, sardines and mackerel from the waters of the eastern Mediterranean.
Not any longer. Now El-Najjar drops his nets into a large fish pool dug in the earth of a 0.5 hectare farm near Khan Younis in the central Gaza Strip. "The sea is closed," he says, scooping a handful of pellets and scattering them across the water. Freshwater tilapia come to the surface, swallowing the feed.
Banished from the sea, El-Najjar and many other Gazans now look to fish farming instead. The 42-year-old father of four has traded his boat for a small holding several kilometres inland. He walks to the other side of the pool and turns on the sprinkler system that aerates the water. The pool, which he shares with his brother, produced 350 kilograms of fish this season. However, says El-Najjar, "if the sea was open in front of me, sometimes I could catch that in a day."
From the northern city of Akka near the Lebanese border to Rafah's port on the edge of Sinai, the sea has been a source of sustenance for Palestinians along this coast for centuries. Many Gazans are descendants of traditional fishing families. Some are originally from the Gaza Strip, but the majority are refugees pushed south from coastal cities like Jaffa and Ashkelon, now in Israel.
Ten years ago, Gaza's fishermen ventured 20 nautical miles (nm) from shore, as guaranteed under the Oslo Accords. That has dropped to a three-nm limit enforced by the Israeli navy, which fires on fishermen crossing the boundary. Israel says the restrictions are necessary to halt weapons smuggling and the infiltration of militants into the country. However, Gaza's prime fishing waters lie above an undersea crag six nm from the shore, where larger fish migrate in the shelter of the rocks. Confined to shallow waters where raw sewage flows into the Mediterranean from a war-damaged treatment plant, desperate fishermen pull young and spawning fish from the sea, critically damaging future stocks.
In the late 1990s, Gaza's fishing industry was worth US$10 million (Dh36.73m) per year, supporting about 10,000 fishermen, but only 3,000 fishermen remain at sea. Most now rely on food aid and rations provided by the UN or charitable organisations.
Once famed for its seafood restaurants, Gaza now imports fish from Israel and smuggles live and frozen fish underground from Egypt. But the price is beyond the reach of many. In Gaza City's fish market there are obvious signs of decline. Below a martyr-style poster of a young fisherman killed by the Israeli navy, disgruntled men tend stalls stocked with undersized fish and complain about the restrictions and small catches.
Millions of sardines will pass through Gazan waters in the summer months as they migrate north from the Nile Delta to Turkish seas. Indeed, sardines once accounted for 70 per cent of the annual catch. However, because of the recent escalation in violence, many fishermen are apprehensive about venturing even to the three-nm mark, saying that the Israeli navy shoots more quickly in times of tension.
It isn't just the sea that is blocked. Much of Gaza's agricultural land, where farmers once grew crops and herded animals, has been placed off-limits by an Israeli security-justified buffer zone. These restrictions are compounded by the blockade.
"Protein intake for Gazans has plummeted, partly due to the blockade of the land and partly due to the blockade of the sea," says Simon Boas, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's coordinator for the Gaza Emergency Programme.
Dov Weissglas, then-adviser to the Israeli prime minister, was quoted in 2006 as saying: "We need to make them lose weight, but not to die." The policy seemed to be: make Gazans hungry enough to reconsider electing Hamas, but not starving to the point of a humanitarian - and therefore diplomatic - crisis.
Inspired by these years under siege, the Hamas-run government is working to make Gazans independent food producers. In agriculture, the government developed ways to grow vegetables without imported fertilisers and pesticides. For the fishing industry, this meant investing around $1m (Dh3.67m) in fish farming infrastructure and technology. For food security, aquaculture is an ideal solution: fish convert feed into human-consumable animal protein much more efficiently than either cows or sheep.
page 2 page 1 http://fwd4.me/02xh Fishermen and farmers suffer the highest levels of food insecurity in the territory. "It's the only group whose food insecurity is rising," Boas says. El-Najjar's family is one of 50 vulnerable families assisted by the FAO project to supplement their diets and incomes. His family now has all the fish it can eat from their 120 cubic metre pool. The rest he sells for about 10 Israeli shekels (Dh11) per kilogram - a price that is affordable for many here but one that earns him no more than a few hundred shekels per month.
El-Najjar's fish farm produces both fish and homemade fertiliser. While commercial fish farming has been criticised in many developed countries, all of Gaza's fish farms are on land, greatly reducing pollution. El-Najjar also uses the fish-infused run-off water to fertilise a quarter-acre guava orchard - saving him near 1,000 shekels per year in expensive Israeli fertiliser.
"In so many other places, this is terribly trendy and green," Boas says. "But in Gaza, resources are so scarce this is actually a necessity."
Alas, Gaza's isolation prevents fish farmers from benefiting from their neighbour's knowledge and technology. Both Egypt and Israel have advanced aquaculture industries, which in theory puts Gaza in a geographically ideal position to foster its own production. Many of those working in Gaza's industry today were trained in Israel, but few Gazans are now granted permission to enter the country.
Instead, most farms now rely on Iyad Deeb al Attar, who runs a hatchery near Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. Al Attar is something of an expert - he worked for 15 years in the Israeli cities of Haifa, Ashkelon and Ashdod as well as Dugit, an Israeli settlement that once stood not far from his current farm. When Israel pulled its army and settlers out of Gaza in 2005, it took the fish farms with them. Al Attar decided to start his own.
"The market needs 18,000 tonnes each year," estimates al Attar. The tonnage of farmed fish produced in the Gaza Strip has doubled each year since 2007. This year, the output from Gaza's fish farms is predicted to top 200 tonnes and is expected to continue to grow rapidly.
Most of the fish farmed in Gaza are tilapia - either silver tilapia from the Nile or red tilapia brought in from Israel. In his eight-pool greenhouse, al Attar spawns six species of fingerlings, baby fish, which he sells to farms across the Gaza Strip, including the project run by FOA and a dozen commercial farms. He also provides training to Gazans who want to start production. He now gets supplies - food as well as breedable mother fish - from Israel. "Before that, we were bringing what we needed from Egypt, through the tunnels," says al Attar, pulling a net-full of baby red tilapia to the surface. Bags of Israeli fish feed lie stacked on the side of the greenhouse.
"What we need is to produce our own fish food," says Adel Jamel Atallah, director general of the fisheries department. Almost all the fish feed in Gaza comes from Israel, leaving the industry reliant on high-priced imports subject to Israel's whim.
A basic machine to produce fish food pellets costs about $75,000. It requires expertise to make a pellet that has the right quantity of protein and still floats.
"But electricity is the main problem - it's off about eight hours per day," says Atallah.
Gaza suffers a massive power deficit and electricity is essential to run machines that pump oxygen into the water. Farmed fish can die in few hours without it. Some fish farms have human-powered systems using pedals to keep the water moving. Others simply throw their children in the pools as splashing around is enough to oxygenate the water, although those who can afford it use generators.
Behind the fisheries department near Gaza City's main port, lies a mostly empty,0.8-hectare plot of land. The government is looking for funds to develop a hatchery, research facility and aquarium for children. Despite the challenges Atallah is optimistic. He unrolls the blueprint for a new pool model that will allow farmers to grow more fish per cubic metre, pointing to the rounded bottom and Gazan-designed drain system. Raising more fish per pool will be necessary if the industry is to develop, particularly considering the high cost of running electric aerators.
page 3 http://fwd4.me/02xi Even if Gazans can increase production, Boas says there is one more challenge. "The battle is getting people used to eating freshwater fish. For many people here, fish still come from the sea."
Rebecca Collard is a Canadian journalist and photographer based in Jerusalem.
http://fwd4.me/02xj
30 oct 2012, 11:27 , Respect -
Maria 30 oct 2012, 11:27 , Respect -
Maria 4 juni 2011
Private Israeli guard opened live fire on peacefully protesters
(1:59) Private Israeli guard opened live fire on peacefully protesters/04.06.2011 Today one protester struck in the head by shrapnel of live bullets during a peaceful protest against the Israeli illegal quarry in the west bank near the village of Shukba. The march was organized by the Ni'lin and Budrus popular committees. The demonstration began at 12:00 pm
And joint with dozens of Palestinians together with a number of Israeli peace activists, moved toward the illegal quarry inorder to stop it from confiscating more lands from the lands of Ni'lin town.Qibya,Shukba,and Shebteen.
Befor arrival of the demonstrators to the scene, One Israeli security guard opend live fire on the peacefully protesters directly which led to the injury of one demonstrator in the head by shrapnel of live bullets, then he was sent to the hospital by the ambulance directly to get the necessary treatment.
Also, after a few time , three Israeli military jeeps cam and started firing at the demonstrators with tear gas canister which led to a dozens suffers from suffocation as a result of inhaling the poison gas and many olive trees were burned too.
Briefly background:
The illegal quarry is an Israeli stones grinder owned by an Israeli commander who was working in the Israeli police service. It confiscated thousands of Acres from the Palestinian lands,and it is still expanding in the northern side of ni'lin town and continue the confiscation of more lands from it and the near villages.
30 oct 2012, 11:27 , Respect -
Maria 4 juni 2011
IOF declares Nablus village closed military zone
NABLUS, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Saturday declared Iraq Burin village, south of Nablus, a closed military zone and prevented entry into it.
Abdulrahim Qadus, the village’s municipality chief, told the PIC that IOF patrols blocked entrance to the village and prevented entry except to inhabitants.
He noted that the IOF troops regularly close off the village especially on Saturdays to block entry of foreign solidarity activists who arrive to take part in its weekly march against settlement activity and settlers’ attacks.
Qadus said that the IOF soldiers this time blocked the village’s entrance on Friday night as a preemptive step.
http://fwd4.me/036Z
Israel seals Iraq Burin ahead of rally
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- The Israeli army declared a closed military zone in a northern West Bank village on Saturday ahead of a planned protest, a Palestinian Authority official said.
PA settlement affairs official Ghassan Douglas said Israeli troops had been trying to stop anyone entering Iraq Burin, near Nablus, since Friday evening.
Iraq Burin holds weekly non-violent protests against illegal Jewish-only settlements built on village land.
Locals said dozens of soldiers were deployed in the village early Saturday morning.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said there was no closed military zone in the area, but that soldiers were preventing anyone except for residents from entering the village.
Asked why the soldiers were stopping non-residents from entering the area, the army official said she could not say.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=393614
30 oct 2012, 11:27 , Respect -
Maria 4 juni 2011
Palestinian hurt at protest near Ramallah
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- A security guard at an Israeli quarry in the occupied West Bank opened fire at Palestinians Saturday, activists said.
Locals said one person from Budros was injured by shrapnel. He was not identified and the extent of his injuries was not immediately clear.
The Palestinians were holding a peaceful rally west of Ramallah when the guard opened fire near the factory, which was built on Palestinian land.
A convoy of Israeli soldiers arrived and fired tear gas at the protesters.
Thousands of dunnums of Palestinian land have been confiscated from Ni’lin, Shuqba and Qibya by the quarry, which is owned by a retired Israeli military officer, the activists said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=393744
30 oct 2012, 11:27 , Respect -
Maria 4 juni 2011
Israeli forces ransack home of acting supreme judge
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces ransacked the home of the acting supreme judge of Palestine and deputy chief of the Higher Judiciary Council Sheikh Yousif Id'eis early Saturday morning in Biddu near Ramallah.
The sheikh was not home at the time, and soldiers gave his wife a warrant ordering him to go to the Ofer military base near Ramallah, his assistant Muhammad Kaffiya said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said she would look into the report.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=393571