We are a human rights group that, since August 2008, has sailed ten times to Gaza to break Israel's illegal stranglehold on1.6 million Palestinian civilians. We entered Gaza successfully five times in 2008; however, we have been violently intercepted on four voyages, including Israel's MAY 31, 2010 lethal attack on our Freedom Flotilla when nine of our colleagues were killed and many more injured by Israeli commandos. On the tenth voyage in July 2011, Greece prevented us from leaving, as Israel and the U.S. outsourced Israel's occupation of Gaza to Greece. (See also www.witnessgaza.com)
We sail as an expression of citizen nonviolent, direct action, confronting Israel's ongoing abuses of Palestinian human and political rights and will continue to challenge Israel's illegal siege on Gaza by participating and supporting other initiatives to break the blockade of Gaza by sea.
|
23 January 2013
Posted in
News
OJ was on the first trip into Gaza on board the Free Gaza when we landed on August 23, 2008. She has since been back to this tiny strip on the Mediterranean several times and is there now bearing witness and reporting. Below is her story.Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, Monday 21st January, 2013: A ceasefire was announced on 21st November, ending eight days of horrific bloodshed in Gaza. Has the delicate truce held over the past two months? It depends who you ask. Israelis or Gazans, each going about their daily lives on opposite sides of a border fence.
There has not been a single report of a rocket fired out of Gaza since 21st November. In contrast, four Palestinians have lost their lives and over 80 have been injured by Israeli forces. Yet these violations have received little or no coverage in the mainstream media. Palestinian civilians, whose only crime is to live in the border areas, are terrorized on a daily basis by the Israeli army. This is what everyday life under the ceasefire has meant for them.
Beit Lahiya, in the far north of the Gaza Strip is one such place. A week ago, it saw the brutal murder of 20 year-old Mustafa Abu Jarad. Today, it was the site of another Israeli violation. Abdullah Marouf, 18, was in the west of Beit Lahiya, near the coast, when he was shot in the right leg by Israeli forces, fracturing both his tibia and fibula.
At about 9.00 am on 21st January, Abdullah was in an area approximately 250 metres from the border fence (the ceasefire says they can go to within 100 meters of the fence), catching birds with his two brothers. A group of five or six Palestinians they were unaquainted with were also in the vicinity, closer to the fence than they were. Abdullah had been under the impression that he would be safe, however he noticed an Israeli soldier in a watchtower on the border and others on the ground. The soldiers began firing live ammunition towards them and Abdullah was shot.
http://desde-palestina.blogspot.fr/
Two local farmers brought him to Kamal Adwan hospital where surgeons performed percutaneous pinning of his lower leg, which had sustained damage from an entry wound and a significantly larger exit wound. He requires subsequent surgery in a couple of months to fit internal wires. His recovery is estimated to take at least 12 months.
Abdullah, who is engaged to be married, had been working with his two brothers selling scrap metal. Now they will have to support a family of nine without his help. It is unsurprising that he expressed a lack of faith in the ceasefire agreement.
One can only expect that the Palestinian resistance has also lost faith and is fast losing patience. If a response is provoked, it will appear to be in a vacuum - despite this being far from the case - due to the shameful silence maintained by the international community throughout the ongoing Israeli atrocities. It is for people of conscience to protest this injustice and prevent a further escalation of Israel's attacks on Gaza.
|
22 January 2013
Posted in
News
Khuza'a, Gaza Strip: For the last hour I've been able to see from my appartment window small fishing boats close in to shore being harrassed by an Israeli gunboat. Every so often, one of them is picked out by a strong searchlight and circled. They are to the north of Gaza City but clearly this side of the border some distance south of the Israeli gas platforms which now line the sea border between Palestinian Gaza and Israel.
Heavy shooting was reported during the assault but fortunately there were no injuries on this occasion. Also, explosions were heard but no homes were damaged. Terrified locals contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross but were told that the Israeli military wouldn't listen to anyone.
The raid continued on the night of Wednesday 16th January, when Apache helicopters were reported to have also been deployed. Then, on Thursday 17th January, the Israeli military aggression continued in the area for a third consecutive night.
A large swathe of agricultural land was damaged, about eight kilometres along the border fence and about 250 metres back from it. Within this area about 300 dumuns were razed, including wheat crops planted in December. Fields belonging to about 500 different farmers were affected, according to local officials. Farmers have attempted to approach their lands since the attack but haven't been able to reach land closer than 100 metres from the fence.
The mayor of Khuza'a, Kamal Al-Najar, explained that 800 of the 2,000 dunums of agricultural land in Khuza'a is close to the border fence and wasn't accessible prior to Israel's eight-day offensive on Gaza in November. At that time, farmers in Khuza'a had only been able to access their lands which lay half a kilometre or more from the border fence.
Since the ceasefire announcement, they have accessed land 300 metres from the fence and had managed to cultivate about 400 dunums within that area for the first time in ten years. However, most of this has now been destroyed in last week's attack. Over the course of the last ten years, the Israeli military has destroyed olive and citrus groves, greenhouses and water pumping facilities in the border areas. Orange Jenny
Photos courtesy of Desde Palestina:
http://desde-palestina.
|
15 January 2013
Posted in
News
Since November 22, 2012, 4 Palestinians have been killed and 75 Palestinians, including 14 children have been wounded by IOF fire in Gaza Strip.
One of the wounded is a fisherman shot in the sea, while the others are protesters, workers and farmers shot in the areas close to the fence of the Green Line. The data is from PCHR weekly reports, unless otherwise mentioned. In almost all the cases, the victims are mentioned expressly as civilians. This is not a complete list of Israeli violations of the ceasefire, as it contains only the incidents which resulted in injuries or deaths.
http://farmingunderfire.blogspot.gr/2013/01/list-of-palestinians-shot-by-iof-in_12.html
http://farmingunderfire.blogspot.gr/2013/01/israels-definition-of-ceasefire.html
|
15 January 2013
Posted in
News
The two reports below are from Free Gaza passengers, Orange Jenny (OJ) and Theresa McDermott. They are staying in Gaza to work with farmers and fishermen and to bear witness to what the IOF is continuing to do to the people there after a 'ceasefire' was agreed to by Israel and Hamas. Theresa has been interviewing family members of the Palestinian farmers who have been murdered and wounded since that ceasefire. Her report follows the report from OJ.
Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, Monday 14th January Just three days after the fatal shooting of Anwar Al-Malouk near Jabalia, the Israeli military has murdered another Palestinian civilian despite a supposed ceasefire being in place. Mustafa Abu Jarad, 20, was one of a group of bird hunters working on a plot of land in an area north of Beit Lahiya in the very north of the Gaza Strip, over a kilometre away from the border fence.
From the border, the Israeli army began firing heavily in their direction and immediately targeted Mustafa directly in the forehead. The group had thrown themselves onto the ground and when the situation calmed enough for them to move they realised that Mustafa had been hit.
