It has been a week full of hardships and surprises, with the most surprising turn of events taking place on January 23 when hoards of angry and besieged Gazans tore down the Rafah barrier between themselves and Egypt. Armed Palestinians dynamited several holes in the wall while bulldozers tore down huge sections of it, allowing thousands of Gazans to flood into Egyptian territory to stock up on much needed supplies.
What can only be called a massive prison break, Gazans defied an Israeli siege imposed on January 17, which brought a screeching halt to necessary supplies coming into the Strip, including fuel for Gaza’s main power plant. Huge swathes of the Gaza Strip were plunged into darkness for two days after the plant was forced to shut down due to a lack of fuel. In the days between January 19 and 21, the majority of Gazans were without electricity, which eventually led to a lack of basic food supplies such as bread. Schools were also disrupted as were businesses and hospitals while the closing of the crossings also entailed a shortage of necessary medical supplies. Gaza hospitals were reportedly running on generators and admitting only extreme emergency cases.
The siege, which was only tightened on January 17, has been ongoing since last June, when Hamas overtook the Strip. However, with the power cut and subsequent lack of medical and food supplies, the Gaza Strip’s residents revolted, tearing down the wall between Gaza and Egypt and rushing into the neighboring Egyptian towns of Rafah and Al Arish to stock up on supplies.
While Egyptian forces initially tried to halt the influx of Palestinians, with scuffles during the first hours after the wall collapsed, eventually the Palestinians were allowed to enter, unhindered by their Egyptian neighbors. Egyptian President Husni Mubarak later said that Egypt would not allow “our Palestinian brothers to starve” and was therefore allowing the influx of Gazans into its territory.
Gazans were seen returning into Gaza with loads of supplies, including food, fuel, cigarettes, sheep, goats and clothes. By January 24, UNRWA sources estimated that 700,000 Gazans had made their way into Egypt. UNRWA, which provides many of the Strip’s residents with basic food stuffs in their capacity as Palestinian refugees, called on the Arab states to donate $9.8 million in emergency funds to alleviate the suffering of the Gazans.
On January 20, a day after the power cut in the Strip, demonstrations broke out and candle-lit vigils were held in the Palestinian territories as well as in several Arab and foreign countries in protest of the siege and in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Palestinians in the refugee camps of Lebanon demonstrated and called for a lifting of the siege. Furthermore, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded that Israel open the border crossings and end the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza while at the same time condemning the Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, which Israel blamed for the siege in the first place.
Two days later, on January 22, apparently under international pressure, Israel agreed to allow a limited amount of fuel into the Strip along with basic medical and food supplies. Israel, which maintains that it closed the crossings because of its security concerns in regards to the ongoing rockets into Israeli territory, also warned that the sanctions were still in place. Abbas, who many Palestinian credited with “convincing” Israel to allow fuel back into Gaza, also said an easing of the siege “was not enough”. Contrary to what Hamas and other opposition groups are calling for in the face of the impending humanitarian disaster in Gaza, Abbas said negotiations with Israel must not only continue but intensify in order to bring and end to the people’s suffering.
Furthermore, the amount of fuel allowed back into Gaza is only limited to restarting the power plant. A source from the Petroleum Authority added that the amount received was not enough to cover even 25 percent of the Strip’s needs.
On January 25, Egyptian security forces began trying to halt any more Palestinians from entering their territory. However, they were met by strong resistance from the other side, with an Egyptian security guard shot and wounded by armed Palestinians opening new holes in the wall where Egyptian forces had closed others. Earlier that day, Egyptian forces closed the Salah Eddin Gate between its territories and the Gaza Strip in a bid to stop any more Palestinians from crossing over. Egyptian forces also called over loudspeakers in Al Arish and Rafah that Palestinians should return home because the borders would be closed within hours.
However, Palestinians are still reportedly moving back and forth between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Gaza has also taken its place in the corridors of the United Nations. The United States has been the only country of the 15 Security Council member states to oppose a non-binding draft statement on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which calls for a reopening of the border crossings. The US said the statement failed to “condemn terrorist acts” and ignores the cause of the problem, which is Hamas.
Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari criticized the US stance, saying the Americans were trying to “turn the victims into the victimizers and the victimizers into victims.”
At the same time, the US also proposed a non-binding draft declaration to the Security Council calling for a condemnation of the Qassam rockets on Israel, which does not condemn Israel for its blockade nor does it call on Israel to ease the suffering of Gaza civilians.” Libya has so far withheld its support for the proposal because of its failure to call on Israel to lift the siege.
Israel has also blasted UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, who said the closure of the Gaza Strip constituted collective punishment. Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, lashed out at Holmes saying he failed to mention the rockets on Israel which aim to “kill Israeli babies and children.”
The three day National Palestinian Conference in Damascus came to a close on January 25, with the closing statement calling on Hamas and Fateh to begin dialogue and end their internal feuds. The attendants, which included Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the PFLP-General Command, also called on Palestinians to unite, criticized Arab countries for the silence towards Israeli atrocities committed against the Palestinians and for the liberation of all of Palestine. At the forefront of the conference, was of course, solidarity with Gaza, with Hamas politburo chief, Khaled Meshaal, reiterating the steadfastness of the Gazans and their determination to break the siege.
On January 22, however, the Israeli government is said to have given orders to its army to continue targeting Hamas facilities in the Gaza Strip in an effort to topple the movement. The decision comes at the heels of this month’s earlier air strike on the Hamas-run former Interior Ministry building in Gaza City.
The Israeli army is indeed continuing with its operations in the Strip. On January 20, two people were killed in Israeli air and ground strikes in the Gaza Strip and Jabaliya while a day earlier, on January 19, two other Izzedin Al Qassam operatives were killed east of Jabaliya during an Israeli incursion.
Also on January 20, the 72nd victim of the Israeli siege was claimed when 15-year old Mahmoud Hussein died after being barred from seeking medical treatment outside the Strip. According to the boy’s parents, the family had been trying to get a permit for two weeks, after their terminally ill son’s condition deteriorated, in order to take him to a hospital outside Gaza. They were never granted permission.
UN Resolution 1325
Date posted: February 03, 2021
By MIFTAH
Kerry talks peace while Israel bars UNESCO mission [May 19 - May 25]
Date posted: May 25, 2013
By MIFTAH
President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both met with US Secretary of State John Kerry this week in the latter’s fourth visit to the region since he assumed office.
After meeting with the two to ostensibly find ways to restart stalled negotiations between the two sides, Kerry urged on May 24 both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take "hard decisions" to revive the peace process.
"We're getting toward a time now when hard decisions need to be made," he said at the end of his visit.
Kerry admitted a day before after meeting with the two leaders that there was skepticism and cynicism about his efforts to revive talks.
"I know this region well enough to know there is skepticism, in some quarters there is cynicism, and there are reasons for it. There have been bitter years of disappointment," he said. Still, he maintained: "It is our hope that by being methodical, careful, patient, but detailed and tenacious, that we can lay on a path ahead that can conceivably surprise people and certainly exhaust the possibilities for peace."
British foreign secretary William Hague was also in the region visiting with leaders on both sides and even visited the Bedouin community of Khan Al Ahmar between Jerusalem and Jericho, whose residents are under the threat of displacement.
On May 23, Hague was poignantly clear on where his country stands on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "Israel has lost some of its support in Britain and in other European countries over time - this is something I've often pointed out to Israeli leaders -because of settlement activity, which we condemn,” he said.
"We strongly disagree with settlements on occupied land. Israel is a country we work with in many ways but we do disapprove of settlements,” he maintained, adding that: "We want to see both Israelis and Palestinians really commit themselves to the peace process while there is still a chance of a two-state solution."
In Khan al Ahmar, Hague listened to the residents’ grievances from Israeli efforts to push them out to make way for more settlement expansion. "We (in Britain) strongly condemn the building of settlements and recognise they are a severe threat to a two-state solution,” he told the people there.
On March 21, Israeli forces demolished two residential buildings in the Jabal al-Mukabbir in East Jerusalem. Earlier, they demolished two Palestinian homes in al-Tur, all under the pretext of unlicensed construction. Dozens of people have been left homeless from the demolitions.
A UNESCO fact-finding mission was supposed to arrive this week to look into Israeli measures in the Old City of Jerusalem and their impact on the archeological, cultural and heritage significance of the place, but was denied entry by Israel on May 20. Israel justified its decision by saying Palestinians were trying to politicize the visit.
"The Palestinians were not respecting the understandings,” an Israeli foreign ministry official said. “The visit was supposed to be professional, (but) they were taking measures that showed they were politicizing the event and not letting the delegation focus on professional sides of it," the official said.
UNESCO maintained that the mission was not cancelled, but postponed, the agency’s spokeswoman Sue Williams said.
The Palestinians said they expected Israel to pull something like this. “We weren't surprised by this decision because we believed that Israel's agreement to (allow the mission) was not convincing," minister of foreign affairs Riyad Al Malki said.
The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was reopened on May 22 after a five day closure. Egyptian soldiers and policemen closed the crossing following the kidnapping of seven Egyptian soldiers in Sinai, only reopening it after the soldiers were freed. Over 2,400 Palestinians had been stranded on both sides of the crossing during the days of the closure.
Extremist Israelis extended their attacks this week all the way to the Negev desert. On May 19, residents of the Retamim Kibbutz attacked the nearby Bedouin village of Bir Hadaj and set fire to a tent, according to head of the local village council, Salman Ibin Hamid
"The setters of Retamim are acting like they are in the West Bank," Ibn Hamid said. "These people have the mentality of the occupying settler to attack every Arab."
Finally, on May 23, the US appointed Gen. John Allen as special envoy on security issues in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. According to a US official, Allen will deal with the U.S. position on Israeli security needs and the security arrangements that would accompany the establishment of a future Palestinian state.
Al Nakba commemorated amid increasing settler attacks [May 12 - May 18]
Date posted: May 18, 2013
By MIFTAH
This week Palestinians commemorated the 65th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe of 1948 on May 15, with a variety of activities, demonstrations and events throughout the Palestinian territories and outside of its borders. Festivals were held in Ramallah and Nablus in addition to several protests and confrontations with Israeli occupation forces. In Jerusalem, clashes broke out between protesters and Israeli police and border guards when Palestinians commemorating Al Nakba, raising Palestinian flags and facing off with Jewish settlers and soldiers. Thirty people were wounded or arrested during the clashes in addition to six Israelis.
The Jerusalem clashes come at a time when settler break-ins to Al Aqsa have been on the rise amid increasing calls by extremist Jewish groups to make a presence at the compound. The break-ins have become a near daily event. Muslim worshippers and Palestinian youths have kept constant vigil at the mosque to stave off the break-ins which included settler groups who used children as a cover to enter the compound on the occasion of Shavuot.
Settlers in the West Bank have wreaked havoc this week as well. On May 17, three Palestinians were injured in clashes in Urif south of Nablus when dozens of settlers set fire to lands in three area-villages: Urif, Einabus, and Asira al-Qibliya. The settlers also attacked citizens and threw burning tires at people’s homes.
Jewish extremists attacked inside the Green Line as well. On May 14, extremists set fire to three cars and sprayed racist graffiti on a mosque south of Haifa, according to Israeli media reports.
"Price-tag" and "Eviatar," which is thought to refer to the name of a settler stabbed to death last week, were found on the mosque’s walls in addition to the Star of David. In Safed, even farther north, racist graffiti with the words "Arabs out" was found on walls in the city.
On May 13, Israeli settlers exhumed a number of graves and sprayed racist graffiti in the Sawiya village in Nablus. Ghassan Daghlas, head of the PA settlement activity file, said settlers from the Alia settlement were responsible for the damage.
On the same day settlers from Tel Hatimar begin building a religious school for children on Al Khader lands in the Bethlehem area.
The Israeli army meanwhile, uprooted over 1,200 olive tree saplings on May 16 and razed land Palestinian farmer in the northern West Bank, according to Daghlas. He said the army dug up over 40 dunums of farm land and demolished a water tank and stone walls in Ras Karker, near Nablus.
On May 17, three Palestinian laborers were wounded in Beit Ula northwest of Hebron after Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets and unleashed police dogs at them according to Issa al-Amla, coordinator for the popular struggle committee. He said Omar Al-Amla, 31, and Abdulkadir Al-Amla, 28, suffered multiple dog bites to the neck and hands. A third laborer, Jihad Saleem, was shot in the leg.
In Jerusalem on May 17, Israeli forces raided the home of Iyad al-Awar and insisted on taking his two children 6-year-old Qassam and 5-year-old Nasrallah for “interrogation”. While their father prevented the forces from arresting his boys, Israeli soldiers handed him a warrant ordering him to bring his children to the Russian Compound for questioning.
"We arrived to the Russian Compound and the troops wanted to take my kids for investigation; I refused and they beat me in the ear and the leg. My kids started crying and were so scared from the troops. They took my kids by force," al-Awar said.
Israeli Intelligence officers apparently questioned the children about their detained cousin Shadad, and asked if they had seen him throwing stones or Molotov cocktails at Israeli forces, Al Awar said.
On the same day however, Palestinians scored a tiny victory in the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis when they were able to tear a hole through part of the separation wall. Protesters marking the Nakba anniversary ripped a 4-meter hole in it, eyewitnesses said. Clashes ensued between the protesters and Israeli soldiers who fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Several injuries were reported.
Peace Now reported on May 16 that the Israeli government planned to grant retroactive approval to four West Bank settlement outposts it had previously pledged to at least partially demolish.
The Israeli state attorney's office said that settlers had purchased the private Palestinian land on which they built, thus paving the way for the government to give its blessing.
"In the response, the government declares its intention to legalize four outposts, in isolated areas," Peace Now said in a statement, adding that the strategy was an affront to US Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to revive dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. "The intention to legalize outposts as new settlements is no less than a slap in the face of Secretary Kerry's new peace process," Peace Now said.
On May 14, Hamas and Fatah agreed in Cairo to form a national unity government within three months during which they would finalize and approve the Palestine National Council elections law. The two sides, represented by Fatah leader Azzam Al Ahmad and Hamas politburo member Mousa Abu Marzouq, came to the agreement under Egyptian sponsorship and said President Abbas would immediately begin talks on the new government formation. Once the government is formed, general elections can be held.
