I noticed that every one of us looked so full and every one had a sizeable belly, especially our host. I said mildly, “Our food is good for the taste but sea food is best for health.” One of my friends looked disgusted at the thought and exclaimed, “Sea food, do you call that food? Food is only meat my adorable friend.” I laughed and said, “Only because you are a cannibal. Scientific evidence is telling us that sea food is best for healthy life and this is a fact.” Our friend Suhail said, “Fish may be good, but how can you eat snails? How can you eat this thing called calamari which is apparently a leg of a crawling animal?” I laughed instantly and said, “Do you know what calamari reminds me of? Fatah, your Fatah.” Read more about Calamari
Israeli occupying forces launched a massive attack against northern Gaza, focused on Beit Hanoun village. At the start of this assault, the village was placed under strict siege. Nobody was allowed in or out of Beit Hanoun. At Al-Awda hospital, where 45 injured were admitted for treatment, and three dead bodies received, I was told by our emergency room staff that one of these dead could have been saved easily. While bleeding and suffering from multiple injuries, Mr. Khalil Hamad had to wait for special arrangements and an army permit to transfer him via the Red Cross from outside the village to the nearest hospital, five minutes away from the scene. Mr. Hamad bled to death before he arrived at our hospital. Read more about Three days of siege and defiance in Beit Hanoun
Yousef AlhelouBeit Hanoun, Gaza Strip1 November 2006
The Israeli army declared on Wednesday morning Beit Hanoun a closed military zone, demanding the residents to stay indoors. The Israeli army issued a warning thorough two local radio stations, Freedom Radio and Youth Radio, after they managed to occupy the signal for few minutes in the town of Beit Hanoun. The town is home to 28.000, only few miles a way from the Israeli city Sderot. It’s reported that the Israeli army conducted a large-scale offensive in Beit Hanoun at dawn, with combined air and ground forces including infantry, armored corps and engineer corps. Read more about "Summer Rains" linger on in Beit Hanoun
While Gazans should have been preparing for the Eid Al Fitr, the fight for survival became all the more pressing. As 46-year-old English teacher Majed Rashid said, “There is no taste for this Eid, it’s a sad Eid.” Rashid continued to speak candidly. “This will be the worst Eid of my life because we are facing the worst humanitarian situation yet. There are no salaries due to the siege imposed on us by the American administration. If you have children then you know what I mean. I don’t have enough money to buy new clothes, candies, toys and edeyyah [money given to children at Eid] for my four kids.” Read more about "This will be the worst Eid of my life"
As I walked into one of the largest food processing plants in the central Gaza Strip, the first thing I noticed were two workers sitting idle in the ice-cream production area of the plant. I arrived during working hours, but all the machines were completely stopped. The factory was silent, the silence was overwhelming. The workers, Ibrahim and Hassan, were sitting idle in a corner - not because there is no desire in Gaza for ice cream, but because the Al-Awda factory, for which both workers work, is no longer able to produce ice cream, due to the electricity outages in the Gaza Strip. Read more about Electricity in Gaza: Another Victim of Israeli 'Summer Rains'
My wife tapped me on the shoulder, saying, “Wake up and take Mohammad. I’ve fed him and changed his diapers, but he won’t go to sleep. I’m too tired to hold him.” Somehow, I caught all of that despite the fact that I haven’t had three hours of sleep. I opened my eyes slowly. My wife had the light on her side of the bed on. It was dim, but enough to annoy my sleep-hungry eyes. But we were lucky to have electricity, a rare commodity since the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza power station 10 days earlier. My three-week-old son was in his bed, starting to wind up for a bout of crying. Read more about 2:30 AM in Gaza
Mayor Mansour pointed out that “for more than 40 days, the Shouka rural area has been under Israeli attack, as the Israeli tanks have been firing, by day and night, on the people’s houses and farms.” “The damages are immense; 129 green houses have been destroyed, 58 houses were torn down, while many of our village’s inhabitants have been evacuated to safe shelters at local UNRWA [United Nations Refugee and Works Agency] schools. The water networks in the village have been totally destroyed. Shouka is a traumatized village”, Mayor Mansour confirmed. Read more about Israeli 'Summer Rains' continue to fall hard on Gaza
On 3 August, United Nations humanitarian agencies issued a report on the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip after six weeks of Israeli siege. The report noted, “UNRWA is currently sheltering 1,345 people from 289 families in four schools in the northern district of Jabalia. Almost all are refugees, fleeing the relentless shelling of the eastern edge of the neighboring town of Beit Hanoun and the area around the Al Nada housing estate in Beit Lahia. In addition to shelter UNRWA is providing the families with daily food parcels and medical supplies.” Read more about Photostory: Refugees forced from their homes by Israeli shelling
The paramedics and witnesses could not differentiate between the pieces of flesh of the eleven-year-old Nadi al-Attar, and those of his grandmother, 57-year-old Khairiyya, or the donkey’s, scattered on the branches of lemon and boxthorn trees on both sides of the dusty road in Beit Lahia, north Gaza. Yesterday, the old woman and her three grandsons Nadi, Shadi (14), and Ahmed (17) were riding a donkey cart, heading to their field to collect ripe figs that fetch a good price in Gaza’s markets when Israeli rocket hit their cart and blasted two of them into small pieces. Read more about Terrorist Donkey Joins Family in Death
Sami Abu SalemJabalia refugee camp, Gaza Strip17 July 2006
The three-day-old baby Mohammed and his 23-year-old mother Asam were sleeping in their room when an Israeli missile hit their house early this morning in the heart of Jabalia refugee camp, north Gaza. “I do not believe [it], the rocket fallen from the sky near sons and daughter; it is a miracle it did not blow up,” said Husseini Abu Salem, 46, the grandfather of Mohammed. Shadi Abu Salem, the father of the baby, said he has just entered his room when the rocket hit the house. Read more about Can You Describe Your Emotions when a Missile Falls Beside Your Baby?