A Palestinian family evacuating home on Nafaq street in Gaza City after the flood. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS.

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY , Dec 20 2013 (IPS)

Wearing tattered shoes and hopping between dirty puddles, 14-year-old Sabeh manages to find his way to the market at the Al Shati refugee camp, one of Gaza’s most heavily populated and poor areas.

He asks a man selling socks if he can buy a pair for one shekel (29 cents). Sabeh looks despondent when the salesman says, “three shekels and no less.”

The boy protests and says his feet are freezing, but the salesman is adamant. Sabeh tries again: “But I’m freezing and this is all I have.” Both know the socks won’t help as long as Sabeh’s shoes are torn and soaked in cold, slushy sewage water.Alsweriki is concerned how their properties, damaged by flood and sewage water, will hold up as Israel continues its blockade on materials needed for repairs in Gaza.

A torrent of heavy rain over Gaza this week forced 40,000 residents out of their homes – 5,000 of them had to be evacuated by Palestinian rescue crews in boats. Two people were killed and at least 108 injured, according to Dr. Ashraf Al Qedra, spokesman for the Gaza health ministry.

Storm Alexa that hit Gaza is a ‘once-in-a-century storm’. Israeli meteorologists have called it the worst since 1879.

Beginning a week ago, Alexa crossed Syria, Palestine, Israel and some parts of Sinai. A thick blanket of snow covered the West Bank and some areas in Gaza too experienced snow – something that hasn’t occurred in years.

The 1.8 million people of the Gaza Strip, who struggle every day under an Israeli blockade, were unprepared for a storm that has affected every aspect of their life. Low-lying areas are the hardest hit, with thousands of homes flooded.

The flimsy door of Noor Pharmacy at Al Nafaq Street can’t stop the water and it pours in, inundating the cupboards and drenching the medicines. The owner seems to be at a complete loss as to where to begin repairing the damage, but is well aware that his losses may never be adequately compensated.

Nafaq Street has been badly affected by the rain and flooding, but doesn’t get as much attention as other areas that have been damaged by Israeli attacks. The heavy rain and snow is an extra burden for Gaza, which is already going without power.

Families on Nafaq Street were evacuated to a neighbourhood school-turned-makeshift shelter.

Thirty-year-old Shadi Alsweriki’s house was flooded. He was unable to retrieve anything while fleeing the gushing waters. Now all he has is two blankets and two mattresses for himself, his wife and two small children. He got food from humanitarian groups, but his family’s needs are far from taken care of.

Yasser Al Shanti, deputy head of the crisis team, says the burst of rainfall was above 90 percent of the average annual rainfall in Gaza.

The timing of the storm could not have been worse as it came amid fuel shortages and electricity cuts in Gaza brought on by tighter Egyptian controls in the south and high taxes on fuel prices by Israel in the north.

Mosques have asked people to donate spare blankets and clothes, and some trucks have made their way to the worst-hit areas. But supplies are sparse.

A rescue team member stands on a boat and another man stands on his shoulders trying to reach up to some people stuck without any food or clean water in a third floor apartment.

Mohammed Abu Draz, 43, who is from Abbasan in the south Gaza Strip, is stunned by the turn of events. He was preparing to take the produce from his three chicken farms to Gaza markets when the rains came and destroyed everything.

Each of his farms had 3,000 to 5,000 chickens. He estimates he has suffered a damage of nearly 42,000 dollars.

“There used to be 5,000 chicks over there,” said Abu Draz pointing to the remains of a farm about to be removed by municipality bulldozers.

Gaza minister of agriculture Ali Al Tarshawi has accused Israel of opening sewage water dams in Wadi al Salqa along the border, resulting in the flooding of agricultural land and farms.

Al Tarshawi says there has been 1.7 million dollars worth of damage to livestock.

A spokesman of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said that following the storm, “the world community needs to bring effective pressure to end the blockade of Gaza.”

In response to de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s appeal to the Emir of Qatar, 10 million dollars have been handed to the Palestinian Authority to buy fuel from Israel for Gaza’s power plant.

Gaza has suffered more than 45 days of blackouts lasting up to 18 hours daily. During the storm, some areas had no power for 72 continuous hours. Now 450,000 litres of fuel donated by Qatar has arrived to help resume operations at Gaza’s sole electricity plant.

Minister of housing Yousef Ghuriz, who is in charge of crisis teams, estimates that the damage to homes, infrastructure and businesses from the rain and floods is around 64 million dollars.

After flood waters were pumped out, some Gazans have been able to go back to their homes, but rescue teams say at least 4,000 people are still living in schools-turned-makeshift shelters.

Alsweriki has been given 140 dollars as aid to put his life back on track, but he and his family have been asked to leave the school that is his only shelter at the moment.

Like other victims, he is concerned about how their properties, damaged by flood and sewage water, will hold up as Israel continues its blockade on materials needed for repairs in Gaza.

Life, as they knew it, has slipped away.

Palestinian child on donkey cart next to garbage container in Gaza City. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY , Dec 5 2013 (IPS)

The garbage trucks of Gaza city are at a standstill due to an ongoing fuel shortage affecting all aspects of daily life, including garbage collection, sewage and waste disposal and other vital services. But the local donkeys are here to help.

Abu Hesham on his donkey cart won’t be able to clear all the streets of garbage. In Gaza’s Barcelona neighbourhood, trash bins are overflowing – a common sight since fuel for motor vehicles became scarce – and as the 33-year-old donkey cart owner approaches the garbage dump, there is no space left and no option but to throw the trash out on the side of the road.

“What else can I do?” he tells IPS as he carries sacks of waste at 7:00 AM through Gaza’s misty weather.

The smell of rotting garbage is getting worse and worse. The people in Gaza attempt to burn the garbage to reduce the quantity and minimise the risk of infection, so the air is filled with black smoke too. Right now, breathing fresh air is not an option for most people in Gaza, whether children or adults.

The municipality, administered by Gaza’s de facto government, is stuck between the ongoing Israeli siege, the ruling Hamas’ rival Fatah, and Egypt’s new military regime.

Mahmoud Abu Jabal, 55, travels on his donkey through Gaza’s city streets. His barefoot son, 10-year-old Ala’a Abu Jabal, follows behind between piles of garbage scattered across the streets.

The Gaza municipality announced that fuel supplies for their trucks had run out and they couldn’t afford the more expensive fuel.

In the past few years, the war-torn Gaza Strip relied on Egyptian fuel at 3.5 Israeli shekels (one dollar) per litre. Then in July, Egypt closed down all supply tunnels to Gaza in an attempt to crush the Hamas Islamic movement for being an ally to overthrown Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi (2012-2013). The municipality says that fuel coming through Israel is heavily taxed, forcing them to pay double, at 7.0 Israeli shekels per litre.

Abu Jabal’s work has become more demanding in the last two weeks. His previous route was around one of Gaza’s main hospitals, but now he and his donkey and his son must collect garbage from throughout Gaza City.

“This is my only source of income to feed my 12 children and the donkey,” he says.

Abu Jabal is sick, and can find no other job when the garbage trucks are up and running. He earns about 700 Israeli shekels (200 dollars), although it doesn’t cover all his family’s needs.

The minister of local government in Gaza, Mohammed Al-Farra, standing alongside one of Gaza’s largest garbage dumps close to the Yarmouk soccer field in central Gaza City, told a press conference, “All of the garbage trucks, which collect about 1,700 tonnes of waste a day, have stopped.”

In order to keep Gaza’s streets clean, it takes 150,000 litres of fuel a month to run the garbage trucks. Not to mention the 7,000 litres of diesel to provide clean water and sanitation.

Between the villages and camps, Palestinians can find nowhere else to put their garbage except along the roads or at random garbage sites in residential areas. According to Al-Farra, this could lead to the spread of bacteria, diseases and epidemics.

But the fuel shortage is not only causing the garbage overflow. Gaza’s main power plant has no fuel, leaving all Gazans in an energy blackout for up to 18 hours a day. Families have no heat, light or cooking facilities and are surrounded by rotting garbage.

Further north in the Gaza Strip, in Beit Lahia, health officials warned that a potential environmental disaster is imminent if flooding occurs due to the power outages, says Mayor Khalil Matar.

Almost 30,000 cups of wastewater are being dumped into Beit Lahia’s sewage tank and power cuts of 18 hours per day could well cause the sewage to flood into neighbouring areas, where clinics are threatened too. The ministry is no longer able to afford to pay its workers wages due to financial difficulties, Matar says.

In 2007, the sewage-disposal pool collapsed, and residential areas were flooded, killing four Palestinians and destroying crops.

Matar has appealed to Arab and international groups to urgently intervene and help his city overcome the crisis and prevent further suffering.

Local and international human rights groups have expressed concern about potential environmental disasters. United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry told a news conference in northern Gaza that Turkey would donate fuel as a temporary solution.

The municipal authorities in Gaza City received 16,700 litres of fuel. Officials say the amount is only enough for a few days.

Dozens of homes of Palestinian refugees have been flooded in Gaza due to heavy rain. Rescue teams have been evacuating families in different locations after sewage systems flooded Wednesday morning.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that 19 of its 20 construction projects in Gaza had ground to a halt because of an Israeli block on building materials.

Gaza’s de facto government announced it would deduct from the wages of its staff members in order to employ 430 workers to collect garbage using 250 extra donkey carts, one of which is driven by Abu Jabal.

The workers’ job begins at 4:00 AM, when the noise of donkeys pulling carts begins to echo through the streets – and by noon they have collected all they can find.

Abdel Rahim Abu al-Komboz, general director of health and environment in Gaza municipality, says “We are experiencing a crisis.” He said the problem has been aggravated as people are using undesignated locations for dumping waste in the crowded Gaza Strip, which is home to 1.8 million Palestinians.

“When the economy comes to a halt, unemployment rates increase, which means people cannot pay their bills for services, leaving only 10-15 percent of the population who can pay,” Abu al-Komboz says.

When the supply tunnels were active, bringing in tuck-tucks (three-wheel motorcycles), many Palestinians joked about the tasks of donkey carts being replaced by tuck-tucks, which need limited care. However, the tuck-tucks are out of fuel now and the donkeys with their cart owners are back on the streets of Gaza, to help as best they can.

The garbage collector may only earn around 200 dollars to feed a whole family, but at least he can open a bag of garbage on his cart and pull out discarded food to feed his donkey.

But the potential health threats to Gaza are still unaddressed, including the contamination of groundwater, scavengers, stray dogs and rodents.

Assaf visiting the UN offices in Gaza. He has been appointed UN Ambassador of Goodwill. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS.

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Jul 16 2013 (IPS)

Mohammed Assaf is on to a winning track with recordings in Dubai and performances scheduled across Arab countries after winning the Arab Idol contest. But the 23-year-old who has become Gaza’s pride is virtually disowned by the government in Gaza.

This winning Arab Idol sang out from a refugee camp – Assaf grew up in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the south of Gaza strip. When he returned to Gaza after winning the contest last month, he brought rare joy to a besieged people. Thousands gathered at the border to receive him. But officials of the de facto-government in Gaza were absent, and silent.

The two Palestinian parties, Hamas which rules Gaza, and Fatah which rules the West Bank through the Palestinian Authority offered obviously split responses to Assaf’s win.What many, and of the Islamist kind particularly, dislike about him is that he also sang love songs.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas named Assaf Goodwill Ambassador for Palestine, a position with diplomatic standing. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) appointed him Youth Ambassador of Goodwill.

Within the Hamas government Assaf received some attention from the ministry of culture. Some political leaders from outside of Hamas also held a small reception for him. It did not seem to help that Fatah “adopted” Assaf with gusto, as a Palestinian, even though he is from Gaza.

At the annual graduation ceremony for about 500 students from Palestine University – where Assaf is a student – a university board member celebrated this year’s graduate group as “Assaf’s batch”. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh who attended the ceremony spoke of the graduates as “Palestine’s batch”.

Haniyeh seemed out of tune with the mood. Minutes after his departure, the crowds went wild singing Assaf’s award-winning songs.

The controversial Islamist agenda of Hamas surfaced unexpectedly but prominently over the Arab Idol. The strongly Islamist Hamas leadership mostly consider music itself un-Islamic.

Speaking out through the silence of the Hamas government, member of the legislative council Dr. Yahya Mussa seemed to challenge Hamas’s official position by declaring that Assaf is indeed an ambassador to the world.

“I see the rise of promising Palestinian star Mohammed Assaf as adding quality to the defenders of the cause and as a bearer of the flame of Palestinian culture,” he said.

His nationalistic songs too have become a problem for Hamas. Locally and internationally, audiences have particularly enjoyed Assaf’s rendition of the uplifting song “Ali el Koffeyeh” (“Raise Your Keffiyeh…”). His new popularity is making his songs a symbol of hope and unity for Palestinians.

But many Hamas supporters see that song more associated with rival Fatah, and the Keffiyeh as reminiscent of former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s favoured head-dress. Hamas is seeing the popularity of Assaf boosting the popularity of rival Fatah.

Among Arabs, Assaf is emphatically the voice of Palestine, for his distinct Palestinian accent, and for the many nationalistic Palestinian songs he sings. Everyone heard the lament and national longing for Palestine in his voice. But what many, and of the Islamist kind particularly, dislike about him is that he also sang love songs, such as the Backstreet Boys hit, “I want it that way”.

Mohammed Abed, Gaza-based journalist told IPS that the Hamas government kept silent because it believes such songs are too profligate. “The government could have given him the chance to sing national songs, but only provided him police escort and security.”

For Assaf, his music will always be more than just music – it is a message. “The media has always attempted to ignore our art and music, as if Gaza is only a war zone,” Assaf told IPS. “If this success shows something, it shows we are a peace-loving nation. And we can be very creative, if only we are given the chance.”

Arab Idol jury member and popular Lebanese singer Ragheb Alama described Assaf as “the best rocket”. Headlines continue to chase Assaf – accompanied by an emphatic silence from Hamas.

Dr. Ahmed Yousef, former advisor to the Hamas Prime Minister, said Hamas cannot deny the fact that Assaf has become a phenomenon. “Art unites Palestinians while politics divides them. This in itself is a certificate of failure for Palestinian politicians,” he told IPS.

To a people starved of success and recognition, Assaf is now a legend. On the Arab Idol talent show on MBC television featuring young singers from the Middle East he simply captivated audiences – and judges.

Assaf’s success was hard won. Before being crowned Arab Idol he was virtually unknown to the wider Palestinian population. Assaf began singing as a boy at weddings in Gaza to earn a little money. He later studied journalism.

It is legend also that he came close to not winning the contest, and close to not being there to win. It took time to get permission to leave Gaza. Even with permission, Assaf almost missed his big chance by getting stuck at Rafah border crossing and roadblocks in between home and the hall in Cairo.

It seemed he would never reach his first audition, but he risked his life by jumping a wall at a roadblock to get through to Cairo. He still arrived late. But then fate and a friend stepped in – a fellow Palestinian singer gave up his slot to give Assaf a chance.

Assaf is now set for the big stage. He is scheduled to sing together with Columbia’s superstar Shakira at the opening ceremony of the football World Cup in Brazil next year.

Meanwhile, Assaf has won a 10-year contract with Dubai-based Platinum Records.

Among the prizes he has received is a Chevrolet Camaro. It’s unlikely Assaf will be able to drive his new car in Gaza, as Israel continues to ban entry of eight-cylinder engine vehicles. Israel is of course not on his side, but nor, it seems, is his own government.

A funeral procession for two children killed in the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS.

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Nov 22 2012 (IPS)

Fouad Hijazi was watching the 7 p.m. news with his wife and eight children when a missile fired by an Israeli F-16 hit their house in Jabalyia refugee camp, Gaza’s most densely populated area.

Fouad, 46, was killed. So were his sons Mohammed, 3, and Suhaib, 2. Fouad’s wife Amna is in Shifa hospital, and her two daughters and four other sons are also in the hospital.

Eighteen others from the neighbourhood were injured in the airstrike. Following the airstrike, two firefighters and a rescue team worker were wounded when a wall of the home fell on them. Neighbours told IPS that Fouad Hijazi did not belong to any militant group, nor has any organisation claimed him as a member.

Relatives took the dead for burial at the Jabalyia cemetery on Wednesday. Bodies are usually brought home from hospital for a last farewell. In the case of the Hijazi family, there was no house left to take them to.

“Just an ordinary man, sitting peacefully with his wife and children in their home. What did they do to deserve this?” cried Umm Mohammed, a cousin of the father.

Israel says it has hit 1,450 targets in the Gaza Strip since assassinating Hamas’s most senior military leader in a missile strike on Nov. 14.

The eight-day attack killed 162 Palestinians, including 42 children – the youngest aged 11 months – 11 women, and 18 elderly persons, the oldest 82 years of age. In all 1,222 have so far been listed as injured, more than half of them women and children. Rockets fired from Gaza have killed five Israelis.

Israel’s airstrikes have hit several locations in Gaza Strip. The targets have included civilians’ houses, apartment blocks, most of the security units, the ministry of interior office, prime minister office, police stations, roads and bridges connecting camps, naval forces, and journalists offices and media centres. Three journalists have been killed, and eight injured.

Israeli leaflets were dropped asking the population to leave their homes all over northern Gaza Strip: Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, Atatra and surrounding locations.

Women and children have been heading to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) schools for refuge after fleeing the northern Gaza Strip. Refugees are sleeping on the floor at these centres.

Sada Assaf, 41, said she fled her house with her two children, her ill husband and his eight children from a previous marriage. “We got this leaflets dropped on our heads, following very intensive days of artillery shelling,” Assaf said. She sits in a classroom at Gaza Prep. School for Boys with her husband and children, listening to the news on a tiny radio and hoping the ceasefire will hold. The whole neighbourhood of Al-Attatra in the north of Gaza fled.

The UN says that thousands of people fled to 12 school buildings in the area.

Mais was at home when her telephone rang with a recording playing from the Israeli Army asking her to evacuate and to find somewhere else away from the north. “I don’t feel safe anywhere,” she said. “I am here just to hide under the UN flag.”

“It happened before in 2008, and here we are once again,” said her husband Salah Assaf.

Back then Mais recalls many of her neighbours were asked by the army to evacuate, and later Israeli tank shells killed at least 40 Palestinians who had sought refuge at this very centre. That massacre boosted international groups’ call for a halt to the war on Gaza.

The families at the centres are drawing hope from the ceasefire that appeared to be holding. In the early hours of Thursday morning the skies fell silent over Gaza for the first time in eight days. Gunfire erupted on Gaza streets – it was Gazans celebrating the announcement of ceasefire and victory for Palestinian resistance.

Sada Assaf was looking for the donkey cart that had brought her and her family to the shelter, to now take her back home.

A group of children in Gaza cry out for electricity. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS.

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Aug 2 2012 (IPS)

When the lights go out, Gazans look for generators to switch on. And, they find people to talk to. With so many power cuts over so long now, people are giving themselves the somewhat dubious comfort that human relations may have improved as a result of these power cuts.

Mohammed Aljamal, like many Gazans, is discovering that improved communication with friends and family are the brighter side of life in the dark when there isn’t much work he can do.

Mohammed says he visits his family members far more often now than he otherwise might have. And it isn’t only because of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. He needs to get away from the “24/7 sauna”, he says. Happily – under the circumstances – power cuts are coordinated, and there just might be light at a relative’s home that has electricity.

In any case, he says, “when the power is out, what else can you do?”

Umm Mohammed, who sells vegetables in Rafah market south of Gaza Strip, says she and her husband make their social plans timed to power cuts. “We prefer to arrange visits from our extended family for when we have electricty—it’s no fun to sit with guests in the dark and the unbearable heat, unable to hear each other above the noise of the electricity generators.”

Noise is not the only problem with these generators. They have caused fires that have killed 17 Palestinians and burnt down 85 houses in the past two years, according to the Gaza Fire Department. Many residents are not trained to handle generators safely. Handling fuel that is summgled in through tunnels from Egypt or through the Israeli-controlled crossings is trickier.

Sitting outside for fresh air “is not a pleasant option either, with our eardrums bombarded by the noise of neighbours’ generators,” Umm Mohammed says. “The unhealthy fumes from the fuel bring headaches.”

But despite all this generators feel like a lifeline. In the past, says Umm Mohammed, a Palestinian  bride would ask for a husband with a steady job and income, and a separate apartment. “But now some girls are also demanding an electricity generator with the apartment.”

The power cuts are harder for the children, she says. “My grandchildren are afraid of the dark, and start to cry when the power goes out.”

When people do sit down to talk, the power cuts are one thing they do talk about. A taxi driver has hung a small note under his rear-view mirror: ‘Please don’t talk about electricity or the fuel crisis’. He has too much of that at home, he says.

“We are stuck, we have no way to stop this,” says Mohammed. “We have appealed to the world many times, but those with the power to change things are not listening, they’re too focused on the Arab Spring.”

Demand for electricity in Gaza can reach 360 megawatts (MW) a day, the equivalent of 1 MW per square km. At its current operating capacity, the Gaza power plant can produce only 80 MW. This is supplemented by 120 MW from Israel and 22 MW from Egypt. The amount available only meets about two-thirds of demand.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) the Gaza power plant has been operating at best at a third of its capacity, or has been completely shut down by severe fuel shortages since February 2012. This has led to scheduled blackouts in homes of 6-18 hours a day, besides the random unscheduled cuts.

UNOCHA says the generating capacity of this plant has been significantly impaired after the destruction of six transformers in an Israeli airstrike in 2006, restrictions on the import of parts and  equipment to repair the transformers, lack of fuel as a result of Israel’s blockade, and a dispute between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the authorities in Gaza over funding of the plant’s operations.

The power cuts are a price about 1.7 million Gazans pay for the Israeli blockade, which was imposed when Hamas was democratically elected in Gaza in 2006.

Ahmed Abuel Amareen from the Palestinian Energy Authority says the main reason Gaza cannot get more fuel is “arbitrariness from Israel and Egypt, and their failure to permit entry of fuel from Qatar.”

Qatar has donated fuel to alleviate the electricity crisis in Gaza but, according to Abuel Amareen, 90 percent of that fuel has been sitting in tankers in the Suez canal for the past two months, awaiting approval from Egypt’s military.

The insufficient and irregular power supply impacts Gaza hospitals, with outages having tripled since the beginning of 2012, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).  UN statistics show that the average waiting time for orthopaedic surgery at Shifa Hospital increased from three to six months during the first half of 2012.

The Gaza Strip (360 sq.km) is one of the most densely populated areas of the world (at over 4,500 people per sq. km) according to United Nations statistics.

Ayman Siam, 41, is not growing carnations as usual this year. It’s limonium and statice flowers instead because they are hardier. Given the risks of an Israeli blockade, it’s a political decision.

Ayman Siam is looking beyond barriers to the global market. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS.

“The business loss I suffered from growing carnations comes close to a million dollars, including the cost of the plants and fertilisers,” Siam tells IPS. Service suppliers have taken legal action against him for an inability to settle payments due since 2006.

All this is besides the loss of income for his workers.

Siam, like others growing flowers in Palestinian areas, is hoping for better relations ahead with the government in the Netherlands and the European Flower Exchange Market there that he supplies to, for further export into European countries. The Netherlands has begun to provide some financial support to Gaza’s farmers.

Siam produces far less than his capacity. “I had to reduce from eight dunums (a dunum is 1,000 square metres) of flowers, to only three dunums for the mid-November to mid-May 2012 season. The supply was good. The demand was good. But Israel’s blockade stood in between.”

Now Siam hopes his new flowers will “tolerate longer delays at the Israeli crossing points.” He is cultivating about 15,000 flowers, so a lot is at stake.

Siam is also happy that this year his flowers are not being labeled an Israeli product. In the past, the Israeli company Agrexco used to buy the flowers and sell them to European markets as its own.

Now, with more international groups boycotting Israeli products, the boxes and plastic bags he uses for packing are marked ‘Palestine Crops’. “I am thrilled to see my product is being sold as our own. So far, it is a good start as we have received more demands for the red and white carnations.”

There seems hope of support. “Gaza growers have a lot of potential and I hope they can expand the business in the future,” Ada Cohen, area manager of the company Floral Holland tells IPS.

It’s looking brighter for some workers too. Mohammed Dahlez, 32, has got his old job back. He is one of the few lucky ones; Siam has had to lay off most of his workers.

“Our lives are so dependent on the Israeli crossings, we hope we get our own independent sea port to export our goods straight from Rafah to the Netherlands,” he says, carrying a collection of white carnations to be packed.

Mahmoud Khalil, head of the Flower and Berry Growers’ Association in Gaza, hopes that Gaza growers are gradually able to transport flowers outside of Gaza. “Before 2005, Gaza Strip used to export 50-60 million flowers to the Netherlands…this year; we were down only to 15-16 million.”

Many have not recovered from the loss. At the peak of the blockade in 2008, millions of Majed Hadaeid’s blossoms were served as food for goats, donkeys, camels and sheep. The “loss was too big to compensate,” he says. He laid off 200 workers. “I am broke, all I have is this house for my children.”

Hadaeid does not benefit from the Netherlands grant, since that two million dollar fund aims to support smaller farmers.

Most business that survives is down. Khalil says the flower business in the Gaza Strip used to feed 4,000 workers before 2005. The number has fallen to about 500.

“The challenge facing the farmers is the small quantity of flowers produced when the cost of transportation is fixed,” says Khalil. For the past two months his organisation has been encouraging farmers to plant more flowers. “One hopes that we succeed in selling all our products abroad, this will give an optimistic start for farmers in the coming seasons.”

Siam is keen to expand his business, and “get back to the old days when we were present in the market not only as flower farmers, but as Gaza’s ambassadors of love to the global market of flowers.”

But, he adds, “this all depends on how much pressure The Netherlands can exert on the Israeli government to allow us to continue exporting our flowers.”

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Aug 11 2011 (IPS)

Access to education for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails is getting worse as international organisations remain unwilling or unable to intervene. Secondary- school students here completed their exams in June, and received their results by end of July. However, the 1,800 Palestinian prisoners who were supposed to complete their exams were not permitted to do so by the Israeli Prison Service.

Gaza women demonstrate to demand release of their loved ones in prison in Israel. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS.

Israeli authorities imprisoned Eyad Khalid Abu Jayyab for what Fatima calls affiliation to a political party. “I think of him every moment,” she told IPS.

“I have lost faith in the International Red Cross. They are not doing what a neutral organisation should be doing to meet the needs of prisoners in conflict areas,” she says.

Fatima’s worries have increased since hearing about her son’s hunger strike. “There is nothing that I can do to stop him from doing this. I can’t get to him.”

Palestinian Authority (PA) Major General Tawfiq Al Tirawi issued a press release last week, following the release of 770 Palestinian prisoners, stating: “The Israeli occupation has launched an unusual and unprecedented war against the prisoners.” Having spoken to the released prisoners Al Tirawi accused Israel of barring the prisoners from applying for their exams, continuing their university studies or obtaining medical care.

Last June, angry families of Palestinian prisoners in Gaza City pelted the ICRC building with eggs. The protest came following a statement from the ICRC demanding Hamas provide evidence that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is still alive five years after his capture. “The total absence of information concerning Mr. Shalit is completely unacceptable,” ICRC Director-General Yvest Daccord told the press.

Saber Abu Karsh, spokesman for Wa’ed, a Gaza-based organisation defending Palestinian prisoners said, “The ICRC statements are illegal and inhuman. Israel has been preventing 750 Gaza prisoners from family visits for five years now.”

Abu Karsh adds, “There are 1,500 prisoners, including 36 female prisoners and 350 children in need of health care which is denied them. The ICRC needs to mention, just once, about the 7,000 Palestinian prisoners, and should intervene to ensure that medicine, food parcels, clothes and blankets get to the prisoners.”

Hamas, however, has declined to answer the request of ICRC, according to Ismail Radwan, the movement’s spokesman in Gaza. In October 2009, Hamas released a short video of Shalit, in exchange for the release of 20 Palestinian women.

PA Minister of Prisoners and Ex-Detainees Issa Qaraqi slammed Israel’s decision of not allowing prisoners to complete their scholastic exams inside the Israeli prisons. “There has been no justification given for the denial of education,” Qaraqi told IPS.

“The Israeli Prison Service agreed recently to conduct the high secondary-school exams for all prisoners according to commitments and procedures whereby the ministry of prisoners, and ministry of education and higher education, conduct the exams in a transparent manner,” Qaraqi said

This year 88,768 students took their secondary school exams across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The prisoners however, were excluded for the third year – since 2009.

In 2009, Qaraqi appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice to reverse the decision not to allow the exams. “This session has been postponed and has not been discussed ever since,” Qaraqi said.

According to the ministry of prisoners and ex-detainees in Ramallah, Abu Jayyab, currently imprisoned in Negev prison, is one of the 1,800 Palestinian prisoners who have been denied access to secondary- school exams.

“The security prisoners are held by law in Israel Prison Service facilities,” Lieutenant-Colonel Ian H. Domnitz told IPS. He refused to comment further. “We don’t deal with such matters through the media,” he said.

Qaraqi himself in his official capacity as minister of prisoners has never been allowed to visit the prisoners, or to observe their conditions.

Maria Cecilia Goin, ICRC spokesperson in Jerusalem, acknowledges the problem. “We are aware about the situation that they cannot complete their high secondary-school exams and we are following it with the Israeli prison authorities.”

However, the ICRC maintains a dialogue with Israeli authorities “which is bilateral and confidential,” Goin told IPS. “Our recommendations regarding this problem or any other detention issue are discussed only with the authorities and thus, we do not share publicly the content of this dialogue.”

In March 2010, imprisoned Fatah official Marwan Barghouti managed to complete his doctorate in political science. The University of Cairo and the Arab Academy for Research had accepted Barghouti in 1999 – three years before he was arrested by Israel. Qaraqi, said that Barghouti’s success was due to “personal efforts and study in secret” without facilitation from his jailers.

The Israel Prison Service had earlier allowed some Palestinian prisoners to enrol in the Open University of Israel. This is no longer the case, according to the Ministry of Prisoners.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
EL-ARISH, Egypt, Jun 1 2011 (IPS)

Abu Sumaia’a Al Suoarki is 29 years old and a Muslim, according to the personal identification card issued by the Egyptian government. These days, however, his religious belief is no longer just a detail on his ID card, but is something he openly practices every day.

The Al Qaramani mosque in El-Arish is now accessible to Bedouins. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS.

“Today, I am breathing religious freedom,” said the young Bedouin man. The holy month of Ramadan, beginning in August, will be a new chance for him—and many other young Egyptian Muslims in the Sinai area in eastern Egypt—to practice their religion and socialise without being harassed by security forces.

In Egypt, though all share the same language, culture and heritage, personal ID cards display the citizen’s religion, even as the government recognises the Abrahamic faiths: Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

The regime of deposed president Hosni Mubarak oppressed many religious sects and their followers, including Muslim scholars who were prevented from teaching in Sinai.

Among those treated as second-class citizens were members of the Bedouin desert tribe, like Al Souarki. An estimated 1.3 million Bedouins live in Sinai, and experienced discrimination in employment and public services, with their religious freedoms curtailed.

The human rights watchdog group U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, in its 2011 annual report, labelled Egypt a “country of particular concern” for the “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

This violation of religious freedoms apparently focused primarily on Muslims, but covered Christians as well. Last January, this IPS correspondent witnessed a leader of Egypt’s Coptic Christian Orthodox Church in the northern city of Mansoura approach State Security for permission to illuminate the church’s roof. Permission was given, although “any further lighting should be announced to the State Security branch office in Mansoura,” the Egyptian officer-in-charge said.

Also in Mansoura, Egyptian Professor Ahmad Rasem El-Nafis had been banned from travelling and was arrested three times, he said, because of his belief in the Shiite Muslim doctrine. A majority of Egyptians belong to the Sunni Muslim sect.

In 2009, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an independent human rights organisation, reported that prosecutors in Samalut, a city on the west bank of the Nile River, investigated a Coptic man for “holding religious rites, with no permit, in his house.”

Other cases include the blocking by security forces of two websites belonging to the Salafist sect, which advocates a literal interpretation of the Quran.

But all that changed with the revolution. Last week, the Rafah Elementary School started a religious and political awareness programme where experts in law, freedoms and Sharia (Islamic law) focus on students’ ability to freely express their views.

At the head of the morning queue to the school was Sheikh Raed Al Attar whose task is to educate students and teachers on the correct concepts of Islam for development and stability. Social science teachers see this as an initial step towards freedom of expression, tapping everyone’s positive energies and views.

Muslim scholars who were previously denied travel permits to Sinai have now been allowed in. For Al Suoarki, this represents “the triumph of the Egyptian revolution” for freedom of religious expression.

On a tour to some of the mosques in the cities of El-Arish and Rafah, in the north of Sinai, Sheikh Abu Khalid Al Tarabin recalled that religious oppression, beatings and torture by the old Mubarak regime were “the reason why a few of the religious youth, under oppression, blew themselves up in desperation.”

Now things are different. “Every day, we hear Muslim scholars and clerics preaching the correct concepts of Islam and not radicalism… we are able to hear more voices talking about the sanctity of blood,” Al Tarabin said.

He expects this religious freedom in Sinai will open the youth up to a better understanding of their own religion. “Hanging people for 90 days in Lazoghly State Security prison is not the way to go,” he said, referring to a friend who was tortured and now suffers permanent damage.

As a Bedouin, Al Tarabin recalled occasions when he was arrested for praying on the last 10 nights of Ramadan, following the 2004 Hilton Taba bombing which killed 34 tourists.

“It seemed to be an arbitrary order to arrest everyone praying in the mosque,” he said.

However, Al Suoarki sees the other side of this religious freedom as a challenge. “We have always been represented as those devils who oppress women, forcing them to wear jilbab and niqab (a long garment and face cover), and who beat people for drinking alcohol and smoking,” he lamented.

“The time has come,” he said with a smile, “to prove those people wrong, as the end of the oppressive regime and the birth of religious freedom will now bring a new type of youth which is ready to integrate with the community and learn the correct Islamic Sharia and Quran, and thus separate Islam from isolated extremism.”

For him and other youth, this has been largely missing and unthinkable in the past three decades of the Mubarak regime, or what the youth now call “the old days of oppression.”

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
EL-ARISH, Feb 24 2011 (IPS)

Abu Mustafa Al Matriah and Abu Ahmed Abu Amrah, both Bedouins in Northern Sinai are thankful to the army that they can complete their daily deliveries without having “to pay so much baksheesh” (gratuity).

An Egyptian soldier relaxes on his tank in Sinai. Credit: Mohammed Omer

“If you don’t pay, things don’t get done” says Al Matriah, a father of seven who has worked transporting sand from the desert to construction sites for the last 30 years. He remembers when he had to tip a police officer 50 Egyptian pounds to ignore a simple mistake he made driving a sand truck in Sinai. “He wouldn’t issue me a ticket, he just kept me waiting, as blackmail, until I paid him cash,” says Al Matriah.

Now, there is a noticeable absence of police. “They are not here anymore, they’ve gone,” Al Matriah laughs says.

There is no state security or police presence across Sinai – Egyptian troops are the only ones in control.

IPS counted all the checkpoints from Rafah to Cairo – 19 Army roadblocks check cars and identity of individuals, over the 400 kilometers. An Egyptian security official told IPS that the number of checkpoints had been reduced from 40 to 19.

Bedouin, who used to quarrel with police, cooperate now – opening their cars, allowing the Army to do their job.

Sipping coffee and thinking about Egypt’s future, Abu Matriah says, “we need economic security – similar to the days of [former Egyptian president] Abdel Nasser when a cup of coffee was a quarter of an Egyptian pound instead of 2 Egyptian pounds it is today. Or when you could buy 1 kilo of sugar for 1.5 EP’s, instead of 5 EP’s.”

“Without connections and tips,” we had no way to get our son employed, said Abu Amrah. Unemployment is a big problem for Egyptian graduates, but for Bedouin youth, this is how the system discriminated against them.

After President Mubarak stepped down, vice president Omar Suleiman announced that the higher council of Armed Forces would take charge of Egypt’s affairs during the transition period.

That decision seems to have been a good one, especially for the Bedouins, who respect the army for being more honest and less prone to corruption and harassment.

Everyone seems to agree that the security situation is much better in Sinai today, and Bedouins are able to express their views without fear of being arrested. Previously, many of the Bedouin youth and online activists were wary of using online blogging to exchange views about their political, economic, educational problems, fearing harassment and arrest by the Egyptian government.

Sinai novelist Mos’ad Abu Fagar experienced harassment while running a blog called Wedna N’ish (We Want to Live), on which he describes the life and hardships of the Bedouins in Sinai – including the citizenship rights they often seek. In 2007, he was arrested at El-Arish police station for his blog.

Amnesty International and The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the 30-month imprisonment of Fagar – he was released in July 2010. The torture Fagar had to endure while detained made other online-activists very cautious about using their real identities.

Fagar says, “the regime did not treat the Bedouins well and did not have enough wisdom, or experience, to contain the Bedouins either.”

Abdelhadi Abu Hujazzi looks to the Egyptian Army as the best model in the world. “There is no way they will blackmail people,” Abu Hujazzi says. “They are good nationals of this land and very sincere – no tips after today.”

The same respect doesn’t apply to the Egyptian Air Force according to Abdelhadi, whose friend Mohammed Al Hamidah had to ask his father to pay 40,000 Egyptian pounds just to enroll in aviation school. “These are not fees; this is corruption. The way the old regime works,” says Abu Hujazzi.

The population here is aware that the Army presence may be short-lived and they fear the old corruption returning. Abu Hujazzi says, “It’s an old era – and its over, even inside us.”

Abu Hujazzi knows that the Army cannot continue to administrate the country for long. He says that their fairness is “a great success for the revolution.” But the idea of fair elections remains a strange one, for him and many more. “Living for 30 years with one regime, makes me feel uncertain of what elections are really all about. We need new faces to draw a new map of the new way forward for Egypt and all Egyptians,” Abu Hujazzi says.

“Whatever comes in the coming months will not be worse than Mubarak,” Abu Hujazzi says.

“At least, Abdel Nasser died without billions of dollars of Egypt’s money in his account,” says Matariah.

“We do not need Obama to help us end the injustice; the Arab States will learn democracy their own way,” says Abu Hujazzi. “Yesterday it was Tunisia, today Egypt, and tomorrow Libya and the rest of the corrupted regimes.”

Abu Hujazzi hopes that sometime next year Arab leaders “which will come by our votes” will have the opportunity to meet to get “to know each other.”

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
RAFAH, Feb 21 2011 (IPS)

It was easy enough to rename Mubarak Children’s Hospital the Al Tahrir Hospital in Gaza. Not so easy is the task of managing patients who need to cross over to the Egyptian side for treatment, or come back in.

Crossing the border, even for medical treatment, has always been an arduous task. Through the period of unrest it has been virtually impossible, although the new government in Egypt shows signs of relenting.

There has been some easing of restrictions on movement, and some indications that the border will be opened Tuesday to allow 300 people through. Priority will be given to urgent medical cases, Gaza security officials told IPS.

On Friday, the Egyptian Army reopened its Rafah crossing one way to allow some Palestinians to enter Gaza Strip.

The change of name for the hospital in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip is symbolic, but shows new hope that the Hamas government in Gaza nurtures of better relations with the new Egypt. Many in Gaza believe that under former president Hosni Mubarak, Egypt has long supported the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

The regime change in Egypt could spell hope for hundreds of patients in Gaza who need to travel out of the Strip for treatment.

The renaming of the hospital is “in honour of Al Tahrir Square in Cairo and the Egyptian revolution that took place recently there,” says Dr Yousef Al Mudallal, chief of staff at the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat had given Mubarak hospital its name when it was set up in 1999. This is the first time a government institution has been renamed in Gaza.

Next to this hospital is Nasser hospital, named after former president Jamal Abdelnasser. Al Tahrir hospital is now considered a part of Nasser hospital, which specializes in paediatric, neo-natal, and maternity care as well as physiotherapy.

Most Gazans have celebrated the removal of Mubarak. But the complete sealing of the border has been disastrous for patients at these and other hospitals.

Among those affected badly is Mona Yassin, 43, diagnosed with breast cancer. She went to a hospital in Cairo just before the revolution started. “I have spent the 8,000 Egyptian pounds (1,260 dollars) I saved for my medical treatment,” she says. She has run out of money to return, or to stay. She and some family members had rented an apartment in Cairo.

“Now, I can neither go back home, nor continue the treatment,” she told IPS. Her husband has meanwhile received notice that if he cannot get back through Rafah, he will lose his job that supports his family, including seven children.

Hamed Afana, 42, died in Egypt while awaiting medical treatment. Afana’s body was brought in through the tunnels underneath the Egypt-Gaza borderline to be buried in Gaza.

When IPS called to check the status of this case, a border official said his records show that the now buried Afana is still abroad.

Since the Mavi Marmara Flotilla attack on May 31 last year, the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has been only partially open for six categories, including those with medical needs, registered students abroad and the few with visas to travel abroad.

During the closure of the crossing, the Hamas de facto government controlled the border tightly. “We are controlling the border and will not allow anybody to get in without permission,” said Ayyoub Abu Shaar.

Abu Shaar said an easing of restrictions is necessary for “the humanitarian cases in Gaza…as there are very urgent cases waiting for medical treatment abroad.”

On a regular day, 300-500 Palestinians cross the border, mainly people in need of medical treatment, and students going abroad.

Palestinian official Dr. Ghazi Hamad says negotiations are in progress to keep Rafah open permanently.

Many Gazans see that Egypt is Gaza’s gateway to the world, and expectation is high that the new government will help to end the siege of Gaza by being more lenient on the Rafah Border Crossing.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
RAFAH, Feb 9 2011 (IPS)

Mustapha Suleiman, 27, from J Block east of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, crosses through gaps in the iron fence on the border carrying bread, water, meat cans and a handful of vegetables for Egyptian soldiers stationed on the other side.

“Whatever you offer on Saturday you will receive on Sunday,” Suleiman says. “I am ready to help with what I have, for all the work they do.”

Egyptian troops have run short of essential supplies, caught up in clashes involving Bedouin groups. Serious clashes have erupted between riot police and Bedouin groups over the past two weeks.

Supplies sent for Egyptian troops have not got through to them. The troops have appealed to people living in El-Arish town on the Egyptian side for help. And for troops on the Gaza border, help has come from Gazans – themselves on small rations as a result of the Israeli blockade.

“We heard the Egyptian soldiers calling out to us, saying they had run out of food,” a policeman in Gaza told IPS. Gazans are now “sharing their limited food with Egyptian soldiers.”

Many people can be seen crossing the ‘Philadelphia Corridor’ that separates Egypt from the Gaza Strip, carrying food and essential supplies. They find enough gaps in the fence and wall built before the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.

Some of the supplies being offered to Egyptian troops have earlier come in from the Egyptian side to Gaza through the underground tunnels. “We overcome our Gazan hurdles under the ground, and when Egyptians need us we will overcome their hurdles above the ground,” Wael Al-Nasri who owns a tunnel tells IPS.

Most tunnels have a shared ownership between Egyptian and Gazan partners. The tunnels are now beginning to see a movement in the opposite direction. Al-Nasri says he recently sent bags of flour back to his partner on the Egyptian side. In the face of clashes, it isn’t just the Egyptian army that is running short of food.

“They have always been there for us these past five years during the Israeli siege of Gaza,” says Al-Nasri. “They help us to stand tall, so we help them.”

Al-Nasri picked up the bags from a shop owned by Mohammed Qishta, to whom he had sold them earlier. Qishta parted with them readily. He has relatives on the Egyptian side, and says there is a scarcity on that side because of “new road blocks set up by violent thugs and armed groups.” Many other dealers are sending goods back to Egypt through the tunnels, he says.

The Palestinian government in Gaza is trying to restrict the outflow of essential goods such as flour and oil, says Qishta. If the flow of Egyptian goods through Sinai on the other side of Gaza comes to a halt, Gaza itself will be hit.

Some tunnel traders are reporting a surge in the demand for light weapons in the face of the worsening security situation on the Egyptian side. Few are prepared to talk about this openly. But this has continued in the past, and many cases have been reported of Egyptian authorities confiscating arms being smuggled through these tunnels.

There seems no indication at present of light weapons being sent to the Egyptian side. But the market price for some weapons is said to have risen. “A Kalashnikov used to cost 400-500 Jordanian dinars (560-700 dollars) before the unrest,” says Al-Nasri. “The price has now doubled. In the lack of security many families who trade through tunnels on the Egyptian side need extra weapons.

Clashes are meanwhile continuing. Firing is heard every now and then in the Sinai area. There have been reports of heavy bombing as well, and of an attempt to blow up a gas pipeline that supplies Israel. There is little detail because media are unable to reach most of Sinai area from Cairo to the West, or from Gaza in the east.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
CAIRO, Feb 2 2011 (IPS)

Khalid Ibrahim Al-Laisi has been a soldier in the Egyptian army for 20 years. Today, far from shooting protesters, he says the time has come “to revolt against oppression.”

With the army on their side, many demonstrators want to keep up the pressure. Credit: Mohammed Omer

Khalid tells IPS just why. “My monthly wage is 1,100 Egyptian pounds (188 dollars). It’s not enough, and I have to do another job in the evenings.” He and his wife struggle to bring up their three children, aged 13, nine and four in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood of Cairo.

“No one can afford to live on these wages,” he says. “There is no joy in life. You bring a child into this world to enjoy life, not to feel trapped. One kilo of meat costs 60 Egyptian pounds (EGP) in today’s market. To eat meat once a week costs me 300 (Egyptian) pounds a month. That leaves no money to go out and do anything else.”

Al-Laisi was promoted recently, and that added 100 EGP to his salary. That went partly to pay for extra tutoring for his son Mohammed. The tutoring costs 300 EGP a month.

The demonstrations have been effective, he says. “The bullet that does not hit, at least makes some noise,” he says, repeating a popular saying in the army. “Nothing comes overnight. But I am going to ask for my needs, because my life, like the life of so many others, has simply become intolerable.”

The army man’s suffering is one with that of the people determined to continue the struggle to get Mubarak out. Mubarak’s declaration that he would leave was a triumph for the demonstrators, but not what many seemed prepared to be satisfied with, although crowds seemed divided on this.

“We still insist he should leave now,” political activist Buthaina Kamel said at Cairo’s Al Tahrir square after Mubarak’s television address Tuesday. Many demonstrators see their success as a revolution, and don’t want to give up.

Mustapha Al-Iraqi, a young oil engineer said he will not leave the square, and expects more protestors through the week. “President Mubarak is fooling around with our demands,” he said.

A high-ranking Egyptian official confirmed that the Egyptian Army will not shoot at protesting people. The officers are expressing the sentiment of the soldiers, says Al-Laisi. “Who are we going to shoot? Our brothers and sisters?”

Groups of demonstrators were planning meanwhile to take their protests closer to Mubarak’s presidential palace. Units of the Egyptian Army are surrounding the palace, which has been fortified with barbed wires and checkpoints.

It is still unclear how far the army will let protests go, and at what point at least some units of the army may step in against the demonstrations if the protesters go that far.

Army units deployed so far have been popular among the people, and particularly the demonstrators. “The army and the people are one – hand in hand”, a group chanted. There has been an outpouring of expressions of support for the army.

The regime clearly wants to defuse the situation for now. Yasmine Al- Jayyoshi, among the organizers of the demonstration, said she feared the regime would punish demonstrators. That was only another reason to stay on and protest, she said.

Al-Laisi said the violence was regrettable, and “private and public properties must be protected.” But, he said, “if the demonstrations are too peaceful, officials do not understand the urgency among the people.”

The protests are undoubtedly people driven, and not organized by parties. Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic party whose members won a fifth of seats in the last parliament despite reports of widespread rigging by the ruling party, seems to hold little sway over the thrust of the demonstrations.

The protests seem driven by wages and prices, and less by politics and ideology.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
SINAI, Feb 1 2011 (IPS)

A Bedouin youth casually spreads out a piece of cloth before a police headquarters in Sheikh Zwayyed town in Sinai, the vast desert area to the east of Cairo across the Suez. “I will leave when Mubarak leaves,” he says.

A lone soldier is no threat to a crowd in Cairo. Credit: Mohammed Omer

The police are rapidly leaving their posts, but some still appear in uniform. One uniformed policeman stands quietly to a side. He is in danger, he seems no danger to others at all. What would he do if attacked? “Just take my uniform off and join the protest,” he tells IPS. “Or maybe just go over to the Palestinian side.”

A youth who gives his name as Hassan Washah has headed off towards Gaza already. To the tunnels underneath the Egyptian-Gaza border, and then in hope of heading home at last to the Buriej refugee camp in Gaza.

Washah had been in prison for years. He was freed by a vast crowd of Bedouin youth who advanced on the jail where he had been kept with scores of others. There was no resistance reported from the police and jail staff; many in fact were reported to have offered assistance.

Sinai is home to many prisons. Countless prisoners have found sudden freedom – nobody seems to know what they were in jail for, and no one wants to ask.

New groups have taken charge, and it’s hard to say who these are. Several check-posts have been set up all the way between Cairo and Sinai. “Who are you,” says a man at one of these checkpoints. This IPS correspondent offers him his Palestinian passport. He glances at it, upside down, and pockets it. After some time he gives it back.

State security in plain clothes, riot police, secret police, the army, Bedouin youth, protesters who had come from Cairo to spread the word – no one seems to know who the people at these check-points are.

Makeshift barricades have been set up all over Sheikh Zwayyed. Looters have run amok. Shops and houses have visibly been stripped of chairs, tables, telephones, files, desks. Some of all this has been burnt in heaps.

Cars have been wrecked. Some had been driven into storefronts so the shops could be looted. Others were overturned and burnt. It seems a shattered war zone. There has been at least some resistance by police.

“There have been many clashes between Bedouin youth and the security forces,” says a young man sitting on the side of the road. A few minutes later, shooting begins, not far away. “It will end soon,” the young man says calmly. He semed in no doubt who would prevail.

There is no doubt either that Bedouin youth are fully armed. It is not clear where they got their weapons from. Nothing seems certain here, and nobody asks questions.

By all accounts there have been many casualties. Again, nobody knows how many, and no one can say what treatment they have been able to get, if any.

The sound of the shooting intensifies. It seems to be directed towards the state security building nearby. The building also houses a large number of prisoners. The youth are determined to clear the building of any police loyal to the regime, and to free all prisoners.

The area appears to have drawn many powerful and armed groups that have converged to free their associates and relatives from the prisons. They look determined to succeed. Some of the men carry heavy weapons.

The groups mingle freely with local Bedouin youth. The deprivation across this area is greater than Cairo has ever known. And the anger seems greater too.

With the anger, Bedouin youth now present a face of triumph. “It is a revolution,” one says simply.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Sep 16 2010 (IPS)

As the many colours of the fish and flowers slowly disappear from the Gaza landscape, the already grim prospects of the besieged residents begins to look even bleaker.

Zaki Al-Habeel (left) prepares his boat. Credit: Mohammed Omer

The same fate has overtaken the local flower farmers whose carnations were the delight of lovers and loved ones across Europe. Gaza used to export 75 million flowers to the EU duty free, before Israel embargoed all export.

There is little movement on the harbour during the day. Only a few fishing boats line the piers of the Gaza Strip.

“The fish are waiting, but the fishermen are being kept away,” says Zaki Al- Habeel, 33- year-old, father of seven. But just before sunset, he is ready to go fishing.

Al-Habeel is not allowed to go as far out as he used to. The fishermen have been set a limit of three miles. “But it is not really three full miles,” he says.

Often he is only a mile-and-a-half out before the Israeli navy fires at him. Al-Habeel and his brothers who are all fishermen risk injuries and damage to equipment every time they sail out.

Over the last decade, the Israeli navy has increasingly restricted Palestinian access to fishing zones along the Gaza beach, a UN report revealed last month.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) compiled the report in cooperation with the World Food Programme (WFP).

The report said Palestinian fishermen have been barred from 85 percent of the naval territory to which they are entitled under the Oslo Agreement of 1993 between Israel and the PLO.

The report also focused on the buffer zone between Israel and Gaza where farmers are shot at for tilling their own lands. The report mentions 22 Palestinians killed and 146 wounded in such incidents since January 2009.

Yet the farmers and fishermen continue to access these prohibited areas, risking their life and limb.

As Al-Habeel says, he and his brothers “have to feed our families”. The last time, the Israeli navy shot out the fuel lines that are connected to his boat. Al-Habeel was just relieved they did not hit the small fuel tank, which is expensive and hard to find.

Last month, a 22-year-old fisherman was hospitalised with gunshot injuries, when he was perhaps a little more than two miles from the shore, other fishermen said.

The plight of the flower growers is just as wretched. Gaza-grown carnations, marketed under the brand name Coral, were popular all over Europe. But the situation has been going downhill for a while. In 2008, IPS had interviewed the carnation farmer Majed Hadaeid when his situation was quite desperate.

He had owned a 130-dunam (32-acre) farm yielding 16-17 million carnations a year in 30 different varieties and colours. This year he has lost his entire four-million-dollar business, and is burdened with debts amounting to 1.5 million dollars.

There is a faint hope though. The European Campaign to Break the Siege on Gaza announced in July that more than 9,000 delegates have applied to take a ‘freedom flotilla’ to Gaza. They are raising 100,000 euros to send an Irish ship this autumn.

Hadaeid hopes these aid boats from Europe will help the other farmers to survive. “We need the flotillas to keep up continuous pressure on Israel,” he said.

The fishermen nostalgically remember that day in August 2008 when the first flotilla arrived and members of the Free Gaza Movement joined them on their boats.

Al-Habeel says, “We were then able to get as far as six miles to fish.”

Everyone cheers the news of another flotilla. Fatima Subhi, a 49-year-old, schoolteacher said, “I welcome such delegations.”

The news has not all been positive though. In May this year, Israelis attacked the Turkish aid boat Mavi Marmara killing many people on board, including a Turkish-American passenger.

Turkish flags are seen at almost every street corner. A dish-seller is wearing a Turkish flag as a T-shirt. “They shed their blood for us, so we wear their flag over our hearts,” he says.

This summer, quite a few Turkish names have appeared on shop fronts. There is the Marmara Restaurant, the Istanbul Café and a ladies cosmetics shop simply called Istanbul.

Samir Al-Ejjel, who owns a shop selling carnations, has designed a bouquet he calls Erdogan in honour of the Turkish Prime Minister and has a Turkish flag flying outside his shop.

There was a report in the Israeli daily Maariv last week that thousands of activists from Western nations, as well as from Arab countries and even Israeli citizens, were preparing to send a flotilla of 30 ships.

Al-Habeel likes to think that the many different people who came by land or sea were just like the wide varieties of fish he used to catch.

As he waits hopefully for the flotillas to return, a younger fisherman talks about the “beautiful ladies” who were on board. “The Israelis do not dare to shoot at (European) women,” he says with a smile.

“Those flotillas gave us hope that rights can be protected — even under gunfire,” he added.

In the past, the fishermen and flower farmers have appealed to the EU for support. But with governments turning a deaf ear, they call on humanitarian activists from around the world. They hold on to the hope that by Christmas there will be more varieties of fish on the table here, and colourful Gaza carnations in the markets of Europe.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
GENEVA, Apr 24 2010 (IPS)

Raed Abu Hammad, 27, was allegedly kicked to death by Israeli prison wardens on Apr. 16. This while Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been on hunger strike since Apr. 7 to press for better treatment.

Families of Palestinians prisoners hold up their pictures at a protest in Gaza city. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS

Qaraqi based his statement on a report he had received from a Palestinian doctor who was present at the autopsy.

However, spokesman for the Israel Prisons Service, Yaron Zamir, maintains that results from the autopsy were still awaited. ‘’The claims made in relation to the prisoner dying after having been beaten are unfounded, untrue and misleading,’’ Zamir said in a statement.

Qaraqi, who spoke with IPS over telephone, said that his ministry would be making a formal complaint in the Israeli courts asking for an immediate, in-depth investigation into the cause of Hammad’s death.

Apr. 17, the day after Abu Hammad was fatally kicked, is observed in the Palestinian Occupied Territories as ‘The Day of Palestinian Prisoners’.

The estimated total number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, detention centres is 7,500. Among these are, 330 children under the age of 18 years, 37 female prisoners and 15 members of the democratically elected legislative council and ministries.

The prisoners are distributed in more than 18 prisons and detention centres across Israel and the West Bank, the biggest are the Negev Desert Prison and Ofer Prison, or what was formerly Incarceration Facility 385, close to the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

Qaraqi said punishment measures meted out to Palestinian prisoners include solitary confinement, denial of visits by family members and limiting access to prison canteen food rations.

Israel also imposes a punishment of 100 US dollars to be collected for each prisoner on hunger strike or does not comply with prison regulations, according to minister Qaraqi.

It is to protest against these conditions that Palestinian prisoners have been on hunger strike since Apr. 7 in what they call the ‘Empty Intestines Battle. Exactly how many prisoners are participating in the hunger strike is unknown.

Demands include medical care for the “most seriously diseased prisoners”, an end to mistreatment of families during visits that includes forcing them to take off their clothes for strip searches.

A statement by the National Senior Committee for Supporting Detainees (NSCSD), that has been functional since the beginning of this year, mentions the increasing number of administrative detainees in Israeli jails.

According to Riad Al Ashqar, press officer with the NSCSD, the number of administrative detainees now stands at 290 prisoners, an issue which he considers a “humanitarian crime” since they are mostly being held without charges.

He mentioned a number of documented cases, including that of former minister of prisoners Wasfi Qabha from the former Palestinian National Government, whose prison sentence was extended six times. Qabha was, however, released this week and a huge reception was accorded him by his family and friends at the Al Dahireah checkpoint close to Hebron.

“Administrative detention is a model of psychological torture, where prisoners never know when he/she will be released, but instead are subjected to extended detention anytime,” Al Ashqar said.

Al Ashqar also spoke of reports which lack information on the actual charges against these prisoners, but document violations of prisoners’ rights.

As of Palestinian Prisoners Day some 20 percent of Palestinian prisoners were in need of medical treatment or psychological support. The reports said 16 prisoners have cancer, 88 are diabetics needing stabilisation, 25 have kidney failure and 23 have disabilities.

Hammad was physically fit although he had been ‘’kept in solitary confinement for more than a year for breaking a TV monitor in the prison accidentally,’’ his mother said.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
THE HAGUE, Nov 12 2009 (IPS)

"We fast a long time," says Gaza graduate Mona Ismail, 23. "Only to break our fast on a piece of onion."

A graduation ceremony in Gaza. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS

"I am now considering community volunteer work with organisations that offer English classes," she says, reached on phone from The Hague.

Gaza, considered by much of the world a troubled slum, has near universal literacy, and fine centres of learning. But then, no work afterwards for most.

Women are affected more than the men. Large numbers of women graduates are now searching for simple jobs in kindergartens. Many of these are not officially registered with the education ministry, and therefore offer low wages, often as little as 100 dollars a month.

An education official says the kindergartens cannot be blamed, because they can charge only very low fees, and get little support from the ministry. "We are caught between shutting down completely and putting the kids on the street, or working in half-empty classrooms on minimal budgets," says the director of a kindergarten school.

Ruba Ibrahim, who graduated from Al-Azhar University three years back is now teaching in a kindergarten after failing to get a proper job in a public school. "For that I need Vitamin W," she says. By 'W' she means "wasta", Arabic for connections.

A tradition-bound society limits female participation in work, Wedad Sourani, deputy director of The Society of Women Graduates in Gaza, which has more than 3,500 members, tells IPS. "Those who are lucky enough to find jobs are discriminated against in the salary they earn – even if the female is better qualified than the male."

The Palestinian Central Bureau recorded a 41.3 percent rate of participation in the labour force among those aged 15 and above last year. That means just four in ten people 15 and above are in paid work. Female employment was 15.2 percent, compared with 66.8 percent for males. Regionally, it was 17.1 percent females in the West Bank and 11.7 percent in the Gaza Strip.

Some women graduates say it is not just women who are affected. "If this was true, I would have married someone who is employed," says fresh graduate Abu Obeid. "But male graduates are also finding it hard to get jobs."

As a male graduate says, "What is the point of having higher education when we have certificates hanging on the wall but no career."

Some students blame Hamas. "We are entering a very dark tunnel," says 30- year-old Samah Shakfah, who graduated recently after a nine-year gap in education. The siege of Gaza and the divide between Hamas and the Fatah- dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has driven Gaza into deeper isolation with each passing month, she says.

"Had I known that voting for Hamas would lead to this siege, I would have advised my family and friends to save their votes for next time."

As unemployment continues to rise, aid programmes are not always a help, says Wedad Sourani. "Some international organisations stipulate goals and conditions that are not solutions to our societal problems." Money is often wasted on small projects in Gaza while the larger problems like unemployment are ignored, she says.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNWRA) has announced new emergency programmes to double temporary job opportunities for thousands of unemployed people in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

John Ging, operations director of UNRWA, says the organisation has increased the number of temporary jobs to 14,000. Of these, 3,100 will be to support the struggling private sector, which Ging notes is on the brink of collapse due to the tight blockade that has meant loss of jobs for 120,000 private employees.

The new programme, he says, aims to secure jobs "for businessmen, ordinary people and those who want to support their families." The support includes payment over six months for removing rubble and rebuilding factories, and to service buildings and infrastructure damaged during the December- January Israeli offensive.

Samah hopes new programmes will include more women. "It's not that we don't have many female professionals, because we do. But we need a long- term solution to decrease unemployment in Gaza, and give us a chance. Just like the western nations who value the professional achievements of their women and try hard to utilise them in the appropriate field."

A survey by the group Near East Consulting of 1,300 Palestinian youths between age 16-25 in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem shows that a quarter of Palestinian youths aspire to succeed in business, 23 percent with practical skills, 17 percent in engineering, 13 percent in medicine, and about 10 percent each in law and in nursing.

The study showed that 46 percent of Palestinian youth are living below the poverty line. A UN worker says "the youths who do get jobs are frustrated to not be working within their qualification field, and so many tend to join the military factions."

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
AMSTERDAM, Aug 16 2009 (IPS)

Call it that choice between looking at the half-full or half-empty part of the results. And it is almost half; 55 percent of schoolchildren passed their exams in Gaza this year.

Some students triumph in Gaza. Credit: Mohammed Omer

Hanan Al-Manameh scored 99.4 percent in science, the sixth highest in the exams conducted both in Gaza and the West Bank. "The war and the siege on Gaza will not break us down," she tells IPS on phone from Gaza City. "The war didn't put an end to the school year, and it didn't kill the motivation inside me."

Mahmoud Al-Segali, 18, scored 99.5 percent. "My family had to move from one shelter to another while Israeli F-16s bombed the houses around us. Then, and later, we have been short of electricity, and short of paper, but I still managed my dream result."

School children are getting used by now to studying without paper – and that's not because they have computers. "I had to use my textbooks as my class notebooks as well," says secondary student Dua'a Khalil. The siege has brought shortage of paper among other things.

Of the 47,469 students who passed the exam, 1,189 scored more than 90 percent. They had to survive more than three weeks of Israeli bombing – though that killed many children. Disruption came earlier after hundreds of teachers went on strike. Many were threatened with salary cuts as a way of exerting pressure on Hamas (the teachers in Gaza are paid by the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank).

"The results of the secondary school exams of this year have a special meaning, because it was difficult and full of obstacles and blood during the aggression on both the West Bank and Gaza," Hamas de facto Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh said at a rare public appearance to honour students who had excelled. The government also awarded certificates posthumously to 23 high school students and to 12 teachers killed during the Israeli bombing.

But then, there is the other half that failed. No doubt the successes, and the overall improvement in the pass percentage can be summoned as argument that the Israeli bombing made no difference. But there is no simple statistical way of determining such an effect. Some children are more affected by such upheavals than others; that's just the way children are.

What is doubtless is the mountainous difficulties in the way, for those who overcame them, and for those who could not. And these are not the sort of difficulties children face in many schools around the world.

"Gaza has suffered severe shortage of paper; many books did not arrive till late in the year, and some did not arrive at all," Gaza-based education ministry spokesman Khalid Radi told IPS. "Supplies of ink and paper are no longer available."

Many teachers "are concerned about students' inability to concentrate, and this has become worse after the war on Gaza." Sometimes it is a far more basic issue than concentration, says Radi. "In many schools children can't see what is written on the blackboard because of inadequate lighting due to shortage of electricity."

Seventy-five new schools were due to be constructed in Gaza, but the Israeli siege means there are now no construction materials to build them with. The average number of children in a classroom has meanwhile risen from 40 to 55. Thirteen schools in Gaza were demolished in the bombing, 176 were damaged.

Diab Jumma, 18, is among those students who did not clear the exam. "My mother fainted when she heard," he says. "It's not that I don't have the time to read, but when I do I am just not able to understand. I get nightmares about the bombing, and when I sit to read a book I find it hard to collect my thoughts and put them into studies."

Such problems are common, deputy minister for education Dr. Yousif Ibrahim tells IPS. He speaks of the Al-Samnouni family. "How is it possible for a student to focus when he has seen the flesh and blood of his parents' body stuck on the walls of a room of what was once his home?" Twenty-eight members of that family were killed in the bombing.

And yet Gaza's results are comparable with those in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, says Dr. Ibrahim. "And imagine, in those countries they have all the budgets, the stability, the means to create a proper atmosphere for education."

But some children will always triumph. And they set their own standards for success. Al-Segali with his 99.5 percent marks failed in his own way. "It was his handwriting that prevented him from getting that extra 0.5 percent," says Dr. Ibrahim. "He must work on that."

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
AMSTERDAM, Apr 27 2009 (IPS)

Mohammed Al-Sheikh Yousef could save his eyesight if only he could cross the border out of Gaza. He was denied a permit by Israel; he got one from Egypt, but not for someone to accompany him. And he can't go on his own because he cannot see very well.

Gazan children protesting at the Rafah border with Egypt. Credit: Mohammed Omer

"In the past few weeks we have received 150 appeals from people in Gaza who are in need of urgent medical care," says Ran Yaron from Physicians for Human Rights, a human rights group in Israel that campaigns on behalf of Palestinian patients to obtain exit permits for healthcare.

"We submitted 99 applications to the Israeli army on behalf of the patients, but only 15 cases were approved," Yaron told IPS. "Israel as the occupying power has primary responsibility for the health of the civilians of Gaza because it controls the crossings. It should not use the patients as a political tool."

The emergency staff often stand by helpless spectators to suffering. "I just received a call from the mother of a four-year-old child from Jabalyia refugee camp in the north, her son has congestive heart failure and respiratory distress," said Dr. Hasaneen. "As an official I can't stand watch her child dying simply because medical treatment is not available in Gaza and the borders are closed." But he has no option but to do just that.

The Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights based in Gaza says that at least 41 Gazans died last year of causes that can be attributed to the collapse of the medical referral process. Currently, it says the condition of hundreds of Gazans is deteriorating rapidly.

For Gazans, what happens at the border crossings can make the difference between life and death. Medicines for many easily treated diseases sit across the Rafah crossing with Egypt or the Erez crossing into Israel. Patients cannot get across, and most medicines are not allowed in.

Egypt says it can only reopen the border fully with the co-operation of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority – which has no control over Gaza. Meanwhile at least 750 patients in urgent need of treatment outside Gaza are unable to leave, according to medical sources in Gaza.

The Rafah crossing has been blocked for much of the time since Hamas took full control of Gaza in June 2007, after winning elections in January 2006. In the interim it had shared rule with the Fatah party which has its government entrenched in the West Bank.

Egypt recently opened the crossing for a few days. Ihab Al-Ghousin from the de facto Palestinian Ministry of Interior said that was "not long enough to allow people to get out and come back in." Some patients from Gaza made it across to hospitals in Egypt, but could not return.

Last week, dozens of Palestinian patients in urgent need of medical treatment made it somehow to the Rafah crossing along with family members to stage a demonstration. They waved flags and held banners saying 'We call on Egypt to save our lives' and 'We call on all parties to exclude the Rafah crossing from political disputes'.

Under a U.S.-brokered deal in 2005, the Fatah-led Palestinian National Authority was given charge of operating the Gaza crossing under EU supervision. Egypt and the EU refuse to deal with the democratically elected Hamas government.

Israel refuses to communicate with the Palestinian Medical Committee set up by the Hamas-led Ministry of Health in Gaza. It wants to negotiate with a committee of the Ramallah-based Fatah government led by Mahmoud Abbas.

"The international community should demand from Israel that more coordination mechanisms are set up in order to enable Palestinian patients to get access to healthcare outside of the Gaza Strip," says Yaron.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
AMSTERDAM, Jan 9 2009 (IPS)

On the phone from Gaza, Zahrah Salem shares the news she has just seen, that so many at the White House were “deeply saddened” by the death of the cat India Willie. Why, she asks, is nobody at the White House deeply saddened by the death of so many children in Gaza.

After a pause she says, “At least the cat did not die hungry, like the children in Gaza.”

Zahrah Salem, 64, has four children and 15 grandchildren to worry about. Day after day of bombing brings blessing they are still there. “We all sleep in one room,” she says. “So if we die, we die together. What if we die and the children don’t, we don’t want to leave them behind to suffer.”

These days the injuries suffered by this IPS correspondent at the hands of the Israelis on trying to return home to Gaza seem trivial in the face of what is going on in Gaza. And in the face of the fears over the fate of family and friends back home.

From the comfort of a hospital in Amsterdam, thoughts seem focussed day and night on survivors, on who might perhaps be in hospital in Gaza – lucky enough to make it to hospital, lucky enough perhaps to be still there. And on what a very different place a hospital in Gaza can be from one in Amsterdam.

“We do not receive patients, we receive remains,” says Ahmed Abdelrahman, a staff nurse at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The sound of ambulance sirens screams into the phone as we speak. “It is a job sometimes to put limbs together in the morgue, to find out which body part belongs to who.”

Staff risk their lives to save the injured. “We have been shot at many times as we evacuate injured people or collect bodies,” says Abdelrahman. “I have as we speak eight calls from the east side from people who are bleeding, including two women. But our ambulance crew was fired on by the Israelis as they went to help.”

Dr. Mawia Hassanien, head of emergency services at Shifa Hospital says at least 12 emergency workers have been killed and 32 injured. Eleven ambulances have been destroyed.

The injured who are brought to hospital successfully find little treatment possible. The Egyptian authorities have opened the Rafah crossing briefly on a few occasions to allow in medical supplies. But that is a small fraction of what Gaza needs.

Many in Gaza, including Hamas members, say they do not know what to do to stop this. Some scattered groups not under Hamas control continue to fire rockets into Israel. These rockets have killed four and injured 40, and spread serious anxiety among Israelis in Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheba, Sderot and some other towns in western Negev.

But the rockets are only an excuse for Israel to destroy the Palestinian structure, Gazans say. An Israeli military spokesman has said the Israeli Defence Forces trained for the attack 18 months at a model of the main city on a desert army base. “Our soldiers know all the back streets where the targets are,” he said.

Abu Ghasam, 42, of Buriej refugee camp, says he cannot understand the Israeli assault, and “why the people being killed are the civilians here, and not the ones launching the rockets.”

Ghasam, father of six, has little time to worry about these questions, though. His main concern is to use a few hours of ceasefire to buy bread for his children. He usually finds bakeries closed. For the safe, hunger is now becoming a greater problem, by the hour.

Zahrah Salem knew people close by who have been killed. She can see the mourning tents. “But I am afraid to go and pay condolences,” she says. “The Israeli planes are hitting us everywhere.”

She can hear them again and again, and she can hear the bombs and missiles come screaming down. But she does not close the window. If the bomb just misses you, there will be the glass splinters.

*IPS correspondent Mohammed Omer is in treatment in Amsterdam for injuries he suffered at the hands of Israeli soldiers at a crossing on return to Gaza in June last year. He was returning from Europe after winning an award for his reporting.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Oct 21 2008 (IPS)

The letter of acceptance that 28-year-old Hazem Hussain got for a business graduate programme in a Californian university once brought joy. Now he does not know what to do with it.

Looking out to a future in captivity. Credit: Mohammed Omer

“I have tried to get out through every means possible for a year now,” he says. “But I am not able to go.” The semester started some weeks ago.

Twenty-two-year old Saed Badawi got admission to a German university, but he too is stuck. “I am devastated by this – getting my visa renewed will take a long time, with all the new procedures and requirements.”

Eighteen-year-old Juliet Al-Tork, accepted in Jordan’s Al-Yarmouk University for a translations course, is among the hundreds not being allowed by Israel to leave. “All young people are given the chance to study, and I am not.”

“Israel is preventing the very people it should be encouraging,” says Sari Bashi, executive director of the Gisha Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement, a human rights Israeli group lobbying on behalf of Palestinian students against the closure policy. “Israel is not just denying Palestinian rights, it is also hurting its own interests.” Bashi says that close to a thousand students attempt to leave Gaza each year to pursue higher education; universities in Gaza offer only undergraduate degrees. This year about a third of them were allowed out.

“By letting out a few people, Israel has been able to deflect attention from the hundreds of students and 1.5 million people still trapped in Gaza,” Bashi says. “Punishing innocent civilians for the behaviour of political leaders violates international prohibitions, and qualifies as collective punishment.”

Egypt’s complicity has been especially troubling for the students. Egypt could well let these students through its Rafah border crossing. It does let in students from Gaza to its own universities. And, students say, if Hamas leaders can go into Egypt, why not they.

Israeli security has on occasion pursued students even after they have left. A Fulbright scholar had his visa revoked upon arrival in Washington DC after Israel tagged him with an unspecified security warning.

The official Israeli explanation is summed up in a Jul. 7, 2008 letter from then Knesset member and Israeli minister for foreign affairs, Tsippi Livni: “The policy of not permitting exit abroad for students from Gaza is part of the Security Cabinet decision from 19.09.07 which defined Gaza as a hostile entity and placed restrictions on the borders for passage of goods and movement of people from the Strip and to it except for humanitarian cases.”

Israel declared Gaza a “hostile entity” after failing to overthrow the elected government in an attempted coup with the help of U.S.-trained Fatah fighters during the summer of 2007.

There is now a Stranded Students Committee. Its representative Murad Bahloul says members are planning to erect a tent close to the Rafah border in protest. “All students have agreed to go on hunger strike until we are let out and allowed to attend our universities,” he says.

Bahloul was accepted by a British university last year but was never allowed by the Israelis to leave. This year a Malaysian university granted him a place to study construction management, and he fears this opportunity will be missed too.

With every passing day, futures fade. “I feel so disappointed, Hazem Hussein says. “I can’t continue my education. I can’t cross, and this keeps me away from the free world.” If he cannot leave soon, he loses another year – at least.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Sep 23 2008 (IPS)

So much is missing as you walk down the street along the shops of Gaza. Food and medicines kept out by the blockade enforced by Israel; but also newspapers once a part of the street landscape.

Journalists protesting against censorship outside the UN office in Gaza. Credit: Mohammed Omer

Of the two big Palestinian territories, Gaza is ruled by Hamas, and the West Bank by Fatah. Fighting between the two groups has led to a silencing of voices on both sides.

Hamas affiliated police forces banned three newspapers in Gaza Jul. 28 this year; of them Al-Quds has now been allowed in. Earlier in June the West Bank authorities banned Falsteen and Al-Risalah, two newspapers affiliated with Hamas.

“We have given them some guidelines to report more professionally, but they have refused to deal with us,” Hamas spokesman Taher Al-Nounno told IPS, speaking of the Fatah publications. “The newspapers have been publishing lies and instigating unrest.”

In the West Bank, Nimir Hamad, political advisor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said “Al-Rasalah and Falasteen are both propagandist papers calling for strife, they are publishing extremist and fundamentalist thinking.”

Journalists and camera crews working for a Hamas-owned television station in the West Bank were arrested. So were journalists working for Fatah-supporting media in Gaza. Both sides have closed radio stations, and both have confiscated media equipment.

The international watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF, Reporters Without Borders) has said that at least nine media outlets have ceased operating in Gaza since July 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza after a landslide win in elections in January 2006. Of these outlets, three were state-owned, and six privately owned.

The Basic Law of the Palestine Authority (PA) declares that every person has the right to freedom of thought and expression. But in 1995 the PA passed a law against criticism of the Palestinian Authority or its president. That law is now being implemented in the attacks on newspaper offices and journalists.

The law does not apply to foreign media. But Human Rights Watch has noted that an increasing number of independent journalists are opting out of the region because the risks are too many.

And far too often now, nobody is around to report the many abuses that take place. “Over the past 12 months, Palestinians in both places (the West Bank and Gaza) have suffered serious abuses at the hands of their own security forces, in addition to persistent abuses by the occupying power, Israel,” HRW has stated.

The HRW report says that since taking control of Gaza last year, Hamas has tortured detainees, carried out arbitrary arrests of political opponents, and clamped down on freedom of expression and assembly. And that Fatah has done exactly the same.

Israel brought censorship to this Promised Land long back. In 1971 then Israeli prime minister Golda Meir wiped the name of Palestine off all maps produced in Israel. Israeli occupation forces declared all Palestinian symbols like flags and posters illegal.

During the first Intifadah (1987-1992), the name given to the Palestinian uprising, and again in the second (since September 2000), Israeli authorities have closely censored Palestinian publications, ordering removal of ‘security’ related information.

Israeli authorities have arrested media personnel, beaten them up and denied them press cards. RSF says Israeli soldiers have shot at least nine Palestinian journalists.

But beyond Israel and the Palestinian factions, the blame for censorship lies with those champions of freedom, the European Union and the United States, HRW says. That arises from the funding and the political protection they have given to security forces, it says.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Sep 15 2008 (IPS)

A strike call has trapped thousands of teachers between Fatah unions and a Hamas government.

A teachers strike leaves children outside the classroom. Credit: Mohammed Omer

Of the Palestinian territories, Gaza strip is ruled by a Hamas government and the West Bank (that actually lies to the east of Gaza strip but is so called because it is the west bank of Jordan river) by the Fatah Party led by Abbas.

Teachers last went on strike a year ago because of Israeli and Western sanctions that choked funds as a punishment for takeover of the Gaza administration by Hamas, after it won the election earlier in 2006. But this strike has brought one set of Palestinians against another.

Teachers in Gaza say they were ordered by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) to stay home or have their salaries withheld, and even face dismissal. And at the same time, the Hamas government threatened to sack striking teachers. Hamas controls administration of Gaza, but PA pays the salaries.

"I was informed by an official that I had been dismissed for not supporting the strike," Mussa al-Astal, a social studies teacher at a secondary school in Khan Younis, a city located in the south of Gaza Strip, told IPS. Astal says he also found his name listed on a Fatah-affiliated website.

Palestinian minister for the media Riad al-Malki in Ramallah denied the allegation. "We did not call for a strike, and there will be no cutting off of salaries for Gaza's employees." But many teachers have found that salaries have not been paid into their banks.

Several PA backed unions are working now against the Hamas government. Hamas has immediately called for new teachers to substitute those on strike, but has not found many with the necessary qualifications and experience.

Jameel Shehada, general secretary of the Teachers' Union, said the strike had been called to protest against "the actions Hamas took against the teachers," including the transfer of many teachers in order to appoint Hamas supporters in their place. Deputy minister for education in Gaza Mohamed Abu Shoqeir denies this. "The transfer of teachers was an administrative issue, enforced after we saw that just 16 percent students succeeded in some secondary schools last year."

Fatima Zaqzouq, a school head in Khan Younis, says the transfer of teachers "was not a well thought-out and rational decision. It served only political interests. It's the students and the people who lose out." Half the teachers in her school were absent, she said, frightened by the threat of salary cuts.

The teachers strike in Gaza has hit the opening of the school year. The strike has affected all 282 government-run schools in the Gaza Strip, and about 300,000 students. The 213 schools run by the United Nations, and their 197,000 students, are not affected.

But despite the strike, students' attendance has been close to 100 percent, even if studies are well short. "The first day, we had just half a day in school, and half of the teachers were away," said 16-year-old student Isra al-Najjar. "We are not happy with this strike."

Hamas-affiliated police have called many teachers to police stations, and some were forced to go to work, according to the independent Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR).

PCHR says the PA threat of salary cuts is illegal, and serves the interests of Fatah rather than the demands of employees. The move also raises questions whether the international money coming in is for the needs of teachers or the games of political parties, it says.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Aug 18 2008 (IPS)

In the death of poet Mahmoud Darwish, Palestine has lost a voice.

Palestinians have always looked up to Mahmoud Darwish. Credit: Mohammed Omer

Darwish, who died last Saturday Aug. 9, was born in the northern Palestinian village Birwah, six years before the state of Israel came into being. When that happened in 1948, Darwish and his family fled the massacres to Lebanon.

He returned the following year, too late to be included in Israel's census of Palestinians who had remained. There was no record of his existence, his village had been erased from the new map drawn up by the Israelis.

This was the fate of at least three-quarters of a million Palestinians. But Darwish gave it a voice as no one else did.

In 1964, he wrote a poem, 'Identity Card':

Record!
I am an Arab
And my identity card is number fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth is coming after a summer
Will you be angry?
Record!
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged…

Darwish wrote often of identity, exile, his past, and of a collective Palestinian memory. He wrote of Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, but also of what Palestinian factions were doing to one another.

After the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007, he wrote: "We have triumphed. Gaza won its independence from the West Bank. One people now have two states, two prisons that do not greet each other. We are victims dressed in executioners' clothing. We have triumphed, when we know that it is the occupier who really won."

Through the pain, Darwish often wrote with a bitter humour. From his sick bed he once wrote:

Relax. Perhaps you are exhausted today,
Dog-tired of warfare among the stars.
Who am I that you should pay me a visit?
Do you have the time to consider my poem?
Ah, no. It's none of your affair.
You are charged only with the earthly body of man,
Not with his words and deeds.

O Death, all the arts have defeated you,
All the Mesopotamian songs.
The Egyptian obelisk, the Pharaoh's tombs,
The engraved temple stones,
All defeated you, all were victorious.

Inevitably, Darwish was not just a poet but a political figure, and for long a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). In 1988 Darwish wrote the official Palestinian Declaration of Independence, read in Algeria by late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat at the National Council of the PLO. But he later quit the PLO in protest against the concessions of the Oslo Accords of 1993.

But he kept writing. Through the second Intifadah, he wrote 'A State of Siege'.

During the siege, time becomes space
That has hardened in its eternity.
During the siege, space becomes time
That is late for its yesterday and tomorrow.

"Mahmoud Darwish was not only a poet, but a messenger carrying the message of a whole cultural project," former Palestinian minister for culture Dr. Ibrahim Ibrash said. Darwish "created balance and protected the Palestinian identity."

Darwish wrote 20 books of poems, and five books of prose. At age 22, in 1964, he had already published his first book of poetry, Leaves of Olives. He won numerous awards, including the Lotus Prize, the Lenin Peace Prize, the Stalin Peace Prize, the Lannan Foundation Prize for Cultural Freedom, and France's highest honour, the Knight of Arts and Letters.

Many of Darwish's poems have been used as the lyrics of some of the Arab world's most famous songs, including those of the celebrated Marcel Khalife.

Darwish died in a U.S. hospital where he had been taken for open heart surgery. One of Darwish's closest friends, the Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan, told IPS that Dariwsh had to wait three months to obtain a U.S. visa. Zaqtan says that while the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem was supportive, they could not avoid the "complicated system" which Palestinians must wade through in order to obtain visas.

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Jun 18 2008 (IPS)

The girl, about 16, is wandering about Jebaliya refugee camp, picking up anything she thinks can burn. She cannot find enough bits of wood, so she gathers plastic bags, old notebooks and even a pair of broken plastic sandals.

In the long wait for gas. Credit: Mohammed Omer

Not far away, Mohammed Abu Elenin, 23, exhaustion all over his face, prepares for a fourth night outside a gas station to refill his canister. His brother Nour has sat up with him. Earlier he could get half a fill. Now he doesn't know what may come, but waits.

"Some weeks ago, I managed to get a half cylinder of cooking gas," he says. "It lasted just one week. Now we have nothing to cook with."

His family, like others, have turned to cooking over makeshift fires. That fills houses with smoke, and it is dangerous. And now firewood too is scarce.

Umm Othman, 43, mother of nine, waits like the others. "It's become impossible for me to feed and take care of my children and my husband," she says. Her sons are not at home, she has sent them to queue for gas.

And amidst all this, come questions who is to blame, Hamas or Israel. "I can't stand it," says a woman sharing a crowded taxi on way from Rafah border crossing to Gaza City. "There is no gas, and there is no space to make a fire." "This is Palestinians' choice," says a man in the taxi. We voted for Hamas, and now we should take the consequences."

At once, several passengers turn against him. They accuse him of trying to turn people against the democratically elected Hamas. Another passenger, Mosbah Abu Dayiah, 43, speaks against Hamas. "If they can't manage, they should leave the government to others who can." The others turn now against him, and insist they will stand by Hamas.

Gaza is on the brink, and Israel is keeping it that way. Israel makes sure Gaza gets just a fraction of its needs of fuel, says Mahmoud al-Khozendar, vice-president of the Petrol Station Owners Association. And when it does come in, the priority is fishermen, bakeries and farmers.

But he finds this is doing Hamas little harm. "The fact that Israel has created the cooking gas and fuel shortage is actually helping Hamas maintain support," he says.

Following the visit by the UN fact-finding mission led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Israel has allowed a little more fuel in, says Khozendar. But shortages are being exacerbated now by a diversion of cooking gas to run cars.

One taxi driver began running his car on expensive olive oil. He asked his passengers therefore to pay more. And that led to arguments with passengers. "I also have a family to feed," he pleaded. He begged the passengers to consider also that his car will be ruined if he uses too much olive oil.

In home after home, in street after street, such struggles continue. Abu Dayiah doesn't see it getting any better. "The world doesn't care."

Excerpt:

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Jun 15 2008 (IPS)

Mahmoud Abu Teior (13) knows it's Abdullah's kite up in the skies, though he has never seen Abdullah. But that kite rises into the skies from just that place on the Egyptian side of the border across from Gaza. And, Mahmoud knows Abdullah's voice because they speak sometimes. They have never met, and likely never will, but they are connected through their kites.

It's the time for kites, never mind the border. Credit: Mohammed Omer

Mahmoud has always known the border as playground. This is where the family home was before it was demolished to make room for the border wall. "I always come here because this is where our house used to be," he says, launching his kite.

Most children still play from 'home', where Block O, Yebna, Block J, or the al-Salam neighbourhood used to be. The playground is that strip of no man's land known as the Philadelphia corridor, created over 2,400 homes razed ahead of the 'disengagement' by Israel in 2005. That 'disengagement' made about 16,800 people homeless here, according to UN figures.

Only kites can now cross the border. And up in the skies you can almost tell some of the Gaza kites apart. These are the ones made with newspapers and with plastic bags as sail, with some thorns stuck on for the dogfight up there. The usual materials like paper and glue to make a kite are scarce in Gaza.

Khalid Zanoun, 12, like the others, always picks the spot where his house once stood. Up in the skies, he suddenly loses his kite in a dogfight. "He ran away from me!" he screams, looking at his disappearing kite, fists clenched. But soon he is beaming again, preparing another kite for the next battle with his unseen mates on the other side.

Curiosity led him some time back to scale the wall and see what his mates look like. "This is not allowed any more," he says. "The Hamas guards on our side and the Egyptian border guards on the other stop us."

Not entirely, though, because boys will be boys. If nothing, they climb up just to say hello to the Egyptian guards.

It's the better world on the other side. The Egyptian boys have better kites, and they have shoes. In Gaza, most children run barefoot on the sizzling hot soil. Shoes have been priced out of reach for most people, as so many things are nowadays as a result of the Israeli siege.

Mahmoud has four brothers working in Egypt. He dreams of joining them one day, of working in Egypt as an engineer, and not as day labourers as they do. "I have been to Egypt once," he says. That is when the border was breached for a few days in January. "I loved it."

But he's not so sure he can become an engineer. The family has no money to send him to university. His family came here as refugees in 1948 when Israel was created on the land where they lived. Now they have become homeless again, and are back in a refugee camp.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) helped re-house the families, and helps even to make some summer games possible for children. But it is hard to provide for about a quarter of a million children in Gaza.

Another boy comes up to join Mahmoud. He lifts his shirt to show a wound he received from shrapnel during an Israeli assault. He too lost his home. Everyone knows why. But for the moment, his thoughts are on his kite.

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By Mohammed Omer
RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza, May 19 2008 (IPS)

Holding up an old copper key, Yousef al-Hums settles down to retell the story of his eviction from what was once his home, and now is Israel. Because only the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel is over, the occupation of home of which al-Hums still keeps a key is not.

Yousef al-Hums still holds the key to what was once his house. Credit: Mohammed Omer

Palestinian children do not learn of that event from history books, but from people like al-Hums. "We cannot return to our homes today," he tells his sons and about 50 of his grandchildren gathered around him, with the key raised. "But you are going to return to your grandfather's home in Yebna village."

That the home or the village does not exist any more only adds to the emotion around the upheld key. "Every day I pray that when I die I am buried on my land in Yebna," he says. "Those were the most beautiful days of my life. Everyone in our village supported every other."

Al-Hums got married in 1947 at age 15. And then in May 1948 it all changed.

"It was about 2am. We all had to run after we heard that the Haganah (a Jewish force at the time) had invaded our village." Like others, he fled with his wife to Gaza, the only exit route left. He barely survived, he said, and showed scars on his hand he said came from an attack by a British helicopter backing the Jewish forces.

Today, home is the Yebna refugee camp in Gaza, where he lives with his two wives, seven sons and the many grandchildren.

He has been back to the real Yebna twice, the first time in 1976 and the second in 2000. By the second visit, he said, nothing was left of the farm as he had known it. "They took away everything and all is destroyed," he said.

But still, he keeps the key. It gave his story an anchor. And it appeared before the children as a command to action to reclaim their home and heritage.

There is almost nothing by way of a single history of the events 60 years back; only stories of very different kinds told on both sides. As al-Hums told it, Yebna was one of 675 towns and villages Jewish forces destroyed. They were later built over as Israeli towns or covered over with tree plantations.

The build-up to the eviction had begun earlier, al-Hums told the children gathered around him. "At first Jewish groups arrived as guests in our homes," he said. "Some slept in our big two-storey house." Then came offers to buy Palestinian land at prices well below the market price. Some sold, others who stayed on were eventually forced off their land and out of their homes. Overnight, prosperous families became refugees.

What is not in doubt is the very large number of Palestinians who had to flee their homes; by Palestinian estimates about 750,000. Many of them are now seeing a fourth generation grow up in refugee camps.

Palestinians who stayed behind found themselves facing discrimination, humiliation and poverty. Much of that continues today.

As does the inability of Arab countries to fight for the Palestinians, diplomatically or otherwise. Back in 1948 an Arab force drawn from Egypt, Jordan and Syria was no match for the Jewish forces, who had strong British and U.S. backing, as they do today.

The story from al-Hums, and the stories like this told and retold in family after family of Palestinian refugees carry force because Palestinians see more of the same forces against them day after day. The stories all tell of a happy and proud life destroyed by force and deceit.

The copper key does its bit to make sure that the young do not at least lose their anger.

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By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, May 14 2008 (IPS)

The Israeli siege of Gaza that has restricted access to food, water and medicine is now beginning to hit unborn children and newborn babies.

It can be a hard life for babies from day one, or even earlier. Credit: Mohammed Omer

That in turn happens because the Israeli blockade has choked the supply of food and medicines.

Dr al-Rantisi also heads the women's health unit at Nasser hospital, where about 30 to 40 children are born every day. Many suffer from anaemia, he says.

Anwaar Abu Daqqa, 30, has lost three babies prematurely. The foetuses were malformed as a result of lack of nutrition and medicine for the mother, Dr al-Rantisi said. And in the last case she reached hospital late because she could not find transport.

"Premature babies born dangerously underweight is a daily and increasing phenomenon in Gaza's hospitals," he says.

The Gaza Strip is poorer and harder hit than the West Bank, but there too there are well documented instances of women having to give birth at checkpoints because of restrictions on movement.

The ministry of health says 9,000 to 10,000 babies are born in the Gaza Strip every month. Of every 1,000 born, 28 die from malnutrition, anaemia and other poverty-related causes. The ministry has no figures for surviving babies suffering from malnutrition.

"There are many cases of pregnant women who need medicines that are not available in Gaza," al-Rantisi said. Most families could not afford them if they were available, he said.

The World Bank said last month that the poverty rate in Gaza is now close to 67 percent and that economic growth last year was zero.

One consequence of poverty is anaemia. The condition, a direct consequence of poor nutrition, is not new to Gaza. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reported in 2002 that 19 percent of Gazans suffer from anaemia. That figure is estimated by UNRWA now to be 77.5 percent. Children receive on average only 61 percent of their daily need of calories from UN supplies.

Many of the newly born have been hit by the political situation before they could open their eyes to the world. Of the many deliveries that take place at al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, no one can tell how many of these children could grow up to live happy and healthy lives. Through the many dangers has arisen awareness of this new one – that sanctions can hit Gazans quite literally prematurely.

The fear of bombing comes later; the first dangers are the lack of food, water and medicines.

Tahani Safi, 29, lies worrying about the caesarean section scheduled for the next day. She suffers from malnutrition, high blood pressure, diabetes, and a shortage of protective water around the child in the womb.

There are many mothers with such difficulties. Such cases can be found at any hospital, but doctors say the number of cases of conditions a result of poor food and medical care in Gaza is now rising. Health authorities have warned that the life and health of countless unborn babies is in serious danger all across Gaza.

So far 146 Gazans have died directly as a result of the Israeli siege, and the border closures and shortage of medication and health care this has brought, according to the ministry of health.

The U.S. celebrated Mothers Day Sunday May 11. No one in Gaza did.

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By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, May 6 2008 (IPS)

It's been strangely quiet for some time at the port in Gaza. No clanging of hooks, no sounds of creaking cranes or of thumping of nets upon decks. Boat engines, normally puttering and spewing exhaust, lie entombed under covers.

Nasser al-Amodi can do no more than fix his nets. Credit: Mohammed Omer

"Gaza's 3,000 fishermen need about 40,000 litres of fuel and 40,000 litres of natural gas a day to operate for this season from March until the end of May," says Nizar Ayash, director of the Fishing Syndicate. Now they get almost nothing.

Jamal al-Assi, 37, attempts to look busy around his idle boat. "My boat feeds 11 families," he says. "What are we going to do? There is no hope when there is no fuel. We can't work."

"I have been laid off work for nearly two months due to shortage of fuel," says Nasser al-Amodi, 49, one of Gaza's oldest fishermen. He began his career at age nine, working alongside his father. Later he inherited the business.

Nasser, father of five, had hoped one day to pass the business on to his children. But now, as he does his bit to maintain his gear, he is not so sure. Seventy people, including the families of his brother and crew, have lost income as a result of the blockade.

"If any of my equipment breaks down or is lost, I can't afford to replace it, not only because it isn't available but because the price is double what it would normally be."

Nasser and his family live in al-Shati refugee camp, one of Gaza's oldest and most crowded refugee camps. An experienced fisherman, Nasser has all his life taken up a profession considered by many the most dangerous in the world, and for Gaza fishermen made more so by Israeli incursions and the siege.

Israel limits Palestinian fishing to six miles from shore. "But sometimes we're not even three miles out when the Israelis chase us away," says Ayash.

"We fishermen are part of the people, meaning whatever happens to Gaza's people happens to us," he says. "But we will make our voices heard around the world until our suffering ends."

And so fishermen suffer like the others. The scarcity of fuel has hit all sections of Gaza society. Vehicles, including ambulances, cannot run, goods cannot reach their destination, and those that do are priced out of reach.

The Palestinian Petrol Station Owners Association continues to demand fuel allotment from Israeli authorities to support the basic needs of Gaza's 1.5 million people. Israeli authorities permit fuel primarily for the electricity generation plant.

Despite Israel's highly publicised 'withdrawal' of its illegal colonies in 2005, Gaza remains under virtual occupation through the siege, with its airport, borders and seashore controlled by Israel. Israel controls also the airspace over Gaza, and the lifelines to its economy. All imports and exports, including food, medicine, equipment and fuel are controlled through the Nahal Ozz crossing.

International and Israeli human rights organisations have been urging Israel to resume fuel deliveries into the Gaza Strip.

"The current situation is a threat to the health and well-being of the population of the Gaza Strip," says a joint statement signed by eight UN bodies. "The work of the United Nations organizations in Gaza has been severely hampered (by the fuel shortage) affecting schools, health facilities, and food distribution."

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