Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2007-04-29.
Teenaged Palestinian Farmer Takes Direct Hit by IDF Tank Shell
Rafah Today via BBSNews 2007-04-29 -- By Mohammed Omer. The Gaza Strip as three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli troops, and a fourth wounded, according to Palestinian medical sources in Gaza City.
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The Rafah border in the Gaza Strip where Palestinians wait and wait.
Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2007-04-29. |
Dr. Mawia Hasaneen, emergency medical services chief at Al Shifa hospital, Gaza City, reported that the shootings occured around 8:30 am in the northwest of Gaza City, close to the separation wall.
The Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, identified 21 year old Said Bassam Helles and 27 year old Abdelhalim Al Fayyumi among the dead. Al Shifa hospital reported that the third man was 24 year old Mohammed Al Fiqi.
As of Saturday, the number of deaths since the 2000 intifada began is at 5,673, the unreported majority of whom are Palestinians civilians.
In a separate incident in southern Gaza, Palestinian civilian and farmer Shadi Abu Daher was killed Friday night by an Israeli tank shell, according to witnesses in the area. Medical sources said that the 19 year old's body arrived at the hospital in numerous pieces, flesh scattered everywhere, his body having been hit directly by a tank shell. The mutilation of his body made it very difficult for medical workers to identify him, instead initially just collecting the fragments of flesh scattered everywhere.
Hamas’ spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, accused Israel of violating a fragile ceasefire in Gaza and said the resistance group has the right to respond by 'all means available.'
Yesterday, Palestinian militants entered into clashes with the Palestinian national forces, with one Palestinian national forces member killed while on duty at the border. Still other Palestinians were injured when the fighting erupted at the border.
The Gaza Strip is witnessing a new series of demonstrations, as employees who have not received their salaries for many months protest and appeal to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to release their salaries. Meanwhile, the PA and Palestinian government do not have the money and haven't had sufficient funds since the economic embargo was imposed on Palestinians following the January 2006 election of Hamas. Meanwhile still, Israeli tanks remain amassed along Gazan borders, posing the threat of further imminent incursions on the citizens of Gaza.
As caged-in Palestinians strive for their freedom, let alone the salaries due to them, one continues to wonder just what it will take for the international community to realize they are causing the starvation of Palestinians and hindering the prospects for peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians. How long must this go on and how many must perish before it is enough?
Mohammed Omer is a young journalist/photographer in the Gaza Strip. He and his family have a very rough time in living day to day and they have lost much. In October of 2003, one of Mohammed's younger bothers, Issam, was injured and had to have a leg amputated. Later in the same month another younger brother, Hussam Al-Mouhagir, was killed in his home; shot to death by the Israeli Army that occupies and regularly devastates Palestine. These stories are written by Mohammed who knows no peace, only the continued devastation forced upon civilians who have little voice in the world. Mohammed has covered the Occupied Territories for several years. In 2006 Mohammed won the New American Media National Ethnic Media Award for best Youth Voice. Visit Mohammed's Web site, or write to him to get a more complete picture of what is really happening that main-stream news sources rarely brings to its audience. We are proud to feature articles from Mohammed Omer here at BBSNews, his reporting is some of the only original, on the ground reporting available from the Israeli Occupied Territories.
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