Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2007-09-15.
Israel is also Threatening Electricity Blackouts, Gas Cut-offs and Water Disruption
BBSNews 2007-09-15 -- By Mohammed Omer. As a new school year starts in Palestine, students in the Gaza Strip have to contend with the on-going grave state of affairs in Gaza while attempting to continue their education. The incessant Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) air and ground attacks across the Strip, the nearly two year long economic siege, as well as the devastation caused by the constant closure of Gazan borders by the Israeli authorities -- all make up the daily realities of Gaza's citizens and childrens' lives.
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Members of the Hamas Executive Force arrest a Palestinian Fatah party member.
Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2007-09-15. |
Not only banning the entry and exit of people to and from Gaza, Israel has also prevented the delivery of essential goods, including building supplies and materials for repairing water sanitation systems. And now [Israel] forbids the delivery of paper. According to Palestinian sources, Israel has refused to allow five truckloads of paper into the Strip, meaning that students will start their school year without text books, unless some unforeseen source pressures Israel to allow paper into Gaza. Realistically, this pressure must come from the US and EU in order for Israel to open the border. But will this happen in the coming months?
Israel has long been keeping Gazan borders closed, including at Karni, the main commercial crossing for Palestinian imports and exports. Currently, Israel is using security pretexts to ensure borders sealed shut immediately following the Hamas take-over of Gaza last June remain thus sealed. The UNRWA reports that 200,000 Palestinian children attending school in the Gaza Strip won't have the books they need.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 350,000 books still need to be printed for UNRWA schools. Even if Israel opens the border, factories would need up to 25 days for printing. That's if Israel doesn't cut gas and electricity to Gaza, as Israeli authorities have repeatedly threatened to do recently. Israel's latest act of prohibiting entry of paper basically equates to banning essential humanitarian aid and barring the right of children to education, and is yet another in a successful of violations of human rights.
On the other side, Israel is threatening to cut off the electricity on Gaza for 21 hours and bring it only for three hours a day, this came after a rocket shot by two Palestinian factions where 66 soldiers were wounded, many by horror, as a result, Israel fired rockets at the north area where 4 Palestinians were injured.
Ramadan holy month is starting in Palestine, as well all Islamic and Arab countries, while borders are still closed and [no] possibility for people to travel or visit relatives between Gaza Strip and West Bank, which is the case for many years now, as Israel divides Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Last week, the body of Talat Al Nahhal from Rafah, was found near Shuhada Intersection to the south of Gaza City. The body bore marks of torture and a bullet wound in the head. Al Nahhal was abducted by unknown people prior to his death. Al Nahal [was] 34, a taxi driver based in Rafah, was abducted by 4 masked-men in Rafah area where he lives and he was killed in Gaza City, where his [body] was found later on by medical workers.
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. On May 18th, 2007, Mohammed was shot at by unknown militants in Gaza yet he continues to report. 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.