GAZA CITY — Shortly after Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire agreement on Nov. 21, the Israeli navy abducted 30 Palestinian fishers from Gaza’s waters, destroyed and sank a Palestinian fishing vessel, and confiscated nine fishing boats in the space of four days. The...
The Civilian Toll of Israel’s Bombs
GAZA CITY — When Israeli bombs struck the Abu Khadra complex for civil administration, they also gutted the sixth floor of the Abu Shabaan complex, located 10 meters across the road. According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), eight Israeli...
Israeli Soldiers Fail to Cease Firing
ABASSAN, Gaza Strip — “It was the first day of the ceasefire. An Israeli soldier shot once in the air and within seconds shot me in the leg. He was only a few meters away.” Haithem Abu Dagga, 26, an electrician and farm laborer, will not be able to work for as many...
Undefeated, Gaza’s Freedom Flotillas Expand
GAZA CITY -- A gleaming new memorial towers in the center of Gaza City's battered port. Flanked by flags of various nations whose citizens have sailed to the Gaza Strip to highlight the all-out siege on Gaza, the memorial's inscription bears the names of the Turkish...
Gaza’s Historical Treasures Under Seige
GAZA CITY -- Few outside of Gaza would consider its history much beyond the decades of Israeli occupation. But Gaza is a historical treasure house. Many of those treasures are now in Israeli museums, and those that remain are becoming difficult to preserve due to the...
Injured Workers Man Gaza’s Battered Services
GAZA CITY - Outside the battered Civil Defense station in northern Gaza's Jabaliya region, Mohammed Zidan, a seven-year veteran of fire-fighting and rescue services, stands on crutches in front of battered Civil Defense vehicles. Zidan, 31, lost his right leg during...
These Explosions Are Saviors
GAZA CITY - At precisely 12 noon on a Thursday afternoon, among the rolling sandy hills in southern Gaza, a controlled explosion destroys another round of white phosphorous shells left in Gaza following the 2008-2009 Israeli war on Gaza. Explosives experts from the...
Israel Winning Its War on Goats
GAZA CITY - Nine-year-old Ismail spends every afternoon herding his family's flock of sheep and goats, a scraggly group of roughly 20 animals. They live in a shanty house district near Tel el Howa in Gaza City, where growth is sparse to nonexistent. "I walk all...
In Gaza, New Year Reopens Wounds of the Old
GAZA CITY -- For many survivors of the last Israeli war on Gaza, time has not healed their wounds, physical or emotional. Amal Samouni, 10, still suffers vision problems in her right eye. The shrapnel remaining in her head causes her constant pain and she is unable to...
Israelis Destroy Boats, and Lives
GAZA CITY - Until Monday, Omar and Khaled Al-Habil were the owners of a 20m fishing trawler staffed by five or six fishermen at a time, but employing around 18 in cycles. But that morning the vessel came under heavy Israeli navy machine-gun fire, and then shelling....