21 apr 2014
Chilean medical delegation carries out 21 operations "in European hospital" in Gaza. Chilean medical delegation conducted 21 surgeries at the European Hospital, south of the Gaza Strip, during his five day stay before leaving on Monday.
Al Ray reporter quoted Dr. Abdullatif Al-Haj, the hospital manager, as saying that most of the operations carried out by the Chilean doctors, who are specialized in pediatric orthopedics, were complicated and time-consuming.
He said that local medical staff benefited much from the delegation's expertise, in light of the crippling siege that inhibits medical experience exchange.
Members of the delegation expressed happiness that they contributed to narrowing the gap in professional capacities on the part of the Gaza physicians.
They assured that they will continue to contact with the Gaza medical staff in order to develop their performance.
A recent government report stated that the number of solidarity delegations to Gaza has decreased by 95% since July 2013.
Al Ray reporter quoted Dr. Abdullatif Al-Haj, the hospital manager, as saying that most of the operations carried out by the Chilean doctors, who are specialized in pediatric orthopedics, were complicated and time-consuming.
He said that local medical staff benefited much from the delegation's expertise, in light of the crippling siege that inhibits medical experience exchange.
Members of the delegation expressed happiness that they contributed to narrowing the gap in professional capacities on the part of the Gaza physicians.
They assured that they will continue to contact with the Gaza medical staff in order to develop their performance.
A recent government report stated that the number of solidarity delegations to Gaza has decreased by 95% since July 2013.
Mostafa Barghouthi, General-Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative
Israeli authorities refused to issue Mostafa Barghouthi, General-Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, a permit to enter the Gaza Strip with the reconciliation delegation. A five-member delegation of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is scheduled to arrive in Gaza on Tuesday, including party leaders.
The delegation consists of Mostafa Barghouthi, Azzam al-Ahmad, the Fatah official in charge of reconciliation file, Munib Masri, an independent businessman, Jamil Shehadeh, an Arab Palestinian Front leader Arab Palestinian, Front leader and Bassam Salhi, the General Secretary of the Palestinian People's Party.
Barghouthi said in a statement to the Safa news agency that the so-called ‘Israeli Liaison Department’ informed the delegation that four of the delegation's members are to be allowed into Gaza, confirmed that he was rejected access.
“Israeli occupation issued a ban on entering Gaza in 2007,” Barghouthi said, citing the reason for their refusal.
Palestinian Liaison Department continues to contact the Israeli side to negotiate issuing Barghouthi a permit, he confirmed.
The delegation's visit is aimed to carry out the reconciliation agreement, concluded in previously in Cairo and Doha.
Dr Mostafa Barghouthi is a staunch supporter and a prominent participant of Palestinian non-violence in the occupied West Bank.
He participates regularly along with Palestinian youths and international activists in the protests held against Annexation Wall, as well as Israel's eviction campaigns.
Israeli authorities refused to issue Mostafa Barghouthi, General-Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, a permit to enter the Gaza Strip with the reconciliation delegation. A five-member delegation of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is scheduled to arrive in Gaza on Tuesday, including party leaders.
The delegation consists of Mostafa Barghouthi, Azzam al-Ahmad, the Fatah official in charge of reconciliation file, Munib Masri, an independent businessman, Jamil Shehadeh, an Arab Palestinian Front leader Arab Palestinian, Front leader and Bassam Salhi, the General Secretary of the Palestinian People's Party.
Barghouthi said in a statement to the Safa news agency that the so-called ‘Israeli Liaison Department’ informed the delegation that four of the delegation's members are to be allowed into Gaza, confirmed that he was rejected access.
“Israeli occupation issued a ban on entering Gaza in 2007,” Barghouthi said, citing the reason for their refusal.
Palestinian Liaison Department continues to contact the Israeli side to negotiate issuing Barghouthi a permit, he confirmed.
The delegation's visit is aimed to carry out the reconciliation agreement, concluded in previously in Cairo and Doha.
Dr Mostafa Barghouthi is a staunch supporter and a prominent participant of Palestinian non-violence in the occupied West Bank.
He participates regularly along with Palestinian youths and international activists in the protests held against Annexation Wall, as well as Israel's eviction campaigns.
20 apr 2014
The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) is seeking a FIFA ban on their Israeli counterparts after years of seeing football flounder under occupation.
But would such a move solve anything?
Israel currently illegally occupies the West Bank, East Jerusalem and exerts a blockade on the Gaza Strip. It makes working at the PFA quite difficult. Restrictions on players moving in, out and between the Palestinian territories are among the many problems it faces while trying to develop the sport under occupation. This is in addition to the reported shooting of young footballers by Israeli security forces.
FIFA recognises the problem and set up a task force last year with the aim of signing an agreement by both and getting the issue resolved ahead of this June’s FIFA Congress in Sao Paolo. But if the deal does not meet expectations, the PFA plans to launch an audacious bid to get Israel expelled from FIFA.
“If the Israeli occupation is unwilling to budge from its racist policies and if all the good efforts of FIFA, UEFA, and the AFC fail, we will find ourselves compelled to put the matter to the congress,” PFA Chairman Jibril Rajoub told Al Jazeera.
Despite the threat, the Israelis believe things are moving forward. An Israel Football Association (IFA) spokesperson confirmed to Al Jazeera that ‘the IFA deals in full cooperation with FIFA on the topic and in the last few months, there has been an improvement in the work relations’.
The solution?
For the PFA, Israel’s expulsion is not their aim, just a last resort. But the fact that there are talks of that happening suggests how far from reaching an agreements both sides are. But would getting Israel expelled fix any of PFA’s problems?
Since this is a security matter, negotiation with the football association will not work. Only threats and pressure will force the Israeli government to take action.
Uzi Dann, Haaretz's international sports editor
In addition to the restrictions of player movements, coaches and officials face the same problems, according to the PFA, with Israel’s security forces accusing the Palestinians of using football to hide the movement of weapons and militants.
There is also the issue of player safety - earlier this year, two young Palestinian players were reportedly shot in the feet by Israeli security forces. Their football career ended there.
The PFA also alleges that Israel constantly interferes in bids to set up international friendlies.
While an expulsion may not improve these conditions, it might be the only way to bring a change, according to Uzi Dann, the international sports editor of Haaretz, an Israel newspaper, who told Al Jazeera that the move will not ‘benefit Palestine in the short term’.
“It won’t solve the movement problem right away,” Dann said. “From my experience, only threats and pressure can solve this problem. Since this is a security matter, negotiation with the football association will not work. Only threats and pressure will force the Israeli government to take action.
"They don’t take the matter seriously right now but they will once the expulsion is on the horizon.”
At the core of this dispute is the issue surrounding the right to play the game. Occupation heavily impedes this. But if the Palestinians get Israel expelled, it will be the Israel players who suffer.
Dann believes that although that would be unfair, it is perhaps necessary.
“It won’t be fair on the players and it would make mass outrage in Israel. But sometimes, the way to get something done is to punish people.”
Room to flourish
There is also the view that the only way for Palestinian football to flourish is through political liberation and a FIFA expulsion is big a step towards that.
That’s the position of Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian human rights activist and co-founder of the BDS movement, which pushes for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
He told Al Jazeera that ‘expelling Israel from FIFA, as well as from international academic, cultural and economic associations, effectively shatters their criminal impunity and contributes to the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality’.
Barghouti likens the situation to an Apartheid South Africa, which was banned from FIFA in 1961, and that ‘international isolation, especially in sports, was a key factor in ending Apartheid’ and having the country reinstated.
It is unclear what will happen between now and the FIFA congress - which opens on June 10. FIFA President Sepp Blatter is due in the Middle East to meet major political figures on both sides to conjure up a deal. The Palestinians are unlikely to be holding their breath and a push for the expulsion seems likely.
The only way to know whether it will achieve anything or not might be to try it.
What is for sure, however, is that no country would enjoy the humiliation of being red carded from the beautiful game.
Source: Al Jazeera
But would such a move solve anything?
Israel currently illegally occupies the West Bank, East Jerusalem and exerts a blockade on the Gaza Strip. It makes working at the PFA quite difficult. Restrictions on players moving in, out and between the Palestinian territories are among the many problems it faces while trying to develop the sport under occupation. This is in addition to the reported shooting of young footballers by Israeli security forces.
FIFA recognises the problem and set up a task force last year with the aim of signing an agreement by both and getting the issue resolved ahead of this June’s FIFA Congress in Sao Paolo. But if the deal does not meet expectations, the PFA plans to launch an audacious bid to get Israel expelled from FIFA.
“If the Israeli occupation is unwilling to budge from its racist policies and if all the good efforts of FIFA, UEFA, and the AFC fail, we will find ourselves compelled to put the matter to the congress,” PFA Chairman Jibril Rajoub told Al Jazeera.
Despite the threat, the Israelis believe things are moving forward. An Israel Football Association (IFA) spokesperson confirmed to Al Jazeera that ‘the IFA deals in full cooperation with FIFA on the topic and in the last few months, there has been an improvement in the work relations’.
The solution?
For the PFA, Israel’s expulsion is not their aim, just a last resort. But the fact that there are talks of that happening suggests how far from reaching an agreements both sides are. But would getting Israel expelled fix any of PFA’s problems?
Since this is a security matter, negotiation with the football association will not work. Only threats and pressure will force the Israeli government to take action.
Uzi Dann, Haaretz's international sports editor
In addition to the restrictions of player movements, coaches and officials face the same problems, according to the PFA, with Israel’s security forces accusing the Palestinians of using football to hide the movement of weapons and militants.
There is also the issue of player safety - earlier this year, two young Palestinian players were reportedly shot in the feet by Israeli security forces. Their football career ended there.
The PFA also alleges that Israel constantly interferes in bids to set up international friendlies.
While an expulsion may not improve these conditions, it might be the only way to bring a change, according to Uzi Dann, the international sports editor of Haaretz, an Israel newspaper, who told Al Jazeera that the move will not ‘benefit Palestine in the short term’.
“It won’t solve the movement problem right away,” Dann said. “From my experience, only threats and pressure can solve this problem. Since this is a security matter, negotiation with the football association will not work. Only threats and pressure will force the Israeli government to take action.
"They don’t take the matter seriously right now but they will once the expulsion is on the horizon.”
At the core of this dispute is the issue surrounding the right to play the game. Occupation heavily impedes this. But if the Palestinians get Israel expelled, it will be the Israel players who suffer.
Dann believes that although that would be unfair, it is perhaps necessary.
“It won’t be fair on the players and it would make mass outrage in Israel. But sometimes, the way to get something done is to punish people.”
Room to flourish
There is also the view that the only way for Palestinian football to flourish is through political liberation and a FIFA expulsion is big a step towards that.
That’s the position of Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian human rights activist and co-founder of the BDS movement, which pushes for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
He told Al Jazeera that ‘expelling Israel from FIFA, as well as from international academic, cultural and economic associations, effectively shatters their criminal impunity and contributes to the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality’.
Barghouti likens the situation to an Apartheid South Africa, which was banned from FIFA in 1961, and that ‘international isolation, especially in sports, was a key factor in ending Apartheid’ and having the country reinstated.
It is unclear what will happen between now and the FIFA congress - which opens on June 10. FIFA President Sepp Blatter is due in the Middle East to meet major political figures on both sides to conjure up a deal. The Palestinians are unlikely to be holding their breath and a push for the expulsion seems likely.
The only way to know whether it will achieve anything or not might be to try it.
What is for sure, however, is that no country would enjoy the humiliation of being red carded from the beautiful game.
Source: Al Jazeera
The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) imposed hermetic closure on the West Bank for two days starting Sunday due to Jewish religious holidays.
The decision, according to local sources, would deprive thousands of workers, merchants and patients from entering occupied Jerusalem and 1948 occupied lands.
The IOA had closed all West Bank crossings last week for two days also due to Jewish religious holidays.
The decision, according to local sources, would deprive thousands of workers, merchants and patients from entering occupied Jerusalem and 1948 occupied lands.
The IOA had closed all West Bank crossings last week for two days also due to Jewish religious holidays.
Seven years into an Israeli blockade and ten months into a crippling Egyptian one, Gaza's economic growth has evaporated
By Noah Browning and Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Life has never seemed so grim for the Mustafas, a family of seven cramped into a shabby two-room hovel in Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp.
Seven years into an Israeli blockade and ten months into a crippling Egyptian one, Gaza's economic growth has evaporated and unemployment soared to almost 40 percent by the end of 2013.
Opposition to the Hamas militant group which runs the Gaza Strip has led its neighbours to quarantine the enclave, shutting residents out of the struggling Mideast peace process and leaving them with plenty of parties to blame.
Living on U.N. handouts of rice, flour, canned meat and sunflower oil, with limited access to proper health care or clean water, families like the Mustafas - seemingly permanent refugees from ancestral lands now part of Israel - have no money, no jobs and no hope.
"We're drowning... We feel like the whole world is on top of us. I turn on the television and I see the lifestyles on there, and I think, God help me leave this place," said Tareq, 22.
The Mustafas often must pick up and move when rain floods their low-lying home - even on a sunny day, it's lined with slick, smelly mildew. They stand in the dark, as 12-hour power cuts are now the norm throughout Gaza due to scant fuel.
"There's no money for university or to get married. There's not even enough to spend outside the house so we can escape a little. What kind of life is this?" Tareq asks.
Well over half of Gaza residents receive food from the United Nations, and the number is on the rise.
UNRWA, the U.N. Refugee Works Agency devoted to feeding and housing the refugees, told Reuters it was now feeding some 820,000, up by 40,000 in the last year. The U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) gives food aid to some 180,000 other residents.
SHOCK TO THE POPULATION
More than 1.2 million of 1.8 million Gazans are refugees or their descendants who fled or were driven from land that became part of Israel in the war of its foundation in 1948.
As decades passed, the hand of occupation variously clenched or relaxed through wars and uprisings. Groups of tents slowly morphed into concrete ghettos - eight camps in total - where chances for change feel as narrow as the claustrophobic alleys.
"Gaza just seems to keep descending further into poverty and de-development of the economy," said Scott Anderson, deputy director of operations at UNRWA, noting that the level of aid dependency faced by Gaza has few parallels in the world.
"In terms of economic shock to a population, probably somewhere like Sierra Leone might be the only place where people experience what the people of Gaza experience on a daily basis," he told Reuters.
The crisis is pulling down the Strip's most vulnerable, not just among its poor but also its sick. While basic health and economic indicators outstrip much of Africa, the rising level of aid dependency and sense of confinement takes a constant toll.
CANCER STRUGGLES
Eman Shannan, who runs a support group for cancer patients and writes about Gaza life, told Reuters that treatment for the disease has been rendered agonizing by travel curbs at the Egyptian border, a lack of medicine and careless officialdom.
"We are headed for disaster. Five new cases come into the office every day... Cancer doesn't kill as much as the circumstances around us do. People can survive cancer, but not this," said Shannan, herself a survivor.
There are 13,000 sufferers in the Strip and it is the second highest cause of death among Palestinians after heart disease.
Farha al-Fayyumi, a breast cancer patient from the Shuja'iya refugee camp in central Gaza complains that her teeth are throbbing - medicines used to offset the effects of her years of chemotherapy treatments are not available in Gaza.
Once the a main conduit for Gazans seeking treatment abroad, the crossing with neighbouring Egypt is now only open to people, including the sick, around two days each month. More and more, poverty is also staunching the flow.
"I haven't been to Egypt for treatment for a year and a half. I can't afford the travel expenses," said al-Fayyoumi, a widow with eight children clad in a head-to-toe black niqab body cloak.
Treatment in Gaza was rendered harder by the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords because radiation chemotherapy, the two sides agreed, could have military applications. Only five practicing oncologists remain in Gaza, Shannan notes with gloom.
BLAME
In northern Gaza's green farmland, Mahmoud blames Hamas for much of the suffering.
"Do things ever change for their gang? If jobs open up, their people get them. They never suffer," said the 23-year-old, who studied to be an electrician, then a truck driver, but found work as neither.
Hamas denies corruption and says it governs transparently, mostly blaming Israel for the Strip's economic woes.
Mahmoud's father, a farmer, sits in a flowing brown robe and rests his cane over his knees in a sunny enclosure next to his family house.
The 67-year-old remembers the orchards in his 180,000 square meters of land astride Israel's border where olives, lemons and oranges once thrived in the area's sweet well water.
Long since demolished by Israeli bulldozers amid cross-border violence in 2008, the orchard lives on only in his small garden. In it stands one of every type of tree he used to tend - a reminder of what he's lost and of the steady erosion of land and livelihoods that Palestinians have endured over the decades.
Contamination of the aquifer means the family's water is now brackish and undrinkable. Like many Gazans, they pay to have it filtered.
"When they closed the land, life ended." he sighed. "We used to sell the fruit of our trees, now we buy from Egypt and Israel, but only when we can afford it."
Grumbling at their leaders' perceived incompetence is common among residents, but many said Gazans would remain behind Hamas because of its militancy.
"The whole world is against them. They're not angels of course. They've made a lot of mistakes. But if they went ahead and recognised Israel, the people here would spit on them -- their popularity would evaporate overnight," said Zakaria Shurafa, a driver picking up his family's ration of U.N. food aid at a busy distribution centre by the Beach Refugee camp.
"I don't see any possibility of a revolt, though I'm sure Israel's blockade is trying at that ... it's no use, we're used to this kind of life."
Mahmoud, the jobless youth, lamented how the economic deadlock was dragging down society, and his dreams of what he could accomplish.
"In conditions like this, you feel people's hatred grow, their jealousy of each other grow. Young people take tramadol (drugs), there's robbery. These things didn't use to happen," he said.
"When you're young you think that, as an adult, you will be able to do more, that the world will become more open to you. But here, we found that as we grew older, our problems only grew."
By Noah Browning and Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Life has never seemed so grim for the Mustafas, a family of seven cramped into a shabby two-room hovel in Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp.
Seven years into an Israeli blockade and ten months into a crippling Egyptian one, Gaza's economic growth has evaporated and unemployment soared to almost 40 percent by the end of 2013.
Opposition to the Hamas militant group which runs the Gaza Strip has led its neighbours to quarantine the enclave, shutting residents out of the struggling Mideast peace process and leaving them with plenty of parties to blame.
Living on U.N. handouts of rice, flour, canned meat and sunflower oil, with limited access to proper health care or clean water, families like the Mustafas - seemingly permanent refugees from ancestral lands now part of Israel - have no money, no jobs and no hope.
"We're drowning... We feel like the whole world is on top of us. I turn on the television and I see the lifestyles on there, and I think, God help me leave this place," said Tareq, 22.
The Mustafas often must pick up and move when rain floods their low-lying home - even on a sunny day, it's lined with slick, smelly mildew. They stand in the dark, as 12-hour power cuts are now the norm throughout Gaza due to scant fuel.
"There's no money for university or to get married. There's not even enough to spend outside the house so we can escape a little. What kind of life is this?" Tareq asks.
Well over half of Gaza residents receive food from the United Nations, and the number is on the rise.
UNRWA, the U.N. Refugee Works Agency devoted to feeding and housing the refugees, told Reuters it was now feeding some 820,000, up by 40,000 in the last year. The U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) gives food aid to some 180,000 other residents.
SHOCK TO THE POPULATION
More than 1.2 million of 1.8 million Gazans are refugees or their descendants who fled or were driven from land that became part of Israel in the war of its foundation in 1948.
As decades passed, the hand of occupation variously clenched or relaxed through wars and uprisings. Groups of tents slowly morphed into concrete ghettos - eight camps in total - where chances for change feel as narrow as the claustrophobic alleys.
"Gaza just seems to keep descending further into poverty and de-development of the economy," said Scott Anderson, deputy director of operations at UNRWA, noting that the level of aid dependency faced by Gaza has few parallels in the world.
"In terms of economic shock to a population, probably somewhere like Sierra Leone might be the only place where people experience what the people of Gaza experience on a daily basis," he told Reuters.
The crisis is pulling down the Strip's most vulnerable, not just among its poor but also its sick. While basic health and economic indicators outstrip much of Africa, the rising level of aid dependency and sense of confinement takes a constant toll.
CANCER STRUGGLES
Eman Shannan, who runs a support group for cancer patients and writes about Gaza life, told Reuters that treatment for the disease has been rendered agonizing by travel curbs at the Egyptian border, a lack of medicine and careless officialdom.
"We are headed for disaster. Five new cases come into the office every day... Cancer doesn't kill as much as the circumstances around us do. People can survive cancer, but not this," said Shannan, herself a survivor.
There are 13,000 sufferers in the Strip and it is the second highest cause of death among Palestinians after heart disease.
Farha al-Fayyumi, a breast cancer patient from the Shuja'iya refugee camp in central Gaza complains that her teeth are throbbing - medicines used to offset the effects of her years of chemotherapy treatments are not available in Gaza.
Once the a main conduit for Gazans seeking treatment abroad, the crossing with neighbouring Egypt is now only open to people, including the sick, around two days each month. More and more, poverty is also staunching the flow.
"I haven't been to Egypt for treatment for a year and a half. I can't afford the travel expenses," said al-Fayyoumi, a widow with eight children clad in a head-to-toe black niqab body cloak.
Treatment in Gaza was rendered harder by the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords because radiation chemotherapy, the two sides agreed, could have military applications. Only five practicing oncologists remain in Gaza, Shannan notes with gloom.
BLAME
In northern Gaza's green farmland, Mahmoud blames Hamas for much of the suffering.
"Do things ever change for their gang? If jobs open up, their people get them. They never suffer," said the 23-year-old, who studied to be an electrician, then a truck driver, but found work as neither.
Hamas denies corruption and says it governs transparently, mostly blaming Israel for the Strip's economic woes.
Mahmoud's father, a farmer, sits in a flowing brown robe and rests his cane over his knees in a sunny enclosure next to his family house.
The 67-year-old remembers the orchards in his 180,000 square meters of land astride Israel's border where olives, lemons and oranges once thrived in the area's sweet well water.
Long since demolished by Israeli bulldozers amid cross-border violence in 2008, the orchard lives on only in his small garden. In it stands one of every type of tree he used to tend - a reminder of what he's lost and of the steady erosion of land and livelihoods that Palestinians have endured over the decades.
Contamination of the aquifer means the family's water is now brackish and undrinkable. Like many Gazans, they pay to have it filtered.
"When they closed the land, life ended." he sighed. "We used to sell the fruit of our trees, now we buy from Egypt and Israel, but only when we can afford it."
Grumbling at their leaders' perceived incompetence is common among residents, but many said Gazans would remain behind Hamas because of its militancy.
"The whole world is against them. They're not angels of course. They've made a lot of mistakes. But if they went ahead and recognised Israel, the people here would spit on them -- their popularity would evaporate overnight," said Zakaria Shurafa, a driver picking up his family's ration of U.N. food aid at a busy distribution centre by the Beach Refugee camp.
"I don't see any possibility of a revolt, though I'm sure Israel's blockade is trying at that ... it's no use, we're used to this kind of life."
Mahmoud, the jobless youth, lamented how the economic deadlock was dragging down society, and his dreams of what he could accomplish.
"In conditions like this, you feel people's hatred grow, their jealousy of each other grow. Young people take tramadol (drugs), there's robbery. These things didn't use to happen," he said.
"When you're young you think that, as an adult, you will be able to do more, that the world will become more open to you. But here, we found that as we grew older, our problems only grew."
Egypt's Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip has only been open for 12 days so far this year, Gaza's Interior Ministry said Friday. In a statement, ministry spokesman Eyad al-Bazm said Egyptian authorities were keeping the crossing shut "without stating the reasons."
Due to an eight-year-long Israeli embargo on the Gaza Strip, the Rafah border crossing – which links the strip to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula – represents Gaza's only window to the outside world.
Al-Bazm also called on international legal and humanitarian agencies to pressure Egypt to reopen the crossing with a view to "ending the suffering of thousands of Palestinians in the enclave."
Egyptian authorities have tightened their grip on the border with the Hamas-run the Gaza Strip since last July, when the army ousted elected president Mohamed Morsi and cracked down on his Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood group.
Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007.
By: TurkishPress
Due to an eight-year-long Israeli embargo on the Gaza Strip, the Rafah border crossing – which links the strip to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula – represents Gaza's only window to the outside world.
Al-Bazm also called on international legal and humanitarian agencies to pressure Egypt to reopen the crossing with a view to "ending the suffering of thousands of Palestinians in the enclave."
Egyptian authorities have tightened their grip on the border with the Hamas-run the Gaza Strip since last July, when the army ousted elected president Mohamed Morsi and cracked down on his Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood group.
Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007.
By: TurkishPress
The Israeli occupation police closed on Saturday afternoon all entrances to the Aqsa Mosque to prevent Palestinian young men from organizing mass seclusion (I'tikaaf) at the Mosque. Local sources said that special Israeli troops were deployed intensively around the Aqsa Mosque to block any attempt by Palestinian young men to infiltrate into the Mosque to stay for night worship in its buildings.
It is bleived that the Israeli police have taken such measures in order to enable deputy speaker of the Knesset Moshe Feiglin and other fanatic Jewish officials as well as settlers to defile the Aqsa Mosque in the early morning hours on Sunday to celebrate the Hebrew Easter festival.
Several Palestinian young men in Jerusalem like to perform I'tikaaf for some days inside the Aqsa Mosque in order to prevent any attempt by Jewish groups or leaders to desecrate it.
For his part, Ahmed Abu Halabiyeh, the rapporteur of the Palestinian parliamentary committee on Jerusalem, warned of Israeli intentions to prevent the presence of Palestinian worshipers in the Aqsa Mosque after the evening prayers as part of its plan to divide the Mosque temporally and spatially.
Abu Halabiyeh told Quds Press that the Israeli occupation intensified its restrictions on the entry of Palestinian young men to the Aqsa Mosque in order to violate its sanctity and provide protection for mass Jewish break-ins in the coming days.
"This is a special place of worship that has exclusively belonged to Muslims throughout the history, and the [Zionist] enemy has no right to prevent the Muslim worshipers in any way from staying at any time in their Mosque to perform prayers, read the holy Qur'an or worship and dignify their God," he emphasized.
It is bleived that the Israeli police have taken such measures in order to enable deputy speaker of the Knesset Moshe Feiglin and other fanatic Jewish officials as well as settlers to defile the Aqsa Mosque in the early morning hours on Sunday to celebrate the Hebrew Easter festival.
Several Palestinian young men in Jerusalem like to perform I'tikaaf for some days inside the Aqsa Mosque in order to prevent any attempt by Jewish groups or leaders to desecrate it.
For his part, Ahmed Abu Halabiyeh, the rapporteur of the Palestinian parliamentary committee on Jerusalem, warned of Israeli intentions to prevent the presence of Palestinian worshipers in the Aqsa Mosque after the evening prayers as part of its plan to divide the Mosque temporally and spatially.
Abu Halabiyeh told Quds Press that the Israeli occupation intensified its restrictions on the entry of Palestinian young men to the Aqsa Mosque in order to violate its sanctity and provide protection for mass Jewish break-ins in the coming days.
"This is a special place of worship that has exclusively belonged to Muslims throughout the history, and the [Zionist] enemy has no right to prevent the Muslim worshipers in any way from staying at any time in their Mosque to perform prayers, read the holy Qur'an or worship and dignify their God," he emphasized.
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have completely shut down all of Madma village’s entrances, south of Nablus, where Palestinian native citizens, including humanitarian cases, were denied access out of or into the village. PIC news reporter said quoting eye-witnesses IOF soldiers erected a barrier at the eastern entrance along with two other barriers at the western and northern entrances, blocking several access-routes to other neighboring areas including Bourine, Asira al-Qibliya, and Nablus.
The barriers blocked the entry of vehicles leading to traffic jams on all sides of the village. Palestinian civilians and even ambulances, including one who came to carry a very ill civilians, were all denied access into the village.
Strict control measures have been imposed by IOF on Madama village, which has been entirely blocked for several days as a means to exert mass punishment on its Palestinian natives under unproven claims of having thrown a settler’s car with stones.
Madma, Bourine, and Asira al-Qibliya villages have long been permanent targets of IOF due to their proximity to Israeli settlements, most notably Yitzhar.
IOF soldiers have never ceased to seek ways to penalize the Palestinian citizens almost permanently as a means to force them out of their native soil.
The barriers blocked the entry of vehicles leading to traffic jams on all sides of the village. Palestinian civilians and even ambulances, including one who came to carry a very ill civilians, were all denied access into the village.
Strict control measures have been imposed by IOF on Madama village, which has been entirely blocked for several days as a means to exert mass punishment on its Palestinian natives under unproven claims of having thrown a settler’s car with stones.
Madma, Bourine, and Asira al-Qibliya villages have long been permanent targets of IOF due to their proximity to Israeli settlements, most notably Yitzhar.
IOF soldiers have never ceased to seek ways to penalize the Palestinian citizens almost permanently as a means to force them out of their native soil.
19 apr 2014
Egyptian authorities will open the Rafah crossing with Gaza on Sunday to allow pilgrims headed for Saudi Arabia to pass through, a Gaza official said.
A Palestinian official told Ma'an that the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip will be open Sunday and Monday for Umrah pilgrims heading to Mecca.
Pilgrims returning from Mecca will be allowed to pass back into Gaza on Tuesday.
The crossing will be closed for all other cases, the official said.
Rafah has been the principal connection between Gaza's 1.7 million residents and the outside world since the imposition of an economic blockade by Israel in 2007.
There have been frequent closures of the crossing in recent months due to political unrest in Egypt and violence in the Sinai peninsula, placing an added burden on Gaza Strip residents.
After the July overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's army has repeatedly closed the Rafah border crossing and destroyed hundreds of tunnels that Gazans used for years to import fuel, building materials, and other goods.
A Palestinian official told Ma'an that the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip will be open Sunday and Monday for Umrah pilgrims heading to Mecca.
Pilgrims returning from Mecca will be allowed to pass back into Gaza on Tuesday.
The crossing will be closed for all other cases, the official said.
Rafah has been the principal connection between Gaza's 1.7 million residents and the outside world since the imposition of an economic blockade by Israel in 2007.
There have been frequent closures of the crossing in recent months due to political unrest in Egypt and violence in the Sinai peninsula, placing an added burden on Gaza Strip residents.
After the July overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's army has repeatedly closed the Rafah border crossing and destroyed hundreds of tunnels that Gazans used for years to import fuel, building materials, and other goods.
18 apr 2014
More Israeli soldiers were deployed on Thursday evening at al-Hamra checkpoint east of Nablus city, amid tight security measures and movement restrictions.
SAFA news agency quoted a youth activist as saying that the checkpoint was closed by a group of Israeli soldiers, which blocked the movement of several vehicles.
Dozens of Palestinian vehicles were either confiscated or searched. Several Palestinian citizens were also detained for ID check and physical search.
The Israeli measures were so provocative and arbitrary and prevented many citizens from going homes as early as usual.
SAFA news agency quoted a youth activist as saying that the checkpoint was closed by a group of Israeli soldiers, which blocked the movement of several vehicles.
Dozens of Palestinian vehicles were either confiscated or searched. Several Palestinian citizens were also detained for ID check and physical search.
The Israeli measures were so provocative and arbitrary and prevented many citizens from going homes as early as usual.
Newly appointed Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Pierre Krähenbühl on Thursday called for an end to the Gaza-blockade and vowed to improve the quality of UNRWA services to the refugees, UNRWA Newsroom reports.
The visit to Gaza was made in an attempt to express solidarity with the local population and the refugees and to find the best ways to develop the services that the UNRWA is providing.
On a press conference held on his visit to Gaza in the town of Khan Yunes, he stated that: "Nothing prepares you for Gaza; no amount of UN humanitarian reports, no amount of newspaper articles, no amount of human rights investigations. None of these can adequately convey what the people here are going through; the profound sense of isolation and the sheer scale and depth of the suffering."
He was quoted to say that the blockade of Gaza reminded him of some of historys most infamous sieges, suck as the siege of Leningrad. He added: "It amounts to an illegal collective punishment and I join UN officials and world leaders in calling for it to end. I assure you I will advocate with all the audiences I encounter, for an end to illegality and for steps that respect the dignity and humanity of the people of Gaza."
Lastly he added that the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza were apparent to everybody, and that UNRWA would do its best to reach more poor people in Gaza, despite their small budget. UNRWA currently provides aid to some 800,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip, as compared to some 80,000 in 2000.
The visit to Gaza was made in an attempt to express solidarity with the local population and the refugees and to find the best ways to develop the services that the UNRWA is providing.
On a press conference held on his visit to Gaza in the town of Khan Yunes, he stated that: "Nothing prepares you for Gaza; no amount of UN humanitarian reports, no amount of newspaper articles, no amount of human rights investigations. None of these can adequately convey what the people here are going through; the profound sense of isolation and the sheer scale and depth of the suffering."
He was quoted to say that the blockade of Gaza reminded him of some of historys most infamous sieges, suck as the siege of Leningrad. He added: "It amounts to an illegal collective punishment and I join UN officials and world leaders in calling for it to end. I assure you I will advocate with all the audiences I encounter, for an end to illegality and for steps that respect the dignity and humanity of the people of Gaza."
Lastly he added that the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza were apparent to everybody, and that UNRWA would do its best to reach more poor people in Gaza, despite their small budget. UNRWA currently provides aid to some 800,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip, as compared to some 80,000 in 2000.
17 apr 2014
Prime Minister Ismail Haneya thanked the Egyptian authorities on Wednesday for facilitating the entry of a Qatari grant in the form of construction materials to rebuild the Gaza district, MENA reported. Haneya, in a press conference following an inspection of the Qatari grant's construction work, called on Egyptian authorities to permanently reopen the Rafah border crossing, the land passage between Gaza and Egypt which the latter has maintained severely restricted access to since last July.
"The call for the opening of the crossing comes out of love for Egypt and the recognition of its historic role in supporting the Palestinian cause," Haneya added.
Following the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, the Egyptian army destroyed hundreds of tunnels running beneath the border through which construction materials and fuel were transferred. This caused the Gaza Strip's worst ever energy crisis, with power outages lasting up to 16 hours a day.
In March, Hamas described the closure of the Rafah crossing as a "crime against humanity," and the UN criticised it for its effect on "the civilian population, including patients awaiting medical treatment".
Egyptian authorities have maintained that they were protecting their own land from a spike in terrorist attacks that targeted police and army personnel in Sinai and extended to other governorates across Egypt.
In March, an Egyptian court also banned all activities in Egypt by Hamas pending a court verdict in an espionage case involving ousted president Morsi and 36 members of his Muslim Brotherhood group, as well as members of the Islamist Palestinian group.
The prosecution accuses the Brotherhood members of collaborating with Gaza rulers Hamas, Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah and other organisations "inside and outside" Egypt to smuggle arms, organise military training for group members in the Gaza Strip, and fund a scheme to stir chaos and threaten national security in Egypt.
Hamas has denied any involvement in prison breaks or illegal cooperation with the ousted Islamist leader.
The move also comes amid growing tension between Egypt and Qatar.
Qatari-Egyptian relations have deteriorated since Morsi was overthrown, as the Qatari government supported him and his Muslim Brotherhood during the Islamist president's troubled one-year rule.
Egypt's interim authorities have since accused Qatar and its satellite TV station Al-Jazeera of being biased in favour of the outlawed Brotherhood, which was deemed a terrorist organisation by the Egyptian government in December, a decision that was later upheld by a Cairo court in February.
Despite the recent fallout, speaking at the Arab League summit in Kuwait last February, Qatari Prince Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad insisted that his country was keen on maintaining strong relations with Egypt, stressing "the brotherly links" between the two countries.
Source: ahramonline
"The call for the opening of the crossing comes out of love for Egypt and the recognition of its historic role in supporting the Palestinian cause," Haneya added.
Following the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, the Egyptian army destroyed hundreds of tunnels running beneath the border through which construction materials and fuel were transferred. This caused the Gaza Strip's worst ever energy crisis, with power outages lasting up to 16 hours a day.
In March, Hamas described the closure of the Rafah crossing as a "crime against humanity," and the UN criticised it for its effect on "the civilian population, including patients awaiting medical treatment".
Egyptian authorities have maintained that they were protecting their own land from a spike in terrorist attacks that targeted police and army personnel in Sinai and extended to other governorates across Egypt.
In March, an Egyptian court also banned all activities in Egypt by Hamas pending a court verdict in an espionage case involving ousted president Morsi and 36 members of his Muslim Brotherhood group, as well as members of the Islamist Palestinian group.
The prosecution accuses the Brotherhood members of collaborating with Gaza rulers Hamas, Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah and other organisations "inside and outside" Egypt to smuggle arms, organise military training for group members in the Gaza Strip, and fund a scheme to stir chaos and threaten national security in Egypt.
Hamas has denied any involvement in prison breaks or illegal cooperation with the ousted Islamist leader.
The move also comes amid growing tension between Egypt and Qatar.
Qatari-Egyptian relations have deteriorated since Morsi was overthrown, as the Qatari government supported him and his Muslim Brotherhood during the Islamist president's troubled one-year rule.
Egypt's interim authorities have since accused Qatar and its satellite TV station Al-Jazeera of being biased in favour of the outlawed Brotherhood, which was deemed a terrorist organisation by the Egyptian government in December, a decision that was later upheld by a Cairo court in February.
Despite the recent fallout, speaking at the Arab League summit in Kuwait last February, Qatari Prince Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad insisted that his country was keen on maintaining strong relations with Egypt, stressing "the brotherly links" between the two countries.
Source: ahramonline
Israeli occupation allowed the entry of 320 trucks via Karm Abu Salem commercial crossing south east of the Gaza strip on Thursday 17 April. Head of the Coordinating Committee for Entry of Goods into Gaza Raed Fattouh , told ALRAY the crossing will be closed for four consecutive days next week.
It will be closed on Friday and Saturday because of the weekly holiday while next Sunday and Monday will be closed under the pretext of celebrating the Passover.
He added, It will be reopened next Tuesday.
Karam Abu Salem is the only commercial crossing in Gaza, through which goods, humanitarian aids and fuel are partially entered to the people of the Gaza Strip. It is closed on Friday and Saturday of each week by Israeli forces.
It will be closed on Friday and Saturday because of the weekly holiday while next Sunday and Monday will be closed under the pretext of celebrating the Passover.
He added, It will be reopened next Tuesday.
Karam Abu Salem is the only commercial crossing in Gaza, through which goods, humanitarian aids and fuel are partially entered to the people of the Gaza Strip. It is closed on Friday and Saturday of each week by Israeli forces.
