Israel kills 10-year and six year old in Gaza

A ten-year-old Palestinian was killed and his sister seriously injured in an Israeli airstrike launched early Saturday in the northern Gaza Strip after rockets were fired from the besieged enclave.
Spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health Ashraf al-Qidra confirmed the death of Yasin Suleiman Abu Khusah,10, and told Ma’an his six-year-old sister Israa had sustained serious head injuries during the strike. Israa later died.
A Ma’an reporter based in Gaza said the children were in their house at the time of the strike, located in northwestern Beit Lahiya, adding that the family was still living in their home that was partially destroyed during the most recent Israeli offensive on the strip in 2014. Israa was transferred to Shifa Medical Center in Gaza City from Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya due to critical injuries, al-Qidra said.
The Israeli army said the Israeli air force targeted four Hamas sites in the northern Gaza Strip after four rockets were fired from the strip Friday evening.

Friday: Israelis kill two in Gaza

Israeli forces, on Friday afternoon, shot dead a two Palestinianx in the Gaza -Strip. One was killed during a military invasion of al-Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, the other  was shot during a protest in Khan Younis, in which protesters threatened a portion of the border fence.
Doctors said that 19-year-old Mohammad Abu Zayed from al-Bureij had been shot in the head. His body was taken to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.Medics added that at least 10 other Palestinian youths had been shot and wounded by live fire during the clashes.
Some hours later, a second Palestinian died after being shot in the stomach.Gaza’s Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra identified the man as Mohammad Majdi Qaita, 26, from Khan Younis. Qaita was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the spokesman added.

Wednesday: one Palestinian killed and three injured by Israeli missile in Gaza

Mousa Zeiter

Palestinian medical sources have reported, Wednesday, that one Palestinian was killed and three others were injured, at least one seriously, after an Israeli drone fired a missile into an area, west of Beit Lahia town, in the northern part of the coastal region.
The sources said Mousa Z'eiter, 23, was instantly killed in the attack, while another Palestinian suffered a serious injury, and two others suffered mild wounds.They were all moved to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia.
In addition, Israeli navy boats fired three shells into the bombarded area, while many armored bulldozers and vehicles invaded it and uprooted Palestinian lands.
The Israeli army claimed it targeted Palestinian fighters, allegedly planting explosives on a military road, behind the border fence.

Friday: two Palestinians killed, a female motorist and a man in Gaza

 Soldiers around the car in which the woman was kiled in Silwad. (AP).

A Palestinian woman was killed on Friday after she allegedly attempted to run over Israeli Border Police officers near the village of Silwad in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli police said in a statement that a woman in a vehicle approached border guards in an area where clashes were taking place. The forces opened fire when they saw the vehicle approaching, immediately killing the driver.

Israeli forces also shot dead a Palestinian and injured several others during demonstrations in the Gaza Strip for the third Friday in a row, the Ministry of Health said. Hani Rafiq Wahdan, 22, was shot in the head near the al-Shuj'ayyia neighborhood east of Gaza City, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qidra, told Ma’an. Nine others were hit by live fire.

Friday: third Palestinian killed, this one in Gaza

 A wounded man is wheeled away inKhan Younis (Photo AFP).

Israeli military forces on Friday shot dead a Palestinian and injured 17 others in clashes east of al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, identified the victim as Sami Shawqi Madhi, 41. He was shot in the chest and died instantly, al-Qidra added. Ten other Palestinians were injured during the clashes and taken to hospital for treatment.
Israeli forces opened fire at demonstrators along the border east of al-Bureij refugee camp and at the Nahal Oz crossing, where protesters set fire to tires. Locals said Israeli snipers were deployed in the area.There were also reports of clashes near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, and the Erez crossing in the north, where seven were injured by live fire in their lower extremities, al-Qidra said.

Fourteen Gazans missing after Egypt floods tunnels near Rafah

Gazan Civil Defense rescue teams on Tuesday morning were battling to save the lives of 14 Palestinians who went missing inside a smuggling tunnel when Egyptian military forces flooded it with seawater.
Muhammad al-Meidana, a Civil Defense official, told Ma'an that rescue teams had been able to save the lives of seven tunnel workers, but that contact was lost with 14 others, who were now missing.
Smuggling tunnels that pass beneath the Egyptian border have served as a lifeline to the outside world for Gaza's 1.8 million inhabitants since Israel imposed a crippling siege in 2007.  Egypt has sought to destroy the tunnels as part of an ongoing security campaign in the northern Sinai against anti-regime militants, which Egypt accuses Hamas of supporting, although Hamas strongly denies the accusations.
The Palestinian Chronicle reported that the Egyptian army started on Monday to pump large amounts of sea water into large pipes that have recently been extended across the border connecting Gaza and Egypt in an attempt to destroy tunnels used to smuggle goods into the besieged Strip.

Arrest warrant against Netanyahu and six other Israeli's in Spain

The Mavi Marmara

A Spanish court has found Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and six other senior officials guilty of crimes against humanity for their role in the 2010 raid on Gaza-bound aid ship, Mavi Marmara. Nine activists were killed, including one Turkish-American, and dozens injured when Israeli commandos boarded the lead ship of a Gaza-bound flotilla, Mavi Marmara, when it attempted to breach the blockade of the Palestinian territory. Spanish activists were also on board the ships.
The Madrid-based Supreme Court has ordered arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ex-foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, ex-defense minister Ehud Barak, then-deputy PMs Moshe Ya'alon and Eli Yishai, and then-state minister Benny Begin. Israel's ex-Navy Commander Eliezer Marom is among the co-defendants found guilty by the Spanish judge.

British activists launch lawsuit over Israeli attack on Mavi Marmara in 2010

Mavi Marmara

 Scotland Yard has been asked to investigate whether Israeli special forces who attacked a "peace flotilla" of ships in international waters killing 10 people committed war crimes. Lawyers acting for British activists have launched legal proceedings in the hope of prosecuting the Israeli soldiers in the UK. Evidence passed to the Metropolitan Police names five Israeli military commanders alleged to have committed war crimes when the troops they commanded stormed the flotilla which was attempting to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza in May 2010.
Lawyers representing 13 of the 34 Britons on the Turkish-registered MV Mavi Marmara, the main civilian vessel in the fleet of six ships carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials, say some of the commanders had visited Britain since the incident and said the police now had evidence which should result in their arrest if they return. Identical legislation was used to arrest the Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet in the UK in 1998.

Israeli navy intercepts ship in Red Sea ''with rockets for Gaza''

(Photo Office Israeli military spokesman)

The Israeli navy seized a ship in the Red Sea on Wednesday that was carrying dozens of advanced Iranian-supplied rockets made in Syria and intended for Palestinian guerrillas in the Gaza Strip, the military said.
The disclosure came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the United States to press his case for tougher international action against Iran over its disputed nuclear program and support for Islamist guerrilla groups.
The Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel Klos C was boarded in international waters without resistance from its 17-strong crew in a "complex, covert operation", military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner told reporters.

HRW: Palestinians violated law by launching rockets at populated areas in Israel

A rocket from Gaza killed three Israeli people in an apartment in Kiryat Malachi on 15 November. A little child was wounded.

Palestinian armed groups in Gaza violated the laws of war during the November 2012 fighting by launching hundreds of rockets toward population centers in Israel, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Monday. Under international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, civilians and civilian structures may not be subject to deliberate attacks or attacks that do not discriminate between civilians and military targets.
About 1,500 rockets were fired at Israel between November 14 and 21, the Israel Defense Forces reported. At least 800 struck Israel, including 60 that hit populated areas. The rocket attacks, including the first from Gaza to strike the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas, killed three Israeli civilians, wounded at least 38, several seriously, and destroyed civilian property.
Israel's Internal Security Agency (ISA) said that about half of the rockets fired into Israel were short range, reaching up to 20 kilometers; slightly less than half were medium range, reaching 20 to 60 kilometers, and less than 1 percent were long range reaching over 60 kilometers.
The Israel Defense Forces said that its “Iron Dome” anti-rocket defense system intercepted more than 400 rockets during the November fighting. Of the rockets that hit Israel, the vast majority landed in open areas, causing no injuries or damage. In addition to the locally made Qassam rockets and Soviet-designed Grad rockets long used by Palestinian armed groups, the Qassam Brigades announced that it had launched a locally made larger rocket, called the M75, as well as Iranian-produced Fajr 5 rockets. Officials from Hamas and Islamic Jihad said that Iran had supplied Palestinian armed groups with military support.
The Guardian newspaper quoted an Iranian military official's statement to Iranian media that Iran had not supplied rockets but had provided technical information to Palestinian armed groups that enabled them to build their own Fajr 5 rockets. The Fajr 5 has a reported range of 75 kilometers, capable of reaching the Tel Aviv metropolitan area from Gaza, with 90 kilograms of explosives in its warhead.

 Human Rights Watch research in Gaza found that armed groups repeatedly fired rockets from densely populated areas, near homes, businesses, and a hotel, unnecessarily placing civilians in the vicinity at grave risk from Israeli counter-fire. Unlike during previous fighting, armed groups seem to have fired many rockets from underground tunnels, opening a hatch to launch the munition.
One rocket was launched on November 20 at around 1:30 p.m. just off Wehda Street in Gaza City, about 100 meters from the Shawa and Housari Building, where various Palestinian and international media have offices. “I saw it [the rocket] go up and heard it, and then smoke was in the office,” a witness said.
One man said he saw a rocket launched from the yard of a house near the Deira Hotel in central Gaza City, though he could not recall the date.


 Some rockets launched by Palestinian armed groups fell short and struck inside Gaza. On November 16, a rocket that appears to have been launched from within Gaza hit a crowded street in the Gazan town of Jabalya, killing a man, 23, and a boy, 4, and wounding five people.
 International and Palestinian journalists traveling around Gaza during the fighting told Human Rights Watch that they did not see any Palestinian militants moving in the open, suggesting that Hamas has developed a network of tunnels for personnel and perhaps rockets.

West Bank demonstrated from day one against Israels onslaught in Gaza

Rushdi Tamimi's funeral.
 
The Alternative Information Centre inJerusalem writes about demonstrations on the West Bank: 

From the first moment of the attacks the Palestinians in the West Bank expressed their full solidarity with Gaza. Daily demonstrations are taking place throughout the West Bank and, unlike during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009, all political parties are involved in the protest marches. This is also the first time in numerous years that Hamas has openly organized such demonstrations, including in the major cities of Nablus and Ramallah. Hamas flags are easily raised in the streets and waved by the demonstrators. Additionally, in many cities and districts throughout the West Bank, Palestinian protesters are going to checkpoints and passages, where they can  express their anger at the Israeli massacres in Gaza and also clash with Israeli soldiers. 
Every day since November 14, Palestinian youth have demonstrated in front of Israel’s Ofer Prison, located to the west of Ramallah, in Bab ElZawiya in the center of Hebron city, outside Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem and by the Qalandiya checkpoint to Ramallah. In cities such as Jenin and Nablus, Palestinians travel extensive distances to protest in relevant positions.
 Over a hundred Palestinians have been injured by Israeli soldiers in these West Bank demonstrations, mostly by rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas and sound  bombs. In many cases Israeli soldiers opened fire and injured  demonstrators with live bullets, such as on Tuesday at the Beit Aynon junction,  where young Ommar Jamil Frouch was seriously injured.
 Rushdi Mahmoud Tamimi, age 28 from the village of Nabi Saleh, died after being injured with live bullets in a solidarity demonstration; Tamimi is considered the first martyr in West Bank protests against Israel’s current attacks on Gaza.  On Monday night Hamdi Al-Fallah, age 22 from Hebron, died after he was shot in the chest during clashes with soldiers in the city.A general strike in the West Bank has been announced for Wednesday by the national and Islamic political parties.

Did anybody hear a word of protest from the Palestinian Authority? Or from Mahmoud Abbas? 
PS: Ma'an News reports that Isarel arrested 28 people across the West Bak in raids during Tuesday night and Wednesday early morning. 

'Attacks on Gaza Unite Palestinians'

 
 Palestinians demonstrate in Haifa. (Photo Jillian Kestler-D'Amours)

 Jillian Kestler-D'Amours for Inter Press Service:

According to Jafar Farah, director of the Mossawa, the Advocacy Centre for Arab Citizens of Israel, the violence in Gaza is rebuilding solidarity among Palestinians who have for decades been divided by geographic location and daily circumstances.
Discussion between Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel about what’s happening in Gaza, however, is almost entirely absent, Farah said.
“People don’t talk about the issue, don’t talk about the situation. If you look at Israeli media, Jews are talking to each other and that’s it. They don’t want to listen to the voice of the Arab community, and this is also reflected on the street,” Farah told IPS.
( the whole article is here)

The man who was killed by Israel may have held the key to a permanent truce, and Israel knew it

Funeral of the leader of the Ezzedin al-Qassem Brigades, Ahmed Jaabari (AP)


This is wat the Israeli newspaper Haaretz writes:
Hours before Hamas strongman Ahmed Jabari was assassinated, he received the draft of a permanent truce agreement with Israel, which included mechanisms for maintaining the ceasefire in the case of a flare-up between Israel and the factions in the Gaza Strip. This, according to Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin, who helped mediate between Israel and Hamas in the deal to release Gilad Shalit and has since then maintained a relationship with Hamas leaders.

So the attack on Gaza was in order to prevent the ceasefire to  take hold?

Haaretz:
Baskin told Haaretz on Thursday that senior officials in Israel knew about his contacts with Hamas and Egyptian intelligence aimed at formulating the permanent truce, but nevertheless approved the assassination.

(...)
Baskin made Jabari’s acquaintance when he served as a mediator between David Meidin, Israel’s representative to the Shalit negotiations, (the negotiations to exchange the imprisoned soldier Gilad Shalit, AbuP)and Jabari. “Jabari was the all-powerful man in charge.  (...)
For months, Baskin sent daily messages in advance of the formulation of the deal. He kept the channel of communication with Gaza open even after the Shalit deal was completed.
According to Baskin, during the past two years Jabari internalized the realization that the rounds of hostilities with Israel were beneficial neither to Hamas nor to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip and only caused suffering, and several times he acted to prevent firing by Hamas into Israel.

In recent months Baskin was continuously in touch with Hamas officials and with Egyptian intelligence as well as with officials in Israel, whose names he refused to divulge. A few months ago Baskin showed Defense Minister Ehud Barak a draft of the agreement and on the basis of that draft an inter-ministry committee on the issue was established. The agreement was to have constituted a basis for a permanent truce between Israel and Hamas, which would prevent the repeated rounds of shooting.

In the seventies Israel used to kill Palestinians who maintained contacts with Israeli peace activists. It seems that in 40 years nothing has changed.

Israeli 'retaliation' in Gaza comes down to killing children who are playing football

A man died on Tuesday from injuries sustained in an Israeli attack on Gaza days earlier, a medical official said. Muhammad Zeyad Abdullah Quno, 20, was wounded when Israeli tanks fired shells at Gaza City on Saturday, killing four and injuring at least 25 people. He passed away on Tuesday from his injuries, Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman of Gaza's health ministry, told Ma'an.

 

The attack on Saturday occurred after an Israeli commander ordered a jeep into the territory of the Gaza strip and the jeep was hit by an anti-tank missile, wounding four soldiers.  Israeli newspapers reported that after that Israeli forces 'hit terrorist targets inside Gaza'. It is worth reading the report that the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) wrote the other day, specifying the kind of  'terrorist targets' that were actually hit: 

PCHR:

Over the past 72 hours, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have escalated their aerial and ground attacks against the Gaza Strip.  Five Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, have been killed, and 52 others, including 6 women and 12 children, have been wounded.  Four of these deaths and 38 of the injuries resulted from an Israeli attack on a football playground in al-Shoja’iya neighborhood east of Gaza City.  Additionally, 2 members of the Palestinian resistance were killed, and some civilian facilities were destroyed or damaged.  According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 15:30 on Saturday, 10 November 2012, Israeli military vehicles stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired an artillery shell at a number of Palestinian children who were playing football at al-Mentar Hill east of al-Shoja’iya neighborhood, which is east of Gaza City and nearly 1,500 meters away from the border.  As a result, 2 children were instantly killed:

1- Mohammed Ussama Hassan Harara (16); and

2- Ahmed Mustafa Khaled Harara (17).

Following this attack, a number of Palestinian civilians, who were gathered to mourn a bereaved in the house of the Harara family, rushed to the area, where the IOF immediately fired another 3 shells.  As a result, 2 Palestinian civilians were instantly killed:

1- Ahmed Kamel Al- Dirdissawi (18); and

2- Matar ‘Emad ‘Abdul Rahman Abu al-‘Ata (19). 

Additionally, 38 civilians, including 8 children, were wounded; the wounding of 10 of these civilians was described by medical crews as being serious. 

 

Funeral of 13-year old Ahmed Abu Daqqa, who was killed while playing football.

Earlier, on Thursday evening, 08 November 2012, the IOF killed a Palestinian child during an incursion in the ‘Abassan village, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis.  According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 16:30 on Thursday, as a result of the indiscriminate shooting by IOF military vehicles that had moved into the ‘Abassan village, 13-year-old Ahmed Younis Khader Abu Daqqa was seriously wounded by a bullet to the abdomen.  At the time he was shot, Ahmed had been playing football with his friends in front of his family’s house, located nearly 1,200 meters away from the area where the IOF were present.  He was evacuated to the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Yunis, but he was pronounced dead 15 minutes later. 

On Saturday and Sunday, 10 and 11 November 2012, Israeli warplanes targeted a number of members of the Palestinian resistance.  As a result, 2 members of the Palestinian resistance were killed in 2 separate attacks in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.  They were identified as:

1-Mohammed Fu’ad ‘Obaid (22), from Jabalya; and

       2- Mohammed Sa’id Shkoukani (18).  

In addition to the attacks that killed or wounded people, PCHR reports that Israel also hit and partially or totally destroyed: an office of the Electricity Distribution Company, the water tank of the Kuza community, a metal workshop, a poultry farm, a brick factory and an agricultural storage facility.  

Morsi declares support for Palestinians

 
 Morsi during his speech for Eid al-Adha (Nile tv)

President Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday said Egypt would do its best to support Palestinians in their struggle against Israeli occupation "without declaring war against anyone."
Morsi spoke on national television to mark Muslim's four-day Al-Adha feast "We will never accept any assault or siege on the Palestinian people. Egypt provides Palestine with all its needs such as food and clothing," he said.
"The blood of Palestinians is our blood, their life is our life and their pains are our pains. However, supporting Palestine does not mean that we will declare war against anybody," he added in reference to Israel, which he stopped short of calling it by name, maintaining the same pattern he has followed in his speeches since his inauguration as Egypt president. His speech came on the same day that Egypt brokered a cease fire, after Israel killed four Palestinian militants in two days and the Palestinians fired about 80 projectiles into Israel.

Morsi also spoke up for the Palestinians in his speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations on 26 September. He described himself as Egypt's first democratically elected leader the country  underwent what he called a ‘great, peaceful revolution’. Morsi said in the UN General Assembly that the first issue for the world body should be certifying the rights of the Palestinian people.
‘‘The fruits of dignity and freedom must not remain far from the Palestinian people,’’ he said, adding that it was ‘‘shameful’’ that UN resolutions are not enforced. He decried Israel’s continued building of settlements on territory that the Palestinians claim for a future state in the West Bank.

Israel counted the calories for the people in Gaza

Border crossing Kerem Shalom betwee Israel and Gaza.

After a three-and-a-half-year legal battle waged by the Gisha human rights organization, the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories  (COGAT) has finally released a 2008 document,  "Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip – Red Lines",  that detailed guidelines for food consumption in Gaza.  The document contains information about the Israeli policy of restricting the entrance of food to the Gaza Strip, which was in effect between 2007 and 2010.

It calculates the minimum number of calories necessary, in COGAT's view, to keep Gaza residents from malnutrition at a time when Israel was tightening its restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and out of the Strip, including food products and raw materials. The document states that Health Ministry officials were involved in drafting it, and the calculations were based on "a model formulated by the Ministry of Health.
 The "red lines" document calculates the minimum number of calories needed by every age and gender group in Gaza, then uses this to determine the quantity of staple foods that must be allowed into the Strip every day, as well as the number of trucks needed to carry this quantity. On average, the minimum worked out to 2,279 calories per person per day, which could be supplied by 1,836 grams of food, or 2,575.5 tons of food for the entire population of Gaza.

The calculations made in the presentation led to the conclusion that the "daily humanitarian portion" Gaza’s residents needed would require bringing in 106 trucks from Israel five days per week. In the first year following Hamas’ takeover of the Strip and the tightening of the closure (July 2007 to June 2008), an average of 90 trucks entered each scheduled working day. An earlier disclosure, in 2010, revealed already that Israel used a mathematical model to calculate the foodstuff it needed to distribute to Gaza in order to avoid a human catastrophy. 
The document was based upon a decision taken a few moths after the 2007 Hamas takeover in Gaza. The   Israeli cabinet, then headed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, decided in September of 2007 to tighten restrictions on the movement of people and goods to and from Gaza. The decision stated that "the movement of goods into the Gaza Strip will be restricted; the supply of gas and electricity will be reduced; and restrictions will be imposed on the movement of people from the Strip and to it." In addition, exports from Gaza would be forbidden entirely. However, the resolution added, the restrictions should be tailored to avoid a "humanitarian crisis." The "red lines" document was written about four months afterward.
Gisha notes that  the sharp decrease in the incoming quantities of food products caused supply to be unpredictable and contributed to a significant rise in food prices in Gaza, but did ot cause hunger. (..) however 'the severe economic crisis caused by the closure, particularly by restrictions on the entrance of raw materials and the marketing of goods outside the Strip led to a rise in the unemployment rate, resulted in increased dependence on aid. Between the second quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2008, the rate of unemployment soared by 72% (from 26.4% to 45.4%). A report by the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) found that the number of Gaza residents receiving humanitarian aid rose from 63% of the population in 2006 to 80% in 2007. The main repercussions of the closure at the time were, as they largely continue to be today, increased poverty, increased dependence on aid and denial of opportunities for economic development, higher education and access to dignified work'.
Gisha states that these days, it is difficult to find a politician or security expert in Israel who would say that the closure policy of 2007-2010 benefitted Israel politically or in terms of security. For more than two years now, Israel has not imposed any restrictions on the entrance of food to the Gaza Strip. Yet, the two fundamental tenets of the policy, the legal position and the political-security rationale, remain the basis for the current policy, which the security establishment calls "the separation policy". This is not only in violation of international humantaria law, but Gisha says that it is also unclear at present 'which political or military actors formulated the "separation policy", what its objectives are and how it is monitored...

Gaza and the tunnels, it's not a question of food anymore

 A Gaza tunnel (photo Moises Saman/New York Times)

Gaza Gateway wants to correct the perception that Israel is still stopping food items from entering Gaza:
 In a story published last week, Reuters reported about Hamas’s efforts to prevent Egypt from closing down the tunnels in the Sinai desert. The story includes quotes from “tunnel owners” who say that “80 percent of food sold in Gaza comes through the tunnels”. Since the reporter did not qualify these statements, we wish to clarify the facts, and it won’t be the first time.

Untrue, according to Gaza Gateway: 
There have been no restrictions on bringing food into the Gaza Strip via Israel since 2010, however, Israel continues to impose restrictions on sale of goods outside the Strip and on travel between Gaza and the West Bank. The myth that Israel is still preventing food from entering the Gaza Strip has to be shattered; if not for the sake of accuracy, then because it diverts attention away from Gaza’s real problems. Gaza may not have a food shortage, but employment is certainly in short supply. Israel may now allow coriander into the Gaza Strip, but it still makes it very difficult for Gaza residents to maintain normal family ties with their relatives in the West Bank, or take advantage of the higher education, employment and business opportunities available there. These problems are serious enough. They can and should be addressed, but it is difficult to have a serious discussion about them when the same myth needs debunking over and over again.

Egypt floods Gaza tunnel with sewage water: three dead

Three Palestinians were pronounced dead on Tuesday morning after Egyptian authorities pumped sewage inside a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza border on Sunday, Ma'an News reported.
The ambulance and emergency services committee in Gaza said the three victims were found alive inside the tunnel. They were evacuated to the Abu Yousef an-Najjar Hospital in Rafah but were pronounced dead 30 minutes after arrival.
Gaza medical spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya identified the victims as Fadi Mustafa Ash-Shaer, 20, Firas Ahmad, 18, and Anwar Abu Aradeh, 25. They were all residents of al-Salam neighborhood in Rafah in southern Gaza, Abu Salmiya said.
Egyptian security officials said in early September that they were cracking down on the network of tunnels used by smugglers from the coastal enclave.
Including Tuesday's victims, eight Palestinians have been killed while working in tunnels in September. Five Palestinians were killed in three separate tunnel collapses earlier this month. Medics say over 160 Palestinians have died in the network of underground tunnels since Israel imposed a siege on the Gaza Strip in 2006.

Iran cut back funding of Hamas after it failed to show support for Bashar al-Assad

Iran has cut back or even stopped its funding of Hamas after the Islamist movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, failed to show public support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, diplomats said Sunday. Hamas has denied that it is in financial crisis but says it faces liquidity problems stemming from inconsistent revenues from tax collection in the Gaza Strip and foreign aid.
The movement receives undisclosed sums of cash from Iran, which has acknowledged providing financial and political support to Hamas.One diplomat, who asked not to be identified, said intelligence reports showed that Iran had reduced funding for Hamas. Other diplomatic sources, also relying on intelligence assessments, said the payments had stopped over the past two months.
The diplomats cited Iran’s displeasure over Hamas’ refusal to hold rallies in support of Tehran’s ally, Assad, in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria after an uprising against his rule. Hamas’ leadership outside the Gaza Strip is headquartered in Damascus.
Hamas is also widely believed to receive money from the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most popular and organized political force.Diplomats said that those payments may also have been reduced because the Muslim Brotherhood has diverted funds to support the so-called Arab Spring revolts. In a sign of a cash crunch, the Hamas government in Gaza has failed to pay the July salaries of its 40,000 employees in the civil service and security forces. Hamas leaders promised full payments in August, but not all employees received their wages as scheduled Sunday.

The not so open border crossing at Rafah

This speaks for itself. Palestinians from Gaza testify how 'open' the Rafah crossing into Egypt really is, just one week after Egypt 'lifted the restrictions' and opened the gates under the eyes of the world press.


(I have to add - since it is not mentioned in the video - that men in the age 18 - 40 need a visa before they are allowed into Egypt, which they have to get from Ramallah (where they cannot get of course as it means that they have to travel entals travelling through Israel) and that goods in general still have to be deliverd through the border crossing at the Israeli side).
(thx Trees)    

Update: On Saturday the gate was closed altogether. On Sunday the Egyptians announced that 350 people would be let through, whereupon Gaza closed the gate in protest..