15 may 2019
An explosive balloon landed in the Sdot Negev Regional Council area, one of the Israeli communities surrounding the besieged Gaza Strip, on Wednesday.
According to Hebrew-language news outlets, a fire erupted after an explosive balloon was launched by Palestinians from Gaza into southern Israel and landed in an open field in Sdot Negev.
Sources said that Israeli firefighting crews managed to control the flames and later extinguish them; the fires caused some material damage.
No injuries were reported.
Palestinians in Gaza view the incendiary kites as a form of protest against Israel's 12-year blockade of Gaza and for Palestinian refugees right of return to their homes and lands which are now known as Israel.
According to Hebrew-language news outlets, a fire erupted after an explosive balloon was launched by Palestinians from Gaza into southern Israel and landed in an open field in Sdot Negev.
Sources said that Israeli firefighting crews managed to control the flames and later extinguish them; the fires caused some material damage.
No injuries were reported.
Palestinians in Gaza view the incendiary kites as a form of protest against Israel's 12-year blockade of Gaza and for Palestinian refugees right of return to their homes and lands which are now known as Israel.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza published statistics, on Wednesday, regarding attacks by Israeli forces against Palestinian protesters during “The Great March of Return” along the eastern borders of the besieged Gaza Strip, between March 30th 2018 and May 14th 2019.
The ministry said that 305 Palestinians, including 59 children, 10 women, and one elderly, were killed by Israeli forces, while 17,335 others suffered various injuries.
The ministry confirmed that among the injured were 3,565 children, 1,168 women, and 104 elderly.
The ministry said that 564 Palestinians were critically injured, while 7,345 were moderately injured and 9,426 suffered minor injuries with either live ammunition or rubber-coated steel bullets.
Of the 17,335 Palestinians injured, about 1,685 suffered injuries to the head and neck, in addition to 122 to the lower limbs and 14 in the upper limbs.
The ministry also confirmed that three Palestinian paramedics were killed and 680 medical crew members were injured.
"The Great March of Return" protests were launched on March 30th by thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza -- which has suffered from a decade-long Israeli siege -- who took to the borders to demand their right of return as refugees to their original homelands, now in present-day Israel.
The ministry said that 305 Palestinians, including 59 children, 10 women, and one elderly, were killed by Israeli forces, while 17,335 others suffered various injuries.
The ministry confirmed that among the injured were 3,565 children, 1,168 women, and 104 elderly.
The ministry said that 564 Palestinians were critically injured, while 7,345 were moderately injured and 9,426 suffered minor injuries with either live ammunition or rubber-coated steel bullets.
Of the 17,335 Palestinians injured, about 1,685 suffered injuries to the head and neck, in addition to 122 to the lower limbs and 14 in the upper limbs.
The ministry also confirmed that three Palestinian paramedics were killed and 680 medical crew members were injured.
"The Great March of Return" protests were launched on March 30th by thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza -- which has suffered from a decade-long Israeli siege -- who took to the borders to demand their right of return as refugees to their original homelands, now in present-day Israel.
13 may 2019
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The leader of the UK opposition Labour Party, MP Jeremy Corbyn, reiterated, this weekend, his party’s support for the Palestinian cause, condemning human rights violations by Israel.
In a Facebook post, Corbyn wrote, “We cannot stand by or stay silent at the continuing denial of rights and justice to the Palestinian people… The Labour Party is united in condemning the ongoing human rights abuses by Israeli forces, including the shooting of hundreds of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza – most of them refugees or families of refugees – demanding their rights.” Corbyn also condemned the Israeli aggression on Gaza, last week, in which 25 Palestinians and four Israelis were killed in retaliatory strikes, describing |
it as “distressing and dangerous – and a reminder of the risk that full-scale conflict can return at any time.”
“The silence of many governments, including our own, has been deafening,” he remarked, adding: “The UK government should instead unequivocally condemn the killing of demonstrators – including children, paramedics and journalists – and other civilians, and freeze arms sales to Israel.”
Corbyn called for a sustainable peace that delivers peace, justice and security to both Palestinians and Israelis, saying that it “cannot be achieved while the illegal occupation and settlement of Palestinian land continues, along with the multiple human rights abuses faced by Palestinians on a daily basis and actions of the Israeli government in flagrant disregard of international law.”
Meanwhile, the UK opposition leader said, according to Days of Palestine, that “If President Trump’s Middle East plan is, as expected, an attempt to bury the Palestinians’ right to a viable state alongside Israel, we will call on our government and the international community to reject it decisively.
“No peace plan can succeed at the expense of the rights of the Palestinian people. That’s why a Labour government will recognise a Palestinian state and press for an immediate return to meaningful negotiations, aimed at achieving a lasting settlement based on UN resolutions, international law and justice that has been too long denied.”
“The silence of many governments, including our own, has been deafening,” he remarked, adding: “The UK government should instead unequivocally condemn the killing of demonstrators – including children, paramedics and journalists – and other civilians, and freeze arms sales to Israel.”
Corbyn called for a sustainable peace that delivers peace, justice and security to both Palestinians and Israelis, saying that it “cannot be achieved while the illegal occupation and settlement of Palestinian land continues, along with the multiple human rights abuses faced by Palestinians on a daily basis and actions of the Israeli government in flagrant disregard of international law.”
Meanwhile, the UK opposition leader said, according to Days of Palestine, that “If President Trump’s Middle East plan is, as expected, an attempt to bury the Palestinians’ right to a viable state alongside Israel, we will call on our government and the international community to reject it decisively.
“No peace plan can succeed at the expense of the rights of the Palestinian people. That’s why a Labour government will recognise a Palestinian state and press for an immediate return to meaningful negotiations, aimed at achieving a lasting settlement based on UN resolutions, international law and justice that has been too long denied.”
10 may 2019
Abdullah Jom’a Abdul-‘Al, 24
Israeli soldiers attacked, Friday, the weekly Great Return March processions on Palestinian lands along the eastern areas of the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding 30, including four children, and one medic who was shot in the head.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has confirmed that the soldiers killed Abdullah Jom’a Abdul-‘Al, 24, east of Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
It added that the soldiers also injured thirty Palestinians, including four children, and a volunteer medic, who suffered a head injury while providing treatment to wounded Palestinians.
The medic, identified as Mohammad Abu T’eima, was shot as he, and several other medics were providing treatment to wounded protesters, who were shot by the soldiers on Palestinian lands, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the coastal region.
Eyewitnesses said the soldiers resorted to the excessive use of force against the protesters by firing a barrage of live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets and high-velocity gas bombs at them.
Israeli soldiers attacked, Friday, the weekly Great Return March processions on Palestinian lands along the eastern areas of the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding 30, including four children, and one medic who was shot in the head.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has confirmed that the soldiers killed Abdullah Jom’a Abdul-‘Al, 24, east of Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
It added that the soldiers also injured thirty Palestinians, including four children, and a volunteer medic, who suffered a head injury while providing treatment to wounded Palestinians.
The medic, identified as Mohammad Abu T’eima, was shot as he, and several other medics were providing treatment to wounded protesters, who were shot by the soldiers on Palestinian lands, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the coastal region.
Eyewitnesses said the soldiers resorted to the excessive use of force against the protesters by firing a barrage of live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets and high-velocity gas bombs at them.
9 may 2019
By UN News: Millions of dollars in emergency funding is needed in Gaza to save the shattered limbs of some 1,700 people who have been seriously injured in demonstrations against Israel along the border fence, a top UN humanitarian official said on Wednesday.
In an appeal for $20 million to help victims hurt during protests dubbed the Great March of Return – weekly rallies on Fridays by Gazans that began a year ago, leaving 29,000 people injured, many by live ammunition – Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), said that more resources were urgently required.
“The health structures really are in bad shape and that’s why we have put this appeal out for $20 million to address the needs of those 1,700 people, but also to support the health system”, he said.
“Of that 29,000, 7,000 have been shot with live ammunition and those are the ones who have been treated at facilities that are under very serious stress anyway”, Mr. McGoldrick added.
To date, some 120 amputations have taken place since the beginning of the demonstrations, according to the UN official, with 20 children among the amputees.
‘Running against the clock’
“We are running against the clock for some of these cases and osteomyelitis – bone infection – will be a crisis, and the need is to treat that, prevent that, otherwise we will have amputations,” he said. “The technical abilities of doctors on the ground to carry out treatment required for the 1,700 (injured demonstrators) just doesn’t exist.”
Speaking in Geneva following a lull in deadly violence over the weekend at the Israel-Gaza border between militant groups in Gaza – which is controlled by Hamas – and Israeli security forces, Mr. McGoldrick insisted on the need for dialogue to address the dire economic and humanitarian situation there.
He confirmed that UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, was in Cairo to reinforce the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal reportedly mediated by Egypt, adding that he hoped this would allow humanitarian deliveries to resume “because we were prevented from doing work, because of the insecurity and instability”.
Today, average household debt in Gaza is $4,000, the UN official explained, noting that average salaries are $400 a month. The situation has been made worse by chronically high youth unemployment and the fact that the UN’s $350 million humanitarian appeal for 2019 is funded at only 14 per cent.
“It’s not going to get any better, it’s getting worse,” he said. “If you look at the number of shops that have closed because of debt…people are using all sorts of means, selling assets, doctors going abroad leaving the family and sending remittances back, we’re hearing that the indebted nature of some of the poorest families is quite heavy.”
During the recent military activity, hundreds of rockets were launched from Gaza by Palestinian militants into southern Israel, and hundreds of airstrikes and tank rounds were fired in return, causing 29 fatalities in Gaza and four in Israel, along with some 200 casualties on each side.
“The situation is very precarious,” Mr. McGoldrick said. “And I think the need for a political solution is all the more highlighted because of how easy it is to slip into something very quickly.”
In an appeal for $20 million to help victims hurt during protests dubbed the Great March of Return – weekly rallies on Fridays by Gazans that began a year ago, leaving 29,000 people injured, many by live ammunition – Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), said that more resources were urgently required.
“The health structures really are in bad shape and that’s why we have put this appeal out for $20 million to address the needs of those 1,700 people, but also to support the health system”, he said.
“Of that 29,000, 7,000 have been shot with live ammunition and those are the ones who have been treated at facilities that are under very serious stress anyway”, Mr. McGoldrick added.
To date, some 120 amputations have taken place since the beginning of the demonstrations, according to the UN official, with 20 children among the amputees.
‘Running against the clock’
“We are running against the clock for some of these cases and osteomyelitis – bone infection – will be a crisis, and the need is to treat that, prevent that, otherwise we will have amputations,” he said. “The technical abilities of doctors on the ground to carry out treatment required for the 1,700 (injured demonstrators) just doesn’t exist.”
Speaking in Geneva following a lull in deadly violence over the weekend at the Israel-Gaza border between militant groups in Gaza – which is controlled by Hamas – and Israeli security forces, Mr. McGoldrick insisted on the need for dialogue to address the dire economic and humanitarian situation there.
He confirmed that UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, was in Cairo to reinforce the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal reportedly mediated by Egypt, adding that he hoped this would allow humanitarian deliveries to resume “because we were prevented from doing work, because of the insecurity and instability”.
Today, average household debt in Gaza is $4,000, the UN official explained, noting that average salaries are $400 a month. The situation has been made worse by chronically high youth unemployment and the fact that the UN’s $350 million humanitarian appeal for 2019 is funded at only 14 per cent.
“It’s not going to get any better, it’s getting worse,” he said. “If you look at the number of shops that have closed because of debt…people are using all sorts of means, selling assets, doctors going abroad leaving the family and sending remittances back, we’re hearing that the indebted nature of some of the poorest families is quite heavy.”
During the recent military activity, hundreds of rockets were launched from Gaza by Palestinian militants into southern Israel, and hundreds of airstrikes and tank rounds were fired in return, causing 29 fatalities in Gaza and four in Israel, along with some 200 casualties on each side.
“The situation is very precarious,” Mr. McGoldrick said. “And I think the need for a political solution is all the more highlighted because of how easy it is to slip into something very quickly.”
8 may 2019
Imagine your home being raided at pre-dawn hours by gun-wielding soldiers, your laptop and devices which connect you to the world being confiscated, your dignity stripped from you as you are arrested and taken to a prison to undergo “enhanced interrogation techniques”, and then you discover the crime you committed: expressing your opinion and reporting on facts. This is the case with Palestinian journalists who, on World Press Freedom Day 2019, retain their position as some of the most persecuted and repressed reporters in the world.
As of last month, 22 Palestinian journalists, three of whom are women, were reported to be incarcerated in Israeli prisons, violating the conventions of international rights which guarantee the freedom of the press. “The Israeli occupation arrests [Palestinian] journalists for their opinions and then hauls them before military courts using racist laws,” the Journalists Support Committee (JSC) wrote in a statement on the eve of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day in March.
Israel has a long history of arresting journalists reporting on its violations of human rights, and has mastered the art of suppressing the freedom of the press, particularly that which comes from Palestinian news organisations and journalists. One method in particular is used by Israeli courts to detain and incarcerate Palestinians for a prolonged period of time: administrative detention. This form of judicial oppression is, effectively, incarceration without trial or any charges, and is exploited regularly by Israel on the allegation that the detainee plans to commit a future offence or is a threat to state security.
It is a tactic that Israel particularly enjoyed putting into practice throughout the intifadas of the 2000s, and one which does not discriminate between men, women, and even children. According to the Israeli non-governmental human rights organisation B’Tselem, since 2002 there has not been a single month that has gone by without Israel holding at least 100 Palestinians in administrative detention. With 17 of those currently held under the practice being Palestinian journalists, the method is not alien to them, and their terms of release remain as yet unknown. “Israel’s use of administrative detention blatantly violates the restrictions of international law,” says B’Tselem. “Israel carries it out in a highly classified manner that denies detainees the possibility of mounting a proper defense.”
A recent pivotal point in Israel’s persecution of Palestinian journalists cover the Great March of Return which was launched in March 2018. The protests saw Palestinians demanding their right to return to the homes from which their families were forced out to make way for the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, and an end for the 12-year siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
Despite the peaceful nature of the protests, Israeli forces quickly fired tear gas canisters and live ammunition on unarmed protesters, killing over 250 and injuring 29,187. Among those targeted were Palestinian medics and journalists who were clearly identifiable through their distinctive ‘press’ flak jackets. Two journalists – Yaser Murtaja and Ahmed Abu Hussein – were shot and killed by Israeli snipers during the protests. MEMO’s very own journalist, Motasem Dalloul, was shot while covering the protests and our photographer had his camera targeted.
Suppression of truth
It is not only individual journalists who have been persecuted, the repression has also been imposed on entire Palestinian media outlets and news organisation. One example is that of Al-Quds TV. Israel banned the Palestinian broadcaster and news outlet after Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman declared it a terrorist organisation in July 2018. In response, US-based NGO, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), stated that “banning media outlets under the guise of fighting terrorism and protecting national security is a common practice in the authoritarian states from which Israel says it wants to differentiate itself. We call on Israeli Defense Minister Lieberman to lift the ban on Al-Quds TV and allow its journalists to work freely.”
In March this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Al-Aqsa TV a terrorist organisation, claiming it is used by Hamas to recruit terror groups. Israel has previously bombed the station’s studio in Gaza and forced it to close as a result of the destruction and the management’s inability to locate the finances necessary to rebuild it.
The suppression also spreads far beyond just Palestinian journalists, foreign journalists reporting the reality on the ground are also being choked. Jonathan Cook, a British freelance journalist who lives and works in Nazareth, detailed the legislative limits with regards to licencing and the issue of press control at MEMO’s recent conference “Present Absentees: Palestinian Citizens of Israel & the Nation-State Law” last month. “A lot of what he [Netanyahu] was doing is trying to find ways to control the media, and he’s been quite successful, I think, in Israel in many ways. Mainly at the level of the corporate owners, but he assumes that’s going to filter down to the journalists beneath them. So he’s really starting to develop a stranglehold on the internal Israeli media,” Cook explained. Foreign journalists working for large publications in Israel are pressured through the editors to comply with pro-government agendas, “so Israel has been quite effective at limiting journalistic dissent.”
Cook also outlined the harsh licencing system that Israel imposes on foreign journalists, stating that “there’s a government press office which licenses you, effectively, as a journalist in Israel,” and aside from the military censorship laws, “journalists need to get approval to be working in Israel, and Israel has slowly tightened the rules so that freelance journalists suddenly found they couldn’t get licencing from the government press office and therefore couldn’t work in Israel.” A mixture of these subtle tactics by the Israeli government has, therefore, succeeded in limiting the amount of truth and ground realities that even foreign journalists would potentially report on.
A subtle dictatorship
Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories continue to be one of the most contentious areas for journalists to operate in, regardless of their roles or positions, and the repression of Palestinian journalists and media outlets remains an injustice which continues to be left unanswered by the world as well as the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority. Last month, it was reported that Israel committed 150 violations against Palestinian journalists over the past three months. For a country that claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East and a beacon of freedom – press freedom in particular – Israel eerily resembles more of a repressive dictatorship in its regard for the press.
Israel’s suppression of the Palestinian free press is more than simply the limitations of what journalists can and cannot report on or the fear that resonates with widespread arrests, but is in fact a war against truth itself. The silencing of journalists signifies the covering up of the realities on the ground in place of sugar-coated agenda-driven narratives, preventing the suppressive authority from taking the opportunity to be accountable and reform for the benefit of society and human rights. Israel’s accusation of “incitement” as a legitimate reason to silence dissent, therefore, is part of its wider war on truth, and grimly reflects the exact same mentality which countless other regimes hold – particularly those in the Gulf – which is that to speak truth to power and report on the facts does nothing but “ruin the prestige” of the state and can even amounts to treason.
- Muhammad Hussein is currently reading politics at a university in London. He has a keen interest in the Middle Eastern and international political affairs. His article was published in MEMO.
As of last month, 22 Palestinian journalists, three of whom are women, were reported to be incarcerated in Israeli prisons, violating the conventions of international rights which guarantee the freedom of the press. “The Israeli occupation arrests [Palestinian] journalists for their opinions and then hauls them before military courts using racist laws,” the Journalists Support Committee (JSC) wrote in a statement on the eve of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day in March.
Israel has a long history of arresting journalists reporting on its violations of human rights, and has mastered the art of suppressing the freedom of the press, particularly that which comes from Palestinian news organisations and journalists. One method in particular is used by Israeli courts to detain and incarcerate Palestinians for a prolonged period of time: administrative detention. This form of judicial oppression is, effectively, incarceration without trial or any charges, and is exploited regularly by Israel on the allegation that the detainee plans to commit a future offence or is a threat to state security.
It is a tactic that Israel particularly enjoyed putting into practice throughout the intifadas of the 2000s, and one which does not discriminate between men, women, and even children. According to the Israeli non-governmental human rights organisation B’Tselem, since 2002 there has not been a single month that has gone by without Israel holding at least 100 Palestinians in administrative detention. With 17 of those currently held under the practice being Palestinian journalists, the method is not alien to them, and their terms of release remain as yet unknown. “Israel’s use of administrative detention blatantly violates the restrictions of international law,” says B’Tselem. “Israel carries it out in a highly classified manner that denies detainees the possibility of mounting a proper defense.”
A recent pivotal point in Israel’s persecution of Palestinian journalists cover the Great March of Return which was launched in March 2018. The protests saw Palestinians demanding their right to return to the homes from which their families were forced out to make way for the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, and an end for the 12-year siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
Despite the peaceful nature of the protests, Israeli forces quickly fired tear gas canisters and live ammunition on unarmed protesters, killing over 250 and injuring 29,187. Among those targeted were Palestinian medics and journalists who were clearly identifiable through their distinctive ‘press’ flak jackets. Two journalists – Yaser Murtaja and Ahmed Abu Hussein – were shot and killed by Israeli snipers during the protests. MEMO’s very own journalist, Motasem Dalloul, was shot while covering the protests and our photographer had his camera targeted.
Suppression of truth
It is not only individual journalists who have been persecuted, the repression has also been imposed on entire Palestinian media outlets and news organisation. One example is that of Al-Quds TV. Israel banned the Palestinian broadcaster and news outlet after Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman declared it a terrorist organisation in July 2018. In response, US-based NGO, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), stated that “banning media outlets under the guise of fighting terrorism and protecting national security is a common practice in the authoritarian states from which Israel says it wants to differentiate itself. We call on Israeli Defense Minister Lieberman to lift the ban on Al-Quds TV and allow its journalists to work freely.”
In March this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Al-Aqsa TV a terrorist organisation, claiming it is used by Hamas to recruit terror groups. Israel has previously bombed the station’s studio in Gaza and forced it to close as a result of the destruction and the management’s inability to locate the finances necessary to rebuild it.
The suppression also spreads far beyond just Palestinian journalists, foreign journalists reporting the reality on the ground are also being choked. Jonathan Cook, a British freelance journalist who lives and works in Nazareth, detailed the legislative limits with regards to licencing and the issue of press control at MEMO’s recent conference “Present Absentees: Palestinian Citizens of Israel & the Nation-State Law” last month. “A lot of what he [Netanyahu] was doing is trying to find ways to control the media, and he’s been quite successful, I think, in Israel in many ways. Mainly at the level of the corporate owners, but he assumes that’s going to filter down to the journalists beneath them. So he’s really starting to develop a stranglehold on the internal Israeli media,” Cook explained. Foreign journalists working for large publications in Israel are pressured through the editors to comply with pro-government agendas, “so Israel has been quite effective at limiting journalistic dissent.”
Cook also outlined the harsh licencing system that Israel imposes on foreign journalists, stating that “there’s a government press office which licenses you, effectively, as a journalist in Israel,” and aside from the military censorship laws, “journalists need to get approval to be working in Israel, and Israel has slowly tightened the rules so that freelance journalists suddenly found they couldn’t get licencing from the government press office and therefore couldn’t work in Israel.” A mixture of these subtle tactics by the Israeli government has, therefore, succeeded in limiting the amount of truth and ground realities that even foreign journalists would potentially report on.
A subtle dictatorship
Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories continue to be one of the most contentious areas for journalists to operate in, regardless of their roles or positions, and the repression of Palestinian journalists and media outlets remains an injustice which continues to be left unanswered by the world as well as the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority. Last month, it was reported that Israel committed 150 violations against Palestinian journalists over the past three months. For a country that claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East and a beacon of freedom – press freedom in particular – Israel eerily resembles more of a repressive dictatorship in its regard for the press.
Israel’s suppression of the Palestinian free press is more than simply the limitations of what journalists can and cannot report on or the fear that resonates with widespread arrests, but is in fact a war against truth itself. The silencing of journalists signifies the covering up of the realities on the ground in place of sugar-coated agenda-driven narratives, preventing the suppressive authority from taking the opportunity to be accountable and reform for the benefit of society and human rights. Israel’s accusation of “incitement” as a legitimate reason to silence dissent, therefore, is part of its wider war on truth, and grimly reflects the exact same mentality which countless other regimes hold – particularly those in the Gulf – which is that to speak truth to power and report on the facts does nothing but “ruin the prestige” of the state and can even amounts to treason.
- Muhammad Hussein is currently reading politics at a university in London. He has a keen interest in the Middle Eastern and international political affairs. His article was published in MEMO.
