Belgian Academics & Artists For Palestine
 

 
 

Gaza's Incremental Genocide

(1) Resources:
(2) Articles: below (latest first)

  • Ilan PAPPÉ: “Genocide in Gaza” (The Electronic Intifada, 2 Sept 2006): click here!
  • Ilan PAPPÉ: “Israel’s incremental genocide in the Gaza ghetto” (The Electronic Intifada, 13 July 2014): click here!
  • Sara ROY: "The Gaza Strip. The Political Economy of De-development." Expanded Third Edition, Institute for Palestine Studies, 2016, 511p.
  • GISHA: "Area G: From Separation to Annexation" (Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, June 2020, pdf, 23p.): click here!
    Israel's isolation of the Gaza Strip and how it serves annexationist goals in the West Bank. ─ Israel’s goal of formalizing annexation of parts of the West Bank is yet another step in a long process of deliberate fragmentation of Palestinian life in the occupied Palestinian territory, aimed at undermining the political power to organize for self-determination. A new position paper released today by Gisha, Area G: From Separation to Annexation, reviews and analyzes Israel’s “separation policy,” implemented as a means of deliberately isolating Gaza physically, economically, and socially, and of dividing Palestinians through sweeping restrictions on movement.
  • GISHA: "Gaza Up Close" (Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, September 2021): click here! Pdf version (8p.): click here!
    High unemployment, long blackouts, and severe shortages of clean water; a young, educated population with immense potential, and deliberate policy choices by Israel that deny basic rights and block economic development. Everything you need to know about the closure on Gaza.
  • AL MEZAN: "Monthly Statistical Report. Violation of the rule of law in the Gaza Strip and its impact on Palestinians and their properties, Gaza Strip January 2023" (Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, February 6, 2023): click here!
  • AL MEZAN: "Executive Summary of Al Mezan’s Annual Report on the situation of economic, social, and cultural rights in the Gaza Strip in 2022" (March 2023, pdf, 8p.): click here!

  • "Five years on from the Great March of Return wounds are still unhealed" (Medical Aid for Palestine, March 30, 2023): click here!
    Five years ago today, on 30 March 2018, a wave of weekly demonstrations by Palestinians at the Gaza perimeter fence began. Thousands of Palestinians joined the ‘Great March of Return’ protests and called for an end to Israel’s illegal closure and blockade, and the return of refugees to the homes they fled or were expelled from 75 years ago during the Nabka (‘catastrophe’). Despite the protests being ‘civilian in nature’, according to the UN, Israeli forces responded with widespread and systematic use of excessive force, including live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas. 214 Palestinians, including 46 children, were killed, and over 36,100, including nearly 8,800 children, were injured. One in five of those injured, over 8,000, were hit by live ammunition.
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    Articles (latest first):
    • Miko PELED: « The Cultural Looting of Gaza »(Mint Press, May 30, 2023) : click here!
      Israel exploits the suffering of Gazans in order to recruit collaborators and garner whatever intelligence they may be able to provide. It is well known that people in Gaza who are in need of permits for medical care for themselves or their children are often asked to work for the Israeli authorities as informants. While all of these are expressions of cruelty, brutality and racism, here we are actually discussing another issue, one of unimaginable historic value. For years, Gaza has been robbed of priceless archaeological treasures that will very likely end up in an Israeli museum or in the private collections of the wealthy.
    • Aseel MOUSA: "Women with breast cancer denied treatment by Israel" (The Electronic Intifada, 26 May, 2023, pdf, 8p.): click here!
      Aisha al-Nader was diagnosed with breast cancer and lymphoma in April 2022. The diagnosis came soon after Aisha – now aged 41 – learned that her efforts to become pregnant via fertility treatment had been unsuccessful. Gaza-based doctors referred Aisha to Istishari Arab Hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah. But she was unable to keep an appointment set for July last year: Israel would not issue her a travel permit...
    • AL MEZAN: "Nakba survivors in Gaza mark 75 years of ongoing refugeehood, settler-colonialism and apartheid amid Israel’s renewed military assault on the Strip" (May 15, 2023, pdf, 8p.): click here!
    • Tareq S. HAJJAJ: "‘Collateral damage’: the human cost of Israel’s recent assault on Gaza" (Mondoweiss, May 18, 2023): click here!
      The five-day Israeli assault on Gaza killed 33 people. The majority of them were civilians, six of them children. But for Israel, they are simply "collateral damage."
    • Odeh BISHARAT: "The Absurdity and Tragedy of Israel's Bloody Gaza Campaign" (Haaretz, May 15, 2023): click here!
      At the moment, thanks to the IDF, the saying “my home is my castle” has become “my home is my grave.” This can be attested to by 8-year-old Ali, 12-year-old Miar, 5-year-old Hajar, 10-year-old Lian and 5-year-old Tamim of blessed memory.
    • Haidar EID: « Gaza - We Want Freedom, Not Improved Conditions of Oppression! » (The Citizen, May 14, 2023): click here!
      Oppressor and oppressed, are equated as "two sides to a conflict." ─ We have spent sleepless nights under Israeli bombs before, in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018 and 2021. On Tuesday May 9, apartheid Israel decided to launch yet another murderous campaign of bombardment against one of the most densely populated areas on earth. And again, the victims were children and women. So far, the number of those killed has risen to 33 and more than 100 wounded. Calls for a ceasefire were made as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to launch "massive strikes" in the hope of killing the largest possible number of Palestinians by targeting residential areas.
    • "PCHR calls on the ICC Prosecutor to issue a public statement condemning the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and expedite his investigation into the situation in Palestine" (PCHR, May 13, 2023): click here!
      The Gaza Strip has been under attack for the fifth consecutive day in the context of a military operation launched by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on 9 May 2023. Innocent civilians have been killed and wounded, and civilian objects, including civilian houses and apartments, have been targeted and destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.
    • Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor: "Israel violates the principles of necessity, proportionality in its attacks on Gaza" (Euro-Med, May 13, 2023): click here!
      Israel’s army has killed multiple civilians in its ongoing attack on the Gaza Strip, while Israeli authorities have closed vital crossings to the Strip and disrupted the flow of vital humanitarian aid including food, medicines, medical supplies, and fuel, said Euro-Med Monitor in a statement.
    • Noa LANDAU: "Israel's Justification for Gaza Strikes Disconnected From Facts" (Haaretz, May 13, 2023): click here!
      As happens in every round of fighting with Gaza, this time as well, the Israeli Foreign Ministry rushed to issue a message sheet to Israeli diplomats. This practice is as old as the state itself, only this time it seems that the sheet was written by Russian artificial intelligence software. There’s no other way to explain the complete disconnect between what was written and the facts on the ground.
    • Kathryn SHIHADAH: "What is behind the latest Israel-Gaza violence?" (If Americans Knew, May 13, 2023): click here!
      The current situation in Gaza and Israel is not what mainstream media reports portray. Here is the factual context, in brief.
    • Omar KARMI: "Stuck in Israel’s stranglehold" (The Electronic Intifada, May 11, 2023): click here!
      "Sociocide,” the professor repeated, with a shake of his head. This was Israel’s slow plan for ethnic cleansing. “They are not only stealing the land. They are trying to destroy our way of life.”
    • AL MEZAN press release: "On the third day of its military assault against Gaza, Israel intensifies its attacks on densely populated areas, terrorizing the Palestinian civilian population" (Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, May 10, 2023): click here!
    • Orly NOY: « War on Gaza is the glue that binds Israel’s opposing camps » (+972, May 9, 2023.): click here.
      The Israeli right and center left have learned time and again that the best way to paralyze the opposition is to launch an assault on the blockaded strip.
    • Richard SILVERSTEIN: « "Gaza: House of Slaughter." Israeli air assault murdered 12 Gazans, including mothers and five children » (Tikun Olam, 9 May, 2023.): click here.
      Gaza, last night, became a House of Slaughter. An Israeli targeted assassination destroyed a floor of an apartment building, killing three alleged Islamic Jihad commanders, their wives and children. 5 of the dead were children. 20 others were injured. As it has in the past, Israel knew there were civilians who would be killed, but wanted the militants so badly it was willing to massacre the innocent.
    • AL MEZAN: "Children and Armed Conflict" (Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, 4 May, 2023.): click here.
      Gaza Strip, 2023: Statistical update on violations against children in times of armed conflict by Israeli and Palestinian duty bearers – in accordance with the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanisms established by UN Security Council Resolution 1612.
    • Abdallah AL-NAAMI: "Israel attacks fishers at sea and in court" (The Electronic Intifada, 4 May, 2023.): click here.
      It is early morning, sunny but with a cool breeze. Jihad al-Hissi is busy helping fellow fishers to prepare a boat for a day at sea. There should not be anything unusual about the tasks they perform: fishers around the world do them all the time. Yet the tension is almost palpable: Jihad, 56, is worried that his boat will not return to the port. For eight months last year, the boat was held by the Israeli authorities after its crew ventured a short distance beyond the small zone in which Gaza’s fishers are permitted to operate.
    • Mohammed ASAD: "Cementing Gaza’s History by Sketching its Ancient Sites" (Informed Comment, April 24, 2023.): click here.
    • OCHA: "Movement in and out of Gaza: update covering March 2023" (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, April 19, 2023.): click here.
    • Ola MOUSA, "Food or medicine? Gaza’s stark choice" (The Electronic Intifada, 14 April, 2023): click here.
      Amal Bahar had to wait three months before she could see a doctor in the ear, nose and throat department at Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital. Throughout that time, she had tinnitus. “I have a constant tingling in my ear,” she said. “At times, the pain gets severe and turns into a headache.” The pain, she noted, can be especially acute in the evenings. As al-Shifa is a public institution, Amal was eventually able to see a doctor there free of charge. Yet because the hospital’s resources are limited and much in demand, it took a long time before she could get an appointment.
    • Asmaa ABU MEZIED, "Confronting Energy Poverty in Gaza" (Al-Shabaka, March 29, 2023): click here!
      Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from a worsening energy crisis due to the Israeli regime’s unrelenting siege. As a result, they have sought alternative sources of energy that are funded by donor aid, as well as governmental and private-sector initiatives. While these schemes can provide Palestinians with short-term solutions to alleviate their energy needs, they fail to confront the fundamental obstacles imposed by the Israeli siege, thus depoliticizing the energy crisis and perpetuating the status quo.
    • Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, "Israeli authorities at Erez arbitrarily arrested a cancer patient on his way back to Gaza from Jerusalem hospital" (March 22, 2023): click here!
      At approximately 1:30 pm on Tuesday, 21 March 2023, Israeli authorities at Erez crossing arrested Palestinian patient Ahmed Abu Awwad, a 55-year-old resident of the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, on his way back to the Gaza Strip. Abu Awwad has bone cancer. On March 15, 2023, he left the Gaza Strip to travel to Jerusalem in critical conditions.
    • Aseel MOUSA, "Undocumented in Gaza struggle without Israeli-issued IDs" (The Electronic Intifada, March 17, 2023): click here!
      A total lack of rights: “It’s as if we don’t exist.” This is a common refrain among undocumented people living in Gaza, and according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, over 5,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip “lack identity documents and are thus deprived of their civil and political rights” as of 2021.
    • "Al Mezan staunchly denounces the issuance of two death sentences in Gaza, one of which followed a trial in absentia" (March 9, 2023): click here!
      On Thursday, 9 March 2023, the Permanent Military Court in Gaza issued two death sentences by hanging. The first death sentence was handed down to a 65-year-old man convicted of drug trafficking in violation of Article 28(1) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act No. 7 of 2013, following a trial in absentia. The second death sentence was issued against a 47-year-old man convicted of collaboration with hostile entities, in violation of Article 131 the Palestinian Revolutionary Penal Code of 1979.
    • "Israel continues to block passage of vital medical supplies to Gaza" (Middle East Monitor, February 15, 2023): click here!
      A number of leading medical professionals and a US lawyer have written an open letter pointing out that the Israeli occupation authorities continue to block the passage of vital medical supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip. It is, they say, "collective punishment" of the Palestinians in the coastal enclave. The letter was sent originally to a medical journal, which had published similar letters and did not respond to the signatories. This, they say, is a "worrying sign of neglect" of the issue.
    • Al Mezan: "Monthly Statistical Report. Violation of the rule of law in the Gaza Strip and its impact on Palestinians and their properties, Gaza Strip January 2023" (February 6, 2023): click here!
    • "Gaza voor beginners" (De Wereld Morgen, 7 februari, 2023): click here!
      De Gazastrook, een 360 vierkante kilometer Palestijns grondgebied, is het tehuis van 2,3 miljoen mensen en onderhevig aan een strikte Israelische en Egyptische blokkade sinds de Islamic Resistance Movement (Islamitische Verzetsbeweging) (Hamas) met geweld controle nam van de verarmde kust-enclave in de zomer van 2007.
    • "Al Mezan condemns the issuance of a new death sentence in Gaza and calls for the complete abolition of this practice" (January 31, 2023): click here!
      On Monday morning, 30 January 2023, the Supreme Criminal Chamber of the Court of First Instance in Gaza sentenced a 30-year-old man to death by hanging, following his conviction for possession and trafficking of narcotics, based on the indictment materials and pursuant to Article 415 of the Law of Penal Procedures No. 3 of 2001.
    • Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor: « A generation under blockade: New report examines life in Gaza after 17 years of Israeli restrictions » (January 25, 2023): click here! REPORT (pdf, 29p.): click here!
      Entering its eighteenth year, the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip reflects an abject moral and humanitarian failure on the part of all United Nations and international entities .
    • Al Mezan Center For Human Rights, Report: « Children and Armed Conflict. » Annual statistical report on violations against children in times of armed conflict in the Gaza Strip in accordance with the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanisms established by UN Security Council Resolution 1612. Reporting period: 1 January – 31 December 2022 (January, 2023, pdf, 13p.): click here!
      Al Mezan Center for Human Rights strongly condemns the continued violations against Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. Al Mezan believes that the continued Israeli violations of the International Humanitarian Law and the International Human Rights Law is but a reflection of the international community's failure to carry out its legal and moral obligations to protect children’s rights in the oPt, which in turn has emboldened perpetrators to continue unabated with such actions. Al Mezan reiterates its call on the international community to take urgent and effective action to put an end to Israeli violations of the rules of international law, particularly those relevant to children’s rights, and to ensure justice for child victims of grave violations by holding perpetrators to account
    • Al Mezan Center For Human Rights, Press Release: « Al Mezan condemns Israel’s constant use of drones over Gaza and calls for a stop to this practice » (January 4, 2023): click here!
      Israel’s almost daily use of drones over Gaza and their loud and irritating sound create a constant state of panic and anxiety among more than two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. The feelings of anguish generated by Israel’s numerous large-scale military offensives which have involved heinous acts of killing, forceful displacement, and destruction of homes and property, are all being brought back when hearing the drones hovering in the sky.
    • Al Mezan Center For Human Rights, Reports and Studies: « Gaza Water Desalination Plants. » Fact sheet: Health and Environmental Impact, November 2022" (Nov 13, 2022): click here! Fact Sheet (pdf, 7p.): click here!
      This factsheet discusses in detail the conditions of private water desalination plants in the Gaza Strip and their impact on human rights, including the rights to health, water and sanitation, and a healthy environment.
    • Haaretz Editorial, "By Air, Land and Sea" (Nov 10, 2022): click here!
      Israel’s control over the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip knows no bounds. For more than 15 years, more than 2 million people have been living under siege, in conditions of scarcity and overcrowding, on a territory that has suffered periodic campaigns of destruction. And as if the land blockade and the difficulties involved in entering Israel for work were not enough, there is also the total disconnection from the West Bank...
    • Hadeel AL GHERBAWI, "No rest in Gaza, even for the dead " (Al-Monitor, Oct 11, 2022): click here!
      Residents in the Gaza Strip are struggling to find graves to bury their dead.
    • Haidar EID, "Time to end Apartheid Israel’s genocidal oppression of Gaza " (Mondoweiss, Sept 11, 2022): click here!
      While 2022 marks 15 years since the siege of Gaza officially began, the strangling of the Gaza Strip by the Zionist state started long before that.
    • Tareq S. HAJJAJ, "The Gaza blockade didn’t begin in 2007" (Mondoweiss, Sept 10, 2022): click here!
      Movements like BDS are the only force capable of counteracting the massive power imbalance between the Palestinians and their Israeli oppressors.
    • Amira HASS: "Uninvolved: These Are the 36 Palestinian Civilians Killed During Israel’s Gaza Op" (fHaaretz, August 13, 2022): click here!
      A grandma and her granddaughter, a father and his children, a toddler and his family – the price of the latest Israel-Gaza escalation. Of the 36, 14 were killed by misfired Palestinian rockets.
    • "Gaza Under Attack: August 5-8, 2022. Rolling updates on Israel's military offensive and the immediate implications for the lives and health of Palestinians in Gaza" (GISHA, Aug 8, 2022): click here!
      The Gaza Ministry of Health reports 44 people were killed in the Strip since Friday, including 15 children, and 360 were injured. The Gaza Housing Ministry reported 1,675 housing units were damaged, 71 of them to the point that they are no longer inhabitable. Dozens of families are internally displaced.
    • Press Release: "On the third day of its offensive against Gaza, Israel intensifies attacks and destroys houses without warning" (Al Mezan, 7 Aug , 2022): click here!
      Al Mezan’s documentation shows that Israel’s attacks against the Gaza Strip have so far resulted in the death of 31 Palestinians—including six children and four women—and the injury of 228 others—including 90 children and 33 women. Meanwhile, Gaza crossings remained closed for the sixth consecutive day, leading Gaza’s only power plant to shut down due to the lack of fuel, significant shortages in food and medicine, and increased deterioration of humanitarian conditions.
    • "Al-Haq Condemns Israel’s Provocation of Hostilities in the Gaza Strip, Killing 10 Palestinians, including Alaa Qaddoum, aged five, and Injuring 75 Palestinians" (Al-Haq, 5 Aug , 2022): click here!
      Today, Friday 5 August 2022, Israel launched a military offensive on the Gaza Strip, killing 10 Palestinians, amongst which were civilians, including a five-year-old girl and a woman. According to the Ministry of Health 75 were injured, some of which are critical injuries. This is the gravest escalation since Israel’s full scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip in May 2021, killing 240 Palestinians, including 151 civilians. Israel’s 2014 military offensive on the Gaza Strip killed 2,192 Palestinians, including 524 children, in acts amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity under investigation by the International Criminal Court.
    • "Increase in Israeli navy attacks on Gaza fishermen, including children" (GISHA, July 7, 2022): click here!
      Between January and May 2022, 167 incidents of Israeli shooting towards fishermen were recorded and 10 fishing boats were seized; the same number confiscated over the past two years combined .
    • Ramzy BAROUD, « 15 years of failed experiments: Myths and facts about the Israeli siege on Gaza » (Middle East Monitor, July 2022, pdf, 17p.): click here!
      Fifteen years have passed since Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip, subjecting nearly two million Palestinians to one of the longest and most cruel politically-motivated blockades in history. Back then, the Israeli government justified its siege as the only way to protect Israel from Palestinian "terrorism and rocket attacks."
    • Tareq S. HAJJAJ, « For cancer patients in Gaza travel permits become a matter of life or death » (Mondoweiss, July 19, 2022, pdf, 17p.): click here!
      The crowded hall is packed full with tired bodies standing in front of the Director’s office, as people clutch their papers and medical reports and attempt to get the attention of the officials. Crying is not entirely uncommon, as people wail of the consequences of delaying their treatment while they wait for Israeli approval for a medical permit.
    • MAP & Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, « DELAYED, DENIED AND DEPRIVED. » The collective punishment of Palestinian patients in Gaza in the context of Israel’s 15-year blockade (June 2022, pdf, 17p.): click here!
      Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza through its 15-year-long closure and blockade has created a humanitarian and health crisis that continues to deteriorate year-on-year, warn Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.
    • HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, "Gaza: Israel’s ‘Open-Air Prison’ at 15" (Report, June 14, 2022): click here!
      (Gaza) – Israel’s sweeping restrictions on leaving Gaza deprive its more than two million residents of opportunities to better their lives, Human Rights Watch said today on the fifteenth anniversary of the 2007 closure. The closure has devastated the economy in Gaza, contributed to fragmentation of the Palestinian people, and forms part of Israeli authorities’ crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against millions of Palestinians.
    • Amjad Ayman YAGHI: "Death without warning" (The Electronic Intifada, 15 June 2021): click here!
      One of the lies told by Israel’s military during the recent bombardment of Gaza was that it aimed to minimize harm inflicted on civilians. The claim was made, for example, in a tweet issued on 17 May. Yet on that date and the two previous days, Israel carried out no-warning attacks in which numerous civilians were killed. Muhammad al-Hadidi lost his wife and all bar one of his children on 15 May. His wife had gone to see her brother and his family in Beach refugee camp one day earlier and was staying overnight, along with their children. Muhammad remained alone in his own home. Early in the morning, he was awoken by a loud explosion. Shortly afterwards, he received a phone call from a neighbor.His neighbor broke some terrible news to him. The home of his brother-in-law had been bombed without warning... “Israel says that it reached all of its goals [during the attack],” said Kamel. “Since when can killing innocent people and leaving children without parents be considered an achievement?”
    • Ramzy BAROUD: « Say This, Don't Say That: Time to Confront the Misleading Language on Palestine, Israel » (The Palestine Chronicle, 14 June 2021): click here!
      The besiegement and utter isolation of over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza since 2006-07, which has resulted in numerous tragedies, is an act of collective punishment that also deserves the designation of genocide. But one doesn’t need to be a legal expert to locate the many elements of genocide in Israel’s violent behavior, let alone language, against Palestinians. There is a clear, undeniable relationship between Israel’s violent political discourse and equally violent action on the ground. One of the rising stars of Israeli politics, Naftali Bennett, who has served the role of the defense minister, had, in July 2013, stated: “I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there’s no problem with that.”
    • Al Mezan CHR: "Press Release, Nov 29, 2020: "Unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases in the Gaza Strip" (Nov, 2020): click here!
      Al Mezan warns of humanitarian catastrophe due to scarce medical resources. In its latest update on Saturday, 28 November 2020, the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza noted that the last round of COVID-19 testing brought the total to 19,160 confirmed cases, including 90 deaths. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations rose to 334 cases, occupying 78% of the hospital beds designated for COVID-19 in-patients.
    • Al Mezan CHR: "The Torture and Abuse of Children Fleeing Gaza's Humanitarian Catastrophe" (Oct 26, 2020): click here!
      The deterioration of the socioeconomic conditions in the Gaza Strip due to Israel’s unilateral imposition of 13 years of closure and blockade has led an alarming number of child residents to undertake dangerous emigration routes out of the Strip in search of better living conditions and the chance at a dignified life. Al Mezan’s reporting shows that a sense of desperation is leading children to risk their lives by attempting to cross the Israeli-implemented and enforced buffer zone. This report focuses on the arrest and abuse of those children, in particular 91 child victims who tried to cross the perimeter fence into Israel between 2015-2019. Read full report (pdf, 30p.): click here!
    • "Palestinian and regional human rights organizations submit joint urgent appeal to UN Special Procedures on the escalating water and sanitation crisis in the Gaza Strip, oPt" (press release: Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Al-Haq – Law in the Service of Man, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Habitat International Coalition – Housing and Land Rights Network, Nov 10, 2020): click here!
      Four Palestinian and regional human rights organizations submitted a joint urgent appeal to the United Nations (UN) Special Procedures on the escalating water and sanitation crisis in the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Notably, this appeal highlights the sharp deterioration of the water and sanitation conditions in Gaza resulting from the increased punitive measures imposed by Israel against the civilian population in August 2020. Insufficient access to clean and safe drinking water and sanitation facilities in the oPt has been a hallmark of Palestinian life for decades, with resources overexploited and water quality steadily deteriorating in parallel and as a result of Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid regime. Israel, the Occupying Power, has prohibited Palestinians in the whole oPt from drawing any of its water since 1967 and currently controls more than 85 percent of the oPt’s water sources.
    • Yara M. ASI: "Endless warnings of Gaza’s collapse are why we’re failing to prevent it" (+972, Oct 14, 2020): click here!
      The strip's rehabilitation already demanded ‘herculean efforts.’ With the spread of COVID-19, action is imperative.
    • "Explosive Remnants of War risk civilian lives in Gaza amid funding crisis" (UNRWA, 24 Sept 2020): click here!
    • David KLEIN: "Palestine and the Climate Crisis” Mondoweiss, Feb 4, 2019): click here!
      Gaza, in particular, faces environmental perils not only from changing atmospheric conditions but also from ocean acidification and ocean deoxygenation both of which threaten ocean ecology and therefore endanger a major food source for Gazans. In addition sea level is projected to rise by as much as several meters by leading climate scientist James Hansen and fellow researchers, possibly as soon as 50 years from now. These climactic changes will have devastating effects on Israel and many other countries as well, but since Gaza is essentially an open air prison whose inhabitants are confined to the coast, a single major storm could all but end life there.
    • "Water in Gaza: Scarce, polluted and mostly unfit for use” (B'Tselem, Aug 17, 2020): click here!
      Some two million Gazans suffer from a constant shortage of water, which gets worse in summer. The tap water is salty and polluted and is not fit for drinking. In the absence of other alternatives, residents are forced to use this water for bathing and washing, yet the supply is irregular and unpredictable. For drinking and cooking, they no choice to buy water privately – despite severe financial hardship – and even then it is usually substandard.
    • Maha HUSSAINI: "À Gaza, l’aggravation des conditions de vie pousse de plus en plus de Palestiniens au suicide” (Middle East Eye, 13 août, 2020): click here!
      La hausse des suicides au premier semestre 2020 illustre le terrible impact psychologique du siège israélien sur les habitants de Gaza. - Vingt-trois ans après sa libération d’une prison israélienne, Jamal Wadi se débattait toujours avec les conséquences de sa terrible expérience. Souffrant de graves traumatismes psychologiques et de problèmes de santé mentale, le Palestinien s’est suicidé le 21 juin dernier à l’âge de 54 ans. La bande de Gaza connaît une flambée des taux de suicide alors qu’elle est entrée dans sa 14e année sous blocus. Selon le Centre al-Mezan pour les droits de l’homme, basé à Gaza, au moins seize personnes se sont suicidées et des centaines d’autres ont tenté de le faire à Gaza au premier semestre 2020.
    • Report: “Gaza, The Dead-Zone. How life in the Gaza Strip changed over 14 years of Israel's strangling blockade” (Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, January 2020, pdf, 46p.): click here!
      The Report presents overwhelming evidence of the prolonged and unlawful victimization of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, which has intensified greatly since Israel imposed a land, sea, and air blockade in 2007. This unlawful and comprehensive block-ade has entrapped the Gazan people ever since it was established is a particularly severe and cruel form of collective punishment, which is a flagrant and continuing criminal wrong. Introduction by Richard Falk.
    • Eyal SAGIV, “Israel killed 222 Gaza protestors since 2018. Only one soldier has been indicted" (+972, Nov 6, 2019): click here!
      As Othman Hiles began climbing the Gaza fence, an Israeli soldier opened fire and killed the unarmed boy. The soldier’s sentence? Community service.
    • Gideon LEVY, “No one in Israel knew they were committing a massacre, and they didn't care" (Haaretz, Nov 17, 2019): click here!
      "The bomber pilot didn’t know. His commanders who gave him the orders also didn’t know. The defense minister and the commander in chief didn’t know. Nor did the commander of the air force. The intelligence officers who aimed at the target didn’t know. The army spokesman who lied without a qualm also didn’t know. None of our heroes knew. The ones who always know everything suddenly didn’t know. The ones who can track down the son of a wanted man in a Damascus suburb didn’t know that sleeping inside their miserable hovel in Dir al-Balah was an impoverished family. They, who serve in the most moral army and the most advanced intelligence services in the world, didn’t know that the flimsy tin shack had long since stopped being part of the “Islamic Jihad infrastructure,” and it’s doubtful that it ever was. They didn’t know and they didn’t bother to check — after all, what’s the worst that could happen? Reporter Yaniv Kubovich revealed the shocking truth on Friday on the Haaretz website : The target had not been re-examined for at least one year prior to the strike, the individual who was supposedly its target never existed and the intelligence was based on rumors. The bomb was dropped anyway. The result: eight bodies in colorful shrouds, some of them horrifically tiny, all in a row; members of a single extended family, the Asoarkas, five of them children — including two infants."
    • Report: "Poverty Rate in Gaza Strip Highest Worldwide" (Ashark Al-Awsat, Oct 21 2019): click here!
      The Ministry of Social Development in the Gaza Strip said in a report that the 2019 poverty rate in the enclave is the highest in the world. On the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, celebrated on Oct. 17, the Ministry’s undersecretary, Ghazi Hamad, said that poverty and unemployment rates have reached nearly 75 percent in 2019.
    • Jonathan COOK, “Uninhabitable: Gaza Faces Moment of Truth" (The Link, Vol. 55, Issue 3, Augustus-September 2019, pdf, 16p.): click here!
      The only way Israelis can be made to sit up and take note of the disaster unfolding next door in Gaza, it seems, is when they fear the fallout may spill out of the tiny coastal enclave and engulf them too. Environmental experts from two Israeli universities issued a report in June warning that the imminent collapse of Gaza’s water, sewage and electricity infrastructure would soon rebound on Israel.
    • Motasem A DALLOUL, “Israel’s Harsh Collective Punishment of Gaza Palestinians aims at Ethnic Cleansing" (MEMo via Informed Comment, Aug 28, 2019): click here!
      Last week, Israel announced that it was ready to open its ports for the Gaza residents who want to emigrate. This suggests strongly that the government in Tel Aviv has been inflicting suffering on the Gaza Strip intentionally in an effort to push its residents to leave.
    • UN Human Rights Council: "Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory." (UNHRC, 40th session, 25 February-22 March 2019, Agenda item 7, Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories, pdf, 22p.): click here!
      Briefing: "No Justification for Israel to Shoot Protesters with Live Ammunition": "The Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that during the Great March of Return, Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, and must be immediately investigated by Israel," said the Chair of the Commission, Santiago Canton of Argentina.
    • Maureen Clare MURPHY, “Israel has injured 24,000 Gaza protesters" (The Electronic Intifada, 25 Nov, 2018): click here!
      Palestinians have paid a great price for their call for life with dignity during mass protests held along Gaza's boundary with Israel over the past eight months. Some 180 Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli occupation forces and nearly 6,000 others injured by live fire during the Great March of Return. "The vast majority of casualties were unarmed, and were fatally shot from a distance while in the Gaza Strip itself," according to a new report by the Israeli group B'Tselem.
    • Haidar EID, “What Gaza Wants" (Mondoweiss, Nov 9, 2018): click here!
      As we, Palestinians of Gaza, embark on our long walk to freedom, we have come to the conclusion that we can no longer rely on governments; instead, we request that the citizens of the world oppose these ongoing deadly crimes.
    • Maureen Clare MURPHY, “Bloody Friday as Gaza marks six months of protests" (The Electronic Intifada, 29 Sept, 2018): click here!
      Friday marked what Gaza's health ministry described as the single bloodiest day of the Great March of Return protests since 14 May, when Israeli occupation forces fatally injured more than 60 Palestinians. Seven Palestinians, including two children [one 11 and the other 14 years old], were slain on Friday, two days shy of the six-month anniversary of the protest launch.
    • Marianne BLUM: "Laboratoire d'un Palestinocide progressif" (Ass. belgo-palestinienne, Bulletin N° 76, 16 août, 2018): click here!
      Les visées israéliennes dans la bande de Gaza semblent se réaliser. Elles sont illustrées quotidiennement.
    • Haidar EID: “Israel's Policies in Gaza are Genocidal” (Mondoweiss, Aug 3, 2018): click here!
      The practice of willful killing of civilian protesters at the Gaza fence is part and parcel of an ongoing Israeli policy targeting the civilian Palestinians of the Gaza strip and systematically denying them their rights to movement, work, medical care, study, livelihood and increasingly life itself.



     
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