March 14-15, 2012 marks the sixth anniversary of the attack on Jericho prison and the Israeli abduction of Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa'adat and his comrades, who had been held under U.S. and British guard in a Palestinian Authority prison. For the past three years, since March 18, 2009, Ahmad Sa'adat has been in isolation in an Israeli occupation prison, subject to solitary confinement, poor health care and intense repression. Similarly, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, one of his comrades also abducted from Jericho in 2006, has been in isolation for many months. The demand to end the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat - and his fellow prisoners in solitary confinement - sparked the September-October 2011 hunger strikes that swept through the occupation's prisons. As we mark this anniversary, a Palestinian prisoner's hunger strike has once again captured the attention of the world, very soon after the heroic 66-day hunger strike of Khader Adnan. Hana al-Shalabi, released in the ...

Commemorating Land Day, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) invites people of conscience around the world to unite for a BDS Global Day of Action on 30 March 2012 in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom, justice and equality and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it fully complies with its obligations under international law. Let’s showcase our BDS successes through creative actions and media efforts and mobilize for the World Social Forum Free Palestine in November 2012. First launched at the World Social Forum in 2009, the BDS Global Day of Action on 30 March coincides with Palestinian Land Day, initiated in 1976, when Israeli security forces shot and killed six Palestinian citizens of Israel and injured many in an attempt to crush popular protest against ongoing theft of Palestinian-owned land. Thirty-six years on, Israel continues to entrench its regime of occupation, colonization and apartheid and intensify its grave ...

(pic: Rosa Schiano, 2012) From the International Solidarity Movement Nayif Qarmout was murdered yesterday; he was also buried yesterday, in a small cemetery in the heart of Jabalia, the refugee camp where he lived. He was only 14 years old. He was murdered by an Israeli missile while playing football with his friends. He was a handsome young man, the photo on his martyr posters make that obvious. It was something that I never would have guessed at his funeral, looking at his bloody bruised face. Today, Nayif’s family mourned. The reception line of men lining the entrance to the mourning tent was the most shattered group of men I have ever seen. Their faces were blank, dead, as though Nayif was not the only murdered yesterday. Nayif’s photo was on the wall, he looks so young, a child just turning into a man. We sat down and ate dates as a young man brought coffee around. Nayif’s uncle, Abdullah came over to talk to us. Abdullah tells us that not only was Nayif a handsome child,...

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israel launched airstrikes on two sites in the Gaza Strip overnight Wednesday, less than 48 hours after agreeing to an Egypt-brokered truce. Witnesses said that Israeli missiles landed on agricultural land, causing a fire and severe damage. No injuries were reported. In a statement, the Israeli army said its warplanes targeted "a rocket launching site in the northern Gaza Strip and a terror tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip." Earlier, a rocket fired at Beersheva was intercepted by the Iron Dome active missile defense system, the army said. After the shelling, one rocket was fired at southern Israel from Gaza landing in an open area of Netivot, an Israeli army spokesman said. No militant group has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. more

The Palestinian energy authority in Gaza said on Wednesday it had paid Egypt $2 million towards fuel for its crippled power station, but had yet to receive anything in return. Gaza is experiencing a major electricity crisis because of a shortage of fuel for its sole power plant. The plant, which supplies nearly a third of Gaza's electricity, has shut down three times in the past month and most Palestinians are receiving only six hours of power a day. The Palestinians have turned to Egypt for help, and recently agreed a deal which included a provision allowing them to immediately begin purchasing fuel from their Arab neighbour. But the Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority (PENRA) said it had yet to receive any fuel, despite having made a downpayment. "$2 million was transferred to the Egyptian Petroleum Company as a downpayment for the fuel needed to operate the only power station in Gaza," PENRA said in a statement published on its website. "So far, not...

Death toll rises to 27 after a 7-year-old child dies of wounds, more GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli warplanes bombed the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, causing damage but no injuries, casting uncertainty over a truce deal agreed 24 hours earlier. Israeli airstrikes hit an open area west of Gaza City, sparking a large fire that burned down a wood warehouse and damaged nearby homes, a Ma'an correspondent said. Palestinian Civil Defense forces said firefighters spent two and a half hours putting out the blaze. An Israeli army statement said the strike "targeted two terror activity sites ... in response to the rockets fired at Israel over the past day." Eight rockets hit southern Gaza on Tuesday, injuring an Israeli and damaging cars, a military spokesman said. more

In Haaretz today Bradley Burston attacks pro-Palestine 'leftists' for failing to condemn rocket fire but in the very same article is unable to condemn the deaths of at least 26 Palestinians (and more than 100 wounded) over the past four days. By way of a rebuff to Burston, see the video above on Democracy Now featuring the founder of The Electronic Intifada , Ali Abunimah, one of the targets of Burston's myopic tirade, speaking out in defence of the Palestinians under siege and under attack in Gaza. democracynow.org - As Israel and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip reportedly agree to a ceasefire after four days of cross-border violence, we speak with Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the online publication, "The Electronic Intifada." Earlier today, an Egyptian official said both sides have pledged to end current attacks and implement "a comprehensive and mutual calm." Israel's latest strikes on Gaza killed at least 25 Palestinians. At least 80 Pale...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces opened fire on a funeral procession east of Gaza City on Tuesday, injuring three Palestinians, hours after a truce was agreed to halt cross-border violence. Mourners carried the bodies of Bassam al-Ajla and Muhammad Thaher, who were killed in an airstrike in the city’s Shujaiyeh neighborhood on Monday evening, to the eastern cementry. Medical spokesman Adham Abu Salmiyah said troops opened fire at the mourners, wounding three people, who were taken to al-Shifa hospital. more

(Reuters) - Israel and militant factions in the Gaza Strip have agreed to an Egyptian-brokered truce to end four days of cross-border violence in which 25 Palestinians have been killed, a senior Egyptian security official told Reuters on Tuesday. The official said in a telephone call from Cairo that both sides had "agreed to end the current operations", with Israel giving an unusual undertaking to "stop assassinations", and an overall agreement "to begin a comprehensive and mutual calm". The agreement was set to take effect at 1 a.m. local time (7.00 p.m. EDT). Previous ceasefire deals after earlier rounds of fighting have often got off to a shaky start. "There is an understanding," Israeli Civil Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Israel Radio. "At the moment the direction is toward calm and it appears, unless there are last minute developments, that this round is now behind us." A Palestinian official close to the talks said "the ...

Israeli troops were captured on film throwing a tear gas grenade at Palestinians in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. In the clip, shot last Friday by freelance photographer Mati Milstein in Nabi Saleh, a tear gas grenade is tossed out the window of a passing Border Police jeep, causing a group of Palestinians who were standing by the side of the road to flee. more

Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported Monday that a father and his daughter were killed when the Israeli Air Force bombarded Tal Az-Za’tar area in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The sources identified the victims as Mohammad Al-Hassoumi, 65, and his daughter, Fayza, 30. Earlier on Monday, a 15-year-old school student, identified as Nayef Sha’baan Qarmout, 15, was killed, and six other children were wounded, three seriously, when an Israeli war-jet fired a missile at school students playing near a gas station in As-Sudaniyya area, west of Gaza city. The child was playing with some of his schoolmates at a playground near his school, north of Gaza city, when the army fired a missile at the playground. The latest Israeli bombardment raises the number of Palestinian killed since Friday afternoon to 23 while dozens of residents, including children, were injured; several wounded residents are in currently in serious conditions. more

By Max Blumenthal ( Mondoweiss ) In the last two days, Israeli forces have killed at least 15 residents of the Gaza Strip and wounded over 30. Among the dead are two young boys (see here and here), while the wounded included a reporter from the Ma'an News Agency and his pregnant wife. Militant factions in Gaza have responded to the Israeli assault by launching several homemade rockets at Southern Israel, leaving two injured and no one dead. The Israeli army claimed that it initiated the assault on Gaza in order to kill two alleged militants who supposedly "masterminded" a brazen and deadly terror attack near the Israeli city of Eilat in August of last year. The army also claimed the two were planning a new operation. According to Al Jazeera English's Jerusalem correspondent Paul Brennan: The Israeli army is saying these two people it targeted with its clinical airstrike on Friday night were senior militants who were plotting an attack. The Israeli army says that last ...

Israeli airstrikes killed two Palestinian militants and a schoolboy in the Gaza Strip on Monday as Palestinian rocket squads barraged southern Israel, in escalating fighting that has defied international truce efforts. (March 12)

[ update : five killed in Monday attacks - link ] GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israeli airstrikes killed two Islamic Jihad militants and a 17-year-old boy on Monday, bringing the death toll since Friday to 21 people. Raafat Abu Eid, 24, was killed in Khan Younis when an airstrike targeted a vehicle he was traveling in. Two other militants sustained injuries and a female passerby was also injured in the attack, a Ma'an correspondent said. Hamadah Salman Abu Mutlaq, 24, was killed near a mosque in a village east of Khan Younis after warplanes fired at him. He was an Islamic Jihad militant. Three others were injured and taken to hospital for treatment. Nayif Shaaban Qarmout, 17, was killed in Beit Lahiya, north Gaza, as Israeli warplanes launched an attack, Ma'an's correspondent said. Five others were injured and taken to Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Medical spokesman in Gaza Adham Abu Salmiya said that Israeli airstrikes hit two homes in the northern Gaza Strip, injuring 33 civilians...

A 12-year-old Palestinian boy has been killed in a third successive day of Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to local medical sources. Another person was injured. It brings to 17 the number of dead in the Israeli bombardment since Friday. The death of a Palestinian militant whose car was targeted by Israeli forces in Gaza City has sparked the worst violence the area has seen for almost a year, with Israel on the receiving end of sustained rocket attacks. The Israeli army confirmed strikes have been carried out and said it was checking reports that a boy had died. He's said to have been killed in northern Gaza. A Palestinian militant reportedly died in a separate attack. The escalating violence has brought calls for a ceasefire from the UN, the EU, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt. http://www.euronews.com/

[update - three killed in latest strike - total now 18 link ] GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israeli airstrikes early Sunday killed two people in the Gaza Strip, including a 12-year-old boy, as cross-border violence continued for a third day. Medical spokesman in Gaza Adham Abu Salmiya said Ayoub Useila, 12, was killed in Jabalia refugee camp. His seven-year-old cousin was injured in the attack and taken to Kamal Udwan hospital in Jabalia, north Gaza. Israeli warplanes also fired on the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City, killing Ahmad Deib Salim, 24. He was a known militant, Abu Salmiya said. The Israeli army said that it had targeted a "terrorist squad" preparing to fire rockets from northern Gaza. It also confirmed a direct hit on "two rocket launching sites, in the northern Gaza Strip, used by terror organizations." more

Egypt's Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr condemned Israel's air strikes on Gaza on Saturday and called for an immediate end to the attacks to prevent further bloodshed, the state news agency MENA said. Israel killed four Gaza militants on Saturday, raising the death toll in two days of violence to 14 and dozens of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel injured at least four people. After weeks of relative calm, violence along the Israeli-Gaza frontier escalated on Friday when Israel blew up a car in Gaza City, killing two militant leaders. more

Thanks to the International Solidarity Movement Sheikh Nasri looks resigned as he describes his home as “the most terrorised village in the country”. With 34,000 uprooted trees in the last two years and some 4,800 dunams of land stolen, the village of Al Jab’a has little to smile about. Eighteen of the one hundred houses in Jaba have demolition orders on them, their inhabitants unsure of when the Israeli army will storm their homes with bulldozers. Even the Mosque has a demolition order. Homes with licenses from the Israeli courts are none-the-less destroyed to make way for the ever expanding Israeli borders. Nasri laughs as he points out the demolished “Welcome to Al’ Jab’a” sign. It is difficult for visitors to come anyway. more

[ update 16:00 10 March 2012 - three have now died after an attack in Rafah kills a member of the PRC - more ] GAZA CITY (Ma'an)-- Medical officials say an airstrike Saturday killed two men in the southern Gaza Strip, raising to 14 the number of Palestinians killed since Israel assassinated a military leader 24 hours earlier. The latest attack east of Khan Younis came from a drone which fired on a motorcycle, said Gaza medical official Adham Abu Salmiya. The body of Hussein Barham Al-Breim, 51, was transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Abu Salmiya said. Mansour Kamal Abu Nuseira, 20, was taken to European Hospital, where he later died. more

We, the Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organisations (PCHRO), would like to mark International Women's Day by expressing our solidarity with administrative detainee Hana Shalabi. Hana is today beginning her 22nd successive day of hunger strike in protest at her internment without charge or trial and her ongoing ill-treatment at the hands of the Israeli authorities. Hana, 29 years old, previously spent more than two years in administrative detention before she was released in October 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas. Less than four months later she was arrested once more by Israeli authorities at her home near Jenin, when she was beaten with the butt of a rifle by an Israeli soldier. Following her arrest, she was beaten, blindfolded and later forcibly strip-searched and assaulted by an Israeli male soldier. Hana was given a six-month administrative detention order and spent the first three days of her internment in solitary confinement. She wa...