ISRAELI OCCUPATION FORCES KILL PALESTINIAN IN THE CENTRAL GAZA STRIP

Gaza City, 5 Shawwal 1434/12 August 2013 (MINA) – A Gaza citizen was killed Saturday evening by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stationed to the east of Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

The Hebrew radio reported that a Palestinian young man was shot dead after he crossed the perimeter fence and headed towards Alomim settlement, according to Alray Media Agency report monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).

Locals said they heard the sound of gunfire east of Bureij refugee camp and saw the arrival of military reinforcements at the fence.

For his part, spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry Ashraf al-Qidra confirmed that the Palestinian side received the body of a young man in his twenties, noting that the name of the victim is still unknown.

Gaza mark bitter-sweet Eid al-Fitr Holiday

ddd The Gaza Strip this year seems to have lived a Fitr Eid holiday with a different character. Children of the Muslim nation have celebrated a normal Eid… having lots of amusement spots to be visited…. and having fathers neither jailed nor killed by Israel to be recalled.

While those of Gaza missed their beloved ones who used to be up to serve their needs in Eid holiday as to make them happy and cheerful by means like giving Eidi (a gift specially given to children and relatives in the early morning of the first day of Eid holiday).

Also Read: Abu Rudeineh: Netanyahu's Statements and Israeli Provocations Sabotage US Peace Efforts

Those children, estimated by Save the Children at 56% of Gaza’s 1.7 million population, of which two-thirds are refugees, have enjoyed just a few public parks and the street public swings largely seen in Gaza refugee camps.

Another sum of children who were fated not to celebrate Eid holiday lie behind the Israeli jails, Center for Prisoners studies indicates that “there are 250 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons.

As Ramadan is passing away and Fitr Eid coming, Gaza this year faces many humanitarian crises with the signs to resolve them not boding well. Despite the fact that the Gaza people as others worldwide invigorate the markets and trigger traffic jams to get their traditional requirements for Eid such as confectionary, clothing, date cakes, coffee, among others, their lives choked by border closures make out of such business no more than semblance of normalcy.

Also Read: Palestinian President: Annexation to Arouse Third Intifada

Gaza citizen Mahmoud Hasaniya says “this holiday is different from its precedents due to, beside the Israeli blockade, the political unrest in Egypt and the closure of the Rafah crossing and the shutting down of border tunnels from which hundreds make their living.”

As for the prisoners, Eid holidays pass by them all the time without a difference. Freed prisoner Fatima al-Zaq recounts her experience inside prison as saying “prisoners feel down during Eid holiday as they are away from their children, parents and beloved ones; but they transcend the painful dismemberment and the jailer’s oppression by our communal talks,”

“We were making sweets, especially date cakes to rejoice as much as we could; jailers were trying to blur our joy if we exceed the limits: to be heared singing or clapping during our little parties; if we don’t listen to them, the prison guards return us from (Forua), a hall where detainees take daily for an hour outside their jails as a break, and a very small window, closed with a revealing cover, to cells as a punishment,”

Also Read: Indonesia Supports Palestine in Training Capacity Development of Drugs

She added that “the painful chapter that the prisoners live every day in Ramadan at the time of breakfast (after sunset), where they remember their families, friends, beloved ones is followed by another chapter of loneliness at the dawn of Eid al-fitr holiday,”

Abu Nabil Haj Mousa from Jabaliya refugee camp north of the Gaza Strip used to lay a wreath of flowers on the graves of his three sons: Mohamed,19, Ahmed,18, and Bilal,16, who fell dead during Israel’s 2008-2009 operation cast lead.”

“We were residents of As-Sabra neighborhood in Gaza city. Soon after a telephone threat had been served to a home neighboring the residential compound in where we were, both of them rushed outside to take a car before their lives had been taken at the bombing by an unmanned Israeli drone,” Abu Nabil lamented recalling the moment they died.

“My youth were the source of delight in our home; they were making the Eid holiday meaningful to us; they have gone at once to leave their mother and me alone.” (T/P02/E1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)