THE HANDSTAND

AUGUST 2004

REPORTS FROM RAFAH
www.rafahtoday.org
This site is kept open by a student wishing to record factual data and photographs of the criminal occupation by the Israeli "Defence" Forces

The family of Naji Abaas

Naji Abaas is 35 years old, he used to work as a tailor/dressmaker and never was enganged in any terrorist or political activities. His family consists of 4 members. They live in Beit Lahia, near Jewish settlements. The 2 children suffer from anemia and the family is very poor.
One day, while the family was sleeping at 7 o'clock, a group of Israli soldiers came with tanks to their street. They came to their house, smashed the door and entered the house while all family members were in bed. The faces of the soldiers were covered with paint, they did not look like human beings, all family members were shocked and filled with fear.
The soldiers destroyed all the furniture and all belongings of the family while they were shouting all the time. Nothing remained intact. Then they asked Naji to come to them, and handcuffed him, while anothzer soldier put his knee on the mother's neck, holding her head down this way, and saying bad and most insulting things to her. The woman cried and asked why the sodiers do this to her family, but instead of and answer, the soldier hit her head with his weapon.
The other soldiers continued to smash and destroy all the household items, and they found nothing but bread and tea in the cupboard, and started to make bad and cynical jokes about the poverty of the family.
After that, one of the soldiers hit into the face of the girl child Malak ... the mother asked him, why do you hit her, she is still a child? The soldier answered: we hit her because she has brown eyes, and we will take her with us, because she is our child, not yours, and you have stolen her from us!! But then he released the child.
Then the soldiers told the mother and 2 children to stand in the corner of the room and to stay there and not to move, or they would kill them.

The soldiers left the completely damaged house with Naji. The mother and kids spent more than three hours in the house in that corner. After this, a group of their neighbors come to this house and ask what happened, then they found the mother with her two kids crying, and she was unable to speak with any one.
About 8 o'clock in the evening, they saw their father coming back, with half of his clothes, with his tears, and with serious injuries on his body, and he was hardly able to breath. He reported what happened to him: He said "they put me in a very narrow hole, and hit me at my head with iron balls many time, I don’t know any thing after they cover my eyes, one of the soldiers put his leg at my head, and put more and more sand on my head, I felt that they want to bury all my body, it was horrible, I ask them for help, but I didn’t hear anything. After that, they left us and went back to their centers. Then one of the prisoner came and ask me to get out of this hole, I wasn’t able to do that, because I was afraid that they are still nearby and would shoot me when I leave the hole, and because I was so weak I could not move any more. Finally, a man helped me to get out of the hole.

The family faces many problems since then. Naji still suffers from his injuries and still has difficulties to breath. They find it hard to cover the expenses for the most basic things of life. The 2 children were now happy to receive a child sponsorship.



Report about about the child Islam Khateeb

The child on this photo is 8 years old, and her name is Islam Mahmoud Al Khateeb. Her family found her body buried in the sand near the Jewish settlement. Her body was burned and they found evidence of violence on her body.
The parents do not know who committed this crime, but since the body of her child was found near Tal Al Sultan, Rafah, where the Israeli soldiers live, they suspect the child was killed by soldiers or settlers and then buried in the sand.


update from other sources

Rafah: We will not give up our struggle
FALASTEEN  
We the people of Palestine are the bricks, stone and mortar of our country.
We are its Earth, its moon, and its stars
We are its fruits ,its Oranges, its Olive Trees, Cacti and Cedar trees and Sweetcorn

We are its mounta ins,its hills, winding roads and river and gentle breezes
We are its faith its culture and its language
We are its heart, its soul and its Memory and its aspirations and  its Dreams

And we, by the grace of God,  will be its Destiny and Future one Day!!
Our struggle lives on as long as our Strength,Hope and Determination survives, which will NEVER DIE!  
maisoon  
http://www.jerusalemites.org/image/rafah-photos/rafah1.htm


Houses Destroyed in Rafah
Official Palestinian sources figured out the number of Palestinian owned houses that the IOF had destroyed during this week(last week in July 2004): 35 houses in the Rafah area.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=1387

Beit Hanoun officials: IDF destroyed land
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/456912.html

By Nir Hason and Yoav Stern

Beit Hanoun city hall officials are complaining that every Israel Defense Forces incursion into the Gazan city is causing damage to the infrastructure, and local farmers are bemoaning destroyed farmland.

The IDF, which redeployed into Beit Hanoun a month ago to prevent Qassams from being launched into the Negev, said in response that "by the nature of things, the steps taken to achieve the goal of ending the Qassam rocket fire could harm the civilian population to a certain degree."

The army says it is making efforts not to harm the fabric of life in the Gaza Strip city, and to that end is in constant contact with Palestinian civilian agencies and with international groups.
"So far the IDF has coordinated more than 270 requests to transfer infrastructure equipment, medical supplies or food into Beit Hanoun," said a statement.
As for damage to farmland, the army said "a central element in the activity to obstruct the rocket fire is characterized by engineering activity in the farm lands from which the Qassams are fired."
According to city hall sources in Beit Hanoun, every time the army rolls in "they break water mains, cut off the electricity, and the phone lines." According to city data, repairing all the damage would cost NIS 8 million.

Beit Hanoun has 38,000 residents, mostly earning their livings from farming since no other jobs are now available. About half the city's land jurisdiction is devoted to farming. In the last week, said city hall sources, "the army destroyed some 2,500 dunam of land and more than 200 dunam were exposed just yesterday."
"Exposing" is when the army flattens an area so it cannot provide any cover to gunmen waiting in ambush. Also destroyed were water cisterns, hothouses, and a sheep farm.

Typical of those harmed directly by the army operations is Araf Ahmed Zaanin. A week ago, soldiers entered his house, put his parents and his six children in one room and took over the rest of the house.
"How do you want to have peace when your soldiers come, close us up in one room for hours and hours and don't let us even give our children some milk to drink?" he asks.
Zaanin said the army took over his house, which is in a relatively isolated area opposite the industrial zone, and turned off the water, and then destroyed the kitchen, the fence around the house, the windows and the patio - and then expelled the people who lived in the building.
"We're going through terrible suffering, terrible," he said, "I call on Israelis - in your democracy you care about animals, too. Please, I call on the associations to come see what is happening here."

Last Thursday the army demolished the local fruit and vegetable packing plant, which served some 1,000 farmers in the area. The goods were exported to Europe. Now, the farming collective that owned the packing plant is planning to sue the army for damages.