Hamas marks 1 year after war, but many stay home

Hamas marks 1 year after war, but many stay home

By DIAA HADID
The Associated Press
Sunday, December 27, 2009; 10:12 AM

JEBALIYA, Gaza Strip -- Hamas loyalists marked the one-year anniversary of Israel's devastating war against Gaza's Islamic militant rulers with defiant protests and a moment of silence on Sunday - even as most of the territory's residents ignored commemoration events and some even criticized the militant group for not attending to their needs.

The sparse turnout appeared to be an informal vote of discontent by Gaza residents over Hamas' attempt to turn the day into a victory march for the militant group.

Around 3,000 Hamas supporters milled around a square in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya, waving their group's green flags and holding up pictures of family members slain in the Israeli offensive that began on Dec. 27, 2008. Some 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including hundreds of civilians, along with 13 Israelis.

"We are the victors! We are the fighters! We are the steadfast!" thundered senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Haya.

But a year later, al-Haya's bold calls rang hollow. After days of heavy advertising through Hamas Web sites, text messages and radio announcements, only a trickle of Hamas loyalists turned up to a commemoration in the heavily damaged legislative building in downtown Gaza City, the territory's largest urban area.

Cars whizzed by and pedestrians kept walking, ignoring a siren meant to call for a minute's silence.

"I wish they had commemorated the war by opening a factory. That would have been better than this," said Gaza resident Rami Mohammed, 30.

Al-Haya's Jebaliya protest did not even fill the sandy square where Israeli aircraft dropped bombs onto the house of senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan, killing him and about a dozen more of his family and neighbors.

It is not clear to what extent the apathy suggested nascent discontent of Hamas' rule. Tens of thousands of Gaza residents turned up to recent Hamas' founding anniversary just weeks ago, indicating the group still enjoys strong support.

Israel launched the relentless, pounding, three-week long offensive in what it said was a bid to end years of rocket fire from Gaza toward Israeli border towns and to punish the territory's militant Hamas rulers. Both sides have claimed victory: Israel's southern communities are now prospering because rocket fire has largely halted.

"For the first time in years, the children of southern Israel can grow up without the constant fear of an incoming rocket and running to the nearest bomb shelter," said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev.

Gaza's Hamas rulers claim victory by mere survival, and have grown only stronger since: They have eliminated local rivals, bullied human rights and aid groups that appear to act independently, squeezed taxes out of businesses to prop up their rule and banned residents from leaving the territory without Hamas permission.

But Gaza itself remains badly broken. Hundreds of families are mourning loved ones, and hundreds more are disabled by severe injuries. Thousands of homes were destroyed or badly damaged, while a strict Israeli and Egyptian blockade has blocked most reconstruction since glass, concrete and other building materials are banned.

Anger still simmers. "The war made us aware of how much the Jews hate us," said Khadija Omari, 45. "But we also hate the Jews even more. Now the children beg us to fight them, that's what the war taught us."

Much of Gaza's economy, meanwhile, has been driven underground by the blockade, and is conducted through underground tunnels straddling the border with Egypt, which serve as a conduit for food and commercial goods. To Israel's dismay, they also serve as a channel for weapons.

In Israel, there were no official observances of the war. Atara Orenbuch, a 37-year-old resident of the rocket-battered Israeli town of Sderot, said life has definitely improved since the war, but the impact of eight years of rocket fire still resonates. The mother of seven said her two youngest children still sleep inside a shelter because of their lingering fears of attack. Nonetheless, she said the war has raised morale in Sderot.

"The war helped morally ... we feel that we are not alone, which is very important," she said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn't even mention the offensive, launched by the previous government, in prepared remarks at the start of Israel's weekly Cabinet meeting. But he warned that Israel would retaliate "forcefully" against any Palestinian attacks and praised Israeli security forces for gunning down three militants accused of killing a Jewish West Bank settler. The military raid took place early Saturday.

Netanyahu told Cabinet ministers from his Likud Party that one of the militants had been freed from an Israeli prison - highlighting the risks of a prisoner swap deal Israel is negotiating with Gaza militants in a bid to free a long-held Israeli soldier.

He later told his Cabinet he would fly on Tuesday to Egypt, which has mediated the swap talks along with Germany, to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Hamas is seeking 1,000 prisoners in exchange for the soldier.

"At this point there is no deal, and it's not clear there will be a deal," Netanyahu said.

The Israeli army said Sunday that ballistic evidence showed that weapons confiscated in Saturday's raid were used to kill the Israeli settler.

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AP writers Amy Teibel and Aron Heller contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

First Jesus-Era House Discovered in Nazareth

By AP / DIAA HADID

(NAZARETH, Israel) — Just in time for Christmas, archaeologists on Monday unveiled what may have been the home of one of Jesus' childhood neighbors. The humble dwelling is the first dating to the era of Jesus to be discovered in Nazareth, then a hamlet of around 50 impoverished Jewish families where Jesus spent his boyhood.

Archaeologists and present-day residents of Nazareth imagined Jesus as a youngster, playing with other children in the isolated village, not far from the spot where the Archangel Gabriel revealed to Mary that she would give birth to the boy.

Today the ornate Basilica of the Annunciation marks that spot, and Nazareth is the largest Arab city in northern Israel, with about 65,000 residents. Muslims now outnumber Christians two to one in the noisy, crowded city.

The archaeological find shows how different it was 2000 years ago: There were no Christians or Muslims, the Jewish Temple stood in Jerusalem and tiny Nazareth stood near a battleground between Roman rulers and Jewish guerrillas.

The Jews of Nazareth dug camouflaged grottos to hide from Roman invaders, said archaeologist Yardena Alexandre, excavations director at the Israel Antiquities Authority. But the hamlet was so far off the beaten path that the caves were apparently not needed, she said.

Based on clay and chalk shards found at the site, the dwelling appeared to house a "simple Jewish family," Alexandre added, as workers carefully chipped away at mud with small pickaxes to reveal stone walls.

"This may well have been a place that Jesus and his contemporaries were familiar with," Alexandre said. A young Jesus may have played around the house with his cousins and friends. "It's a logical suggestion."

The discovery so close to Christmas pleased local Christians.

"They say if the people do not speak, the stones will speak," said the Rev. Jack Karam of the nearby basilica.

Archaeologist Stephen Pfann, president of the University of The Holy Land, noted: "It's the only witness that we have from that area that shows us what the walls and floors were like inside Nazareth in the first century." Pfann was not involved in the dig.

Alexandre said workers uncovered the first signs of the dwelling last summer, but it became clear only this month that it was a structure from the days of Jesus.

Alexandre's team found remains of a wall, a hideout, a courtyard and a water system that appeared to collect water from the roof and supply it to the home. The discovery was made when builders dug up the courtyard of a former convent to make room for a new Christian center, just yards from the Basilica.

It is not clear how big the dwelling is. Alexandre's team has uncovered about 900 square feet of the house, but it may have been for an extended family and could be much larger, she said.

Archaeologists also found a camouflaged entry way into a grotto, which Alexandre believes was used by Jews to hide from Roman soldiers who were battling Jewish rebels for control of the area.

The grotto could have hidden around six people for a few hours, she said.

However, Roman soldiers did not end up battling Nazareth's Jews because the hamlet had little strategic value. The Roman army was more interested in larger towns and strategic hilltop communities, she said.

Alexandre said similar camouflaged grottos were found in other ancient Jewish communities of the lower Galilee, such as the nearby biblical village of Cana, which did witness battles between Jews and Romans.

Archaeologists also found clay and chalk vessels likely used by Galilean Jews of the time. The scientists concluded a Jewish family lived there because of the chalk, which Jews used to ensure the ritual purity of the food and water kept inside the vessels.

The shards also date back to the time of Jesus, which includes the late Hellenic, early Roman period that ranges from around 100 B.C. to the first century, Alexandre said. The determination was made by comparing the findings to shards and remains typical of that period found in other parts of the Galilee, she said.

The absence of any remains of glass vessels or imported products suggested the people who lived in the dwelling were simple, but Alexandre said the remains did not indicate whether they were traders or farmers.

The only other artifacts from the time of Jesus found in the Nazareth area are ancient burial caves that provided a rough idea of the village's population at the time, Alexandre said.

Work is now taking place to clear newer ruins built above the dwelling, which will be preserved. The dwelling will become part of a new international Christian center being built close to the site and funded by a French Roman Catholic group, said Marc Hodara of the Chemin Neuf Community overseeing construction.

Alexandre said limited space and population density makes it unlikely that archaeologists can carry out further excavations in the area, leaving this dwelling to tell the story of what Jesus' boyhood home may have looked like.

The discovery at "this time, this period, is very interesting, especially as a Christian," Karam said. "For me it is a great gift."

 

Israeli-bound freighter sinks off Lebanese coast; 6 of ship's 12 crew members rescued

 Israeli-bound freighter sinks off Lebanese coast; 6 of ship's 12 crew members rescued

 

By: Diaa Hadid, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

JERUSALEM - A freighter heading to an Israeli port sank in stormy weather in international waters near the Lebanese coast, and six of its 12 crew members were rescued, officials said Saturday.

 

The ship was headed from Greece to the northern Israeli port of Haifa when it sank, the Israeli military said, adding that no foul play was suspected. Israel's military sent rescue helicopters, a navy ship and divers to search for survivors.

 

A U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon also sent teams and together they searched for survivors, mostly by air due to the bad weather, said Israeli military spokesman Maj. Erik Snider.

 

Six of the 12 Ukrainian sailors had been pulled from the water by Saturday night.

 

One of them was treated at Ramban hospital in Haifa for injuries caused by exposure to the cold water, hospital spokesman David Ratner told Israel's Channel 2 TV. The other five were on their way to the hospital by helicopter, he said.

 

The UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon received a distress call from the Togo-flagged vessel, SALA II, late Friday, said UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti.

 

A UNIFIL vessel, Zafer of Turkey, set off to the location but the distressed ship sank before the rescuers arrived.

 

Israeli media reported the ship was carrying a cargo of brick making equipment.

 

The ship sank about 50 miles (80 kilometres) from the Lebanese shore.

 

Israel and Lebanon have tense relations that worsened after the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia.

UN builds mud brick homes for homeless Gazans

People look out from inside a mud house that was given to the Athamneh family by UNRWA, in Jebaliya, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009. John Ging, head of UNRWA's Gaza operations, unseen, held a press conference Saturday to mark the giving of the house to the Athamneh family who lost their house during Israel's January offensive. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) (Hatem Moussa - AP)

 

UN builds mud brick homes for homeless Gazans

By DIAA HADID
The Associated Press
Saturday, December 12, 2009 11:05 AM

JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian man made homeless by last winter's Gaza war was the first to receive a U.N.-funded mud brick home Saturday, with U.N. aid officials saying they're reverting to ancient building techniques because Israel won't allow concrete and other construction materials into blockaded Gaza.

The U.N. hopes to build around 120 mud brick homes for dozens of Gaza families in the next few months, said John Ging, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza. Each house costs about $10,000 and takes three months to build.

Thousands of Gazans were made homeless during Israel's three-week military assault on the Hamas-ruled territory a year ago. The offensive, which also killed hundreds of Palestinians, was meant to punish Gaza's Hamas rulers and put a halt to years of rocket fire from the territory on Israeli border towns.

Gazans have been unable to rebuild because Israel and Egypt continue to enforce a border blockade first imposed in June 2007 after Hamas overran the territory. Gaza residents made homeless by the war have squeezed into homes of relatives, rented apartments or paid black-market prices to fix broken windows and patch up walls.

Some 1,000 Gazans still live in tents, Ging said.

"A mud hut is still better than a tent," said Ging. "It's not a solution to the reconstruction of Gaza but it shows you how desperate the situation is, that a year later, people living in tents have the hopeful prospect of getting a temporary mud brick shelter," he said.

Israel says raw materials could be seized by Hamas to make weapons or fortify their military structures. Senior U.N. officials say they have repeatedly offered guarantees that the material will be used in reconstruction.

Gaza police have rebuilt at least one of their stations out of mud, and several residents throughout the territory have also used mud to build simple homes.

The first house was given to Majid Athamneh, an elderly man who lost the apartment building where he and his children lived during the war in the border area of Izbet Abed Rabo. His new mud house looks out on the ruins of his former home.

Also in Gaza, Palestinian medic Moawia Hassanain said a 40-year-old farmer was killed by an exchange of fire between Palestinian and Israeli forces on Saturday morning.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said Palestinians fired at Israeli soldiers, sparking the brief battle.

The border area has been relatively quiet since the Gaza war.

Palestinians fake cancer to flee blockaded Gaza

FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009 file photo, a Palestinian in a wheel chair waits inside a newly built passageway on the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing, northern Gaza Strip. A healthy man in blockaded Gaza faked cancer, hoping the deadly disease would be his ticket out of the territory that has become an open-air prison for its 1.4 million residents. His ploy failed, but several thousand others succeeded in fleeing this shabby sliver of land this year using bribes and fake medical reports, a sign of Gazans' desperation over growing poverty and misery under the strict border closure enforced by Egypt and Israel since Hamas militants overran Gaza in June 2007. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa, File) (Hatem Moussa - AP)

 

Palestinians fake cancer to flee blockaded Gaza

 

By DIAA HADID

The Associated Press

Thursday, December 10, 2009 3:36 AM

 

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- A healthy man in blockaded Gaza faked cancer, hoping the deadly disease would be his ticket out of the territory that has become an open-air prison for its 1.4 million residents.

 

His ploy failed, but several thousand others succeeded in fleeing this shabby sliver of land this year using bribes and fake medical reports, a sign of Gazans' desperation over growing poverty and misery under the strict border closure enforced by Egypt and Israel since Hamas militants overran Gaza in June 2007.

 

The blockade has few loopholes. Israel allows passage to top business people and a limited number of Gazans seeking treatment for serious illnesses. Egypt sporadically opens its border for university students and those with residency abroad.

 

Everyone else is stuck, even as Palestinian polls suggest nearly half the population would like to leave if they could. Deepening the Gazans' sense of imprisonment, they must now also obtain permission from the Hamas government before attempting to leave, further complicating an obstacle-ridden path to freedom.

 

Those trying to bribe their way out usually approach middlemen who put them in touch with local doctors, Palestinian health officials or Egyptian bureaucrats and military officials.

 

Akram Ghneim, 31, an unemployed father of six living off food handouts, told The Associated Press he promised $260 to a Palestinian middleman, who obtained for him a bogus medical report saying he had cancer. Ghneim said he hoped he'd get a rare spot on the list of Gaza patients with life-threatening illnesses who are allowed to enter Israel for treatment.

 

Once in Israel, he planned to disappear and work illegally. But Israeli intelligence officials, who review applications, rejected him last summer, saying his cancer report was forged.

 

"This is what the blockade does," said Ran Yaron, of the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which helps bring Gazans into Israel for treatment by lobbing Israeli defense officials.

 

"Most are frustrated and devastated people."

 

Yaron said fakers are a minority, but clog up the system for real patients who have to go through longer checks as a result.

 

Of more than 7,000 Gazans who crossed into Israel this year to seek medical treatment, some 500 haven't returned, said Col. Moshe Levi, an Israeli defense official.

 

Some stay in Israel, while others move to the West Bank, a territory controlled by Israel but partly administered by Palestinians loyal to Fatah, bitter rivals of Hamas.

 

One Fatah loyalist, a healthy 30-year-old woman, said she was desperate to leave Gaza after being harassed by Hamas officials.

 

She bribed a Gaza doctor with $100 to certify she had "whatever cancer could only be treated in Israel." The doctor then paid off a physician serving on a Palestinian committee that certifies medical reports for Israeli military officials, the woman said. She eventually succeed in reaching the West Bank and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being sent back to Gaza by the Israeli authorities.

 

Israeli intelligence officials investigate Gazans applying to enter Israel to ensure they are not militants and to check whether medical certificates are genuine, but tend to rely on the Palestinian committee to confirm that the patient is actually sick.

 

The head of the Palestinian committee, Bassam Badri, denied members accept bribes. Omar Masri of the Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank said the issue was "too stupid for a response."

 

But Palestinians who have successfully used bogus transfers said some health officials accept payments, anything from $100 to $500. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the illicit system.

 

Others pay bribes to get out through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, said a senior Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to alienate Egyptian authorities.

 

Payments range from $400 to $5,000, according to Rafah residents familiar with the system, known among Gazans as "Egyptian coordination."

 

An Egyptian security official at the border denied Egyptian officers take bribes to allow crossings. He said that three months ago, two Palestinian officials posted on the Egyptian side were removed on suspicion of taking bribes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

 

Depending on the sum, the middleman's talents and luck, bribe-paying Gazans can sometimes leave immediately through the crossing, with Egyptian officials stamping them through, even when it's closed, Rafah residents said. Otherwise, bribe-payers wait for one of the official border openings by Egypt, usually lasting for around three days every month or two.

 

About 2,000 Gazans get through each time the border opens. Only half are on the official list and the rest are handled directly by the Egyptian authorities, said Ehab Ghussein, the Interior Ministry spokesman in Gaza.

 

Thousands more have applied to leave but don't make the list, he said.

 

Numerous tunnels run under the Gaza-Egypt borders in a thriving smuggling trade bringing goods into the territory. But few Gazans use them to sneak into Egypt, because once on the other side they would have no official status and be more vulnerable to Egyptian police.

 

But even paying bribes isn't a guaranteed exit strategy.

 

Hazem Riyashi, 27, says he paid a middleman $1,000 in July to cross through Egypt, hoping to reach the Gulf emirate of Dubai, where his family lives. But the middleman disappeared and has not returned his calls. Riyashi hasn't given up, and is looking for someone else to pay off.

 

"I think everybody should leave Gaza," he said. "Even the air smells cleaner abroad."

 

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Associated Press Writer Rizek Abdul Jawad in Gaza City contributed to this report.

--
Diaa Hadid
Correspondent
The Associated Press
dhadid@ap.org
diaa_hadid2@yahoo.co.uk
Please send releases to both addresses

Gaza health officials report first 5 cases of swine flu, UN warns of vaccine shortage

Gaza health officials report first 5 cases of swine flu, UN warns of vaccine shortage

By: Diaa Hadid, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

Gaza health officials on Sunday confirmed the territory's first five cases of swine flu, but the World Health Organization said there is not enough vaccine for health workers.

Gaza health official Dr. Hassan Khalaf said the five patients were diagnosed Sunday.

The relatively late arrival of swine flu to the Gaza Strip is likely attributable to the same measure that has brought shortages and hardships otherwise - a strict blockade imposed by Israel since the Islamic militant Hamas overran the territory in 2007, expelling forces loyal to Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas.

Shortages include medicines, but Israel insists it does not limit shipment of medical supplies to Gaza. Instead, Palestinians say the rivalry between Hamas and Abbas' Palestinian Authority could be to blame.

The Palestinian Authority is responsible for sending medicines to Gaza, but officials there way Abbas' government routinely keeps Gaza in short supply.

One key shortage is swine flu vaccine.

Senior WHO official Mahmoud Daher said Gaza has only 1,000 vaccine doses for around 8,000 health employees, serving 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.

West Bank Health Ministry official Dr. Asad Ramlawi denied that the shortage is deliberate. He said 1 million doses would be arriving between mid-December and late January, and they would be divided between the two territories.

Daher said there was no need for panic, and that patients with chronic diseases, the elderly and pregnant women should be vigilant about their hygiene.

However, at Shifa Hospital, Gaza City's largest, an Associated Press reporter saw doctors and nurses refusing to go near a young woman believed to have the virus.

The young woman's family had to carry her to the isolation ward on a stretcher.

Ramlawi said 1,250 cases of swine flu have been reported in the West Bank. In neighbouring Israel, the number is over 3,000.