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.

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.

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.

The Israeli forces destroyed at least 70 industrial facilities and 970 residential units in the Gaza Strip, documented Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. Israel is committing widespread crimes against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, Euro-Med Monitor said; amidst four consecutive days of its escalating war, Israel has cut off Gaza’s electricity, water, food, and fuel supplies, creating a threat of imminent humanitarian catastrophe. Euro-Med Monitor stated that the Israeli attack has resulted in the deaths of 880 Palestinians, with approximately 59% of them being civilians, including 185 children and 120 women. Around 5,000 others have been injured, with hundreds remaining trapped under rubble and along border areas. Euro-Med Monitor added that Israel’s army is expanding its military operations in Gaza, targeting residential buildings without prior warning and causing the deaths of entire families. “What is happening in Gaza represents a comprehensive humanitarian disaster, especially with the lack of electricity and water affecting more than 90% of residents, and the disruption of various essential supplies,” the organisation said in a statement...

I was deeply saddened to learn that my friend Muhammad al-Najjar had taken his own life. Muhammad – aged just 27 – was a poet. He often wrote when he was feeling down or stressed. But sometimes he did not derive any therapeutic benefit from doing so. Reality in Gaza is so hard that creativity did not offer him any escape over the past couple of years. One of his poems – “The Chaos Beyond” – was especially poignant.

On Tuesday, 19 September 2023, Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian protesters in Gaza, killing 25-year-old Yousef Salem Yousef Radwan and wounding another eight, including three children. Israeli forces shot Yousef in the head from behind, while another shot in the back pierced his chest. For days, dozens of Palestinians gathered at the separation barrier between Gaza and Israel in the North Gaza, Gaza and Khan Younis districts to protest Israel’s inhumane treatment of Palestinian prisoners and recurrent attacks on al-Aqsa mosque. As reported by Al Mezan, a few days earlier, Israeli forces had injured four journalists who were covering the demonstrations, even though they were visibly wearing their PRESS vests and were standing at a distance from the fence.

Palestinians in Gaza are finding their way back to the border fence separating them from their homeland. They are responding to calls from a group of Return March veterans known as "the Revolutionary Youth."

Almost 400 sick children from Gaza were deprived the chance to leave the besieged enclave for the West Bank in six months, according to Save the Children.

Israel's decision to close the border to exports is 'purely catastrophic,' an official in Gaza's economy ministry said.

Thousands of Palestinians enter Israel every day from Gaza on permits that don’t cover medical care. When accidents occur, they have nowhere to turn.

Protests in the besieged strip show why Palestinian leadership must span the spectrum of resistance and governance, even under occupation.

Every night, Gaza City is plunged into darkness, except for the faint glimmer of the windows of the lucky few who have generators.

When Israel invaded southern Gaza in 2014, Alaa al-Nahal, who is deaf, could not hear the Israeli attacks but he could feel them. Above, several men assist a woman wounded in the 2014 Israeli airstrikes on Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Ramadan El-Agha APA images.

As the ruling power in Gaza, Hamas has had to balance its governmental responsibilities with its commitment to resistance. It has done so by delegating resistance to other factions and adopting the "unity of fields" strategy.

IN A SMALL ROOM in his house, Hazem Muhanna, 62, created an antique museum. He has accumulated more than 2,000 artifacts that commemorate Palestinian and Arab culture.

Many in Gaza have had their houses destroyed multiple times during Israeli attacks over the last 15 years. Some families still in debt from rebuilding their home the first time, now find themselves having to rebuild again.

“According to PCHR’s investigations, at approximately 00:00 on Wednesday, 14 June 2023, Israeli naval forces surrounded a fishing boat sailing within the fishing area allowed for Palestinian fishermen and belonging to fisherman Omar Ibrahim al-Habeel (70) off al-Waha Shore, northwest of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza Strip. The fishing boat was manned by several fishermen: Mohammed Omar al-Habeel (37) and his son Omar (16), Jihad Mahmoud al-Habeel (24), Hasan Fadel Baker (36), and Sadam Majed Baker (32). The Israeli naval forces ordered the fishermen to take their clothes off, jump into the water and swim towards the gunboat. The fishermen were then arrested and taken to Ashdod Seaport and their fishing boat was confiscated. PCHR follows up the legal file of the detained fishermen to know where they are being held and to return their fishing boat."

As Israeli attacks increase in frequency and intensity, a growing number of Palestinian children suffer 'ongoing trauma' with no end in sight.

“Every single minute of the day is violent for Gaza’s beleaguered population under Israel’s blockade, which is a prime example of slow, latent, and attritional violence,” Euro-Med Monitor’s Chief of Programmes and Communications Muhammad Shehada told a crowd on Tuesday at University College London (UCL)."

Dozens of Palestinian children rallied on Tuesday morning in front of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) headquarters in Gaza City to protest against the halt and suspension of the World Food Program (WFP) in the besieged Gaza Strip. The protesters called on the head of the UNDP to reverse the decision, holding the UNDP responsible for the struggles Palestinians will now face without this aid.

With algorithms making warfare easier to sustain, automated weapons have turned Israeli assaults on besieged Palestinians into an annual event.

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.

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...

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."

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.

Last Tuesday, the IDF announced “Operation Arrow and Shield,” Israel’s latest round of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, which targeted the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Over the next five days, Israeli missiles killed 33 Palestinians, many of them civilians; Israel claims that 18 of those killed were PIJ operatives. PIJ responded by firing rockets that killed one Israeli woman in the city of Rehovot and one Palestinian agricultural laborer working inside Israel.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The current situation in Gaza and Israel is not what mainstream media reports portray. Here is the factual context, in brief.

"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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.