Feb 25: Soldiers kneecap 17 year old Khoza’a girl

17 year old Wafa: her kneecap is entirely gone

We went to see 17 year old Wafa Al Najar, who was shot yesterday, in Naser Hospital today in Khan Younis. In Palestinian tradition, both her family and neighbours were keeping her company. But they were able to do little for her, and while they all at once told us the story of her shooting and of Khoza’a, their village (where Israel has been accused of war crimes in the recent attacks) Wafa sobbed intermittently in pain.

Feb 24: Teenage girl shot in leg in Khoza’a

Elderly farmer: too frightened even to continue getting away

Today (footage here) the farmers were mostly elderly folk and mostly women and the bullets were so close they could only face 5 minutes of them. You could feel the thud of the air on your body as they flew past, they made our ears ring, and the shooting continued for about 20 minutes as we all walked away – one bullet hit a tree beside us.

Feb 23: The wrong way round

Sunset over Gaza sea, 6pm today

Today is the second day I have gone to spend the hour before sunset on a small pier that juts into the waves of the silver Gaza sea. Small lights bob from fishing boats brave or desperate enough to brave the gunboats. To my right is the crumbled concrete of the port. To my left and behind is the crumpled concrete of the government buildings whose destruction made my apartment shake on December 27. I turn up Ani Di Franco’s Swan Dive very loud.

Footage of farmer being shot

So here is the footage of Mohammed being shot on Feb 18.. We haven’t been out farming again yet because rain cancelled play on Saturday, Tuesday looks like the next day.

We saw this all before…

Palestine, 1948

Gaza’s emergency shelter camps fail to meet humanitarian or political needs- first posted by my colleage T at her blog Writing from Gaza.

Tuesday 10th February saw the first real rain in Gaza since the supposed “ceasefire”. Whilst most of Palestine is desperate for rain, it was bad news for the people sleeping in tents in the newly-constructed emergency shelter camps – as most of the tents are of simple triangular design without proper flooring or annexes in which to shelter.

Deaf Palestinian Farmer is 4th shot in 3 weeks

Mohammed, shot in foot Feb 18, pic from http://www.ingaza.wordpress.com

The following by my colleage E, first posted on her blog In Gaza yesterday, Feb 18.

What caused the Israeli soldiers to shoot a deaf farmer today? Was he threatening? Was it because the group of farm labourers had successfully worked quickly to harvest their day’s wages? Was the sight of retreating, unarmed, clearly non-threatening civilians too tempting to resist?

Feb 18: One of our farmers shot in foot today

Mohammed was shot while loading the truck. This image from Feb 5.

There’s a preliminary report up on the ISM page, and there will be a more detailed one later, along with footage of the shooting that A and G took. As Murphy’s law would have it, this was actually the first day I didn’t go farming, technically leaving the group without a medic (sorry guys) but I sent my medic kit with the ISMers and one of them did some impromptu foot bandaging for 20 year old Mohammed, who was loading spinach ready to leave at the time he was shot. Faraheen farmers will go out again to harvest on Saturday and have asked us to join them again. Food is not optional.

Feb 16: Almost every day

Y and the beetroot harvest - her dad J dodges bullets to farm

A South African teacher who reads this blog asked yesterday: “I’ve heard that everyday people are still being killed in Gaza, is this true?”

Feb 11: Back home in Telal Howa

Destroyed ambulance beside park-up compound

Last night after S’s birthday party, I walked round the corner from Al Quds hospital complex with him to the re-occupied 101 Ambulance Dispatch Centre. (I suffered a momentary sense of homelessness when I went to Al Quds the other day and discovered the temporary dispatch room had returned to its former office identity and the “101″ sign was gone from the door.)

Feb 10: Storm over Gaza

Dial 101 for a Red Crescent Ambulance in Gaza

On Tuesday night I went to smoke shisha with the Red Crescent volunteers for S’s 29th birthday. There were the usual accusative cries of “wen inti?” – where have you been? These folks got used to me being round the hospital 24 hours; Palestinians tend to start missing you about an hour after you left them anyway, and if a week passes without a visit their feelings are quite hurt. The frequent deafening crack of thunder outside the cafe made us all smile just because it wasn’t rockets or shells. “No attack – but still shisha!” said Sh happily, referring to the all the times I’d spent with them, smoking in the smashed up buildings as explosions rocked us.