arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Origineel: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafah/4272620/

Het dagelijks (over-)leven in Palestina: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafah/

Noran Eyad Deeb, a girl of 10, was shot and killed today while in the schoolyard at Rafah Elementary "B" School, run by UNRWA. She and the other pupils were lining up for for afternoon assembly. All UNRWA schools are clearly marked and fly the United Nations flag.

Another schoolgirl, Aysha Al Khatib, was injured in the hand by a second bullet fired at the same time.

At the time of the incident, firing had been heard from the direction of the Israeli-controlled border area. The school’s teaching staff were trying to get the children out of the schoolyard to safety when Noran was hit in the face.

an earlier discussion and other reports

This is the fifth time in the last two years that children have been killed or seriously injured inside UNRWA school premises in the Gaza Strip. Two girls were killed in separate incidents in Rafah and Khan Younis last year; fifth grade boys were shot in their Rafah classroom last year, and a little girl was permanently blinded in Khan Younis in March 2003. Dr. Ali Musa, director of the Abu Youif Al Najjar hospital in Rafah confirmed that Noran Eyad Deeb "was shot in the face by Israeli snipers. Her classmate with a bullet wound in her hand is still hospitalized."

The Palestinian Authority officially condemned the ongoing targeting of children and once again asked Isarel to halt its aggression against civilians. "Killing this schoolgirl is a crime and a bad message to the world," said Prime Minster Ahmed Qorie. "We hope that the international community will make Israel respond positively to the Palestinian initiatives and the concrete steps taken by the Palestinian Authority to ensure calm," he added.

Elderly man killed

While the Palestinian Authority's new president Mahmoud Abbas has deployed 3000 Palestinian police on the Egypt/Gaza borderline and near the Israeli settlements to prevent attacks by militants, the Israeli soldiers are still targeting civilian neighborhoods in all parts of Rafah. Eid Abu Jarabea, 65, was shot dead while he walked in the Al Brazil area of Rafah which is near the border.

The Israeli soldiers reported seeing the body of the elderly man to the Palestinians National Forces, but it took more than three hours for the ambulances and medics to locate Jarabea's body. They finally found him in the rubble of demolished houses.

Abdelrahman Abu Shamalah, a boy of 13, and his mother, Amira Abu Shamalah, 50, were two more recent victims of random Israeli shooting. Both were injured near the Abu Holi checkpoint while on their way from Rafah to Gaza City.

Whatever the rhetoric from the Israeli government, events on the ground seem to indicate the Israeli army is still blind to the very deep hope of peace among the Palestinians. But what will induce the soldiers to change their ways--to stop shooting at people waiting at checkpoints, picking off people going about their ordinary business in the border neighborhoods, shooting at schoolchildren--when they seem to have the tacit support of the US and Europe?

visit also his website: http://rafahtoday.org