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Agricultural
Development Association(PARC)-Gaza
You cannot
smile at all. You are in Beit Hanoun:
The human
situation in Beit Hanoun village north of
Gaza city
Sunday 5th
Nov. 2006
Beit Hanoun is a crowded residential area.
It is located a few kilometers to the north
of Gaza city. It’s easy to reach there by
car. It is also a few kilometers to the
south of Sederot town in Israel.
Historically speaking, in 1948 Sedrot was
established on the remains and land of the
Palestinian village of Semsem. It is worth
noting that Beit Hanoun contains the Gaza
Strip's most fertile land. Is that why it
had to be wiped out? The World Bank has made
approach and overtures to invest in the
north of Gaza including Beit Hanoun in an
attempt to improve and strengthen the
Palestinian economy which has been totally
devastated by the Israeli military
incursions.
On Wednesday 1st Nov. 2006, the
Israeli army with its highly sophisticated
weapons and rich logistic support has
started an attack on Beit Hanoun under the
pretext of preventing militia men from
launching the local-made rockets towards
Sedrot. In few hours they tightened their
siege on the village. We thought that the
military activities are limited to time,
place and against certain people as
mentioned in the media, but the reality of
the situation has proved that it is not only
so. The military action has targeted
everyone living in the village and every
piece of cultivated land regardless of any
consideration, and a real damage has been
inflected upon the agricultural sector.
Well, today is Sunday; it’s the fifth day of
the ongoing Israeli military operation
inside the border village of Beit Hanoun and
around it. It is what the Israel army calls
“Operation: Autumn Clouds.”
Up today, in Beit Hanoun and elsewhere in
Gaza Strip a total of 48 men of different
ages, and 2 women are killed and some 250
are injured with more than 50 people in
serious and critical conditions in ICU of
two hospitals in the area. This number
includes those who were assassinated by
attack of Israeli helicopters and jets
launching missiles at their cars. Israeli
officials declared their regret for killing
innocent civilians in the operation. The
Israeli chief of staff visited the troops in
Beit Hanoun and expressed his admiration in
their performance and gave praise to the
leader of the operation as his units are
looking for more weapon stores.
Moreover, after a military order by
loudspeakers for the Palestinian men of the
village to gather in a school yard, hundreds
of the Palestinians between 16-60 years of
age were rounded up and carried away in
military trucks to an unknown destination;
it could be to a concentration camp erected
in the Negev desert to the east of Burij
refugee camp in the middle area of Gaza
Strip. Those detained men have been
estimated as around 1500.
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It is worth noting that the two women were
killed while marching with dozens of other
women in a passive resistance attempt to
protest against the atrocities of the
Israeli soldiers. Women were in need of a
space to move around to get food and other
daily life need. It seems that what we
anticipate is not the proper frame of the
military activities, and accordingly, little
can be expected from any future attempts to
remedy its ailments. In self-defense, the
Israelis keep bringing back the Palestinian
farmer to zero point, thus he has to start
again! Israeli policies and activities
represent a slap in the face of the
Palestinian civil service organizations
including the agricultural communities in
particular. They destroy everything in
sight. For 5 straight days so far, Beit
Hanoun was deprived from too many things
like electricity, telecommunications, food
and medical supplies. Moreover, the
operation is meant to destroy the
agricultural lands, livestock and crops
particularly that Beit Hanoun area is rich
in producing and it also produces other
crops such as the strawberry, citrus,
flowers, and other plants. It seems that the
Israeli intention is to level the
agricultural sector in the area. This is
lucid evidence that Israel practices a
collective punishment. In simple words,
what’s going on is an organized destruction
of the human life of the Palestinian
villagers and all the supportive efforts and
investments.
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As from the first day of the offensive, a curfew
was imposed on the village and the
surrounding agricultural areas so as to
secure movement of the army vehicles and
tanks. Army bulldozers took a main part in
the operation. Under cover from tanks and
helicopters, the bulldozers uprooted trees
and destroyed crops in hundreds of acres of
land under different pretexts such as
opening new roads for their military
campaign and creating empty areas so as to
prevent launching the local made missiles
against Israel. Well, after five days those
missiles are still launched and the vast
military campaign did not stop them or
change anything in their equation. The
Israeli soldiers are conducting home to home
search going into everywhere they could and
search for arms and men. The search does not
go smoothly, but rather it is embedded with
harshness and harassment against the
children and women who are supposed to have
remained at home.
On the fourth day of the offensive, the
Israeli army left the curfew for a couple of
hours so as to give a chance for women only
to move around for getting the necessary and
basic life needs such as milk for the
children and flour for making local made
bread and the like. No shops or groceries
are open so that women resort to their
neighbors and other relatives in the same
neighborhood seeking help with what could be
extra food stuff or whatever needed and
still available with some!
With this new situation, the people of Beit
Hanoun have been stuck between a stone and a
hard rock. They lost wide areas of
cultivated land; their plants, tress and
greenhouses have been intentionally
targeted. Accordingly, there is no wonder
that their agricultural land and their
economy are still going down with everyday
the offensive continues. Worse is that those
government employees have not received
except some 20% of their salaries for seven
month so far, let alone the high employment
rate in the area. All those factors are
destructive to the economic, social, and
cultural tissues of the village. Then, the
incursion has added salt to the injury; the
military operation has worsened the human
situation and took it form bad to worse. In
simple words, the people have lost hope in
almost everything around them and their
children are really starving. They have been
deprived of the basic need of normal life.
Children have been terrified by shooting,
shelling, explosions, and blasts. The
current military operations have worsened
the human situation to the extreme. It’s
taking the whole area form bad to worse.
Two days back UNRWA was permitted to go
into Beit Hanoun but it is still that people
are hungry and starving and death is taking
its toll.
Those two photos can speak for themselves. A
moment of peaceful demonstration and protest
has turned into a moment of death for two
civilian women and injuries for others!
Protestors were calling upon the Arab
leaders and the world community to intervene
to stop the Israeli operation. Just imagine
the situation.
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Cooperation & External Relations Department.
Agricultural Development Association (PARC)-Gaza
Tel: +972 (or 970) 8 2805042
Fax: + 972 (or 970) 8 2805039
e-mail:
adming@palnet.com
www.pal-arc.org
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