Dear readers
Here is the digest for December 1st, 2004

1- Hamas to Boycott Presidential Elections
2- Al-Mawasi Residents Face Daily Hardships


1- Hamas to Boycott Presidential Elections
MEMC & Agencies, December 1, 2004, 14:12

Hamas will boycott the Jan. 9 presidential election, but would not
call the public to do the same, Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader,
told reporters in Gaza City on Wednesday.

"We in the Islamic resistance announce our boycott and our non-
participation in the presidential elections for the Palestinian
Authority," he said.

"All Hamas members will abide by the decision to boycott the
elections, but there is no call for ordinary Palestinians not to vote,
" he added.

Haniyah said that Hamas's decision not to field a candidate and to
boycott election is based on their principal opposition to the Oslo
accords, under which elections are to be held.

Earlier, Hamas called for holding legislative and local elections
parallel to the presidential one as a condition for its participation.

Palestinian commentators believe that Hamas's decision to boycott
elections came as a result of pressure from the side of the movement
leadership outside the Palestinian occupied territories.


2- Al-Mawasi Residents Face Daily Hardships
Trans and Edited by Saed Bannoura, IMEMC, December 1, 2004,

Residents of Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza
Strip, face daily hardships and violations, that make their daily life
a misery.

The area was lately subjected to several attacks by settlers, who
practiced against them all sorts of violations and aggressions aiming
to terrify them and force them out of their homes and fields, in order
to confiscate the fields and expand the settlements.

Settlements in the Gaza Strip are consuming the resources and fields
of the area, depriving the residents from the natural resources and
their fields, which negatively affects the agricultural sector, the
main source of living, increasing poverty in the area, and barring the
development of the agricultural sector and the area in general.

Apparently settlers' attacks were not enough, the daily bulldozing of
the agricultural fields, barracks and farms carried out by the army,
accumulate the settlers' attacks and increase the sufferings which the
Palestinians have to face under occupation.

Settlers intensified their attacks against the residents and their
fields in Al-Mawasy area, during the past week causing considerable
damages.

Islam Al-Farra, a resident of Al-Mawasy, said that tens of armed
settlers broke into his fields and farm, uprooted his plants, damaged
tens of fruitful trees, and erected caravans.

Al-Farra said that a group of settlers erected caravans in fields
which are owned by Yahia Al-Farra, from Khan Younis, and uprooted the
plants and trees.

"We tried to stoop them, tens of farmers came to the fields and tried
to stop the settlers from moving their caravans into them, but they
used their automatic guns against us, they fired several rounds,
uprooted the plants, destroyed water-pipes providing the fields with
the needed water, and burnt a motor used for pumping water", Al-Farra
said.

The agricultural products of those fields are the only source of
living which Yahia and his family has; yet, he has not been able to
reach the fields for a long time as a result of military procedures
and closure.

The attacks carried out by settlers are attempts to force the
residents out, in order to confiscate what is left of their lands, and
annex them to the settlement.

Al-Mawasy, 2km away from Kahn Younis, is surrounded by settlements,
yet is also encircled by closure, checkposts and military camps.

The area has been under tight siege since the beginning of the
Intifada more than four years ago; it only have one entrance known as
"Al-Tuffah" checkpoint, were soldiers control the residents and close
the checkpoint as they wish, whenever they want and for whatever
reason they create!


Al-Mawasi area extends along the costal road for a distance of 12Km
and 1km wide, from Dir Al-Balah, to Khan Younis until Rafah.

The area is inhibited by 9000 residents, 2000 among them are from
Mawasi-Rafah area.

Among the agricultural sector in the Gaza Strip, Al-Mawasi is
considered one of the most important agricultural areas in the Gaza
Strip, were the residents depend on agriculture as the only source of
living.

But this source is subjected to daily threats, under the wide sharp
teeth of the "Sharks"; military bulldozers, from one side, and
settler's attacks and violations from the other.

Residents of the area, have to deal with the daily hard procedures on
the checkpoints, daily attacks against their lands and homes, and huge
losses, but they remain their, in their land and homes, or what is
left of them!

Local institutions and NGO's voiced appeals to the International
Community, and International organizations specialized in human rights
to aide them.

Yet, they remain there, and the daily hardships and violations remain
there too!