Palestine: On the Ground in Gaza
In spite of the continued attacks on Gaza, and the loss of electricity in many places, there are Gazan bloggers who are managing to write about what is going on. In addition, there are a number of foreign human rights activists in the Gaza Strip who are providing eyewitness accounts.
We start with a Gazan blogger who is actually in the United States at the moment. Laila El-Haddad, who blogs at Raising Yousuf and Noor, writes about what her parents are experiencing:
My parents live in the the city center, and the Israeli war planes attacked people and locations all around them. Over 50 “targets” by 60 warplanes, read the headlines in Haaretz. And over 220 killed – in broad daylight; in the after-school rush.
Like a movie tagline. Or a game. If you say it enough times, it does not sound real anymore: 50 targets, 60 warplanes, 200 people, 1 day.
All very sanitary. Very sleek. Neatly packaged: war in a gift-box.
“There is a funeral passing every minute. The bodies are piling up.” Gaza's air is saturated with the smell of burning human flesh. There is panic, as one would imagine dogs would panic in an overcrowded cell when several of their own are violently, abruptly killed. But dead dogs – in a cage, no less, would create an outcry.
A Canadian activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Eva Bartlett, blogs at In Gaza, and she describes the aftermath of one attack:
Among the civilians killed, the mother of my good friends in Jabaliya. Every loss is atrocious, but it is more poignant when you see it or know the dead. […] Another international human rights activist and I spent last night with the family, not sleeping, crowded into a cold basement room made colder by opened windows, in hopes they would not shatter when the inevitable shelling re-commenced. Indeed, the front window, closest to the street and site of shelling hours later, did shatter.
The family worried that Israeli ground-troops might invade and occupy their home, as they did in March 2008, and so we stayed with them, in support, though they certainly are strong and have weathered many past terrible days alone. Mostly women and children, we rested fitfully, calling and texting those in other areas of Gaza with each new explosion, as the blasts continued from 11 pm on through the night. Apache helicopters circled above throughout the night, and the buzz of an Israeli drone could constantly be heard.
At 10:10 pm, a text from another international [activist], in Rafah: “Israelis just phoned on the land-line to say that every house with weapons is a target.” How Israel knows which houses have ‘weapons’ is one question, and what gives Israel the right to blanket bomb civilian areas is the greater question. In our house, 13 women, 3 men (including one elderly man), and 6 children under the age of 3, one more girl 14 years old. Should Israel decide to know the house has weapons, that’s 23 more civilians lost. […] I will update more when time and electricity allow. For now, I want to go to the home of my friends whose mother was killed, I want to pay my respects and to cry with them, for she was as gentle a woman as my own mother.
In another post, Eva Bartlett has written about the situation at Shifa hospital in Gaza City (please be aware that many of the images are disturbing).
Sameh A. Habeeb, who is a blogger and journalist in Gaza City, has also described the situation in hospitals:
Gaza hospitals announced inability of receiving the wounded due to lack of medical equipment and tools. Corpses of Palestinians were thrown on the corridors, rooms and units of hospitals. Meanwhile 2-3 wounded victims shared one bed due to lack of medical equipment, a result of the Israeli siege imposed 2 years ago. Basim Nai'm, Health Minster in Gaza said that Gaza medical sector needs tens of kinds of medical equipment and tools. A number of 70 wounded were referred to an Egyptian hospital.
Fida Qishta, who blogs at Sunshine, is a Palestinian ISM activist in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip:
Shortly before 7:00am local time, yet another Israeli missile strike hit the residential neighbourhood of Hi Alijnina in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. This time a pharmacy was targeted, totally destroying the building and causing severe damage to surrounding homes. Electricity lines were torn down during the blast and the street was littered with medicines. … Shocked residents poured into the streets, some still wearing pyjamas.
There are human rights activists from Lebanon, the UK, Poland, Canada, Spain, Italy and Australia currently in Gaza; many of them arrived with the Free Gaza movement's boats. Not all have blogs, but you can read their eyewitness accounts of events in Gaza at the Free Gaza website, and at the International Solidarity Movement website. There are photos of the aftermath of the attacks on Rafah at Rafah Today (once again, please be aware that the images are disturbing).
188 comments
Just Stop the war…we are have a same GOOD. It’s a simple concept.
We’ll stop when Hamas stops firing rockets. Right now it continues to fire rockets at our towns and cities, right at the residential quarters. Bloodthursty Hamas criminals are therefore 100% responsible for continuation of this war.
Stopping while allowing Hamas to continue firing rockets at our civilians is, among other things, STUPID. You do not suspect us of being stupid, do you?
to Johnstone:
100 tons of humanitarian aid that Israel has let into the Gaza strip is the approximate figure – I think it was 640 tons in 6 days. I have just heard the OFFICIAL announcement of Israeli government that we have just let another 400 trucks and 10 ambulances into gaza, through Israel-controlled checkpoints.
The aid is coming from UN, Lybia, Turkey, Egypt and a large number of other Arab, Moslem and non-Arab, non-Moslem countries, including countries with which Israel has no diplomatic relationship.
The point is: Israel is not limiting it in ANY way. UNLIMITED humanitarian relief is flowing into Gaza through Israeli territory. THERE IS NO HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN GAZA, MUCH AS HAMAS WOULD WANT IT. ISRAEL IS NOT AFTER GAZAN CIVILIAN POPULATION. WE ARE CHASING THE MURDEROUS HAMAS TERRORISTS.
I’m so exited as well..oh ya Allahou Akbar:)
GAZA people, GAZA land & GAZA freedom fighters are ready for your tanks :)
“THERE IS NO HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN GAZA” :your jokes are dead funny!! the real crisis is the exsisting of you merciless ..
finally, be patient & we gana see who will withdraw from GAZA crying & fleeing just like in 2006 ….our blood +death= our freedom …. all are aware of who are the real criminals : who have killed and tourtured the prophets …
WE ALL GAZA :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciOGS6r97oE
further comments unnecessary
Aha… Zeinab Salem, I see your real point now: the JEWS HAVE KILLED AND TORTURED THE PROPHETS. When the fanatical brainwashed religious radicals get excited enough (as you are now at the chance to spill blood) they alway shed the “civilized” Western camouflage in a fraction of a second.
You have not fooled me by your “some of my best friends are Jewish” and “I am MA student” tune in the first place. MA student of what? Animalistic theological racism and anti-semitism? I would give you an A grade on that.
We live in the 21st century. You the Hamas are still living in the 8th.
well dear, people of Judaism is different from Zionists, that’s why I mentioned “the peopel of the BOOK”, but if my Jewish friends agree on what Israel is doing in Gaza, I don’t need such friends ..I won’t have a frirnd who is an enemy even if s/he is not a Jewish but has the same view toward Gaza of your view.
All knows that many Jewish persons are against your stupid government actions.
“anti-semitism” is really funny as well.
Shame on us if we accept to live in your 21th century of this kind …
our flesh, blood and souls face your government & we are proud of that..name as you like..we are proud of our death …but I’m not sure if the families of the Israeli soldiers in Gaza gana be proud of thier death!
WE ALL GAZA
What israel is doing is not sense at All
I have carefully read every message in this thread. If the Israelis believe that bombing and ground troops in Gaza is going to stop Hamas, your just crazy. Gaza will never meet the demands to stop firing because Hamas doesn’t care about the fate of Gaza. Your trying to turn a dream into a reality, and it just isn’t going to work. Do you honestly believe that if killing 500 Palestinians doesn’t work, that killing 1,000 or 2,000 will? Do you see how preposterous this theory is?
On the contrary, what Israel is doing makes lots of sense.
Hamas OFFICIALLY recognizes only one option for the future, immediate or distant: physical destruction of Israel. Reasoning with this kind of fanatic hatred is impossible. Therefore Israel is using the only language Hamas understands: force. A lot of force, because Hamas think that a little force = weakness. Therefore using “proportional” force (expression used by Hamas and their half-wit sympathizers) only incites Hamas to accelerate and enhanc their murderous attacks.
What Israel is doing makes a perfect sense. The only way to deal with fanatic Islamist murderers is make them pay the price that is 100 times higher than the cost of their attacks on civilians. Serves them right and finally teaches them a lesson in the language they understand.
And in perfect accordance with international law: see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMjSoUEysQ4&feature=player_embedded