1 jan 2009
Fears grow of Gaza ground assault
Most of Gaza's 1.5 million residents have no access to shelter from Israeli raids
Israeli strike kills senior Hamas figure as ground forces prepare for possible invasion.
Speculation is mounting that Israel is preparing to launch a ground offensive on Gaza, after it announced it would briefly open the Erez crossing to let about 440 foreign residents to leave.
Friday saw continuing air raids on the Gaza Strip, a day after the Israeli army began clearing landmines along the boundary in apparent preparation for a possible ground invasion.
Tanks, armoured vehicles and troops have been massing along the boundary for several days.
With the Israeli offensive on Gaza in its seventh day, the death toll now stands at more than 428 dead and 2,100 injured. Among Friday's dead were three girls who had been playing outside.
In response Hamas fighters launched more than 20 rockets into southern Israel on Thursday and seven on Friday, some landing as far as the port city of Ashdod, more than 30km from Gaza. An Israeli woman was injured in Friday's rocket fire, the Israeli army said.
Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from southern Israel, said: "This is two days of very heavy bombing, particularly in the north now, which has made people wonder whether this could be a foretaste of a ground offensive.
"It could be that Israeli forces are trying to clear any obstacles, notably landmines that could potentially lie i the path of advancing tanks if and when the ground offensive begins.
"But the real question now is not if, but when. Many people in Israel are wondering 'what are we waiting for'."
Hamas leader killed
Israeli strike kills senior Hamas figure as ground forces prepare for possible invasion.
Speculation is mounting that Israel is preparing to launch a ground offensive on Gaza, after it announced it would briefly open the Erez crossing to let about 440 foreign residents to leave.
Friday saw continuing air raids on the Gaza Strip, a day after the Israeli army began clearing landmines along the boundary in apparent preparation for a possible ground invasion.
Tanks, armoured vehicles and troops have been massing along the boundary for several days.
With the Israeli offensive on Gaza in its seventh day, the death toll now stands at more than 428 dead and 2,100 injured. Among Friday's dead were three girls who had been playing outside.
In response Hamas fighters launched more than 20 rockets into southern Israel on Thursday and seven on Friday, some landing as far as the port city of Ashdod, more than 30km from Gaza. An Israeli woman was injured in Friday's rocket fire, the Israeli army said.
Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from southern Israel, said: "This is two days of very heavy bombing, particularly in the north now, which has made people wonder whether this could be a foretaste of a ground offensive.
"It could be that Israeli forces are trying to clear any obstacles, notably landmines that could potentially lie i the path of advancing tanks if and when the ground offensive begins.
"But the real question now is not if, but when. Many people in Israel are wondering 'what are we waiting for'."
Hamas leader killed
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In the strikes on Gaza on Thursday, Israeli jets pounded the border town of Rafah in the south of the territory and the Jabaliya refugee camp to the north.
In raids on Jabaliya, a senior Hamas official was among more than a dozen people killed when a single one-tonne bomb dropped from an Israeli jet destroyed his home. Nizar Rayyan is the most senior Hamas official killed since Israel unleashed its massive bombardment on Gaza seven days ago. Palestinian medics said 13 members of Rayyan's family, including his four wives and 10 children, were killed in the attack. |
Hamas officials hit back at Israel after the attack saying the assault on Gaza would fail.
"The blood of Sheikh Nizar Rayyan and the blood of other martyrs will never be wasted and the enemy will pay a heavy price for the crimes it has committed," Ayman Taha, a Hamas official, said.
Rayyan, 51, had refused to take security precautions despite Hamas figures being at risk of assassination. He held a PhD in Islamic studies and lectured at the Islamic University in the Gaza Strip.
Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said the killing of Rayyan comes at a time when international organisations are saying Israel's policy of bombing the homes of Hamas leaders is against international law.
"While they may be targeting senior members of the factions and military wings, these organisations say there is no doubt that there are families there and they are in residential neighbourhoods," he said.
"As we have seen in this particular strike, it was a direct hit in the heart of the Jabaliya camp, the most densely populated in Gaza, home to 70,000 Palestinians."
Israel says its assault on Gaza is aimed at ending persistent Hamas rocket attacks from the enclave, but its offensive has sparked international condemnation and protests around the world. In Jerusalem on Thursday, a coalition of left-wing parties and peace groups voiced their opposition to the raids with a protest in front of the Israeli prime minister's home.
The protesters called for an immediate end to the assault, saying the escalation of violence was a disaster for both sides.
Meanwhile Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, has called for an immediate ceasefire from both sides.
"Our call to Israel now is to halt its fire and to the other side to stop firing rockets and other attacks," he said after talks with Egypt's president in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Desperate Gazans
"The blood of Sheikh Nizar Rayyan and the blood of other martyrs will never be wasted and the enemy will pay a heavy price for the crimes it has committed," Ayman Taha, a Hamas official, said.
Rayyan, 51, had refused to take security precautions despite Hamas figures being at risk of assassination. He held a PhD in Islamic studies and lectured at the Islamic University in the Gaza Strip.
Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said the killing of Rayyan comes at a time when international organisations are saying Israel's policy of bombing the homes of Hamas leaders is against international law.
"While they may be targeting senior members of the factions and military wings, these organisations say there is no doubt that there are families there and they are in residential neighbourhoods," he said.
"As we have seen in this particular strike, it was a direct hit in the heart of the Jabaliya camp, the most densely populated in Gaza, home to 70,000 Palestinians."
Israel says its assault on Gaza is aimed at ending persistent Hamas rocket attacks from the enclave, but its offensive has sparked international condemnation and protests around the world. In Jerusalem on Thursday, a coalition of left-wing parties and peace groups voiced their opposition to the raids with a protest in front of the Israeli prime minister's home.
The protesters called for an immediate end to the assault, saying the escalation of violence was a disaster for both sides.
Meanwhile Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, has called for an immediate ceasefire from both sides.
"Our call to Israel now is to halt its fire and to the other side to stop firing rockets and other attacks," he said after talks with Egypt's president in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Desperate Gazans
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With Israel continuing to pound Gaza, the situation for Gaza residents is becoming increasingly desperate.
Most of the 1.5 million people in the densely populated enclave have no means of sheltering from the raids, and humanitarian groups say supplies of food and fuel are running dangerously low. Hospitals have also reported shortages of even the most basic medicines and say they have no more capacity to deal with the growing numbers of casualties. On Thursday, however, Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, denied suggestions there was a humanitarian crisis in the Strip, adding "and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce". Livni was speaking in Paris after talks with the Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, whose call for a 48-hour ceasefire to allow in humanitarian aid has been rejected by |
Israel. "Israel has been supplying comprehensive humanitarian aid to the Strip ... and has even been stepping this up by the day," the Israeli foreign ministry quoted Livni as saying.
However, Karen Abu Zayed, the commissioner for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, said that in eight years of working in Gaza the need for aid had "never been so acute".
"I am appalled and saddened when I see the suffering around me," she said, adding the UNRWA has made an emergency appeal for $34m to help the Gaza population.
Hasan Khalaf, Gaza's assistant deputy health minister, described the ongoing assault on Gaza as "an Israeli massacre".
"There is no comparison between what we have and what [Israel] are doing to us. The international community are standing unable to help us, and yet we know they have been helping Israel for tens of years.
"Even now they are comparing those getting scared in the south of Israel, and those buried under the rubble after having their houses bombarded."
The killing of Nizar Rayan and 15 members of his family
On Thursday, 1 Jan. '09, the Israeli air force bombed the house of Nizar Rayan, a senior Hamas official, in the Jabalya refugee camp. The blast killed Rayan, his four wives, and their eleven children, ranging in age from 1-12 years old. According to the army spokesperson, "the house served as a large munitions warehouse and as a war room. Under the house was an escape tunnel for terrorist members of Hamas's military wing."
Even if the army spokesperson's statement is accurate, the large toll of civilian lives renders the attack a grave breach of international humanitarian law. In the current situation in the Gaza Strip, it is hard to think of a definite military advantage that could have been achieved by bombing the house and killing Rayan, that can justify the killing of 13 women and children
According to the media, official sources indicated that the army had warned the family members of their intention to bomb the house, but they refused to leave.
Even if true, this does not exempt the army from responsibility for the killing of civilians, given that it knew or should have known that the residents had not left the house and that they would be injured in the blast.
However, Karen Abu Zayed, the commissioner for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, said that in eight years of working in Gaza the need for aid had "never been so acute".
"I am appalled and saddened when I see the suffering around me," she said, adding the UNRWA has made an emergency appeal for $34m to help the Gaza population.
Hasan Khalaf, Gaza's assistant deputy health minister, described the ongoing assault on Gaza as "an Israeli massacre".
"There is no comparison between what we have and what [Israel] are doing to us. The international community are standing unable to help us, and yet we know they have been helping Israel for tens of years.
"Even now they are comparing those getting scared in the south of Israel, and those buried under the rubble after having their houses bombarded."
The killing of Nizar Rayan and 15 members of his family
On Thursday, 1 Jan. '09, the Israeli air force bombed the house of Nizar Rayan, a senior Hamas official, in the Jabalya refugee camp. The blast killed Rayan, his four wives, and their eleven children, ranging in age from 1-12 years old. According to the army spokesperson, "the house served as a large munitions warehouse and as a war room. Under the house was an escape tunnel for terrorist members of Hamas's military wing."
Even if the army spokesperson's statement is accurate, the large toll of civilian lives renders the attack a grave breach of international humanitarian law. In the current situation in the Gaza Strip, it is hard to think of a definite military advantage that could have been achieved by bombing the house and killing Rayan, that can justify the killing of 13 women and children
According to the media, official sources indicated that the army had warned the family members of their intention to bomb the house, but they refused to leave.
Even if true, this does not exempt the army from responsibility for the killing of civilians, given that it knew or should have known that the residents had not left the house and that they would be injured in the blast.
day 6- deaths and strikes
3:45 From a news building’s height, I can see the black clouds from recent strikes. To the north, in Jabaliya, a Hamas leader’s house has been hit, taking down 4 story’s and the occupants inside. In addition to the Hamas leader, Nizar Rayyan (50) estimates of at least 10 family members, including children.
To the east, 2 different plumes, the most recent resulting in what TV images soon show to be a burned child’s corpse, the first of the dead shown.
“They’re going crazy,” the newsmen say, stating it’s beyond anything they’ve seen before. They are from Gaza.
Reporter Yousef al Helo estimates there could be over 100 drones circling over the Strip, some taking photos, others dropping missiles.
F-16s in tens cross Gaza’s skies.
3:53, new airstike in the east of Gaza city, on agricultural fields, but civilian deaths are restricted to dense camps or city streets.
4:06, at least 4 new strikes in the eastern and northern areas outside Gaza city.
4:13: three more, in quick succession, along the east of Gaza city.
4:19, a new one, and two more in quick succession, at the east.
To the east, 2 different plumes, the most recent resulting in what TV images soon show to be a burned child’s corpse, the first of the dead shown.
“They’re going crazy,” the newsmen say, stating it’s beyond anything they’ve seen before. They are from Gaza.
Reporter Yousef al Helo estimates there could be over 100 drones circling over the Strip, some taking photos, others dropping missiles.
F-16s in tens cross Gaza’s skies.
3:53, new airstike in the east of Gaza city, on agricultural fields, but civilian deaths are restricted to dense camps or city streets.
4:06, at least 4 new strikes in the eastern and northern areas outside Gaza city.
4:13: three more, in quick succession, along the east of Gaza city.
4:19, a new one, and two more in quick succession, at the east.
|
Last night, staying at Al Quds hospital, I was afforded a very up-close experience of shelling from all sides. The hospital lies between the already-bombed Ministerial Council building complex and the to-be-bombed last night Ministry of Education and Ministry of Justice buildings. Having heard the account of Dr. Haidar Eid who had a sleepless night when the Council buildings were first bombed, I wasn’t surprised when the bombings recurred on other buildings.
At 12:50 am, I’d been speaking with two doctors in their hospital office when a loud explosion hit what I now assume was either the Ministry of Justice or Education. They, Palestinians from Gaza who’ve endured many an invasion, dropped to the floor at the noise and impact. Haidar confirmed: “they hit the Ministry of Justice, as expected.” Two hours later, at 3:05 another explosion rocks Sharon and I from tentative sleep. I’m thankful the windows are already shattered, because surely they would’ve blown in on this impact. Nonetheless, I’ve instinctively curled into a ball, covering face. |
Haidar confirms this blast: “M o J again. One of my windows fell outside.”
Twelve minutes later, the next huge explosion. Ministry of Education, Haidar confirms (he has the radio on and translates for me). “My friend lives opposite it,” he adds. “His children are terrified. His house door is down.”
At 3:37 the drones intensify their volume and presence. At 3:52, another shuddering blast. At 3:43, two very loud, strongest yet, blasts knock the wind out of me as I lie in bed. Shockwaves shake and rattle me, the walls. Ministry of Ed again, Haidar clarifies. Now Legislative Council Building. There’s no point in moving, I couldn’t find a place to feel safe (in a hospital yet).
The angry buzz of drones is joined by helicopters. It’s nearly 4 am and they’re presumably surveying their work. I lie wondering what’s next.
The next morning, I survey the damage done in previous nights: many of the hospital’s windows are blown, shutters down, some doors off, some walls cracked. I walk from the hospital to a downtown news office, passing many other burnt out, bombed out, skeletal structures en route: the destroyed Ministry Council compound; a mansion, the Legislative Council, a building which seems simply to be a business or apartment.
Twelve minutes later, the next huge explosion. Ministry of Education, Haidar confirms (he has the radio on and translates for me). “My friend lives opposite it,” he adds. “His children are terrified. His house door is down.”
At 3:37 the drones intensify their volume and presence. At 3:52, another shuddering blast. At 3:43, two very loud, strongest yet, blasts knock the wind out of me as I lie in bed. Shockwaves shake and rattle me, the walls. Ministry of Ed again, Haidar clarifies. Now Legislative Council Building. There’s no point in moving, I couldn’t find a place to feel safe (in a hospital yet).
The angry buzz of drones is joined by helicopters. It’s nearly 4 am and they’re presumably surveying their work. I lie wondering what’s next.
The next morning, I survey the damage done in previous nights: many of the hospital’s windows are blown, shutters down, some doors off, some walls cracked. I walk from the hospital to a downtown news office, passing many other burnt out, bombed out, skeletal structures en route: the destroyed Ministry Council compound; a mansion, the Legislative Council, a building which seems simply to be a business or apartment.
Vittorio Arrigoni writes from Gaza 1
By Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza
Translated from Il Manifesto
To view original article, published by Il Manifesto on the 29th December, click here
6:05 PM, Marna house, Gaza city
An acrid smell of sulphur fills the air while the sky is shaken by earth-shattering rumbles. My ears are now deaf to the explosions while my eyes are all out of tears from all the corpses. I stand in front of Al Shifa hospital, Gaza’s main hospital, and we’ve just received Israel’s terrible threat that they intend to bomb its under construction wing. This would be nothing new, as Wea’m hospital was bombed just yesterday, along with a medicine warehouse in Rafah, the Islamic university, which was also destroyed, along with various mosques scattered along the Strip. Not to mention many CIVILIAN structures.
Apparently, they can no longer find “sensible” targets, the air force and the navy is killing time targeting places of worship, schools and hospitals. It’s another 9/11 every single hour, every minute around here, and tomorrow is always a new day of mourning, always identical to the previous one. You notice the helicopters and airplanes constantly overhead, you see a flash, but you’re already a goner and it’s too late to take flight. There are no bunkers against the bombs in the Strip and no place is really safe. I can’t contact my friends in Rafah, not even those who live North of Gaza City, hopefully because the phone lines are overloaded. Hopefully. I haven’t slept in 60 hours, and same goes for every Gazan.
Yesterday three other ISM members and I spent the entire night at the al Awda hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp. We were there because we were fearing the much dreaded ground raid that never happened. But the Israeli tanks are posted all along the Strip’s border, and their corpse-hungry creaks will apparently form a funeral march tonight. Around 11:30 PM a bomb fell about 800 metres from the hospital, the shock wave blow several windows apart, injuring the injured. An ambulance arrived, then they blew up a mosque, thankfully empty at that time. Unfortunately, though it actually has nothing to do with bad luck but with the criminal and terroristic will to massacre civilians, the Israeli bomb has also struck the building adjacent to the mosque, which was also destroyed. We watched as the tiny bodies of six little sisters were pulled out of the rubble – five are dead, one is in life-threatening conditions. They laid the little girls out on the blackened asphalt, and they looked like broken dolls, disposed of as they were no longer usable.
This wasn’t a mistake, but a voluntary, and cynical horror. We’re at a toll of 320 dead, more than a thousand wounded and, according to a doctor at Shifa, 60% of these are destined to die in the next few hours or days, after a prolonged agony.There are many missing, and for the last two days despairing wives have been searching for their husbands or children in hospitals, often to no avail.
The morgue is a macabre spectacle. A nurse told me that after hours of searching, a Palestinian woman recognised her husband from his amputated hand. All that’s left of her husband, and the wedding band on her finger from the eternal love they had sworn one another. Out of a house inhabited by two families, very little has remained of their bodies. They showed their relatives half of one bust and three legs.
Right now, one of our Free Gaza Movement boats is leaving the port in Larnaca, Cyprus. I spoke to my friends on board. They’ve heroically amassed medicine and steeped it everywhere in the boat. It should reach the port of Gaza tomorrow around 8:00 AM. Here’s to hoping that the port will still exist after another night of endless bombing. I’ll be in touch with them for the entire night. Please, someone stop this nightmare.
Choosing to remain silent means somehow lending support to the genocide unfolding right now. Shout out your indignation, in every capital of the “civilised” world, in every city, in every square, covering our own screams of pain and terror. A slice of humanity is dying in pitiful in a useless listening.
Translated from Il Manifesto
To view original article, published by Il Manifesto on the 29th December, click here
6:05 PM, Marna house, Gaza city
An acrid smell of sulphur fills the air while the sky is shaken by earth-shattering rumbles. My ears are now deaf to the explosions while my eyes are all out of tears from all the corpses. I stand in front of Al Shifa hospital, Gaza’s main hospital, and we’ve just received Israel’s terrible threat that they intend to bomb its under construction wing. This would be nothing new, as Wea’m hospital was bombed just yesterday, along with a medicine warehouse in Rafah, the Islamic university, which was also destroyed, along with various mosques scattered along the Strip. Not to mention many CIVILIAN structures.
Apparently, they can no longer find “sensible” targets, the air force and the navy is killing time targeting places of worship, schools and hospitals. It’s another 9/11 every single hour, every minute around here, and tomorrow is always a new day of mourning, always identical to the previous one. You notice the helicopters and airplanes constantly overhead, you see a flash, but you’re already a goner and it’s too late to take flight. There are no bunkers against the bombs in the Strip and no place is really safe. I can’t contact my friends in Rafah, not even those who live North of Gaza City, hopefully because the phone lines are overloaded. Hopefully. I haven’t slept in 60 hours, and same goes for every Gazan.
Yesterday three other ISM members and I spent the entire night at the al Awda hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp. We were there because we were fearing the much dreaded ground raid that never happened. But the Israeli tanks are posted all along the Strip’s border, and their corpse-hungry creaks will apparently form a funeral march tonight. Around 11:30 PM a bomb fell about 800 metres from the hospital, the shock wave blow several windows apart, injuring the injured. An ambulance arrived, then they blew up a mosque, thankfully empty at that time. Unfortunately, though it actually has nothing to do with bad luck but with the criminal and terroristic will to massacre civilians, the Israeli bomb has also struck the building adjacent to the mosque, which was also destroyed. We watched as the tiny bodies of six little sisters were pulled out of the rubble – five are dead, one is in life-threatening conditions. They laid the little girls out on the blackened asphalt, and they looked like broken dolls, disposed of as they were no longer usable.
This wasn’t a mistake, but a voluntary, and cynical horror. We’re at a toll of 320 dead, more than a thousand wounded and, according to a doctor at Shifa, 60% of these are destined to die in the next few hours or days, after a prolonged agony.There are many missing, and for the last two days despairing wives have been searching for their husbands or children in hospitals, often to no avail.
The morgue is a macabre spectacle. A nurse told me that after hours of searching, a Palestinian woman recognised her husband from his amputated hand. All that’s left of her husband, and the wedding band on her finger from the eternal love they had sworn one another. Out of a house inhabited by two families, very little has remained of their bodies. They showed their relatives half of one bust and three legs.
Right now, one of our Free Gaza Movement boats is leaving the port in Larnaca, Cyprus. I spoke to my friends on board. They’ve heroically amassed medicine and steeped it everywhere in the boat. It should reach the port of Gaza tomorrow around 8:00 AM. Here’s to hoping that the port will still exist after another night of endless bombing. I’ll be in touch with them for the entire night. Please, someone stop this nightmare.
Choosing to remain silent means somehow lending support to the genocide unfolding right now. Shout out your indignation, in every capital of the “civilised” world, in every city, in every square, covering our own screams of pain and terror. A slice of humanity is dying in pitiful in a useless listening.
Il Manifesto: The angel factories Posted on: January 1, 2009 | By Vittorio Arrigoni
Translated from Il Manifesto
To view original article, published by Il Manifesto on the 30th December 2008, click here
Jabilia, Bet Hanun, Rafah, Gaza City are the legs of the journey in my personal map of hell. Whatever the press releases from the summit of the Israeli military may say, recited parrot-style all over Europe and the US via the disinformation experts, in the last few days I’ve been an eye witness to the bombing of mosques, schools, universities, hospitals, markets and many, many civilian buildings.
The medical director at Al Shifa hospital has confirmed he received calls from members of the IDF, the Israeli Army, ordering him to evacuate the hospital, or else face being showered by missiles. But they didn’t let the Army intimidate them.
I should be sleeping at the port (though we haven’t shut our eyes once in Gaza for at least 4 days), but it’s being constantly bombed at night. You no longer hear the sirens of ambulances in a mad chase, simply because there isn’t a living soul left at the port or its environs. Everyone is dead, and it feels like treading a cemetery in the aftermath of an earthquake.
The situation is really that of an unnatural catastrophe, a hate-fuelled and cynical upheaval catapulted onto the people of Gaza like molten lead, tearing human bodies apart. Contrarily to their predictions, it unites all Palestinians, brought together and turned into a sole entity. These are people who may not even have greeted one another until recently, on account of belonging to opposing factions.
When the bombs shower like rain down from the sky, from a height of ten thousand metres you can be sure they make no distinction between a hamas or fatah banner hanging from your window sill. They’re no less explosive even when you’re Italian. There’s no such thing as a surgically precise military operation. When the Air Force and the Navy start bombing, the only surgical operations are those tackled by the doctors, unhesitatingly amputating limbs reduced to a pulp, even though those same arms and legs may have been saved. There’s no time, you have to run, and the time used to treat a seriously injured limb may spell death for the next wounded patient in line awaiting a transfusion. At Al Shifa hospital 600 inpatients are in serious conditions, with only 29 breathing machines.
They’re short of everything, especially experienced staff. For this exact reason, tired as we were (not so much by the sleepless nights as by the apathy and compliance of Western governments, at all effects accomplices of Israel’s crimes), we decided that one of our Free Gaza Movement boats would leave the port of Larnaca, Cyprus last night, carrying three tons of medicine and medical staff. I waited for them in vain – they ought to have docked the boat at 8 AM this morning. Instead, they were intercepted by 11 Israeli war ships at 90 nautical miles from Gaza. They tried to sink them in full international waters. They rammed into them three times, producing an engine failure and a leak in the hull. By pure chance the crew and passengers are still alive, and have managed to dock the boat at a Lebanese port.
Feeling increasingly frustrated by the “civilised” world’s deafening silence, my friends will make a second attempt soon. They’ve in fact unloaded the medicine from our damaged boat, the Dignity, and filled another boat ready for departure, heading straight to Gaza.
We’re certain that the criminal will of Israel, in trampling all over human rights and international law, will never be as strong as our determination in the defense of human rights.
Many journalists interviewing me ask me about the humanitarian situation of Palestinians in Gaza, as if the problem amounted just to food, water, electricity and fuel shortages, rather than the matter being about who’s the actual cause of all this, by obstructing the borders, bombing the water plant or electric power stations.
There are endless queues at the few bakeries with their shutters still semi-open; they have 40 or 50 people scuffling to grab the last chunk of bread. One of the bakers, Ahmed, is a friend of mine, and he’s told me about his greatest fears of the last few days. He dreads the bakeries being mobbed more than the bombs. Brawls have already exploded in front of his shop. The police were around to keep public order until recently, especially in front of bakeries, but you won’t see a single uniformed policeman in all of Gaza now. Some are in hiding at the moment. The others are all buried under two metres of earth, including some of my friends.
Another massacre of children in Jabilia: two little brothers, were struck by an Israeli bomb while driving a donkey-drawn cart in the as-Sekka street in Jabalia.
Mohammad Rujailah, a partner in the ISM, took a photo which is more than just a still image: it’s a history, the revelation of the tragedy we’re intensely consumed by every minute, counting every hour while losing friends, brothers, relatives. Tanks, fighter planes, drones, Apache helicopters, the world’s largest and fiercest army attacking a people who use donkeys as their main means of transportation, just like in Jesus Christ’s time:
According to Al Mizan, a human rights monitoring centre, while I write 55 children are involved in bombings, 20 are being killed and 40 are being seriously injured.
Israel has turned the Palestinian hospitals and morgues into angel factories, not realising just how much hatred they are generating in Palestine and the rest of the world.
The angel factories are churning angels out at the rate of a non-stop production line tonight as well, I can tell from the rumbles of explosions I hear outside my window.
Those tiny dismembered and amputated bodies, those lives snuffed out before they could even blossom, will be a recurrent nightmare for the rest of my life. If I can still find the strength to talk about their end it’s only because I want to bring justice to those who no longer have a voice, those who’ve never had a hint of a voice, perhaps for the benefit of those who’ve never had any ears.
Stay human
Vittorio Arrigoni
Translated from Il Manifesto
To view original article, published by Il Manifesto on the 30th December 2008, click here
Jabilia, Bet Hanun, Rafah, Gaza City are the legs of the journey in my personal map of hell. Whatever the press releases from the summit of the Israeli military may say, recited parrot-style all over Europe and the US via the disinformation experts, in the last few days I’ve been an eye witness to the bombing of mosques, schools, universities, hospitals, markets and many, many civilian buildings.
The medical director at Al Shifa hospital has confirmed he received calls from members of the IDF, the Israeli Army, ordering him to evacuate the hospital, or else face being showered by missiles. But they didn’t let the Army intimidate them.
I should be sleeping at the port (though we haven’t shut our eyes once in Gaza for at least 4 days), but it’s being constantly bombed at night. You no longer hear the sirens of ambulances in a mad chase, simply because there isn’t a living soul left at the port or its environs. Everyone is dead, and it feels like treading a cemetery in the aftermath of an earthquake.
The situation is really that of an unnatural catastrophe, a hate-fuelled and cynical upheaval catapulted onto the people of Gaza like molten lead, tearing human bodies apart. Contrarily to their predictions, it unites all Palestinians, brought together and turned into a sole entity. These are people who may not even have greeted one another until recently, on account of belonging to opposing factions.
When the bombs shower like rain down from the sky, from a height of ten thousand metres you can be sure they make no distinction between a hamas or fatah banner hanging from your window sill. They’re no less explosive even when you’re Italian. There’s no such thing as a surgically precise military operation. When the Air Force and the Navy start bombing, the only surgical operations are those tackled by the doctors, unhesitatingly amputating limbs reduced to a pulp, even though those same arms and legs may have been saved. There’s no time, you have to run, and the time used to treat a seriously injured limb may spell death for the next wounded patient in line awaiting a transfusion. At Al Shifa hospital 600 inpatients are in serious conditions, with only 29 breathing machines.
They’re short of everything, especially experienced staff. For this exact reason, tired as we were (not so much by the sleepless nights as by the apathy and compliance of Western governments, at all effects accomplices of Israel’s crimes), we decided that one of our Free Gaza Movement boats would leave the port of Larnaca, Cyprus last night, carrying three tons of medicine and medical staff. I waited for them in vain – they ought to have docked the boat at 8 AM this morning. Instead, they were intercepted by 11 Israeli war ships at 90 nautical miles from Gaza. They tried to sink them in full international waters. They rammed into them three times, producing an engine failure and a leak in the hull. By pure chance the crew and passengers are still alive, and have managed to dock the boat at a Lebanese port.
Feeling increasingly frustrated by the “civilised” world’s deafening silence, my friends will make a second attempt soon. They’ve in fact unloaded the medicine from our damaged boat, the Dignity, and filled another boat ready for departure, heading straight to Gaza.
We’re certain that the criminal will of Israel, in trampling all over human rights and international law, will never be as strong as our determination in the defense of human rights.
Many journalists interviewing me ask me about the humanitarian situation of Palestinians in Gaza, as if the problem amounted just to food, water, electricity and fuel shortages, rather than the matter being about who’s the actual cause of all this, by obstructing the borders, bombing the water plant or electric power stations.
There are endless queues at the few bakeries with their shutters still semi-open; they have 40 or 50 people scuffling to grab the last chunk of bread. One of the bakers, Ahmed, is a friend of mine, and he’s told me about his greatest fears of the last few days. He dreads the bakeries being mobbed more than the bombs. Brawls have already exploded in front of his shop. The police were around to keep public order until recently, especially in front of bakeries, but you won’t see a single uniformed policeman in all of Gaza now. Some are in hiding at the moment. The others are all buried under two metres of earth, including some of my friends.
Another massacre of children in Jabilia: two little brothers, were struck by an Israeli bomb while driving a donkey-drawn cart in the as-Sekka street in Jabalia.
Mohammad Rujailah, a partner in the ISM, took a photo which is more than just a still image: it’s a history, the revelation of the tragedy we’re intensely consumed by every minute, counting every hour while losing friends, brothers, relatives. Tanks, fighter planes, drones, Apache helicopters, the world’s largest and fiercest army attacking a people who use donkeys as their main means of transportation, just like in Jesus Christ’s time:
According to Al Mizan, a human rights monitoring centre, while I write 55 children are involved in bombings, 20 are being killed and 40 are being seriously injured.
Israel has turned the Palestinian hospitals and morgues into angel factories, not realising just how much hatred they are generating in Palestine and the rest of the world.
The angel factories are churning angels out at the rate of a non-stop production line tonight as well, I can tell from the rumbles of explosions I hear outside my window.
Those tiny dismembered and amputated bodies, those lives snuffed out before they could even blossom, will be a recurrent nightmare for the rest of my life. If I can still find the strength to talk about their end it’s only because I want to bring justice to those who no longer have a voice, those who’ve never had a hint of a voice, perhaps for the benefit of those who’ve never had any ears.
Stay human
Vittorio Arrigoni
New Year’s Day: Riding with ambulances from tonight
Ambulances based in Al Quds hospital as Dispatch building holds unexploded missile
Last night E and I accompanied Dr Halid on the dark walk from Al Shifa hospital (his day shift) to Al Quds hospital (his night shift); he didn’t expect to find a taxi to take us, as our destination had a lot of government buildings which had recieved many strikes. His route attempted to avoid the main targets. “Let’s go this way to avoid the Jawizat,” Dr H said. “Where exactly was that?” E asked. “Oh well, let’s go past it so you can see it,” he offered, Arabic hospitality to guests immediately outweighing any concerns of being underneath a missile. The Jawizat was one of the police academies that were having a training day, and between 45-50 young men were killed there in the first ten minutes of attacks.
Last night E and I accompanied Dr Halid on the dark walk from Al Shifa hospital (his day shift) to Al Quds hospital (his night shift); he didn’t expect to find a taxi to take us, as our destination had a lot of government buildings which had recieved many strikes. His route attempted to avoid the main targets. “Let’s go this way to avoid the Jawizat,” Dr H said. “Where exactly was that?” E asked. “Oh well, let’s go past it so you can see it,” he offered, Arabic hospitality to guests immediately outweighing any concerns of being underneath a missile. The Jawizat was one of the police academies that were having a training day, and between 45-50 young men were killed there in the first ten minutes of attacks.
AlQuds Hospital, Gaza City
At Al Quds hospital we met the Red Crescent Ambulance folks, who have set up their operations room in a hospital office. Round the corner, they have a perfectly good Red Crescent Ambulance Operations Centre, but it has an unexploded missile in it, so it is hard to tell how much longer it will remain perfectly good for. I get the impression that whoever might once have been the person to ring to defuse unexploded missiles probably is no longer alive after all the police station strikes. |
The other buildings that are part of the Red Crescent hospital complex are a Social and Cultural Centre also funded by them, with an emergency section on the basement level. The middle building has various pieces of it falling off. And all of this is a result of there being – last week, anyway – another police station, the Muqa’ii, just a little further along in this line of buildings. Now it is reduced to rubble, again in the initial air strikes on Saturday December 27th. S from the hospital told us about some of the supermarket customers across the road from it, killed as a result. “A 17 year old patient of ours had his father visiting. The father had gone to the supermarket to buy some things for his son. He was killed. And there were children just let out from Zahwa School. I found two girls, aged 9 and 12. One died quickly of abdominal injuries. The other was missing part of her head and shoulder when I found her. “
We are here to arrange for internationals to ride with Red Crescent Ambulances (along with government ambulances and any other relevant medical vehicles) throughout the Gaza strip. Everyone we have spoken to first reinforces how dangerous this work is, and then gratefully accepts; in the hope an international presence will protect the medical workers whom the Geneva Convention ought to be strong enough to protect, but isn’t. Two are dead in the last days. Israel seems to be following a two-strike pattern also – bombing a particular location, then hitting again during the attempt to rescue the trapped and injured.
After the details are sorted out, our new colleagues insist it is too dangerous to walk or drive back to our home, and provide us with tea, dinner, and a comfortable room to ourselves for the night Its windows are broken, but so are pretty much all the windows in Gaza city, including our apartment building after bombing today. And there are lots of blankets. E and I feel very taken care of, as we always do in Palestine. What feels like extremely close rocket strikes begin just after I get into bed, and the door is pushed out of its frame by the impact. The staff come to see if I am frightened, and to karate kick the door back into place.
But the same thing happens again shortly after, and throughout the night. In the early hours, V texts from the seaside apartment to say the rockets are coming very close, just 100 metres off, and he is worried about the Kabaritis. But we all survive into the first morning of 2009. The nearby Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education turn out to be not so lucky, and what was left of the Ministry of the Interior also received more strikes. Rafah was particularly hard hit. Injuries have exceeded 2000 now, and deaths 400.
Today I went again to visit the Kabaritis, who spent last night altogether in their central room, with the most walls around them, not sleeping. They are increasingly exhausted. R tells me that as she feared, the money exchange over which her parents live was also attacked, but her parents are ok. With binnoculars, from their front window onto the sea, we can just see the Israeli ships that have been firing shells in our direction for several days now. Later, at the Ramatan offices where we give a press conference about riding with the ambulances, I take advantage of the broken window on the 9th floor to watch the smoke rise near the shore after each of the strange multiple booms of the shells from the sea. From here I can see six Israeli ships clearly. It is a beautiful, sunny day.
We are here to arrange for internationals to ride with Red Crescent Ambulances (along with government ambulances and any other relevant medical vehicles) throughout the Gaza strip. Everyone we have spoken to first reinforces how dangerous this work is, and then gratefully accepts; in the hope an international presence will protect the medical workers whom the Geneva Convention ought to be strong enough to protect, but isn’t. Two are dead in the last days. Israel seems to be following a two-strike pattern also – bombing a particular location, then hitting again during the attempt to rescue the trapped and injured.
After the details are sorted out, our new colleagues insist it is too dangerous to walk or drive back to our home, and provide us with tea, dinner, and a comfortable room to ourselves for the night Its windows are broken, but so are pretty much all the windows in Gaza city, including our apartment building after bombing today. And there are lots of blankets. E and I feel very taken care of, as we always do in Palestine. What feels like extremely close rocket strikes begin just after I get into bed, and the door is pushed out of its frame by the impact. The staff come to see if I am frightened, and to karate kick the door back into place.
But the same thing happens again shortly after, and throughout the night. In the early hours, V texts from the seaside apartment to say the rockets are coming very close, just 100 metres off, and he is worried about the Kabaritis. But we all survive into the first morning of 2009. The nearby Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education turn out to be not so lucky, and what was left of the Ministry of the Interior also received more strikes. Rafah was particularly hard hit. Injuries have exceeded 2000 now, and deaths 400.
Today I went again to visit the Kabaritis, who spent last night altogether in their central room, with the most walls around them, not sleeping. They are increasingly exhausted. R tells me that as she feared, the money exchange over which her parents live was also attacked, but her parents are ok. With binnoculars, from their front window onto the sea, we can just see the Israeli ships that have been firing shells in our direction for several days now. Later, at the Ramatan offices where we give a press conference about riding with the ambulances, I take advantage of the broken window on the 9th floor to watch the smoke rise near the shore after each of the strange multiple booms of the shells from the sea. From here I can see six Israeli ships clearly. It is a beautiful, sunny day.
GAZA: 1 January
Gaza residents are facing serious shortages of basic necessities
I could barely sleep last night due to the continuous explosions - they seem to be hitting every part of the Gaza Strip.
Despite the dangers, Islamic Relief is increasing its humanitarian work - we have no choice. This morning we delivered four trucks of food to the main Shifa hospital.
Even as we were delivering the food, newly injured people were arriving at the hospital. I wonder if the doctors are having any rest at all - it seems the wounded just keep on coming with no pause.
The food aid included flour, rice, beans, tinned meat and fish. Islamic Relief also provided hospital stores with four large trucks filled with food supplies. It was desperately needed. The supplies are enough for the Gaza Strip hospitals for more than a month.
Since the bombing started six days ago, people are becoming more and more desperate. I've met families who are resorting to boiling weeds that they've dug out from the ground in order to feed their families.
People are queuing up to an hour to get bread rations. The long queues are dangerous - bombs could fall at any time and being out in the open is the worst place to be.
The weather is getting colder and this is another danger for Gazans. Islamic Relief has already distributed blankets. We distributed 400 today to the injured at Shifa hospital to take home with them.
Vulnerable children
Due to the density of people in Gaza, homes are built very close to government buildings so when bombs are dropped, homes are damaged too.
Many people are living without windows or doors, shattered by the force of the bombs. People are worried about the structures of their homes as walls have caved in. Some people are trying to replace the broken glass with nylon. But nylon, like most things in Gaza, is in short supply and not many people can afford to buy it.
Most people do not have gas, and electricity is limited. There are long periods of time when Gaza has no electricity.
People are trying to keep themselves warm by using extra blankets. Many people have started to burn wood to cook food - it also helps to keep them warm. Others are burning paper from exercise books to cook tea on.
As usual, it is the vulnerable who suffer the most, and it's the children I fear for - they are hungry, tired, scared and cold. It is not easy to blank out the sounds of screaming F-16s or bombs being dropped for an adult, but more so for children.
As aid workers, we know we are taking big risks leaving our homes in the morning and going to work but we have no choice as we can't stand by and watch our people suffering, and so we keep going.
The Islamic Relief staff are trying their best to do what they can. They are Gazans like the rest of the people and we all feel scared. But at the same time we know that if we do not go out and help our fellow Gazans then who will?
It's the new year, but for Gazans it feels like 2008 never ended.
I could barely sleep last night due to the continuous explosions - they seem to be hitting every part of the Gaza Strip.
Despite the dangers, Islamic Relief is increasing its humanitarian work - we have no choice. This morning we delivered four trucks of food to the main Shifa hospital.
Even as we were delivering the food, newly injured people were arriving at the hospital. I wonder if the doctors are having any rest at all - it seems the wounded just keep on coming with no pause.
The food aid included flour, rice, beans, tinned meat and fish. Islamic Relief also provided hospital stores with four large trucks filled with food supplies. It was desperately needed. The supplies are enough for the Gaza Strip hospitals for more than a month.
Since the bombing started six days ago, people are becoming more and more desperate. I've met families who are resorting to boiling weeds that they've dug out from the ground in order to feed their families.
People are queuing up to an hour to get bread rations. The long queues are dangerous - bombs could fall at any time and being out in the open is the worst place to be.
The weather is getting colder and this is another danger for Gazans. Islamic Relief has already distributed blankets. We distributed 400 today to the injured at Shifa hospital to take home with them.
Vulnerable children
Due to the density of people in Gaza, homes are built very close to government buildings so when bombs are dropped, homes are damaged too.
Many people are living without windows or doors, shattered by the force of the bombs. People are worried about the structures of their homes as walls have caved in. Some people are trying to replace the broken glass with nylon. But nylon, like most things in Gaza, is in short supply and not many people can afford to buy it.
Most people do not have gas, and electricity is limited. There are long periods of time when Gaza has no electricity.
People are trying to keep themselves warm by using extra blankets. Many people have started to burn wood to cook food - it also helps to keep them warm. Others are burning paper from exercise books to cook tea on.
As usual, it is the vulnerable who suffer the most, and it's the children I fear for - they are hungry, tired, scared and cold. It is not easy to blank out the sounds of screaming F-16s or bombs being dropped for an adult, but more so for children.
As aid workers, we know we are taking big risks leaving our homes in the morning and going to work but we have no choice as we can't stand by and watch our people suffering, and so we keep going.
The Islamic Relief staff are trying their best to do what they can. They are Gazans like the rest of the people and we all feel scared. But at the same time we know that if we do not go out and help our fellow Gazans then who will?
It's the new year, but for Gazans it feels like 2008 never ended.
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