GAZA — December 27, 2008
Dec 28th, 2008 by admin
Dear friends, please find below an eyewitness report by Ewa Jasiewicz from the Free Gaza Movement on Israel’s bombing of Gaza and the devastation caused. Ewa’s article has also been published on Palestine Chronicle www.palestinechronicle.com
The current casualty toll is now 230 dead and more than 700 injured (about half critically).
The Israeli airstrikes, which saw 100 tonnes of bombs dropped across the region took place at 11.30 am (Palestinian time) just as thousands of Palestinian school children were breaking from school to go home, resulting in many of them being killed or seriously injured.
Journalists and human rights activists on the scene at Gaza Hospital are reporting gruesome scenes; shocked families pick through body parts to identify loved ones - amputated bodies are strewn throughout hallways because morgues in the city can no longer accommodate the dead.
Israel has declared Gaza a “special military zone”. According to the Palestinian news agency, Maan News: “The classification is one degree below a declaration of total war against an enemy state”.
Israel in particular sought to target Palestinian police stations, justifying their attacks and the deaths of civilians by blaming Palestinians for having police and military bases in amongst residental/civilian areas. However, as Ali Abunimah, from Electronic Intifada has pointed out, Palestinian police stations like police stations all over the world [including Israel] are located in civilian areas.
The Israeli media are also reporting that this is the largest number of Palestinians killed in a Israeli military offensive since 1967.
“We lack everything, we lack medical equipment, we lack anaesthesia, we lack bandages, we lack fuel for ambulance vehicles, we lack medicine, everything,” cried Muawiyah Hassanein, head of ’s Ambulance and Emergency department.
“What happened was unexpected and our hospitals were neither ready nor prepared to receive such huge numbers of casualties,” Hassanein told Reuters.
Palestinians called it the “Massacre of the Black Saturday.” The codename for the operation was “Solid Lead.”
Most of the police were killed in two Israeli attacks against security headquarters in Gaza City where graduation ceremonies were under way outdoors, evidence that Hamas was caught totally by surprise.
As morgues ran out of space, many of the bodies were moved into mosques in the city where people arrived to establish the identities of the dead. Many fell unconscious to the ground after they confirmed the identity of loved ones.
Graves were also in short supply. Some families had to return their dead to hospital after finding no room to bury them.
As night fell, the roar of Israeli planes continued overhead, threatening a further escalation as militants launched dozens of rocket attacks into Israeli territories bordering Gaza. A fearful people braced for more violence.
“Eventually they can retake the Gaza Strip, what else they can do? But will that solve the problem? Of course not,” said Gaza teacher Ahmed Abu Baha.
Some of my previous posts about Israel and Palestine:
Gaza — the People Speak
We Overcame Our Fear
Four Years Ago Today — Remembering Rachel Corrie
Bat Shalom — Israeli Women Call for Peace
Earth to Everybody: Israel Killing Civilians Including Children
Israeli Voices on the Siege of Gaza: But What Would You Do?
Heart
It’s beyond imagination. But I can’t see where one side is any better than the other. What Israel does one month, Palestine does the next. Then, there is Iran, and Syria, and Iraq. I’m not ignoring it, I just can’t figure out what to do, and certainly can’t take sides. I wonder what Obama will do.
We have a growing Muslim and Arab population here and they are becoming more vocal since the scathing stories about wrongly jailed (Guantanamo and Iraq) Canadian citizen Arabs and Muslims.
During the year’s of his long and unlawful detention where he was denied civil rights and tortured, Arar’s wife kept up a tireless fight for his freedom, never letting it out of the media and Canadian’s sight. She deserves an Order of Canada.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/175407
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/175407
My take on this is that it’s always males who are doing these things. That’s the common element.
Every day another atrocity. Now it’s women, children, and the elderly murdered and mutilated in the Congo. Tomorrow - what?
I’ve just been watching the headlines with a growing sense of “WTF?” I can’t anywhere find any reason for why they began bombing them other than “Well, the cease fire agreement had ended.”
No kidding, all of you women.
I came across Eumelia’s blog and really liked what she had to say. She is Israeli and lives in Israel. She is only 23.
http://eumelia.livejournal.com/375442.html
If women were in charge…
I see these pictures of the Palestinian people and I keep thinking of the line from this sermon I always listen to of MLK’s–an anti-Vietnam war sermon –but I keep thinking of it for now, and for the Palestinian people–
“… But there will be no meaningful solution, until some attempt is made to know these people, and hear their broken cry.”
I thought some might appreciate this letter, from Jewish Voice for Peace, at this link:
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_1146.shtml
Heart,
THANK YOU for your numerous posts on this topic. It has been on my mind all weekend, especially today. I am reminded of Rachel Corrie’s words, a true Amerikkkan shero: “This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world.”
War has to stop. How it can be justified, ever, I do not know.
Well yes, it is always men doing all the killing all the time. I simply think it’s time for women to get together and keep the men out of the war process entirely. I don’t think men are capable of governing anything in that part of the world. Why not try something completely different?
If women were in charge…
Golda Meir WAS in charge. Does anyone think things were better then?
Tei Tua, one woman holding office, no matter high or influential the office, does not equal women being in charge. It just equals one woman holding an office in a male supremacist system and context.
I was just reading something along these lines today. I’m going to post it in its own post.
“(O)ne woman holding office, no matter (how) high or influential the office, does not equal women being in charge. It just equals one woman holding an office in a male supremacist system and context.”
Note to self: Must embroider pillow.
Yes, it is about women in a context of diverse leadership — not just one woman head of state while the entire structure is male lead.
I think this is a common error, people will say “well what about Golda, what about Maggie Thatcher…?” and really, both these leaders had an almost all male government — in the British sense of the word.
We don’t have a country created entirely by women yet, but I believe we could found one. Or maybe incredible numbers of women could move to a small city, and in time take it over. We have small women’s land communities, but nothing like this yet. I see it as eminently possible. And I think we could all start thinking about a place where every abused woman would have aslylum as a starter. I thought just today of a 5000 woman police force in Los Angeles that would specialize in hunting down rapists and dealing with abusive/battering men. Imagine, 5000 women specially trained just to deal with these two issues! Now that would be a whale of a mayoral campaign issue, wouldn’t it?!
I had some hopes that Tzipi Livni might be more than just another woman holding an office in the same old system, but it appears this offensive against Gaza is seen, and perhaps planned, as boosting her chances to win the upcoming election. Speaking to the Knesset, Defense Minister Ehud Barak recalled what Obama said during his visit in July,
So, Mr. Barak went on,
I hope Mr. Barak has misinterpreted Mr. Obama, but Obama did create an awkward position for himself if he did want to put any pressure on Israel, and so far, it appears he does not. As usual, Israel claims this is self-defense, it had no choice. That is nonsense that would never stand if Israel could not count on its friends in USA to parrot it.