Daily Gaza: "We Waited To Be Bombed"

Published January 14, 2009 @ 01:09AM PT

[Recent Scenes from Gaza - Footage from Al Jazeera]

Fighting in Gaza continued today, with Israeli troops pushing deeper in Gaza City.

To date, 971 Palestinians have been killed, including 311 children and 76 women. On the Israeli side, four civilians and nine soldiers have died. The UN reports that two of their staff and four of their civilian contractors have been killed while on duty, with another two staff killed off-duty.

The best reports I've read from the ground have come from Jawad Harb, who works for CARE in Gaza. Below is Harb's most recent blog post, from Tuesday:

"The leaflets came yesterday, telling us our neighbourhood would be attacked. The whole population of the area is terrified. We have nowhere to go. My neighbour checked at the UNRWA shelter but it was full. Overflowing. There is nowhere to go. We waited to be bombed.

The bombs came today. It was terrifying. We have nowhere to run. There was an air strike every five minutes. Thick black smoke 100m-150m away from us. People were scared, ran outside of their houses and gathered together in the street. 300-350 people in the street. The street was the safest place. If our house is bombed, we'll get trapped and die like the people we saw on television.

My children have seen the dead bodies of children on television. They cry, they are crying now, they are terrified. When will this end? There was screaming. It is dark and cold but most of us are still outside. My family is outside next to the house. We are terrified to go inside.

It is quiet for 20 minutes now but we don’t know if it will start again. What if it is just a short break? We can’t take the risk. My children are shivering. It is getting so cold. Some neighbours went back inside, but they are staying on the first floor, next to the door so they can run outside. We don’t know what will come next. This is the closest it has come to our house. The neighbourhood next to ours was bombed. What do we do? We don’t know. We have nowhere to go. Nowhere to go."

To read more of Harb's reports, see CARE's Notes from the Field.

Finally, to round out today's dose of Gaza misery - Save the Children estimates that the population of Gaza has received only one-eight of the food and medical supplies needed since December 27th. According to Save the Children:

"The Israeli government said that by the morning of 12 January, it had allowed 900 aid trucks to cross into Gaza.

According to our estimates at least 7,200 trucks should have been allowed through to ensure the population had the bare minimum of food, fuel and medicine."

For the most recent Field Update from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, see here.

For the most recent UN map showing the situation in Gaza, see here. (Aid Worker Daily also has an excellent roundup of other Gaza maps.)

For a fascinating discussion of International Humanitarian Law - including violations by both Israel and Hamas - see this recent ODI post by Sorcha O'Callaghan and Sara Pavanello.

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Comments (5)

In old times the power of God used to come in holy books, Ten Commandments. Now the power of G-d/Israel/US comes in the form of cluster bombs, phosphorous bombs, F-15, F-16. Seeing Gaza as it burns is a site to see what G-d is doing these days. I am sure all of us are impressed with the power and force of today's G-d/Israel.

Posted by Sami Jamil Jadallah on 01/14/2009 @ 04:47AM PT
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Would you have liked more Israelis to be killed? I tire of the comparison between the number of deaths. Israel has installed alert systems and shelters to protect its civilian population. Why don't you ask Hamas to hide in their tunnels, or at least use them to smuggle more food and medical supplies rather than weapons?

While at it, where was everyone when it was Israelis killed in the dozens and hundreds by Hamas terrorists shooting and exploding in buses and restaurants and markets... The uproar only came when Israel struck back in operation "Defense Wall" and built an actual wall. And guess what, terror attacks from the West Bank have been drastically minimized since then... And I believe the situation for Palestinians in the West Bank is better as well, not being ruled by a fanatical organization dedicated to destroying Israel by terrorism.

I can only hope this ends soon...

Posted by Uriah Eisenstein on 01/14/2009 @ 06:04AM PT
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Just to clarify, I'd like to re-post something I wrote at the start of this conflict:

My sympathies aren't with the Israeli Government, or Hamas, both of whom seem content to continue their dances with the devil. There are approximately 1.4 million people in Gaza, who stand to suffer a great deal over the coming days, even more than they already have; Israeli citizens in southern Israel will also live under increased threat of attack. For all their sakes, I just pray that this ends soon.

Posted by Michael Bear on 01/14/2009 @ 08:54AM PT
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The Israeli governement WARNS of upcoming attacks whilst homicide bombers, those that lob rockets into Israel, etc. never issue a warning. In addition, Hamas was voted into power by the "Palestinians".

This will end when people STOP messing with Israel. Search Facebook, Xanga, etc. Hell, search the web...there are many blogs, postings, etc. that say horrifying thigs like "Throw Jews Into the Sea". However, you will not find anywhere near the amount of things that say it the otherway around".

Posted by John Knight on 01/15/2009 @ 06:29AM PT
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Iran-backed Hamas attacked Israeli forces from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound today, prompting Israeli troops to fire back. Hamas attacked during the daily humanitarian aid ceasefire instituted by Israel to ensure that Palestinian civilians receive food, medicine and other necessities.

Anyone concerned about the humanitarian crisis facing the jihadi population of Gaza should write the UN and demand it cease facilitating terrorism against Israel.

UNWRA's history of facilitation terrorism includes:

• Jan. 6, 2009 -- IDF forces came under mortar attack from within the UNRWA-run al-Fakhora school in Jabalya. Imad Abu Iskar and Hassan Abu Iskar, two senior Hamas rocket operatives, were inside.

• On Oct. 29, 2007 -- terrorists in Beit Hanoun, Gaza used an UNWRA school to launch mortars into Israel. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon deplored the attack and asked UNRWA to conduct a full investigation.

• In May 2008 -- Awad al-Qiq, an Islamic Jihad rocket engineer moonlighted as a science teacher and deputy headmaster at the Rafah Prep Boys School run by UNRWA, and was killed supervising a factory assembling rockets and other weapons near the school.

• Nahed Rashid Ahmed Attallah, UNRWA's Director of Food Supplies for Gaza, admitted to using his UN vehicle on multiple occasions during the summer of 2002 to transport arms, explosives, and activists from the Popular Resistance Committee to carry out terrorist attacks. Attallah also confessed to contacting members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Syria "in order to obtain money for transferring arms to the Gaza Strip as assistance for the PRC."

• Armed Palestinians have been filmed repeatedly using UNRWA ambulances to transport
terrorists in Gaza.

• 7 UNRWA employees have been convicted of terrorism against Israel since 2001.

• UNWRA's former Commissioner-General Peter Hansen admitted the agency employs Hamas and other terrorists

• On April 25, 2007 the UNRWA representative in New York, Andrew Whitley, revealed to congressional staff that UNRWA provided cash assistance to families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

• According to a November 2003 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report: "During the first 6 months of 2003, assailants occupied or attacked UNRWA facilities on nine occasions.

• Alaa Muhammad Ali Hassan, a Tanzim member affiliated with Fatah, confessed during he carried out a sniper shooting from an UNRWA school in al-Ayn. He also admitted that bombs intended for terrorist attacks were being manufactured inside the UNRWA school.

• In 1982, President Reagan accused UNRWA of allowing its Lebanese camps to become armed bastions of the PLO. UNRWA admitted its camps had been militarized. The Security Council refuses to enfoce UNSCR 1208 in the Palestinian territories

Yesterday, Hamas fired a mortar shell into Israel containing white phosphorous. The shell landed in a field near the Israeli town of Sderot. The deliberate use of white phosphorous against civilians is prohibited by international law. Hamas and all Arab terrorist groups direct their rocket and mortar fire at Israeli population centers in violation of international law.

Palestinian terrorists fired approximately 23 rockets at Israel today. One fell in the city of Beersheba, injuring seven people, including a young boy. The cities of G’dera, Ofakim and Sderot were also hit by the rocket fire.

Since December 27th, the beginning of Israel’s defensive operation in Gaza, Gaza terrorists have fired more than 650 rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians.

If you care about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, write to UN President, Ban Ki Moon and demand the UN stop participating in and facilitating terrorism in Gaza.

Posted by Samuel Abady on 01/15/2009 @ 01:52PM PT
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Michael has worked for NGOs in Afghanistan, across east and central Africa, and Iraq. Prior to going overseas, he worked on a project providing assistance to the United Nations on the application of International Humanitarian Law to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.