In Gaza

*Shaddi (red crescent)’s father: defying threats of invading Israeli tanks, he stayed in his home during the heavy shelling in his southern Gaza Strip region (Fukhari).

Less than two months have passed since the end of Israel’s grisly war on Gaza. Not a house has been re-built (there is no cement; Israel continues to ban its entry into Gaza), thousands are displaced or sheltering in an overcrowded relative’s house or renting a scarcely-available apartment. The aid has stockpiled on the other side of crossings into Gaza, many trucks being sent back or expired. And the pain of loss, let alone of seeing family members -children, siblings, parents-burned by white phosphorous, being murdered or left to bleed to death is still unbearably fresh.

Yet Palestinians are trying to move on, again, post continues

*Mohammed, shot dead along with his mother by Israeli soldiers.

Zeitoun, Eastern Gaza

The “kill Arabs” hate grafitti reported in the Israeli daily Ha’aretzand numerous other news sources, and found throughout the Gaza Strip’s bombarded and militarily-occupied regions, is still scribbled on the walls of Mousa al Samouni (19) and the ten other members of his family’s home in the Zeitoun district east of Gaza city. On nearby walls are “you can run but you can’t hide” and “1948-2009″, references to the Nakba* and what many refer to as the new Nakba: the 3 weeks of war on Gaza. Into the walls of the family’s home Israeli soldiers punched five different snipers holes, behind which they propped themselves on bags filled with sand dug out from underneath tiles in the house. post continues

Gaping holes in walls, rooms blackened and destroyed by fire from phosphorous shells, doors torn off of hinges, deeply-cracked walls requiring demolition and reconstruction, rocket-made skylights,  shot-up blankets covering where walls were…a house standing on trembling legs…Families huddled into one not-quite-fully-protected room, sharing too few mattresses and blankets…

These scenes replay throughout Gaza, each family devastated by their personal loss, each family wondering how to survive and where to find the money to do so.

Fatema told me of her sister, Sabrine Shamali, whose home looks fine from the outside [depending on one's notion of 'fine'.  Outside of Gaza anyone would immediately question the absence of a front wall and the pathetic attempt to cover it with a hole-riddled blanket.  But in Gaza, with such whole-scale damage, yes this house could pass for 'fine'.], but which inside was falling apart.

“Their walls are ready to fall down, the roof leaks in every room, they don’t have enough blankets,” she’d told me.  “Everything in their house was destroyed.”

I found the time to go to Schaff, northeast of Gaza city, to visit the house.

She hadn’t been exaggerating. post continues

*Arafa Hani Abd al Dayem, martyred, murdered, 4 January by Israeli arm

What we knew of Israel’s war crimes during Israel’s war on Gaza, what the medics, the victims, the doctors, the witnesses have testified is now gaining growing recognition. The calls for international inquiry are growing, as are the reasons.

“We found Mohammed lying there, cut in half. Ahmed was in three pieces; Wahid was totally burnt – his eyes were gone. Wahid’s father was dead. Nour had been decapitated. We couldn’t see her head anywhere.All six members of the family had been blown to pieces, coating each wall of the narrow enclosure with blood and body matter.” [from Cut To Pieces: the Palestinian family drinking tea in their courtyard ]

The Guardian has just published an excellent series of articles and videos on Israel’s crimes of war in and on Gaza.  Included in the reports are focuses on attacks on medical workers, Israel’s use of drones to target and kill with pinpoint accuracy civilians, and Israel’s use of civilians inluding minors] as human shields during their military operations.

The drones are operated from a remote position, usually outside the combat zone. They use optics that are able to see the details of a man’s clothing and are fitted with pinpoint accurate missiles.  “With a weapons system that is so accurate, and with such good optics, why are we experiencing so many civilians being killed? There should be no excuse for these numbers.” “If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it. The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries.

“Without a proper investigation there is no deterrent. The message remains the same: ‘Its okay to do these things, there wont be any real consequences’.”

[from Cut To Pieces...]

The article and video on attacks on medics highlights the killing of medic Arafa Abd al-Dayem, the targeting of medic Hassan al-Attal, the killing of 16 medics and the damage to numerous hospitals, ambulances and medical facilities.

The offensive left 16 medics dead. Nearly all of them were killed by Israeli fire while trying to save lives, and many more were wounded. According to the World Health Organisation, more than half of Gaza’s 27 hospitals were damaged by Israeli bombs. Two clinics were completely destroyed and 44 others received damage.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel said there was “certainty” that Israel had violated international humanitarian law, with attacks on medics, damage to medical buildings, indiscriminate attacks on civilians and delays in medical treatment for the injured.

I picked myself up and found Arafa kneeling down with his hands up in the air and praying to God, his body was riddled with darts,” he said. “The patient was in pieces, his head was missing. I was hysterical.”

In one incident, a Red Cross-led convoy of 13 ambulances carrying wounded to Egypt was fired on, despite Israeli clearance for the journey.
The convoy was forced to turn back and two of the wounded died after being unable to receive treatment.

[from Under Attack: How Medics Died Trying to Help Gaza's Casualties ]

People in Gaza were very acutely aware of the lethal drones, without having to be told thus by formal groups or experts.   At new year’s the sordid text message about zanana (drone) missiles spread in a dark attempt at humour. We knew they were deadly.

In my work with the Red Crescent, and my follow-up reporting after, I  came across many cases where civilians were torn apart or seriously injured by drone missiles.  The sound of drones is distinctive, and the pattern of a first missile followed minutes later by a second missile is a deadly pattern that repeated throughout Israel’s war on Gaza leaving countless injured and killed.

The most haunting for me is the man mourning his wife just assassinated by such a missile. He helped to load her body, in pieces, onto a stretcher and into our ambulance, alternately stopping to sob, all the while shrieking, wailing like I’ve never heard.  She had rushed to the area where a family member had been just been killed by the first drone missile, only to herself be caught by the fatal second missile minutes later.

Radjaa Abou Dagga rode with ambulances during the attacks on Gaza and has produced a short but incredibly vivid and important documentary on Israel’s targeting of ambulances and medical personnel, in violation of the Geneva Conventions which stipulate access to the injured.

During the war, Al Jazeera released footage on attacks on medical personnel, in which the updated version counts 21 medics killed by Israeli attacks.

Ha’aretz first published testimonies of Israeli soldiers conduct during the war on Gaza. Since the story broke, many more stories and testimonies have emerged, including that of the t-shirts depicting children and pregnant women ["1 shot, 2 kills"] in snipers’ targets.

Yet, the Israeli army was three weeks late in declaring there would be an investigation into the allegations, doing so only after the Ha’aretz expose.

[the Independent] Israeli human rights organisations, including B’Tselem and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, called for an independent investigation and complained that the military police inquiry had only been announced after Haaretz published the story, “three weeks after the relevant materials reached the Chief of the General Staff. This tardiness follows a pattern of failures to investigate suspicions of serious crimes”.

“When we entered a house, we were supposed to bust down the door and start shooting inside and just go up storey by storey… I call that murder. Each storey, if we identify a person, we shoot them. I asked myself – how is this reasonable?”

Israeli soldiers admit to deliberate killing of Gaza civilians

“That’s what is so nice, supposedly, about Gaza: You see a person on a road, walking along a path. He doesn’t have to be with a weapon, you don’t have to identify him with anything and you can just shoot him. With us it was an old woman, on whom I didn’t see any weapon. The order was to take the person out, that woman, the moment you see her.”

Israeli troops detail Gaza atrocities as demand grows for war crimes probe

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*Hassan al-Attal, shot by Israeli sniper while retrieving a body during an Israeli army “cease-fire” period.

*transit in one of the few working Red Crescent ambulances in Jabaliya region. Rear and side windows blown out, covered with opaque plastic.

*at the morgue with the shredded body of a woman assassinated by a drone missile.

*Abdul Rahman Ghraben’s mother holding the remains of her 14 year old son’s pants, all that remains of her son, killed by a drone missile attack on 11 January.

*remains of Abdul Rahman Ghraben, 14, killed by a drone missile attack on 11 January.

*Abdul Rahman Ghraben, 14, killed by a drone missile attack on 11 January.

Gaza Medics in the Line of Fire

Inside Story – Israeli war crimes in Gaza – 22 Mar – Part 1

Inside Story – Israeli war crimes in Gaza – 22 Mar – Part 2

After finding the nylon warehouse, Nassim (a friend helping me out with translations and logistics), a worker, and I returned to Mohammad Kahawish’s house to lay plastic sheeting over his shabby roof. Kahawish really needs a house renovation, and the pressing problem of the many cracked walls and breaches between wall and ceiling needs to be addressed.

But the siege is still on and cement is still unavailable. These major reconstructions and repairs won’t happen for a long time, just as the thousands of houses needing to be re-built won’t be so until Egypt and Israel allow in building materials.

The temporary fix for the Kahawish family was to address their leakage problem and try to seal up their roof. The easiest and really only solution now was simply to lay plastic sheeting over the tin roof.

The job took just over an hour, Nassim’s family friend volunteering his time in a gesture of goodwill to the elderly family.

Mohammad Kahawish is completely charming, a grandfather type I would adopt if that were possible or if I had money to support their family with.

Fortunately, others have come through, as with a donor from the UK who has already sent a donation to Mohammad’s family. post continues

The Electronic Intifada    By Eva Bartlett

Darts released from a flechette bomb.

“We were still young and in love. We had all of our dreams,” Muhammad Abu Jerrad said, holding a photo of his wife by the sea. Wafa Abu Jerrad was one of at least six killed by three flechette bombs fired by Israeli tanks in the Ezbet Beit Hanoun area, northern Gaza, on 5 January. post continues

The Safi family moved the other day into a cramped 3 room apartment in Jabaliya camp.  Their formerly spacious home in Beit Lahia will not be re-built in the near future, like the estimated 4,000 other homes destroyed by Israel’s war on Gaza.

Finding a flat to rent was a challenging task as the need for temporary housing is high.  Challenging also because prices have gone up and the Safis are without income.

The apartment they found is bare-bones –completely unfurnished, walls tarnished with age and water stains –and lies down the tight corridors which are characteristic of a refugee camp. post continues

Mohammad, wife (right) and daughter inside leaky bedroom with broken walls

An elderly man saw me walking the other morning. “Bless you, bless you,” he said, holding out his palm as I gave him 20 shekels.

What has rendered a man in his late years impoverished and begging, in a manner Palestinians are not accustomed to? post continues

*unpacked suitcase from failed attempt to cross the border to Egypt, to visit family.

The closed borders affect Palestinians in so many ways.  The most obvious and deadly affects are the barring entry of aid into Gaza, though it is apparently stockpiled on the Israeli and Egyptian sides, foods rotting and expiring, needed blankets and clothing sitting where not needed.

The closed borders also mean medical patients aren’t getting out, just as its been for much of the last 3 years, since Hamas was elected and the world sealed up Gaza under the inadequate descriptions “blockade” and merely a “siege”. post continues