Chicago Indymedia : http://chicago.indymedia.org/archive
Chicago Indymedia

News :: Civil & Human Rights

The Days of Penitence

Dear friend:

I hope that you are doing fine..

Please see what is going on here and let your media, newspapers and everyone know about what is the Israeli Occupation Forces are doing in the North of Gaza..

Show them the human flesh, arms, legs, heads, brains scattered in the streets, show them what is the meaning of life in Gaza Strip.

Please forward this to your newspapers and all media so they can share about what is going on here.. and please REMEMBER that your silence means encouraging the Israeli Army to kill more and more civilians in Gaza Strip.

Does the time came to move from your silence?!!!
IMG_5172Jabalya.jpg
IMG_5101Jabalya.jpg
IMG_4501Jabalya3%20October.jpg
The "Days of Penitence":
Gaza Sinks in a Sea of Blood
by Mohammed Omer: www.rafahtoday.org

It smells unbelievably bad here. To walk down any
streetif you dare toyou skirt, or sometimes unavoidably
walk through, pools of blood. There are shreds of human
fleshsome of them unrecognizable as human remainsall
over, on rooftops, plastered to broken windows, on the
street. The stench of rotting blood mixes with the more
acrid odor of flesh burnt to black char by the rockets
fired by the Israeli Army's American-made Apache
helicopters.

The sky is full of black smoke, some from the rocket
explosions, but even more, it sometimes seems, from the
endless fires of tires and other debris that people keep
stoking. The smoke confuses the heat-seeking unmanned
drone surveillance planes, so setting fires in any
relatively open area may draw fire and let a bomb explode
somewhat harmlessly.

All this smoke mixed with plaster and cement dust is a
blessing and a curse. The stench of burning flesh and
rotting blood masks to some extent the smell of raw sewage
from broken sewer pipes and the tens of thousands of bodies
unwashed for over a week now. Water to drink is a rare and
precious commodity herebaths and showers have become
impossible luxuries.

Your eyes inevitably tear up from all the smokebut then,
that protects you a tiny bit from some of the more
harrowing sightsrecognizable body partsa piece of a leg,
an obvious part of a torso, and fingersmore scattered,
individual, recognizable fingers than anyone should ever
have to see. Volunteer crews are gathering these human
fragments and bringing them to Jabalya's two hospitals but
the ambulances cannot possibly keep up with the flood of
newly dead and injured.

Funeral processions are everywhere, and "houses of
mourning"the tents bereaved families set up in which to
receive their families and friends. In fact, though, every
house here, those relatively intact and those partly or
wholly destroyed by the IDF tanks and bulldozers, is a
house of mourning.

And nothing protects you from the soundsthe tears and
laments of the mothers and fathers, husbands, wives and
children of the dead, the screams of the injured, the wail
of ambulance sirens, sniper fire, the thud of tank shells
and the too-frequent explosions as another Apache shell
lands.

Time is distorted herehours feel like days, days like
weeks or months. This is Jabalya Refugee Camp in the
Northern Gaza Strip, one of the most crowded places on
earth where 106,000 men, women, and children, the
overwhelming majority of them unarmed civilians, have been
under an all-out attack for over a week now.

Israel's official position is that this carnage is a
"response" to Palestinian militants' firing a homemade
Qassam rocket into the Israeli town of Sderot last week, a
rocket which killed two children. In fact, though, the
first tanks rumbled into Jabalya some hours before the
rocket attack on Sderot, and we had all been watching with
alarm as the Israeli forces multiplied in northern Gaza
over the last few weeks2000 fresh troops, over a hundred
more tanks and bulldozers.


It is only when I sit down to write up my notes made here
in the last few days that the cruelty of the IDF name for
this attack"Days of Penitence"hits me. They are not just
slaughtering unarmed civilians, but language itself.
"Penitence," as I understand it, is voluntary remorse for
wrong-doing. Is this massacre supposed to induce remorse
in its victims? Are they supposed to mourn the deaths of
four or five Israeli soldiers, and two Israeli children and
accept the death of more than 60 Palestinian civilians as
some kind of justice? To those of us trapped in Jabalya,
it seems like Days of Revenge. It is unquestionably
collective punishment, and illegal under the Geneva
Conventions.

Perhaps we should not be surprised. Israel's Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon has announced this attack will last
"as long as necessary," that is, until there is "no further
danger" from the Palestinian resistance's homemade rockets.
Sharon, of course, engineered the massacres of Sabra and
Shatila over twenty years ago. Now, he is doing much the
same, but with vastly improved weaponry.

Of course, the militant factions exist, and have been
striking here and there during this last week but they are
vastly outnumbered, not to mention out-gunned, by the
Israelis. Hamas, on its side, has distributed leaflets in
Gaza City vowing to continue the rocket attacks on the
illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza and any Israeli towns
and cities their home-made ordnance can reach as long as
the Israeli incursions continue.

International protests have been muted, and stymied by
United States support for Israel. The lone, feeble voice
from the US State Department urged Israel to keep its
"response" "proportional"after, of course, the obligatory
mantra, "Israel has a right to defend itself." A strongly
worded resolution condemning the attack brought before the
UN at the beginning of the week was defeated by the US
veto.

It is hard to maintain accurate casualty figuresthe most
recent count seems to be 80 Palestinians killed (20 of them
militants claimed by Hamas) and over 200 injured.
Unquestionably, by the time this is printed, the figures
will be higher.

There is no refuge anywhere in Jabalya. The hospitals are
chaotic, supplies are short and all medical personnel have
been working around the clock for days now.

I saw Abu Nedal, the father of Nedal Al Madhown a 14
year-old boy, struggle to maintain his composure as he
asked the exhausted doctors and ambulance drivers, "Was my
son killed? Has he been killed?" (In fact, the boy was
dead on arrival..) The majority of the dead and injured
have been teens and children, obvious non-combatants.

I interviewed Dr. Mahmoud Al Asali, the director of Kamal
Adwan Hospital, who told me he was forced to assume the
Israeli Army has been deliberately targeting civilians. He
said most of those injured by gunfire were wounded in the
upper parts of their bodies, indicating the Israeli
sharpshooters must have orders to shoot to kill.
Palestinian doctors have removed many flechettes from the
dead and injured, indicating the IDF are using illegal
fragmentation bombs. These release razor sharp flechettes
as they explode. Dr. Al Asali says these illegal
fragmentation devices greatly increase the number of deaths
and the number and severity of injuries. The IDF has
refused to comment on this.

The hospital staffs and ambulance crews are so overextended
that they are using volunteers for the gruesome task of
collecting, sorting, and attempting to match scattered
human remains to return as much as possible to bereaved
families. One of these medical workers, Ahmed Abu Saall
26, from Kamal Aswan Hospital, told me, "One enormous
difficulty we face is that these powerful bombs can scatter
the parts of a single victim over a wide area. It is quite
possible parts of a person could end up in Al Awda hospital
in the east of the camp, while other parts of the same
person end up with us here on the western side." Sometimes
shreds of clothing can help with the matching.

The Israeli Army has frequently shot at the medical teams
and journalists. So far, two ambulance drivers have been
injured, and a cameraman from Ramatan News Agency has been
hurt. Of course, the ambulance crews and press all wear
identifying gear.

Israel has closed all borders into Gaza and has severely
restricted all movement within the Gaza Strip. There are
three major "zones" split off by sealed military
checkpoints, but recent days have seen numerous new
checkpoints, and roads closed by cement block and sand
obstructions. People cannot move between cities, not even
ambulances bringing patients to hospitals. Moreover, the
main Israel-Gaza crossing is closed, even to international
NGOs, humanitarian relief groups, and foreign journalists.

Intense as the military attack has been, and continues to
be, it is certainly not the only danger to the people here.
Many families now have been without food and water for
days. In Tal Al Zattar, the eastern part of Jabalya, I
interviewed Umm Ramzi, an elderly lady who spoke to me
through the gaping hole a tank shell had left in her house.
"We have been appealing to the Red Cross, to save our lives
and the lives of our children, but nobody has responded."

Most of the NGO workers and relief organizations
havelogically enoughassumed they cannot get through the
Israeli military lines that completely surround Jabalya,
although they are well aware that the civilians need help.
I managed to reach the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC), spokesman Simon Schorno by phone and he told
me: "I'm in my way to Gaza now. We have been talking to
the IDF to get permission to bring food and water, but we
were not able to get an OK for complete food distribution".


Concerning the absence of the Red Cross in the past few
days when many families were in urgent need, Mr. Schorno
said, "I feel terrible. We are trying to do our best to
get food and water inside, but the damaged streets also
delay us from reaching the people."

A number of eyewitnesses among the camp residents told me
the Israeli Army has commandeered several high buildings as
sniper posts and basically shoot anything that moves. One
of the most recent victims was Islam Dweidar, 14, who took
a chance during an apparent lull in firing to buy bread for
her mother. However, she was shot in the head by an
Israeli sniper.

In the Southern part of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Army
has increased the number of tanks and bulldozers in all
parts of Khan Younis and Rafah. There has been shelling
every night, with many injured and killed. This morning, I
spoke by phone to Dr. Ali Mussa, director of Abu Yousif Al
Najjar Hospital in Rafah who announced that 13-year-old
Eman al Hums had been killed by Israeli sniper fire. He
said, "the child arrived at the hospital after being
riddled by twenty bullets in different parts of her body,
five of them in her head."

Palestinian eyewitnesses reported that Al Hums was killed
while on her way to school with two other schoolgirls. In
early media reports, the IDF said she was planting a bomb;
they later were forced to admit the accusation was false.

These current attacks are now far worse than the so-called
"Operation Rainbow" of last May, which killed 40 in Rafah
and prompted an international outcry. Now, the silence
from America, in particular, seems to condone this turning
the Gaza Strip into a killing field. Sharon has picked his
moment well, when America is preoccupied with its
presidential campaign and its invasion of Iraq, to decimate
the children of Gaza. How many more must die before the
world speaks out?

-----------------------



RAFAH TODAY Click here to view previous reports



16 October 04




Here the Israeli gun machines pass: Devastation in Jabalya Refugee Camp

In less than ten hours, a massive IDF incursion on the night of Thursday the 14th into dawn on Friday killed three civilians, left many more injured, destroyed completely or damaged into uselessness about 48 houses, and did serious damage to infrastructure. With that many houses uninhabitable, now hundreds of men, women, and children have become homeless. Rafah governorate has said about 300 citizens joined the thousands already homeless here in ten hours last night.

From the medical staff at Abu Youif Al Najjar Hospital in Rafah,I learned that Ismail Sawalha, a man of 70, Ali Sha'at, 25, and Ahmed Al Tahrawi, 21, were killed in the incursion. Hospital personnel said that the bodies of the two young men arrived at the hospital in burned fragments and initially, identification was difficult. It was only neighborhood eyewitnesses who later told the hospital that
the bodies of the two men were burned in the crater made by the Apache-fired missile.

Ahmed Al Sawalha, the 36-year-old son of Ismail, saw his 70-year-old father killed. "My father was sitting at the stair of our house when he was killed," he said. "There were no gunmen or fighters in the street. There was no need to shoot at him."

Also, I was told by eyewitnesses that Jihad Barhoom, 16 years old , was shot while standing outside his home a few hours before the full incursion started At least four people were badly injured, including an elderly lady, Khadra Shoman.

As usual, the Israeli army rolled into the three neighborhoods with tens of tanks and bulldozers, covered by two Apache helicopters and other surveillance planes.

Some of the early wire service stories have said 30 houses were reduced to rubble. I am getting the estimate of 48 houses from talking to eyewitnesses in the neighborhoods that suffered this incursion, namely, Yebna Camp, Al Shao'ut, and the Al Barahmah district. I tend to trust that number because only someone who actually lives in the area can walk around and know for sure whether a given
stretch of rubble had the day before been one, two, three, or more homes.

As usual, water, electric, and sewer lines suffered serious damage. Some of these had been repaired since May's "Operation Rainbow," and are now wrecked again. Also, as usual, streets have been torn up and fruit trees razed. Everywhere you walk in Rafah, you can see the damage caused by incursion after incursion. It is almost impossible to find any building that does not have its collection of
bullet and shell damage.


From Gaza City:


According to Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, Sharon is "considering withdrawing"to the 'outskirts' over the weekend.

Khalil Samara, the mayor of Jabalya, said this about the announcement: "Sharon is committing his largest, bloodiest massacres under the guise of 'withdrawing' from the Palestinian camps."

This IDF operation, called "Days of Penitence" is the Israeli "response" to a Qassam rocket launched by Palestinian militants at the Israeli town of Sderot close to the Gaza/Israeli border. That attack late in September killed 2 Israeli children. "Response" seems the wrong word for what is now happening in all of Gaza. It is collective punishment, and illegal under international law.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

12 October 04









The Israeli Occupation soldiers gave Oraiba district in Rafah 30 minutes to to leave their houses before the bulldozers started demolishing them. Louder speakers are calling us to leave or they will shoot us said one of the eyewitnesses over phone in Rafah while running trying to get his important documents.


Eight houses were completely and partially demolished in that incursion, in addition to the damages of the greenhouses, infrastructure, and everything related to humanity. Oraiba district is well known as an agriculture area. It is one of the best sources for markets to get into Gaza Strip.


Abu Youif Al Najar hospital reported about many injured people arriving the hospital everyday due to the daily shelling from tanks and Israel posts.


The Israeli military Forces have been blocking Gaza Strip, dividing it into three parts for the second week in a row. This has made life very dififcult for us with lack of food, medicine and even gas for cars to move inside Rafah.



In Khanyouies also, the IOF Forces shelled Nasser hospital with three tank shells, leaving at one of the nurses injured, also a 10 year old schoolgirl was inured while sitting at her school desk in one of the UNRWA schools in the Camp.


In Jabalya, there are now hundreds of injured and dead..




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6 October 04


Amnah Al Najjar 60 years old is brought in private car
to the hospital after sustaining a head injury by an Israeli sniper. She was in her house.






Israeli soldiers riddled her body with twenty bullets and another five ripped through her head on her way to school. Thirteen year old schoolgirl Eman Al Hums is from Rafah Refugee Camp. She was
shot on her way to school with other two friends. They, however, were luckier than she was when they ran away as soon as they heard the shelling.

Dr. Ali Mussa at Abu Youif Al Najjar hospital said that the Israeli soldiers in Rafah shot the child and prevented the medical team from reaching her body nor bringing her into the hospital.

The Israeli military Forces later on today said that they had not found any kind of explosives in her school bag. After killing the schoolgirl, one of the soldiers had said he had believed the bag contained explosives.

From Imans blood in Rafah on to Somia Felfel in Jabalya. A tragedy like no other when Israeli tanks shelled her house leaving all 8 of her children injured.

The Jabalya Refugee Camp is till under very heavy shelling and hundreds of victims are arriving at the hospital every hour. The people are appealing to the Red Cross but they have been unable to respond. A case in point: Umm Jamal Id, a member of one of the families who are currently surrounded had been asking for food and water for her children and the Red Cross had not been able to react at all.

In an interview over phone with the spokesman of Red Cross Simon Schorno, he said:Im on my way to Gaza Strip, but the damaged roads in Gaza Strip is the reason for the absence of Red Cross over the past few days."

There is heavy resistance in the Jabalya Camp and explosives can be heard from time to time, inside the camp.

Sixty year old Amnah Al Najjar arrived at the hospital a few hours ago after sustaining serious head injuries. She was transferred to Al Shifa hospital due to the lack of beds and medical instruments at Kamal Adwan hospital.

Al Najjar was shot in her head while she was in her house, the driver who brought her body to the hospital said.


Jabalya camp is known as the most heavily populated camp in all of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It is also the first place where the first Intifada had erupted and where a militant Israeli Jeep drove a group of Palestinians workers inside the camp.

Israeli soldiers today prevented ambulances and fire engines from reaching the fire that had erupted in three tons of gas in the North of Gaza Strip. Black smoke can been seen everywhere in the North of Gaza Strip..

Today it was different from yesterday and the past few days because now there are so many international journalists who have come into the area to cover the ongoing carnage, but still the Israeli Forces are not allowing them to into the camp, and still there are so many of them stuck at the Erez checkpoint awaiting permission to get into the Gaza Strip.

The refugee families inside the camp are appealing to all free people throughout the world to stop the blood shedding by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the camp.


All family members were injured: Soha Felfel 6 year old, on her bed,
after being injured by a tank shell with all her family in the Jabalya Camp



Even kindergartens: Palestinian children are collecting what remains from the kindergarten that was demolished by the Israeli bulldozers and apaches shelling










--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 October 04

Writing from the North of Jabalya:







Jabalia is drowning in blood and is now under a new Israeli incursion that's targeting civilian buildings. There is a smell of death on every street you go. Life is getting wors in the North of Gaza Strip, soldiers are targeting everything related to human beings.

Jabalya Camp in the north of Gaza Strip is surrounded here and hundreds of people were killed and injured.All you can see in the hospital is shreds of human flesh spread all over the streets..

The Jabalia Camp continues to this moment to be under attack.. ambulance drivers, medical workers and journalists were the first people to be targeted by the Israeli Army.


In RAFAH ALSO, AND ACCORDING TO EYEWITNISSES, the IDF invaded the camp, killing an old man and injuring two others. The situation is deteriorating throughout..

Most of the dead are children. Kamal Adwan, hospital director said: "The soldiers are delibderately targeting the upper parts of the children by rockets and tanks shell."


People here in the North of the Jabalya Camp are in bad need of water and food, and as usual no international organizations are visiting the area to provide the families any help.


Soon, more later from the North of Gaza Strip.








Click here to view more from September and also previous reports






"The world is a dangerous place to live;
not because of the people who are evil,
but because of the people who don't
do anything about it."
www.rafahtoday.org
 
 

Donate

Views

Account Login

Media Centers

 

This site made manifest by dadaIMC software