statism watch

Hazem Balousha, Chris McGreal, The Guardian
January 5, 2009

Incessant bombardment, no electricity, no water, and the hospitals full to overflowing – how Gaza was torn apart

It has never been like this before. The assault is coming from the sky, the sea and the ground. The explosion of shells, the gunfire from the tanks and the missiles from planes and helicopters are incessant. The sky is laced with smoke, grey here, black there, as the array of weaponry leaves its distinctive trail.

Most Gazans can only cower in terror in whatever shelter they can find and guess at the cost exacted by each explosion as the toll for those on the receiving end rises remorselessly.

As Israeli forces carved up the Gaza Strip yesterday, dividing the territory in two , the UN warned of a “catastrophe unfolding” for a “trapped, traumatised, terrorised” population.

Among the terrorised was Mahmoud Jaro. He was sheltering with his wife and four young children in his home in Beit Lahiya, on the eastern side of the Gaza Strip, within sight of the Israeli border, when he heard the first tank engines in the early hours of Sunday.

He grabbed his children, the youngest only three, and fled. “I couldn’t see anything. The area was dark,” he said. “They cut off the electricity. We were moving in the pitch dark.

“There were shells, rockets everywhere. I was just trying to protect my children. They were very scared and afraid. My youngest son was crying all the time.” Eventually the family made it across Beit Lahiya to his in-laws’ house in a relatively safer part of the town.

“I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what the Israelis want. This time it’s from the air, the sea, the ground at the same time. I’ve never experienced it like this,” he said.

The Israeli army warned others who had stayed in their homes to get out.

It seized control of Palestinian radio frequencies, jamming Hamas and Islamic Jihad stations, and broadcast a warning in Arabic telling people to move towards the centre of Gaza City for their own safety.

Others did not escape the assault. The wounded and dead piled up at Gaza’s Shifa hospital yesterday.

Eric Fosse, a Norwegian doctor there, said Hamas fighters were a small minority of the casualties brought in. “This hospital has been filled up with patients,” he added. This morning they [Israeli forces] bombed the fruit market. There were a large number of casualties.

“We became like a field hospital. There were two patients at a time in the operating rooms and we were operating on other people in the corridors. Some were dying before we could get to them.”

Moawya Hasanian, the head of Shifa’s emergency and ambulance department, said the hospital had taken in 33 dead and 137 wounded by lunchtime on Sunday.

Among those killed was a paramedic after his ambulance was hit by Israeli fire. Three of his colleagues were wounded.

“Only three of the dead are from Hamas, the rest are civilians,” Hasanian said. “There are many children under 18. There are many in critical condition. We are working under pressure. It’s not easy to work with bombs and air strikes everywhere. It’s not easy for ambulances to move.”

Since Israeli ground forces crossed into Gaza on Saturday evening, five people were killed when an Israeli shell hit Gaza city’s main market. Palestinian sources said a single tank shell killed 12 other people in northern Gaza. An air strike killed five people in a mosque as dusk fell.

More than 500 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its operation nine days ago. Hamas has put up a fight, claiming Israeli casualties. The military said one soldier was killed by a mortar and 32 others wounded as they fought for control of areas around Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, close to where Hamas launches its rockets on Israel.

The Israeli military said Hamas fighters were not engaging them in close combat but using mortars and roadside bombs.

Occasionally, through the Israeli attack and Palestinian resistance to it, there came the sound of a Hamas rocket launched into Israel – a reminder that the invading army is going to have to move even deeper into Gaza to achieve its declared aim.

By dusk yesterday, Hamas had fired at least 30 rockets.

John Ging, the head of the UN relief agency in Gaza, described the situation there as “inhuman”.

“We have a catastrophe unfolding in Gaza for the civilian population,” he said. “The people of Gaza City and the north now have no water. That comes on top of having no electricity. They’re trapped, they’re traumatised, they’re terrorised by this situation … The inhumanity of this situation, the lack of action to bring this to an end, is bewildering to them.”

The UN has been particularly angered at the contention of the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Ging also accused Israel of a campaign of destroying public buildings vital to the administration and governance of Gaza. “The whole infrastructure of the future state of Palestine is being destroyed,” he said. “Blowing up the parliament building. That’s the parliament of Palestine. That’s not a Hamas building. The president’s compound is for the president of Palestine.”

While some Israeli forces seized control of areas north and east of Gaza City, tanks and troops also carved their way through the centre of Gaza, taking control of what used to be the Jewish settlement of Netzarim.

Some of the tanks then continued on the short distance to the sea, cutting Gaza in two – a tactic frequently favoured by the Israeli army when it still had military bases in the territory – and making movement between the halves impossible for Palestinians.

Samar Abdel-Rahman lives close to Netzarim and watched the Israelis move back into the settlement. “All night there were bombs, fire, from everywhere,” he said. “All of my family came to my room because its the safest place in the house. We are 13 people living here. Since the Israeli operation started I didn’t leave the house. We’ve had electricity for just a few hours the entire time. We are not even cooking.”

The Israeli military has been accusing Hamas officials of cowardice and abandoning the population by going in to hiding on the seized radio frequencies.

The leadership, including the prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, and the Hamas chief, Mahmoud Zahar, have not been seen in public in days following the targeted assassinations of other senior officials by the Israelis.

But Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, denied they were hiding and said the morale of the organisation’s fighters remained high.

Source | See Also under War: They hate us for our bombs | Israeli army set for invasion | Food, medicine, fuel needed in Gaza, agencies warn | Gaza relief boat carrying former Congresswoman rammed by Israelis | ‘Abusive’ coalition raids stoking anger in Afghanistan: report | Canada ‘not onboard’ with U.S. plan to arm Afghan militias | Top U.S. general boosts troop pledge to Afghanistan | Brown: British military to withdraw from Iraq, to ’share burden’ in Afghanistan | George Bush shoe-thrower ‘too severely beaten’ for court appearance | Canadian Junior Hockey team gets ‘military training’ | Khadr, interred in rubble, couldn’t have thrown grenade in firefight: Evidence | Afghan war boosts recruiting | Former ISI Chief: Mumbai And 9/11 Both “Inside Jobs” | Blackwater Guards facing Charges in Case of 17 Dead Iraqi Citizens | Indian Intelligence Provided SIM Cards to Mumbai Gunmen | Mumbai Attacks Politicize Long-Isolated Elite | 3 new deaths in Afghanistan push Canadian toll to 101 | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Afghan government sacks Kandahar governor | Obama’s planned troop surge in Afghanistan could lead to more violence: ISAF | Federal government orders U.S. war resister deported | Mumbai terror attacks: Rice calls for ‘total transparency’ from Pakistan | Pentagon hires British scientist to help build robot soldiers that ‘won’t commit war crimes’ | CIA Foreknowledge of the Mumbai Attacks | “Fair-skinned, blonde” assailants began attack in Mumbai | Experts doubt Al Qaeda link in Mumbai attacks | Mumbai Attacks Blamed On Al-Qaeda As Pretext For U.S. Military Response | Terror strikes Mumbai | Hoverdrone to be deployed to Iraq | IntelCenter Releases Video of Former CIA Employee Zawahiri Threatening America | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | The truth about South Ossetia | US General David Petraeus to take CENTCOM helm for Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan | ‘Reconstruction’ efforts in Khandahar not apparent to Afghanis | US helicopter raid inside of Syria kills eight | Pentagon Wants Packs Of Robots To Detect “Non-cooperative Humans” | Peace activists demand Canada leave Afghanistan | NATO to let troops fight Afghan drug lords | US faces downward spiral in Afghan war, says leaked intelligence report | Afghan mission cost: up to $18B | Another U.S. War Resister to be deported | Russia to withdraw troops from Georgia ’security’ zone | Delta Force Officer: We Weren’t Allowed to Kill Osama Bin Laden | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan | Victory impossible in Afghanistan: senior British commander | Defiant military watchdog widens detainee hearings | U.S. War Resister ’surprised’ deportation order stayed | US Secretary of State admits Georgia hit Russia first | US Incursion Turned Back by Pakistan Army | ‘Some’ Troops to stay in Afghanistan past 2011: McKay | U.S. Arms Sales Climbing Rapidly | Bush secret order to send special forces into Pakistan | Russia ‘backs US on terror fight’ | Secret killing program is key in Iraq, Woodward says | U.S. deserter feared torture orders | Pakistan fury over ‘US assault’ | U.S. ’stands in solidarity with people of Georgia’: Cheney | Russia: US delivering weapons to Georgia under cover of humanitarian aid | Biggest Newspaper In Holland Says Dutch Intelligence Helped Prepare Imminent Attack On Iran | NATO Brinksmanship Pushes the Caucasus Closer to the Edge | Blackwater-linked firm to train Canadian troops | Blackwater Worldwide, Wal-Mart of modern war | MacKay dismisses Taliban threat as ‘propaganda’ | Musharraf resigns as Pakistan president | The Russo-Georgian War and the Balance of Power | Controversial Kandahar governor replaced | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | America to assume command in Afghanistan | Georgia, Russia Go to War | Canadian military acquiring new helicopters, drones | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | U.S. Intel Officer: Al Qaeda Leadership Allowed To Operate Freely in Pakistan | Obama promises 10,000 more troops for Afghanistan | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Afghan war finally grabs U.S. attention | Canadian military silent on Afghan civilian deaths: UN investigator | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | BBC uncovers lost Iraq billions | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | Declassified: Israel, USA Attempted Deliberate Sinking of USS Liberty During Mideast War | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’ | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | Former CIA Officer – US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 1:15 am and is filed under health, militarization, terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.