Voices from Gaza as Israeli Attacks Continue

Voices from Gaza as Israeli Attacks Continue

11am, 11th January 2009, Gaza City: Voices from Gaza three days since
the failure of UN Security Council resolution 1860.

Ten year old Reem Abu Fager, who's home is Mashrua Beit Lahia said this morning,

"We were sleeping when a missile hit our house. My mother's leg was hurt, but we escaped outside. My father told me to take some clothes. My five younger sisters took our school clothes and our school books. When we got outside my father asked me why we did not take more clothes because it is winter. I told him that books are more important. Then another missile hit. We can't get any more of our things."

"The Israeli occupation forces have been dropping leaflets over Gaza. Leaflets that encourage civilians to leave their homes and flee.To where? There is no safe place in Gaza and Gazans cannot cross the borders because of the ongoing Israeli siege. People hope to find shelter, but every place has the same chance of being targeted. The army is getting closer to Al Quds Hospital and nothing can prevent them from striking here." Vittorio Arrigoni (Italy) – International Solidarity Movement.

"As I speak the Israelis have just dropped another stack of leaflets threatening more attacks. Hundreds and hundreds of houses have been bombed along the border. Where can people go? This coul not be more horrific." - Jenny Linnel (Britain) - International Solidarity Movement.

'We have been assisting the Red Crescent ambulances as they attempt to collect the killed and wounded. So many victims are rom smoke inhalation, a strange chemical smoke which seizes the lungs and air passage, and suffocates the victims. They were the ones we could reach, there are hundreds of calls for help that are let unanswered as the Israelis wil not let the ambulances up there" - Eva Bartlett (Canada) - International Solidarity Movement

An international Human Rights Activist, working with medical teams in northern Gaza, yesterday (10th January) assisted in the collection of six members of the same family killed by an Israeli shell.

British citizen Ewa Jasiewicz, a co-ordinator for the Free Gaza Movement, said, “This morning at 11:40 at Mahmat Street in West Jabaliya. I accompanied an ambulance to pick up members of the Abu Rabo family after six of them had been killed by an Israeli tank shell.Many others had been injured. While we were picking up the family and injured I saw a donkey cart full of dead bodies.

Everyone we meet has lost someone., whether it be a family member, friend or neighbour. It’s getting closer. It’s only a matter of time before it’s someone we know.” Ewa Jasiewicz (Britain/Poland) – Free Gaza Movement

"In the past few days the horrors I have seen include a hospital being shelled, a medic being shot at, and visiting schools housing refugees after these were shelled. What I see here is nothing short of a massacre. By agreeing to upgrade relations with Israel despite it's genocidal policies European governments have given Israel a green light for this mass murder." Alberto Arce (Spain) – International Solidarity Movement

International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists have also been active with Red Cross evacuation teams.

“I was working from Al-Quds hospital during the ‘ceasefire’. We traveled a few hundred metres into a known ‘no-go’ zone because of the ceasefire. We called for people to come out and over forty did while we collected three dead bodies. Immediately as the ceasefire ended the Israelis fired a shell directly over our heads. People started to panic. We only managed to evacuate four houses as the Israelis have not allowed us to access more people.” Sharon Lock (Australia) – International Solidarity Movement

"They massacred Amal (2), Suad (4) and Samer (6) with their tanks during what they call a ceasefire. We do not believe them and their ceasefire" Natalie Abu Shakra (Lebanon) - International Solidarity Movement

South African citizen, Dr. Haidar Eid, Professor of Social and Cultural Studies at Al Aqsa University Gaza commented on the failed UN Security Council resolution;

"What was needed from the UN Security Council was a demand that Israel abide by international law and international humanitarian law, with a demand for the withdrawal of Israeli troops at least to the 1967 borders. Instead the resolution ignored the occupation and siege which are the root of the problem and treated the resistance to the occupation as the root of the problem. The resolution equates the victim and the victimiser, the oppressor and the oppressed.”

“In March 2008 Matan Vilnai, the Israeli minister of war, threatened the people of Gaza with a holocaust. Because there was no outcry from the international community at the time this is now what is taking place.

However I believe from the reaction of the people around the world, this atrocity will lead to the end of the despotic regimes in the Arab world, the end of Israeli apartheid and the creation of one secular, democratic, multi-national state." Dr Haidar Eid (South Africa Palestine)

ENDS

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