Monday, March 03, 2008
From Gaza With Love and Donald McIntyre
Dr. Mona El-Farra posted today, and I was very happy to see that Donald McIntyre of the Independent linked to Dr. Mona, Mohammed Omer, and Laila El-Haddad.
From Dr. Mona:
Monday, March 03, 2008
The aftermath -Gaza today
3rd of march 2008
Here is the outcome of the Israeli military operation against Gaza ,
117 killed
350 and more injured.
These numbers are preliminary, as the emergency teams were only allowed to evacuate tens of injured and some dead this morning, some who were lying in the citrus orchards of Jabalia town , east of Gaza city. The majority of the dead and injured are civilians, many suffered serious injuries. In some cases the casualties were of the same family and many children were killed .
2nd of March -
Al-Awda Hospital -
Jabalia Refugee Camp
69 injured arrived at the hospital , in one day (saturday 1-3 2008 ). These mass casualties are more than the capacity of the hospital's beds and two operating theatres. Many of the injured were laid on the floor because there weren't enough beds. Many had to be referred to the Shifa hospital (Gaza's central and largest hospital). The injuries were varied: abdomen , chest, head injuries, many children , and mutilated bodies !!!!!!!!!
The Palestinian Red crescent (PRC) ambulances used Al-Awda as a temporary base (makeshift point ). The Israeli forces ordered the PRC to LEAVE ITS HEADQUARTERS IN JABALIA , because it was close to the operation !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
While i was at Al-Awda hospital , the Apache helicopter gunships were in the sky firing and shooting against the resistance men. I heard the sound of many shellings and bombings, it was all too loud.
Many volunteers arrived at the hospital , to give a hand to the stretched hospital staff. The ambulance drivers were extremely exhausted; everyone was worried about the shortage of fuel. The hospital director was very busy in the operation theater. I met many injured children on the hospital beds.
Dr. Mahmoud my friend and his family -
Salah Eddin street -
Jabalia town
In the past three days of the military operation against Gaza, Jabalia Mahmoud and his family were unable to leave home, which is in an area that had become a battlefield.
Two of his grandchildren were ill and in need of medications. Mahmoud himself suffers from kidney problems and has had a kidney transplant. He was in need of treatment and medications at the hospital. I tried several times to coordinate with the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) to evacuate the family to safer place , and could not. I felt helpless while I was in contact with them by phone. Later on when the shooting was so severe I lost contact, they were all on the floor, seeking refuge in the safest place of the home. The power was off and the mobiles were not charged , Mahmoud has three granchildren and four children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't know if I am conveying the ordeal we face while living in Gaza under occupation (despite appearances Gaza is still occupied, Israel controls all the borders and the seas and does what it pleases in Gaza). This is one of many stories , I thought I would like to share it with you.
I share with you how our children suffer: first because of the seige, second because of the direct attacks and thirdly because of the poverty and lack of normal life, lack of better chances of living.
A total of 117 Palestinians were killed
17 children
19 women
36 men
47 resistance men
The total number of injured were 350.
It is a disproportional open war , and excessive use of military power by Israel. Our civilians pay the price .
Just to remind you wherever there is occupation , this colonial racist occupation
the resistance will continue , my share is civil resistance , but I do not blame others of their choice of resistance IT IS THE OCCUPATION THAT SHOULD BE BLAMED
from Gaza i send all my love
And a part of Donald McIntyre's story for the Independent:
In Gaza, medical officials said a 21-month-old Palestinian girl, two other civilians and three militants were killed yesterday. The Israeli military said four soldiers had been hurt and two Israeli civilians were slightly injured after 21 rockets were launched by militants, including three longer range Katyushas, one of which directly hit a house in Ashkelon.
Among those buried yesterday were six members of one family including its head, Abd el-Rahman Mohammad Ali Atallah, and his 60-year-old wife, Suad, two sons and two daughters, who were killed late on Saturday afternoon when their house was destroyed by three aerial bombs which residents near by said also injured four children including a two-day-old infant. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, which documents all Palestinian deaths, and is opposed to all attacks on non-combatants including in Israel, said 49 of the dead since Wednesday were civilians.
As thousands of Gazans streamed on foot through streets abnormally empty of cars because of severe fuel shortages to and from near-continuous funerals in Beit Lahiya and Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan cemetery, Fatima Abed Rabbo, 23, told how she was shot in the left shoulder as she stood by her one-year-old daughter, Doha, at her home in Jabalya during the bloody first hour of the Israeli incursion shortly after midnight on Saturday.
Lying on her bed at the Kamal Odwan hospital, where the first 40 dead victims of the assault were brought on Saturday morning, Mrs Abed Rabbo said the shot had come through the door of her balcony at about the same time as her friends and neighbours Jaqueline and Eyad Abu Shbak, a teenage brother and his sister, were killed in their home.
She said Jaqueline, 16, who she said had been hit by shrapnel after an Israeli missile hit a parked car outside the home, was an especially good student in the science department of her high school. Eyad, 14, who was struck by a bullet, had just started high school.
"They were excellent people," she said. "Our family and theirs were always in and out of each other's houses. Two ambulances came at the same time to take us away. They were dead and I was alive."
Mrs Abed Rabbo was close to tears how she described how she was still breastfeeding Doha but had had no contact with her or her two-and-half-year-old son, Anas, both of whom were being cared for by relatives, since being taken to hospital because of the military closure of the area after the incursion. "The phones are not working and my husband who came with me in the ambulance has not been able to get back." A spokesman for the Red Cross confirmed yesterday evening that Palestinian ambulances were still unable to reach parts of the area of the incursion to pick up injured persons.
From Dr. Mona:
Monday, March 03, 2008
The aftermath -Gaza today
3rd of march 2008
Here is the outcome of the Israeli military operation against Gaza ,
117 killed
350 and more injured.
These numbers are preliminary, as the emergency teams were only allowed to evacuate tens of injured and some dead this morning, some who were lying in the citrus orchards of Jabalia town , east of Gaza city. The majority of the dead and injured are civilians, many suffered serious injuries. In some cases the casualties were of the same family and many children were killed .
2nd of March -
Al-Awda Hospital -
Jabalia Refugee Camp
69 injured arrived at the hospital , in one day (saturday 1-3 2008 ). These mass casualties are more than the capacity of the hospital's beds and two operating theatres. Many of the injured were laid on the floor because there weren't enough beds. Many had to be referred to the Shifa hospital (Gaza's central and largest hospital). The injuries were varied: abdomen , chest, head injuries, many children , and mutilated bodies !!!!!!!!!
The Palestinian Red crescent (PRC) ambulances used Al-Awda as a temporary base (makeshift point ). The Israeli forces ordered the PRC to LEAVE ITS HEADQUARTERS IN JABALIA , because it was close to the operation !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
While i was at Al-Awda hospital , the Apache helicopter gunships were in the sky firing and shooting against the resistance men. I heard the sound of many shellings and bombings, it was all too loud.
Many volunteers arrived at the hospital , to give a hand to the stretched hospital staff. The ambulance drivers were extremely exhausted; everyone was worried about the shortage of fuel. The hospital director was very busy in the operation theater. I met many injured children on the hospital beds.
Dr. Mahmoud my friend and his family -
Salah Eddin street -
Jabalia town
In the past three days of the military operation against Gaza, Jabalia Mahmoud and his family were unable to leave home, which is in an area that had become a battlefield.
Two of his grandchildren were ill and in need of medications. Mahmoud himself suffers from kidney problems and has had a kidney transplant. He was in need of treatment and medications at the hospital. I tried several times to coordinate with the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) to evacuate the family to safer place , and could not. I felt helpless while I was in contact with them by phone. Later on when the shooting was so severe I lost contact, they were all on the floor, seeking refuge in the safest place of the home. The power was off and the mobiles were not charged , Mahmoud has three granchildren and four children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't know if I am conveying the ordeal we face while living in Gaza under occupation (despite appearances Gaza is still occupied, Israel controls all the borders and the seas and does what it pleases in Gaza). This is one of many stories , I thought I would like to share it with you.
I share with you how our children suffer: first because of the seige, second because of the direct attacks and thirdly because of the poverty and lack of normal life, lack of better chances of living.
A total of 117 Palestinians were killed
17 children
19 women
36 men
47 resistance men
The total number of injured were 350.
It is a disproportional open war , and excessive use of military power by Israel. Our civilians pay the price .
Just to remind you wherever there is occupation , this colonial racist occupation
the resistance will continue , my share is civil resistance , but I do not blame others of their choice of resistance IT IS THE OCCUPATION THAT SHOULD BE BLAMED
from Gaza i send all my love
And a part of Donald McIntyre's story for the Independent:
In Gaza, medical officials said a 21-month-old Palestinian girl, two other civilians and three militants were killed yesterday. The Israeli military said four soldiers had been hurt and two Israeli civilians were slightly injured after 21 rockets were launched by militants, including three longer range Katyushas, one of which directly hit a house in Ashkelon.
Among those buried yesterday were six members of one family including its head, Abd el-Rahman Mohammad Ali Atallah, and his 60-year-old wife, Suad, two sons and two daughters, who were killed late on Saturday afternoon when their house was destroyed by three aerial bombs which residents near by said also injured four children including a two-day-old infant. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, which documents all Palestinian deaths, and is opposed to all attacks on non-combatants including in Israel, said 49 of the dead since Wednesday were civilians.
As thousands of Gazans streamed on foot through streets abnormally empty of cars because of severe fuel shortages to and from near-continuous funerals in Beit Lahiya and Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan cemetery, Fatima Abed Rabbo, 23, told how she was shot in the left shoulder as she stood by her one-year-old daughter, Doha, at her home in Jabalya during the bloody first hour of the Israeli incursion shortly after midnight on Saturday.
Lying on her bed at the Kamal Odwan hospital, where the first 40 dead victims of the assault were brought on Saturday morning, Mrs Abed Rabbo said the shot had come through the door of her balcony at about the same time as her friends and neighbours Jaqueline and Eyad Abu Shbak, a teenage brother and his sister, were killed in their home.
She said Jaqueline, 16, who she said had been hit by shrapnel after an Israeli missile hit a parked car outside the home, was an especially good student in the science department of her high school. Eyad, 14, who was struck by a bullet, had just started high school.
"They were excellent people," she said. "Our family and theirs were always in and out of each other's houses. Two ambulances came at the same time to take us away. They were dead and I was alive."
Mrs Abed Rabbo was close to tears how she described how she was still breastfeeding Doha but had had no contact with her or her two-and-half-year-old son, Anas, both of whom were being cared for by relatives, since being taken to hospital because of the military closure of the area after the incursion. "The phones are not working and my husband who came with me in the ambulance has not been able to get back." A spokesman for the Red Cross confirmed yesterday evening that Palestinian ambulances were still unable to reach parts of the area of the incursion to pick up injured persons.
