Israeli authorities benevolently announced
that today, January 2nd, the 7th day of
Israel’s air attacks throughout Gaza,
internationals would be permitted to leave
through the Erez crossing.
As I write, the radio reports the latest
attack: a drone rocket targets an area near Al
Quds Open university in Khan Younis, killing 3
young girls from the same family, al Astal,
between the ages 10-13, I’m told.
1:30 pm
I write from the Al Shifa hospital ICU staff
room, where I’ve just seen another
recently-dead patient, 13 years old. “He
died as a result of his different injuries:
internal bleeding,and the most important
injury, brain trauma, brain matter out,” Dr.
Rami tells me. “He arrested, we administered
CPR for 30 minutes and no response.”
The next bed contains a woman in her
thirties, unconscious, injured in the 1st day
of attacks as she went to her work.
Another bed holds a youth, Mohammed,15,
injured yesterday afternoon in the bombing of
al Farooq mosque and the house of a nearby
politician, Abu Narr. “The boy was returning
to his house. The injury was to his head: head
trauma, massive injury, shrapnel in the foot,
in the back. The most dangerous injury is in
the head. The patient is unconscious now,
under sedation, connected to the ventilator.
His case is too critical, too critical.”
2:40 pm
“Now another child died, in the operation
room,” a nurse tells me. Mohammed Abu Aju,
13 years old, explosive wounds, in Shejaiee.
“He was in the street, ” I’m told. “He
was hit around 1 pm. He had head trauma,
amputation of the lower limbs, shrapnel wounds
all over –more than 100,” he tells me.
We discuss the unfathomable situation here,
how incredible it is that it’s gone this
far, that it began at all.
“My brother is a policeman, not hamas,
not fatah, just a policeman. He worked as a
policeman before Hamas came to power, and he
continued. Thankfully, he wasn’t near any of
the many targeted police stations on Saturday,
he is alive,” one of the ICU nurses tells
me.
Approximately 435 internationals are said
to have left, from what journalists have told
me, but I have no intention of doing so, we
have no intention of doing so.
Here are some reasons why we stay:
Israel not only controls who is unable to
leave Gaza, but who is unable to enter Gaza.
Since November 4, Israel has banned foreign
journalists from entering Gaza, making a minor
exception for a few days in early December. At
present, with the over 420 dead, over 2,100
injured and the many civilian homes and
buildings destroyed, there is an urgent need
for foreign journalists.
I’ve seen the demolished houses, mosques,
universities, water lines. I’ve seen the
newly-homeless, asking where they will live
now that their home is rubble, now that the
winter cold combines with rain, now that there
are continually drones, helicopters and F-16s
overhead.
I’ve heard the accounts of
recently-killed: the 5 girls living next to a
targeted Jabaliya mosque; the 2 boys
collecting wood; the 55 year old mother of my
friends; the 9 and 12 year old girls who
stopped in a grocery store after school and
were killed by the missile which targeted the
police station across the street ["One
girl had shrapnel injuries all over her, it
took a long time for her to die from her
internal injuries," the ICU doctor tells
me. The other, he says, "lost half of her
head and a shoulder" in the blast (at
just after 11 am, the time when many civilians
are on the streets)], and the 50 year old
father of a patient in the nearby hospital,
also killed; the family attempting to work
collecting scrap metal, even despite the
siege, despite the air invasion, blown to
piece and burned.
I’ve felt the terrifying impact of
missiles landing 30 metres from a thin-walled
ground-floor room hearing the screams of
terrorized families trapped in their homes, 50
metres from a thin-walled apartment room, 100
metres from hospital buildings windows already
shattered. I’ve been rocked awake night
after night, if I’ve fallen asleep, by
missiles outside of whatever building in
whatever region I stay: Gaza City, Jabaliya,
beside the port… I avoid the coastal road
where Israeli naval boats continue to fire
upon Gaza, but I walk under buzzing drones
every day and night, under the warplanes,
leaving one truly feeling like a target, no
matter where we are.
I’ve heard time and time and time again,
“They call us the terrorists, yet it’s our
kids, our wives, our mothers, our brothers
dying. What can we do? This is our life,”
from Palestinians, even before the attacks,
when it was Israel’s siege on Gaza that was
the most urgent factor. Now that urgency is
amplified beyond imagination by the on-going
attacks.
1.5 million Palestinians throughout the
Gaza Strip are unable to run from, escape
from, these illegal attacks. My life,
internationals lives, are no more important
than Palestinians’ lives. We will stay on
during their suffering, in solidarity and to
document the illegal acts Israel is doing, the
war crimes Israel clearly does not want the
world to see, to understand, and is preventing
journalists from reporting. To see, to
understand, means to stop Israel’s
bombardment of Gaza, its contravention of
international humanitarian law and
international law.
[facts below according to the latest stats
journalists are publishing. Again, bearing in
mind that the attacks CONTINUE and the dead
and injured are still being brought in from
new attacks, absolute numbers are presently
impossible. Certainly the numbers may be
higher]
-
428 dead from Israel’s indiscriminate
missile attacks throughout the Gaza Strip
-
2100 injured, many of these critically-so,
standing death, lasting brain damage, lasting
internal problems, amputations
Of the dead and injured, significant
numbers of civilians: children, women,
elderly, and innocent men who have been
targeted.
-
2 emergency medical personel targeted,
killed; 15 further injured
-
at least 8 mosques targeted, destroyed
-
a park in Rafah targeted, killing two
civilians (22 and 33 years old) and injuring
10s
-
3 different universities targeted, including
Islamic University, repeatedly targeted.
-
schools targeted, including a secondary
school
-
UN schools suffering damage from targeting
near the schools
-
a kindergarten targeted
-
charitable societies, providing life-skills
training, targeted.
