UPDATED ON:
Monday, January 12, 2009
17:20 Mecca time, 14:20 GMT
FOCUS: WAR ON GAZA
Displaced and desperate in Gaza
By Safa Joudeh in Gaza
Those who lived through the Palestinian 'nakba' say the current situation in
Gaza
evokes memories of that time [GALLO/GETTY]
During the course of the Israeli air, ground and sea assaults on Gaza there has
been a considerable shift in the nature of the offensive.
The aerial and ground attacks have risen in volume and ferocity and have
shifted focus from civil security offices, public service buildings and
mosques, to random bombardment of entire neighbourhoods, empty fields within
the periphery of these neighbourhoods and vacated or partially vacated
buildings.
Now, Israeli forces have taken to directly targeting and destroying residential
buildings and homes, civilian cars transporting entire families and schools
that provide shelter for the thousands of displaced families in the Gaza Strip.
'Tomorrow never comes'
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) schools turned shelters have
provided cover from the rain and cold for many displaced Gazans but they have
failed to provide protection from Israeli missiles.
Although 45 people were killed when a UN school in the northern city of
Jabaliya - where 350 Gazans were taking shelter - was hit, those that survived
have had little option other than to remain living in the building.
IN DEPTH
Latest news and analysis from Gaza and Israel
Send us your views and videos
Watch our coverage of the war on Gaza
As in all of the 34 UN schools housing refugees in Gaza, those in Jabaliya
sleep on the floor with little in the way of basic necessities.
Jalal is a 22-year-old engineering student whose home in the Zeitoun area of
Gaza City was only a few metres away from the home of the Samouni family. When
the Samouni family home was bombed, leaving 30 people dead, on the second day
of the ground offensive, Jalal, his parents, brother and four sisters fled and
took refuge in a Unrwa school.
"The first night of the ground incursion we all slept in the kitchen," Jalal
said.
"The second day phosphorus bombs fell on our backyard and the barn, setting the
hay and two animals on fire. Another came close to hitting my sister's head as
she was praying.
"They're like balls of fire rolling on the ground."
Jalal says that in the shelter, "four families are placed in each classroom,
that means between 30 and 40 people".
"It is cold at night and we went without food for 45 hours the first couple of
days.
"Each day we tell each other that this day will be the last, that tomorrow we
will go home and all this will end, but tomorrow never comes," he says.
'Nakba' memories evoked
Jalal's story echoes the accounts I have heard many times before from my
grandfather and others who lived through the Palestinian 'nakba' or catastrophe
in 1948.
"We tell each other that this day will be the last, that tomorrow we will go
home and all this will end, but tomorrow never comes"
Jalal, Gaza
"We fled the bombing of British warplanes, we locked our house and hid in the
hills for days, each day thinking that tomorrow we would return, but tomorrow
never came," my grandfather tells me.
"It has been 60 years and now it is happening again. This time we can't walk
south to escape the bombing, like we walked from Asdood to Gaza. This time they
want us to jump into the sea.
"But we won't, we'll die standing with our heads held high this time. We've
learned from the past that it's better to die defending than to run and live.
"We've learned that life has no meaning when your roots, your birthright, your
past and your present is stolen from you," he says.
Sleeping outside
About 15,000 people have now been displaced across the Gaza Strip. In Rafah
alone, 800 families have fled and in the past few days many thousands more have
been called upon by the Israeli military to evacuate their homes and
neighbourhoods.
A few days ago I went for a walk around my neighbourhood. I left my home early
in the morning and headed toward what is known as the Rimal market, a busy
shopping area in the centre of Gaza City.
As I turned into one of the streets leading off the market, I noticed people,
wrapped in blankets, sleeping outside their houses in the street.
In the next street was the ruins of what had been a Palestinian security
compound, once a landmark in Gaza City. It had been hit by Israeli warplanes on
three separate occasions, despite the fact that it was almost completely
destroyed in the first attack.
If it were to be hit again, the houses in the surrounding streets, which had
already sustained serious damage, would be in danger of collapsing. So the
residents had concluded that it was safer to sleep outside in the bitter cold
than to remain inside their homes.
Fleeing homes
The next day a number of carts drawn by donkeys were seen coming into Gaza
City. They were loaded with people; elderly men and women, mothers and fathers
with toddlers in their arms, small children wrapped in blankets, and what
looked like bundles of clothes.
Families are fleeing their homes all over the Gaza Strip [AFP]
These people had fled their homes in the northern Gaza Strip and, with nowhere
else to go, were seeking refuge in Gaza City.
Those not fleeing their homes have mainly been confined to them for days on
end, without water, electricity or sufficient food.
A few days ago, a man called into a radio station and called on the Red Cross
to try to reach his home in the Zeitoun area. He said the body of one of his
relatives had been in his home for four days and that the family had been
unable to leave the house to bury him because of constant heavy shelling in the
area. The body was beginning to rot, he told the radio host.
As Israel continues its attack on the people of Gaza, all the while sticking to
its claim that it is Hamas and not the Palestinian people being targeted,
memories of the Palestinian 'nakba' are evoked across the Gaza Strip.
Source: Al Jazeera
---------------
Jusfiq Hadjar gelar Sutan Maradjo Lelo
Allah yang disembah orang Islam tipikal dan yang digambarkan oleh al-Mushaf itu
dungu, buas, kejam, keji, ganas, zalim lagi biadab hanyalah Allah fiktif.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe : [email protected]
Unsubscribe : [email protected]
List owner : [email protected]
Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
