BY: MOHAMMED OF KABOBFEST
And so it begins. As Israel’s devastating war against the besieged refugee population of the Gaza Strip enters its second week, the Israeli artillery joined the air force and navy in bombing, shelling and destroying Gaza. The addition of this unit of the Israeli army to the destruction seemed to indicate that a ground invasion was very, very close by.
The different forces of the Israeli army terrorized the Gaza Strip all day with more than 40 attacks, destroying more homes and targets. The biggest attack, however, came at around 5PM during evening prayers. Israeli missiles slammed into the Ibrahim Maqadma mosque in Beit Lahya, killing 16 worshippers: men, women, and children. Tens of others, as evidenced by coverage from inside al-Shifa hospital, suffered horrific injuries, including deep burns, shrapnel wounds and loss of limbs. The doctors have very little anesthesia, and the dead and injured are being treated all over the floor because of a lack of space.
Again, Israel destroys a place of worship, with unarmed civilians praying inside, killing and maiming, and does so with impunity. Despite the uplifting protests across the Arab world, Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Latin America (and in one of the largest protests, 150,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel took to the streets in Sakhnin), the official response of the international community has been sickening in its timidity. The American School, Gaza’s best private school, whose students were almost entirely children of the Fatah elite, was completely flattened by another air strike. This war is NOT against Hamas. It is against all Palestinians regardless of their political affiliation. It is against schools and universities, mosques and homes. It is terrorism defined.
At around 7PM, all the electricity suddenly went out in and around Gaza City. The Israeli army fired light flares all over Beit Lahiya in the north. Just before 8PM, the ground invasion began. A very large amount of Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip from three points: Beit Lahiya in the north-west, Jabalya, and the Mintar area from the Karni crossing to the east.
As of now (just before 10PM), it is extremely difficult to determine exactly what is happening. What I can confirm, however, is that huge explosions have been rocking Gaza City and, in the dark, huge plumes of smoke can be seen rising over the skyline. The Israeli government has ordered Israelis around Gaza to stay in their shelters for the next 48 hours as protection from home made rockets fired by Palestinian fighters. The refugees of Gaza have no choice but to sit in their homes and wait for the most advanced, high tech, multi-million dollar US-supplied precision guided missiles to be precisely guided onto their homes.
The Israeli army on the border with Lebanon has been placed on the highest state of alert; but, in Gaza, the most cowardly war waged in recent history has entered the horrific phase that the people of Gaza have been expecting. The Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak, the war criminal, has said the invasion is intended to stop the rockets and those families who protect Palestinian fighters. Again, Israel openly admits to attacking civilians with no consequence.
As I am writing this, I am watching a live feed from Gaza City. An absolutely tremendous explosion hit the Zatoun neighborhood, just south of the city. The entire sky was bathed in a blinding light for several seconds, and it has become clear that an absolutely huge inferno is now raging at the point of the attack. Nobody is sure yet what the target was.
It is worth noting that, until now, the number of Palestinians murdered in this war had exceeded 460, and the number of wounded more than 2,300. Things are only going to get worse.
There are no cellphone lines to Gaza City. It is not that the network is busy, there simply is no coverage. I managed to get through to my uncle Mahmoud in Khan Younis. There is no invasion east of Khan Younis yet, but that entire area has been completely evacuated for a week. The airstrikes in the area, however, are continuous. There is no power, and the bombardment has been relentless all day.
The Israeli forces have now entered from another two points: the Shoka area in the south-east, and Beit Hanoun crossing (Erez) in the north-east.
The live images of the Gaza City skyline are terrifying. The explosions are continuous, loud and fiery.
Take heed of the fact that, over the past eight days, Israel has carried out more than 800 air-raids over the Gaza Strip. Over 400 tons of explosives have been dropped on the most densely populated region on earth. The asymmetry is breathtaking. The quiet or complicity of the world is disgusting.
The land-lines are still working in Gaza City; I was only just speaking over the phone with my uncle Mohammad there. Apart from the consistent bombardment, there is the continuous, droning sound of helicopter machine-gun fire. I asked him if he knows where the machine guns are hitting, but he said there is no way to know, the explosions are everywhere. I asked him if he knew what the target of the huge explosion had been half an hour ago. He said the news had come over the radio that it was a gas station supplying heating gas to homes. Again, a civilian target.
I asked about the kids, and he said he thinks they’re asleep, but it’s only out of exhaustion. His wife is too terrified to try sleeping, and the neighbors have gathered at his apartment.
He tells me the radio is reporting that Israeli tanks and troops have entered from a new point in the east: the Bureij refugee camp.
Diana talked to a friend of hers also in Gaza City. She just emailed me:
“They are absolutely terrified. My friend is crouched in her neighbour’s apartment and while I was on the phone with her (for 2 minutes) there were 5 blasts. She said that they are attacking from air and from sea and I heard one of the large explosions. She said that the building shook.
She is terrified that they are going to kill her or her brother (who is neither Hamas, nor Fatah, and doesn’t have any political affiliations) and fears that they are going to bomb her building because she lives opposite UNRWA and near Saraya.”
I will post this now, and update in an hour.
UPDATE
It is now 1:20AM. Tonight is probably the fiercest, most violent night in Gaza’s history. Israeli troops have no entered from Beit Lahiya (northwest), Beit Hanoun (north), the Zatoun neighborhood, Jabalya refugee camp, and Mintar crossing (all in just to the east of Gaza City), and the Shoka neighborhood (south-east).
The live feeds from Gaza broadcast by Arab news channels (Israel has been banning foreign journalists from entering Gaza) show the territory to be completely dark, without electricity. The skyline is lit up every now and then by an Israeli air strike (although none have been as breathtakingly massive as the attack on Gaza’s gas depot which turned day into night for a few long seconds). Over the voices of the reporters however, the most persistent sound is that of the fierce gunfire coming from the areas where Israeli forces have entered and are fighting the resistance. No matter where you are in Gaza, you can hear the gunfire which tells you just how fierce the face to face combat is.
I managed to get through to my uncle Mohammad again in Gaza City. For the duration of the phone call, an explosion would be heard every 20 seconds or so. In the bitter cold of the night, terror is blanketing the people of Gaza, and Gaza City in particular. The gunfire and explosions are framed against a background of a blackened sky buzzing with invisible war planes and attack helicopters. Nobody knows what is being hit. My uncle tells me there have been explosions all around them, near and far, from all sides, but even the local radio, which so far has been excellent at reporting what happens on the ground, cannot determine what the targets are that are being hit. Nobody is sure if the airstrikes are targeting homes, buildings, mosques or previously bombed sites, therefore nobody knows if any change in tactics has occurred. In war, for civilians as much as for soldiers, there isn’t much that is more terrifying than not knowing.
He could tell me, however, that the Zatoun neighborhood just south of Gaza City and Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in the north were sites of real battles. The resistance was fighting the ground forces in those areas and the Israeli air force and artillery were concentrating their bombing and shelling in those areas.
He told me that his youngest daughter, Dina, woke up screaming at the sound of the explosions, but he had just managed to put her back to sleep. His wife, Areej, was sitting nearby with their baby son Yazeed. She was absolutely terrified, but was half-asleep from exhaustion. The neighbors had all gathered at his apartment for the night. I keep repeating the words terror and fear, but that is because they are the only words that kept coming through in the voice over the phone.
There is, however, a quiet confidence that the resistance will be able to turn the invasion of Gaza into a hell for the invaders. Nobody is expecting the Palestinian fighters to destroy the Israeli occupation forces, but in Gaza, under the bombing and shelling and fire, the people seem sure that Israel will pay a price for this.
Despite that, it was extremely difficult to make the phonecall. There is nothing to say, nothing you can do to drag them out of the terror. Our nightly conversations had usually gone on for more than 20 minutes every night, but this one was over in five. I told him to have faith in God, that I and millions of people around the world would be praying for their safety. He told me to make sure I don’t stop praying. It is all we have.
I tried calling my uncle Mahmoud in Khan Younis but he wasn’t picking up. I called Jasim instead, who sounded extremely tired. He told me, amazingly, there had only been one airstrike on Khan Younis today, killing two. But he said the warplanes never left the sky, and that he could hear the wall of gunfire to the east. I told him I could imagine it, that I could hear it on TV from central Gaza City. He told me that he couldn’t sleep, even though Khan Younis seemed much quieter than Gaza City, the north, or the east. He talked about the reports over the radio that Israel’s Channel 10 TV network had confirmed 9 Israeli soldiers had been killed. I told him I wasn’t sure, that while the Palestinian fighters were claiming they had killed several soldiers, Haaretz was reporting dozens of Palestinians fighters had been killed. Neither side could provide any proof, and we both agreed that both sides were waging psychological war, each trying to disrupt the morale of the other side and raise that of their own. I told him that I was hoping, however, that the resistance was managing to inflict real damage on the occupiers, but there was no way to know.
He told me it was odd, having Khan Younis be so (relatively) quiet while the rest of the Strip seemingly burned with gunfire and explosions. I told him I was praying tomorrow would bring a better day than tonight, and to try to sleep while he could. He doubted he would, but told me to keep praying.
The UN Security Council is due to meet in the upcoming hours, and I expect absolutely nothing to be done to stem the flow of blood in Gaza. The United States, that bastion of democracy, is putting the replacement of the democratically elected rulers of Gaza with the PA as a condition for passing a resolution calling for a ceasefire. But that is just feet dragging. As it was doing during the war on Lebanon in 2006, the international community is buying Israel time to achieve its murderous goals. But like it did in Lebanon, Israel will fail in Gaza. Even if it manages to kill its way through the Strip’s overcrowded and impoverished refugee camps until it has complete control, the Palestinians will not stop fighting Israel until it accepts the rights of Palestinian to liberty, freedom and life in their homeland.
Tonight, more than any other time in Palestinian history, that fight is centered in Gaza. If you believe in God, I ask you tonight, more than any other time before, to pray for the people of Gaza.
Remember Gaza.