- [previous updates by Mona are also on
her blog. Worth reading to have an inkling of what life in Gaza is
like these days for the inhabitants. No one who does not live there,
does not undergo what the people are undergoing, can ever really understand
what it must be like. Following Mona's update here is the Washington
Post depiction of events. It is the only news report (as opposed
to op-ed) that I found that furnishes a bit of the 'human interest' along
with the rest in a dozen or so English language on-line newspapers and
media that I glanced through today. Dorothy]
-
- Friday, June 30, 2006
- Gaza-friday night 1.30 am
-
- the power still off , it comes on and
off irregularly, the electricity company is trying hard , to supply power
to 1.5 million population,who used to get electricity by the power plant
, that has been completely destroyed 2 nights ago ,tonight another electrical
generators has been attacked and destroyed completely , in the middle camps
and jabalia ,i tried to explain to my daughter the complicated mechanisms
of power distribution , and how the electrical company is trying hard,she
was so frustrated ,to learn that we will be receiving patchy power for
another 3 month AT LEAST.and we need to rationalise many things , food
consumption,water use , going out,may be smiling and laughing ,and the
worst is when the hospitals had to rationalise surgical operations , due
to lack of medications,and power and fuel.life will continue and the shameful
official arabic and international sielence will continue ,this is not the
start,and will not be the end Palestinian people will continue their struggle
against injustice and occupation of the large famous democracy in the area(Israel)
, and yet occupying force???it is not strange it is happenning in Iraq,by
the most powerful and democratic country USA,with its support, Israel has
free hand , both are new colonial forces.
-
- they are attacking Gaza city right now
, jablia,and Beit Lahia, the ER department of AlAwda Hospital ,received
7 casualities , (moderetly injured).
- they launched at least 15 missiles,the
noise of the jet fighters and Apachi heliocapters ,interrupted my already
interrupted sleep,iam fully awake now , i didnot get good sleep ,for 4
days , the targets were different places ,inside gaza city.
-
-
-
- things are clear for me , the military
operation in Gaza ,aims to destroy the infrastructure completely,to end
up with no goverment no PA , no negotiations with palestinians,peace is
not israel goal, israel is a colonial , racist regeime,hiding behind democracy.and
its citizens security.
-
- THE AIR RAID IS CONTINUING
-
- posted by Mona_Elfarra at 3:00 AM | 18
comments
-
- Wednesday, June 28, 2006
- Gaza under large scale military attack
- Dear freinds
-
- i sent this email to my feind Hilary
in the uk , i felt tense and wanted
- to share what iam going through with
her , i think i like to share it with
- you too , and try to tell the world what
is going on
-
-
- in solidarity
- Mona ElFarra
-
-
- Dear Hilary
-
- I am writing while the jet fighters are
in the sky , with their horrible
- sound , bringing death and horror,it
is 10.30pm, I am still like everyone
- waiting , i hope they will not go ahead
with their operation into Gaza,
- the outcome could be horrible ,the resistance
movemet are going ahead with
- their preperation too,but the balance
of power is obvious to wich side
- ,any way Israel with resistance or no
resistance is attacking us all the
- time, but this time will be different
,and in the process many civilian
- lives will be lost,iam listening to the
local radio, it seems that the
- operation started in khanyunis ,the artilary
started shelling ,under the
- cover of apachi heliocapters,and jet
fighters , i am able to write now ,
- do not know what will happen next,the
power might cut off soon , few hours
- ago , Mohammed and Sondos had a narrow
escape during their way home , a
- car exploded 150 meters from my home
, close to the president home, one
- person died and 4 injured, i cannot help
feeling of worry, i am after all
- a mother , ,
-
-
-
- i shall stay strong , tommorrow iam going
to the red crescent society
- office, we are supposed to get some medications
to be used at Alawda
- hospital for the emergency department,that
was stopped at the closed
- borders , i am hoping to get it through
with the help of WHO , i am not
- sure if we shall receive them in time,
but i shall keep trying.
- the aeroplanes sound in the sky is geting
louder .
- i shall keep writing , it is big releif
for me ,
- love you all
-
- Mona
- ps Hilary is my freind in the Uk
- Alawda Hospital is inside jabalia refujee
camp, 2 weeks ago, it received
- the Galia family children,who lost their
parents during the beach
- incident.
-
-
-
- Mohamed and Sondos are my dear kids,
i pray for the safety of all the the
- children of the world,including israeli
children
-
- ALAWDA HOSPITAL MEDICTION SUPPLIES IS
ENOUGH FOR ONE WEEK , OF ROUTINE
- USE,IF THE OPERATION CONTINUE , AND CASULITIES
NUMBERS INCREASE A HEALTH
- DESASTER WILL FOLLOW IAM JUST WARNING
-
- the operation against Gaza ,is continuing,it
is 1.30 am,the gaza bridge
- has been destroyed,the jet fighters are
still in the sky hitting many
- targets.
-
-
-
- the gaza power plant was hit bt at least
7 missiles , i can see a big fire
- from my window , and hear the sirens
of emergency vans,the gun boats
- started shelling too , i live by the
beach .
-
- ,
- this is updating in the morning ,28th
of june 7 am last night , it was very dangerous for me to reach the computer
the power was cut off , i stayed on the floor with my son and daughter,
we did not sleep at all like all the residents in gaza strip.while trying
to get
- some hours of sleep , we didnot manage
, the jet fighters sonic bombs started showering us , it is very loud and
horrifying voice , they are continuing their attacks.
-
- i contacted the hospital several times
, no casualities yet, the operation
- is going on in different parts of the
gaza strip, but it is focused in the
- south,rafah, i have no idea about the
casulities
-
-
- I WILL CONTINUE FURTHE UPDATES ON MY
BLOG at http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/
-
- In Gaza, Seeking Shelter From Israeli
Fire
- Missile Strikes Set Interior Ministry
Ablaze
-
- By Scott Wilson
- Washington Post Foreign Service
- Friday, June 30, 2006
-
- BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip, June 29 -- Fatin
Shabaat left home here Thursday with her three hip-high children, looking
for safety from a slow-moving Israeli military assault launched to free
a 19-year-old soldier being held by Palestinian gunmen.
-
- Israeli artillery batteries lobbed shells
around this farming community in the Gaza Strip's northeastern corner throughout
the day, after leaflets dropped from the sky warned residents to remain
clear of Israeli military operations. Shells whistled overhead, slamming
into the fields and dunes where Palestinian gunmen regularly fire crude
rockets at the Israeli city of Sderot, a white smudge along a ridgeline
three miles away.
-
- Although she never received one of the
written warnings, Shabaat clutched her children, ages 2, 3 and 4, and headed
to her father's home in the town center, far from the dirt paths that have
served in the past as routes for Israeli tanks. An Israeli airstrike had
already left her without electricity, along with about 700,000 other residents
of the strip, and artillery shells were falling close to her back yard.
-
- "This is only going to get worse,"
said Shabaat, 25, who despite the impending clash favors keeping the Israeli
soldier captive until at least some Palestinian prisoners are released
from Israeli jails. "We will not get anything otherwise. And they
are going to invade anyway. This soldier is just an excuse."
-
- Shabaat's grim prognosis regarding the
crisis over the captured Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, was echoed
in the West Bank, where the Israeli military arrested more than 60 officials
from the governing Hamas movement in a pre-dawn sweep. The detainees included
two dozen members of parliament and nine cabinet ministers, more than a
third of the Hamas cabinet.
-
- [Early Friday morning, Israeli military
aircraft fired missiles at the Interior Ministry headquarters in Gaza City,
setting the building ablaze. An army spokesman said the ministry, headed
by Saed Siyam of Hamas, was being used "for the planning and carrying
out of terrorist activities." Siyam's office was struck directly.
-
- [Israeli airstrikes also hit several
other targets Friday, including the headquarters of a new Interior Ministry
militia dominated by Hamas members and a building that military officials
said was used by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Fatah party's armed wing.
Missiles also struck roads in the north and south of the strip, some landing
near a key bridge that had already been hit this week. There were no immediate
reports of injuries.]
-
- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's
government holds Hamas responsible for Shalit's capture, which occurred
Sunday during an attack on an army post just outside Gaza's southeastern
corner that left two soldiers dead. The radical Islamic movement's armed
wing was involved in the attack and is one of three groups demanding the
release of 421 Palestinian women and minors in Israeli prisons in exchange
for information about Shalit's welfare.
-
- Israel has arrested elected members of
the Palestinian legislature before, but never as many as it did Thursday.
-
- Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli
Foreign Ministry, said the detained Hamas officials would be either charged
and brought to trial or released in the days ahead. He said plans to arrest
Hamas officials for belonging to what Israel designates a terrorist organization
had been in the works since Hamas's armed wing ended a 15-month cease-fire
with Israel after the June 9 explosion on a Gaza beach that killed seven
members of a Palestinian family.
-
- Regev denied speculation that the Hamas
legislators would be offered in exchange for Shalit's freedom. "Hamas's
involvement in terrorism is the reason for these arrests, nothing more,"
he said.
-
- But Palestinian political analysts said
they believed the arrests were timed to undermine a rare political agreement
reached this week by leaders of the two leading Palestinian political movements,
Fatah and Hamas.
-
- The two parties have been at odds since
Hamas's electoral victory in January over how to respond to the international
economic sanctions that have choked off most of the government's funds.
The United States and European Union also designate Hamas a terrorist organization,
a classification that led to a freeze of most foreign aid.
-
- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas, who heads the secular Fatah movement, and Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyeh of Hamas agreed in principle this week to a unified political program
that would usher in a national unity government in the weeks ahead and
endorse the creation of a future Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza
and East Jerusalem, territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East
war.
-
- Since it was founded nearly two decades
ago, Hamas has called for an Islamic state across a far larger territory
that includes Israel. Abbas and others had hoped the shift in Hamas's position
would persuade Israel to revive peace talks, which have been dormant for
more than five years.
-
- "I don't think that, at a time ministers
are in prison, a national unity government with Fatah can be established,"
said Ali Jarbawi, a political science professor at Beir Zeit University
in the West Bank. "It won't have legitimacy with Palestinian public
opinion. What Israel did through these arrests is interfere in a process
that would stabilize internal Palestinian relations, thus allowing it to
continue to claim that there is no Palestinian partner" for peace
talks.
-
- This town, which has been under the arc
of Israeli military fire for months, readied itself in small ways Thursday
for what many of its 30,000 residents feared was an imminent assault. But
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz later postponed a ground incursion
into Beit Hanoun, which had been scheduled to begin Thursday evening, after
Egyptian diplomats requested more time to negotiate Shalit's release.
-
- A senior Israeli military official said
Peretz did so after signs that Khaled Mashal, Hamas's political leader
in exile, could be softening his position. Israeli officials and Egyptian
diplomats say Mashal, who lives in the Syrian capital of Damascus, has
been the most important voice inside the organization opposing Shalit's
release.
-
- "If he would change his mind and
come around, he really has a lot of influence," the senior military
official said. "We will try to wait as long as we can if we feel pressure
is being put on him. We are not in a hurry."
-
- But the official also said the operation
here was not only about freeing Shalit but also about "weakening the
Hamas government" and ending rocket fire into southern Israel. In
that sense, the official said, Shalit's release through diplomacy may not
be enough to guarantee "our strategy of making sure they know that
there will be a very high price to pay for future kidnappings."
-
- Before the operation was suspended, some
residents here decamped to stay with relatives, while others prepared to
retreat. Some accused Israel of using the capture of one soldier -- at
a time when the Israeli government holds 8,503 Palestinians in prison --
to stage an attack that would do little to free him.
-
- Others fired rockets toward Israel. Two
of the missiles traced white contour trails against the blue sky during
a brief lull in the Israeli artillery barrage.
-
- "We have a plan to withdraw if the
Israelis attack," said Hamada Abdullah Hamada, 31, a sergeant with
the Palestinian national forces who was manning a makeshift outpost between
the town and the Gaza border.
-
- >From the five shipping containers
that formed the post, Hamada could see flatbed trucks moving Israeli tanks
along the border. The two rockets rose from behind a nearby agricultural
school a quarter-mile from Hamada's concrete pillbox, and Israeli guns
answered minutes later with steady, thumping fire.
-
- Pointing to the tank movements, Hamada
said: "Even before the soldier was kidnapped, the Israelis were doing
this. They will come in."
-
- Special correspondent Samuel Sockol in
Jerusalem contributed to this report.
-
- © 2006 The Washington Post Company
-
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article
/2006/06/29/AR2006062900432.html?sub=AR
|
