MIDEAST: The Son Who Did Not Die, The One Who Did
GAZA CITY- The family had been mourning for 16-year-old Ahmed Abu Salamah. What was left of what was thought to be his body had been buried. After two weeks of mourning, they found Ahmed alive in the intensive care unit at Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital.
But a boy had been buried. And, a family had spent two weeks outside the intensive care unit, believing the boy inside was theirs. It was their boy who had died.
The discovery of the mistake brought joy to the family of Ahmed Abu Salamah. And it plunged into uncontrollable grief the family who had gathered at hospital and prayed daily for recovery of the boy within in intensive care.
Through this misunderstanding, one thing everyone understood. The body of the boy who was buried had been mangled beyond recognition. As was the boy still alive in intensive care.
"Israel is using missiles and materials which rip apart and burn beyond recognition the humans they target, so much so that a mother can't identify the body of her own son," Dr. Raed al-Arini, head of public relations at al-Shifa Hospital told IPS.
Israel had used banned materials such as Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) and white phosphorus, he said.
Ahmed has suffered brain haemorrhage and has serious wounds all over his body. He had left home on Saturday Mar. 1, his mother said, and was soon hit by an Israeli F-16 missile strike just outside his house. It was a day when more than 55 Palestinians were killed, many of them civilians and children.
For three days the family could find no trace of Ahmed. Then they were called by the hospital to say that the remains of a body in the morgue was Ahmed.
But two weeks later, Ahmed's friends informed his mother Karima that her son was still alive. She rushed to the hospital. "I shook his bed, and when he opened his eyes I said to him, 'this is your mother, I'm here with you'."
The other side of this story was that of mourning after hope.
The mangled body that the Salamah family had buried was that of Mohammed Hejazi, a 17-year-old from the same neighbourhood. Mohammed's mother Aminah Hejazi and his family had sat outside the ICU everyday for two weeks, believing that the boy inside was their Mohammed.
Ahmed's face was covered by bandages. The boys were about the same size, and the Hejazi family thought it was Mohammed. "At first I doubted whether this was really my son, but I felt the need to be close to him anyway," Aminah said. But in a few days, she said she came to believe the boy inside was her son. Until the other family arrived in hospital, and the doctors broke the news to her.
Aminah sobs as she recounts that moment. The family was broken, she said. Her husband would not believe Mohammed was dead.
Identifying Ahmed finally came down to the hair. Karima said Ahmed has brown hair; Aminah that her son's hair was black.
As the Abu Salamah family did earlier, the Hejazi family set up a mourning tent to receive condolences from friends and neighbours. On the other side, many of Ahmed's friends who had thought they would never see him again, following his 'funeral', have been streaming to the hospital to look him up.
Ahmed cannot speak to his friends. He is conscious, his eyes are open, but he is paralysed, and his condition is critical. Doctors say they are short of medicines to treat him.
Aminah mourns the death of her own, and prays for the boy who survived. "I pray that God will heal him," she said, in tears.
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palestinian woman passing by during military clashes in Gaza |
MIDEAST: No Day Is a Woman's Day in Gaza
GAZA CITY - Mahasen Darduna suffers in ways the world recognises; her suffering comes at the hands of the Israelis. But there are many Palestinian women whose suffering the world does not see, because their hell is inflicted on them by Palestinians.
One way and another, no day is a woman's day in Gaza.
For all of a week, Mahasen Darduna, 30, has sat day and night by her son's bedside in hospital. The boy, Yahiya, 9, was among the group hit by an Israeli missile while playing football on a field at the Jabaliya refugee camp. Yahia survived, but with severe injuries.
"He needs my support, he has been confined to this bed since he was maimed by the Israeli missile," Mahasen says. But she must also slip away often to see her other five children, who she has moved to her mother-in-law's house in belief they will be safer there.
"I think of them constantly when we are apart. I feel terrible: two are getting sick, and they all cry each time we say goodbye. I can't be at both places."
In the same hospital room, Umm Ali Faraj looks after her seven-year-old son, who suffered a cracked skull in a bombing. Umm Ali too has rearranged her family life. Four of her seven children stay with her in the hospital. Umm Ali goes back and forth between hospital and home, cooking for the children and getting them off to school.
Like Mahasen and Umm Ali, countless women have suffered through more than 40 years of Israeli occupation.
"Palestinian women's lives are incredibly difficult under the crippling international siege and the Israeli army's killing invasions," says Nadyia Abu Nahla, director of the Women's Affairs Technical Centre in Gaza, an independent group that supports women's rights.
The large number of women who have been forced to give birth at army checkpoints is well documented by international and Israeli rights groups. Israel's policy of demolishing Palestinian homes has collectively punished tens of thousands of women in Gaza and the West Bank, rendering them and their children homeless.
But through this period, women have also struggled against denial of rights by Palestinian society.
"The dire economic situation is one of the causes of an increase of violence in Gaza," Abu Nahla told IPS. With resistance to the siege and military attacks, religious fanaticism has grown, and that has contributed to an increase in violence against women, she said.
"Islam forbids violence against women, and forbids the use of women as slaves," says Sheikh Dr. Hassan al-Jojo, head of Gaza's Legitimacy Court, the main court for society and family issues. But Dr. Jojo acknowledges that women do not have their full rights.
'Honour killing' has increased, according to Abu Nahla. At least 17 women died in 'honour killings' in Gaza last year, her centre reports. Last year and 2003 have been the worst years for known 'honour killings' in Gaza. In 2003, 34 women were killed in Gaza and the West Bank.
Jordanian criminal law enforced in the West Bank, and Egyptian law enforced in Gaza, neither effectively prohibit nor appropriately punish violence against women. Women are rarely encouraged to go to the courts, or to seek the help of social services for rehabilitation.
Police chief investigator Mussa Dawoud told IPS that violence against women is taken seriously. But in trying to solve problems, he says the police try to protect the family structure, and avoid complications that could lead to divorce.
Police officers and clan seniors routinely mediate to resolve issues around family violence, but provide solutions that usually mean that the abused woman is sent back to her husband. Where women receive support to take a strong stand, they face pressure and punishment from abusive men.
One 29-year-old woman from Khan Younies is not allowed by her husband to use the phone or even send an sms, says Abu Nahla. She is locked up at home daily, and on one occasion could not take her sick child to hospital. Other women have been beaten up by husbands for visiting relatives without their permission, Abu Nahla said.
Only 13 percent of Palestinian Legislative Council members are women, with fewer holding leading positions. "This is not enough," Abu Nahla said. "We are hoping there will be more seats for women." And, she said, that there will be safety at home in every way. (END/2008)
Nowhere To Run To
JABALYIA, Gaza- An ambulance races through Jabalyia refugee camp to pick up the critically injured – and the body parts strewn across the street. A normal day's job these days.
Families crouch in makeshift shelters around handheld radios, listening out for some word that their agony will end. There is no electricity, clean water is at a premium.
No sign yet of an end to the 'hot winter' that Israel has determined for Gaza residents. Israel is determined to finish the elected Hamas government and leadership.
If there is activity around Jabaliya camp, it is at the Kamal Adwan hospital. The wounded are brought in one after another. Frantic family members struggle to grab the attention of exhausted emergency room orderlies, doctors and nurses.
An ambulance arrives, but with no injured persons in it. The staff bring out body parts wrapped in blankets -- the remains of ten children and three women. Minutes later another ambulance arrives. A man is brought in, much of his skin seems to be missing. Mercifully, he arrives unconscious.
With just two operating rooms to work in, Kamal Adwan's surgeons struggle to attend to everyone brought in. Blood stains their uniforms, at times pieces of flesh and brain matter can be seen stuck to their collars and sleeves. The doctors are determined to save everyone they can.
An orderly wheels in another victim. A young man in coma is brought in, bleeding profusely from multiple shrapnel wounds from an air-to-ground missile.
Suddenly, all eyes are raised towards the ceiling. The thwop-thwop of a helicopter gunship draws nearer. Moments later there are sounds of explosion. The Israelis are bombing again, quite close. Some of those waiting at the hospital scream. Others sit looking blank.
A young man is lying down for treatment in a shared room. Both his legs, and one arm, are gone. He is trying to say something but he cannot.
"He was feeding the sheep at our home when an Israeli F-16 bombed our house," says his father by his side. "His legs were blown out from under him."
"Wake up Samah...please!" a girl is screaming. The girl she is calling out to is still, her torso burnt black. So is what is left of the body of another young woman in the hospital room. They were her sisters Samah 17 and Salwa Asalyia 23.
Her family members remember the moment the ambulance arrived. "Where is the rest of the body?" the ambulance driver asked. Out on the street the killings continue. This IPS correspondent saw a girl, about 17, screaming. A younger boy was lying motionless on the street. She stepped out towards him. As she approached the body, an Israeli sniper shot her dead. She was Jaclyn Abu Shbak, 17, and her brother was Eyad, 14.
The carnage continues, in what Israelis call self-defence. On Feb. 29, Israeli deputy defence minister Matan Vilnai threatened "Shoah" (holocaust) on Gaza in response to home-made Qassam rocket fire directed at the Israeli colony Sedrot, which resulted in the death of three Israelis.
The Israeli siege of Gaza through border closures, and withholding of food, water, and medical supplies enters its 25th month this March. But now the attacks on top of the siege get bloodier by the day.
For the first eight months after Israel removed its illegal colonies from Gaza in September 2005, Hamas and the Palestinian resistance observed an eight-month hunda (ceasefire) despite continued random shelling by Israel, kidnapping of officials and targeted assassinations.
This ended in June 2006 when an Israeli ship bombed a beach in Gaza, killing 13 people, 11 of them from one family. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah repeatedly approached Israel to negotiate a ceasefire. Israel has rejected each overture, and intensified its assaults.
The United Nations defines 'massacre' as the death of 50 or more civilians. Operation Hot Winter claimed 60 lives on its first day, and so far at least 126 killed, among them 39 children and babies, and 12 women, and 380 injured. Hundreds of houses have been destroyed.
Washington Report correspondent Mohammed Omer speaks with Hesham Tillawi. March 6th 08
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| Workers' building is down |
Workers' building is down |
GAZA CITY - Two F-16 missiles were all it took to bring down the five-storey headquarters of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU).
The Union, established in 1965, is one of the forerunners of the movement calling for an international boycott of Israel, and imposition of sanctions on it until Israel meets its obligations over UN resolutions, borders, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
Following the bombing last Thursday, Union members have resumed their work from a tent, gathering what files and paper they could from under the rubble.
"The occupation doesn't need any justifications to commit crimes against Palestinians," Nabil al-Mabhouh, acting head of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions in Gaza told IPS. But the building had apparently been targeted because "we at PGFTU are supporting the rights of tens of thousands of Palestinian workers."
Mabhouh said theirs is not a militant organisation, but a "rights-based organisation open to all people from different political affiliations and locations. We have relations with many international trade unions." The building, he said, had come up with Norwegian money.
"Targeting a civil organisation shows how barbaric and outrageous the Israeli occupation is," he said. "We are not launching rockets; targeting a labourers union building is not justified."
The building, he said, had been used to offer health services to tens of thousands of workers and their families, through a workers union health insurance.
"We strongly condemn this crime which aims to break down the Palestinian labourers, and call for all trade unions in the world to stand by us and protect the Palestinian labourers from such criminal practices."
As always with such bombings, neighbouring houses were damaged as well in the attack.
Palestinian officials estimate that Israel used two one-tonne missiles on this densely-populated civilian area, which explains the extensive damage to hundreds of flats around.
The losses are significant: aside from one dead and 37 injured, mostly women and children, some of them in critical condition in Shifa hospital, there has been considerable damage to the structure of surrounding houses. Countless windows and doors were blown off, and the damage to weight-bearing structural walls mean that rebuilding will be necessary -- but impossible, due to the Israeli siege and lack of building materials.
If the Israeli aim was to also terrorise the civilian population, it worked.
A young mother said she was asleep when the bombing began; she woke up to find her entire building shaking. Her five children continued to scream all night, begging the parents to hide them somewhere safe.
She said she cannot replace window panes. "We can't even afford to buy nylon (to cover the windows)," said her husband, adding that he hadn't worked for the past two years. He can afford nothing but bare food.
The explosion plunged the entire area into darkness, as electricity wires were cut off. It also caused water shortage after water tanks were hit by shrapnel and began to leak. Days later, there is still no running water in homes.
Abu Eidah's car outside was damaged by falling debris, as was most of their furniture and assets. But at least the family survived the strike to tell the story.
Abu Eidah is now searching desperately for another house. Another air strike in the neighbourhood, and the flats could come down. A relative has offered Abu Eidah an apartment that he and his family may now have to move into.
The number of homeless families has increased throughout Gaza, as has the demand for apartments on rent -- tents from aid agencies can hardly protect residents from the cold and rain of Gaza's winter. Meanwhile, people rendered homeless by the bombing continue to haul in donkey carts to move whatever furniture and belongings survived the shelling. But only a few can leave; hundreds of other families have no option but to stay put, amidst the rubble in the cold of winter.
Note from the webmaster: Mohammed is in grave danger today. Please pray for him.
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| 6 month old Mohammed al Bourai in the morgue |
Mourners carrying the body of Tamer Abu Shaar to be buried in Deir Al Balah cemetery |
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| Mohammed al Bourai body ready to be taken to hospital for final look by his mom and relatives |
Nasser al Bourai he father of Mohammed al Bourai carrying his body during a funeral |
GAZA CITY, - Tamer was nine, and no child soldier. He did not live in the area from where home-made rockets are launched into Israeli territory. The day he was killed, he was at least two kilometres from the place Israeli troops had entered Gaza, and met with return fire by Palestinian resistance.
His tragedy was that the family home was near Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip, close to the area the Israelis have set up as their Kussfim base.
"We were all inside the house when shooting started," Tamer's aunt Etaf tells IPS. "It was right after members of the Palestinian resistance stopped shooting at Israeli troops," she said, pointing towards the scene of those clashes a couple of kilometres away. But the Israelis marched into this area as well, hardly for the first time.
Members of the family decided to crawl out into the rain after a bullet hit a gas cylinder, Etaf said. "But Israeli soldiers continued to fire on us from a tank and Hummer military jeep." After some time, seeing that the gas cylinder had not exploded, Etaf said she crawled back into the house. Tamer followed, but never made it. "I saw Tamer shot, with a bullet in his head."
"He wanted to become a doctor when he grew up," says his mother Sabah Abu Shaar.
Like Tamer, other children are dying, and their mothers' dreams with them. A six-month infant named Mohammed al-Bourai was killed when an Israeli missile crashed into the house Wednesday this week, moments after he'd been fed. The family house happens to be close to the offices of Gaza's ministry of interior, and to the house of de facto Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Hanyieh.
The same day, three other Palestinian children were killed in an air strike. The following day, four Palestinian children were killed near the Jabaliya refugee camp while playing soccer. Two of the boys, all aged 7 to 14, were from the same family. A child's body was found in eastern Gaza, a victim of Israeli shelling.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs says in a Gaza fact sheet that 80 Palestinians were killed in January of this year, and 82 were injured. The January deaths included four children and five women. The Israeli casualties through the month were nine injuries from home-made rockets.
Just over the past three days, Israeli air strikes have killed at least 35 Palestinians, among them nine children. Many more are injured, and some are in critical condition.
Following Friday prayers, tens of thousands of Gazans came out on the streets in protest against the Israeli air strikes. Matan Vilnai, Israeli deputy defence minister, has said that Gaza faces a "holocaust" if the home-made rockets do not stop. Since May 2007, these rockets have killed one Israeli.
Emergency medical care is now threatened. The head of the ambulance department at Shifa hospital says he has just 20 litres of fuel left in stock for the ambulances. Once this runs out, little help will be available to victims of the next Israeli attacks.
Israeli attacks and firing are now so continuous that many in Deir al-Balah say they cannot sleep. "We can't feel safe here," says Tashaeel, one of Tamer's elder sisters. "If we'd also left with Tamer, their bullets would have made a harvest of us all."
The family has tried in vain for UN help in moving to another area. "Bullets chase us day and night," says mother Sabah. "We can't go out, and we have nowhere else to go. No money to move to a safer place where I could save the lives of my children.
"Last week Israeli soldiers had attacked out house, and ordered my seven daughters, two sons and myself into the rain, with their dangerous dogs scaring us away," Sabah said. "Then they ransacked our house for several hours, leaving it in total chaos before we were allowed back in." Such raids are common, she said.
Tamer was killed in the next one. The grieving family is now without water after bullets punctured the overhead tank. The walls of the house are pock-marked with bullet holes. And all the time they fear that Israeli bulldozers will bring down this too.
As Palestinians in Gaza wait for more Israeli attacks, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has expressed strong concern. "These events underscore the urgent need for a calming of violence, and must not be allowed to deter the continuation of the political process," he said. But such statements mean little on the ground, and people in Gaza see no international action to stop Israel.
"Gaza today faces a real war, a crazy war," Haniyeh said during Friday prayers near the Shati refugee camp. He also criticised the U.S. for accepting Israeli claims of 'legitimate self-defence'. Despite Israel's best attempts at ostracising Haniyeh, his popularity seems only to have increased.
Dear Friends,
I had a long day, an awful day, taking photos and writing from on the ground in Gaza
City and northern Gaza. I met with two children who survived Wednesday’s Jabalyia soccer bombing: the other 4 kids were, as you likely know, killed. One of the children I saw had no flesh on their legs, had burns all over their bodies from the tank’s shelling. This was one of the scariest things I have seen yet, and I have seen a lot more than that.
I asked one boy to give me details of what happened that Thursday afternoon. The 9 year old boy cried while he told that he’d seen the decapitated head of his cousin strewn far from his body, arms and legs, far away from where they were all playing soccer. His mother added that there wasn’t any electricity when her son was admitted to the hospital.
He was crying as he told the story, his tears hurting him even more than his psychological pain, as he has burns in his eyes. His mother uncovered his wounded leg where I could only see bones without flesh in places. I could not understand how he managed to lay down conscious, but knew it was a consciousness full of pain and anguish. I felt this pain in my own heart and head.
As I talked this child’s mother, she said that she’d had to evacuate her children, as it's no longer safe to be in that area where the children had been playing. The kids ranged from 6 to 14 years old. The two ones who survived said they had all been playing soccer in front of the door of their house in Jabalyia when the Israeli missile hit them.
I finally came back home some hours ago, after waiting a long time to find transportation. But, eventually managing to make it back to Rafah, I collapsed for a nap for an hour. My sleep was disrupted: I awoke scared by the bombing of F-16s (I learned later on). I ran from my bed through our dark house, and seeing no one from my family inside, I ran without shoes into the street. People were out in the street, young men running. I didn't understand, didn't know what I was doing other than that I was running but didn’t know to where. Most people's windows were down, shutters closed, as it is freezing cold at moment.
I was glad not to be injured by shattered glass and debris on the streets. I made it back home to write this on my laptop. But I’ve decided going back to sleep is not a good idea, no matter how exhausted I am. If I have to die (not my wish) , I want to be awake, so I know I’m dying, and by whom. Not asleep.
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