Gaza Under Attack: Death and Destruction in Rafah

(GAZA ISM) - On Thursday afternoon, Israeli forces escalated attacks on the Gaza Strip: the murderous offensive has killed 18 people so far, the majority of them being civilians.

Among the massacred are a mother, her daughter, two children, two elder men and four members of Al Qassam Brigades. More than sixty people have been injured so far, some are still fighting for their lives.

Since Thursday afternoon the Gaza Strip is besieged by drones, Apache helicopters, F16 and E15 fighter planes, gunboats in the south and tanks by the border. At approximately 16:00 on Thursday, 07 April 2011, Israeli forces targeted areas surrounding the previously destroyed Gaza International Airport in the far southeast of Rafah city, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces positioned along the border fired approximately 10 artillery shells, while Apache helicopters opened machine gun fire. A number of the artillery shells landed near three Palestinian civilians who were sitting near the airport. Two of them, 25-year old Mohammed Eyada Eid el-Mahmoum and 17-year old Khaled Ismail Hamdan el-Dabari were killed immediately and the third civilian, 38-year old Saleh Jarmi Ateya al-Tarabin, died of his wounds in the hospital on the evening of the same day.

Israeli forces continued to fire as a number of Palestinian civilians attempted to rescue the wounded. 20-year old Musaab Mohammed Ubeid Sawwaf was killed and another 14 civilians, including five children and a paramedic from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, were wounded.

Salama El-Dabari is seated in a tent, mourning the loss of his nephew, the 17-year old Khaled Ismail Hamdan el-Dabari, while he explains to ISM volunteers what has happened.

"Khaled was following the ambulances on his motorbike, to assist the medics in evacuating the injured people. As soon as the ambulances arrived, an Apache helicopter shelled the site again. Khaled got stuck under his motorcycle, which caught fire during the shelling. The ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society were not able to evacuate him immediately. They recovered his body the next morning, covered in burns, with open head wounds, a hole in the abdomen, bullets in the legs and without hands. His father, my brother, was looking for him, but we didn't want him to see his son in such a condition, so we sent him home before evacuating Khaled's body."

"Look at us, the Palestinians; we are a peaceful people that is trying to shake of the occupation to live in freedom. But we don't have any meaningful military power: we have no drones nor F16's, we don't have any of Israel's modern weaponry. There is no comparison possible. We are desperate. Nobody seems to care about the Palestinians and our struggle for justice."

21-year old Abdel Hadi Jumma el-Sufi is one of the injured and is currently hospitalized in Shifa hospital in Gaza City. He stares at the ceiling of his hospital room while recalling the murderous event.

"One of the men was hit in the beginning of the attack, so me and my friends approached to evacuate him. We found out that the man was already dead. Tanks kept on shelling and killed another man. We managed to get the two dead bodies and one severely wounded man out of there, into the ambulance, but could not reach the fourth man as shelling prevented us. I thought he was still alive, but in the morning the ambulance recovered another dead body from the scene."

Abdel himself sustained shrapnel wounds to his legs, longs and the back of his head and is currently awaiting surgery. 20-year old Mahdi Joma'a Abu Athra is worst off; the doctor at Europa hospital in Khan Younes describes him as a dead body kept alive by machinery.

His maternal uncles are sitting around the hospital bed and are explaining that Mahdi got married a couple of months ago: his wife is pregnant. It seems unlikely that Mahdi will ever lay eyes on his firstborn.

One of the uncles bursts out: "How come the West is so interested in defending the Libyan's human rights and is doing nothing for the Palestinians? You, who come here in solidarity with us, should send a clear message to your countries: it is not us that is attacking Israel, it is Israel that is attacking us! They are the terrorists and the criminals! Our rockets and missiles are fireworks compared to Israel's weaponry! They have the most high-tech accurate equipment: they can target very precisely. When they kill civilians, it's because they intend to kill civilians!"

Inge Neefs is a Belgian peace activist who was on board the Freedom Flotilla which tried to break the siege on Gaza. Inge has been living in the Gaza Strip for the past 5 months, working as a volunteer for the ISM (International Solidarity Movement)

Der letzten Runde israelischer Massaker, die an den Meschen in Gaza begangen wurden, sind seit Donnerstag nachmittag 16 Personen durch brutale Tötungen zum Opfer gefallen, darunter eine Mutter und Tochter, 4 Kinder und ein älterer Mann. Die letzten 5 Tage hindurch ist Gaza Stadt von Apache Helikoptern, F16 und E15 Kampfflugzeugen bombardiert worden. Diese schrecklichen Massaker geschehen nur einen Tag nach der Stellungnahme des in Ungnade gefallenen israelischen Kriegsministers Ehud Batak, in der er seine Generäle dazu aufruft, die Angriffe auf Gaza zu verstärken. Der Genozid in Zeitlupe selbst hat bis jetzt mehr als 600 Patienten getötet. (Anmerkung der Übersetzerin: indem sie nicht oder nicht rechtzeitig die notwendige medizinische Hilfe bekamen).Wir verurteilen diese abscheulichen Verbrechen auf das Schärfste und wiederholen unseren Aufruf an alle zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisationen und freiheitsliebenden Menschen, sofort in jedweder möglichen Form etwas zu unternehmen, um Druck auf ihre Regierungen auszuüben, die diplomatischen Beziehungen mit dem Apartheitsstaat Israel abzubrechen und Sanktionen gegen Israel zu verhängen.

Gaza leidet unter der israelischen Politik der Vernichtung und Zerstörung schon seit dem Juni 2006. Wir verurteilen ebenso die internationale Konspiration durch Schweigen und Unfähigkeit angesichts dieser fortgesetzten israelischen Verbrechen. Nicht eine einzige Maßnahme ist seitens der UN gegen Israel ergriffen worden. Das Versagen der Vereinten Nationen und ihrer zahlreichen Organisationen, solche kriminellen Handlungen zu verurteilen, deutet auf Mittäterschaft. Unser wiederholter Appell richtet sich deshalb auch nicht an die Vereinten Nationen und die scheinheilige internationale Gemeinschaft, sondern vielmehr an alle zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisationen und Soldaritätsgruppen, die Sanktions-Kampagne gegen Israel zu verstärken, um Israel dazu zu zwingen, seine Aggressionen gegen Gaza einzustellen. Wir wiederholen unseren Aufruf auch an alle arabischen revolutionären Bewegungen, ihre Regierungen zu veranlassen, ihre diplomatischen Beziehungen mit dem Apartheitsstaat Israel abzubrechen. Dies war die Forderung von Tausenden ägyptischer Männer und Frauen, die gestern gegenüber der israelischen Botschaft in Kairo demonstrierten.

Wir fragen, wie viele Leichname von palästinensischen Kindern und Frauen muss die internationale Gemeinschaft noch sehen, um etwas zu unternehmen? Was müssen die arabischen Regierungen noch sehen, um ihre Worte der Unterstützung in Taten umzusetzen? Was würde die UN und ihren Sicherheitsrat wohl überzeugen, dass Palästinenser auch Menschen sind?