Report from Gaza: Two Years After Operation Cast Lead

The 2nd anniversary of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza; over 1400 people murdered, at least 350 were children.

This terrible image of a severely injured police officer in Gaza would horrify people in the west if it happened on their soil.

(GAZA CITY) - Two years after the terrible Israeli massacre in Gaza called "Operation Cast Lead" the memories are still fresh in the minds of the survivors.

The incident was a several week long series of war crimes that primarily targeted the civilian population of Gaza. Doctors trying to repair the endless injuries said they had never seen anything like it in their lives; so many broken and burned people.

Interestingly and sadly, doctors interviewed about the Israeli military operation, said they saw only civilians, and no militants among the injured and dead. United Nations compounds and schools were targeted and destroyed.

Yousef Al-Helou reported in April 2009, that a woman named Sabah Abu Halima was burned from head to toe during Operation Cast Lead' and lost her husband and four children.

Sabah Abu Halima lost her family during the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Photo: Yousef Al-Helou

"We had a happy home, I lived in this house in security with my husband and children. I was the happiest person in the world, but all of that changed when on January 4th the Israeli army entered our village and fired 2 phosphorus shells (that) penetrated our roof and brunt us while we were having our lunch, the fire was like lava, my family were burnt and their bodies turned to crisps." Sabah said.

With tears in her eyes, Sabah continued, "I demand the whole world and international human rights organizations to sue the killers of my family, they killed so many innocent people who tried to rescue us, what was the guilt of my children and my baby Shahad?"

Over the last few weeks the Israeli's have been ratcheting up the rhetoric and threatening a new Cast Lead. Ashkenazi, the leader of the Israeli military, has said many things that are very provocative. and there have been many killings already.

In the last month since I have been here, 22-25 people have been shot in the so-called buffer zone including kids collecting rocks just to survive. That is the current status quo in Gaza today.

Casting Lead and White Phosphorous

Two years ago on this day, the police academy in Gaza was the scene of the beginning of the slaughter that left so many dead and grief-stricken for life.

These people who were working in the police stations, doing the world of police; the same work that police do around the world, and yet this is where Israel launched its attack, and began their slaughter; killing 1400+ people including hundreds of children?

I'd like people in the west to imagine if any of the so-called Iraqi or Afghan insurgents went to New York or London and planted a bomb, blowing up a police station and killed 90 police. Can you imagine the reaction? It would be nearly unrestrained and justifiably so.

We hear the jets flying overhead right now, is there another attack? Is this the world we live in in 2010? Another slaughter of children with white phosphorous bombing people who are a captive population, if that happens, what is the world going to do?

Ken is a former U.S. Marine who served in the 1991 Gulf War and subsequently spoke out about the use of depleted uranium as a "crime against humanity" and the US military using soldiers as "human guinea pigs" with experimental drugs that were directly linked to Gulf War syndrome. He is also a social entrepreneur utilizing direct action marine conservation, he is more widely known for leading the human shield action to Iraq and as a survivor of the Israeli attack on the MV Mavi Marmara in which he participated in "defending the ship" and "disarming two Israeli Commandos". On January 7, 2004, O'Keefe burned his US passport in protest of "American Imperialism" and called for US troops to immediately withdrawal from Iraq. He replaced his US passport with a "World Passport", subsequently proclaiming himself a "Citizen of the World" with “ultimate allegiance to my entire human family and to planet Earth." Ken is also legal citizen of Ireland and Palestine citizenship. Read Ken O'Keefe's Biography, you can also visit Ken's Ken's Website alohapalestine.com