Lucky few leave Gaza bloodshed
2009-01-02 21:45
Douglas Hamilton
Gaza - They boarded buses in the pre-dawn
murk on Friday, lucky foreign passport holders allowed by Israel
to escape from seven days of Israeli bombardment in the Gaza
Strip.
"The situation is very bad. We are afraid for our children,"
said Ilona Hamdiya, a woman from Moldova married to a
Palestinian. "We are very grateful to our embassy," she said in
lightly accented Arabic.
Between 350 and 450 foreigners were authorised by Israel to
leave Gaza if they wish, via the forbidding concrete corridor
that ushers them into Israel's fortified crossing point and its
panoply of security scanners to detect hidden suicide bombs.
Five busloads headed out on the short trip to the border,
one of American passport holders and four of mainly East
Europeans.
They left behind 1.5 million Palestinians unable to escape
the conflict which has killed 414 people since it began last
Saturday. Four Israelis have been killed by Gaza rockets.
Morning air strikes
Gaza city was waking up to another day of Israeli air
strikes, flickering electricity and long queues for bread. Aside
from the bakeries, the almost deserted streets were cold and
dirty, littered with a week's bombing debris.
Morning air strikes hit six houses. A Palestinian girl of
about 14 died apparently of a heart attack, terrified by an
explosion which rocked her house, neighbours said.
In the south an Israeli missile killed three children aged 8
to 12, as they played in the street in southern town of Khan
Yunis. One was decapitated. At Shifa hospital in Gaza City,
doctors could not disguise their anger.
"These injuries are not survivable injuries," said Madth
Gilbert, a Norwegian surgeon unable to save one boy who had both
feet blown off. "This is a murder. This is a child," he said.
'Only God can help us'
At the UN Beach Distribution Centre, teenagers with rickety
trolleys and men with horses and carts collected sacks of flour
and other food aid from a warehouse replenished the day before
by 70 aid trucks allowed in via Israel.
"Only God can get us out of this mess," said one old man
waiting to buy his ration of unleavened loaves.
At Jabalya refugee camp to the north, boys inspected the
twisted concrete left by one of the Israeli air force's latest
targets, the so-called Mosque of Martyrs which Israel says was a
a hidden arsenal and command post for fighters of the Islamist
Hamas group which rules the Gaza Strip.
The air force supplied black and white cockpit video of the
strike to underscore the large number of secondary explosions
which it said proved its case.
'My children don't understand this'
Several mosques that would normally be busy before Friday
prayers were still closed in the morning because they had been
warned by Israel's army that they would be bombed.
Nine have been hit since the attack began on Saturday.
"I will pray at home. You never know, they may bomb the
mosque and destroy it on our heads," said one man buying humus
from a street stand. Another was defiant: "What better than to
die while kneeling before God?" he said.
Gaza markets, normally bustling on a Friday, were deserted.
"It is an adventure to get out of your house to fetch a kilo
of tomatoes or something," said Abu Yasser, a father of four.
"But I must take my chances because my children are not to
blame for this and they do not understand why all this is
happening," he told Reuters.
'Collateral damage'
Hundreds of families say they have had telephone calls
warning their houses would be bombed, and they have left to stay
with relatives or friends. Some of their neighbours have packed
up and gone as well, wary of becoming "collateral damage".
Duct tape has been in heavy demand by Palestinians who tape
up their windows hoping to protect against flying glass from the
heavy explosions.
Hamas police moved about mostly in plain clothes, with no
guns on display. Merchants were warned against war profiteering.
- Reuters