Diaries: Live from Palestine

Buried alive


“This is at the beginning, when they started digging survivors and bodies out of the rubble,” Abu Qusay said, referring to a photo of himself buried up to his shoulders in rubble, his face bloodied. Just a few weeks after being buried alive by the bombing which attacked the building he was in, only a mere scar at his left eyebrow hinted at the ordeal. Eva Bartlett writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

In Gaza, a "ranch" turned to rubble


Piles of bricks, metal sheets and pieces of wood, are all that remains of tens of Palestinian homes in the Ezbet Abed Rabu (Abed Rabu Ranch) neighborhood, east of Jabaliya town in the northern Gaza Strip. “There is nothing left for us to live for — the house was lost and the furniture destroyed,” lamented Suad Muhammad Abed Rabu. The Electronic Intifada contributor Rami Almeghari reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

Every family has a story, here are some of them


There are many stories. Each account — each murdered individual, each wounded person, each burned-out and broken house, each shattered window, trashed kitchen, strewn item of clothing, bedroom turned upside down, bullet and shelling hole in walls, offensive Israeli army graffiti — is important. Eva Bartlett writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

Were chickens firing rockets?


Since the ceasefire was enacted, I have toured throughout Gaza to document some stories and accounts. Although I wrote many articles, I decided to focus on the untold stories of the war: the brutal massacre of thousands of chickens. The Electronic Intifada contributor Sameh A. Habeeb writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

"May God take revenge on those who did this!"


Samira Qishta, a mother of 12, rushed to her house in the al-Brazil housing project of Rafah City, right after the Israeli army declared a halt to its attacks on the coastal region on 18 January. “My God, what has happened? was it an earthquake? I cant believe my eyes!” This was Samira’s reaction when she saw her devastated house. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

"Let me tell you about Palestine, the way it used to be"


“Let me tell you about Palestine, the way it used to be,” my grandmother said in Arabic. “The thing I’ll remember most is my childhood in the city of Jaffa. Every day we would go to the beach and play in the sand. It was just one block from our home, the apartment building that my father owned. At night we would sit on the balcony and watch the big ships sail by, listening to them whistle.” Sumia Ibrahim writes from the US

Worse than an earthquake


Traffic on Sea Street, a major thoroughfare alongside Gaza’s coastline, includes horses, donkeys pulling carts, cyclists, pedestrians, trucks and cars, mostly older models. Overhead, in stark contrast to the street below, Israel’s ultra-modern unmanned surveillance planes crisscross the skies. F-16s and helicopters can also be heard. Remnants of their deliveries, the casings of missiles, bombs and shells used during the past three weeks of Israeli attacks, are scattered on the ground. Kathy Kelly writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

Profound psychological damage in Gaza


I was able to meet another extended family, take their testimonies that included the shelling of their house, phosphorus-like fires, sadistic drawings left behind by the Israeli soldiers occupying the house, the imprisonment of the elderly parents for four days with no food, no water, no toilets, no medicines, and the killing of their sheep and goats. Eva Bartlett writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

In Gaza, love is the strongest weapon


18 January 2009: Late last night, a text message notified us that the Israeli government was very close to declaring that they would stop attacking Gaza for one day. Shortly before midnight, we heard huge explosions, four in a row. Till now, that was the last attack. Israeli drones flew overhead all night long, but residents of Rafah were finally able to get eight hours of sleep uninterrupted by F-16s and Apache helicopters attacking them. Kathy Kelly writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

A child full of light will never see again


So many crimes have already been documented by Amnesty International and other human rights institutions. Many more are still untold stories. I can tell one story with my own words and my own camera — that of eight-year-old Louay Sobeh. Little Louay could not know what this war had in store for him or his family. Sameh A. Habeeb writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

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