Laila El-HaddadDurham, United States4 January 2009
My father and I made simultaneous back to back appearances on domestic CNN and CNN International last night. My father spoke calmly, eloquently, in the pitch dark of besieged Gaza, with only the the fire of Israeli bombs illuminating his world. “They are destroying everything that is beautiful and living,” he told the anchor. His hands were trembling, he confessed, as my mother and he lay on the floor of their home, where they moved their mattress far away from the windows. Laila El-Haddad writes from the US. Read more about Trapped, traumatized and terrorized
RAMALLAH (IPS) - Israel launched a ground incursion into Gaza late Saturday night, ending a week of speculation whether a ground assault would follow a week’s intensive bombardment of Gaza from the air and coast. Simultaneously, Israeli officials in Jerusalem expressed satisfaction at a United States veto of a draft United Nations Security Council resolution, put together by Libya, which outlined a proposed ceasefire. Read more about Israel invades Gaza, blocks ceasefire
Around the world people took to the streets outraged by the scenes of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip that began when Israel bombarded the coastal territory on 27 December. The below images were sent to The Electronic Intifada from around the world and document various actions, demonstrations and vigils in solidarity with Gazans under siege. If you have images to which you hold the rights documenting Palestine, Palestinian life, politics and culture, or of solidarity with Palestine, please email images and captions to photos A T electronicintifada D O T net. Read more about Photostory: World demonstrates for Gaza, pt. 2
In the haze of dust and smoke from the latest F-16 strike, a family self-evacuates. The dispatcher at the Jabaliya Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) receives call after call from terrified residents fleeing their homes. It’s a new year, a new Nakba, and an old scene; Israel is bombarding Gaza once again and the world is standing idly by, sitting on a fence very different from the electrified border fence encaging Gaza, or the separation wall dividing and ghettoizing the West Bank. Eva Bartlett reports from the besieged Gaza Strip. Read more about "They know no limits now"
“They have made us gather, they have made us recall past days, they have let us feel a warmth that we have long missed amidst life’s troubles which have become so great. So we say simply and ironically, thanks to the Israelis.” Sahar Ali Shaath and more than 20 other family members were forced to flee their house near the Gaza-Egypt border. The Electronic Intifada correspondent reports one Gaza family’s story of constant displacement. Read more about Family flees Israeli fire once again
Around the world people took to the streets outraged by the scenes of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip that began when Israel bombarded the coastal territory on 27 December. The below images were sent to The Electronic Intifada from around the world and document various actions, demonstrations and vigils in solidarity with Gazans under siege. Read more about Photostory: World demonstrates for Gaza
At al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, an unidentified injured man is laying at the hospital’s intensive care unit. He was hit by shrapnel from an Israeli missile that struck a target at the Samer crossroad in the Omar al-Mukhtar street in Gaza City yesterday. “This wounded patient has sustained critical injuries and his condition is unstable, but we don’t yet know his identity, he is still unknown,” Dr. Omar Manasra, the on-duty doctor of the intensive care unit said. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the besieged Gaza Strip. Read more about In Gaza, targeting a nation
Bombing governmental institutions in Gaza has nothing to do with isolating Hamas or weakening the resistance. The Israeli intent seems to be to create what US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called “creative anarchy.” Indeed Israel has always wanted to keep Palestinians living a life of disorder. They want chaos to prevail in the Gaza Strip. Dr. Akram Habeeb writes from the besieged Gaza Strip. Read more about "Creative anarchy" in the Gaza Strip
This morning I went with some friends to visit the Block O neighborhood in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. While we were in one of the houses we planned to visit, my phone rang. It was a friend from Gaza City. He was asking about something. Suddenly I heard the sound of an explosion on his end. At the same time I heard an explosion in Rafah too. Fida Qishta writes from besieged Gaza. Read more about "Do these traumatized children have rockets?"
As I sit and view the reports, photos and live videos streaming in from Gaza I find it impossible to make sense of it all. As a boy growing up in Israel and attending a regular public school, I remember being taught the story of Abraham, the patriarch arguing with God over the decision to destroy the city of Sodom. Miko Peled writes from the US. Read more about For the sake of Gaza's 800,000 children
