Gaza City 15 January 2009
Buildings reduced to rubble following Israeli strikes, Gaza City, 14 January 2009. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)
The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari obtained the following testimony from Dr. Asad Abu Sharekh in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, which is receiving the brunt of Israel’s military force, via telephone with the assistance of IMEMC.org:
Since last night from about 8pm until a little while ago, there have been heavy battles in Tal al-Hawa.
They were hitting from the sea, from the air. Tanks were shooting. There were thick clouds of white phosphorus filling the area and filling up houses.
They bombed the Red Crescent building and many cars in the street were destroyed. An apartment near me was hit and burned and one on the other side.
A number of tall buildings were hit. All the windows and doors are broken and shattered. There were maybe 10 bombs falling every minute.
It was like in that film The Day After [a 1983 movie depicting life immediately after a nuclear war].
Israel used all its weapons. Apaches, F-16s, every F they have. Tanks seemed to be coming from every direction, even from the direction of the sea.
There was very fierce, legendary resistance throughout the night. Very fierce and courageous fighting by the resistance which might be unexpected given their meager means.
[sound of explosion]
There you see! That was a bomb dropped by an F-16, and the whole building just shook.
What happened yesterday is unprecedented in any Arab-Israeli war … because Israel is using white phosphorus, a banned weapon.
[sound of explosion]
The building just shook again!
What we do is pray and call on God to save us because there are no shelters and no way you can leave your home. There’s no electricity, no food.
[sound of explosions]
The bombs have struck homes and apartment buildings. There are no journalists here — a media blackout so no one can see what is going on. And there is international complicity, Arab complicity. No let us say Arab treachery.
Israel wants to destroy us — you heard Avigdor Lieberman [Israeli politician] calling on Israel to use a nuclear bomb on Gaza. And the deputy defense minister [Matan Vilnai] threatened a “bigger holocaust.”
We ask the world to stop this aggression that has been going on since the war of 1948, and to bring to justice the perpetrators. In this war 96-97 percent of the injured are civilians. They have killed people, animals, trees, everything.
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