Laila El-Haddad writing from Durham, the United States, Live from Palestine, 30 December 2008
For the original article on Electronic Intifada please click here
“There is a complete blackout in Gaza now. The streets are as still as death.”
I am speaking to my father, Moussa el-Haddad, a retired physician who lives in Gaza City, on Skype, from Durham, North Carolina in the United States, where I have been since mid 2006 — the month Gaza’s borders were hermetically sealed by Israel, and the blockade of the occupied territory further enforced.
He is out on his balcony. It is 2am.
“I can only see grey plumes of smoke slowly rising all over the city, everywhere I look,” he says, as though they were some … Continue reading
The Israeli military has continued its onslaught in the Gaza Strip, firing missiles throughout the Strip for the 6th day. Bombings have been focused particularly on the northern cities and refugee camps of Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya, and the southern area of Rafah, along the border with Egypt. The northern assault has led to speculation that a ground invasion, which would come from that direction, is imminent. Meanwhile, children, women, and other civilians have been hardest hit, as entire apartment buildings are flattened by the Israeli bombardment. The port in Gaza City was also fired upon for a second time, and is now almost completely demolished.
During the ongoing assault, Tzipi Linvi head of the ruling party … Continue reading
From Maan News Agency. For the original article, please click here
Gaza – Ma’an – The most recent victim of Israeli airstrikes was 10-year-old Ismail Hamdan, who succumbed to his injuries after being hit by a missile while running an errand for his mother near their home in Beit Hanoun.
Ismail was with his two sisters when the missile struck, they were both torn to pieces on impact Tuesday afternoon.
The three were pulled out of a rubble pile by a passerby and transported to hospital via donkey-cart. The girls, 5-year-old Lama Hamdan, 12-year-old Haya Hamdan, were declared dead on arrival, but Ismail still had a faint heartbeat.
Dr Ibrahim Abu Ghazala treated fractures in each of Ismail’s limbs, removed damaged portions … Continue reading
from Maan News Agency
Israeli troops halted airstrikes for one hour due to bad weather Tuesday afternoon, and resumed shelling and missile strikes as soon as clouds lifted.
The latest targets that came under fire were a lathe workshop belonging to the Ashour family in the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, and a dairy belonging to the Dalloul family in the Sabra neighborhood, also in Gaza City. The properties were destroyed, but no casualties have been reported.
2:00 Israeli warplanes bombarded Khan Younis in the southern Strip
1:00 Israeli helicopters targeted a site used by Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades in Beit Lahiya and another site in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported in either raid.
11:45 An Israeli missile made … Continue reading
After a day of spontaneous demonstrating against Israeli Occupation Forces, Israeli soldiers surreptitiously entered Beit Ommar at after midnight early Monday morning, invading several houses and arresting two people. The two men, Issa Mohammed Issa Awad, 20, and Yousef Ali Musleh Awad, 21, are university students. They were taken from their beds in a quick invasion which left family members upset and afraid. Their current location is unknown. In a separate incident last night in Beit Ommar, Yousef Nasri Rashid Sabarneh, son of the mayor of Beit Ommar, was accosted by Israeli soldiers at the entrance to the village on the way home from visiting Betlehem. Yousef was then viciously attacked and beaten by Israeli … Continue reading
