Destroyed building in Gaza, 1 January 2009. © Sharif Sarhan
4 February 2009: As we leave after more than two weeks in Gaza, we are still shocked and horrified by the scale of the destruction caused by the 22-day offensive the Israeli army launched on 27 December. The task of reconstruction will be truly immense.
The main priority in our fact-finding research has been to investigate the Israeli forces’ direct and indiscriminate attacks on civilians and their homes, but, before concluding our visit, we also spent some time focusing on the wholesale destruction of factories, workshops and farms, for which it is difficult or impossible to see any possible justification. What we found was even worse than we had first realized.
Continue reading ‘The task of reconstruction will be truly immense’
1 February 2009: A 13-year-old girl who was asleep in her bed; three primary school-age boys who were carrying sugar canes; two young women on their way to a shelter in search of safety; a 13-year-old boy on his bicycle; eight secondary school students who were waiting for the school bus to take them home; an entire family sitting outside their home – these are among the many victims of missiles fired from Israeli UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), commonly known as drones.
Here in Gaza people call the drones “zannana”, an onomatopoeic description reflecting the buzzing sound that they emit as they fly overhead. Their main function is surveillance, but, in recent years, Israeli forces have also used them to fire missiles, often to assassinate “wanted” Palestinians.
Continue reading ‘Faulty intelligence, wanton recklessness, or a combination of the two’
29 January: With virtually all foreign journalists barred from entering Gaza by the Israeli authorities during the three-week long conflict that began on 27 December, the story of the unprecedented scale of the Israeli military offensive there was told mostly through the pictures and film footage taken by local Palestinian journalists.
“Pictures don’t lie; they show the reality. The world seems to find it difficult to believe what Palestinians say or write about what happens to them but perhaps they may believe it if they see it,” a local cameraman told me.
Four Palestinian journalists were killed and several others were injured during the three-week conflict. Basel Ibrahim Faraj, a cameraman for Algerian TV, was fatally wounded when he was near a building in Gaza City which Israeli forces attacked on 27 December, the first day of air bombardment, and died a week later.
Continue reading ‘Journalists under fire’
Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International researcher, takes testimonies on the site of Israeli attacks. ©Amnesty International
29 January 2009: As we have travelled about Gaza in recent days, compiling information about the circumstances in which unarmed civilians were killed, we have become exposed to the tragedies of so many families whose homes were destroyed and who are now homeless. The UN, quoting figures from the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, says more than 4,000 homes have been completely destroyed while a further 17,000 others have been damaged and partially destroyed.
We have not ourselves tried to count each destroyed house that we have seen, but the figures quoted by the UN do not seem to be excessive compared to what we have observed on the ground. Entire neighbourhoods that I visited only a few months ago have now been reduced to rubble.
Continue reading ‘Widespread destruction of homes’
Ambulance hit by missile from an Israeli tank shell on 4 January 2009 while picking up wounded men in Beit Lahya, Gaza ©Amnesty International
Tuesday, 27 January: Under the Geneva Conventions, medical personnel searching, collecting, transporting or treating the wounded should be protected and respected in all circumstances. Common Article 3 of the Conventions says that the wounded should be collected and cared for, including combatants who are hors de combat.
These provisions of international law have not been respected during the recent three-week conflict in the Gaza Strip. Emergency medical rescue workers, including doctors, paramedics and ambulance drivers, repeatedly came under fire from Israeli forces while they were carrying out their duties. At least seven were killed and more than 20 were injured while they were transporting or attempting to collect the wounded and the dead.
Continue reading ‘Attacks on ambulance workers’
