Shoah Watch: The fifth day

The day after one of the bloodiest days in Gaza’s history was comparatively calm. That’s the most optimistic way of comparing the 62 Palestinians murdered yesterday by Israel’s Occupation Forces with the 11 killed today. Apparently that’s what the international community had in mind when it asked Israel to please, if you don’t mind, make your violence a bit more proportional with that of the Palestinian resistance fighters.

You can’t expect much from the world when the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, begins his address of Israel’s crazed slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza by condemning Palestinian violence against the occupation, and then equating the two, so that the live of the one Israeli killed by Palestinians on Wednesday equals the 113 Palestinians killed by Israel since that day.

I don’t want to make life too difficult for Israel’s apologists in the mass media, but justifying the massacre or implying that this is all a reaction by Israel to the death of one Israeli is grossly inaccurate. 6 Palestinians in Gaza and one in the West Bank had been killed by the Israeli army that morning, before Palestinian fighters launched several home-made projectiles at Israel in retaliation.
As if the gruesome Palestinian death toll would have been any more acceptable had events occurred in any other order.


Israel is deliberately and unapologetically targeting civilian homes and infrastructure. Sam’an Attalah, a family friend, was victim to this disgraceful disregard for civilian life when Israeli warplanes attacked his family home with 3 missiles. 7 members of his family, including his parents, his wife and daughter, his sister and a nephew were murdered in the attack.

The home of Khalil Ahel was another to be attacked by the warplanes. What makes this specific attack even more heinous is the fact that Khalil was murdered three days ago by the Israeli army. His home was full of mourners and people paying respect to his memory.

Although the attacks have hit every part of Gaza, most of Israel’s terrorism is still targeting Jabalya for the third day in a row. Loay Abed Rabbo, 20, Mahmoud Bahhar, 14, and Yousef Mohammad Abu Wardeh, 50, were three victims of Israeli snipers killed around the town. The terror is universal, and with 50% of Gaza’s population under the age of 18, the psychological damage being inflicted on an entire generation is a heinous crime in of itself.

The war planes do not leave the sky, the sea to the west has been blockaded by the Israeli navy for years now, and tanks and artillery are being massed and sometimes enter from the north, east and south of the Strip. Israeli special forces are entering homes in border areas, locking up entire families in a single room and taking position on the rooftops. Often the soldiers stay for days on end, with the families forced to eat, sleep and defecate in that one room during that time.
It really is a sad day for humanity when the death of 11 people at the hands of their occupiers is viewed with relief that the number wasn’t six times that.

In the aftermath of yesterday’s insanity, Gaza’s medical services were warning of an imminent catastrophe. Thankfully (and it never stops sounding strange to be thankful for anything in the midst of all this), Egypt allowed many of the wounded to enter its territory for medical attention, and allowed some medical supplies to enter. The situation is still dire, however. Get the truth out about what is happening in Gaza. As 1.5 million people attempt to sleep again tonight in darkness, without power, without adequate food, without medication, without the freedom to escape this prison, and with a powerful, ruthless military attacking them indiscriminately, it is the least you can do.