Gaza (2008-2013), occupied Palestine (2007)

January 2009: Kiffah Lum Towwak, 35, killed by Israeli drone missile strike on her backyard in Jabaliya, just after 11 am. The strike which killed Kiffah came about 5 minutes after the initial strike which killed a family member living in the same house. As the ambulance loaded her body and started to drive away, a young man from the family leaned in to throw a mangled body part, wrapped in cloth, onto the pile of pieces that was Kiffah. Her husband grieves shrilly, anguished. Post here: https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/immense-grief-updates-from-runs-with-medics/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/observations-from-occupied-palestine-in-gaza/

The building I was in was just bombed. I’d just given an interview on the 10th floor of the building housing numerous TV stations when a series of Israeli strikes hit the building. The journalists I was with say it was 7 shells, from Israeli tanks east of Gaza. No where is safe from Israeli strikes. S. one of the journalists I was with asks me the question every Palestinian is asking: “Why are they bombing us?” And then, “I’m like anyone, I like vodka.” He tells me he’ll show me sometime, in the future. “If I have a future,” he adds with a sad grin… Related post: https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/bombing-the-news/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/observations-from-occupied-palestine-in-gaza/

January 2009: With Palestinian medics transporting some of the over 5000 Palestinians injured by Israeli bombing and firing during the 23 day Israeli massacre of Gaza. Gaza's Palestinians had no bomb shelters, no air raid sirens, no safe havens, no means of escaping the Strip which was being bombed in its entirety. The residents of Ezbet Abed Rabbo faced some of the worst atrocities at the hands of the occupying Israeli soldiers, including point-blank shooting to kill, denial of water, food and medication, assault, detention in vast mud walled pit, and bombing of homes in which families resided. https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/injured-denied-access-israeli-soldiers-shoot-woman-in-stomach-and-keep-elderly-hostages/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/observations-from-occupied-palestine-in-gaza/

An Israeli warplane bombed the American high school on the night of January 3, 2009. Upon arriving at the bombed school, we searched for survivors or martyrs. In the pitch dark, without adequate lighting and under threat of at any moment being bombed again by the Israeli warplanes, we were unable to find the martyr's body and had to return at first light. The youth, a teen from the area, was the night watchman at the school. His dead body was burned and mutilated by the bombing. Arafa, the heroic medic I accompanied that night was killed later that day, by an Israeli dart (flechette) bomb, fired directly at the ambulance he stood next to, one of Israel's many war crimes in Gaza. https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/israeli-army-kills-palestinian-medic-with-dart-bomb/ Related: https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/ensuring-maximum-casualties-in-gaza/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/observations-from-occupied-palestine-in-gaza/

Death fills the air, the streets in Gaza: updates from Gaza’s north The numbers slaughtered and injured are so high now –521 and 2,700 as of this morning, Gaza time — that sitting next to a dead or dying person is becoming normal. The stain of blood on the ambulance stretcher pools next to my coat, the medic warning me my coat may be dirtied. What does it matter? The stain doesn’t revolt me as it would have, did, one week ago. Death fills the air, the streets in Gaza, and I cannot stress that this is no exaggeration. The Israeli army occupied areas in the north, shelled houses, demolishing them, many injuries, dead, many off-limits to the ambulances. Beit Hanoun is occupied by the Israeli army, which is now controlling the entry points to the northern region, cutting it off. One small, sub-par hospital without an ICU is staggering under the influx of injured from house demolitions, shellings, shootings… Two ambulances serve this region, I don’t have any information on their condition, the amount of petrol they have, or what areas of the Beit Hanoun region are accessible or not. Entering via an ambulance to take an emergency case to Gaza’s Shifa hospital, I see the Beit Hanoun hospital crammed, with a frenzied air, families desperate to get their injured care…those who have been able to get to the hospital. Mohammed Sultan, 19, stands dazed with a gunshot graze to the back of his head. From Salateen, northwestern Gaza, he had to walk 1 km before a car could reach him and take him here. The man we transfer to Shifa has been shot in the face. He is about 35, is a civilian, was in or near his house. His face has exploded, and we move as fast as possible over torn up roads, ambulance jarring as we move and as the medics try to administer delicate care. It’s on everyone’s mind that the army is present here, that our safety is not. Beit Lahia and beyond, in the northwest, are mostly off-limits to ambulances, leaving the wounded and dead where they are. The calls from there for help, for evacuation, have been non-stop and now go ignored.... https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/death-fills-the-air-the-streets-in-gaza-updates-from-gazas-north/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/observations-from-occupied-palestine-in-gaza/

After the December 27, 2008, Israeli bombardment of Gaza, nurses in Shifa hospital's ICU describe some of the patients on their deathbeds. * Dr Khaled from Shifa hospital ICU told me today around 10 that the majority of cases in the ICU are critical, with an approx 80% who will not survive. The normally 12-bed ICU was caring for twice as many as normally capable, extra beds and extra rooms made to care for ICU patients. At that time, the 24 beds in the ICU were the 4th shift of critically injured, the former 3 having died from their injuries. There is a critical need for more ICU beds, as well as mechanical ventilators the majority of injuries were “multi-explosive injuries” with a concentration of head injuries (“head trauma”) resulting from the explosions, from shrapnel in the brain. Other injuries included abdominal injuries resulting in internal bleeding, from shrapnel in the abdomen. The majority of head injuries were not expected to survive, and those who do are expected to have brain damage, some full paralysis (quadroplegea). Because of the shortage of spaces and equipment, the ICU has had to turn patients away, others waiting in the reception until a patient dies and his space can be used. among the critically wounded were a number of children and minors: a six year old down’s syndrom with brain trauma an 11 year old with brain trauma, not likely to survive a 13 year old with a head injury (“brain matter out”) a 21 year old, leg amputated, various shrapnel injuries over body and face, loss of hearing in one ear a 21 year old, braindead, “hopeless” case a man in his fifties, neither police nor resistance a man in his forties, on the beach when struck, head trauma (“brain matter out”) a man in his fifties, head trauma a 53 year old, shrapnel in the brain, no surgery possible many other men in their 20s and 30s, head injuries (shrapnel in brain), and abdominal injuries, some policemen. https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/shifa-icu-a-glimpse-of-hospital-critical-injuries/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/observations-from-occupied-palestine-in-gaza/

My footage immediately after first of 100 Israeli bombings throughout the Gaza Strip, just after 11 am, December 27 2008. Related: https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/widespread-attacks-on-gaza-leave-at-least-227-dead-hundreds-seriously-injured/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/observations-from-occupied-palestine-in-gaza/

Walking along Omar Mukthar street, a central Gaza City main street, on January 8 2009, while Israeli drones fly overhead. Surveying the damage, but aware that at any moment one of those drones or Israeli warplanes could bomb where I walk. Related post: https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/gaza-walks-shells-of-buildings-rubble-filled-streets/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/observations-from-occupied-palestine-in-gaza/

On January 7, 2009, as I and a Spanish human rights advocate accompanied Palestinian medics to retrieve the body of a man shot earlier by invading Israeli forces, we were also shot at as the medics carried the body towards the ambulance. It was in Dawwar Zimmo, eastern Jabaliya, near the area which has been occupied by Israeli soldiers since the land invasion began. It’s an area where 10s are thought to have been seriously injured by bombing and shooting from the Israeli army, and where many, many more will lie dead, uncollected for days, or weeks, out of reach of the medics whose duty is to retrieve them. Hassan al-Attal and Jamal had gotten out of the ambulance, a clearly-marked 101 ambulance, and approached the corpse lying in the middle of the street. They wore their PRCS uniforms –Hassan’s was bright red with reflective tape, Jamal’s bright orange and white, also with reflective tape –and approached slowly, hands free of all but a stretched to take away the body. Arce filmed as the medics picked up the dead man, put him on the stretcher and began the retreat towards the ambulance. Arce was still filming when the shots cracked out, rapidly but evidently a targeted sniper’s shot, not a machine gun. Incredibly, Hassan and Jamal continued to try to evacuate the body, running with the dead man, before finally dropping the stretched and fleeing for their lives. It was about 1:30 pm, it was the first day of Israel’s self-declared “cease-fire” and the sniper was aiming at the medical personnel. The ambulance’s siren was still screaming, the driver had been moving quickly away from the sniper, to avoid further hits on us or himself, and we were frantically scouring to see Hassan and Jamal. In the days prior to this attack, 7 medics had been killed since the start of Israel’s air and ground assault on Gaza’s population. Tens more had been injured, and Hassan was to join their ranks. A sniper’s bullet caught his thigh, and as he scrambled into the ambulance, the blood seeping through his pants alerted us to his injury. These medics are all too aware of, many all too familiar with, the mortal risks of their job in the face of invading Israeli soldiers with, apparently, no regard for the Geneva Conventions which should allow and oblige medics to reach the injured and the dead, without fire from the invading army. It was frightening. I thought we’d lost them both, and they are both young, wonderful men doing a job worthy of medals. The 10-15 seconds it took before Hassan and Jamal could jump into the ambulance and pull down its back door were a painfully long stretch, during which I’d feared the worst. As we pulled away, a final bullet caught the back door of the ambulance. Medics worked quickly on Hassan’s thigh injury: the bullet had penetrated from the inside of his upper left thigh, digging into muscle, and exiting a couple of inches from the entry wound. He was impressively brave about it, though obviously in a great deal of pain. The other volunteer’s video footage caught the incident, and is testimony to what we’ve seen, what medics have told us they’ve long endured, and what Israeli authorities belligerently continue to deny: Israel is targeting medical personnel, as Israeli forces target journalists, civilians, and these days in Gaza anything that moves. No sanctuary, no safety, no guarantee of medical service. https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/israeli-sniper-targets-uniformed-medics-what-i-witnessed-in-gaza/ See also: https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/israeli-army-kills-palestinian-medic-with-dart-bomb/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/ensuring-maximum-casualties-in-gaza/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/rescuers-targeted-one-year-on/

*Please consider following me on other platforms. My time here on Youtube is limited & will end. I'm on: https://odysee.com/@EvaKareneBartlett... https://rumble.com/c/c-2030196 https://t.me/Reality_Theories * Interview I did recently with Canadian journalist Rajesh Sehgal. Uploaded at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF8sIyEYm-E *21:55: should have been "Don't self-censor" Related Links: https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/observations-from-occupied-palestine-part-1/ https://opt2007.wordpress.com/category/my-entries-from-occupied-palestine-apr-dec-2007/ https://opt2007.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/reflections-on-accountability/ https://opt2007.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/arrested-for-protesting-illegal-roadblock/ https://opt2007.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/huwara-lines-one-of-israels-degrading-deadly-military-checkpoints/ https://opt2007.wordpress.com/2007/07/01/nablus-invasion-aftermath/ https://opt2007.wordpress.com/2007/12/31/azzoun-village-under-israeli-assault-and-lockdown/ https://opt2007.wordpress.com/2007/08/27/stealing-palestinian-land-in-susiya/ https://opt2007.wordpress.com/2007/09/10/hajj-from-susiya/ https://opt2007.wordpress.com/2007/10/17/illegal-colonists-assault-palestinian-farmers/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/observations-from-occupied-palestine-in-gaza/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2008/11/08/on-board-the-dignity-en-route-to-besieged-gaza/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/photos-and-videos-zionist-massacre-of-gaza-2008-2009/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2012/11/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/killing-before-the-calm-israeli-attacks-on-palestinian-civilians-escalated-before-cease-fire/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2012/12/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2012/12/25/the-flattening-of-gaza/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/syria/syria-my-published-articles-from-and-on-syria-2014-2022/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/about-me/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/a-personal-reply-to-the-fact-challenged-smears-of-terrorist-whitewashing-channel-4-snopes-and-la-presse/ https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2022/07/17/government-funded-cbc-smears-me-interview-with-maverick-media-cbc-fake-news-hit-piece-targets-journalists-eva-bartlett/