emma_goldman
3rd September 2006, 03:42
Israel's other war still rages
As the world focuses on Lebanon, Gaza reaches state of desolation
CAROLYNNE WHEELER
Special to The Globe and Mail
GAZA CITY -- This is Israel's other war, the war that has been largely brushed aside by a world focused on the invasion of Lebanon.
In a hospital bed, a 21-year-old with diabetes lies on his side, unable to turn over because of the large swaths of muscle and skin torn from his calves and thighs when a missile landed just behind him.
In an elementary school, large families crowd into small classrooms, mattresses on the floor and tables and chairs pushed to the corners, taking refuge, along with about 1,500 others, from the shells that have landed on their brand-new apartment.
And in dusty, unused storefronts, reluctant adults trickle in, brandishing UN-issued coupons for sunflower oil, flour, beans, rice, sugar and milk -- some of the more than one million Gazans who now rely on food aid for daily meals, though electricity cuts and fuel shortages have made it difficult to cook or even get water from the taps.
Two months ago, humanitarian- aid agencies warned that Gaza was in crisis, after months without the foreign aid that was cut off to its Hamas-led government.
Today, with nearly 200 dead, more than 1,000 injured and families who haven't seen a spare shekel in weeks, Gaza is well beyond crisis -- this tiny stretch of land on the sea has reached what the aid agencies call an unprecedented level of poverty and violence.
"It's dangerous and miserable," said John Ging, the director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza. "We completely understand why the world's attention is focused on Lebanon. But we also want everyone to be aware that this military conflict has not abated.
"This is the largest, most enduring crisis of modern times. It's 56 years since UNRWA was established and we are today feeding 820,000 people in the Gaza Strip," he said. (Another 220,000 people are being fed by the World Food Program, which assists Gaza residents without refugee status.)
Nearly seven weeks of intense missile strikes, artillery fire and ground incursions by Israeli troops are the price paid for the capture of a young Israeli conscript, the death of two of his comrades, and continued Qassam rockets landing on Israeli soil. Israeli army figures show that 338 Qassams have landed in Israel since June 1; eight people have been killed in those strikes. And one additional soldier has been killed in Gaza operations since Corporal Gilad Shalit's capture.
"We aren't dealing with normal governments. We're dealing with a terrorist organization which wants to destroy Israel," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Gideon Meir, referring to the Hamas-led government. Hamas's militant wing has been linked to the capture. The goal, Israel says, is to stop the Qassams and get its soldier back -- and they won't stop until they do.
"Right now there are no hypothetical moves if this doesn't happen. Right now we have to continue with what we are doing," Mr. Meir said.
But while many of the homemade Qassams do little more than property damage, Israel's missiles are powerful, precision-guided bombs that take out militants and, often, children among the throngs found on nearly every Gaza street. More than 40 children, including babies and toddlers, have died in Gaza in the past six weeks. Summer camps have been cancelled because of the risk, and many families are afraid even to go to the beach, still haunted by the screaming of young Huda Ghalia after the gruesome deaths of seven members of her family here in June.
At Gaza's Shifa hospital, the largest in the strip, doctors say they have never seen injuries of this number and severity. Many of their operations are amputations of limbs too damaged by missiles or shells to be saved; surgeons report opening up patients who appear to be without scratches on the outside, only to find severe intestinal damage from the force of an explosion.
"In the past it was only shrapnel [injuries] -- no burns, no amputations. The damage was managed easily by us. Now, no. It's extensive damage, extensive injuries, extensive burns. It would be difficult to manage here or abroad," said Dr. Jomaa al-Saqa, the hospital's director. The side table in his office contains a deadly collection of more than a dozen bits of sharp-sided metal, shrapnel from missiles and shells that have been taken from his patients' bodies.
The hospital itself is barely getting by: With Gaza's main terminal at Karni open only sporadically to humanitarian shipments, the hospital is now down to basic drugs and rationing anesthetics. International aid agencies have been supplying its generators with fuel since the air strike on Gaza's only functioning power plant left most households with about six hours of power a day, but the generators are saved for the most critical functions: the operating room, the intensive-care unit, the neo-natal unit, refrigeration. Fans, not air conditioning, are used in the operating room now, and all elective surgery has been postponed until further notice.
Tensions inside Gaza are also on the boiling point. The Gaza Community Mental Health Program says demand for its counsellors has skyrocketed, as domestic abuse increases under pressures of unemployment and poverty, and more children are traumatized by nightly missile strikes.
Internal violence between Palestinian factions has also continued, last week spilling into a gun battle in the hospital. And with the Rafah crossing into Egypt closed for most of the past six weeks, and the Erez crossing into Israel reserved for special-permission and humanitarian cases, open only sporadically even to journalists, there is nowhere for people to escape.
"Whenever there is a bombardment, you'll find everyone just running there trying to get the injured or killed. Think of it -- children picking up pieces of human flesh," said Ibrahim El-Aff, a project manager for the program which was already assisting nearly 5,000 people. "They need intervention; otherwise, God knows [what will happen]."
Yet after nearly seven weeks of military action, Cpl. Shalit is still missing, though presumed alive and still inside Gaza. The militant groups that claim his capture are demanding the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons, and Israel has said it will not negotiate.
And in a place where people are quickly finding they have little left to lose, they are solidly backing this militant group's actions, and calling for more soldiers to be taken captive.
"I am desperate. I don't think there will be a solution in the near future," said Jameel Tolbeh, 43, whose family of 10 -- seven children, his wife and his sister -- live almost exclusively on UN rations. Their home in the Shati refugee camp beside Gaza City shakes with Israeli air strikes at night, terrifying his children; leaflets dropped by Israeli planes condemn Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal and provoke fear that their neighbourhood will be the next hit.
"Maybe the solution is to kidnap 10 soldiers more, to resolve the situation."
As the world focuses on Lebanon, Gaza reaches state of desolation
CAROLYNNE WHEELER
Special to The Globe and Mail
GAZA CITY -- This is Israel's other war, the war that has been largely brushed aside by a world focused on the invasion of Lebanon.
In a hospital bed, a 21-year-old with diabetes lies on his side, unable to turn over because of the large swaths of muscle and skin torn from his calves and thighs when a missile landed just behind him.
In an elementary school, large families crowd into small classrooms, mattresses on the floor and tables and chairs pushed to the corners, taking refuge, along with about 1,500 others, from the shells that have landed on their brand-new apartment.
And in dusty, unused storefronts, reluctant adults trickle in, brandishing UN-issued coupons for sunflower oil, flour, beans, rice, sugar and milk -- some of the more than one million Gazans who now rely on food aid for daily meals, though electricity cuts and fuel shortages have made it difficult to cook or even get water from the taps.
Two months ago, humanitarian- aid agencies warned that Gaza was in crisis, after months without the foreign aid that was cut off to its Hamas-led government.
Today, with nearly 200 dead, more than 1,000 injured and families who haven't seen a spare shekel in weeks, Gaza is well beyond crisis -- this tiny stretch of land on the sea has reached what the aid agencies call an unprecedented level of poverty and violence.
"It's dangerous and miserable," said John Ging, the director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza. "We completely understand why the world's attention is focused on Lebanon. But we also want everyone to be aware that this military conflict has not abated.
"This is the largest, most enduring crisis of modern times. It's 56 years since UNRWA was established and we are today feeding 820,000 people in the Gaza Strip," he said. (Another 220,000 people are being fed by the World Food Program, which assists Gaza residents without refugee status.)
Nearly seven weeks of intense missile strikes, artillery fire and ground incursions by Israeli troops are the price paid for the capture of a young Israeli conscript, the death of two of his comrades, and continued Qassam rockets landing on Israeli soil. Israeli army figures show that 338 Qassams have landed in Israel since June 1; eight people have been killed in those strikes. And one additional soldier has been killed in Gaza operations since Corporal Gilad Shalit's capture.
"We aren't dealing with normal governments. We're dealing with a terrorist organization which wants to destroy Israel," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Gideon Meir, referring to the Hamas-led government. Hamas's militant wing has been linked to the capture. The goal, Israel says, is to stop the Qassams and get its soldier back -- and they won't stop until they do.
"Right now there are no hypothetical moves if this doesn't happen. Right now we have to continue with what we are doing," Mr. Meir said.
But while many of the homemade Qassams do little more than property damage, Israel's missiles are powerful, precision-guided bombs that take out militants and, often, children among the throngs found on nearly every Gaza street. More than 40 children, including babies and toddlers, have died in Gaza in the past six weeks. Summer camps have been cancelled because of the risk, and many families are afraid even to go to the beach, still haunted by the screaming of young Huda Ghalia after the gruesome deaths of seven members of her family here in June.
At Gaza's Shifa hospital, the largest in the strip, doctors say they have never seen injuries of this number and severity. Many of their operations are amputations of limbs too damaged by missiles or shells to be saved; surgeons report opening up patients who appear to be without scratches on the outside, only to find severe intestinal damage from the force of an explosion.
"In the past it was only shrapnel [injuries] -- no burns, no amputations. The damage was managed easily by us. Now, no. It's extensive damage, extensive injuries, extensive burns. It would be difficult to manage here or abroad," said Dr. Jomaa al-Saqa, the hospital's director. The side table in his office contains a deadly collection of more than a dozen bits of sharp-sided metal, shrapnel from missiles and shells that have been taken from his patients' bodies.
The hospital itself is barely getting by: With Gaza's main terminal at Karni open only sporadically to humanitarian shipments, the hospital is now down to basic drugs and rationing anesthetics. International aid agencies have been supplying its generators with fuel since the air strike on Gaza's only functioning power plant left most households with about six hours of power a day, but the generators are saved for the most critical functions: the operating room, the intensive-care unit, the neo-natal unit, refrigeration. Fans, not air conditioning, are used in the operating room now, and all elective surgery has been postponed until further notice.
Tensions inside Gaza are also on the boiling point. The Gaza Community Mental Health Program says demand for its counsellors has skyrocketed, as domestic abuse increases under pressures of unemployment and poverty, and more children are traumatized by nightly missile strikes.
Internal violence between Palestinian factions has also continued, last week spilling into a gun battle in the hospital. And with the Rafah crossing into Egypt closed for most of the past six weeks, and the Erez crossing into Israel reserved for special-permission and humanitarian cases, open only sporadically even to journalists, there is nowhere for people to escape.
"Whenever there is a bombardment, you'll find everyone just running there trying to get the injured or killed. Think of it -- children picking up pieces of human flesh," said Ibrahim El-Aff, a project manager for the program which was already assisting nearly 5,000 people. "They need intervention; otherwise, God knows [what will happen]."
Yet after nearly seven weeks of military action, Cpl. Shalit is still missing, though presumed alive and still inside Gaza. The militant groups that claim his capture are demanding the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons, and Israel has said it will not negotiate.
And in a place where people are quickly finding they have little left to lose, they are solidly backing this militant group's actions, and calling for more soldiers to be taken captive.
"I am desperate. I don't think there will be a solution in the near future," said Jameel Tolbeh, 43, whose family of 10 -- seven children, his wife and his sister -- live almost exclusively on UN rations. Their home in the Shati refugee camp beside Gaza City shakes with Israeli air strikes at night, terrifying his children; leaflets dropped by Israeli planes condemn Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal and provoke fear that their neighbourhood will be the next hit.
"Maybe the solution is to kidnap 10 soldiers more, to resolve the situation."