by Mona El-Farra
(Image: Middle East Children’s Alliance)
In Gaza last night, while Israeli army forces launched military attacks against Gaza, by sea, air and via artillery shells, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children were unable to sleep inside their roof- tinned homes, clinging to their parents, crying, and terrified. The shelling last night was earth shattering, and went through the entirety of the Gaza strip- at least 100 attacks have already taken place .
In Gaza, we do not have bomb shelters to escape and hide.
In Gaza, these bombs fall on top of our deteriorating economic situation. Unemployment because of the Israeli blockade against civilians is almost 40%. It is Ramadan, making it more difficult to get basic foods, and thousands of government employees cannot reach banks to access their salaries. I know there are internal problems between Fatah and Hamas, but the outcome is hardship, while the bombs keep dropping on top of our heads.
In Gaza, the feeling of insecurity throws its shadow against all of the population, and the military operation continues. With threats of expansion in the coming few days, there is no news about any ceasefire.
Prior to the attack, the local authorities warned the population against swimming in the Mediterranean sea (the only recreational outlet for 1.7 million people). The sea around Gaza has become overly polluted with sewage and wastewater, that the authority, due to lack of fuel, had to pump untreated into the sea.
In Gaza, over 90% of water is unsuitable for drinking.
Through my work at the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), we continue to implement the water purification systems at schools and kindergartens, to provide over 50,000 Palestinian children with clean water. Even though it is the summer holiday, the community had accessibility to our water units in schools, but the attacks make travel dangerous.
In Gaza today, imagine choosing between your child’s thirst and your child’s safety.
Also, at MECA, because of our deep understanding of the poor recreational facilities for Palestinian children, we continue our educational, entertainment and recreational activities, inside our partners’ community centres. It will be even more important during the difficult times ahead, to help the children and attract their attention away of the night shelling. Let the Children Play & Heal is an ongoing program, and I fear that there will be the need for more psycho-social programming, like we did in 2009 and 2012. While we help these children, we take care of the mothers too, via psycho-social trainings that aim to educate women about trauma, and how to deal with family and children during times of crises.
Today, different health facilities announced a need for more emergency supplies, which were already lacking because of the closure of the borders and the ongoing Israeli siege of Gaza. Just before the attacks, MECA managed to send some highly needed emergency medications to the Red Crescent Society, but more is needed.
In Gaza, MECA’s team, along with the many humanitarian and health organisations are going through a very difficult situation. We are physically unsafe, and we cannot sleep. But we work hard to support people at this very difficult times.
The streets of Gaza are empty, few cars are here and there, and Israel continues a collective punishment assassination policy demolishing homes by aerial bombardment.
These air raids fall on the majority of the population living in very crowded areas, so while they hit their targets, civilians pay a big price- we have many causalities and the numbers are rising every hour.
In Gaza, it is not a war or a military operation though it may look so. It is collective punishment and it is a brutal attack against all Palestinian people, and mainly civilians are paying the price.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Obama to Netanyahu yesterday, “Kill ’em all and then claim self-defense.” It should be clear to everyone by now that Israel is the US and the US is Israel. Even in the media the ratio of Zionist (explainers) vs. Palestinians is 10 to 1. And we wonder why “terrorists” try to kill us. Even in New York City. So far Israel has killed and wounded at least 300 people. Many of them women and children. They have destroyed hundreds of buildings including schools and dozens of homes with rockets and bombs. Obama is now the Village Idiot and he has no one to blame but himself.
You know what’s really strange about this latest Israeli escalation? Just before it started, just before the three poor Jewish teenagers were kidnapped and, as it turned out, killed, Hamas (Gaza) and Fatah (West Bank) had finally decided to put aside their differences and maybe have a unified Palestinian entity of some kind.
It seems every time the Palestinians start getting their act together, something comes up. Settlements get built. Water is an issue. A border crossing is closed. Tempers heat. It all goes pear-shaped.
Obviously, it doesn’t help matters that there are plenty of loony Palestinians creating provocations too. (Kidnapping teenagers?! Huuuuh??) So there’s never any shortage of events to cause shooting.
But either way. There’s always a pattern. Small step toward solution. Bad things happen. Three steps backward.
There is absolutely no proof that the Palestinians kidnapped those three kids. None. But that didn’t stop Zionist Netanyahu from blaming it on Hamas. Or from taking 300 Hamas hostages in the West Bank, destroying some of their homes and killing several Hamas leaders in Gaza. You see, the Zionists know that if Hamas and the PLO do reconcile then the jig is up for both them and for the neo-con warmongers in the US. The Zionists are liars. That’s their stock in trade. They do not want peace because peace would end their political stranglehold on both Israel and the United States. Plus it would dry up the war profiteering going on.