Sharon Lock | Tales to Tell
Today I met with my friend Reem. She is 21 and works with Mercycorps, and we met when she came to interview me after I arrived on the initial FreeGaza trip. She was so bright and sparkly then, and I know that is still in her somewhere, but right now she is very fragile. She didn’t realise I was back in the country until last Wednesday, when her family was one of the many fleeing attack to Al Quds … Continue reading
Eva Bartlett | In Gaza
On January 18, the first day that Israel stopped most of the bombing all over Gaza (navy shelling continues to this moment), after
learning that my friend’s father was alive in eastern Jabaliya, I went on to Attatra, the northwest region, which had been cut off since Israeli troops invaded. As expected, the destruction was great, the death toll high and still unknown. People streamed in both directions: going to see how their homes had fared or leaving … Continue reading
Sharon Lock | ISM Volunteer
The planes are still buzzing overhead, but there have been no explosions near me today. However this supposed ceasefire from Israeli’s side since 2am does not seem to have extended to Beit Hanoun, where there was shelling this morning and F16s were attacking.
You can see 4 video clips I took during the attacks on the Al Quds hospital and local people, including my medic mates rescuing Jasmeen after she’d seen her sister and dad shot.
This morning the Al Quds Red Crescent headed out to Zaytoun, to the area we had a few approved evacuations and … Continue reading
Eva Bartlett | In Gaza
Today was the first day that medics and journalists were able to reach areas occupied by the invading Israeli troops. Palestinians by this point, by weeks ago, were desperate for any semblance of a normal life, though normality here is far from normality anywhere else. They were desperate to return to their homes, survey the damage and if possible repair it, find displaced family members, or their corpses, as well as neighbours, friends.
Not everyone returned home to stay; many could be seen returning to where their homes … Continue reading
Sharon Lock | Tales To Tell
Let me start with the good news. I found it surprisingly destabilising having to evacuate the hospital. Since the strikes began, I have spent
more nights here than anywhere else, and it began to feel like coming ‘home’ each time I arrived, especially with the welcome I unfailingly received. There is a sense of order in a hospital, of safety and care and compassion. When a handful of us came back to mind the hospital at about 3 am after evacuation, with the remains of the … Continue reading
Eva Bartlett | In Gaza
15th January 2009
When I’d met the extended Abed Rabbo family, before the ground invasion began, they had just had their house bombed by an F-16. Their area has been occupied by Israeli tanks and soldiers since the ground invasion began. Medical workers cannot reach the injured there, and those who have managed to escape testify to imprisonment in their houses, abuse, point-blank shooting (to death), and a number of dead not yet known. It’s an … Continue reading
By Eva Bartlett
View Eva’s blog In Gaza
Friday night, Red Crescent ambulances in Jabaliya collected numerous victims of smoke inhalation: a strange chemical smoke which seizes the lungs and air passage, and suffocates the victims. Many elderly were collected in turns, and a 3 month old baby was brought in held by a sobbing mother.
At least, at least we were able to reach them. A Palestinian Red Crescent dispatcher has received what he says is hundreds of calls from the northern Gaza area alone, which have been left unanswered as the areas are under Israeli military occupation.
A glimpse of some … Continue reading
By Sharon in Gaza
To view Sharon’s blog please click here
So, Thursday.. the Red Cross co-ordinated evacuation into Zaytoun. Doctor Said would look good on a Red Cross poster – black sweater, shaved head, muscles enough to keep that Red Cross flag held above his head for the two hours we were behind army lines. You’d definitely invite him in for coffee to ask for his opinion on the state of the world.
His colleague has more of an accountant look about him, but his job is to keep us alive – he is armed with a walkie-talkie and is negotiating … Continue reading
By Sharon in Gaza
To view Sharon’s blog please click here
I covered another ambulance shift Wednesday night, working with two guys who might turn out to be my favourites. S is a sweet EMT driver with good English, very helpful for me, with the ambition to have a baby born in his ambulance since so far he only knows the theory of the process. EB is a dad of three, with a wife who he insists doesn’t mind the idea of him having a second wife … Continue reading
By Fida Qishta – ISM co-ordinator in the Gaza Strip
Visit Fida’s blog here.
According to news reports, over 665 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed,and more than 2950 injured. Of those, more than 214 children and more than 88 women were killed. This is the story of two of those children.
January 2, 2008 Al Qarara, Khan Yunis – According to Mahmud Mosa Alstal, 27 years old, the children`s uncle, “I was sitting down in the building. The children were playing 40 meters away from me, and they were 500 meters away from their house. I could hear the drone (Israeli … Continue reading
