In Gaza: Updates

By Eva Bartlett

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8:33 am Wednesday:

6 more blasts from the Israeli naval ships, in 2 sets.

No power, nor internet last night, no way to keep updating. I didn’t go to Jabaliya, to my terrified friends, because it was too late, impossible to travel there without being a target. They live on the eastern side of Jabaliya, and the roads which lead to their home are within an even more targeted area than other parts of Jabaliya, especially Salah al Din street, a main north-south road.

At 7 am, the blasts renewed, 8 blasts in sets of 2. Ten minutes later, 3 blasts.

I learn that the Council of Ministers, hosting the Prime Minister’s Office, was targeted last night, at 8:50 pm, along with the Ministry of Interior in Tel al Hawa, which was targeted for the 3rd time. Both were completely destroyed. The port, across from where I tried to sleep, was targeted, the Port Authority building destroyed and the dock repeatedly shelled, the impact of the shells some of the closest and most deafening I’ve felt yet, rivaling the shelling 30 m from my friends home in Jabaliya which we experienced three nights ago. The target: an olive orchard in the back yard of a fence-in neighbour’s house.

10:20 am: 6 more blasts, sets of 2, direction of the port

11:00 am

I learn that a member of the Palestinian emergency medical services was killed early this morning in northern Gaza when his team was targeted by an Israeli strike.

11:30 am

Fatema texts me to let me know that they finally have water, thanks to last night’s rain.

8:40 pm Tuesday

Three hits to report, within minutes of each other [bearing in mind that the air-strikes have continued until this point but in different areas of Gaza City and the entire Strip]

1) Prime Minister’s office hit, destroyed

2) Interior Ministry building hit

3) Council of Ministers, hosting PM’s office, further hit

8:57 pm

missile shot from Apache lands outside the apartment we are staying in tonight, hitting the Port Authority building just 150 m away.

9:18 pm

missile shot from an Apache hits the port, 400 m from the apartment we are staying in

*drones continue to fly over this building, and over the building which I visited one hour before (near the bombed Minister’s compound)

9:33 pm

2 shots from Israeli naval boats, targets as yet unknown

9:34

3 more shots

9:40

2 more shots; “They are aiming at the breakwater in Gaza’s harbour,” Mahfouz, a sailor living just down the road, tells me: “They are warning that they are out there. They want to show us their power. They did the same thing yesterday.” [Mahfouz received a shell beside his front yard two nights ago. His family –one teenage son and several young girls, is terrified.]

[the power cuts, I’m unable to continue updating and unable to know what is happening around me]