10th January 2009 – Jabaliya, Gaza:
An international Human Rights Activist, working with medical teams in northern Gaza, today assisted in the collection of six members of the same family killed by an Israeli shell.
British citizen Ewa Jasiewicz, a co-ordinator for the Free Gaza Movement, said, “This morning at 11:40 at Mahmat Street in West Jabaliya. I accompanied an ambulance to pick up members of the Abu Rabu family after six of them had been killed by an Israeli tank shell. Many others had been injured. While we were picking up the family and injured I saw a donkey cart full of dead bodies.
Everyone we meet has lost someone., whether it be a family member, friend or neighbour. It’s getting closer.” Ewa Jasiewicz (Britain/Poland) – Free Gaza Movement
Those of the Abu Rabu family killed were;
Yusri Abu Rabu (30)
Sufian Abu Rabu (22)
Randa Abu Rabu (38)
Sameed Abu Rabu (20)
Sami Abu Rabu (25)
Ramz Abu Rabu (30)
“In the past few days the horrors I have seen include a hospital being shelled, a medic being shot and visiting schools housing refugees after these were shelled. What I see here is nothing short of a massacre. By agreeing to upgrade relations with Israel despite it’s genocidal policies European governments have given Israel a green light for this mass murder.” Alberto Arce (Spain) – International Solidarity Movement
International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists have also been active with Red Cross evacuation teams.
“I was working from Al-Quds hospital during the ‘ceasefire’. We traveled a few hundred metres into a known ‘no-go’ zone because of the ceasefire. We called for people to come out and over forty did while we collected three dead bodies. Immediately as the ceasefire ended the Israelis fired a shell directly over our heads. People started to panic.
We only managed to evacuate four houses as the Israelis have not allowed us to access more people.” Sharon Lock (Australia) – International Solidarity Movement
“They massacred two year old Amal, four year old Suad and and six year old Samer with their tanks during what they call a ceasefire. We do not believe them and their ceasefire” Natalie Abu Shakra (Lebanon) – International Solidarity Movement
South African citizen, Dr. Haidar Eid, Professor of Social and Cultural Studies at Al Aqsa University Gaza, commented on the failed UN Security Council resolution;
“What was needed from the UN Security Council was a demand that Israel abide by international law and international humanitarian law, with a demand for the withdrawal of Israeli troops at least to the 1967 borders. Instead the resolution ignored the occupation and siege, which are the true root of the problem, and treated the resistance to the occupation as the root of the problem. The resolution equates the victim and the victimiser, the oppressor and the oppressed.”
“In March 2008 Matan Vilnai, the Israeli minister of war, threatened the people of Gaza with a holocaust. Because there was no outcry from the international community at the time this is now what is taking place.
However I believe from the reaction of the people around the world, this atrocity will in fact lead to the end of the despotic regimes in the Arab world, the end of Israeli apartheid and the creation of one secular, democratic, multi-national state.” Dr Haidar Eid (South Africa/Palestine).
ISM and Free Gaza Movement activists are currently working night shifts with Palestinian medics.