International human rights activists have witnessed the recovery of dead members of the Samouni family.
Several bodies of the Samouni family have finally been retrieved, 12 days after an attack by Israeli military forces that led to the death of an unknown number of family members. Red Crescent ambulance crews finally gained access to the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on 18 January 2009.
The family was killed in their home by an Israeli air-strike on January 6th, but their bodies could not be recovered until recently due to ongoing Israeli operations in the area. Seven family members including men, women and children, were retrieved from the rubble. At least 13 family members are still unaccounted for.
Our ambulance crew set off at 10:20 am to go into the Zeitoun neighborhood. We haven’t been able to enter the area most days because it’s been sealed by the army. When we arrived at the Samouni family house, the house was flattened, so the roof was very close to the ground. We made a hole in the roof and began pulling up bodies for an hour. We were able to retrieve 7 bodies before the Red Cross asked us to leave, as the army was likely to return to Zeitoun. There are at least 13 bodies still in the house, as one of the medics had a list of 20 missing family members.
Sharon Lock – International Solidarity Movement
One of the Samouni family children Ahmed Nasser, 10 or 11 years old, came to us at Al Quds hospital in a very bad condition on January 6th. He had been shot in the chest and needed test tubs. He told us that all of his family had been taken into a room by the soldiers when they came to their house. When missiles hit the house, most of the family was killed. Ahmed’s father is alive, but his mother, sisters and brother are all dead. Ahmed stayed with the bodies of his family members for four days before he was found and brought here. The first thing he asked for was for bread and water. Many family members are still missing but today we will know for sure when all of the bodies come in.
Reema Abu Lafi – nurse at Al Quds hospital in Gaza City
Haneen al-Badran, a nine year old girl who was shot in the face and abdomen by Israeli snipers as her family ran to the AL-Quds hospital in Tel al-Hawa, died at 5pm on January 16th.
The shooting of the al Badran family
The Al Batran Family from Tel Al Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City fled terrified from their homes and attempted to take refuge in Al Quds hospital on Between noon And 1:00PM January 15th, 2009. Israeli snipers stationed directly outside the hospital opened fire on the family. Nine year old Haneen Al Badran was shot through the face and in the abdomen. The father, 54 year old Fadel Al Badran, was shot in the thigh and fell to the ground. 12-year-old Jasmeen, can be seen in the videos above frozen in terror, being carried into the hospital by a medic who ran into the line of fire to retrieve her, and being treated by doctors in the hospital afterward.
Haneen al Badran died of her wounds in Al Shifa hospital at 5pm on January 16th.
The shelling and evacuation of Al Quds hospital
Al-Quds hospital was shelled repeatedly in the early morning and several wings destroyed. At approximately 11:00 PM a wing close to the wards was shelled and caught fire. The patients were all evacuated and transferred to Al- Shifa hospital and a nearby Red Crescent facility despite severe overcrowding.
The first floor of the burnt hospital is still being used as an ambulance depot for the Red Crescent. Doctors hope to have the hospital running on Monday despite fears of further shelling.
Quotes from residents of Tel al-Hawa
They were killing any person they could see in the street. They shot at my next-door neighbor. From the area around here, there are around 25 martyrs. They are still looking for missing people. They shelled a complete part of the hospital. The streets and infrastructure are completely destroyed. The building across the street is still burning, and it was a pharmacy depot. The people fled to seek refuge in Al Quds hospital 200 meters from here. Some of the ambulances were destroyed. I saw with my own eyes the burning, the smoke. This is savagery. I don’t think anyone in his life has ever witnessed such brutality and horror.
– Dr. Assad, Tel al-Hawa
We were in our house in Tel al-Hawa. The Israelis were shelling all around. We were really scared being under fire and not being able to do anything about it. None of the people in our building are resisting, we are all civilians. Our neighbors in the building next to us were injured from the shelling. The Red Cross made arrangements for us to leave but we couldn’t take any of our possessions, not even our identification cards. We left wearing only our pajamas. Outside, a man and his daughter were shot by Israeli Forces, and we were praying not to be shot as well. We stayed an hour in the hospital basement before moving on to the nearest UNWRA School. We walked a long distance, we couldn’t sleep, and some of the people were badly injured. Now we live with relatives. Everything we have is in that house but we can not go back there.
– Tel al-Hawa resident
Quotes from Medical staff and volunteers
The patients from Al Quds hospital were evacuated under white flags. Two or three patients were put in the same bed, and the beds were wheeled across the street for 500 meters or more. Those evacuated included numbered around 40 patients. Three newborn babies were evacuated in their incubators and at least four patients were in critical condition. We evacuated because of a fire which started on the second floor of the building and began to spread. The patients and staff were ready to die from the fire or die from shooting. Hospital medics are now cleaning the hospital, which sustained heavy damage from the attack, in the hopes that we can make it operational again by Monday.
– Dr. Waleed Ramadan
After around 600 people had gone to Al-Quds hospital, they then had to leave again. They thought they had found somewhere safe, but nowhere is safe here. I am accompanying ambulances working out of the first floor of what remains of Al Quds hospital. Since the same locations are often targeted repeatedly, we all fear that the hospital will again come under attack.
– Sharon Lock, an Australian volunteer who participated in the evacuation of the Batran family and the evacuation of the Al Quds hospital
The Israeli navy today threatened to kill unarmed civilians aboard a mercy ship on its way to deliver medical supplies and doctors to besieged Gaza.
The Free Gaza Movement ship, SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, left Cyprus Wednesday morning carrying doctors, journalists, human rights workers, and parliamentarians. The ship also carried over a ton of desperately needed medicines donated by the European Campaign to Break the Siege, and intended for overwhelmed hospitals in the Gaza Strip. At the request of the ship’s organizers the passenger list and manifest were publicly released, and Cypriot authorities searched the boat prior to its departure in order to certify that it only carried humanitarian items. The organizers also sent an official notification to the Israeli government of their intent to break through the blockade of Gaza.
At roughly 3am UST (1am GMT), in international waters 100 miles off the coast of Gaza, at least five Israeli gunboats surrounded the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY and began recklessly cutting in front of the slow-moving civilian craft. The Israeli warships radioed the SPIRIT, demanding that the ship turn around or they would open fire and “shoot.” When asked if the Israeli navy was acknowledging that they intended to commit a war crime by deliberately firing on unarmed civilians, the warships replied that they were prepared to use “any means” to stop the ship.
An earlier attempt by Free Gaza to deliver doctors and medical supplies ended on 30 December when Israeli gunboats deliberately and repeatedly rammed the DIGNITY, almost sinking that ship. Rather than endanger the lives of its passengers, the SPIRIT is now returning to Cyprus.
Israel’s reckless and shocking threats against an unarmed ship on a mission of mercy are a violation of both international maritime law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which states that “the high seas should be reserved for peaceful purposes.”
CALL the Israeli Government and demand that it immediately STOP attacking the civilian population of Gaza and STOP using violence to prevent human rights and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.
Mark Regev in the Prime Minister’s office:
+972 2670 5354 or +972 5 0620 3264
mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il
Shlomo Dror in the Ministry of Defence:
+972 3697 5339 or +972 50629 8148
mediasar@mod.gov.il
Israeli Navy Spokesperson:
+ 972 5 781 86248
For more information, please contact:
(Cyprus) Lubna Masarwa, +357 97 625 828
(Cyprus) Mary Hughes, +357 99 081 767
(Gaza) Ewa Jasiewicz, +972 598 700 497
With the death toll in Gaza growing hourly, silence is complicity. It is imperative for concerned citizens to demand that their governments take immediate action in order to stop Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Write your representative today and demand:
That Israeli war criminals be brought before the International Criminal Court or a Special Tribunal for war crimes committed in Gaza. (Remind your representative that the investigation, prosecution or extradition of those responsible for war crimes is an obligation of all high contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions.)
That in response to Israel’s severe breaches of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, your state terminate all favorable trade agreements and economic relations with Israel, including the EU Association Agreement which is conditional upon adherence to human rights and democratic principles.
That your state cut all diplomatic ties with Israel.
The current events in Gaza were predicated and advocated for by Israeli Professor Arnon Soffer, Head of the IDF’s National Defense College. Professor Soffer spelled out the desired results of Israel’s unilateral disengagement from Gaza in an interview with the Jerusalem Post (24 May 2004):
Jerusalem Post: How will the region look the day after unilateral separation?
… First of all … Instead of entering Gaza like we did last week. We will tell the Palestinians that if a single missile is fired over the fence, we will fire 10 in response. And women and children will be killed, and houses will be destroyed. After the fifth such incident, Palestinian mothers won’t allow their husbands to shoot Kassams, because they will know what’s waiting for them.
Second of all, when 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It’s going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day…If we don’t kill, we will cease to exist…Unilateral separation doesn’t guarantee “peace” – it guarantees a Zionist-Jewish state with an overwhelming majority of Jews…
Jerusalem Post: Voluntary transfer?
Arnon Soffer: Yes. And Gaza is going to be such a disaster that it will be beyond our capacity to help. There will have to be large-scale international aid. The US will have to pressure Egypt to cede land.
More recently Matan Vilnai, Deputy Defense Minister of Israel, told Army Radio during “Operation Hot Winter” (29 February 2008):
They will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.
In the days following this statement, 107 Palestinians were killed. The international community failed to take action. This inaction, followed by European declarations of intentions to upgrade their trade agreements with Israel, served as a green light for the current atrocities.
Reserve Colonel Yoav Gal, an Israeli Air Force pilot, told Army Radio during “Operation Cast Lead” (11 January 2009):
I believe that it should have been even stronger! Dresden! Dresden! The extermination of a city! After all, we’re told that the face of war has changed. No longer is it the advancing of tanks or an organized military. […] It is a whole nation, from the old lady to the child, this is the military. It is a nation fighting a war. I am calling them a nation, even though I don’t see them as one. It is a nation fighting a nation. Civilians fighting civilians. I’m telling you that we […] must know […] that stones will not be thrown at us! I am not talking about rockets – not even a stone will be thrown at us. Because we’re Jews.[…] I want the Arabs of Gaza to flee to Egypt. This is what I want. I want to destroy the city, not necessarily the people living within it.
In order to end Israel´s impunity we call on civil society to support the Palestinian campaign for an international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
Signatories
The One Democratic State Group – Gaza
University Teacher Association in Palestine – Gaza
Arab Cultural Forum – Gaza
Endorsed by
Popular Committees Against the Wall and Settlements – West Bank
As a result of the ongoing shelling in the Tel al Huwa neigbourhood of Gaza City, many families are attempting to find shelter in the Al Quds hospital.
Australian Human Rights Activist Sharon Lock has described the events as Israeli snipers opened fire on families seeking refuge in Al-Quds hospital, in Tel al Huwa:
One family lives very close to the hospital. They tried to come here as they thought it would be safer. Israeli snipers started firing at the family. They shot a young girl in the face and abdomen. She is now being operated on. The father of the family was shot in the leg and fell to the ground. The mother was screaming that one of her daughters was still outside, behind a bush, too scared to move. Mohammed, a medic I have been working with, ran outside and carried her to the hospital
Mohammed Shiziq, Palestinian medic, said,
“The Red Cross is not managing to coordinate evacuation of wounded people. There are people right next to the Red Crescent hospital bleeding to death. We cannot get to them as the Israelis shoot at us. Usually we transfer severe cases to Al-Shifa hospital. We cannot do that now. “
Dr Amal el Khaloud, of El Azhar University told the ISM that,
“There was very heavy shelling and many fires since 11pm last night. We went to hide under the elevator shaft in our apartment block as it is made of concrete. At 11am the army broke down the door for our building and took al the men under 40. They also took their documents and phones. My husband is a childrens doctor. They took my him with them. There are now around 600 people crammed in the hospital, mostly women and children.”
