Tag: Gaza

Video of the devastation in Gaza


Video by ISM Gaza Strip

27th December 2008 – A massive Israeli military operation began throughout the Gaza Strip today. Multiple Israeli air strikes hit many different areas this morning and continued sporadically throughout the day. The destruction was widespread. At the time of writing over 200 people have been killed with the death toll still rising. Hundreds of people have been injured, many severely.

These images were filmed shortly after one of the bombings in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. They show the devastation at the site of a police station in the Hi Alijnina neighbourhood which was hit at approximately 11:30am local time. There were also missile strikes in the Tel Al Sultan, Moraj and Mashrua districts of Rafah. This assault occurred during the busy weekly market in Rafah and as school sessions were ending, so the streets were crowded and full of children.

Some of the walking wounded were interviewed at the Al Najar Hospital in Rafah. This basic local facility was massively overstretched, the atmosphere chaotic. Serious cases were transferred to the European Hospital in Khan Younis. Hospital mortuaries could not cope with the level of fatalities, many of which were described as arrving in pieces.

The Observer: ‘It was like an earthquake on top of your head. My son was terrified. I held him to my chest’

Eyewitness report by Dr Eyad Al Serraj

To view original report, published by The Observer on the 28th December, click here

The bombing went on for about 10 minutes. It was like an earthquake on top of your head. The windows were shaking and squeaking. My ten-year-old son was terrified; he was jumping from one place to another trying to hide. I held him tight to my chest and tried to reassure him. My 12-year-old was panicking and began laughing hysterically – it’s not normal. I held her hand and calmed her and told her she would be safe. My wife was panicking. She was also running around the apartment looking for somewhere to hide.

We live on the ground floor so we headed to the basement.

Not very far from our home are the headquarters of the police and there was a massive bomb. The chief of the police was killed. Two streets away there was another bomb and more people were killed. The office of the president is about a kilometre from our house and it was also bombed.

We went downstairs to the basement and tried to hide ourselves from the shelling. The child of one of our relatives, who lives in our building, finally came home from school. We hadn’t been able to find her. All the phone connections were jammed. She came home and she was in a very serious state of shock. She was pale and trembling and she was describing dead bodies in the streets. On her way home she passed Hamas people in uniform and they were dead.

I had been very apprehensive when I woke up this morning. I had some bread, some cheese and a glass of tea. Like all the people in Gaza I felt that something was going on and something very serious. When Israel allowed the delivery of food and fuel I said to myself and my friends that Israel is really planning a massive strike. They don’t want to be blamed for starving the people.

I was sitting in the living-room with my family trying to figure out what to do today for lunch – it’s our main meal. What to cook and how to cook, whether we have enough to eat. There was no rice so I wanted to have lentil soup and my wife said, ‘No, there’s no lentils in the market’. I said, ‘What else can we do?’ She said ‘I bought some cans of food’. We were discussing this when suddenly the whole thing erupted. Suddenly there was a big explosion.

Right now I feel very anxious about what’s going to happen. I’m worried about how many more people are going to die.

• Dr Eyad Al Serraj is a psychologist in Gaza city

Mother of 13 killed by Israeli air-strike – Internationals staying in Jabaliya amid fears of Israeli ground invasion

International Human Rights Activists went to visit one of the families who lost their mother as Israel killed at least 225 in Gaza on the 27th December.

They will be staying with the family tonight (27th December) as the family and neighbours have expressed fear over an anticipated ground invasion of the area.


Photo from outside Al-Shifa hospital

Canadian citizen, Eva Bartlett, reported that;

“Today we visited the home of martyred civilian Sara Aid Hawajereh, a 55 year-old mother of 7 boys and 6 girls.

It was 11am this morning when Sara ventured out of her home in Jabaliya refugee camp to buy bread. On the way to the shop she was hit by shrapnel from an F16-launched missile and was killed.”

“Everyone in this house depended on Sara,” said one of her sons. “She would wake at 5am each day to ensure our home was clean and tidy, before going out to the market to buy our bread and other groceries. Before she left this morning, my mother hurt her leg, but despite the injury she still insisted on going to get food for all of us children.”

Eva added, “Every loss is atrocious, but it is more poignant when you see it or know the dead.”

Human Rights Defenders from various countries are present in Gaza and are witnessing and documenting the current Israeli attacks on Gaza. Due to Israel’s policy of denying access to international media, human rights defenders and aid agencies to the Occupied Gaza Strip, many of these Human Rights Defenders arrived in Gaza with the Free Gaza Movement’s boats that have repeatedly broken the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Israeli Ministry of Defence make threatening phone call to residents of Gaza on the day that Israel kills at least 225 Palestinians

27th December 2008 – A family in Rafah say they have received a menacing phone call from the Israeli Ministry of Defence, warning that “any house that has guns or weapons will be targeted next without further warning or any announcement”.

At the end of a day where Israeli air-strikes killed at least 225 Palestinians in Gaza, with hundreds more injured, residents of Rafah were then subject to further threats from the Israelis. According to international Human Rights activists based in the area, the aggressive communication has caused widespread panic as the family called neighbours to find out if they had received the same call.

Palestinian Human Rights Activist Fida Qishta said:

” We received a call at about 9:45pm from the Israeli Ministry of Defence. It said that any house with guns or weapons would be targeted next. They said that this would happen without warning or any announcement”

“I hope that its not just our house. We do not have any guns”

Haaretz have reported that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have received the same message.


For more information:

Adam Taylor – ISM Media Office in Ramallah – +972 598503948

Report from ISM Gaza Strip as Israeli rockets hit Gaza

By Sharon from Australia

3pm from Gaza city

I was at home beside the small Gaza port, eating a bread and jam breakfast, when the rockets began to fall at about 11am. Six or seven deafening explosions occurred not far from my building, which rocked from the impact, smoke and dust filling the air. This occurred just as the children were on the streets walking back from school, and when I went out onto the stairs, a terrified 5 year old girl ran sobbing into my arms.

Vik (Italy) later ascertained that these rockets had targeted the port police station, and also the “President’s Palace” nearby, killing about 20.

At the time of the attacks, Eva (Canada) was on Omar Mukhtar street where a police station had just been hit, and witnessed a last rocket hit the street 150 m away where crowds had already gathered to try to extract the dead bodies. The street was littered with rubble, making it difficult for ambulances and cars to get near enough to take bodies away.

Al Shifa hospital in Gaza city is full of dazed, wounded people – and also, we are told, pieces of what were people. Two from our group are currently inside documenting. Eva stood outside the hospital, watching as car after car, as well as the small number of functional ambulances, rushed into the hospital, Gaza’s main hospital, bringing the dead and the severely injured.

We also have a team documenting in Rafah. We are hearing that over 100 are dead and over 200 wounded. Several of the police stations that were targeted were having training days, but the dead and wounded include civilians and children.