Dear friends,
Israel's Haaretz newspaper ran two stories today, which starkly contrasts what the "ceasefire" means in Israel and what it means in Gaza. I think the stories and images speak for themselves.
In solidarity, Kim
Screencaps of Haaretz photos/headlines. Haaretz included several images for their story on Israelis during the ceasefire -.the image on the left comes up when you post the url for the story to social media. No date is given on this image, but other photos of the beach included in article are dated (see below)
Israel's Haaretz newspaper ran two stories today, which starkly contrasts what the "ceasefire" means in Israel and what it means in Gaza. I think the stories and images speak for themselves.
In solidarity, Kim
Some 150 bodies recovered in Gaza as death toll exceeds 1,000
Palestinian sources say seven members of medical teams have been killed by IDF in past two weeks.
A Palestinian woman pauses amid destroyed buildings in the northern district of Beit Hanun, July 26, 2014.
Photo by AFP
Accompanied by the stench of raw sewage, rotting garbage,
animal carcasses and human bodies buried under rubble, hundreds of
thousands of Gazans yesterday left their homes and temporary refuges and
returned to what two weeks ago were bustling neighborhoods and towns.
The humanitarian cease-fire was meant, above all, to allow for the removal of bodies trapped under bombed homes in residential areas adjacent to the border with Israel. Around 150 bodies were extricated yesterday, bringing the number of Palestinians killed in the past two-plus weeks of fighting past the thousand mark. According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, of the 928 fatalities who had been identified by name as of 10 A.M. yesterday, 764 were civilians, and they included 215 children and 118 women.
For two weeks, the Israel Defense Forces barred Palestinian rescue teams from reaching wounded Palestinians or searching the ruins of destroyed homes for possible survivors if Israeli infantry units were operating nearby. Seven members of emergency medical teams were killed by the IDF in the past two weeks while trying to reach the wounded. Two were killed on Friday, in Beit Hanun and in eastern Khan Yunis. In an unknown number of incidents, EMT teams turned back after being shot at by Israeli soldiers. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that even yesterday, during the cease-fire, EMT crews were stopped from entering Kaft Huza’a, east of Khan Yunis, where dozens of civilians were killed by the IDF late Tuesday night or early Wednesday. It’s not known how many people are still buried under the rubble, whether dead or injured.
In the day preceding the humanitarian cease-fire, 75 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire or air attacks in the Gaza Strip, 52 of them civilians. According to the Palestinian human rights center, 18 of these were children and eight were women.
In a single air strike, about five hours before the cease-fire went into effect, 20 members of Samir Hussein Muhammed al-Najar’s family died when a bomber fired a missile at the two-story building, including 11 children and five women, including Samir, 58, Ra’aliya, 56, and their children Majd, 19, Kifah, 24 and Samr, 26; relatives Amir, 2, Islam 3, and Amira, eight months; and Riham, 25 and pregnant.
In one of the bombing runs on the night between Thursday and Friday, Husam Yassin, 15, a grandson of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, was killed.
At 7 P.M. Friday, an IDF shell hit a hospital in Beit Hanun. Hospital staff, civilians and two volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement were in the building.
They reported that Israeli soldiers had been seen outside the building and that exchanges of gunfire had been heard in the area. As a result of gunfire in the vicinity of the hospital, most of the patients had been evacuated previously. The firing on the hospital continued until Friday night.
“It was absolute chaos, the army shelled the hospital. There are two patients on the second floor and we think they’re all right but we can’t move them easily because they’re bedridden. I’m bleeding from my head because of an injury, and another person was also wounded. People are scared,” a Swedish volunteer at the hospital said. The hospital was not evacuated until yesterday morning, when the humanitarian cease-fire went into effect.
During the night between Thursday and Friday, IDF fire hit the a-Dura children’s hospital in Gaza City. A 1-year-old infant in the pediatric intensive care unit was killed and 30 other patients were injured. They were evacuated to Shifa Hospital.
A Beit Hanun man who was among the thousands who fled their homes in the middle of last week returned home yesterday morning, like thousands of others, hoping to at least take a few changes of clothing for himself, his wife and his family, who was staying with friends in Jabalya.
“It was as if a tsunami had hit,” he said. “I couldn’t even tell what was our home and what was the neighbors’. And when I did figure it out, I discovered that there was nothing to take. All the furniture and the clothing was burned or still burning. The house was half-destroyed. All our savings, for decades, gone.”
Shujaiyeh, which had about 100,00 Palestinian inhabitants, not refugees, had turned into “a ghost town,” said a woman who went to see the destruction. “Residential buildings had not only been destroyed in bombing raids but also ground into gravel, sand, piles of dirt. I’ve seen destroyed homes in my life. Usually you can tell where the buildings were, even where the walls had been. This was different. You can’t tell where a building used to be, how many buildings were there before the bombardments. A few buildings are still standing, others totally disappeared.”
**
The humanitarian cease-fire was meant, above all, to allow for the removal of bodies trapped under bombed homes in residential areas adjacent to the border with Israel. Around 150 bodies were extricated yesterday, bringing the number of Palestinians killed in the past two-plus weeks of fighting past the thousand mark. According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, of the 928 fatalities who had been identified by name as of 10 A.M. yesterday, 764 were civilians, and they included 215 children and 118 women.
For two weeks, the Israel Defense Forces barred Palestinian rescue teams from reaching wounded Palestinians or searching the ruins of destroyed homes for possible survivors if Israeli infantry units were operating nearby. Seven members of emergency medical teams were killed by the IDF in the past two weeks while trying to reach the wounded. Two were killed on Friday, in Beit Hanun and in eastern Khan Yunis. In an unknown number of incidents, EMT teams turned back after being shot at by Israeli soldiers. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that even yesterday, during the cease-fire, EMT crews were stopped from entering Kaft Huza’a, east of Khan Yunis, where dozens of civilians were killed by the IDF late Tuesday night or early Wednesday. It’s not known how many people are still buried under the rubble, whether dead or injured.
In the day preceding the humanitarian cease-fire, 75 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire or air attacks in the Gaza Strip, 52 of them civilians. According to the Palestinian human rights center, 18 of these were children and eight were women.
In a single air strike, about five hours before the cease-fire went into effect, 20 members of Samir Hussein Muhammed al-Najar’s family died when a bomber fired a missile at the two-story building, including 11 children and five women, including Samir, 58, Ra’aliya, 56, and their children Majd, 19, Kifah, 24 and Samr, 26; relatives Amir, 2, Islam 3, and Amira, eight months; and Riham, 25 and pregnant.
In one of the bombing runs on the night between Thursday and Friday, Husam Yassin, 15, a grandson of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, was killed.
At 7 P.M. Friday, an IDF shell hit a hospital in Beit Hanun. Hospital staff, civilians and two volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement were in the building.
They reported that Israeli soldiers had been seen outside the building and that exchanges of gunfire had been heard in the area. As a result of gunfire in the vicinity of the hospital, most of the patients had been evacuated previously. The firing on the hospital continued until Friday night.
“It was absolute chaos, the army shelled the hospital. There are two patients on the second floor and we think they’re all right but we can’t move them easily because they’re bedridden. I’m bleeding from my head because of an injury, and another person was also wounded. People are scared,” a Swedish volunteer at the hospital said. The hospital was not evacuated until yesterday morning, when the humanitarian cease-fire went into effect.
During the night between Thursday and Friday, IDF fire hit the a-Dura children’s hospital in Gaza City. A 1-year-old infant in the pediatric intensive care unit was killed and 30 other patients were injured. They were evacuated to Shifa Hospital.
A Beit Hanun man who was among the thousands who fled their homes in the middle of last week returned home yesterday morning, like thousands of others, hoping to at least take a few changes of clothing for himself, his wife and his family, who was staying with friends in Jabalya.
“It was as if a tsunami had hit,” he said. “I couldn’t even tell what was our home and what was the neighbors’. And when I did figure it out, I discovered that there was nothing to take. All the furniture and the clothing was burned or still burning. The house was half-destroyed. All our savings, for decades, gone.”
Shujaiyeh, which had about 100,00 Palestinian inhabitants, not refugees, had turned into “a ghost town,” said a woman who went to see the destruction. “Residential buildings had not only been destroyed in bombing raids but also ground into gravel, sand, piles of dirt. I’ve seen destroyed homes in my life. Usually you can tell where the buildings were, even where the walls had been. This was different. You can’t tell where a building used to be, how many buildings were there before the bombardments. A few buildings are still standing, others totally disappeared.”
**
During cease-fire, Israelis head out to malls, restaurants, and beaches
After nearly three weeks of rocket fire, Israelis venture out in large numbers.
 |
Tel Aviv beach, July 26, 2014.
Photo by Tomer Appelbaum
After nearly three weeks of rocket fire directed at the
south and center of the country and even to points further north,
Saturday’s 12-hour cease-fire prompted Israelis to venture out in larger
numbers.
Although life in the center and north of the country has proceeded relatively normally over the past three weeks of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, consumers have curbed their spending to some extent, and appear to have been staying closer to home in many cases.
With the declaration of a humanitarian cease-fire between Israel and Hamas from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. Saturday, Israelis ventured out in large numbers during the course of the day, although rocket fire resumed in the evening.
Beaches, cafés, restaurants and movie theaters were busier during the day, as were those shopping centers that are open on the Sabbath. Residents of the south, who are closer to the Gaza Strip, came out in smaller numbers, however.
The Tel Aviv Port retail complex on the city’s waterfront, which has seen business dip substantially during the past three weeks of hostilities, was again bustling, although numbers were still lower than on a typical Saturday.
Business at other entertainment areas in the center of the country also experienced a drop in business compared to a normal Saturday, but traffic was higher than last Saturday.
“At most branches in the center of the country, traffic still didn’t return to routine [levels],” said the CEO of the Aroma Israel café chain, Danny Mishel.
“At our branches on the seafront promenade in Bat Yam and at the Seven Stars Mall in Herzliya, sales are down by about 10% compared to regular vacation days. Nonetheless, though, there was an improvement compared to the previous days,” Mishel said, in reference to suburban locations just north and south of Tel Aviv.
Many movie theaters attracted larger numbers than usual yesterday. Cinema City in Rishon Letzion, just south of Tel Aviv, reported 30% higher traffic than a regular Saturday, with parking in high demand and long lines at restaurants at the complex.
Similar scenes were reported at Azrieli Group malls in Ramat Gan, Givatayim and Modi’in in the center of the country.
Although life in the center and north of the country has proceeded relatively normally over the past three weeks of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, consumers have curbed their spending to some extent, and appear to have been staying closer to home in many cases.
With the declaration of a humanitarian cease-fire between Israel and Hamas from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. Saturday, Israelis ventured out in large numbers during the course of the day, although rocket fire resumed in the evening.
Beaches, cafés, restaurants and movie theaters were busier during the day, as were those shopping centers that are open on the Sabbath. Residents of the south, who are closer to the Gaza Strip, came out in smaller numbers, however.
The Tel Aviv Port retail complex on the city’s waterfront, which has seen business dip substantially during the past three weeks of hostilities, was again bustling, although numbers were still lower than on a typical Saturday.
Business at other entertainment areas in the center of the country also experienced a drop in business compared to a normal Saturday, but traffic was higher than last Saturday.
“At most branches in the center of the country, traffic still didn’t return to routine [levels],” said the CEO of the Aroma Israel café chain, Danny Mishel.
“At our branches on the seafront promenade in Bat Yam and at the Seven Stars Mall in Herzliya, sales are down by about 10% compared to regular vacation days. Nonetheless, though, there was an improvement compared to the previous days,” Mishel said, in reference to suburban locations just north and south of Tel Aviv.
Many movie theaters attracted larger numbers than usual yesterday. Cinema City in Rishon Letzion, just south of Tel Aviv, reported 30% higher traffic than a regular Saturday, with parking in high demand and long lines at restaurants at the complex.
Similar scenes were reported at Azrieli Group malls in Ramat Gan, Givatayim and Modi’in in the center of the country.
Cinema City in Rishon Letzion, July 26, 2014. Photo by Tomer Appelbaum
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