I've spent the last hour watching footage of things I never wanted to see. The backdrop changed but the images were the same. Dozens of bodies splayed on the ground. Children sobbing. Cars and ambulances unloading the injured and dead at hospitals.
I don't have words yet.
Report: At least 140 dead in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City |
| Date: 27 / 12 / 2008 Time: 11:57 |   | |
 | | [Ma'anImages] | Gaza – Ma'an – At least 140 Palestinians were killed when Israel’s air force fired missiles at more than 30 Gaza City targets at noon on Saturday. Live video broadcasts showed dozens of injured and dead Palestinians in Gaza City, many of them screaming, while Palestinian ambulances raced to the scene. Black smoke billowed over Gaza City into the afternoon as medics evacuated the wounded from targeted de facto government buildings, believed to be the main target in the air raids. Men, women and children were killed in the airstrikes. Others were running in the streets as one correspondent noted that the airstrikes amounted to the largest Israeli military operation in Gaza "for decades." A Reuters correspondent who witnessed the attacks said Israeli fighter jets targeted the Gaza City port and de facto government-run buildings. It is believed that 33 members of Fatah, who were held in Hamas prisons, died in the airstrikes. A spokesperson for the Israeli military had no immediate comment on the airstrikes. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called for a massive response to the airstrikes and a renewal of operations within Israel. He also asked Palestinians to “remain patient in light of these Israeli crimes.” Sources within Hamas told Ma’an that every de facto security building in the Gaza Strip was attacked. Islamic Jihad leader Khaled Al-Batsh said that the Israeli attack amounts to “open war” against Palestinians, intended “to put down the resistance.” Al-Batsh condemned international and Arab States for their “silence on such massacres.” He also swore that what had happened “would never make the resistance factions surrender.” ***Updated 13:07 Bethlehem time | |
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