Collective Punishment in Safa

This morning we woke up to more alarming news from the village of Safa where my sister-in-law lives with her family. Following the murder of an Israeli settler in a nearby illegal settlement last week, the families in Safa have endured one form of collective punishment after another.

The men in the village were rounded up by Israeli soldiers and kept in the schoolyard. It's been reported that 28 men were detained for even longer periods of time. Three homes in the village were taken over by Israeli soldiers and turned into military posts. The whole village was under curfew for more than 24 hours as Israeli soldiers searched (and damaged) homes and the following days all roads leading in and out of the village were blocked.

And now Israelis living in the nearby illegal settlement and Israeli soldiers have attacked the village injuring 38 people. This is the report from Ma'an News Agency:

UPDATE: Armed settlers attack, injure 38 Palestinians; Teenager in critical condition

Date: 08 / 04 / 2009 Time: 10:03

Palestinian demonstrators confronted the settlers [Ma'anImages] Hebron – Ma’an – Thirty-eight Palestinians were injured when armed Israeli settlers, backed by soldiers, rampaged through the West Bank village of Safa, north of Hebron on Wednesday morning. According to medics at Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron 11 Palestinians were shot with live bullets, five with rubber-coated metal bullets and another 15 were treated for the effects of teargas. One Palestinian, 18-year-old Tha’er Aadi, is in critical condition after being shot in the neck. After undergoing surgery at Al-Ahli, he was transferred to the public hospital in the city of Ramallah. One eyewitness said that some 25 settlers from the nearby settlement Bat Ayin approached Palestinian houses and began shooting randomly. He said that Israeli military patrols were present, and watched the settlers shooting without stopping them. Soldiers fired gunshots and tear gas canisters in order to prevent local youths from confronting the settlers, one witness said. Neighboring villages called on for help Calls were heard through mosque loudspeakers in the neighboring Palestinian towns of Beit Ummar and Surif asking residents to head to Safa and help protect its people from the rampaging settlers. Hundreds of youths responded to the call. When the youth arrived Israeli troops intervened and restrained the settlers, making sure they returned their settlement unharmed. Local sources said that the settlers stole cattle as they left Safa. Medics at Al-Ahli Hospital named some of the injured: 31-year-old Ammar Abu Dayya who was shot in the thigh, 26-year-old Suheil Abu Dayya, shot in the foot, 26-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil, also shot in the thigh, 35-year-old Walid Khlayyil, shot in the foot, and 24-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil The mayors of nearby Hebron and Beit Ummar arrived in Safa to check on residents. According to mayor of Beit Ummar Nasri Sabarna, all of those injured in the day’s events were harmed by the soldiers supporting the settlers, and not by the settlers themselves. Revenge attack On Thursday in Bat Ayin a man, reportedly Palestinian, killed a teenage settler and wounded another 7-year-old boy in the settlement with an axe. The settlement is also the origin of a militia called the Bat Ayin Underground. The father of the 7-year-old victim of last week’s attack is Ofer Gamliel, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence for attempting to bomb a Palestinian girls’ school in Jerusalem in 2002. Two other men from the settlement were also jailed for the attempted attack. On Wednesday night, the Israeli news agency Ynet reported that Gamliel was to be released for 48 hours this week in order to visit his son. The Israeli military has refused to comment on the incident. ***Updated at 15:04 Bethlehem time

More photos from Gaza

MECA volunteer Mohammed El Majdalawi sent more photos from Gaza.

His photos include images from refugee camps and also close up photos of weapons made in the US.

Click here to see the photos.

If you would like to use these photos please credit Mohammed Fares El Majdalawi. Email us if you need higher resolution versions.

The story

To all who care about the children in Gaza:

I have just returned from 3 and a half weeks in Egypt and Gaza with Dr. Mona El-Farra delivering an ambulance, 4 tons of much needed pediatric medicine, tons of milk and baby cereal, 29 wheelchairs, and a truckload of crayons, magic markers, paper and coloring books for children in Gaza. It was a very trying visit.

I have been to Palestine many times over the past 21 years but never have I seen anything like what I saw this time. I will never forget the sadness, the smell, the destroyed homes, schools, mosques and cemeteries. I want to make clear this is not an apology but an explanation of what happened.

While I was away I told a story that was told to me by several people about a family in Gaza. This story received much attention and many people wanted more information so I contacted
my friend Talal and asked him to research the story. Here is his response:

Dear Barbara,

It's the first time i have had internet. I hope you are O.K...you and all of our friends.

I heard from Dr. Mona that you are under great pressure because of the story you have published about the crime of that woman. Be sure that it was a fact and we are ready to receive any investigation committee to check out the facts. But as you know during the wars and when death is very close, the popular memory interferes and colors the action with it's special details.

We all heard the story on the local radio as I narrated it to you. But when you wrote the story and you faced so much pressure I decided to investigate and caught the real story.

It's not so far from from what you reported because the victims are the same...the story happened in Bourij Camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The Israelis called the woman Manal Albatran and told her that they wouldn't kill her or her husband Hussein Albatran, instead they would make them die of sadness because they would kill her children. The next day they shot her house with a rocket killing her and 5 of her children.

The dead:
Manal Albatran 30 years old
Walaa Albatran 12 years old
Islam Albatran 11 years old
Belal Albatran 10 years old
Ezzeldin Albatran 8 years old
Ehsan Albatran 7 years old

The father who is an employee at an UNRWA school and the youngest child were saved.

This is the real story and I hope the amount of victims will convince others to believe the crimes we face. Thanks a lot for your appreciated visit and I hope to see you again soon.

Regards,
Talal Abushawish

Reminiscent of Nakba 1948

Mohammed Al-Majdalawi, a friend and MECA volunteer in Gaza, has shared some very powerful images from Gaza. He took these photos throughout the 22-day Israeli attacks on Gaza as well as the days following the "ceasefires" to document the destruction and suffering of regular people.

Mohammed writes, "These photos are of children and of life in Gaza during and after the war. I took these photos in refugee camps, schools, hospitals, outside bakeries while people waited to buy bread, and in the street whenever people left their houses between bombs.

I took photos every day. I went to different areas with my simple camera in hopes that these photos can tell the world the truth and illuminate the suffering of my people."

Mohammed lives in Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza. He says "The scene here reminds my family of Al Nakba (Arabic for Catastrophe) 1948."

There is still no electricity in his area of Gaza. He searched many hours to find a place with internet and electricity so he could share these photos with us. Please look at them and pass on to your friends.

In the next few days Mohammed will try to add captions to these photos. For now, I think the images speak for themselves.

Click here to go to the web album.

Day 2 in Gaza: More death and destruction

Today we visited Jabaliya Refugee Camp, one of the areas hardest hit by Israel's brutal attacks on Gaza earlier this month. Mohammed Al-Majdalawi, a volunteer with MECA, showed me the ruins of the refugee camp. Residents reported that they had no electricity or running water, nearly one week after Israel's unilateral ceasefire.

Pharmacies, schools, and homes were indiscriminately hit in Jabaliya. Mohammed's family was forced to evacuate their home because of intense bombing. He told me that though they are living in a refugee camp, not their original land, they consider themselves lucky to have a home at all. Thousands of people are still living in crowded UN schools turned to shelters because they have no where else to go.

Earlier in the day I went to the Zaytoun area of Gaza City. I saw families gathering wood from charred trees. The continued blockade of Gaza is adding insult to injury as these terrified families build fires to keep warm and cook due to the lack of cooking gas. Residents from the neighborhood told me stories of wild dogs coming to eat their dead neighbors, relatives bleeding to death because Israel would not allow emergency workers reach the area, and Israeli soldiers entering homes to beat and then kill people.

I have been in Gaza just two short days and have already witnessed so much death and destruction. The scale of the effects of these attacks is enormous. MECA is doing a small part by sending a mobile intensive care unit, 3.5 tons of powdered milk, 5 tons fortified baby cereal, thousands of crayons and coloring books. $1.5 million worth of medicine for children and infants as well as 40 wheelchairs are still en route to Gaza. But we must keep the world's attention on Gaza. We must give these children an opportunity to heal and to live out their lives in freedom.

Gaza needs many years to heal

A message from MECA's Director of Gaza Projects, Dr. Mona El-Farra, who is in Egypt coordinating shipments to Gaza while Barbara Lubin is meeting with MECA's partners on the ground in Gaza.

Hello friends

I am still in Cairo. With a sad heart I am watching home from a distance. The hardest days were when I went to the Rafah Crossing point. I was only one kilometer away from Gaza, but could not enter. I was told that as a Palestinian with dual nationality, I can get in but not out.

While at the border I was greatly touched by the expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people. I met doctors from Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Greece, Turkey and many other countries who came to help the people of Gaza in defiance of Israel’s savage attacks on children, women, and men. We must all work on continuing and expanding these solidarity efforts on different levels. We cannot let Israel get away with its crimes against humanity in Gaza.

I want to thank you all for your solidarity as well as for your practical support. Whether you donated one pound or thousands of pounds, your support and your continuous protests let the people of Gaza feel that they are not alone and will never be forgotten.

I am still in daily contact with friends, relatives, and fellow doctors back home. And I conveyed to them your messages of support and solidarity. I also visited dozens of the injured who were transferred to Egyptian hospitals. They are in great need of rehabilitation after their wounds heal.

I want to share the results of your concrete support for Gaza*:
3 ambulances
20 tons of medicine
30 tons of powdered milk and fortified baby cereal
50 wheelchairs
Thousands of coloring books and crayons for kids
Thousands of meals handed-delivered daily to displaced families taking shelter at UN schools

I thank you all, with a special thank you for the teams of volunteers in different areas of Gaza who worked under fire to meet the needs of our community, and for the emergency workers who worked tirelessly to reach the injured and dead. Time is gold in saving lives but Israel deliberately delayed and shot at emergency vehicles leading to the death of 15 emergency workers and countless Gazans.

The 22 days of Israeli attacks on Gaza was just one episode in a long line of catastrophes for Palestinians. Our struggle for justice and freedom continues.

*Much of these supplies come from MECA but other individuals and organizations have also turned to Dr. El-Farra to help them send emergency support to Gaza.

In Gaza

After 10 grueling hours at the Rafah Crossing point between Egypt and Palestine on Wednesday, Sharon Wallace (a long-time MECA supporter) and I finally entered Gaza.

There are so many stories to tell from our first day in Gaza. So much pain and destruction. But there is one story in particular that I think the world needs to hear. I heard about a mother who was at home with her ten children when Israeli soldiers entered the house. The soldiers told her she had to choose five of her children to 'give as a gift to Israel.' As she screamed in horror they repeated the demand and told her she could choose or they would choose for her. Then these soldiers murdered five of her children in front of her. Today I learned that the concept of 'Jewish morality' is truly dead. We can be fascists, terrorists, and Nazis just like everybody else. And the international community must demand that this never be allowed to happen again. **PLEASE READ UPDATE FROM BARBARA BELOW**

Sharon and I stayed with a family in Rafah Refugee Camp on Wednesday night. They warmly welcomed us into their home and shared tales of horror from Israel's three week war on Gaza. Today we drove through Rafah, Khan Younis, Nuseirat Refugee Camp and Gaza City.

The destruction and trauma in the Gaza Strip is even greater than I expected. Any attempts at describing what we saw will fall short. Instead I want to share these photos.

Al Quds Hospital, Gaza City, was directly hit by Israeli artillery shells on January 16. Patients had to be evacuated as much of the hospital went up in flames.These photos are all the ruins of homes in residential neighborhoods. 4000 homes have been completely destroyed and 20000 partially destroyed.

***THE STORY: UPDATE***
To all who care about the children in Gaza:

I have just returned from 3 and a half weeks in Egypt and Gaza with Dr. Mona El-Farra delivering an ambulance, 4 tons of much needed pediatric medicine, tons of milk and baby cereal, 29 wheelchairs, and a truckload of crayons, magic markers, paper and coloring books for children in Gaza. It was a very trying visit.

I have been to Palestine many times over the past 21 years but never have I seen anything like what I saw this time. I will never forget the sadness, the smell, the destroyed homes, schools, mosques and cemeteries. I want to make clear this is not an apology but an explanation of what happened.

While I was away I told a story that was told to me by several people about a family in Gaza. This story received much attention and many people wanted more information so I contacted
my friend Talal and asked him to research the story. Here is his response:

Dear Barbara,

It's the first time i have had internet. I hope you are O.K...you and all of our friends.

I heard from Dr. Mona that you are under great pressure because of the story you have published about the crime of that woman. Be sure that it was a fact and we are ready to receive any investigation committee to check out the facts. But as you know during the wars and when death is very close, the popular memory interferes and colors the action with it's special details.

We all heard the story on the local radio as I narrated it to you. But when you wrote the story and you faced so much pressure I decided to investigate and caught the real story.

It's not so far from from what you reported because the victims are the same...the story happened in Bourij Camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The Israelis called the woman Manal Albatran and told her that they wouldn't kill her or her husband Hussein Albatran, instead they would make them die of sadness because they would kill her children. The next day they shot her house with a rocket killing her and 5 of her children.

The dead:
Manal Albatran 30 years old
Walaa Albatran 12 years old
Islam Albatran 11 years old
Belal Albatran 10 years old
Ezzeldin Albatran 8 years old
Ehsan Albatran 7 years old

The father who is an employee at an UNRWA school and the youngest child were saved.

This is the real story and I hope the amount of victims will convince others to believe the crimes we face. Thanks a lot for your appreciated visit and I hope to see you again soon.

Regards,
Talal Abushawish