Update: Gaza

Dicatat oleh arlisbest 29. des. 2008

Gaza's punishment continues today. Communication has been intermittent, but we have managed to keep the lines open. My father just called to inform me he was ok- after warplanes bombed the Islamic University there, considered to be the Strip's premiere academic institution.

A little later I called my mother, only to hear her crying on the phone. "The planes are overhead" she cried "the planes are overhead". I tried to calm her down- planes overhead mean the "target" is further away. But in such moments of intense fear, there is no room for rationality and logic.


There is you, and there are war planes; and nothing in between, besides orders and a video game screen.

Her panic subsided slightly..."ok ok your father says it was the navy gunships...they hit the pier...the poor fishermen, its not like its even a real pier... its just the pier, just the pier..."

She tried to convince my father not to go out to the mosque today. But he did. Most people stayed indoors.

So far, the death toll has reach over 300, with nearly 1000 injured, many critically.

OCHA reports search operations for dead bodies trapped under the rubble are still ongoing. Piles of bodies were places in front of Shifa hospital for identification-some too charred or dismembered to identify.

Most fatalities were civilian police; others included at least 20 children, nine women, and 60 other unarmed civilians.

The plotters have plotted; the pawns were in place; and the living dead continue to be massacred without a protest.

here are two videos I received from Fida Qishta in south Gaza's Rafah refugee camp: