Israeli attacks on populated neighborhoods in Gaza caused many civilian casualties and left many homeless.
The Israeli military announced its redeployment and withdrew from
the places in Gaza that it invaded over the last few days. The military noted that
the first stage of its big military operation, dubbed “Hot Winter” was finished
and that the next stages will be conducted within the framework of the same
operation.
In the last five days, at least 117 Palestinians were killed and
300 injured, dozens of them seriously. Sixty percent of the dead and injured
were civilians, most of them children, old men and women. Many of the civilians
were killed inside their own homes as Israeli warplanes and tanks shelled neighborhoods,
particularly in Jabalya and other populated areas of Gaza. Many families lost
more than one member, while some lost almost everyone.
Human rights organizations found new demands for human rights about
which to speak. In a press conference, human rights activist Jaber Wishah from Gaza
Center for Human Rights loudly proclaimed that “we are calling for the
right to bury the dead and remove the bodies from under the destroyed houses.” For
five days, everything that moves has been a target of the Israeli shells: ambulances,
aid officers, animals in the streets and fields and even the birds, especially
the peace doves which were killed in the air and over the rooftops. Through our
contacts with people in Gaza and our friends there, we know that for five days,
100,000 residents of the Jabalya Camp were unable to sleep or even rest. If
such an event occurred in other places, in Europe, for example, how many
organizations, experts and specialists in sociology, psychology and education
would be deployed, and how much money would be devoted to examining the effects
on children?
Yes, the first stage has ended, but the story is not finished. It will
be continued according to the Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister. Military
actions and attacks will go ahead even following the redeployment.
In the last two years, Israel has dubbed the big operations in the Gaza
Strip with names that contradict nature. The first operation was called Rainy
Summer, the second Angry Autumn. Now it is Hot Winter. However, Gaza stands
each time and refuses this change. Of course the price is extremely high,
expensive and difficult to grasp. The lives of children and civilians were the
price. Childhood was killed in one the most beautiful lands, the land of oranges,
palms, roses and water. This important land which is the link point among great
historical civilizations. It is the gateway between Africa and Asia. This land must
take on the role of sending out peace to the world.
Yet the Israeli occupation wants to change this role, to deepen
enmity and hatred, starting from Gaza and using the bodies of children in the
streets of the most crowded place in the world.
It is not strange for an occupation power that acts against peace
and justice to label its military operations with names contradicting nature.
There is a relation between the occupation and those names that go against both
the line of history and nature of things. This gives real hope that justice and
peace will be victorious and lasting. That the occupation will be defeated.
The matter here is not one of technical power, but of justice.
America was defeated in Vietnam, France in Algeria and the classical colonialism
of the United Kingdom in Iraq not because of technical reasons, but because
those powers fought against the justice and freedom of people.
It is ridiculous to change the nature of things. Summer is hot,
winter is cold and sure, spring is green. Justice and peace will be victorious
and occupation will be ended.
Oh Gaza, how much you suffered because of these military operations
and how much are you going to suffer on the way to justice, victory and defeat of
the occupation? It wasn’t merely a nightmare for the al-Attaya family which
they can wake up from, that a rocket shelled their house. It actually happened
and left people wondering why? Why the children of Gaza, who were sleeping in
peace, had to say good bye to the world that they just entered, parting to the
melody of rocket shells.
How many tears and bodies of children does the world need to see so
that it can feel you, Gaza?
|
News 
