Gaza: On the beach

[Tom Joad]

http://www.labournet.net/world/0606/gaza1.html
Gaza: On the beach
Report by Mona Elfarra
Published: 10/06/06

4 pm Friday afternoon, 9th of June

Heba age 7, with her brothers and sisters, running happily, giggling, racing to reach the beach, her dad and mum busy carrying the picnic basket. It is Friday and Heba’s family like other Palestinians, were trying to enjoy a little fun. A moment’s escape from the hardship of daily life... economic sanctions from Israel, the EU, and US, military siege, 4 months with no salaries for more than 160, 000 government employees, a Palestinian economy already vulnerable and impoverished, the high unemployment rate, unsettled political situation, factional interclashes, vulnerable health services, lack of vital medications, widespread psychological problems, and child malnutrition.

The moment shattered. An Israeli gunship suddenly fired at random against the beach, while army tanks fired artillery shells and Apache helicopters crossed the sky. 40 civilians were injured, 10 killed. I watched Heba on the local TV, shocked yelling shouting crying, “ya baba ya baba” (dad dad dad dad). Her father’s dead body was on the sandy hill unable to answer the child’s plea, her mother was killed along with Heba’s 3 brothers and sisters.
In the Hospital

The child arrived at the Al Awda Hospital with tens of injured and dead. Heba was shocked and in a state of denial. She kept saying to me “mum and dad did not pass away, they are in another hospital”!!!

[Poppyseedman]

1. That truly is terrible.

Maybe Hamas should reconsider their stance on the right of Israel to exist and stop their para - military organization from firing artillery shells on innocent Israel civilians

Just a thought............. and a reality check.

BTW, the Israeli gunship didn't fire at random against the beach, they didn't target the people on the beach. That shell was aimed at a Hamas leader. Their shell did hit the people which is terrible, but Israel do not target innocent women and children like Hamas does.

[Tom Joad]

2. Maybe Israel should end occupation.

[pelsar]

3. good idea...

of course maybe hamas, fatah, should create a democracy in gaza where its citizens have civil rights, where moral squads dont roam the streets, where they concentrate on fixing an economy, pressure egypt to opening up rafah so they can export....

maybe they should stop trying to kill israeli citizens......and start concentrating on fixing a society that is broken down...maybe, they should start with the concept of responsability for ones actions.....

maybe before expanding their chaotic society to the westbank they should start in gaza?

[Poppyseedman]

5. Good post

Why think outside the template of ignorance?

[Poppyseedman]

4. Israel has stated many times it is willing to live with a two state

solution with Palestine to acheive peace.

Israel has the right to exist. Do they or not ???

Or do they just calmly walk into the sea like Hamas would like.

[Tom Joad]

6. 12,000 homes demolished.

Does Palestine have a right to exist?

[pelsar]

7. sure...

as a democratic state that has civil rights as its basis for all and has the ability and will to restrain those inhabitants who insist on killing jews and israelis.

i.e. what were seeing in gaza today is exactly the opposite...and there are those foolish enough who believe that its a "good thing" and want to expand the internal chaos and violence to more territory.....and once that happens, as were seeing in gaza today, all the intls leave and the Palestinian citizens are left to a fate that few actually care about and fewer will do anything about it, and where groups that insist on killing and terrorizing its neighbor do so with no internal restrictions

great plan

[Tom Joad]

8. Israel made a powerful statement about its view of "peace "

on the beach of Gaza. Now nearly a whole Gaza family is "peaceful".

[pelsar]

9. palestenains refuse mutual investigation....

perhaps it was one of their work accidents?..kassam falling on their own?....wouldnt be the first time.

but i prefer looking at the emerging palestenian society in gaza as a preview of "things to come"......shari law? moral squads? turf wars? public executions?....and this is the society that some here wish to enlarge.....

i always get confused as to how a "progressive' can wish that such a situation should be expanded...how does that work?

[Scurrilous]

10. I always get confused...

...how a progressive can regurgitate propaganda and lies from arutz sheva and jpost.

This is about the third or fourth post where you've postulated that the deaths on the Gaza beach could have been the result of a work accident or friendly fire.

Do you have any evidence to back up these assertions?

Anything?

[pelsar]

12. israeli TV.....

fact is without an investigation of the "shrapnel"....which is not difficult to do...provided the Palestinians come forth with it, there is little to prove.

it could go either way: "work accidents have happened, Kassams falling on Palestinians, missiles hitting civilians, artillery shells going wrong....

why have so many here assumed that it MUST have been an israeli shell, outside of the obvious that israel is shelling....and the kassams are flying....

(and i rarely read arutz 7 and sometime the jpost...not my "cup of tea"....)

[Scurrilous]

14. You might not read them...

...but you sure as hell parrot their talking points, right down to the mention of the Jenin massacre and the Muhamed al Durah shooting.

BTW...

IAF missile lands in Kibbutz Nahal Oz

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3260646,00.html

Look! An Israeli missle landed on Kibbutz Nahal. Maybe all those reports of Kassam attacks are nothing more than friendly fire. IAF bombing their own. Can't be sure until there's a joint investigation.

[pelsar]

15. its called war....

mechanical devices dont always work. people make mistakes.....the IAF has bombed its own in the past as have IDF infantry units....and the Palestinians have killed their own as well.

the whole idea that it MUST have been israel is absurd..and yes the Palestinians have been known to blame israel for their own screwups, exaggerated their numbers (jenin) beyond anything reasonable (hundreds became 51 in jenin....and you like others probably believed it-didnt you?)

the immediate assumption that israel did it has as much weight as saying the palestenains did it....

reverse it: why is israel the default guilty party?
(kassans landing in gaza dont get much attention..perhaps thats why? or it ruins a really good photo op?)



your previous post is perculiar; missle lands in israel, israel claims its their own...and this requires an investigation?

[Scurrilous]

16. No...

...my post wasn't peculiar. It was absurd. As is your assertion that what happened in Gaza was the result of friendly fire or work accident.

[pelsar]

17. are you claiming....

that kassams never landed in gaza killing palestenians?...that they havent laid land mines?..that artillary ALWAYS goes where its intended, that old ordance or unexploaded ordance cant be found in gaza today? That homemade mortors bombs cant be found in gaza?

(the beach used to be an Israeli only area-i.e. targeted)

none of the above is possible?

[Scurrilous]

18. Israel was shelling Gaza...

...from the land and sea at the time these people were killed and injured. I blame Israel.

Prove me wrong.*

*with evidence...not meandering ruminations.



The blood on our hands

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=725483

[pelsar]

19. cant prove you wrong...

the palestenains refuse to hand the fragments to anybody nor allow a joint commission to investigate...why is that?

as far as israel shelling: kassams are fired day and night, mines have been layed.....can you prove its not israel?...or is blaming israel the "default" posistion?

so was it intentional?....

[Scurrilous]

20. Not a default position...

...just the most likely scenario.

As for the shrapnel:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3261513,00.html

<snip>

"The security establishment is having difficulties getting to the bottom of the incident, as the Palestinian family members wounded in the blast and hospitalized in Israel arrived only after receiving initial treatment on the Palestinian side. Doctors at Ichilov Hospital and Soroka Medical Center were surprised to find the wounded “cleansed” of any shrapnel, which complicates investigations.

However, sources at the Gaza hospital told Ynet that the shrapnel was from “standard” shells, in other words the ones used by the IDF. “We know this shrapnel well, and are willing to testify in front of any investigative committee or court of law,” said a senior staff-member of one of the local hospitals."


Intentional?

We came, we shelled, we killed

<snip>

"The bloodshed on the Gaza beachfront late last week was not the result of a tragic error. It was clear to everyone that in the exchanges of fire in the narrow Gaza Strip, where the population density is among the highest in the world, it was just a matter of time before an entire family was hit."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/725832.html

[pelsar]

22. it was inevitable....

shells dont always go where they're supposed to....but it doesnt mean that in this instance it was israel....the "blame israel knee jerk reaction' seems to be a constant...so was it intentional?

[Violet_Crumble]

11. Typical. Blame the victims...

How is that crap any different than the other whacko conspiracy theories that abound when attacks on civilians happen?

And for about the zillionth time - Despite yr protestations to the contrary, Palestinians have had and do have a society...

Violet...

[pelsar]

13. i'm not saying they dont have society....

they do...its just not one that i believe should be exported and expanded upon...not in its present condition. Why would anyone want to expand upon on a society that is so unstable...or is an iranian version/mini saudi arabia, mini taliban style govt that has no end better than the occupation that will end?



and just because they are the "weaker" one, doesnt mean that they are "right".

[pelsar]

21. their society...

is not even discussed here....yet its success or failure is an essential part of the occupation..but its never discussed here. I am just guessing but if it would be discussed, and what the implications of a hamas/taliban style govt would mean, it would raise questions here that are never raised as it it would question the "occupation is the worst evil known to man" syndrom.

so whats worse?...an occupation that the occupiers do want to end or a taliban style govt that is hamas wet dream?