For the first eight days of Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip, codenamed Operation Cast Lead, many Palestinians trapped inside the territory believed that living conditions could not get any worse. They were wrong.
With Israeli infantry and tanks striking across the border and taking up positions to the north and south of Gaza City, life for the area’s 1.5 million people has become even more dangerous and miserable.
All road travel is hazardous because Israeli spotters treat any vehicle as a potential threat. There were reports yesterday of an ambulance being hit as it did its rounds, with four crew members seriously injured. All United Nations aid workers have been told they need Israeli permission for any movement, rendering the delivery of aid considerably more difficult.
Engineers who are needed to patch up damaged electricity cables or water pumps are being forced to stay at home. Consequently, there is no immediate answer to power cuts and water shortages.
At least five civilians were killed by two large explosions in Palestine Square, a large open space in the centre of Gaza City normally full of shoppers and taxi drivers. Witnesses said the explosions came from two bombs dropped by Israeli warplanes, although there was no way to confirm this. Israel has barred the international media from reaching Gaza.
Reports suggest that a few shoppers from Gaza’s nearby Old City ventured into the square when a trader started selling vegetables. Shops have closed in Gaza since the Israeli assault began on Dec 27 and families have grown desperate for fresh food.
The two explosions went off in the middle of group of people, killing five and injuring forty more.
Witnesses at Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, described seeing the wounded arriving for treatment with horrific injuries.
Some had limbs hanging off, while one man had lost part of his torso. So strong was the flow of blood from the wounded that the hospital’s floors were smeared red.
A foreign doctor volunteering for the Red Crescent at Shifa described the conditions for patients as a “nightmare”. Many have been horribly disfigured by flying shrapnel. “A lot of people are being cut down,” said the doctor. “The situation is terrible. People are leaving their homes. Everyone is terrified.”
A local reporter who reached the square shortly after the explosions described a scene of utter chaos. “Where is Nadia, my daughter, where is she?” screamed one frantic shopper, before Nadia was found unharmed, hiding in a clothes shop.
News of the incident in Palestine Square spread quickly through Gaza, sending a clear message – no place was safe now that Israel’s ground offensive had begun.
No sooner had the wounded in Palestine Square been helped than news came of another incident. Five civilians were killed in a mosque in the town of Beit Lahiya.
The normally bustling streets of Gaza City were largely empty last night and a power cut ensured the densely populated area was in darkness.
But gunmen from the different Palestinian factions, who have in the past fought fierce turf battles among themselves, patrolled some streets together.
They wore different headbands to show their allegiance: green for Hamas, black for Islamic Jihad and yellow for Fatah. Instead of dividing the Palestinians and isolating Hamas, Israel’s operation may be uniting their opponents into a common front.
Peace and Justice Post 
Inside Gaza: ‘The hospital morgues were already full. The dead were piled on top of each other outside’
December 28, 2008By Sami Abdel-Shafi in Gaza city
The Independent, UK, Sunday, 28 December 2008
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I am safe, and yet I feel like a walking dead person. Everything around me shows it. It is hard to write something of any coherence while exposed to cold winter air and to the smell that lingers after the detonation of Israeli bombs. They must have been massive. During the bombing I opened all the windows around my apartment to avoid them imploding as a result of the vacuum shocks sweeping through Gaza City after each enormous bang. While the bombing continued, I jumped down two flights of stairs to my father’s house, to make sure he was OK. Should I open up all his windows too? That would expose the old man to the risk of illness. We have no medical care or medication. However, the risk from shattering glass was greater, so I opened them all.
Mobile phones did not work, because of electricity outages and the flood of attempted calls. I flipped the electricity generator on so that we could watch the news. We wanted to understand what was going on in our own neighbourhood. However, this was impossible. Israeli surveillance drones flew overhead, scrambling the reception. All I could do was step outside, where I found crowds of frantic people, lines of rising smoke and the smell of charred buildings and bodies that lay around targeted sites nearby. Somebody said the bombs had been launched in parallel raids over the entire Gaza Strip. What was the target here? Perhaps a police station about 200 metres away. Other bombs annihilated blocks less than a kilometre away, where one of the main police training centres stood. When the strikes began, a graduation ceremony for more than 100 recruits in a civil law enforcement programme was under way. These were the young men trained to organise traffic, instil civil safety and maintain law and order. Many of them were killed, it is said, in addition to the Gaza Strip’s police chief.
News came by word of mouth. There had been more than 150 deaths and more than 200 people were injured or missing under rubble after the first two hours of bombing. Israel had said it would continue the offensive and deepen it if necessary. Likewise, it was said that Hamas had launched more rockets at southern Israeli towns, causing one death and four injuries. Gaza had never seen anything like the numbers of dead bodies lying on its streets. Hospital morgues were already full. The dead were piled on top of each other outside.
Bombs targeting a Hamas security force building badly damaged an adjacent school, and several children were injured. We heard of many other targets around the Gaza Strip. It reminds me of the “shock and awe” campaign the Allies launched over Baghdad in 2003. But shock and awe did not bring stability or peace.
These bombs were launched by Israel, as we had known they would be. The world watched the situation simmer then boil over, but did nothing. There are some who believe that hell is divided into different classes. The ordinary people of Gaza have long been caught in the tormenting underworld. Now, if the world does not heed what has happened here, our situation will worsen. We will be trapped in the first class of hell.
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