Warnings Not Enough for Gaza Families

[ElsewheresDaughter]

Source: NYTimes


GAZA — The Samouni family knew they were in danger. They had been calling the Red Cross for two days, they said, begging to be taken out of Zeitoun, a poor area in eastern Gaza City that is considered a stronghold of Hamas.

A Palestinian man mourned at a hospital mortuary in Gaza City on Monday over the bodies of his two sons and a nephew, who were killed by an Israeli tank shell early Monday.

No rescuers came. Instead, Israeli soldiers entered their building late Sunday night and told them to evacuate to another building. They did. But at 6 a.m. on Monday, when a missile fired by an Israeli warplane struck the relatives’ house in which they had taken shelter, there was nowhere to run.

Eleven members of the extended Samouni family were killed and 26 wounded, according to witnesses and hospital officials, with five children age 4 and under among the dead.

Hundreds of members of the clan flooded in to Shifa Hospital, all from Zeitoun, many in shock. Masouda al-Samouni, 20, lost her mother-in-law, her husband and her 10-month-old son. She said she had been preparing food for the baby when the missile struck. “He died hungry,” she said.

More

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/world/middleeast/06sc...

---

How long....what is wrong with humanity?

[WriteDown]

1. Its AMAZING....

they were told to evacuate in the first place. Shows that Israel is trying to minimize civilian casualties which is unusual in any war .

[tekisui]

2. Bullshit.

They are using cluster bombs, white phosphorus and bombing schools being used as refuge. They are trying to control the story, and using PR to give the impression that they are compassionate bombers.

[WriteDown]

3. So you believe one part of the story...

but not the other? Its pretty clear from the story that the Israelis did come.

[SOS]

4. The story isn't complicated

Family was evacuated, then killed by the Israelis in their new location.

[WriteDown]

6. You're right...

Its shows the Israeli's did try to evacuate them and like in any war, things are bad.

[balantz]

11. How can it be called a war when Gaza is already occupied territory? n/t

[WriteDown]

14. Who occupies it?

I think the last true occupier was Jordan and there was nary a call for independence then.

[balantz]

17. Israel occupies Gaza.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[WriteDown]

20. Uh....

no it doesn't. If it did, Hamas sure as heck would have never come into power. You should ask yourself why there were no calls for Palestinian independence when they were ruled by Jordan. Wasn't any sort of outcry in the Arab world at all. Maybe, that's the solution. Give the West Bank and Gaza to Jordan.

[tekisui]

8. I believe they gave a warning, and I believe that

Israel is bombing civilian populations.

[WriteDown]

13. Depends on your definition of civilian

there may be a family living in a house that is also used to store rockets.

[tekisui]

18. UN schools housing refugees are civilian targets.

The Red Crescent ambulance was a civilian target.

[WriteDown]

21. Hitting something...

and it being a target are two different things.

[tekisui]

22. Whatever.

Be an apologist for war. And an apologist for excessive force and the senseless deaths of children. I can't argue with that. I am opposed to war as policy, excessive force and senseless deaths of children, no matter who the perpetrator.

ETA, the GPS coordinates of the UN school were given to Israel, they knew what they were doing.

[WriteDown]

24. I accept war for what it is....

you do not. Was WWII necessary? How about WWI? How about the fire bombing of Dresden or setting fire to Japanese soldiers while in caves.

[atreides1]

10. And you belive one part...

but not the other?

I guess it really doesn't matter who dies as long as the Israelis make a phone call or stop by and tell them to leave?

[azurnoir]

5. Evacuate to where?

There is no safe place, what about that do you not get schools, mosques, just about anywhere, about the only "safe" place is the morgue

[Marie26]

7. If they truly cared,

they should let civilians evacuate out of Gaza. Moving civilians around in the same target doesn't accomplish much.

[WriteDown]

9. They did initially....

Many Gazans with a passport left.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

12. you got a source for that?

[WriteDown]

16. Of course...

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0109/582039.html

[ElsewheresDaughter]

19. keywords "foregein passports" and then only 270 of them....

"Gaza teenager Jawaher Hajji, who lost two close relatives in the past week, was one of 270 Palestinians who left.

"There is no water, no electricity, no medicine. It's hard to survive. Gaza is destroyed," said Hajji, 14, who has U.S. citizenship. "There is no place to hide."

Hajji said her uncle was killed in one of the first strikes while getting medicine for her cancer-stricken father, who died of his illness a few days later. She said their home east of Gaza City was destroyed and a classmate was also killed.

"They are supposed to destroy just the Hamas, but people in their homes are dying too," she said at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel.

Children cried at the crossing as they were processed by diplomatic officials from various countries. Then they boarded buses to Amman, Jordan. Hajji said she, her mother and five siblings would fly to family in Virginia from there.

Hajji's 13-year-old sister, Nashwa, said they were both born in the U.S. and had family there and in Canada. They moved to the Gaza Strip three years ago, and she said life was rather comfortable until the Israeli offensive began."

[WriteDown]

23. Its something...

more than most wars in history.

[atreides1]

15. Gazans with foreign passports

Not all Gazans.

[maddezmom]

25. locking

discussion here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...