The games children play in Gaza

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4885.shtml
The games children play in Gaza
Rami Almeghari writing from occupied Gaza, Live from Palestine, 2 July 2006

Palestinians attend a protest, against the Israeli army operation in Gaza and arrest of Hamas lawmakers and ministers, in the West Bank town of Ramallah June 29, 2006. (MaanImages/Mushir Abdelrahman)

Most areas of the Gaza Strip are currently experiencing an extremely difficult period -- Israeli warplanes and tanks never stop, day or night, firing heavy artillery against every target possible.

Homes, institutions and infrastructure never escape the Israeli shelling; power and water plants have been severely hit so far, main roads have been damaged, buildings and homes have been shelled.

Moreover, civilians along with resistance fighters have been killed and wounded due to such non-stop Israeli aggression, while the lives of Gaza Strip residents have reverted to the way things were in 1967, when Israeli occupation forces occupied the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In one of the Strip's many refugee camps, a camp called Maghazi in the central part of the Gaza Strip, two Palestinian children laid down on top of sand bags, which had been placed on the entrance of their alley. “Why are you lying there?”, I asked the boys – Ibrahim, 9, and Ahmad, 14.

"We are lying here with our 'rifles' to defend our camp from the Israeli forces, we will kill them if they enter the camp "

In the main street in Maghazi, which is about 300 meters long, many sand bags have been placed by resistance fighters, apparently as a sort of defense against a likely Israeli attack on the camp. Sand bags, dirt piles, rocks blocking roads are being placed in various areas in light of Israeli military announcement that they will reinvade the 'liberated' Gaza Strip, to release an Israeli soldier who is being held by Palestinian resistance fighters.

Ibrahim and Ahmad, the two school children , have found no enjoyment in the fact that they are off school, and on summer holiday. Instead, they find themselves without food, without potable water, lying on top of sand bags and holding wood rifles, instead of enjoying the holiday as other children around the world are able to.

Senior Palestinian residents say that this situation resembles, to a great extent, the first days of the Israeli-Arab war of 1967, when the Gaza Strip fell into the hands of the Israeli occupation forces.

Munir Abdullah 60, of Maghazi refugee camp, says, "In June 1967, the Israeli forces waged a sweeping war in which they occupied the Gaza Strip including Maghazi. On that day, the people fled their homes, seeking refuge, while many others including resistance men placed the sand bags in every corner of the camp as you see here today."

"My brother Fathi, who was then 17 years old was defending the camp, like many others, behind sand bags, and he was shot and killed by the Israeli forces", Munir says.

"What the Israelis are doing is reversing the wheel of history four decades back; they are destroying everything, they are killing people in streets, I feel I have never grown up, I feel I am re-living 1967, when Israel first occupied the Gaza Strip as they are now about to reoccupy it."

The Israeli government has recently decided to gradually launch a military attack on the Gaza Strip, intending to reoccupy it, under the pretext of releasing a soldier, who was captured by some resistance fighters in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah a few days ago.

Because of the latest Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, about 1.3 million Palestinians have been forced to live primitively; with candlelights at night, small radios in their hands and with sand bags on streets; all are worried about imminent Israeli invasions of their areas.

The Israeli occupation has closed all border crossings and commercial outlets, preventing the entry of any single person, food or even a single tank of gas. An entire population, already suffering from international aid cuts due to their democratic choice of a Hamas government in January 2006 elections, are now huddled in the darkness, behind sandbags, watching the thousands of Israeli tanks lined up on the border, and fearing for the worst.


Rami Almeghari is currently a Senior Translator at the Translation Department of the Gaza-based State Information Service (SIS) and former Editor in Chief of the SIS-linked International Press Center's English site. He can be contacted at rami_almeghari@hotmail.com.

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U.S. urged to stop Israeli terrorism in Gaza
7/5/2006 4:30:00 PM GMT
The military action by Israel in the Gaza Strip is designed to terrorize the civilian population. This is openly acknowledged by Israeli officials. It is being condemned by human rights groups in Israel and around the world. Rep. Cardin has been a staunch, consistent and unwavering supporter of Israel. He has voted for the military equipment and financial aid that provides Israel with the ability to terrorize Palestinian civilians. It is now time for him, and others in the U.S. government, to speak out against Israel's actions.

This is an email I (Kevin B. Zeese) sent to Rep. Ben Cardin. Mr. Cardin is running for the U.S. Senate in Maryland as a Democrat. I am also running for that U.S. Senate seat in a Unity Campaign where I have been nominated by three parties -- Green, Libertarian, and Populist -- and have members of the Republican, Democratic Parties
on my campaign committee along with independents.

June 26, 2006
Rep. Ben Cardin
2207 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Via email

Dear Rep. Cardin:

You have been a staunch supporter of Israel. As you know I am a candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland, an office you are also seeking. At recent candidate forums your wife and other spokespersons for your campaign (speaking for you since you were not present), have noted how you tell any country who wants to trade with the United States that they must trade with Israel and they noted your consistent support for Israel.

Indeed, I cannot ever recall you criticizing the actions of Israel in your nearly two decades in Congress.

Your voice is needed now. Israel is amassing a massive military force on the border of the Gaza Strip in reaction to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. The Prime Minister has ordered a “comprehensive and ongoing military action.” This is sure to be a bloody attack that will result in widespread civilian casualties. Please use your voice to urge Israel to negotiate rather than add to the violence.

While I am opposed to Palestinian violence, as it is counterproductive to the goal of a viable Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution, certainly you are aware that Israeli violence against Palestinians has led to this point. Hamas had kept a promise of no violence for 18 months until recent Israeli killings of civilians. Surely you are aware of the state-based terrorism of Israel against the Palestinian people that led to this escalation of violence, including:

- The weeks of shelling by the Israeli army in Gaza. This has included the firing of hundreds of missiles into the crowded Strip resulting in the destruction of Palestinian lives and property, and terrorizing the civilian population.

- The killing of more than 30 Palestinian civilians, and dozens of injuries to Palestinian civilians, in the past few weeks at the hands of the Israeli military, including three children killed in an air strike last week, as well as a pregnant woman and her brother, a doctor, killed a day later as a missile slammed into the room where they were eating dinner.

- The blockade of Gaza's “borders” by the Israeli army for months on end, which has prevented Palestinians in Gaza from trading goods and receiving vital supplies of food and medicine. As a result of the Israeli action the civilian population of Gaza is facing a humanitarian crisis.

- Israel's bullying of the international community, including the United States, to deny the starving of the Hamas-led government of funds and diplomatic options, thereby making it impossible for the elected Palestinian leadership to run the Gaza Strip.

- The violation of Palestinian territory by Israeli commandos who infiltrated Gaza a day before the Palestinian attack to kidnap two Palestinians who Israel claims are ‘terrorists.’ They are now missing, no doubt held in detention, without access to lawyers, and the courts.

Certainly, you understand how these actions of Israel have provoked the current dispute that is leading to a likely slaughter of Palestinians. It is as if Israel’s policies are designed to create opportunities for further destruction of the Palestinian people. This has been the long-term reality of Israeli policy. The front-line members of the reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces who refuse to fight in the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories described this reality vividly in their “Combatant’s Letter” saying:

We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.

While you are only one voice, as a long-term stalwart supporter of Israel, someone who has never been a critic, your voice right now could make a difference in saving lives and stopping the escalation of violence. It is important for Israel to see that not everyone in Washington, DC -- especially a long-term supporter of Israel like you -- dances to the Israeli tune no matter how abhorrent.

Please speak out before violence begets violence in a never-ending spiral of bloodshed.

Sincerely,
Kevin B. Zeese

www.ZeeseForSenate.org
www.Zeese.US (wiki Campaign site)
301-996-6582