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Gaza: On the beach
Report by Mona Elfarra
Published: 10/06/06
4 pm Friday afternoon, 9th of June
Hoda age 12, 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 Hoda’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 Hoda’s 3 brothers and sisters.

In the Hospital

The child arrived at the Al Awda Hospital with tens of injured and dead. Hoda
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”!!!
Whole families were destroyed in minutes, but all I heard was “the Israeli army
will investigate the incident”. American officials commented on the right of
Israel to defend its security!!!!!!!!!

I personally have no comment.
Like many of us in Gaza, I burst into tears. Some
of my collegues at the hospital could not go to the child’s room. The camera
man collapsed at the scene.


Friends....

Last week while I was at Al Awda hospital(north of gaza), I visited the health
emergency crew, who were targeted while evacuating the dead bodies of
resistance fighters, after a battle between the Israeli army and the resistance
movement. One of the injured was Dia Halaby, age 27, he is one of the hospital’s
health emergency team. Ten civilians were injured, as well as a local radio news
reporter.
The ambulance was heavily damaged, though it was clear that it was a rescue
team.
I tried to write, to report what I have heard from Dia and others. I
couldn’t write, I felt that this was one of the normal practices of the Israeli
army, to attack health emergency teams.
now I am wondering, is it our
destiny as people living under occupation, to deal with abnormal practices as
if they were settled normal facts??
I feel that no place in Gaza is safe. I mentioned that phrase in one of my press
releases at the beginning of the intifada, and I still feel the same way.

freinds
please help me to stay strong ,so i cam continue helping others
Yours In solidarity
Mona Elfarra