Catastrophe in Beit Hanoun, a report from Yousef Alhelou
Beit Hanoun is a small town, consisting of 8 streets and is, like every other town of the Gaza Strip, very crowded. The main street in the town is now very difficult to use, because of the shells holes in the road from the frequent Israeli attacks, but the six-day offensive cut wide swathes of destruction through cultivated land, damaging the town's primary industry. Since June 26 2006, military incursions and aerial bombardments have caused damage to Gaza's agriculture estimated at US$ 23.5 million. The conflict has also caused severe damage to infrastructure. Bridges, roads, a power supply plant, and water supply networks have been wrecked in the past few months. The cost of damage to infrastructure is estimated at US$8 million.
In yesterday’s funeral, the bodies arrived at the cemetery in a convoy of 18 ambulances which drove from the local hospital through the artillery-scarred cluster of apartment buildings.
The freshly dug graves were lined up in a single row, each marked by a concrete block. A Palestinian flag fluttered over each one.
Nine children, including Maysa, a one-year-old infant and Malak, a two-year-old toddler, together with their deceased mothers, were taken to the cemetery on Thursday at noon. These were just some of the latest victims of the most recent Israeli massacre, committed by Israeli military forces on Wednesday in Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Gaza Strip.
The victims were carried on the arms of their relatives and other Palestinians who came in their thousands to participate in the funeral. Those in the caskets were mostly from one family, the Athamna family of Beit Hanoun.
Palestinians of all ages, as well as national and Muslim factions participated in the funeral,
A local journalist said to me that the six days of the incursion so far could be summarized as "siege, horror, starvation and destruction."
Cries of “God is greater than Israel and America”, punctuated by gunshots, rang out as the bodies were brought out on stretchers.
“I will avenge, I will avenge”, screamed one of the victims’ relatives as he fired his weapon, voicing a common sentiment among the mourners.
Two Israeli unmanned aircraft buzzed overhead.
The hospital of Beit Hanoun was built recently and had only been operating for just a month and a half before the beginning of the massacre, but has been more busy than any other hospital in the last six days, receiving hundreds of injured people, in spite of its limited capacity of just 40 beds.
Director of the hospital, Dr Jamil Ali, said that the Israeli forces have besieged him, along with his colleagues, for six long days in the hospital, and in some cases, they have been ordered to hand over some of the injured people. He said that, although they are forced to work in very hard conditions, they have been able to rescue eight of those injured, and prevented them from dying.
Ambulance driver Khalil Sadawy spent Wednesday ferrying Palestinian casualties from Beit Hanoun - hit by Israeli shells - to the hospital.
He watched the next day as 13 bodies were loaded into the fleet of ambulances.
The hospital staff, jostled by family and friends of the victims, struggled to close the vehicles' doors.
The ambulance sirens then blared and the vehicles inched out of the hospital grounds.
They were taking the victims home - and to their graves.
“We do what we can”, said Mr. Sadawy, 53, his hands tucked into his trouser pockets. “But often it's not enough."
Mr/ Sadawy is one of the 289 employees - doctors, nurses, cleaners, kitchen workers - at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, a town in northern Gaza.
The 77-bed hospital serves as one of the main emergency units for the area. In normal times, the building is a busy place.
But in the last few days it resembled a field hospital.
Click on the following link to view some pictures taken during the last Israeli masscare on Beit Hanoun northern Gaza Strip
BEFORE YOU PROCEED
The following link contains scenes of violence which may be very offending for weak-hearted viewers. http://www.moh.gov.ps/index.asp?fun=1&rep=1
Yousef Alhelou is a freelance Palestinian Journalist. He can be contacted on ydamadan@hotmail.com
Please also see:
Mourning Beit Hanoun Buries Its Dead
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2787&blz=1
Treacherous road to Oslo begins here
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12177
Haniya offers to resign for aid resumption
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12179
Palestinian PM offers to resign
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6136682.stm
Israel to intensify Gaza shelling despite civilian deaths
Israel will continue its military operations in the Gaza Strip despite the risk of hitting civilians, Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12175
Israel steps up threatening rhetoric against Iran
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12162
U.N. on Middle East
http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=70&Body=Palestin&Body1=
U.N. on Iraq
http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=50&Body=Iraq&Body1=inspect
Dark Autumn Clouds Raining Blood over Beit Hanoun, a report from Yousef Alhelou
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2780&blz=1
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Response to Beit Hanoun Tragedy
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=2779&blz=1
Gaza: From "Summer Rain" in the South to "Autumn Clouds" in the North, by Yousef Alhelou in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2769&blz=1
Beit Hanoun is a small town, consisting of 8 streets and is, like every other town of the Gaza Strip, very crowded. The main street in the town is now very difficult to use, because of the shells holes in the road from the frequent Israeli attacks, but the six-day offensive cut wide swathes of destruction through cultivated land, damaging the town's primary industry. Since June 26 2006, military incursions and aerial bombardments have caused damage to Gaza's agriculture estimated at US$ 23.5 million. The conflict has also caused severe damage to infrastructure. Bridges, roads, a power supply plant, and water supply networks have been wrecked in the past few months. The cost of damage to infrastructure is estimated at US$8 million.
In yesterday’s funeral, the bodies arrived at the cemetery in a convoy of 18 ambulances which drove from the local hospital through the artillery-scarred cluster of apartment buildings.
The freshly dug graves were lined up in a single row, each marked by a concrete block. A Palestinian flag fluttered over each one.
Nine children, including Maysa, a one-year-old infant and Malak, a two-year-old toddler, together with their deceased mothers, were taken to the cemetery on Thursday at noon. These were just some of the latest victims of the most recent Israeli massacre, committed by Israeli military forces on Wednesday in Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Gaza Strip.
The victims were carried on the arms of their relatives and other Palestinians who came in their thousands to participate in the funeral. Those in the caskets were mostly from one family, the Athamna family of Beit Hanoun.
Palestinians of all ages, as well as national and Muslim factions participated in the funeral,
A local journalist said to me that the six days of the incursion so far could be summarized as "siege, horror, starvation and destruction."
Cries of “God is greater than Israel and America”, punctuated by gunshots, rang out as the bodies were brought out on stretchers.
“I will avenge, I will avenge”, screamed one of the victims’ relatives as he fired his weapon, voicing a common sentiment among the mourners.
Two Israeli unmanned aircraft buzzed overhead.
The hospital of Beit Hanoun was built recently and had only been operating for just a month and a half before the beginning of the massacre, but has been more busy than any other hospital in the last six days, receiving hundreds of injured people, in spite of its limited capacity of just 40 beds.
Director of the hospital, Dr Jamil Ali, said that the Israeli forces have besieged him, along with his colleagues, for six long days in the hospital, and in some cases, they have been ordered to hand over some of the injured people. He said that, although they are forced to work in very hard conditions, they have been able to rescue eight of those injured, and prevented them from dying.
Ambulance driver Khalil Sadawy spent Wednesday ferrying Palestinian casualties from Beit Hanoun - hit by Israeli shells - to the hospital.
He watched the next day as 13 bodies were loaded into the fleet of ambulances.
The hospital staff, jostled by family and friends of the victims, struggled to close the vehicles' doors.
The ambulance sirens then blared and the vehicles inched out of the hospital grounds.
They were taking the victims home - and to their graves.
“We do what we can”, said Mr. Sadawy, 53, his hands tucked into his trouser pockets. “But often it's not enough."
Mr/ Sadawy is one of the 289 employees - doctors, nurses, cleaners, kitchen workers - at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, a town in northern Gaza.
The 77-bed hospital serves as one of the main emergency units for the area. In normal times, the building is a busy place.
But in the last few days it resembled a field hospital.
Click on the following link to view some pictures taken during the last Israeli masscare on Beit Hanoun northern Gaza Strip
BEFORE YOU PROCEED
The following link contains scenes of violence which may be very offending for weak-hearted viewers. http://www.moh.gov.ps/index.asp?fun=1&rep=1
Yousef Alhelou is a freelance Palestinian Journalist. He can be contacted on ydamadan@hotmail.com
Please also see:
Mourning Beit Hanoun Buries Its Dead
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2787&blz=1
Treacherous road to Oslo begins here
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12177
Haniya offers to resign for aid resumption
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12179
Palestinian PM offers to resign
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6136682.stm
Israel to intensify Gaza shelling despite civilian deaths
Israel will continue its military operations in the Gaza Strip despite the risk of hitting civilians, Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12175
Israel steps up threatening rhetoric against Iran
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12162
U.N. on Middle East
http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=70&Body=Palestin&Body1=
U.N. on Iraq
http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=50&Body=Iraq&Body1=inspect
Dark Autumn Clouds Raining Blood over Beit Hanoun, a report from Yousef Alhelou
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2780&blz=1
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Response to Beit Hanoun Tragedy
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=2779&blz=1
Gaza: From "Summer Rain" in the South to "Autumn Clouds" in the North, by Yousef Alhelou in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=2769&blz=1