NefeshBarYochai
2024-09-10 03:03:15 UTC
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PermalinkIsraels massacres against civilians in the Gaza Strip have not
stopped for a single day since October 7. Despite the shift in the
medias attention in recent weeks to regional developments and the
massive Israeli invasion of the northern West Bank, the massacres in
Gaza continue in silence.
The Gaza-based Health Ministry releases a daily casualty report. In
the first three days of this month alone, Israel committed nine
massacres across Gaza, resulting in the deaths of a total of 128
people. This number only includes the bodies that have reached Gazas
beleaguered hospitals. The Ministry states that hundreds more people
are still stuck under the rubble from the past few days alone.
The massacres usually result from airstrikes on displacement centers.
Most of the time, they are schools that have been converted into
shelters.
On September 1, Israel bombed the Safad School in the al-Zaytoun
neighborhood, east of Gaza City. Fourteen people were killed as a
result of the collapse of the building on top of its occupants.
Palestinian Civil Defense crews arrived on the scene and reported
witnessing hands covered in blood and ash sticking out from under the
rubble, some of them moving as if to ask for help. Civil Defense teams
broke parts of the collapsed roof with hammers to pull out bodies and
survivors.
Zuhair Mughrabi, 40, was next to the school when the bombing happened.
He and his family survived, but he cannot shake the sounds in his head
of the screams of victims trapped under the rubble of the school.
Three days ago, the army invaded parts of eastern Gaza City; people
ran out from these areas to this school. Then the army bombed this
school without any warning. The school is full of displaced families,
women, and children. There is nothing here except grieving families
who run away from death, Mughrabi said.
The [school] building was full of people, and they bombed it. Many
people are still under the rubble. Most are children and women, but no
one can pull them out. Even the Civil Defense Teams dont have the
appropriate equipment to dig and pull them out.
The [school] building was full of people, and they bombed it. Many
people are still under the rubble. Most are children and women, but no
one can pull them out.
Zuhair Mughrabi, eyewitness
As people were digging through the rubble to find their family
members, the Israeli army allegedly called the neighbors of the school
and ordered them to inform the people inside that the military would
bomb the schools remaining two buildings.
We were trying to help pull people out of the rubble when we received
a call from the Israeli army to evacuate the other buildings,
Mughrabi recounted. We evacuated for an hour, and then the army
destroyed the school with another two missiles. We saw people under
roofs and others lying down, and a concrete column weighing over two
tons was falling down on a martyr. This is tough, and we do not know
what to do or where to go next.
This is madness. Its a safe school full of displaced families, most
of them women and children; we thought that there isnt even a one
percent chance that this school would be bombed.
Witnesses: The army only sent a warning after the bombing
Samir Albibi, 40, describes the moment of the bombing as causing a
flash of light that was more lighting than daylight. The fire,
people running unthinkingly, the screams, the blood, and the carnage
caused him to think that it was doomsday.
It was quiet before the massacre. There werent even any drones in
the sky, and suddenly, this whole place turned to fire, Albibi says,
pointing to the schoolyard. We found out after that people were torn
to pieces and scattered here and there. I saw someones intestines on
the ground.
We were running and hitting up against each other without knowing who
was still alive from our families and who we were leaving behind. It
was like the end of days. I dont even think doomsday would look like
this, he said.
After we witnessed the massacre, the Israeli army called on us to
evacuate. They shouldve warned us before bombing the first building
on peoples heads, he said. They know the school is full of
displaced people, and they bombed it anyway; there are more than 30
people still under the rubble; they could warn us before killing us if
they were even concerned about civilians lives.
Survival by fate alone
Ibrahim Addas, 32, is taking care of his sister and her six family
members after the death of their father in this genocide. They all
lived in one classroom in the Safad School. The class was located in
the first building that was bombed without warning. But that day, his
nieces insisted he take them to the beach; they all felt suffocated
and wanted fresh air.
I took them to the beach, all of us, and we left everything in the
classroom. In the afternoon, our relatives called and told us that the
school had been bombed, Addas recounted.
We went back to the school in a hurry, and we watched the second
bombing from a close distance. Only fate had led us to leave the
school that day. Otherwise, we would be under the rubble without
anyone knowing anything about us, Addas said.
If we all were in the class, as we usually are, we would all have
been killed. The world has gotten used to our blood and our daily
killing, he said.
Baptist Hospital Bombing
The al-Ahli Arab Hospital was also bombed over the weekend on
Saturday, August 23. Yousif Sadi, 23, a photographer and eyewitness
to the bombing, told Mondoweiss that the Israeli army had targeted a
medical lab in the hospital. Sadi is always at the hospital to cover
events and was only five meters away from the building when the
Israeli army bombed it.
Suddenly, the bomb struck the location, and I found myself over 50
meters away from the explosion. It was an unexpected and difficult
moment for people after the bombing. Most of the people who were
critically injured or got killed were children and women, so many
people inside the hospital got injured but shrapnel and stones flew
after the bombing, Sadi said.
Dr. Hussam Ghaban, a physician who was on duty at the time of the
strike, treated the injured as they arrived by the dozens from the
site of the explosion.
The targeting of the lab building was sudden. We received no
warning, Dr. Ghaban told Mondoweiss. The hospital yard was full of
people. In the first moments of the bombing, over 7 people were
killed, most of them women and children. After that, the number kept
going up every few hours.
The next day, more of the injured died, he continued. And in the
days after that, more people who had sustained injuries from the
strike succumbed to their wounds.
It was too scary to witness such a massacre and work under these
conditions. In the busiest work times, dozens of women and children
arrived at the hospital, most of them were torn to pieces and most of
the injuries were critical, he said.
In such conditions around us, we were working to save peoples lives
and provide them with what is available and what we can offer. These
are hard times, the hardest for people in Gaza.
The Baptist Hospital in Gaza City was bombed before in October 2023,
and over 400 people were reported to have been killed in one of the
most horrifying massacres in the early days of the genocide.
Abu Mohammed, 49, was in the hospital to visit one of his relatives
who had recently been injured in a different bombing when the Israeli
strike hit the building.
I came here to visit my injured nephew, Im lying down next to him
now, we both are injured. Abu Muhammad said.
Two bombs happened when we were in the hospital, it was scary to
witness this. Shrapnel, stones, and people were flying everywhere. I
saw bodies of people just flying here and there. The Israeli army
bombs any place regardless of the people around and how many there
are, without any warning, they kill everyone, Abu Muhammad said.
This situation is beyond our imagination, its too scary, you cant
go out of your home and get back safe, you may get killed at any
moment.
Mahmoud Abu Hamdah contributed to this story from Gaza.
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/09/the-world-has-gotten-used-to-our-blood-israeli-massacres-in-gaza-continue/