Gaza: While the world looked elsewhere, another week of death and misery

By Donald Macintyre In Beit Hanoun
Published: 11 November 2006
The Independent

"The Western world, which was anyway more interested by the count in the state of Virginia than the catastrophe in Beit Hanoun, has no doubt already moved on. For the Athamneh family, now in their second day of mourning after the funerals, it is impossible to do so.

As friends and neighbours continued to arrive at the blue mourning tent 150 yards from the now-deserted family home, Mustafa, the arm of his widowed father Usama around his shoulder, was unable to stop crying. "I have no one to play with," he had said a few minutes earlier. "I have no one around me." The sense of loss and survivor guilt he will have to grow up with is scarcely imaginable. "I was with my mother when she fell down," he said. "I ran away. I haven't slept for two days and nights."

Yesterday, red-eyed but eager now to get the details right, Majdi, who had barely been able to speak on Wednesday, described how he had rushed out into the alley with his wife and children after the first shell hit the roof only to see Saad, semi conscious and gasping after being struck by the second shell, lying on the ground. He had rushed to the end of the alley, turning right into Hamad Street, to try and summon help or an ambulance, but was halted in his tracks by third shell. As he turned back, a fourth shell, he said, struck the building, killing Saad. He picked the child up in his arms and ran back and turned left into the street. Before he could reach the crossroad 50 metres away, a fifth landed. He believes this was the shell which killed four of his female relatives.

But they react with near-universal disbelief at Israel's depiction of the artillery barrage as a "technical malfunction", or at the idea that its targeting could not have been observed in real time by one of the units among the military presence in the vicinity. "One or two shells might be a mistake but not 15 or 20," said Ibrahim Al Athamneh. The number of shells was probably closer to 12. But there is no dispute that the number of civilian deaths from last Wednesday rose to 19 yesterday as one more man died of his wounds.

Reflecting for a moment on the meaning of the attack, Majdi allowed himself one political statement - a reference to the newest Israeli Cabinet member, the hard-right nationalist Avigdor Liberman. "It's a present for the deputy Prime Minister," he said. "The man who said he wanted to turn Gaza into Chechnya." "

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What is shocking and indicative of how low the Arab world has sunk is to see reporters from Britain (such as Mr. Macintyre) and other European countries, the U.S. (such as Jennifer Lowenstein) and even Israel (such as Gideon Levy and Amira Hass) reporting first hand from Gaza and the West Bank, but you rarely see an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Saudi or a Moroccan doing the same. For God's sake, all an Egyptian would have to do is to cross through the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza at Rafah. Is he/she afraid that Israel would not allow him/her? Where is Egyptian sovereignty over the border? Where is the responsibility Egypt bears for the poor people of Gaza, since it controlled Gaza until it was captured by Israel? Why does Jennifer Lowenstein (a Jew) show more courage and determination when she overcomes determined Israeli obstacles to prevent her from coming to Gaza than Arab reporters?

All I can say is thanks to the courage and the conscience of the "foreigners;" they are a critical link while our Arab "brothers" continue to indulge in their sleep and stupor.