those are the days my friend ....in Gaza
Dr. Elfarra (left) With One of The Injured Children
Dear brothers, sisters, friends, comrades, all of you who follow my blog,
Thanks for your interest in us here in Palestine, while the rest of the world is either silent, cowering to avoid the truth, totally brainwashed by the mainstream media that supports American and Israeli policies in the Middle East, or minding their mutual interests with the USA. Please let us all together work to spread the truth about what is happening in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), and work hard for a world that enjoys a peace based on justice.
I do apologize for not writing regularly as I used to do. I am very busy with relief efforts and fieldwork. Many of the injured were received into Al- Awda Hospital, which puts extra pressure on all health workers, including myself. It is not an easy feeling to expect that you may lose some of your colleagues while on emergency health rescue missions, or to think of the casualties waiting to cross a military checkpoint, while bleeding and in desperate need for surgical intervention. Some people died while waiting for a permit to pass through those checkpoints.
Whenever I am at Al-Awda Hospital for my field support and needs assessment visits, I meet hospital staff that have lost their relatives, or their homes have been demolished, or they have experienced different sorts of traumas. I also meet many patients and their families. The most heartbreaking is to see children that have been seriously injured. But it is also heavy to listen to the ER doctors tell stories about the different sorts of injuries they receive: mutilated bodies, burn victims, etc.
It is not safe to drive my car the short distance from Gaza to Jabalia and Beit Hanoun. While driving I can clearly see the army tanks and hear helicopters and drones in the sky.
On, Monday 20th of November, I met Mrs. Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, during her visit to Israel and the OPT. She held a meeting with representatives of different Palestinian civil society organizations and public figures where I explained the frank violations of health human rights by the Israeli army. We all strongly asked for international protection following the recent Beit Hanoun masacare and I condemned the American veto that makes the international community very weak in their efforts to refuse injustice and human rights violations in Palestine. The Palestinian people are devastated, abandoned and losing faith in the international community.
The Israeli occupying forces have continued their attack against Gaza, especially in the north of Gaza. First there was the siege and military operation in Beit Hanoun, 2nd –8th of November. And then two days later, the brutal attack against a residential area inside the village, where at least 20 people from one family where killed while in their beds in the early hours of the morning.
Last night, 21st of November, there were many helicopters in the sky above Gaza City. I live nearby the beach and I could clearly hear and see the helicopters. I felt very uneasy, knowing that they will soon target somebody, somewhere in Gaza City. Then I heard the sirens of ambulances. They targeted an area east of the city, killing 2 people including a 70-year-old woman.
This morning, 22nd of November, at 11.30 am the Israeli military went back to Beit Hanoun. Four schoolboys were injured at the new entrance into the village. There are snipers on top of the roofs of some buildings only 300 meters to the east of the hospital. Thirteen casualties were brought into the ER with serious injuries from the snipers’ bullets. I am not in the hospital but I was told this by my colleagues inside the hospital.
I can hear the sirens of the ambulances carrying more injured to Al-Shifa hospital inside Gaza City. The situation is deteriorating.
I shall stop now. But before I stop, I want to tell you that in November, 105 people were killed in Gaza including 35 children and 18 women. Another 350 were injured, many with critical injuries that will cause permanent disabilities.
it is 9.30 pm wed.
i can hear heavy artillary shelling , it is coming from the north of the town . my freind mahmoud telephoned from jabalia to tell me , there are Israeli snipers on top of their next door neiboughers roof ,
This time I promise to keep writing.
With love and solidarity,
Mona
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