live from gaza ( thus far...)

*not satisfied with kicking around and brutalizing the million plus "captured" residents of gaza over one israeli soldier taken prisoner of war by militias of the palestinian resistance , israel invades lebanon over two more of its soldiers taken prisoner in lebanon by hezbollah's fighters...

"Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz warned the Lebanese government that the Israeli military will target infrastructure and 'turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years,' if the soldiers were not returned, Israeli TV reported." --associated press

lebanese officials report 6 israeli soldiers killed --three in the raid that captured the israeli soldiers and three more killed when hezbollah destroyed an israeli tank as it crossed into lebanon. israeli military has called up reserve units and has already begun destroying bridges and other infrastructure in lebanon , by combined air sea and land assaults .

meanwhile back in gaza , israel continues it f-16 and helicopter gunship attacks on a people whose armed forces have little more than rifles to defend themselves with due to decades of israeli blockades and a relentless israeli stranglehold on palestinian borders-- once again israeli air and artillery attacks are violating international law by cutting off electrical power water and sewage treatment facilities vital to civilian life .

also , israel continues its policy of targeting hamas leaders for assassination . palestinians reported that a wednesday pre-dawn israeli airstrike on a house in gaza city dropped a quarter-ton bomb on the home , yet failed to kill the head of hamas' military wing , mohammed deif.

instead nine members of a palestinian family were killed in the assassination attempt by jet including a woman and 7 of her children aged 4 to 18.

palestinian officials charge that since this invasion began that israeli bombings and artillery fire have killed at least 60 people --mostly civilians .

doctors in gaza are reportedly describing in some victims of israeli bombings strange wounds that burn and tear the body from the inside --which sounds like white phosphorus --"whiskey pete" as american troops in the criminal assault that brutally leveled the city of fallujah , iraq , reportedly called it .

white phosphorus burns flesh on contact and does not stop burning until the flesh is completely destroyed--palestinian doctors have reportedly resorted to amputation of limbs to save some victims from this inhumanly vicious form of chemical warfare
* suspected victim of white phosphorus--Us chemical warfare -fallujah




article and picture below courtesy of electronic intifada.net

Dear friends: Gaza is in darkness
Cherifa Sirry, Live from Palestine, 12 July 2006
*6-11-06 mourners in the town of rafah , gaza carry the body of kaled abdel kareem --age one and a half--who died from wounds received in israeli air strike

July 12 -- Its nearly 4 a.m. here and I decided to go back to my computer to com municate to my friends around the world what every single mainstream media channel, whether American, European or Arab, is failing to in regards to what is happening right now in Gaza, Palestine. I have been in front of the television for the past few hours, monitoring the news and I was shocked to see nothing on Gaza except for on two local Arab channels and one Arab satellite channel. Even Al-Jazeera, to my utter shock, didn't so much as mention Gaza in its last two news broadcasts! Let me tell you what I have been seeing and hearing:

Southern Gaza is in total darkness. Three quarters of Gaza is pitch-black while northern Gaza has a few lights. About an hour ago, Israel bombed with F-16's the only power station left in Khan Younis, also plunging it into total darkness. Do you know what it means to be without electricity for 10 days in today's world? No water, no sewage system, no cooling, no storing of whatever food is left, no communication, etc.

As though this were not sufficient enough, tonight, like every night, Israel has been bombing and raining missiles on Gaza and flying over it all night, conducting sonic booms to scare the people -- especially terrifying the children. Yesterday, a one-and-a-half year old child died of injuries sustained by Israeli bombing. Yet instead of covering the child's death, the mainstream media is allowing the criminal Ehud Olmert to take the microphone and tell the world that Israel never targets civilians. However, Israel's operation in Gaza has lasted ten days and all evidence points to the contrary. One of the strongest armies in the world has declared war on a population that does not even have a single tank or plane.

Water is lacking, food is scarce, medicine and fuel have run out and Israel refuses to let trucks carrying supplies enter Gaza to save a civilian population which was already condemned to live in refugee camps because of Israeli colonialism and aggression. Palestinian hospitals are hardly able to operate. When Israel first bombed Gaza's power station, hospitals resorted to using their generators. But generators can only keep going if there is fuel. Those sick and elderly sustained on machines are slowly perishing. Babies in incubators are dying. With the growing piles of rubbish that can no longer be picked up from the streets, disease is festering. A humanitarian disaster is taking place in Gaza now and the world community refuses to act, afraid of offending Israel.

The world is silent. And mainstream media are behaving as though nothing were happening. All it cares about is an Israeli soldier amid 1.4 million innocent civilians being punished despite that they had nothing to do with his capture!

Of course, none of this would be happening were it not for the American tax-payer who for decades financed and is still financing every bullet and missile being shot from Israel. What will it take for the American tax payer to understand what he or she is funding?

While I am writing this, I am watching the recovery of victims from a building that collapsed in Gaza about an hour ago after it was bombed by Israeli F-16's. I see panicked and scared Palestinians illuminating the collapsed building with their torches and digging with their hands in the rubble to find survivors. I see a hand sticking out the rubble and it is still moving.

I am writing this to my internet friends because it is my duty to relay what I am seeing. I cannot just go to sleep as though nothing were. Mainstream media world wide is obviously complicit in the new world order and I am hoping that the internet community will stand out and will spread the news of Gaza, like we spread the news of Iraq.

I have recorded the horrible events of this evening and those of the past few days and I shall find a way to get this footage out. The world must find out what a criminal country Israel is.


Cherifa Sirry is an Egyptian producer based in Cairo