Slaughter of Gaza’s innocents
by Ezz Zanoun and Patrick Strickland
Along with his father and brother, 17-year-old Abdullah Hassan rushed
to his uncle's home to find a smoking pile of rubble and mangled steel.
"We didn't see anyone, but I heard a voice from under the home," Hassan
told.
Situated on the southern outskirts of Gaza City, the Hassan family
home was destroyed by an Israeli air strike, leaving dead Abdullah's
pregnant aunt, 30-year-old Noor Hassan, and her three-year-old daughter,
Rahaf.
Abdullah and the others dug out Yahya, Noor's husband, and another
toddler, from under the home. Both were badly injured.
After rockets fired from Gaza landed in an empty field in southern
Israel before dawn on Sunday (11), Israel carried out two air strikes in
the Strip, claiming to have hit two Hamas arms factories. Lieutenant
Colonel Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said the army "holds
Hamas responsible for any act of aggression from the Gaza Strip."
But the immense crater where the Hassan family home used to stand
suggests it was hit directly by the air strike.
Air attacks
The deadly attack came on the heels of a wave of Palestinian protests
triggered by the provocative storming of al-Aqsa Mosque compound in
occupied East Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, by extremist
Jewish groups.
Long-standing anger over harsh restrictions on Palestinians that
touch almost every part of their lives, Israeli settlement expansion and
impunity for Israeli soldiers and settlers who kill Palestinians, among
other grievances, have boiled over into more than a week of protests and
violent responses by Israeli soldiers and police. It has quickly spread
throughout the occupied West Bank and Palestinian communities in Israel.
Since October 1, four Israelis have been killed in attacks allegedly
carried out by Palestinians, while at least 68 others have been injured
in stabbing incidents. Speaking in Gaza on Friday (9), Hamas Leader
Ismail Haniya declared a new Intifada, or uprising, and called for "the
strengthening and increasing of the Intifada."
"It is the only path that will lead to liberation," Haniyeh said.
According to Abu Saada, the leader's comments mark a changing point
and answered questions about whether Gaza would be able to partake in a
prolonged uprising. Unlike when the second Intifada ended in 2004,
Israel has since besieged the Strip from land, air and sea and launched
three major wars on the densely-populated territory – in 2008, 2012 and
2014. The latest war spanned 51 days last summer and left Gaza in
shambles. At the height of the war, hundreds of thousands of civilians
were displaced. Due to the strict Israeli and Egyptian blockade limiting
the amount of construction materials and humanitarian aid that enters
Gaza, more than 12,000 homes remain levelled until today."The
Palestinian resistance in Gaza has made it clear that it is very much
ready to be part of the Intifada," said Abu Saada.
Increasing violence
According to Benedetta Berti, a security fellow at the Tel Aviv-based
Institute for National Security Studies, given the separation between
Gaza and Israel and due to the Israeli-imposed siege, "the tools of
political protests people in Gaza can use are limited."
Border protests like those organized last weekend are an option,
however, "Israel's response has been extremely costly and dangerous" for
demonstrators, Berti said.Abu Sayyaf, a senior member of al-Nasser Salah
al-Din Brigades, an armed group with close ties to Hamas, insists that
Gaza's fighters are ready for any potential escalation. "Other factions
should declare a third Intifada," he told Al Jazeera. "Honestly, the
51-day war on Gaza last summer did not worry the Israeli occupiers as
much as the operations taking place in the West Bank right now."
"We salute our heroic brothers in the West Bank and call on them to
carry out more operations," Abu Sayyaf continued. On Sunday (11),
hundreds of Palestinians came out to bury Noor and Rahaf Hassan. They
marched in central Gaza, carrying Rahaf's small body through the streets
and waving Palestinian flags.At the funeral, Majdiya Hassan, Rahaf's
grandmother, called on political factions to "do whatever it takes" to
avenge their deaths.
"My message to the resistance: May God let them triumph," she said.
Umm Sabri, another relative, added: "We want to tell the Israelis
that our dead are martyrs. We will continue to fight. We will continue
to support the resistance."Behind her, Noor and the child were lowered
into the ground.
- Al Jazeera |