Sudden strange shelling, shooting, bombing.. Where from?

No one knows from where these bullets are coming from.

Yesterday at 12 p.m., most of the areas had no electricity because of shelling.. People were leaving their houses, and many groups of women were leaving their houses even forgetting their children.

A red line appears in the dark sky and explodes in a house, and ambulances begin transferring more and more children at first, then when the area was surrounded by tanks and bulldozers they were unable to get to the injured people who were shot by the apaches and the tanks..

It was not enough for the Israeli army to kill her 12 year old, now they also demolished her house.. Her name is Hanan Abu Anza, a woman with 7 children. She was leaving her home when they killed her child a few days ago, and now her house is being demolished by Israeli bulldozers..

Soldiers are just shooting and shelling children, women and old men.. demolishing a large number of houses.. it seems like these bulldozers do not have drivers. How come? When a women is weeping and waving her white sheet to the bulldozer yet the bulldozer still does not respond to her.. This is what happened to Hana Abu Anza, when she tried to get out of her home to a safe place yesterday in Block O area..

The situations wasn’t so much different in other parts of Rafah like East Rafah, where they demolished five houses two days ago, killed an old man and arrested another, in addition to demolishing a large number of houses.

click here for photos

Hay Al Salam also was attacked, and it was the worst day for the people who are living there.. Ehab Al Arjja, Kahlil Al Aker and his uncle and son Alaa were victims of the Israeli soldiers. They planted their orange and olive trees for a year, but they were unable to reap it, as their houses, trees, and properties were demolished.. Ala Al Aker’s wife and her aunt were arrested by the Israeli soldiers in that attack when they was decided not to leave their houses..

The attack is still continuing as I write. Block area refugee camp is still under curfew and attack. The soldiers are shooting at a large number of people.. Dr. Al Mussa, the Director of Abu Yousif Al Najjar hospital said: ”There is a large number of injured people right now and we are unable to get our ambulances into those areas because Israelis soldiers are targeting us with their snipers”

This is life in the Rafah Refugee Camp..The ”bullet” is the language of the Israeli soldiers..

The attack is still continuing since yesterday night, and there is a large number of injured people, demolished homes, in addition to this old man who died of a heartattack this morning upon hearing the Apaches shelling near his home..

Abdullah Hussein (29 yrs) works in one of the associations in Gaza City described the checkpoints by saying: "Daily life.. it's as you see ... every day I have to cross this checkpoint and I have so many problems because crossing it means waiting many hours. It depends on the soldiers' mood. If I didn’t go to Gaza and work I will not bring food for my wife and child. Waiting makes me really exhausted."

Abdullah was one of thousands of people who were waiting at Abu Holi checkpoint, and I was waiting with them too.. It is Gaza Strip, the worst place in the entire world. It has professional soldiers with great experience in how to make life miserable for innocent people in Palestine..

Yes, forcing people to take off their clothes, forcing them to sit in cold weather for hours, preventing ambulances from going to hospitals, shooting people while waiting at checkpoints... No words can describe thess soldiers.. They know how to make life miserable for Palestinians. Look at these pictures.





The soldiers choose rush hour when employees, workers, and students leave their work on their way back to their homes.. Yes.. it is 1 o'clock. When I arrived at the checkpoint, I found thousands of people waiting with thousands of vehicles just to cross a few meters that would normally take less than 10 minutes. Naturally because of the checkpoints, they now take several hours if not several nights sleeping here.

I tried to take pictures of these bulldozers that make me lose all hope of ever crossing this checkpoint..





These bulldozers was digging holes in order to prevent Palestinian cars from passing through. I tried to take pictures but two bullets were faster than my third picture. The first bullet came very close to my leg while I saw the smoke of the sand when the second hit the ground about one meter from my leg.

I moved to another area, trying to get other pictures, and I succeeded as you can see.







People lost all hope of getting to their homes now, when the light of the sun was slowly fading. I despaired when I studdenly realized that sleeping at the checkpoint was precisely the soldiers' plan.



In the evening people tried to find water and food but no one found any.. This road was like a jungle place, no markets to sell food and water.. It was hard even when they tried to transfer 8 injured people to the hospital who were injured because of the shooting.

It is now very cold, and it is getting darker.

Thousands of people are lying on the ground.

At the same moment there is so much light in the Israeli military points/settlements, as though it was daylight. .. This is coming from the electricity in the settlements and checkpoints while most of the time there is no electricity in the hospitals and houses of Palestinians..

My mind is crowded with many questions... how long is this suffering going to continue? Does the international community know about those crimes?

World without hearts, the majority of them have lost their feelings, lost the meaning of humanity...no values nor principles.

My brother...killed in cold blood, amidst international silence.

He was in the house when the Israeli bulldozers and tanks attacked the area and invaded the houses of our neighbors. The street was completely different and the only choices were two: either to get demolished with the house and be killed under the rubble, or to get out of the house and get killed from the shelling and shooting that doesn’t differentiate between child, old women or old man.

All are targeted.



My brother Hussam, 17 years old, was a secondary school student.

He was one of those people who chose not to get killed by being demolished with his body in the rubble of the house, so he went out of the house trying to find shelter or a safe area where he could go to. He went out of the house and immediately got killed by seven evil bullets — bullets of one of those countries who support Israeli army against children.

All American bullets, as the doctors said in the hospital.

In that moment when they killed him with seven American bullets, Wedad Al Ajrami, a 33 year old women, tried to help my brother and get him to the hospital, but they killed her also.

And now both of them have fallen.

Wedad's husband tried to help her but he was injured in his neck and all his body and now he is at the hospital seriously injured. Wedad's son tried to help his mother but they shot him and he also is at the hospital right now. Also the brother of Wedad's husband tried to help but he also got injured by the bullets of the Israeli army.

Five of them fell to the ground one after the other. The ground was full of the blood of all of the five people who were bleeding. The voice of one of the injured people was crying for help but no one heard him because of the shelling from everywhere, even from F16s and Apaches.

The ambulance driver came and it was the same situation: they tried to shoot him.

After a very long time the ambulance driver was able to carry the body of the my brother and the women in addition to three injured people, two of whom were seriously injured.

The moments can't be described when my mother got the news of the murder of my brother.

They were the worst in my whole life...when I saw my brother who was speaking with me a few hours ago, and now his face cold in the refrigerator of the hospital. I tried to talk to him but he wasn’t able to answer me. When I touched his face I began to understand things that I hate very much.

Wedad — what did she do to get killed by Israeli bullets? And now she has left behind four children, one of whom who is a baby child.

My brother got killed with seven evil bullets — why? Those trees that were demolished...those houses — why?

The drivers of the bulldozers and those iron machines didn’t answer the people who were asking the driver of the bulldozer to wait until they get out of their houses. The answer was more shelling — the bulldozers' drivers were in challenges, all of them trying to demolish and kill as many as they can.

Are there any people who hear this call? Are there any people who know about this? Are there any people who care? Are there human rights in Palestine? The questions are so many but they need answers that are not found in this world. In this world, the strong eat the weak...the same as living jungles.

Fingers just writing condolences, tongues just pronouncing all the words to express about sympathy to me WHILE their hands are still supporting Israel in the latest inventions of F16s, F15s, bulldozers and tanks.

So...Is That The Justice that Peace Makers Talk About?!

3 a.m. — October 9

I am writing this in a rush because I am afraid that the electricity will be off due to the shelling.

Right now, I am looking out of my window and writing. This is a description from my window —

The sky is full of smoke and I can not see anything except a large number of tanks and bulldozers with more F16s and Apaches.. All of these weapons right now..

The sky is covered with airplanes.

Difficult to know where the shooting is coming from.. All of them from every angle they are shooting at people leaving their houses.

Ambulances just came three minutes ago.

Children and women left their homes in their nightgowns and pajamas.

The sound of the tanks and bulldozers is very loud.

Everyone is asking themselves: "what is happening?" And all answer that what is happening is shelling and bulldozers from every direction.

Large groups of families leaving — to where?!!

We will not die in our homes.

No one is asking for help, because no one is answering us. We are all by ourselves.

The shelling is going on and on right now.

It is enough to write this for now, but I will write more if they don’t shell the electricity (power station).

This is the second attack in 48 hours. During the first attack they demolished about eleven houses and killed six people, two of whom were children.

.............

A new massacre against Rafah yesterday and up till these moments.

Over 70 people were injured and another seven were killed in the attack against Rafah by the latest models of F16s, Apaches, tanks and bulldozers.

Since yesterday they have demolished many people's homes. The ambulance men were trying to get out the people who have been under the rubble and other injured people from this early morning's attack.

It was difficult for families to identify their sons.

A 14 year old child had been shot in his head and a part of his head was missing. The ambulance had to transfer him without the head because the Israeli soldiers were shooting at the ambulance men.

Most of the injured were children and women as they were trying to get out of their houses searching for shelter.

Yebna camp has a curfew and if people attempt to go out of their houses, they get shot by soldiers. If they stayed at home they will be demolished with the houses.

Now, many ambulances are trying to get the victims but the soldiers are shooting at ambulances and journalists.

Rafah currently has no food, goods, and other basic needs because the IDF divided Gaza Strip into five separated areas by military checkpoints.

Now it's hard to find milk and pharmacies for babies and children.

The attack is going on and on, and the streets are empty.

Many parents have been searching for their sons and can't find them.

.............

Later in the day, Israeli sources told press people that the attack on Rafah will be for weeks.

Last week, Rafah witnessed all kinds of violence when the IDF demolished fifteen houses in Rafah, Block O area, and another eleven people were injured.

Most of the people left their houses because of the shelling from the F16s, bulldozers and tanks.

Four days ago and in less than four hours, the Israeli bulldozers demolished about twenty-five houses. The houses were demolished while people where living in them.

These crimes are happening amidst international silence and ignoring of human rights in Palestine. It seems that no-one in the world is concerned.

A very large number of bulldozers and tanks divided Rafah and all Gaza Strip into five parts when they closed the main roads.

The Palestinians are now finding other sand roads that, of course, take more time and effort — but the Israeli soldiers blocked even the sand roads.

Many thousands of students were not able to come back from their schools and the Israeli soldiers shot at them with tear gas.

These crimes came one week after the IDF shot a student and his teacher while they were in the class room. The teacher, Ismail Awad Mansour (36 years old), is a teacher at Al Omaria school. The student is named Mohammed Haider Al Boji (11 years old).

In addition, another twenty-five students who were transferred to the hospital because of the tear gas. It was a game that the soldiers played...

Israeli soldiers shot a man, Saeed Abu Azoom. An Israeli bulldozer then killed him when he was returning from the European hospital to his house.

They also shot three people — one of them is a five year old child.

Due to the last policy of dividing Gaza Strip and Rafah, most of the people were not able to get to the hospital.

This morning, ambulances were waiting to cross the new checkpoints. Over five ambulances had women who were about to give birth and couldn’t reach the hospitals.

In addition there were injured people who couldn’t arrive at the hospitals for urgent operations.

The soldiers shot one of the ambulances and threw tear gas near the students and the people who spent last night at the checkpoints, awaiting the permission of Israeli soldiers to go to their houses.

I broke my camera when I fell down as I was running, and am now limping.

4:20 p.m. — September 18

Now it's 4:20 in the evening, Tuesday.

Two white Israeli trucks brought new tanks and bulldozers from Khan Younis City.

The shelling just began five minutes ago. It was directed towards cars and citizens who were walking in the streets in Tal Al Sultan area in Rafah City, south of Gaza Strip.

12:00 a.m. — September 19

Sixteen tanks and 6 bulldozers just arrived right now, at 12 midnight in Block J in Rafah.

The people as usual were sleeping despite of shelling, shooting, lack of water and other environmental problems.

Now two Israeli Apaches just came into the Rafah sky with the other watching plane which can't be seen, as this one didn’t leave the Rafah sky every night for the past 3 years.

Now I see the sky full of shelling. It has become red.

People are rushing, children are crying, and women are rushing out quickly from their houses wearing their sleeping clothes.

Ambulances are coming, and I see the faces of people terrorized, yet also relieved that help is coming now.

I don’t understand why people are leaving their homes.

When I asked one of the people what was happening, he was running away quickly as he said to me one word: "Incursion." This word means that the IDF will attack the houses and demolish them.

I am trying to go to see other families.

Now, I see a child about 6 years or so, just crying and shouting saying, "Mother! Mother!"

His mother wasn’t with him, but she was running in front of him about 10 meters. She said, "Ala'a, come on! Come on! Come on! I'm here, come on!" She was running and running and leaving her child who still saying "Mother! Mother! Mother!"

The shelling began and the people were all running more and more. Even the ambulance men were leaving the area because of the shelling.

12:50 a.m.

Now it's about 12:50 a.m., and a very large explosion just occurred.

Now I can't write anything because the electricity was just cut out when they bombed the house situated about 250 meters from the border line which divides Rafah and Egypt.

I can't see anything now.

No light. Just the light of the bulldozers and the light of the bullets in the sky.

It was a very tough moment because everyone was leaving the area, including the relief agencies and the journalists.

2:20 a.m.

At 2:30 we heard shelling and shooting in another area called Hai Al Salam neighborhood, and also in Al Brazil refugee Camp. Rachel Corrie's parents are in this area visiting the families whom Rachel had visted before the Israelis killed her.

There were also another 16 tanks and 3 bulldozers in Block J area.

I can't write or describe and take pictures without electricity, so I intend to come back and see the result of the Israeli attack in Block J when the light comes back on.

Now I moved to Hai Al Salm and Al Brazil refugee camps which is also under attack.

I found a group of soldiers attacking houses and shooting furniture, in addition to searching the houses.

All the people in Rafah area are not sleeping now, because it's hard to sleep with shelling, shooting and bombing.

Now a very loud explosion occured. It was a rocket that they shot into one of the buildings in the Camp.

4:00 a.m.

The shelling and shooting are continuing till this moment which is 4:00 o'clock in the morning.

The IDF Apaches just withdrew but the watching one is still in the sky.

The shelling from the tanks are going on and on, and people who are living in other houses are just sitting in the streets because it is hard for them to sleep while Israeli bulldozers are demolishing houses.

4:40 a.m.

Now, it's 4:40 in the morning.

Israeli bulldozers and tanks are withdrawing.

.....

I intend to go and see what they did, but it's hard because I know that they put explosives after they left the area so it will kill the people who came after them and saw what they did.

I went to Block J...

Now, I'm going to Block J again. This area has no electricity, but I can interview people and take pictures from the area.



I found the Israeli bulldozers still demolishing trees and working inside the iron wall which is the border that they have been creating for the past two years.



6:20 a.m.

Now it's about 6:20.

The Israeli bulldozers and tanks just left now, and also the watching plane just left with them...but when I moved a few meters to the area where they had been, I noticed there was one tank which had no sound and no movement.

The tank noticed the families coming back to see their houses and what had happened to them. The tank shot about 4 or 5 bullets and in less than one minute all the people left again.

When I heard the sound of the tank leave, I went again and saw the people returning once more. There were about five people who were before me in the areas, two of whom were women.

I saw a woman shouting and saying "My house!" and she fell down on the ground.

I went quickly to her and found her on the ground weeping because she didn’t find her house. It was rubble.

Ambulances, journalists, photographers and everyone else just came to Block J area.

I just began to write again.

The ambulance driver found an injured man, a 24 year old taxi driver called Ramzi Al Raie. He had injuries in his head, belly, and in different parts of his body.

Another was also injured called Abu Yousif Al Najar. Doctors described his injuries as very serious.

Also there were two houses demolished in this area, and another which was a factory that made cement for buildings. The factory belonged to Al Hlkawi family from Rafah, Block J.

The houses that were demolished belonged to Majdi Shaut and Samer Abu Naja from West Rafah.

7:30 a.m. onward

Now it's 7:30 and I see an 11 year old child called Ahmed wearing a black blouse and red shorts. He wasn't wearing any shoes. He was busy trying to get something from the rubble.

When I asked him what he was doing he answered: "I want to get out my bicycle from the rubble."

I asked him if he went to school, he said: "Yes".

I said to him "Now it's 8:45 and you didn’t go to school yet, so why is that?"

He said "Because I lost my school bag and clothes in the rubble when the Israelis demolished our house."

During this time the UNRWA officers just came to record the families whose homes had been demolished in order to deliver them tents and food.

Also now I see many journalists who were reporting and interviewing people.

I'm asking the woman whose house had been demolished, why they demolished her house, and what were her feelings.

She answered me in tears saying: "We had been living in this house for more than 20 years now, and now, in a few hours we lost it all. All our dreams have gone by this bulldozer! They demolished our houses because they are building a new border here. They demolished more than 24 houses in the last four days, and two of them belonged to our relatives.

"They demolished them while we were living in them and they are saying because of tunnels, but we don’t have tunnels. We are a family who is far away from tunnels, about 250 meters from the border line and they built the border line, so why did they demolish our house? Is that because we have no human rights like other countries?

"Where are 'human rights'? You are all saying 'human rights' and journalists talking about it and repeating it every day, so is demolishing our house one of the 'human rights' that you all speaking about?"

I promised to deliver her message out of Palestine.

The children are trying to get some things from the rubble but they can't because everything has been demolished and turned to rubble.

Now there are a few members from the International Solidarity Movement. They can not do any thing to protect people because they also get targeted since the Israelis killed the American girl, Rachel Corrie, and the British man Thomas Hurndall, and the British cameraman James Miller.

Now, many hundreds of people are living in small rooms and on streets and in tents. This is because of the large number that has been increasing every day, as many hundreds of people search for flats to rent instead of their houses that had been demolished, but they couldn't find any apartments because they are all full.

It is 11:20 pm. I just arrived right now to Rafah coming from Gaza.

I had found the Abu Holi checkpoint closed. Hundreds of cars were waiting and the soldiers did not allow them to enter to their cities and homes.

It is hard, really hard, to move around.

Many people were sitting in every place where there is some shade: tree, walls, and car shades.

I went to the first cars, and taxis, to see why the IDF soldiers were blocking the roads. I held my pen and began writing and describing what was happening. The following is what I wrote:

I see five Israelis jeeps full of soldiers, and two trucks (red and blue), two bulldozers and many soldiers in the land. The soldiers were working and building new checkpoints. They are creating cement blocks.

It is really very hot here and I feel the sun really burning me.

Students are carrying their books and they have them on their heads to protect themselves from the hot sunshine. Many people are sitting near me on this cement block near the bulldozers.

I am trying to find a shade so I can sit and write and describe what I see, but I can't find any because people are everywhere. Most of them are silent, just waiting to cross this checkpoint.

The soldiers are still working now. Two jeeps just came and asked the people to go away. The soldiers began shooting 4 or 5 bullets in the air, but the people are still sitting and no one moved.

The soldiers got out of their jeeps and shot a teargas. I cannot write any more. It's too bad, and I have to leave this area because it will harm my eyes.

I moved a few meters, then the soldier shot another 5 teargases. It hurt my my eyes again, and I have been unable to write or open my eyes for the past five minutes.

Now I opened my eyes and I saw people still putting their hands on their eyes and rubbing them. It is as though they were crying.

This one women made me sad. She cannot walk because she is an old women, so she fell down from the teargas.

The soldiers got back to their work with the trucks and bulldozers.

Now I looked to my right and I saw some farm land that was recently occupied. I turned to the left. There was a group of cars for settlers and Israelis, walking in a very fast way.

I was listening to the man sitting next to me asking for water. I'm very thirsty too and didn’t drink since the morning. It is now 2 o'clock. Everyone is asking for water.

Now a women with her baby child were sitting in one of the shaded areas and she is asking for water for her child who was just waking up from sleep. She is asking everyone for water but she didn’t get it.

People are trying to get water or buy it, but no one is selling their water.

I hear the old man sitting next to me saying to one of the people: "is there any other occupation in the world that deals with people this way?" The other man answered: "yes, we hear about that. It's here in Palestine, where there is an international war against Palestine." One of the other people interrupted and said: "Where are the kind people to see us here at this checkpoint that humiliates us in this manner?"

He did not complete his sentence because they began shooting other teargas, and again, all people began running.



This time the teargas broke the window of an orange Hyundai car and people ran out of it. Gas entered in another white truck and the driver ran out.

The first cars are two ambulances which have two people who need to be in the European and Nasser hospitals.

Now Branine, a journalist for Associated Press News, got many pictures of the bulldozers and tanks. The soldiers shot the teargas and he was the first one to leave the checkpoint because of the teargas.

One of the people just saw me writing and introduced himself. He was from Human Rights Center, and he interviews people. He asked one of the people about the checkpoint, and the man asked him who he was. When he told him he was from the Human Rights Center, the man asked: "are there human rights these days in Palestine?"

Now I see an 11 or 12 year old child wearing a black jeans.

The child was getting closer and closer to the checkpoint and everyone was shouting at him to come back but he didn’t answer.

The soldiers shot a bottle of teargas, and the child carried it and threw it again at the soldiers. I think it was hot in his hand.

The soldiers are hurrying and they got into their jeeps after their eyes got burnt from the teargas that the child threw at them.



A woman began shouting to the child and saying "Mustafa! Mustafa!" She is his mother. He came back to his mother.

Now, it is 8 o'clock.

I can't write and describe any more because of the dark.

I see thousands of lights where settlers and Israelis are working, while on the other side where Palestinians are sitting, we can't turn on lights because it is forbidden.

I hear people complaining to each other and trying to call their families to tell them that they will not come home tonight and that they will sleep at the checkpoint.

At 11 pm, the bulldozers just came and opened one of the cement blocks and they permitted the first cars to enter.

Some people finally passed the checkpoint, but others will spend the night here.

In the early morning, many who were getting support from relief organizations gathered and demonstrated in Rafah, Khan Younis and Gaza. Those demonstrations were not organized, but all the families were asking the international organization not to stop supporting the poor families in the refugee camps..



The demonstrations are because the IDF had been killing people and because the PA closed all the relief organizations even the internationals.

Many people have been jailed in the checkpoints.. They divided Gaza into three areas.

The new US Apache is now in the Rafah sky.

Today in Rafah three people will be buried, as they were killed yesterday. With sorrow and sadness, thousands of Palestinians in Rafah and Gaza carry the bodies of the killed people during a funeral procession..



No one slept last night. No one. It is very hard because of the shelling and shooting everywhere.

The body of 21 year old Wahed al Hums —



Wahed was an engineering student and was also a writer in newspapers, books, and on the internet about the plight of his people.

His mother didn’t sleep yesterday from the shelling, and weeping.

His father is one of the first people in UNRWA who worked as an ambulance driver since the UNRWA was founded in Palestine.

No one believes what is happening.