13 November

During a funeral, sad moments when 18 civilans were killed at once

Palestinian children, Rima Athamneh , 1, and Ala Athamneh , 1, were killed by the Israeli tank shells in gaza togather with most of their family

Palestinian woman walking by a wall riddled with bullets and tank shells in Beit Hanoun

Mosque demolished by the Israeli bullodozers

“How long will Israel be allowed to continue to kill our women, children and old men inside their houses, villages and camps? How long should we continue to be slaughtered while the world watches?” asked Ms. Al Atamneh, one of the survivors of a family recently killed by Israeli Occupation Forces. Through a veil of tears, she then showed the damage to her house caused by Israeli tank shells. “Where is the world, God? Why are we getting killed? My little nephew, Amjad, while sleeping, was killed by the Israelis right here,” she said crying and pointing to where his bed was.

“The child was simply sleeping, possibly having a nice dream. But he never woke up. Neither were ambulance workers allowed to reach him even if there was any hope of saving him. Amjad’s arm was missing. No one could find it.”

Amjad’s younger sister was murdered by Israeli soldiers using rockets as well. Unites States made and paid tank shells splattered her little body all over the house. Her brains were all over her bed. Fingers, arms, legs and pieces of human flesh were all over the place.

"No one can believe the image—I tried to help, but I was also injured in my leg, but everyone is dead by the tank shells which hit all the child and every body, even my mother who's 70 years old woman, a woman who lived peacefully and have nothing to do with the army, she got killed, she did nothing, nothing, nothing, but she got killed by the Israeli tank shell" she added.

Even the animals, cows and goats were killed by the attack when the Israeli bulldozers demolished a small animal farm of the family. The Israeli soldiers also destroyed the van of her father which cost 11 Jordanian Deinar. She said even that would be fine as long as our children and we survive.

"I can believe it, my own mother who raise me, there was a moment where I was not able to see even look at her before she got buried" the young woman said crying. She was obviously angry. " It's not only the tanks shells, but also the drone planes which hit our house from all over see here, look here and there and see our lives—see the wholes and the damaged furniture, look at the blood in the walls, see even the Palestinian flag is a witness on the crimes"

She continued talking with a tone of anger and stress. What really angered her is the fact that the Israelis knew there were children in the house. “It was one day when the soldiers were inside our home and they imposed siege on us, they didn’t let us go out and they kept telling us to shut up or they were going to shoot us. The soldiers purposely kept scaring the children by pointing their weapons at them. The children were not even allowed to go to the bathroom while the soldiers were there.” Holding a Palestinian flag in her hands she said, “This is the reason we are being killed, we are Palestinians. The soldiers are angry because we have the flag of our country.” The Israeli soldiers told her they did not want Palestinians to live. While crying, she put the bullet-ridden Palestinian flag back on the wall saying, “But Israel who kills innocents will not kill the spirit of the Palestinians who remain alive. Shame on America which provides Israel with weapons. Shame on America for remaining silent while their Israeli allies murder innocent civilians and commit crimes against humanity. She then prepared to go to another one of many funerals in occupied Palestine.

9 November

A Palestinian woman carrying the body of her child injured by the Israeli occupation forces

A targeted car by the Israeli helicopters

Blood and human flesh is everywhere, we are getting killed

Palesinian children are looking at blood pool of their friends killed by the Isareli tank shells

Palestinian workers trying to help Palestinian man

Palestinian young men gathering around a car that was bombed by Israeli helicopters

We, Palestinians, whether Christian, Moslem or otherwise, are being killed every single day in Palestine . Our houses are being demolished, our roads being destroyed, our children being slaughtered, our lives being taken away by the Israeli helicopters, bulldozers, tank shells, and airplane rockets. Our lives are violently, yet quietly being taken away by the Israeli Occupation Forces. The murder here is loud and graphically violent, yet scarcely a whisper of these atrocities is heard through the news organizations of the West.

The situation here is completely insane. Day after day, Israelis come to our homeland and kill, kill, kill as if Gaza was a shooting gallery in a carnival. All over Gaza are leftovers of the Israeli frenzy to shoot at anything that moves. Legs and arms of innocent Palestinian children laying on streets and remaining rubble from what was once someone’s house. What was once tiny soft pliable fingers from a baby can be found hardened like rocks on Palestinian soil. One can find a piece of a head with the brains oozing out like a melon.

Our children’s blood runs through the streets of Palestine and no one cares, certainly not Israeli and Jews in America or Britain . Why do these children have to die? New born babes in Beit Hanoune were welcomed into this world by Israeli artillery fire. Israeli tanks blew up their homes while they were asleep.

Where is the American and British Press? Where is the outcry from the lands of Democracy? How many Palestinian children must be murdered, yes, murdered before someone in the West says “Enough!” What level of butchery must the Israelis rise to before the world can’t stomach the carnage anymore? Let the 13 family members hear it, even if they have to hear it in hospital refrigerators.

The blood is everywhere. In few minutes more than 21 people were killed this early morning while the children were sleeping -- 60 people were injured.

The brother of two people who were injured was heard screaming in a hospital, “Why, why, Israel is killing us, why my brother?"

Israeli aircraft fired two missiles into the compound of the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Gaza City, wounding two people, Palestinian security sources said.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, who was in the West Bank at the time of the attack, condemned the strike and called on the international community to intervene to stop what he called Israel's escalation.

The military has stepped up artillery shelling of a self-declared "no-go zone" in northern Gaza since an unprecedented attack last week with a Katyusha rocket, which has a much longer range than the normal makeshift missiles. The shelling is still going by sonic bombs and daily attacks against the Gaza Strip—many people were injured in different attacks and tanks shells in the Northern part of Gaza.

Palestinian coffers empty

On the other hand, Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said on Wednesday that the Palestinian coffers were completely empty as he hosted the first regular cabinet meeting of his Hamas-led government.



Prime Minister Ismail Haniya

"We inherited a situation in which we not only have no money in the treasury but a whole load of debts," he added.

Haniya said his administration would struggle to pay government salaries as a result of a financial crisis, partly brought on by Israel's refusal to hand over customs duties that it used to collect for the Palestinian Authority, now the administration is led by the radical Islamist movement.

"We are making every effort to pay the government employees despite the financial crisis," Haniya said at the start of the meeting in Gaza City.

The European Union and United States have both threatened to slash funding to the Palestinian Authority unless Hamas commits itself to non-violence and acknowledges Israel's right to exist.

In a statement later issued by his office, Haniya said that he himself would not take a salary while others went unpaid.

"The government and (myself) in particular as prime minister will not receive salaries before the government employees receive theirs," he said.

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?!

The IDF attacked Hai Al Salam area in Rafah with a very large number of tanks and bulldozers.

They demolished many houses and shot many people.

In addition they arrested four people with their father in the same area.

The Apaches are circling the Rafah sky all the time, shelling homes. This operation will be the same as they did in Yebna camps.

The number of demolished homes is 40.

Also, thousands of people have gathered in a very large demonstration under the Israeli Apache in solidarity with the families whose homes have been demolished in Rafah.

They are asking the relief foundations to help the homeless families...

But no response from any one.

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.

There are a large number of houses now that have been demolished and it seems the media is no longer interested in what is happening to the homeless families.

More than 20 tanks and 5 bulldozers attacked the Rafah area, in Tal Al Sultan which is close to the beach. Two houses were demolished in that attack: Omer Abu Brika's house (41 years old), and his relative's house which had housed more than 4 families.

Hundreds of acres full of olives and orange trees were also demolished last night, in addition to a very big area of agriculture homes. Ahmed Biriak's home and Farouk Burika in Rafah.



Thoria Birika's home, also in Tal Al Sultan, had more than 60 olives trees demolished from her garden.

In the same attack they demolished half the Sindibad wedding party hall, in addition to demolishing other olives trees belonging to Abu Shalouf family.

Eyewitness said that the bulldozers were shooting towards the UNRWA clinic situated in Tal Al Sultan.

Also in yesterday's attack, the IDF soldiers opened their heavy cannons against civilians people and shot Basam Rosros, a 32 year old, and seriously injured him. Ahmed Khader was also wounded but not seriously.

It was a very sad night full of shelling and shooting everywhere from the tanks and bulldozers. The shelling continued until the morning.

I interview Ahmed Douheir (30 years old), and asked him how his house was demolished. He answered:

"Our house is near the border line. When the IDF began to build the border line in 10/06/2003 a group of Israeli bulldozers, and in less than 20 minutes, they demolished our house which was the only house for me and for my children and my brothers. At the same time they demolished my uncle's house Abdel Karim Douhair. It was three floors. They also demolished my other uncle's house, Abdelhadi Duhair, which was four floors. Now, I've just come back everyday to see the rubble of our house as you see me right now! !!"

I also interviewed others like Shehda Zourb (35 years old), Mohammed Redwan,(40 years old)., Mohammed Al Shaier (42 years old) Eiad Barhoum (32 years old ) and so many others, and they all told me how their homes had been demolished by the IDF.

Nothing changed. Everywhere, just turn your eyes, and you will see demolished houses. Now more than three eyewitness said: "we see the IDF trucks bring new bulldozers, tanks, vehicles, and so many jeeps for Tal Al Sultan areas.."

Over the past three days, the shelling, shooting, bombing, and killing did not stop. Neither did the demolishing of many trees in addition to blocking the roads which forced the citizens to pay a high price for taxis and transportation.

It took many hours to wait at check points. Students had to wait more than 5 hours to cross a few meters from the checkpoints which were full of guns, cannons, and many other soldiers.

Yesterday there was shelling and shooting in block J, block O, and Tal Al Sultan near Rafah beach. The IDF arrested a Palestinian from Rafah near the border line in the airport area.

Today, 1st September is the first day for schools. Children did not buy school supplies or new clothes for their new school year.

The soldiers shot towards the children while they were going to their schools. Most of the injured people in Rafah are students, injured while on their way to their schools.

Also, this morning there was shelling and shooting everywhere in all Rafah Camps.

The people who are living on the border line left their houses because of the massive shelling. There were also intermittent blackouts, lack of water supplies, and many other environmental problems.

The IDF soldiers believe that holding a camera is the same as holding weapons. They shot at every one who carried a camera. It has become very hard to take pictures.

The agricultural areas in Palestine are now dead, being attacked since the beginning of this Intifada. Many people cannot enter their fields even if they enter after risking their lives, the IDF will not allow them to get their goods and sell them, although nowadays it is the only job for the farmers after dividing Gaza Strip into three areas.

This picture is the Salah el-Dein Gate —



It was taken from one of the corners since no one has been allowed
in this area for the past three years.

An old women died at the checkpoint near the airport, as she was on her way to Egypt for an open heart surgery. After waiting more than 5 hours at the checkpoint, she died.

On Monday, the Palestinian Authority attacked more than 4 houses in Rafah.

According to what the IDF leaders told the Palestinian Authority, there were four families in Rafah who had illegal tunnel entrances concealed inside them. In response, the Palestinians Authority fought with those four families.



The Palestinian Authority found the tunnels in those four houses and arrested all of the members in addition to shutting down the tunnels. Now, the Palestine Authority shot and fought with all these families, and they demolished some parts of their houses.



Those four houses were the only houses that tried to create illegal tunnels according to the Israelis leaders.

Shelling and the shooting continues against Rafah every night.

Yesterday they shot many people, as they aimed to shell the houses of the citizens in order to force the families to leave them, then demolished their houses and then announced that they demolished them because they were empty.

In this morning, thousands of Palestinians gathered in the UNRWA office and government offices objecting to the closure of relief organizations. The demonstration was attended by disabled people, fatherless children with their mothers, poor families and others who were asking the world not to close relief organizations that aim at serving humanity..

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.

Yesterday the IDF shot three people in Rafah, (Tal Al Sultan area), one of whom was seriously injured. He was 70 years old.

Every night in Rafah there is shelling and shooting towards the houses.

Most of the people who were living on the borderline left their houses because of the daily shelling and shooting. It is very hard to find a wall has no bullet-shots and shelling.



In the summer the people in Rafah have no water, and they have continuous blackouts. This causes many health problems.

Three houses were demolished in Rafah and the homeless families held demonstrations in front of the UNRWA office and the government office..

Also, very big demonstrations will held in Rafah, Gaza, and in all Gaza strip because the Palestinian Authority began to close and block the relief organizations which helped the orphans and the poor families.

PCHR is warning that an environmental and humanitarian crisis is lurking in Rafah refugee camp after Rafah municipality has been prevented from repairing the sewage system partly destroyed during an Israeli incursion in April.

The Health and Sewage Unit in the municipality has been trying to repair the system several times since it was damaged but failed to do so due to Israeli soldiers shooting at the workers trying to repair the damages.



The damaged sewage network is located on the border with Egypt, and is transferring the sewage away from Block O where about 5,000 people live, as well as from the areas close to Salah El-Dein Gate, Omar Bin el-Khatab street and Elqasas neighborhood.

The system was damaged during an incursion into the area by Israeli occupation forces at the beginning of April.

According to PCHR's information the system has not been working since then, and the waste water is now flooding the streets and is running towards the houses.

The continual refusal of the Israeli occupation forces to allow the municipality to repair it increases the chances for the outbreak of diseases among the more than 5,000 inhabitants of the areas.

The refusal by the Israeli occupation forces to allow the repairing of the system comes despite of the fact that there is already a co-ordination between the Palestinian Authorities (PNA) and Israel on this matter.

PCHR is deeply concerned about the environmental and health situation in the above-mentioned areas and calls upon the international community, the United Nations' bodies and international agencies to immediately interfere to force Israel to allow Rafah municipality to repair the damages in the system in order to avoid a serious health and environmental crisis.

Also last night there was shelling till this morning from the tanks in Block J..

Well...many, many problems but who will hear?

Yesterday about 12 tanks and 5 bulldozers attacked Rafah, with massive interventions of helicopters. This attack was only for the entertainment of the soldiers ... they didn't demolish houses in an organized way, but randomly destroyed everything which was in their way.

The soldiers shoot everyone in the streets, it did not matter if it was a child, an old man, or woman — they shoot at everything, and demolished all the olives trees that they found in their way.



Shelling, shooting, bombing, demolishing houses, demolishing olive trees, killing children while they are going to school...and in summer blocking the clean water, demolishing the water stations, destroying power lines, and demolishing the sewage stations...

Every day, we hear about new crimes in our neighbors' cities.

In Khan Younis City, last night, many people were injured, many houses demolished and many streets were demolished.

The same things happed in Beit Hanon, the city which is under curfew for more than a month. This city suffers from lack of food, water and many things.

So where is the peace activism? Where are these people who speak all the time about peace?

The water supply is still very limited, not enough water in many parts of Rafah.

Another attack yesterday in the area of Block O, 10 houses were demolished, and many people were injured.



It was a very bad night, shelling and shooting and many crimes... as they demolished the houses IN THE NIGHT, while people were sleeping, so it was immoral, very bad. People were running out of their houses and children were crying and asking for shelter, and crying ... TANKS!!

And nobody takes care of these homeless people.

As a result of that, today thousands of Palestinians demonstrated against the IDF crimes in Rafah, and against the crimes that the IDF did in the last night against people while they were sleeping and in a time which is called the Road Map time.

Tom Hurndall, the peace activist from Great Britain, has died because of his heavy injuries. (note to reader: Tom Hurndall remained in a vegetative state until 13 January 2004.)

Last night, many houses were demolished again, and no one could sleep in all Rafah city, because of the shootings and shellings and the F16s, and helicopters which were also in the sky...

Many people were injured. In Rafah and Gaza, more than 10 people were killed, also children under 3 years.

The house demolitions continue today.

A very good article written by a visitor who came to Rafah and describes the situation —

Ma'ariv - weekend supplement 28/3/03.
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html

I was a human shield

By Billie Moskona-Lerman

The death of human rights activist Rachel Corrie, crushed to death while trying to stop an IDF bulldozer, was reason for Billie Moskona-Lerman to go to the Rafah Refugee Camp and to spend 24 hours at the most miserable place in the Gaza Strip. A place where shooting never stops, where shells whistle by the windows, the walls are covered with bloodstains on the walls, houses turn into ruins and people walk the streets barefooted and desperate. She came back a different person. In a rare human document she describes her encounter with death.

With the above words, the weekend supplement of Ma'ariv newspaper (28/3/03) introduced to its readers a report, giving a glimpse of Palestinian daily life which is very rare in the mainstream Israeli press.

I visited hell and I came back in one piece. It happened on the night between Thursday and Friday last week [March 20-21] when I accompanied Joe and Laura, two 20-year old human rights activists, in acting as a human shield facing the IDF. When they asked me do I join in and I answered "yes", I did not fully realize what I was getting myself into. It was my first experience under fire: so close to death, so anonymous, my life so easily abandoned in somebody else's hands. Never did I feel so weak, so defenceless. I did say "I am coming" and we set out. It was 7.30 PM. we walked through the main street of Rafah, a town which is in fact just a big refugee camp. We walked in darkness, through ruins, pot-holes and puddles, torn bits of nylon and plastic, barbed wire and piles of rubbish. Here and there some stores were open. Groups of young boys were walking around us, shouting "Sa'lam Aleikum, Sa'lam Aleikum".

Suddenly, one of them picked up a stone and threw it at us. It flew through the air and fell near us. Joe and Laura were not very disturbed. "We represent for them the American culture which they hate" said Laura.

I vaguely knew that we were walking towards Rafah's border with Egypt. We walked towards the last house in the last row of Rafah houses. The home of Muhammad Jamil Kushta. At a certain stage, after ten minutes of fast walking in empty alleys, we went aside into a long and narrow alley at whose end I could see a big pillar. When we came near I could see it was a tall guard tower.

When we came near the tower, Joe and Laura raised their hands high and signalled to me to do the same. I did as they asked and walked towards the IDF guard tower with my hands high above my head, walking quickly — but not too quickly — through the empty alley. Our clothing was fluorescent orange, with silver strips to make it even more conspicuous in the night. Joe held a big megaphone in one hand and a big phosphorescent sheet in the other. 20 metres from the tower we could see, even in the utter darkness, that we were facing a major fortification — an Israeli strong point at the exact border between Rafah and Egypt.

A few steps before the tower Laura abruptly pushed me into a small, dark entrance and whispered "Quick, it's here". I went over the doorstep, feeling the way with my foot, with the eyes gradually getting used to the sight of of high, dark corridor. Five steps, and my brow hit strongly against a concrete block. Passing under it, I went up ten wining stairs at whose end was a door.

A short ring and the door opened to reveal the smiling face of Muhammad Kushta. Standing in the door, smiling back, I felt relieved that the damned walking was over and that we got to somewhere looking like a hospitable house. I did not realize what kind of night was waiting for me. I had not the slightest idea.

Muhammad Jamil Kushta, whose house we have come to defend, opened the door to see two young human rights activists who had been spending the nights in his home for the past few weeks, plus a woman introducing herself as a french journalist. The French journalist was me, at that moment nobody knew I was actually an Israeli from Tel Aviv. "Tfatdal, Tfatdal" he said as he opened the door, the greeting joined by his young wife Nora holding little Nancy in her hands. It was already a quarter past eight when we all sat down on the floor by the little heater when suddenly it started. A noise which to my ear sounded very very close, a rolling noise, an ear-shattering noise, a noise which sounded like hell. It was the first time that night that the house came under fire, and the first time for me to be under fire. I started shaking. My entire body was shaking. The noise was rolling by my ears like a series of giant fireballs. Shooting, shooting, shooting. I understood this is how an encounter with death looks like. With the first burst Jamil moved his tea glass slightly.

Up and down, up and down. Nora held Nancy tightly. Joe and Laura went to the baby Ibasan who slept in the corner and her brother the young Jamil and crouched over them. It lasted half an hour, and for an hour and half afterwards my body was till shaking. But I did not yet realize it was just the beginning.

I watched Jamil without words and he said: "I goes on like this every night.

For two and a half years". "What are they shooting at?" I asked. "In the air" he shrugged. "Why?" "Out of fear" he said simply. "They are also afraid, alone there in the dark. They are very young". "Why aren't you taking your children elsewhere, away from here?" I asked after getting my voice under control. "I have no money" he answered. "I have no money for another house, every penny I had was invested in these walls, and I got into debt even so".

A Dangerous Game

It is not by chance that over the past few weeks, Laura and Joe are spending their nights in Jamil's house. It is the last house in the row of houses fronting the Egyptian border. Some twenty metres from this house, perhaps less, the IDF built a high fortification, destroyed all houses to the right and left and stationed guns, tanks and mortars targetting the city.

That is why Laura and Joe are sleeping over in Jamil's home. This is the next house in line to be demolished. There is no way for Jamil and the human rights activists to know in advance when the army would come at this house with tanks or D-9 bulldozers — and it will be the job of Laura and Joe to try preventing the IDF from approaching the house. Laura and Joe are members of ISM, International Solidarity Movement, a group of human rights activists who oppose the Israeli occupation through direct non-violent action. They are young, politically motivated university graduates — very extreme and determined pacifists. Their purpose is to prevent the army from harming civilians.

Every night, with the beginning of the curfew, they are spreading in Palestinian homes on the first row, which are exposed to shooting from the military positions. They wear phosphorescent clothing and megaphones. In the midst of firing, or in the face of IDF bulldozers, they emerge to call out in English the text of international conventions and block the soldiers when they come in, shoot, bomb or demolish homes. Until a week ago it worked. They were calling out, warning, shouting, blocked the bulldozers with their bodies — and the army turned back. On Sunday, March 17, all bets were off. What happened found its way to the media of the entire world, caused a storm. A young woman, human rights activist, was killed by an IDF bulldozer which ran over her. Her name was Rachel Corrie, she was 23 years old, and Joe Smith recorded her last moments.

He saw her facing the bulldozer, as was her habit, trying to establish contact with the soldier driving it. A second later she was not visible any more. A cat and mouse game is how members of the human rights group call the dangerous game they are playing with the IDF D-9 bulldozers. When a bulldozer approaches a house marked for destruction, they sit down in their phosphorescent clothing on the mound of earth carried on the giant bulldozer extended front, addressing by megaphone the soldier behind the windows of opaque, reinforced glass. Standing on the front of the bulldozer requires maintaining a very delicate balance, and there comes a moment when you can overturn and fall off. Until the day Rachel was killed, the soldiers did not push things to far. They would always stop and turn back one minute before this could happen. But on that Sunday, the soldier driving the bulldozer did not stop at the critical moment, and Rachel was killed. Joe Smith's photos document, stage by stage, Rachel's folding into death. Like a big strong bird which flies in the sky, gets a blow, squeezes itself and slowly falls down to become a small crumpled heap on the ground. Here is a photo of Rachel standing determined in front of the bulldozer, here she stands on the mound of earth. And here she disappears, she lies on the ground, her mouth open as if trying to say something, Alice crouches over her (later, Alice would quote what she said with her last strength: "My back is broken"), she draws in her two legs, the body lies like a lifeless sack. Rachel is dead.

After her death Rachel became a Shaheed (martyr). From all over the world, media was called upon to interview the group of young people, which had numbered eight and is now reduced to seven. So it was that I also arrived there. A short phone call from my editor, a contact person at the Erez Checkpoint, a taxi, a Palestinian photographer from Gaza, and an emphatic instruction from the contact person: "Nobody must know that you are an Israeli. From now on, you are a French journalist — period".

A bad death I lived with the group for 24 hours. Crazy hours, very frightening, hours of fear and apprehension in which I felt at my nerve endings, a wildly beating heart and wet underwear. I understood what it means to live with death for 24 hours a day. A bad death. With guns, tanks and bulldozers targetting your home, your bedroom, your kitchen, your balcony, your living room. No way of defending yourself, nowhere to run to. At mdnight in Jamil's home, facing the shooting tanks and feeling that these may really be my last moments, I decided to open my cards. I threw aside the instructions not to expose myself because of Hamas and Tanzim and all the others who may murder me at a moment's notice. With a feeling of profound finality I suddenly said: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I must tell you the truth. I am an Israeli journalist from Tel Aviv. There was a moment's silence, then Jamil smiled and started speaking in fluent Hebrew: "Welcome, Welcome, Ahalan Ve'sahalan [Arab greeting which became, part of colloquial Hebrew]. I lived for four years on Sokolov Street in Herzlia, I was the shawarma cutter in the Mifgash Ha'Sharon Restaurant. I have also worked on Abba Eban Street in Netanya and at the Hod Hotel in Herzlia Pituach. What I liked most was to eat cherry ice-cream at the Little Tel-Aviv Restaurant. Is it still open?" Rains of ammunition bullets came down on us on that one single night. A single night, for me. The shooting went on continuously from 1.30 to 4.15, near the first light.

Only then it calmed down. My teeth did not stop chattering. "It's verrry near" was the only thing I managed to say for four consecutive hours. Jamil and Nora, with their three babies, tried to calm me. "The soldiers know us, they know we're clear. You hear it so close, because they are shooting at the wall near us". "So they never hit your house itself?" I ask him with an enormous burst of hope. "Oh, sometimes they do. Look at the bullet holes". I raise my head and look to the sides. The ceiling is fool of holes, the side walls are cut up. So is the kitchen wall near the tap, near the table, in the toilet, one centimetre from the children's beds. Some of the holes have been filled up. Every night, once the shooting ends, Jamil closes the bullet holes with white cement. The walls are patchwork, and if you dare approach the window you can see that Jamil and Nora's home is surrounded by ruins on all sides.

Everybody escaped, only he remained because of having no money to take his family away from here. The bullets are whistling and Jamil makes for his family salad and omelettes and bakes pita bread on a traditional tabun oven. The bullets whistle and we are eating. With a good appetite. We bend down whenever the shooting seems to come closer. It is incredible what human beings can get used to, I think. A week ago, Jamil took up a big black marking pen and wrote on a piece of cardboard: "Soldiers, don't shoot please. There are sleeping children here". He wrote in big Hebrew letters, and Rachel Corrie had climbed on the building's outer wall to hang it. Now Rachel's face appears on a Palestinian martyr's poster which hangs on the living room window. Jamil smiles sadly and tells me and my chattering teeth and my clenched hands and my widely beating heart: "What can we do? When Allah decides our time has come to die, we die. It is all in Allah's hands." It does not reassure me.

A stranger among us

24 hours I had lived in the ruined and beleaguered city of Rafah. "Rafah Camp", as both inhabitants and internationals call it. Most of the time, the people which I met did not know I was Israeli. It is important to note this, because the words I heard and the conversations I conducted were not part of an Israeli-Palestinian pingpong. Nobody tried to accuse me, to convince me or to make me understand something which I did not understand before. As far as they were concerned, I was a European journalist. During these 24 hours I did things which could be described as taking a terrible, irresponsible risk, unfitting for a person my age. Still, I am glad I did it.

I feel now that I am not the same person which I was before entering Rafah. A person can grow considerably older in just 24 hours. Now I also understand better the fascination war has for many men. No other human experience, however ecstatic, can make so much adrenalin flow through your veins. But I was mostly concerned trying to understand how it is to live there for more than one day.

My trek had began in Tel-Aviv at 8.30 AM, with the nice friendly taxi driver Yehuda Gubali offering me water and a chewing gum as I got in. He was curious to know what I was looking for at the godforsaken Erez Checkpoint, on such a nice morning. I told him the truth: I was on my way to meet the ISM people. "Oh, I read in the paper about that girl who was killed, what's her name, and let me tell you the truth, I was glad she was killed. Who is that little busybody from America to come and interfere in our affairs? Standing on the bulldozer, really! no wonder she was run over. Let these people learn a lesson. Is this their country?" The sky was grey when I crossed alone the border crossing at Erez, after signing the Army Spokesman's document stating that I take full responsibility for my decision to cross and absolving the army from any responsibility for what may happen to me on the other side. I crossed past the last bunker, waved back to the soldiers, and stood near the rolls of barbed wire to wait for my Palestinian escort, Talal Abu Rahma.

Abu Rahma has taken the photo which symbolizes the current intifada more than any other: the death of the child Muhammad Al-Dura in the arms of his father, during the exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and armed Palestinians. Nowadays, Abu Rahma is a very busy man who lives in Gaza and works for foreign networks. He is my official guide, and the first thing he says is: "From this moment, not a single Hebrew word. Even the photographer must not know that you are Israeli. From this moment you are a French journalist". With these words in mind I get into a car heading for Rafah Camp, an hour and half drive from Gaza. We race along the broken Gaza coastal road, in the direction of Khan Yuneis and Rafah. "You see these hotels and restaurants? Once they were all merry, full of life. Now everything is neglected, broken, abandoned." At the "Abu Huly" checkpoint, near the Gush Katif Israeli settlements, we stop.

We wait for the soldiers' permission to proceed. Abu Rahame is an intensive person, i.e. nervous. He lights one cigarette with another. This IDF checkpoint must not be crossed by a car with less than three persons in. On both sides there are children waiting at the roadside. They take one shekel from drivers who take them in their car to fill up the required number, then on the other side they get another shekel from another driver to go the other way. This is their way of of surviving this collapsed economy.

We wait. "Sometimes you have to wait here for three days. Depends on the situation." But this time, we get the permission after half an hour. We go through a beautiful, neglected road, lined by ancient eucalyptus trees. And then we are at Rafah Camp. A big, ruined place. You can hardly call this place, with 140,000 people, a city. Palestinians are unanimous that it is "the poorest, most miserable, most damaged place of all: 250 inhabitants killed in the Intifada, more than 400 houses destroyed. Half of those killed were children."

When I enter the apartment used by "The Internationals" I start feeling that here, especially, I should not identify myself as Israeli. Israeliness, for these young people, represents the worst evil they know: demolition of homes, brutal killings, bulldozers, shooting, tanks, humiliations, hunger and poverty. The young people in the room are not quick to communicate with the French journalist which they think they are meeting. They are tired of the media, they have not yet completely come to terms with the death of their friend, they are not eager to answer questions and they don't particularly care that I have only two hours. I watch the nervously tapping foot of my escort. "Come back for me tomorrow" I suddenly ask him. After a short debate, in which I promise to take very much care of myself, he bids me goodbye with a disapproving look on his face. Joe Smith, the only member of the groups really willing to talk to me, offers to go together to the internet cafe a few steps away, and on the way he tells me how he had come to join the ISM.

Seeping fear

Smith is a 21-year old guy from Kansas City. While in high school he read a book about peace activists and became enthusiastic with the idea. In a political science course he met with Prof. Steve Naber, read Marx and realized his status as a white male, with privileges at the top of the pyramid.

He went to Slovakia, joined anti-globalisation groups and decided that what he most wants to do with his life is to devote it to the weak, to those who don't have the privileges he has. Especially he wants to challenge the dictatorship of the strong which is enforced by his own government, which is how he got to the Rafah group. While talking we get to the internet cafe in the city center, where I meet Muhammad who does not want to tell the French journalist his full name "because there is very much trouble around here", but who insists that I sit by him and read from the screen his online diary and look at the photos he had placed at http://www.rafah.vze.com.

Muhammad is 18, he has a delicate face and studies English in the university. I decide to gamble and suggest to him to be my interpreter and escort in Rafah. I leave Joe behind the computer and walk with Muhammad through Salah A-Dn Street, Rafah's main street. I notice a bit of discomfort in Muhammad's look and ask him what is the matter. "You better buy a keffiya and cover your hair. That way, you will be less conspicuous, and people will feel that you identify with their suffering. I immediately take his advice. We stop at the first stall, buy a keffiya, stop a taxi, haggle a bit and agree upon 50 shekels for half an hour an d start going around the city. Already on the first moment he asks if I am the foreign journalist who had come to visit the internationals. Rumors spread swiftly here. The driver tells me that it was him who had taken Rachel Corrie to her death on that fateful morning.

The first site Muhammad chooses to show me is at Block G on the northern edge of the city, where 400 houses had been destroyed. As we come near, inhabitants living in tents warn us not to come close to the tanks with their guns directed at us.

"When they see something moving they shoot," a woman on a donkey warns Muhammad.

The rest of the way we do half crawling among the ruins, through the narrow alleys, careful not to raise our heads. The tanks are some 200 metres away, their guns at the ready. It is important to Muhammad to show me the site of the mass house demolition. He had photographed house after house and entered the houses into his internet site, which is daily visited by 900 people from all over the world.

Row after row of destroyed houses, with personal belongings scattered and strewn around. Dolls, furniture, bicyles, books. We crawl through the alleys to avoid the threatening guns of tanks. "They can shoot at any moment, just at any suspicious movement" he says and leads further in. The fear comes crawling up my feet and legs. Finally, when we come closer and closer to the tanks and the ruins become deeper and deeper, I raise my voice: "Enough!" Muhammad yields to the French journalist, and we get into the taxi and move on.

The next destination is the al-Ubur Airfield which had been destroyed by F-16 airplanes, then the ruined house beside which Rachel Corrie was killed, then a small hospital whose two ambulances are running around constantly. Most things we watch from a distance of no less than 100 metres "since shooting can start at any moment." After two hours I insist on calling a halt. We enter a small restaurant and order large pita bread with humous, tehina and coca cola, all for four and a half shekels [About one dollar, less than half the Tel-Aviv price].

"Where do you live?" I ask. "I moved with my parents to a different house. Two months ago they destroyed our home. I came from the university and found everything ruined. The computer, the books, the notebooks, my study materials. Nothing was left. They came and destroyed everything at a moment's notice, did not give any chance of taking things out. We were just thrown into the street. Me, my father, my mother, my three brothers, my grandfather. And believe me" he says to the French journalist "they had no reason. We are just an ordinary family, not involved in anything. They just destroyed our life in one hour". I look at Muhammad talking. Only now, after I saw the 400 destroyed houses, do I really understand his grief.

Muhammad leads me back to the internationals' flat just as they are about to go pay a coalescence visit to the familes of people killed on the same day as Rachel. To my surprise, they don't object to my joining them. The seven of us squeeze ourselves into a single taxi, and we go the water tower at the edge of the city. One of the group's duties is to guard the water and electricity workers who repair the water pipes or electricity wires damaged in the shooting. While they do their work Joe, Laura, Alice and Gordon form a circle around them, to defend them from the soldiers' shots.

A faceless enemy In the bereaved families' houses, where I sat with the others on the floor, drank bitter coffee and ate dates, I hardly ever heard the word "Israelis". Even the word "soldiers" was only rarely used. What the Palestinians usually say is simply "they". This is not by chance. During the 30 hours that I lived there I never saw a flesh-and-blood Israeli soldier. From the Palestinian point of view the enemy has no face, no body, no human form. The enemy is hidden behind giant D-9 bulldozers, monsters as big as a house themselves, at whose top there are squares of opaque reinforced glass. The enemy is hidden behind bunkers, guard towers, metal tanks. The enemy has no face, no expressions which could be interpreted. The enemy is hidden behind tons of khaki-coloured steel. Massive steel, frightening, belching fire without warning. For the man in the street the enemy is virtual, sophisticated, unhuman, inaccesible.

And facing this enemy are the Palestinians I see waliking in the dirty streets. Many with torn cloths, some barefooted, neglected, manifestly poor. You can see the traces of sorrow, apprehension., suffering, inadequate food. At 45 they look old. They walk from one side of the city to the other, seeking some kind of a job. Men walk in groups, hither and fro. They have no jobs and nowhere to go. They live squeezed — men, women and children — in narrow houses and small pieces of land.

Alice, who prefers not to mention her family name, grew up in London. After highschool she studied computer programming, had a nice job and rented a good appartment. "I lived a bourgois life and I found that it leads nowhere. Going to an expensive restaurant with a new boyfriend, and on the way passing homeless people sleeping on the pavement. I started to be interested in how the strong exploit the weak, and for a time I went to work in a factory. Afterwards I became more and more political. I started to give an account to myself for everything I did, what did I eat, what entertainment did I enjoy, what does it mean to live in a capitalist society. I went to demonstrate in Prague and got arrested. I put my courage to the test, until I finally trained myself to come here. Here it is the most difficult. What is most interesting to me is to analyse the tactics of force used by the strong against the weak. Only here, when I help the Palestinians to face the Israelis, do I feel that my life has a meaning."

We walked for 20 minutes with the stormy march, then we moved aside and started shopping for the evening: preserved meat, noodles, rice, sugar, cookies and tea. The group is financed by contributions and lives as a commune. Every spent Shekel is carefully noted down Nowhere to escape At Six PM, a last team meeting ahead of the night. The small commune is conducted by strict rules. Every morning at 8.30 they meet at the appartment after having spent the night at threatened Palestinians homes. They discuss the experiences of the past night, hear from Palestinian friends on developments on the ground, and divide tasks for the coming day. They stand as human shields at electricity installations and water wells, collect testimonies, and take footage on small video cameras. They face the hostile lumps of steel with their megaphones and try to establish dialogue with the soldiers inside.

These seven people are taking up an enormous load in this chaos. But who is to take care of these young people themselves, who sleep two hours per night and had not yet time to come to terms with having intimately witnessed Rachel's death?

They spare themselves nothing. They had insisted on wiping the blood from Rachel's face, touching her broken back, taking the body to the morgue with their own hands, wrap it with shrouds, and accomapny it in the ambulance to Tel-Aiv, sharply debating with the soldiers who stopped them for hot hours at the checkpoint despite the fumes which started to arise from the body.

The mother role is played by Carol Moskovitz, who joined the group with her husband Gordon a week ago. Carol is 61 and Gordon seems a bit younger. They are artists, they live in Canada, and have been travelling the world for the past three months. When they heard of what happened to Rachel they decided to cut their trip short and come to offer their help. Since Sunday, they act like parents to the younger members of the group: preparing tea, asking questions, trying to address the shock and disbelief which Rachel left behind.

Carol and Gordon have three daughters in Canada. An hour ago Carol got a phone call from her eldest, 30 years old, with warm greetings for Mother's Day. Carol and Gordon conceal from their daughters the fact that they are in Rafah Camp. They don't want to make their children and grandchildren worry.

It was at 7.30 that I went with Laura and Joe to stay the night in the house of Muhammad Jamil Kushta, the first house fronting the IDF position on the Egyptian border, an ill-fated house. There, in Jamil's house under the ceaseless shooting, guns, missilies, rockets and only the devil knows what else, for four consecutive hours, truly feeling that these might be my last moments, I gambled and revealed my identtity as an Israeli from Tel Aviv. Then I said that my own sons might be among the soldiers shooting at us, not knowing that I was there in the house they were shooting at, or it might be one of my sons' friends who had visited my home.

And that was the moment we started to look at each other and laugh. Three babies, two Americans, a Palestinian couple and an Israeli woman all sitting around a big bowl of salad, with bullets whistling through the air, we started to laugh. A laughter of despair, of apprehension, of relief at the human closeness which we suddenly found. I knew that with some luck I would get through the night and run for my life, but Jamil and Nora had no escape, that they were doomed to raise their three babies under live fire. And then Laura opened her mouth to reveal that she was Jewish too, and rather an observant Jewess too. And it turned out that the fiery Alice, the group's "Jeanne d'Arc", the Israel-hater, was Jewish too. "And the soldiers" said Jamil "they too are just 20-year old children who have to stand out there, alone in the dark, shaking, within the cold steel".

We all agreed: life is short and human beings are silly creatures.

A large explosion in Rafah, and many tanks and bulldozers starting an attack at the Hay Al Salaam area of Rafah, lots of shells exploding.

On Saturday, about 8 tanks and 2 bulldozers attacked Rafah.
Many people were injured, one person was arrested.



This night, more than 10 tanks and 3 bulldozers attacked Hay Al Salaam in Rafah, and many people were injured, 5 houses were demolished, and another 3 houses were partially demolished; 5 people were arrested, and until now there is massive shooting and shelling in Rafah.

Last night, the IDF demolished 7 houses in AL Shaeer street and 3 people were injured, one arrested, and more than 500 (HUNDREDS) of olives trees were completely demolished.

Massive shooting and shelling by 3 Israeli helicopters.

A group of international people tried to stop the Israeli bulldozers, the Israeli soldiers commanded them to leave, and were shooting towards them.

During this week, the IDF demolished about 20 houses, a mosque in Rafah camp, as well as agricultural plots. One of the people who lived there was killed, and another 12 were injured, 2 of them are in danger.