In Gaza: Mostly Phone Terror But Some Encouraging Calls

by Daoud Kuttab

My cousin Sami Awad’s uncle Emile Farah, his wife, three children and an aunt live in the Rimal neighborhood in the center of Gaza city. Thursday was a day of terror for them as well as the Awad’s in Bethlehem. A number of militants seem to have been trapped just outside the housing complex that the Farah’s live in. A four hour exchange took place leaving those living in the high rise building living in sheer terror as they were seeing their deaths with every shelling of their building.

Sami’s job was to call his relatives every five minutes. He told me that every time he talked with his uncle or relatives, the terrified relatives would say that this might be the last time that we talk to you. He told me that he knew they were trying to get away from the fire exchange and every time Sami dialed the phone number he was scared that no one would answer and he would be unsure whether they were killed or that they had escaped the shelling. This uneasiness continued from noon on Thursday till about four in the afternoon. After four terror filled hours (with children crying in the background of many calls) the shooting finally stopped as the militants appeared to have succeeded in escaping the entrapment they had found themselves in. Sami’s uncle who is a retired UN worker finally succeeded in getting a UN vehicle to take the family to the home of his in-laws in a different, not necessarily safer, part of Gaza. Continue Reading »

By Ilan Ziv and Daoud Kuttab

For over twenty years we have worked together documenting the struggle between our peoples with the goal of saving our humanity, with the belief in the sanctity of life and the power of the rule of law. If we have learned anything in our years of work on the ground in Palestine, Israel and around the world, it is that our two peoples are incapable of solving our conflict by ourselves. We have also come to the strong belief that the US acting in a biased fashion has failed to be the impartial and honest broker it has claimed it will be. Instead we truly believe that there is an international body ,yet to be established, that can save Israel, the Palestinians and indeed the region from this process of self destruction which has been spiraling out of control .
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