24 hours after Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni's visit to Cairo

Barhoum: The IOF air raids mass execution of Gaza inhabitants

[ 27/12/2008 - 02:41 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Hamas on Saturday charged that the Israeli occupation forces' carnage in the Gaza Strip was made with the green light of regional parties and constituted a mass execution of the Gaza people.

Barhoum, in a statement, pointed out that the raids came 24 hours after Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni's visit to Cairo where it met with the Egyptian president and senior officials then talked in a press conference about toppling Hamas's rule in Gaza.

He said that such a massacre was possible thanks to Arab silence, European collusion and American support for Israeli occupation.

"This bloody day was never witnessed before in the Gaza Strip", Barhoum underlined, adding that 150 martyrs fell in less than half an hour while 200 others were injured.

He finally asked the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, to strongly retaliate to the IOF aggression and to use all means available to defend the Palestinian people.

Jihad: Official Arab silence toward aggression unjustified

[ 27/12/2008 - 02:26 PM ]




GAZA, (PIC)-- The Islamic Jihad Movement on Saturday lashed out at the official Arab silence vis-à-vis the Israeli occupation forces' crimes in the Gaza Strip, describing it as "unjustified".

The movement in a statement said that killing innocents and declaring war in such a manner and voicing threats from the heart of an Arab country against the Palestinian people should not pass unnoticed.

The "Israeli enemy" has launched a "rabid" war on the Palestinians killing dozens with the collusion of many parties with the aim of exterminating resistance, Jihad charged.

It asserted that resistance would not stop in face of those crimes but would rather escalate, and added that scenes of murder and devastation "would not lead us to despair even if we remained alone in the battle".

Islamic Jihad asked the Arab and Islamic masses to hit the streets in support of the Palestinian people and resistance.

The rains of death in Gaza

We woke up this morning to the news in Gaza. It seems we always wake up to news there- so its become a matter of perspective how bad the news is each time; how remote it seems each time; how real or not; how severe-and whether the severity warrants an "international outcry" or whether the animals can continue to fester in their cages for a while longer.

We received a call from my in-laws in Lebanon at an early hour, checking in on my family in Gaza, since they cannot call them directly. We call my parents. My father does not answer. We call his mobile- we reach him. He has just returned from Shifa hospital- we hold our breaths.

"We are OK. We went to donate blood and to see if they needed any help" says my father, a retired surgeon.

"We were in the souk when the strikes began- I saw the missiles falling and prayed; the earth shook; the smoke rose; the ambulances screamed" he said, the sirens audible in the background.

My parents live in the the city center, and the Israeli war planes attacked people and locations all around their house, walking distance in fact. Over 50 "targets"by 60 warplanes. And nearly 200 Palestinians. Like a game, if you say it enough times, it does not sound real anymore. 50 targets, 60 warplanes, 200 people. Very sanitary.

"There is a funeral passing every minute. The bodies are piling up." Gaza's air is satured with the acrid smell of burning human flesh. There is panic, as one would imagine dogs would panic in an overcrowded sell when several of their own are violently, abruptly killed. But that would create an outcry.

The rains of death continue in Gaza.

And it will all seem, in the end of the day, that they are somehow a response to rocket attacks. As though the situation were not only acceptable- but normal, in the absence of such attacks. The warden improves the living conditions now and then, in varying degrees of relatively, but the prison doors remain sealed. And so when there are 20 hours of power outages in a row, the prisoners wish that they were only 8; or 10; and dream of the days of 4.