Operation Cast Lead: An Eyewitness Account

Small wonder the growing loathing of Israelis and those who support them. I do not believe that people who perpetrate such evil will not be punished for it. It’s only a matter of time.

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By Published: December 8, 2009

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The following is a copy of an exchange between myself and a Palestinian male named Abdallah who is currently living in the Gaza Strip. This is a personal account filled with very raw and emotional accounts, and due to these facts the interview was conducted over a 4 day period.

I began the conversation by asking typical questions concerning logistics; Abdallah is from a small village in Gaza known as Dair Al Balah which has a population of around 62,000 men ,women and children.

I must say,before you continue on to the interview, that this was a very stirring dialogue and there were moments where breaks were taken in order for Abdallah to compose himself so we could continue the interview. This was not just a war, but a massacre and it is still fresh on the minds of not only Gazan’s but all Palestinians.

The following is a PoliticalTheatrics exclusive not found anywhere else but here. If you wish to use this interview elsewhere please contact me.

Q: Where were you when the first set of attacks on the Gaza Strip happened?
A: I was on my way back from teaching at school.

Abdallah is technology teacher at a school in the Gaza Strip.

Q: What happened which led you to believe that there was a war?
A: Helicopters were in the sky and they were bombing everywhere, that’s how we first knew it was war. People started to run in the streets. Kids shouting. Women crying. Many fell down in the streets and cars exploded. It was like a nightmare.

Q: You said you were coming from school,tell me about what occurred thereon:
A:While I was walking back from school it looks like they had been bombing everywhere so I took another way home. And while I was walking I saw Apache helicopters in the sky and I saw the rockets shining out of them.
All the way home they were bombing most of the villages in the Gaza Strip; they wanted to hit us like a stroke, all the places at the same time. There were two to four helicopters for every village in Gaza and sometimes more.
Q: What transpired once you arrived home?
A: When I got home I found all my sisters crying so hard. Our windows were broken and the telephone service was down; the houses were shaking from the continuous bombing and then we started to see smoke everywhere. Then we heard that many guys from our neighborhood were dead. I asked my Mom to sit down and hold my sisters and then I went to the local hospital to see who was killed.

The sky on the outside of the hospital looked almost black, it was like a earthquake hit the place.

At the hospital I saw that many were injured and killed, the beds in the hospital were not enough and many were on the floor. Some of the injured and killed were in pieces, no-one recognized them and until now some are missing because they couldn’t find their bodies.
Q: Can you give me an overview of what Israel did once the war began?
A: They began to hack into our phone networks and spy on our conversations, and they attacked our radio waves saying that they will hit every house that had a fighter in it.
Then they cut off our cooking gas. We didn’t have cooking gas so we can cook with; the gas was cut after two weeks and so we had to start fires with cardboard and wood.We had to cook on primitive tools which cause much smoke and was not healthy.
They Israeli’s have planes without pilot , like spying planes (drones) , which kept flying in the sky , and the planes had rockets which hit all the time and the sound of it was so strong and so scary we kept hearing explosions the whole day.
My little sisters were so scared that they didn’t even want to go to the bathroom by themselves. We couldn’t go to school or the market and smoke was always everywhere. Hospitals were filled with dead and injured.

Israel literally wiped out entire houses and families and made sure to hit over crowded areas.
Q: What was happening to your parents (etc) and how were they reacting to the situation?
A: My mom was crying everyday and my dad was so worried. We spent many nights in total darkness because there was no electricity, and we couldn’t find anything to give light. Imagine it being night-time and being in the dark, hearing the sounds of F16’s and bombs – it’s really scary.
When there was anyone who was sick we couldn’t go to the hospital anymore or the pharmacy and everyday we would wake up to either the sounds of planes or bombing.

Q: Did you go outside during the bombing at all? If so,what did you see?
A: Yes,I had to sometimes so I can bring food for my family or to check on people from my family who lived away from us.
There were people who were sleeping in the streets because they didn’t have a home anymore from the bombing.
I remember once seeing more than 5 helicopters in the sky,smoke everywhere – crying mothers calling out for their kids, wives without husbands, kids without parents. It was really horrible.
Q: How did you get your food during the bombardment?
A: We could hardly reach the markets so we had to depend on whatever we had left in the house,mostly simple food like beans and bread.
We tried to share food with other families,as much as possible. But food wasn’t available in amounts that allowed us to do it frequently.
Q: What did you all do in terms of water?
A: We only got to use water for important matters and didn’t shower as we would for normal days. There was not as much water because the pipes were being broken during the bombing.
Q: How did your community act? Was there a sense of unity?
A: Yes of course. We shared what we had,cooked together sometimes using the same resources.
When a house was hit some of us went to schools with them and sometimes more than 20 people had to sleep in one classroom. In all of this there was a big problem and it was movement within the strip. Everyone else slept together in the streets.
Israel cut Gaza into three parts: The North,The Middle and The South.
No one could move from the North to the South etc
Q: How did you know that the war was over? What did you do once it was over?
A: We tried to follow the news and the radio,then we heard the bombs stopped.
After it was over we were shocked, it was the hardest time we ever had. Imagine sleeping and waking up to death and bombs everyday. The Israeli’s used many strong weapons and to be honest it was a war from one side.
We went to visit each others houses afterwards only to see destroyed houses, then we went to check on the rest of the destroyed villages.
Q: What did this war teach you?
A: It taught me that this world is so damn blind and so unfair. That,the life of a Palestinian is not equal to an Israeli in the West and that there is a lack of human rights in this world. That Israel has blind support from the West, especially the USA and UK. And that Israel will never respect us , or recognize our rights.
The democracy that America supports in Middle East , is bullshit.
They are criminals, they are the real terrorists,they scared every human in Gaza even kids.
Israel will never recognize our rights and the last war was the biggest proof. Before,they didn’t like Yasser Arafat so they kidnapped him and poisoned him, and now they are against Hamas.
I believe Israel is against every Palestinian who calls for his rights,who wants to fight back and never give up.
They made our life like hell but it gave us strength.
Because Israel, after using all this power, can never make us give up.

Q: What would you like people to know about the war (i.e. Operation Cast Lead)?

A: I want them to know that it was so unfair; Israel used very huge weapons and bombs while we didn’t ever threaten their lives. The Palestinian rockets were not big ,they haven’t killed more than 20 Israeli’s in the last 9 years , while one Israeli rocket (weighing tons) ends up killing hundreds all at once.

We didn’t choose to start the war but the Israeli’s continue their siege on Gaza and their unfair attacks. Israel has made every single soul in Gaza suffer , its a lie that they attack only the armed persons.

They destroyed many families , for example , they killed more than 30 persons of the Sammoni family. They killed parents and kids , and left no one.

This was a war from one side – the Palestinians don’t have free borders or an army,they are freedom fighters.

We don’t choose to fight , but we have to. All the resistance parties are working hard to get back our rights and our freedom

We are freedom fighters not terrorists.