Monday, July 31, 2006

Israel's secret war: Gaza

Don't forget Gaza and the West Bank. As horrible as what is happening in Lebanon right now is, a similar scene unfolds in Gaza, only in slow motion.

Israel's secret war: The Humanitarian Disaster Unfolding in Palestine

Anne Penketh, Independent, 7/29/06

A 12-year-old boy dead on a stretcher. A mother in shock and disbelief after her son was shot dead for standing on their roof. A phone rings and a voice in broken Arabic orders residents to abandon their home on pain of death.

Those are snapshots of a day in Gaza where Israel is waging a hidden war, as the world looks the other way, focusing on Lebanon.It is a war of containment and control that has turned the besieged Strip into a prison with no way in or out, and no protection from a fearsome battery of drones, precision missiles, tank shells and artillery rounds.

As of last night, 29 people had been killed in the most concentrated 48 hours of violence since an Israeli soldier was abducted by Palestinian militants just more than a month ago.The operation is codenamed "Samson's Pillars", a collective punishment of the 1.4 million Gazans, subjecting them to a Lebanese-style offensive that has targeted the civilian infrastructure by destroying water mains, the main power station and bridges.

The similarities with Israel's blitz on Lebanon are striking, raising suspicions that the Gaza offensive has been the testing ground for the military strategy now unfolding on the second front in the north. (MORE)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home