Posted on 07/13/2014 5:11:47 AM PDT by bert
Amid rising civilian death toll, parents in Gaza find it hard to comfort young as nightly airstrikes continue July 12, 2014 11:13AM ET by Mohammed Omer GAZA CITY — For Ala al-Jarwsha, his wife, and their two children, the most difficult moment of the day comes when night falls. Huddled together in the darkness, the parents struggle to comfort their children, who constantly ask about the loud explosions heard outside.
The family moves from one corner of their apartment to the next, as this is where they feel most safe. Other families living nearby sleep under their beds to try to protect themselves.
"It is a heated night, where we don't know who will be in the news. It could be all of us," the 31-year-old father told Al Jazeera, as his eldest child, three-year-old Mohammed, grabbed at his leg and didn't let go.
It is one hour after midnight, and no one is asleep in the family's home — not even Jarwsha's two children, Mohammed and Ahmed, aged one-and-a-half. This has been the case for the past five days, since Israel's military offensive on Gaza began.
"Dad, we are going to die," one of the children said.
The Jarwsha's home is just a few hundred meters from the house of a Hamas leader in Gaza, making the family more fearful than most that it may be hit by an Israeli bomb.
In the early morning hours on Friday, the house shook three separate times as a result of nearby explosions. "We only have the faith in [God] to protect us," Jarwsha said.
The Jarwshas' fears are widespread among many in Gaza. At least 124 Palestinians have been killed and 750 injured as the violence entered a fifth day on Saturday. According to the United Nations, Israel has fired more than 1,100 missiles and 100 tank shells, and carried out about 330 naval shellings.
The U.N. also reported that the destruction of residential buildings is the main cause of civilian casualties in the current violence engulfing Gaza: An estimated 342 housing units were destroyed as of midday on Thursday, forcing 2,000 Palestinians to seek refuge with relatives.
The Israeli government denies allegations that it is targeting civilians in Gaza, and insists that it is only going after members of Hamas. The Israeli military also inferred that civilian homes in Gaza serve "military purposes," and wrote on social media that its soldiers "target them for a reason."
"Israel targets Hamas terrorists and not innocent civilians," Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said on Tuesday. "Hamas … bears full responsibility for any harm that comes to Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike."
But the U.N. estimates that 77 percent of all deaths so far in Gaza have been civilian casualties. Navi Pillay, the U.N. human rights chief, expressed concern on Friday over the mounting civilian death toll.
"We have received deeply disturbing reports that many of the civilian casualties, including of children, occurred as a result of strikes on homes," Pillay said in a statement.
"Such reports raise serious doubt about whether the Israeli strikes have been in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law."
With electricity cuts usually lasting between 12-16 hours each day, families don't have access to much information about where the air strikes are taking place. The power outages also impact peoples' ability to share Ramadan meals, with many forced to eat whatever they can find, often in the dark.
"It is only [in the] daylight that we can live. I never liked nights during Israeli wars, whether we are being bombed by F16s or [Palestinian] rockets are fired from nearby, we are afraid, as the noise is too loud," Jarwsha said.
This has left families in Gaza spending each night fearing where and when the next air strike will hit. "Israeli shrapnel never discriminates," said Jarwsha, as his wife and children cried.
"For this reason, I never like the night. It [reminds] me of how vulnerable we are in this unprotected home."
They need to re-locate those Arabs back to their ancestral homeland of Saudi Arabia, where they’ll get the Muslim Hospitality for which Saudis are famous for.
There are hundreds of millions with no desire to kill me
All it takes is one.
I pray God puts his angels around the people of Israel.hold them in their arms and keep them safe from the savages..
Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on
Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.
I hope he does the same to the savages so they and others can learn a lesson and know God is still in charge..Lets all pray for the safety of all the people in ISRAEL..
Maybe they should try voting differently next time?
Then again, maybe America should too!
Sounds like it is the will of Allah.
No matter how much pressure Israel puts on the Islamic residents - they will not accept the fact that their own leaders and mindset that is trapped in 7th Century Arabia exposed them to this present danger."
Those muzzie child bombers blow up so quickly these days.
Boo hoo.
This is like all the stories about the Israeli families - especially the children - who live this fear every day - for months on end - over 700 missiles into Israel during the last week or so
Oh wait -
there ARE no stories about what the Israelis go through -
It's the 5% (tens of millions) who have an open stated desire to kill you, and the silence of the so-called sheeples you work with that enables them. These sheeples are the very muslims whose children are being targeted for recruitment into a death cult with a burning hatred of non muslim cultures.
Given your hundreds of millions of peaceful muslim friends, which peaceful tolerant muslim nation would you choose to openly live and work in - as an infidel?
“most” of the Germans weren't Nazi party members either, but they looked the other way in order to live in a nation of social “law and order”, a functioning economy, and under leadership bent on avenging past national political grievances
“The Jarwsha’s home is just a few hundred meters from the house of a Hamas leader in Gaza”
So go over there and put a bullet in him, or stab him, or run him over, or burn his house down, or something.
There are no civilians in Gaza.
The article fails to mention the reason for the counter attacks. I also see no concern for any of the Israeli civilians or children who were attacked which is the very reason the counter attacks were initiated in the first place,to keep them from being killed by Palestinian rockets.
“There are hundreds of millions with no desire to kill me” ... yet.
Those “hundreds of millions” are just either ignorant of the Prophet commandments, haven’t read the Hadiths and Sunnahs, are practicing taqiyya and so deceiving you, ignoring the 20% of the one billion plus muslims who tacitly or outright support jihad, or you are gullible as to believe Islam is some sort of Arab version of Christianity.
How many of your muslim coworkers go to one of the dozens of “training camps” here in the US on weekends?
Ask and you will find they are muslims first, Americans second, and would love it if the constitution was supplanted by Sharia Law. And 70% of muslims in America are Obama supporters - why do you suppose that is?.
Give Peace A Chance never worked and never will. You will note that the “Coexist” bumper sticker shows graphically all other religions submitting under the Islamic Crescent - the meaning of the Peace of Islam - submission.
They need to stop letting these cowardly thugs endanger their families. In the mean time this is war.
“Since the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the mid-1990s, the U.S. government has committed approximately $5 billion in bilateral assistance to the Palestinians,”
and they haven`t built ONE bomb shelter for kids or anybody??/ wow!
They want the whole country to be “martyred” so the world will cry.
They can build weapons supply tunnels miles long and deep but can`t build one bomb shelter -wow!!!
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS22967.pdf
It takes a little time, but they`ll get around to it eventually when you`re not lookin`.
How about asking one of those Arab Muslims who they send their Zakat (charity) to, then look it up on Google. Christians don’t believe in broadcasting their charity giving, but you can be pretty sure most tithes do not go to terrorist support groups.
Most Zakat is given to organizations which feed money to Hamas, Hezbollah, or a long list of CAIR approved organizations. The only thing I am sure of in my work in the Middle East, if CAIR approves of it, it is probably bad.
-——Sounds like it is the will of Allah.—
: )
You got it...... exactly
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