Posted on 06/20/2024 8:20:37 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie
It began without warning. “Planes were bombing. Tanks were firing. Quadcopter drones were shooting. People were running and screaming. It felt like Judgment Day, as if we were living our last moments.”
This was the scene at around 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 8 in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. Aerial bombardment, as described by a journalist in the camp who preferred to remain anonymous, was accompanied by the entry of dozens of Israeli military and police special forces personnel who emerged from aid trucks. “We couldn’t understand what was happening,” the journalist added.
As later became clear, a major Israeli military operation was underway to retrieve four hostages whom Hamas had kidnapped from the Nova music festival almost exactly eight months prior. In doing so, Israeli forces unleashed devastation on Nuseirat camp, killing at least 276 Palestinians and wounding approximately 700 more.
“The intensity of the bombing felt like an earthquake,” Enas Al-Louh, a 45-year-old from Gaza City who had sought refuge in the camp, recounted. “I thought my life would end right there. I was screaming at my children not to leave my side so that we could die together. For more than an hour, we lived through the horror of nonstop bombing and shelling.”
For Amjad Al-Majdalawi, a 40-year-old who had been staying in Nuseirat camp with his family since the start of the war, the sound of explosions and people screaming in the market jolted him into a state of panic. “My mind stopped, and I ran to check on my family,” he told +972. “While running, I saw the martyrs and the wounded lying on the ground, and the survivors begging for help.
“I arrived home to find my children and my family screaming in fear,” he continued. “We tried to find some relief from the shock of the event, but it continued to become more and more violent. The occupation deceived the camp through the state of calm in which we lived for several days [prior to the operation], without hearing the sound of reconnaissance planes. Then came the attack, with such brutality. Everyone in the camp lost someone from their family.”
‘We are cheap blood in this hypocritical world’
As hundreds of wounded Palestinians began arriving at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, the Israeli army called the hospital staff and ordered them to evacuate, threatening to bomb the hospital. Staff passed on the warning to those it could, but most were too desperate to pay heed. The attack didn’t materialize, and it appears that the threat was intended to sow further chaos and confusion as Israel’s operation unfolded.
“All the photographers and journalists chose to stay,” the journalist recounted. “By covering the events inside the hospital — which continued to receive countless numbers of injured patients — we fulfilled our work. We didn’t care about the evacuation order, because what we experienced was more terrible than any other thought or feeling. The crying of mothers and children was so intense.”
Khalil Al-Dakran, the hospital’s spokesperson, told +972 that most of the wounded who arrived that day were women and children. But due to the Israeli army’s continuous attacks on central Gaza in the previous weeks, he explained, the hospital was unable to receive such large numbers.
“We treated the injured on the floor of the corridors and outside in the tents, because there were no empty beds to receive the wounded,” Al-Dakran continued. “They arrived in ambulances, civilian cars, and animal-drawn vehicles.” The situation was so dire that the hospital was forced to send patients to Al-Awda Maternity Hospital, which was closer to the massacre in Nuseirat, despite it being ill-equipped to accommodate patients with severe injuries.
Al-Aqsa’s dwindling resources further limited the hospital’s ability to admit the influx of patients. “Some medical delegations come to Gaza with supplies that can help our patients, but the Israeli army confiscates these and prevents them from entering Gaza,” Al-Dakran explained. “It inhibits the entry of fuel and medical equipment into hospitals and keeps the wounded from seeking life-saving treatment abroad.”
The Nuseirat operation marked only the third time since October 7 that Israeli forces have freed hostages alive. The second, on Feb. 12, also came at a high cost to Palestinian lives, killing at least 74 in Rafah’s Shaboura refugee camp in order to create a “diversion.”
Al-Louh is still struggling to make sense of what he witnessed. “How is it reasonable to kill over 200 people for the sake of four? We are cheap blood in this hypocritical world that does not know the meaning of humanity, does not speak about the hundreds of martyrs and wounded, and does not express its anger at this massacre.”
Israel is becoming a bit excessive. Horrors stacked upon horrors only makes things worse. Where does it end? In extermination camps? Kill every single person in Gaza? Why not use a neutron bomb? poison the water? Use poison gas? Or the tried and true put all to the sword? The bad thing—what does this do to the Israelis? What does it do to those who do the killings? Do the Jews wish to become Nazis? There must be another way.
Take all Hamas reports of Palestinian casualties, divide by 10 or 20 and you may have a number that approaches reality.
“There must be another way.”
And the other way is what?
Keep Hamas in power so they can continue terrorizing you?
What would you do if your neighbor wants you gone was constantly lobbying molotov cocktails at your house and the cops were no where to be found, or incapable of making them stop?
Let me please add that the Israelis are a peaceful people unless attacked. Palestinians are not fit to be called “Human Beings”
It gets harder and harder to put up with nitwits like the author...
There are no Palestinians. Palestine was a term coined by the ancient Romans to resemble the names of the even more ancient (and extinct) Philistines to show the Jews who were in charge.
There right, why kill 200 for the sake of 4? They should have killed 2000 for each hostage.
Satan could never marry Reason, though he has tried to court that wily old girl many times. So he has to settle for the prostitute that we call...Reasonableness!
How many Japanese died for their attack on Pearl Harbor?
Two to three million.
Take hostages, get dead.
How reasonable? In terms of simple math? Or in terms of Humanity?
“There must be another way.”
Name it.
Or pound sand.
Who are they?
"Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a US-based grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros."
If they are “my” four, and ‘your’ 200….I would make that trade any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
In hindsight, does anyone thing that the four would have been “released” without bloodshed? Nope.
Killing 200 terrorists/supporters to save 4 kidnapped innocents seems a good deal all around.
Why the dumb question?
Kill ‘em all and let God sort it out.
It IS reasonable to kill and destroy until you win a war against the aggressor who started the war. If the aggressor is “tired” of war, they should surrender completely. Otherwise...game on.
I don’t think you’re looking ahead. For years the moral dilemma has raged on about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 200,000 innocent civilians died yet reasonable people. agree that had the US not ended the war with those atomic bombs 30 million more people could have died. Including US soldiers.
Looking at the big picture these 200 lives might just save 2000 or even 20,000 innocent lives later on.
In any event, blaming Israelf as being excessive as you claim is completely, utterly, and extremely foolish. This is all on Hamas.
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