Fares Akram: People are fleeing the north on donkey carts

[bemildred]

When we woke up yesterday morning there were people on the streets for the first time in days. Whole families, girls, women, fathers, children. They appeared to be coming from the north of the Gaza Strip, fleeing their homes. The majority were walking, some were on donkey carts. There were a few cars and trucks but each had up to 10 people crushed inside. They were carrying their belongings, such things as mattresses and bed covers. My grandfather who lives with us, watched for a while and said: "This is exactly like the immigration of Palestinians into Gaza in 1948".

Overnight there were more air strikes, heavy-artillery shelling and the tanks have been coming deeper into Gaza. So you can't blame people for seeking safety.

Alaa, my wife, nine months pregnant, is nervously hanging on and I'm thanking God she hasn't gone into labour yet. Medical check-ups are out of the question as most of the clinics are closed. When she's born, we'll call my daughter Somaya. But, the later the better. I don't want our first baby arriving in these conditions. The thing is I'm afraid this will be a long conflict and every day will be worse than the last.

We're still coming to terms with the death of my father, killed by an Israeli air strike on Saturday as the ground war began. When you're in shock you don't really feel much pain. But when you stay in the house, looking at your father's things, recalling the last conversations you had with him, it is sad beyond belief. I know I'm in the same situation as many, many families in Gaza.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fares-akram-people-are-fleeing-the-north-on-donkey-carts-1228139.html

[Fozzledick]

1. The last paragraph puts it all in persepective

And the overwhelming feeling I get is that ordinary people who find themselves locked in this conflict are angry with Hamas. Hamas is supposed to be the government; they have been provoking the Israelis with their rockets and putting people at risk, yet now their leaders have vanished from sight leaving no plans to provide food, medicines or any kind of security for us. Of course Hamas still has its supporters whose minds will never be changed. But more and more, that is what I'm hearing. The senior commanders of Hamas have gone underground and left their people behind.

[bemildred]

2. Israelis, sipping Pepsi, watch bombardment of Gaza town

SDEROT, Israel — A tower of white smoke rose from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun after another Israeli bombardment Monday morning, and a half-dozen Israelis, perched on a dusty hilltop, gazed at the scene like armchair military strategists.

Avi Pilchick took a long swig of Pepsi and propped a foot on the plastic patio chair he'd carried up the hillside to watch the fighting. "They are doing good," Pilchick, 20, said of Israeli forces battling Palestinian militants in Gaza, "but they can do more."

Somewhere in Beit Hanoun, Ashraf El-Masri's family cowered in their concrete tenement home, their neighborhood surrounded by Israeli soldiers. El-Masri said that five residents had been killed by Israeli shelling that morning, and the blasts had traumatized the youngest of his nine children into a terrified silence.

The scenes were separated by less than two miles, but they illustrated the dramatically different perspectives on Israel's ground incursion into the Gaza Strip on its second full day.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/59013.html

[ProgressiveMuslim]

3. Are you trying to make me blow an aneurysm?

[bemildred]

5. Not a bit.

Merely trying to elucidate the dramatic tension in the situation.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

7. I know.

It's been a tough day.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

4. You know what's being reported on the arab press? Repeats of Deir Yassein.

Men from multiple families being herded into one home, and the slaughtered, with the message to women and kids: go! Tell others!

I'm looking for English links.

[bemildred]

6. We'll see. In the end it's all going to be on TV.

Meanwhile there is a great deal of noise.

[Kurska]

8. I bet it won't

Because I doubt it's happening. It's not the first time outright lies have been told in the conflict.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

12. Are you for real? You "don't think it's happening?"

I guess. There are people who deny all sorts of things, so I guess I should be shocked.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

9. What's interesting is the talk in the Arab world about the difference live feed makes.

This is a population who really never learned about pre-48 history. Now they are seeing images that are shockingly similar to stories they've all heard and people are truly on fire.

[bemildred]

10. Yes, that's part of the foolishness of it.

There are other aspects of it too. I think the die have been cast now, the landslide has started, and the pebbles no longer have a vote, to quote a former denizen of this forum. I think urban warfare is what Hamas has been angling for all along, and apparently the IDF intends to pick up the gauntlet, so now there is nothing to do but watch it play out. As I said, it's not going to be pretty, already quite clear, but the political consequences largely remain to be seen.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

11. I don't think it's foolish to draw the clear connections between events of large-scale

violence.

How it play sout remains to be seen.

[bemildred]

13. I meant the foolishness of invading Gaza.

Here, maybe you missed this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=228696&mesg_id=231181

The main issue at this point, other than the carnage, damage, and wastage, is whether Hamas gives a good account of itself in urban combat, assuming the IDF decides to duke it out.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

14. Gotcha. And I did miss that... thanks for linking it.

Hard to keep up sometimes!!

[bemildred]

15. Yes, a lot of noise ... nt