Mounting Crimes and Mounting Anger

Organized Mass Slaughter

International Human Rights organizations have been pressing for an inquiry into one of the gravest war crimes to have taken place since the onset of the attack.

On January 4th the Israeli army corralled nearly 110 Palestinians – half of them children - into a building on the outskirts of Gaza City. They were told to stay inside or risk their safety as the Israeli ground war intensified.

They did stay inside, probably hoping that they had found some safe place to wait out the war. Twenty-four hours later the home was struck by a number of artillery shells killing thirty people - further three young children died upon arrival to the hospital.

The Samouni family survivors - who bore the brunt of the attack losing thirty members –spoke about the aftermath. “I could feel the blood dripping inside my head. My father was crawling — he couldn’t move his legs” -Ahmed al-Samouni, 16.

He remembers laying in the wreckage while his cousin Abdallah, 10, was trying to stand up but kept falling down; his brother Yaqoub, 12, kept removing large pieces of shrapnel from his own stomach; and his sister Amal, 9, was not moving at all. Another brother, Ishaq, 12, was wounded in the legs. He bled for two days before he died according to the Red Cross.

The IDF refused entry to the blast site by aid workers for a number of days. When they finally arrived they found four emaciate children huddled around their dead mothers.

Attacking Journalists

Last night a third journalist was killed after a wave of attacks on news offices and the homes of reporters.

An Israeli tank fired upon the home of radio journalist Ala Mortaji in the Zaitoun district of Gaza City. He was killed in the attack and his mother suffered severe injuries resulting in the amputation of both of her arms.

On Friday afternoon Israeli air strikes slammed into the Jawwara building on the fringes of the Gaza Strip home to over 20 local and international media outlets and offices.

Journalists present do not believe that there were any fighters nearby and that this was merely another attempt to silence the media coverage of the ongoing assault. With no international press being allowed to cross into Gaza, those who are already inside, fear that they have become primary targets.

Attacks on Humanitarian Workers

The United Nations has had to pull out its entire foreign national staff after they bore the brunt of repeated Israeli attacks on their permanent positions and their rescue attempts. The attack on the UNRWA school – turned makeshift refuge – is only one such example.

On top of this crime – for which Israel has ‘no apologies’ – there have been a number of UN workers and ambulance drivers who have been targeted, injured or killed over the last 24 hours.