Gaza under attack...
Its 1am. Gaza city is under heavy aerial and sea bombardment, unlike anything the city has seen in recent years. As I write this, F-16 warplanes-not Apaches or tanks-are bombarding Gaza City, where I live, just a few roads away from my house. The entire house is shaking and the windows have cracked. The explosions are so powerful my ears are ringing...they are like sonic booms, but they are real, and they are terrorizing and causing panic. There are several casualities reported by local radio, but other than that we know little else....I'm going to take cover now.
Update: We passed through the night safely, and for now, the F-16 attacks have stopped. This morning, navy gunships (which can be seen off Gaza's coast) have been pounding Jabaliya and other areas of northern Gaza. Internally, the security situation has calmed down as well-after a bloody day of factional infighting, the gunmen are now off the streets (and Mr. Dahalan is far away from the accusations being thrown at him, in the U.A.E.). More on this matter later.
posted by Laila @ Saturday, April 01, 2006
43 Comments:
My God, Laila.
My prayers and with you and Yousuf.
TisbaHi 'ala kher
If you're a US citizen write your congressman now, please:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home
Copy and paste Laila's post and write that you do not want your tax dollars to fund this collective punishment of the people of Gaza City;
While you are writing your Congressman you can also write to Ismail Haniyeh, the new Palestinian prime minister. His e-mail address was in today's Guardian: ihaniyyeh@hotmail.com
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1743628,00.html
Tell him what you think of the gunbattle on Friday that erupted between Palestinian security forces and the militant Palestinian Resistance Committees and that killed three people and wounded 25 people.
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/31/mideast/
I'm sure this three hour gun battle in Gaza City must have also been quite annoying and kept you indoors under cover.
Laila, my simpathies..
My friend had a problem falling asleep recently, becouse he live close to rail road. I told him to put ear plugs! Boy was he happy! He sleeps like a baby.
Another good remedy; don't drink coffeine 6 hours before you get to bed.
Good Luck!
Laila, what a story...
I red it too...
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/31/mideast/index.html
I think they have a right to resist.
After all the more they shoot, the less bullets they have.
Meanwhile the best place to hide is underneath your bed. I hope you make is till tomorrow, please, I like your blog.
Laila,
Please stay safe and hold Yousuf extra tight. You will be in my thoughts.
KarenM in NC
my thoughts and prayers are with you, Laila- stay safe inshallah
be safe.
Salam.
Omar
alf salamah
rabena ma3aki
take care of yourself as well as Yusuf
I would wish you strength and courage, but you already have those...
My thoughts are with you, and all of the people of Palestine
irLaila, thanks God you are well!
It is sad that good people like you need to suffer all this violence. All those warlords like Dahlan fight each other and you guys suffer. Unfortunetely I think you are headed to civil war, like Iraq. It is unbelievable how innocent citizens like yourself are manipulated by those with power and money.
I hope Yusuf is doing well. Peace.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0604010046apr01,1,675995.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
You're in my du'a.
Keep us posted.
//Imaan
can i post?
So, will you be visiting the local casino? I hear it's rather beautiful. By the way, since it's not really reported in the international media, why don't you write more about the internal fighting and civil war going on in Gaza. You make a passing comment about here and there but don't really go into much depth. I'm sure there are many people who would really like to know what's going on with that.
Well, it's another day and the Palestinians are still shooting at each other. No wonder Laila and her child are frightened to go out.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060401/wl_nm/mideast_hamas_dc
You might want to ask the Islamic Jihad men in the neighborhood to find somewhere else to be. Like, say, the Tel Mond Prison. So long as any of them are in your neighborhood, Israel is fully justified in shelling it to bits.
"So long as any of them are in your neighborhood, Israel is fully justified in shelling it to bits."
I would also add that as long as fanatic Israeli colonizers ("settlers") are in the West Bank, Islamic Jihad is fully justified in shelling it to bits.
Make sense? Didn't think so.
Laila, I hope you and everyone around you makes it out of this round safe and sound. As an American Jew, I am disgraced by the IDF and their actions.
Peace.
S. Levine
Laila,
Allah Ma3ek & your family. Stay safe, my thoughts & prayers are with you.
H
Laila,
Allah Ma3ek & your family. Stay safe, my thoughts & prayers are with you.
H
Laila,
Allah Ma3ek & your family. Stay safe, my thoughts & prayers are with you.
H
Laila,
Allah Ma3ek & your family. Stay safe, my thoughts & prayers are with you.
H
S. Levine, if you really exist, you are a truly sick individual.
Laila, get them to stop launching rockets towards Israel, and presto, there will be no more rockets directed at the launch locations, lookout points, and those who direct the attacks.
Then you'll only have to deal with your fellow residents shooting at each other.
S. Levine, check your facts. When was there an Israeli settler movement to openly call for the death and destruction of Palestinians. Islamic Jihad has no right to viloence, they have a right to defence, just as Israel does.
Terror gets no one anywhere, stopped trying to justify it with unjustified reasoning and misquoting truths.
Gee ifyouwillit!! Ever heard of the kahane group or masada or any of the other groups in Israel dedicated to the forcable removal of all non-jewish groups out of Israel proper AND other land surrounding it. Seems just as some palestinians would like to push Israelis in to the sea some Israelis would love to push palestinians into the desert. These groups would love to have the whole world forget that palestinians exist and have any rights at all... In my opinion NO ONE should get away with killing anyone!! Not palestinians, Not Jews, NO ONE... And when someone does get killed the person responsible needs to be punished not the whole community as so often in the case of the palestinians and not justified as so often in the case of the Israeli army!! By the way Just how would you suggest Islamic Jihad or any other palestinian authority defend palestinians against bombs and airstrikes and property demolitions and land confiscation?? The same way Israelis do??? The whole land would be destroyed by now if it was even tit for tat. Lets face it if you still subscribe to the eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth as another person put it so nicely we'd all be blind and toothless. Someone has to be brave and stop the violence and it will have to be the one with the most ability to commit the violence and that is....
Exactly. I don't understand why you can't understand that the REASON you are being hit is because YOUR PEOPLE are sending missiles over into Israel and killing our citizens.
Why do you deliberately leave out that vital piece of information in your blog entries???? Could it be that you just want to garner sympathy by playing the victim?
I expected more of you when I came over here to visit. I was referred by an Israeli blogger who thought so highly of you. But it looks like the same old, same old.
Sigh. Stop killing us, and we will have no need to defend ourselves. Much about the Middle East is complicated, but this isn't one of those things.
Masada is also a new group (not the historic group.. god I'm not that stupid) you can get the link from the kahane site that is still running and thought quite highly of by some settlers!! The issue was about "settlers movements" that are similar to Islamic jehad and the like.. since the poster seemed to think there was no such thing.. not the general public of Israel... And I didn't say the Israelis wanted to push the palestinians into the sea "some would like to push them into the desert or even just wipe them out totally. I doubt thats the general consensis but who knows with some of the comments from some of the blogs I've seen maybe its a more popular idea than I would like to think. Even when the palestinians stop shooting into Israel it seems thats the time you get a rise in targeted killings that start the horrible cycle all over again. Frankly until some of you Israelis start realizing that you have contributed to the violence and taking responsibility for your own actions then how do you expect palestinians to do the same. You hold nearly all the cards and cry victim too... As to why the blog MIGHT seem unbalanced to you well your comments are unbalanced as well, you only see your own points of view and how the nasty palestinians disturb your peace and you don't stop to think that what your government has done has devastated several generations of palestinians.
I can understand both the points of view but until each side has the courage to see the other side as human and say "but for the grace of god go I" then you will continue to de-humanize your "enemies" and GOD HELP you both...
If we loved our children more than we hated Israelis then they could forgive us for forcing them to kill our children.
A Patchwork Quilt from Golda Meir
batyah girl,
have you ever wonder maybe just like u,the Palestinians are repeating the cycle of revenge?
a nation with f16 paid with my tax money should not begged sympathy by using terms like: they started first.
coz u know,u have plenty of blood in ur hands too.
Amazing that we dont hear a word about this here in the USA.
Does anyone here actually beleive any of the leaders in the middle east deserve a halo? Not any Israeli nor any Arab leader deserves such a thing. Horrible things have been done on both sides but since someone has brought up the fact that Israel refuses to be destroyed so I bring up the fact that palestinians have the right not to be destroyed either.. none of them asked for the first holocost refugees to show up on their doorstep either. Now Israel is a fact, palestine must become a fact in a way that makes no one happy. Palestinians have to give up the idea that they are going to be able to get everything back and the Israelis have to digest the fact that they can't keep squeezing palestinians into smaller and smaller areas and also keep discriminating against their resident arabs of various religious affiliations. Each side seems to forget that when you point a finger to blame that more fingers are pointing back at you!!! Each side has to examine what they are doing wrong and fix it and stop expecting the other side to do all the work first otherwise nothing gets done because Wrong is wrong and injustice is injustice no matter what the other side is doing!! Can no one find the moral high ground and actually stick to it? When I read some of the statements here thrown back and forth it reminds me of the primary school yard and it doesn't befit sane adult debate!!!!!!! How anyone on either side can justify ANY child being killed on the crimes of the adults around those children is beyond me!! I was totally shocked by someone suggesting that the school girl shot in the field by border IDF was anyones fault other than the soldier who shot her for not taking a better look at what he was shooting at. This is so totally unacceptable it is unbeleiveable that people on both sides of the fence didn't demand explainations. The same goes when home made missles drop on homes and kill youngsters even in settlements, lets face it THEY didn't ask to be there in the first place. Adults make the mistakes and the children are always the ones to pay the price and their injuries and deaths are used for more and more mistakes!! Shame on the world for allowing the environments where these things can happen.
batyahgirl,
I just love how brainwashed you are.Maybe in Israel,they taught you that Palestine never exists, but in Bible we learned Palestine once was Phillistine.750 000 Arabs, Muslims and Christians were chased out of their land in 1948 becoz you have this premise that Jews need a state becoz duh,everybody hates you.Remember when Britian wanted to build Israel,the only Jewish cabinet minister rejected the idea becoz he found it to be RACIST .How could you tell the Jew that they need to get out of Europe becoz well,nobody wanted you in Europe?
I never hated the Jew but just assholes Israelis like you.
Sure,Christians are persecuted in Arab world.Tell me then if the Muslims are not treated like craps by Christians in Europe?THe Greek Orthodox church refused to allow the building of mosque in Athens.There are millions of Christians who hate Muslims and vice versa.They are millions more who love each other.The Lebanese Christians too hate you.why?not becoz you are a Jew,but becoz of your actions.To feign otherwise is bs.
the 106 000 Christians now in Israel are the smartest people in Israel.They have 66% of them passing their high school exams . Christians are much smarter than you are.The Messianic Jews were persecuted in Isreal and being told to get out of Israel.These people are living in a racist "democratic" state of Israel while being told "Go to gaza,this is a Jewish state where the name of Jesus should not be said"..
How bs is that when every time you hate people,you ask them to get out.
Nobody ask you to get out of Isreal.Even you did get out,PLEASE DON'T COME TO USA or any western nations.Go to Uganda.( Zionist first list of building a Jew state)
You can easily get out from West Bank,and the radical Palestines after seeing the establishment of Palestine would slowly and tenderly learn to accept Israel.To constantly say,they wanna throw us into the sea while you wanna throw them into the desert is JUST HYPOCRITICAL.
They are radicals from both sides.But radicals from your side always pretend to be angles.remember,my tax money is running your health care.The 1.2 Bilion we gave you were the money you used to pay the illegal settlers in Gaza.We did all of that amid when our own people were dying in New Orleans.you should be grateful to us Christians here in America rather than chasing us out from the Holy Land.
Jesus will come down one day.the Muslims believe the same.You'll pay the price for rejecting the Lord.
Jesus was once born in Palestine,NOT ISRAEL. where he was tortured and killed by the Jews who refused to accept him as the Lord.
Read your Talmud,you'll be taught how the rest of Gentile are animals and only you are human.
And of course by the Romans too who now repented and become Christians.
Laila reports that she can hear bombings very close to her home and all the Israeli here can post is "Well, you deserve it, you mother of a potential terrorist
You know, I don't know whether to laugh or cry
Christians who not anti-semitic:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/701583.html
Typo:
Christians who are not anti-semitic
While much nonsense has been spouted above, I'm so jealous that so many Israelis and Jews come to your site to either agree w. you or dispute you. I only wish more Muslims & Arabs would do the same for my site.
At any rate, this American Jew is terrified on yr behalf and expresses his sadness & remorse for yr suffering.
Pls. understand that for every idiot anti-Arab among us there are those who feel your pain and work hard for a just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I do this through my own blog. And I also assure you that there are many Israelis and American Jews who value what you do here.
oh well...the Grand Mufti worked with Nazi...But hey...the Europeans killed 6 million Jews..
You could forget that join the European continent.
Batyahgirl,it took Saladin 150 years to conquer back Jerusalem.
Imagine that.
You could forget that and join the European continent.
Ye'know i honestly have to say, my biggest hope was that following israel's pullout from Gaza (I personally think, what the HELL were those people thinking when they moved there in the first place?! not to offend any gazans but for a bunch of jewish settlers that's a dumb location) but they pulled em outta there.
I hoped that after that, everybody in gaza would hunker down together, and rebuild. Your cities have gone to shit. In far too many respects. Now you have the opportunity to rebuild everything, if Everyone started working together and you really got a collective effort going, you could have the whole area as good as new. If you start working on it all together, there's NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER that the world would just dump money on you to help. If they really see you rebuilding, everybody's up to help someone rebuild their broken home. Because we can all relate, we all cherish our homes.
If this happend there would be absolutely NO justification for any attacks from Israel. No matter how you argue it, and the attacks will as such stop.
On the note of Israeli Fanatical Movements, if you look carefully, they hardly got any mandates in the election. The people are TIRED of this fighting. On Both Sides.
Israel is falling apart too ye'know. Its not as bad as the territories but its getting there. The more time everybody spends fighting the worse -everything- gets.
Besides, if you build the Gaza strip up nicely, you can turn the place into one crazy tourist attraction. I mean you've got nice beaches, scatter some hotels and boardwalks drop a few ads. Bring in money, kickstart an economy. If you can keep the streets safe and lawful then people will flock over.
And one more thing that i don't think many palestinians are realizing. If the Israeli Government is now willing to just walk out of lands they are holding. Without even talking to you.
Think of what they are willing to negotiate!
I agree with previous anonymous. Stop the shelling. Build houses, beaches and people will start thinking of a Mediterranean paradise. Stop the shelling and the inner fighting. Give PEACE hope and opportunity. You have peace,you will have commerce. Commerce civilizes everybody. Property civilizes everybody.......GIVE PEACE A CHANCE......dO NOT GIVE INTO IRAN, HIZBULLAH, HAMAS, ALAQSA MARTYRS, etc.etc........they will continue destroying your life, your hopes your dreams, your children...............
Does anybody have an idea what happened with Laila?
I hope she is well
This is the 10th day since her last post
I realised afterwards that I wasn't on the main page- I refreshed my browser daily but I was in the Archive, in the March page!
´:-p
So naturally I couldn't see the updates from 1st April
Happy to know you are well!
Interesting......If the whole middle east were cleared out and replaced with the commenters here,their family and friends,.......IT WOULD START ALL OVER AGAIN !!
And then we see the overall condemnation of "the Israeli on this board." Any bias there?
I would say as an outsider with NO ties to either side, that Israel needs to complete the experiment of pulling back within their original borders on ALL sides, and prove to the world CLEARLY who the aggressors are!
"Palestinians" should stop shelling into Israel if they want peace and squash out Islamic Jihad,alAqsa Brigade,etc.at the first outbreak of misbehavior on their part.
Those living in squalor of Gaza might even find economic support from Israel and from the Western world if they put their efforts toward building trade,and a positive society.
Parents on BOTH sides need to stop teaching their kids that the other people are evil,or blood drinking pigs, or what have you.
Best to you Laila and batyah girl.Don't let the haters get to ya. Either of you!
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