Israel's eid gift
Taghreed El-Khodary visits the aftermath of an Israeli massacre in Gaza
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A Palestinian boy stands next to a blown up house destroyed by Israeli troops at Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza strip, 6 December
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The second day of Eid Al-Fitr (the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan) started early in Gaza. Residents of Berij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip awoke at 1.30am on 6 December to the noise of Apache helicopters hovering above and 25 Israeli tanks making their way through the streets. Many residents went outside to see what was happening, a few with weapons, many without. Others ran, hoping to escape the shrapnel from exploding shells. Crying from fear, the neighbourhood children substituted for a siren, their voices wailing from every block.
The Israeli military unit's goal was to catch a wanted Palestinian or, if the mission failed, to destroy his family's house. As in many previous instances, the Israeli soldiers failed in the first task: Ayman Shneinah, the central Gaza Strip commander for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's (PFLP) military wing had eluded them again. Instead, the military unit destroyed Shneinah's family dwelling -- five apartments that housed 35 people, including women, children and elderly.
By 4am the Israeli tanks had left. 10 people had been killed, another 10 injured. Among those killed were two brothers from the Al- E'waini family, Mohamed, 29, and Imad, 24, both of them fighters for Izeddine Al-Qassam, Hamas's military wing.
Abu-Mohamed, father of the two young men, recalled climbing up to the roof to see what was happening. "I saw two men from the resistance throw a few homemade bombs at the Israeli soldiers. Four soldiers were injured; they moved them inside the tank", he said as he pointed out the blood from the injured Israeli soldiers that stained the outer wall of his home. "When they left, I went outside the house, and at the corner I saw that two Palestinian men had been killed." Those men were Mohamed and Imad.
By 7am, Ayman Shneinah, the wanted man, was offering his condolences to Saber Tahrawi over the loss of Marwan, Saber's 16-year-old son, and Osama, 32, his cousin. "We heard tanks, we all left the house, and my son went with me. At the street corner a bunch of young men gathered. Some had guns, others didn't. The Apache fired a shell at them. I found my son among the bodies three hours later," Saber told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Hanan, Marwan's 40-year old mother, said she asked her son to quit school two years ago to support the family. Marwan's father had worked in Israel before the Intifada, but has been jobless for the past two years. She recalls that Marwan had repeatedly asked to return to school this year, but the family refused because his work selling canisters of gasoline fed 18 children and three adults.
Opposite the Tahrawis', flying shrapnel injured five members of the Mansour family while they were inside their home. "We were all asleep until we heard the tanks and the planes," explained Nabil, 30. "We didn't leave the house, but gathered together inside. We heard a plane, then something lit up in the sky, suddenly shrapnel was all over the house. All my brothers are still in hospital. I was hit in the arm and it will take me two weeks to recover."
Ahlam Al-Wawi, a 30-year-old school teacher at a United Nations Relief Works Association (UNRWA) refugee school, was also killed by shrapnel while at home.
Having offered his condolences, kissing and hugging the bereaved, Shneinah walked back towards his house, two blocks away, surrounded by his machinegun-toting bodyguards. Speaking quietly as he walked through the smoldering ruins of his destroyed home, Shneinah said his family is proud of him despite the loss of their dwelling. High above the debris, the brigades' black flags fluttered in the morning breeze. Amidst the ruins of the house, children from Shneinah's family poked about, trying to salvage broken furniture, blankets and kitchen appliances.
And while destruction seems to be everywhere the atmosphere remains defiant. "This means Sharon lost," one resistance fighter who asked that his name not be disclosed, told the Weekly. "Our resistance is painful for him. We'll keep up the resistance. We'll meet in the settlements."
"I'm not angry," Shneinah's wife said. "We are used to this. This is our second house to be destroyed by Israel. It becomes normal." Atop the flattened building sat an old man, his head bowed low as he smoked a cigarette.
At midday prayers, thousands marched in the funeral procession of the 10 Palestinians. By sunset, the Shneinah family had set up two tents near where their houses had been. An Islamic organisation and UNRWA were there offering food supplies.
Following the raid, Israel came under heavy international criticism. The European Union (EU) and Arab states joined the United Nations (UN) in strongly condemning the three- hour incursion.
The Danish-held EU presidency "strongly condemns military or other violent actions directed indiscriminately against a civilian neighbourhood, whether Palestinian or Israeli," it said in a statement in Copenhagen.
"While recognising Israel's legitimate right to fight terrorism, the EU has consistently rejected Israeli methods of extra-judicial killings and house demolitions and Israel's excessive use of force," it said.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also said that he was "gravely disturbed by the Israeli military attack". The incursion into Al-Bureij camp also prompted the US State Department to urge Israel to consider the consequences of its military actions in the occupied territories.
The Arab League renewed appeals for an international presence to protect Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip following the incursion. "The barbaric Israeli raid... turned the Eid Al-Fitr [holiday] into a collective funeral," league spokesman Hisham Youssef said in a statement. "These aggressive practices show that the only solution is for the international community to ensure immediate international protection for the Palestinian people," Youssef added.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) also denounced the "massacre" at Berij and urged the Quartet, that brings together the United States, the UN, Russia and the EU, "to ensure the protection of the Palestinian people".
Israel did not allow the third day of eid to pass unmarked, though. Nahla Aqel, 41, was killed and her three children were injured on Saturday as they walked to their home in the Tal Al- Sultan refugee camp in Rafah, at the Gaza strip's southern tip. The camp is flanked by two Israeli military posts and a Jewish settlement. It was from a tank, stationed outside the settlement, from which the bullets were fired.
