Fear factor

Erica Silverman reports on the desolation wrought by the Israelis in Beit Hanoun, which was also compounded by technical ineptness


A set of pink baby shoes bobbed in a pool of blood, surrounded by footwear of various sizes; a large blue sandal topped the pile. 13 members of the Al-Athamnah family, including seven children, were massacred on the morning of 8 November in Beit Hanoun when Israeli forces ruthlessly shelled a densely populated residential neighbourhood.

Crowds of frightened Palestinians moved anxiously through the narrow muddy streets of the northern Gaza city, collecting body parts and clutching bloodied articles of clothing that belonged to their children, attacked while sleeping. 20 innocent civilians were killed in the attack, including six women and nine children, and 58 were injured including 26 children, according to the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry.

Ten of thousands attended a mass funeral the following day. The brutal attack came on the heels of a more than week-long incursion into Beit Hanoun that took the lives of 83 Palestinians and injured more than 270, while holding 40,000 residents under siege for a week without food supplies, electricity and water.

The stream of victims, largely from the same families, flowed to Kamal Edwan Hospital located in Beit Lahiya outside of Beit Hanoun. Hospital staff frantically tried to cope with the rush of patients "horribly disfigured" from the shelling, said hospital director Dr Saed Judah. Victims hovered around the hospital in a display of intense suffering, while residents vented their outrage over the attack. "They [Israeli forces] fired at the children, look at them torn apart," cried an elderly woman tending her grandson.

"We were sleeping and they began shelling our home, all of my uncles and my cousins died, we were hit from all directions," said 12-year-old Yazin from his hospital bed.

An initial Israeli military inquiry determined that a "technical failure in the artillery radar system" led to the bombardment of the Gaza neighbourhood. Human Rights Watch called for an independent inquiry, asserting that Israel's investigation "failed to address the key questions of whether the attack was a violation of international law and who should be held accountable for the lethal fire".

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered the Israeli military to reassess its policy on the use of artillery fire in civilian areas in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli daily Haartez reported that "seven of the 11 shells fired in a salvo landed inside a built-up area, 450 metres south of the original target." Israeli forces in Gaza are authorised to use artillery fire 200 metres from civilian areas. Gaza's 1.4 million residents live within 365 square kilometres, making it one if the most densely populated places on earth.

The Beit Hanoun operation, termed "Autumn Clouds", hit the civilian population harder than previous operations during Israel's nearly five-months-long incursion into Gaza, purportedly to halt the launching of Al-Qassam rockets into Israel and to secure the recovery of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas. Nearly 400 Palestinians have died, including 100 children, during the on-going invasion, according to the PA Health Ministry.

One Israeli had been killed by Al-Qassam rocket fire emanating from Gaza, and 50 injured before the Beit Hanoun operation, according to spokesperson for the Israeli National Police Mickey Rosenfeld.

Will Israel achieve its said goals via the Beit Hanoun invasions -- to halt rocket-fire into Israeli border towns which carry little explosive power -- but frighten residents? Will it be worth it?

President Mahmoud Abbas declared a three-day mourning period to allow Palestinians to cope with the trauma, although resistance factions vowed to seek revenge against Israel for the civilian casualties.

"The people who lost their homes claim there was no fire coming from Beit Hanoun, but now those who were targeted support firing rockets," said 30-year-old Salam Al-Kafarnia from Beit Hanoun who lost his cousin in the attack. "Beit Hanoun is beyond recognition," he lamented.

Operation "Autumn Clouds" caused an estimated US$17 million worth of physical damage to Beit Hanoun, according to PA Coastal Municipalities Water Authority (CMWU) engineer Maher Al-Najar, who is still assessing the damage. Water and waste water systems sustained US$800,000 worth of damage and will take three months to restore, optimistically, while 10 pre cent of the population is still without water. UN agencies, the Red Cross, and other NGOs are working to provide emergency assistance. "Sewage is flowing in the streets after piping under the roadways was damaged by Israeli tanks and bulldozers," said Al-Najar.

The housing sector sustained US$2 million worth of damage, and according to CMWU, 500 homes were damaged, 50 of which were completely destroyed. US$1.5 worth of privately-owned vehicles were destroyed, in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash and jewellery that was pillaged from homes.

Beit Hanoun's electrical grid and communications systems sustained US$2 million worth of damage. Six transformers were destroyed, according to the Gaza Electrical Distribution Company, and hundreds of families are still without electricity. Beit Hanoun's agricultural sector sustained US$7 million worth of damage, most devastating to this community of farmers. It could take up to a year for the infrastructure to be restored

Public outcry in the Arab world was heard as thousand of Jordanians gathered after Friday prayer outside the Al-Husseini Mosque in Amman to protest the Israeli attack. Demonstrations were also held in Beirut, Damascus and Cairo.

Governments worldwide condemned the attack. "The killing this morning of so many civilians in Gaza, including many children, is a profoundly shocking event. Israel has a right to defend itself, but not at the price of the lives of the innocent," said head of European Union external relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

However, a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned Israel's military operation in Gaza and demanded that Israeli forces withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was vetoed by the United States last Saturday. US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said the resolution was "biased against Israel and politically motivated". The draft received 10 votes in favour. Britain, Denmark, Japan and Slovakia abstained.

Palestinian government spokesperson Dr Ghazi Hamad, said the veto was "a shame on the American administration, which says it is trying to promote human rights and democracy in the Middle East".

The Arab League held an emergency session in Egypt on Sunday that called for permanent members of the UN Security Council, Israel and Arab nations to attend an international peace conference aimed at "reaching a just and comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict". The league also pledged not to participate in the economic and political embargo instituted against the Palestinian government after Hamas was sworn took office. "There will be no compliance with any restriction imposed... The Arab banks have to transfer money [to the Palestinians]," said Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.

The newly formed UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session this week to consider what Arab nations termed the "gross human rights violations" of Israel in Gaza.


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