18 November, 2002 - Gaza City did not sleep last night. 35 Israeli tanks plowed into the Tal Al-Hawa area in the south of the city. Apache missiles fired from the sky. The explosions lasted throughout the night. Red light bullets passed by, sometimes hitting a building, while others fell to the ground. Two Caterpillar bulldozers destroyed the home of Palestinian Preventative Security officer Yousef Mkdud, who Israeli soldiers arrested last week while Apaches fired missiles into another area of Gaza City. His family was at home.

A man called out that the international community must wake up. He said "They are killing our children, but we are here to stay. The world must listen to the truth." Another said quietly "Noone heard you." Judging by the minimal media attention for Gaza, he is right.

In the Gaza Strip, children, men, women, doctors, professors, students, are killed or displaced daily. Their houses are knocked down, they often cannot pass from one end of the Strip to the other, cannot leave it at all. They do not have access to drinking water, because Israel diverts the best water for its own agriculture and illegal settlements. People cannot escape the Apaches and F-16s, Gaza is a small and overcrowded prison. Its population has nowhere else to go.

The residents of Block 0 in Rafah, along what is now the most exposed row of houses after several rows deep have been demolished, are not staying in their houses at night anymore. The situation is too dangerous for them: midnight demolitions and constant shooting. They sleep on the ground under white sheets that barely pass for tents. More than 300 homes have been demolished in this area in the last year.

What is most alarming is not the increased frequency of the demolitions, but the complete acceptability of them. They go unnoticed by anyone except the Palestinians who are rendered homeless in the process. Today the Palistinian Authority was handing out $100 checks for emergency aid, but with $1000 there is still nowhere for Gaza Palestinians to go. 42% of the Gaza Strip is occupied by illegal Israeli settlements and more are being built. Between September 1993 and March of 2001 settlement building increased by 72%, with the peak time under then Israeli Prime Minister Barak (the one who presented the 'generous offer' for peace at Camp David). That, along with humiliating checkpoints, targeted assassinations, random killings and frequent invasions, is the Israeli peace.

Kristen Ess
18 November, 2002
Rafah & Gaza City
Occupied Palestine
+972 - (0)59 - 357526