Terrorizing Gaza: Will Egypt Intervene? (VIDEO)
Journalist Mohammad Omer, who is living in the Occupied Gaza Strip, provided us with live updates from the Rafah Refugee camp. "There are 248 people who were injured, among them 148 children and women injured by the airstrikes," Omer said. "The airstrikes are continuing as we speak. There is a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip. There is nowhere to run. There is no shelter." WATCH: MOHAMMED OMER LIVE FROM GAZA
In the media and political realm, the word "terror" is often cited by Israel and the US to justify Israel's disproportionate and brutal use of force on Gaza. This happened in 2009, and is happening again today. Israel frames everything through the context of defense against terrorism.
But many view Israel's occupation, psychological warfare, aerial and naval bombardment of Gaza as terror. Iran's Foreign Ministry described Israel's strikes on Gaza as "organized terrorism." Qatar's Foreign Ministry called Israel's attacks a "filthy crime" that "must not pass without a punishment."
"I cannot imagine how terrifying it would be to be living in Gaza today," Emily Hauser, a blogger at The Daily Beast's Open Zion, told me. "The emotion of terror is very, very real on both sides."
"The big difference is the enormity of the power imbalance," she added later. "When you have one side locked in to one of the most densely populated strips of land on planet Earth, and you are bringing to bear tanks and battleships and jet fighters in a constant rain of ordnance versus people who can fire, from within that tiny space, rockets out...that comparison is simply entirely out of whack."
WATCH: EMILY HAUSER ON ISRAELI TERRORFollow Ahmed Shihab-Eldin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ase
