A Postcard From The Gaza Front

!#*&%@%!!!

First comes the earnest incoming alert "Color Red! Color Red" giving 15 seconds to find shelter. Then with a kishka-twisting crump, a rocket thuds into Sderot too close for comfort, followed by a several more hits nearby in the barrage.

What had started out as a routine media briefing about Operation Cast Lead and life in Sderot - the Israel city 2.5 km away from the Gaza Strip - suddenly becomes personal. My colleagues and I, crowded into a corridor in the local police station, have a visceral understanding of the eight-year rain of rockets and mortars under which the people of Sderot have been living.

"How many's that today?" asks Ashraf Khalil, the debonair, Arabic-speaking correspondent for The Los Angeles Times. A giant of a policeman nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders. "I stopped counting."

Photo: Walter Bingham

The press conference continues under equally nonplussed Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld. One million Israeli civilians are under constant rocket threat, he resumes his thread. And then another officer drives into the parking lot where we are standing. Part of the emergency team dispatched following the attack, he is gingerly carrying the still hot-to-the touch remains of a rocket which had fallen by Sderot's main bus station a football field away.

Rosenfeld coolly identifies it as a 122 mm Qassam carrying 8 kg of explosives. "Made in the Gaza Strip," he determines with an expert's eye. Behind him are thousands of rusting remains of rockets that had smashed into the city, each marked with the date and place of impact.

Differentiating between different fin types and soldering methods, Rosenfeld identifies which had been manufactured in Gaza by Hamas, which by Islamic Jihad, and which smuggled in via Egypt from munitions plants in China and Iran.

"What country in the world [apart from Israel] sends SMS messages to get out of a building before bombing it?" he asks. Implicit in the question is the reverse of that logic - that while Israel seeks to prevent civilian casualties, Hamas with its unguided weapons targets to kill as many innocents as it can.

I know. I am one of them.

Comments

[LillianB]

If the "sending sms to get out of a building before bombing" info had been close to true, there wouldn't have been nearly as many civilian casulties as there are in Gaza now.

[GLT21]

Sorry, I don not have any sympathy for Israel right now.

Apples and Oranges.
How can you compare the devastation that Israel is inflicting on Gaza?
Homemade rockets compared to the Israel's full military force.

[ltfday1]

At least you had a place to take shelter. The IDF moved about 30 Palestinians into a five-story building and then shelled it, killing women and children. In Gaza, there are no places to hide and no warning sirens, just the sound of the bombs and the unmanned drones during the ridiculous 3 hour cease fires.
Give it a bloody rest.

[cinemaven]

It's a shame Israel's guided weapons seem to be so much more effective in finding women and children than actual terrorists. I doubt I would be bragging about the efficiency of my weapons unless they were doing exactly what they were meant to do which is to indiscriminately destroy neighborhoods including schools and hospitals.

"I know. I am one of them. " - and yet here you stand, free from injury as the bomb did no human damage. I don't have to wonder if you'd be so safe standing the same distance from an Israeli attack... the answer to that is too painfully clear.

[madamemarie]

We must all demand the bombing and killing to stop and not allow the bought and biased media to allow the killing of more innocent people. If Americans got honest and unbiased information, that we would be appalled at the meaningless killing and abuses of the people of Gaza. In my desperation of the lack of compassion and honesty I wrote and recorded this ...As an American of Jewish decent, I a appalled at Israeli action, lies and war crimes. I wrote this to speak out and show my compassion for the parents of Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIzkGAHoGyg

[maddogbitesback]

If only the US would supply advanced weapons to Hamas, the missiles could be aimed. And if only the US supplied three billion a year then Hamas could have the technology to warn people to vacate the building they planned to hit. If only.

[JoeBenAvraham]

Yea, and if only Hamas wanted peace then we wouldn't have to read your post. Yes, Hamas official policy (you can read it in their charter) is they absolutely reject the peace process and say the only way is jihad until Israel ceases to exist.

For some weird reason, when it comes to Israel a lot of people tend to take their brain and throw it in the trash can, and then they post their comments. Hamas is on record for being racist, misogynist, totalitarian, and rejected all concepts of rights and freedoms that anti-Israel bashers supposedly support. Hamas simply isn't interested in "human rights" unless it's somehow related to Islam. Hamas doesn't care about international law (sorry, it's "western"), womens' rights (un-Islamic), civil rights (nothing to do with Islam), and yet thousands of ignorant dupes around the world haven't said a peep about Hamas.

Sorry, kids, but we're sick and tired of you kissing their radical Islamic butts, and expecting us to lie down and let them slit our throats. Ain't gonna happen. No, we don't like this war either, so if you want to stop it go talk to Hamas. You won't find them on Huffington Post because they don't care about you - Huffington Post represents freedom of this that and the other, all of which Hamas rejects.

You should reject them too.

[Fein]

Wow. Who'd have thought you'd come under fire when you enter a war zone?

Very balanced reporting on ineffectual rocket attacks while Israel forbits media coverage of their
slaughter just a few miles away.

[SiberianRat]

Co-sign!

[JoeBenAvraham]

Ineffectual? That's a pretty ignorant term. 28 dead and over 1000 wounded is hardly "inefectual".

Israel spent millions on reinforced concrete pillboxes on every street in Sderot, and millions for concrete caps on schools and medical facilities. The reason the death toll isn't higher is the residents have literally years of experience and thousands of live runs when the alert goes off. 20 thousand people know they have 3-15 seconds to get shelter or face death. The system works well, which is why the rockets are less effective than Hamas and pro-Palestinian anti-human rights activists would like.

And, of course, Hamas commits a war crime with every rocket, and their war crimes go back for years. Don't take my word for it, take Amnesty International's:

"The attacks against civilians by Palestinian armed groups are widespread, systematic and in pursuit of an explicit policy to attack civilians. They therefore constitute crimes against humanity under international law. They may also constitute war crimes"

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE02/003/2002

[rpophessagr]

Take care of yourself out there gil!