Sunday, March 2

Gaza Screaming: Wake Up Arabs

Hanan Awarekeh

Five days have passed on the Israeli aggression against
the unarmed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the Arab
world seems to be in a coma. More than 120 martyrs and
over 300 injured in the latest Israeli crimes amid suspicious
International silence. Most of the martyrs and the injured
are unarmed civilians, including tens of children and women.

New Israeli occupation strikes martyred ten more
Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip early on
Sunday. In the latest incident, two Palestinians were
martyred during an ongoing Israeli operation in
Jabalya, in northern Gaza. Palestinian sources said a
21-month-old baby girl was also among Sunday's dead.

Three people, including one civilian and one Hamas
resistance fighter, were martyred in two separate
strikes early in the day in the north, where Israeli
ground and air troops were operating for a second
day. Two other people, whose identities were not
immediately available, were fatally wounded near the
northern town of Jabaliya. Moreover, one Palestinian
died of wounds from Saturday’s Israeli attacks and
two bodies of women were pulled out on Sunday
from beneath the rubble of houses destroyed in
the previous day.

A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was also martyred in
clashes with Israeli occupation soldiers during protests
against the Jewish state's blitz on the Strip. Mahmud
al-Musalmi was martyred in the southern town of
Al-Khalil. At least 15 people had been injured by rubber
bullets in the clashes around the flashpoint town of
Al-Khalil in the south of occupied West Bank.

Thousands of Palestinians poured out into the streets
throughout the occupied West Bank on Sunday to
protest an Israeli air and ground assault on Gaza.
Since the military began its assault early on Saturday,
more than 68 people have been martyred by the
Israeli occupation military in Gaza, the bloodiest 24
hours in the territory since the start of the second
Palestinian uprising in September 2000. The martyrs
have included seven children and nine women in
addition to other civilians.

GAZA HOSPITALS ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE

Medical sources in Gaza reported Sunday that some
200 people were injured over the weekend, in the
heavy fire exchanges between Israeli occupation
forces and Hamas, resulting in the Strip's hospitals
arriving at the brink of collapse. "The situation is
very hard. I have a new intensive-care patient
coming in every half-an-hour," Dr. Khalil Nahal,
of the Intensive Care Unit in Shifa Hospital, Gaza
Strip's main medical facility.

Even after the hospital was able to secure more beds
for its patients, the medical staff is having trouble
coping with the numerous patients coming in. "Normally,
I have 11 beds in the ICU, in its full capacity," said Dr.
Nahal. "Now I have 95 beds in three locations in the
hospital. We only have four more ICU beds available
right now."

A former physician at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in
Jerusalem, Dr. Nahal found himself caring for many
civilians caught in crossfire. Should the fighting
continue as it has over the weekend, said Dr. Nahal,
Shifa may soon arrive on to the brink of collapse.
"There is a shortage in beds, in drugs, in resuscitation
devises, in needles, medical supplies and blood."

The Gaza blockade, he added, makes it impossible to
transport those seriously wounded for treatment
in the occupied territories. "We called on Gazans to
donate blood and many have come to do so, but
we have no way to transport (critical) patients to
Israel – the crossings have been closed since Wednesday."

Physicians for Human Rights published a statement
denouncing harming innocent civilians on the Strip
and called on both sides to make proper medical
treatment available to the wounded. "The great number
of civilians under threat is horrifying and the leaders of
both sides must lay down their arms and begin negotiations.
During wartime it is imperative that health and medical
facilities be allowed to remain in full working order in
order to deal with the wounded," said the statement.

RESISTANCE RETALIATES
WITH ROCKET BARRAGES

Meanwhile, the Palestinian resistance retaliated with
more rockets that landed in the western Negev area and
Ashkelon's vicinity. Some 20 rockets hit the region since
the early morning hours. Four settlers were wounded and
a dozen others suffered shock after a Qassam rockets
landed in Sderot and western Negev communities. On
Saturday, the Palestinian resistance fighters killed two
Israeli occupation soldiers.

The Israeli aggression against the Palestinians in
Gaza demands an instant action from the international
community especially from those governments that claim
democracy, not to mention the Arab World. To all these
governments and to the Arab countries we say:
Wake up people, what are you waiting for?
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