Wednesday 28 July 2010

GAZA CHILDREN SHELLED BY IDF FLECHETTE BOMBS


“She came in through the front door and it wasn’t clear she was injured. Suddenly a lot of blood came from her nose and she vomited, all of the family saw this ~ her little brothers were very scared. She had just been playing in the front of the house.”
That is how Nihed al-Massry describes what happened to her daughter, nine-year-old Samah Eid al-Massry, after the Israeli army reportedly shelled and fired four bombs into and around a residential area in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, on 21 July.

Samah is now being hospitalized in serious condition, suffering from extensive blood loss and very low haemoglobin. She was hit by shrapnel and flechettes from a nail bomb that landed 100 meters away, causing internal bleeding to the chest and severe head trauma. Nails are now embedded throughout her body.

Shells containing flechettes are illegal under international law if fired into densely-populated civilian areas. Three other children were wounded in the attack.

Two young men were killed; Muhammad al-Kafarneh, 23, suffered severe shrapnel injuries to the back and chest and Kasim al-Shinbary, 19, was wounded by nails embedded in his skull and shrapnel his back. It was unclear earlier whether they were resistance fighters or if they were civilians.

Haitham Thaer Qasem, a four-year-old boy and an only child, was asleep on a hospital bed, occasionally gasping for breath through the apparatus around his nose. He had suffered deep nasal trauma, and flechette darts from the bomb were still embedded in his tiny body, through his back, right elbow and right leg. He was 200 meters from the impact of the bomb.

Haitham’s mother was standing off to the side, quietly crying while one of his aunts at his bedside explained what happened.

Samah Eid al-Massry, after the IDF's brave soldiers "reportedly" (!!!) shelled and fired four bombs wounding and killing four children and two young men.

“We had asked Haitham to get shopping for [his mother] from the market, then we heard the bombings and somebody came to our home and told our family that he was in the hospital and was injured in the bombing. We came quickly to the hospital.”

Meanwhile, Samah’s doctor explained that the girl’s blood loss was a major concern. Her injuries are exacerbated by the fact that she, like three of her brothers, already suffers from the blood condition thalassemia and the drug to treat the condition, Exjade, is scarce because of the Israeli blockade. She was clearly in pain and confused, trying to remove the nasal tubes. Her mother showed us the bandages on her chest.

Her doctor, Muhammad Abu Hassan, described her situation as “semi-critical.”

“She was in very bad condition when she arrived ~ it’s difficult for children and very traumatic to insert a chest tube for small children ~ very painful. Blood was mainly coming from the chest. We will have to perform surgery and we will further explore her abdominal pain,” he explained.

The al-Massry family has been affected by Israeli attacks before. Samah’s four-year-old brother Ryad was injured during Israel’s three weeks of attacks on the Gaza Strip during winter 2008-09 when more than 400 Palestinian children were killed.

Flechette bombs usually have more than a mere 5000 per bomb.

“Our house was hit during the war, a neighbor was killed inside and our son suffered severe head injuries. He wasn’t cared for and because of this his sight is now permanently damaged.”

As we left Samah, she had begun to cry, moaning in serious discomfort and confusion. There were two more injured children in the hospital from the attack, also from the al-Massry family in Beit Hanoun: Azzam Muhammad al-Massry, 11, who suffered a severely fractured left elbow and Ibrahim Wasseem al-Massry, 4, with light injuries to his abdomen.

The previous week in Gaza, Nema Abu Said, a 33-year-old mother of five, was killed by Israeli shelling as she went outside frantically looking for her youngest son after a previous round of shelling. Three more family members were injured by the flechette shells, many of the darts remaining permanently embedded in their bodies.
It is almost painful to watch this child even though she is all cleaned up now. May the devil's brew of international criminals suffer for the things they do to the innocent. What excuse can there be for taking such aim at small children?

Adie Mormech is a human rights advocate based in the Gaza Strip who was previously abducted by the Israeli navy from the eighth Free Gaza Movement boat, the Spirit of Humanity. He volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement.
Just children of Gaza,
Palestinians.
Not much to look at here.
Move along.
As always, the international press ignores such attacks on these children.
She is not your daughter?
These are all our children and we should fight
for every child as he or she is truly "flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone".

1 comment:

  1. A state of emergency has been declared in southwest Michigan’s Kalamazoo County as more than 800,000 gallons of oil released into a creek began making its way downstream in the Kalamazoo River, the Kalamazoo Gazette reports.

    WE NOW HAVE LAKE MICHIGAN POISONED BY OIL SABATOGE, ONE MILLION GALLONS SO FAR IN WAR AGAINST THE UNITED STATES BY THE ROTHSCHILD NETWORK. 800,000 GALLONS SO FAR HAVE ENTERED LAKE MICHIGAN.

    An emergency has been declared in Southwest Michigan in response to Kalamazoo River Oil spill. At 945 AM Monday an oil pipeline began leaking. Residents are already reporting heavy fumes and oil soaked wildlife along the waterways from pipeline carrying crude from Griffith Indiana to Sarnia Canada.

    The well has not been shut down. The oil is passing and mixing with toxic chemicals such as PCBs and nearing concentration proportions similar to the Gulf of Mexico. The Great Lakes are an enclosed body with no cleansing system.

    The oil is flowing through the region of the Kalamazoo River Superfund cleanup site. the PCBs will react with the chemicals biphenyls causing dangerous toxic fumes. The EPA has not committed to assistance. The governor has not ordered a shut down and is only asking for clean up help. while the oil is still flowing. Sound familiar?

    The well is owned by a Texas company, Enbridge Energy but who owns that is yet to be seen. I will give you two to one odds who that is.

    The spill is disastrous and of unknown origin and is poisoning one of the great lakes with I repeat no circulation other than evaporation, with the same pattern of official incompetence boarding on encouragement of the progression of the disaster which we are all familiar with now, or at least should be if you are conscious.

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