Israel Bombs UN School, Three Killed; Death Toll 100 on Monday Alone

By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!. Posted January 6, 2009.

FA: Yeah, during the Second Intifada, which started in 2000, until the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, the Israeli army had sealed off all the roads leading to our farm, because at that time it was located among three Israeli settlements. But they allowed us to go to our farm only two times a week, and we have had to pass through Israeli checkpoints. And the Israeli army had given us special ID cards and permissions to enter the area. The ID cards were written in Hebrew, and they bore our photos. It means that the Israelis know all of us and know who are the people who live there. During the eight years of violence, the area in which our farm is located has been the most quiet in all over Gaza Strip.

AG: You write, Fares, that your father "hated what Hamas was doing to Gaza's legal system, introducing Islamist justice." He completely opposed violence, would have worked "for a just settlement with Israel and a better future for Palestinians. When the PA gained control over the West Bank, he moved to Ramallah to help establish the courts there." Your feelings, as we wrap up right now? You write, "My grief carries no desire for revenge, which I know to be always in vain. But, in truth, as a grieving son, I am finding it hard to distinguish between what the Israelis call terrorists and the Israeli pilots and tank crews who are invading Gaza." You ask a question about the difference between the pilot who blew your father to pieces and the militant who fires a small rocket.

FA: Yeah, I don't see any difference between them, and there is no difference between the pilots who drop a 1,000-kilogram bomb in a mosque in Jabalya -- Jabalya is a refugee camp. It's the most densely populated area not only in Gaza Strip, but maybe in all over the world. Jabalya is the most densely populated area. And when you drop a bomb in a mosque surrounded by very fragile houses, it means that of course their victims will be the residents who live in these houses. So I don't know how the pilots don't hesitate to carry out the air strikes in civilian areas.

AG: Fares Akram, your wife is about to give birth?

FA: Yes. And this is another problem, another dilemma for me. Today, I have evacuated -- I had to evacuate my wife to her family's house, because it's closer to the clinic where she's supposed to deliver birth. It's closer to the clinic than our house. In order to -- you know, I can't describe my feeling when I have to leave my wife alone in this situation and send her to her family house.

And she's also worried about me, because the tanks are getting more close to our house. And we know what the Israelis will do if they get near our house. They will call on us on a megaphone to come out of the house. And after that, most probably they will hit the house. They have set fire now to ten houses in the north of Gaza Strip, where, when I look from the window, I see [inaudible] of black smoke rising from the houses. I can't imagine what will happen to our house.

AG: Why don't you leave it?

FA: I'm very sad for having to leave my wife in these circumstances, but if she goes into labor while she is in our house here, and especially if it was dark, I know it will be very impossible to go to the hospital, even if we call the ambulance. The ambulance can't come in the night.

And also in the day it's very dangerous, because when there is an incursion, when there are Israeli tanks nearby, the airplanes would be clearing the way for the tanks to advance in. And you know how the airplanes clear the way for the tanks: they fire on every moving object. They hit houses. They use the F-16s to help open spaces among the houses, in order to force the residents to flee, and so the army can go in.

And even if we fled our houses, we would go to the UNRWA schools. And you heard the UNRWA spokesman, you heard what he said. He said that they attacked also the schools where the people have taken refuge. So the best thing, I think, is to stay in house and to pray that you won't be harmed.

AG: Fares Akram, I want to thank you for being with us. Be safe. Gaza correspondent for The Independent of London, he lost his father in the Israeli F-16 attack on Saturday.

See more stories tagged with: israel, palestine, gaza, helen thomas, dana perino, fares akram, unrwa, christopher gunness

Amy Goodman is the host of the nationally syndicated radio news program, Democracy Now!

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