As
Gaza Burns
By Laila El-Haddad
writing from Gaza City
17 May, 2007
Electronic
Intifada
Things
have been crazy in Gaza over the past two days. Very crazy. In between
working and actually trying to keep our wits about us as we've been
holed up indoors for two days no, I've had little time to blog.
Things are tenusouly calm
at the moment with on-again-off-again gunfire, which is better than
it was only a few hours ago. But things in Gaza have a way of cahnging
very quickly-for better or for worse. Volatility is its defining characteristic.
We happen to be sort of be
in the eye of the storm as it were. Fierce battles employing mortars,
RPGs, and heavy machine gun fire were raging all around our house today,
at times only a block away, interdispersed with the thuds of Israeli
gunships bombing areas of eastern and northern Gaza.
Yousuf of course became more
and more concerned as the day passed, until I finaly told him they were
not firing, but rather making an enourmous pot of popcorn outside that
would fill the streets once it was done. At first he wasn't convinced,
then he later remarkred "Mama, I don't really like this kind of
popocorn!" When the firing died down, he ran into my room excitedly
shouting "Mama, Mama! I think the popcorn is done!!"
The city was literally transformed
into a ghost town, and civilian life was all but paralyzed. Storekeepers
kept shops closed and virtually all residents, including schoolchildren
and university students, remainded penned indoors. Most did not even
dare to go to their balconies.
The occasional shopkeeper
who did stay open was harassed by gunmen patrolling the streets.
"I don't understand-what
are they fighing over, the trash in the streets?" lamented one
shopkeeper to me.
"We're in a malestrom
and i don't see a way out."
Unidentified snipers took positions on high-rise towers through the
city, as both facrtions vied for strategic control of various locations.
Impromptu checkpionts were set up along the major roads, cutting off
access from Gaza City to the north and south of the Strip.
Unidentified snipers took
positions on high-rise towers through the city, as both factions vied
for strategic control of various locations.
The victims of course in
all of this were the residents, particularly those who lived in the
towers. Many residents complained of having spend the past two days
holed up in their ktichen without electrictiy, and ambulances not being
given access to the injured in the buildings.
One woman told me gunmen
searched apartments for armed men and set afire several flats.
The most troubling part is
how this is unfolding with such purpose, and yet with so little protest.
There is something far more sinister sinister behind it all of course,
namely, the US's unambiguous plot to undermind the Unity Government
by arming, training, and "stregthening" Abbas, Dahlan, and
their respectivfe security forces. The latest plan was uncovered in
a Jordanian newspaper last week before being whisked off the presses.
For now, we wait, and see
what tommorow brings.
Freelance journalist and
blogger Laila El-Haddad lives in Gaza City. Laila's blog, Raising Yousuf,
is named after her two-year-old son.
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