Inevitable

A single rifle bullet, another victim – but no hope of a doctor

First came an explosion in the street outside. Then the sound of a single rifle bullet slicing through the sky in a sharp crack and into the apartment directly above the home of Raed Abu Saif, the same apartment into which his young daughter Safa had just gone. It was Saturday afternoon, about 4pm.

Abu Saif hurried upstairs and found, lying on the floor of the front room, Safa, aged 12. There was a hole in her chest where the bullet had entered and a hole in her back where it had exited. It took her three hours to die.

Outside in the district of Zimmo Square, at the eastern edge of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip, there was by now a heavy Israeli military presence, with tanks and troops and the sound of fighting raging. It was too dangerous for ambulances to reach the apartment and too dangerous for Abu Saif to head out on foot with his daughter. Instead, he fetched bandages, closed the wounds as best he could and held her in his arms as she bled.

“She said she was in pain, that she couldn’t breathe,” he said. “A few minutes before she died she told me to stop squeezing the wound, she couldn’t breathe. I was just touching her hair. Then I saw her eyes roll up. I felt her heart. It was not beating.”

From a piece of cloth the family fashioned a white flag, which Abu Saif’s mother carried. His wife, Samar, went with them out into the street carrying Safa’s corpse. An Israeli tank was parked a little way off and shone its lights at them. Twice the tank fired in the air over their heads, they said, until eventually they gave up and turned back for home to spend the night in the flat, the family and six other children and Safa.

Only yesterday morning did Abu Saif finally manage to cross safely out of the fighting and to a hospital morgue, where his daughter’s body was prepared for the funeral. But Safa’s mother and siblings were still in the house, surrounded by fighting and unable to join the mourners. The roofs of nearby buildings were still dotted with Israeli soldiers. It was from there the bullet that killed Safa was fired, the family believe.

A few questions;

• Q: does the IDF understand that when you fire indiscriminately into civilian buildings there are almost always innocent casualties?
• A: I think they know full well what they are doing.

• Q: are they infected with an American-style bloodlust?
• A: apparently they are.

• Q: does Israel live in a solipsistic fantasy world?
• A: the evidence would suggest it does.

• Q: do they really think that anyone believes they have anything other than the annihilation of the Palestinians as their goal?
• A: yes, they really do believe (see above).

Later on the article continues;

There is no doubt that many of the Palestinian dead were indeed militants, some involved in launching rockets towards Israeli towns. Several Hamas fighters were visible in Jabalia in their black fatigues, some armed, one carrying what appeared to be a detonator.

But the number of civilians, including children , among the dead and injured was inescapable.

The definition of inescapable from the Free Dictionary;

Impossible to escape or avoid; inevitable

One final question;

• Q: does the Guardian, like Israel, think that the massacre of civilians, including children, is impossible to escape or avoid?
• A: well, lets see now…

J.K.