It should go without saying that, with life in the border town of Rafah already an experience of failed ‘shelter’ in tents fashioned from plastic sheets, almost no water or access to medical services, and people subsisting on a few pieces of bread a day, that there is no way to conduct any “evacuation” that would merit being described as “humanitarian.”
Along the lines of the Guardian’s excellent January 30th multimedia report on Gaza’s destruction, today Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz published a similar piece, titled, “Gazans Fled Their Homes. They Have Nowhere to Return to”. The subheader adds, “‘It’s Mind-blowing’: 1.7 Million Palestinians Escaped Israel’s Bombardment of Gaza. Most of Their Homes Have Been Damaged or Destroyed”.
Yesterday, the Guardian newspaper published an excellent feature on the destruction of Gaza’s neighborhoods. “Satellite imagery and open-source evidence lay bare the destruction to civilian infrastructure by Israel in its war on Hamas.” It’s one of the best uses of the Web in news reporting that I’ve ever seen, and both the investigation and its presentation speaks for itself, once you start scrolling and the page literally comes alive to communicate the scale of the destruction. It will take you some time to go through it, it’s extensive.
Shuja’iyya (also Shejaiya, Shijaiyeh, Shujayya, Shuja’ia, Shuja’iya, per Wikipedia) is a neighborhood east of Gaza City. An IDF soldier’s video captured the moment the entire neighborhood was destroyed, with the screams of dying Palestinians audible on the video.
