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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Why I vowed not to have children
in Gaza</h1>
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<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/omar-ghraieb"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype="">Omar Ghraieb</a> </div>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-i-vowed-not-have-children-gaza/13614">http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-i-vowed-not-have-children-gaza/13614</a></small></small></small></b>
<div class="field-publication-date">
<span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2014-07-22T09:40:00+00:00">22
July 2014</span> </div>
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<p>Israel said <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gazaunderattack">the
ground invasion into Gaza</a> would be limited, which makes
you think that the tanks would only advance a few meters in.
That was the case for the first two days. Little did we know
that Israel planned widespread <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ethnic-cleansing">ethnic
cleansing</a> and massacres. Israel’s goal was to wipe out an
area, and the people who reside in it too.</p>
<p>Things started escalating at around 10 pm on Saturday. Israeli
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/drones">drones</a>
swooped down lower and started buzzing loudly. Tanks advanced.
Apache helicopters and F-16 warplanes bombed and also provided
cover. And then, the eastern <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-city">Gaza City</a>
neighborhood of <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/shujaiya">Shujaiya</a>
started getting hit hard.</p>
<p>Non-stop shelling. I heard it all from my house. I couldn’t
even keep up with the number of explosions and artillery rounds.</p>
<p>Hundreds and hundreds of families evacuated, leaving their
homes and lives behind, seeking refuge in any calmer place, even
though nowhere is safe in Gaza.</p>
<p>They walked in the streets, holding nothing but their kids,
trying to escape death. Some even climbed into the shovel of a
bulldozer. Many were just wandering in the streets with no
destination in mind or nowhere to go.</p>
<h2>Huge ball of fire</h2>
<p>Many ended up gathering at <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-shifa-hospital">al-Shifa
Hospital</a>, only to see the bodies of their relatives,
neighbors and friends arrive.</p>
<p>I don’t know how to describe that night. I am at loss for words
and out of breath. Gaza looked like a huge ball of fire as
Shujaiya was being burned.</p>
<p>All of Gaza was under darkness. Power outages have reached
twenty hours per day, or even more. We could hear the merciless
attacks on Shujaiya, people screaming and fires burning.</p>
<p>All we had was a radio to let us know what we already knew but
wanted to deny. We kept holding onto the last thread of hope
until we had to face the truth: the people of Shujaiya were
being butchered.</p>
<p>Every night we count down the hours, waiting for dawn to start
breaking through, lighting up the sky and pumping Gaza with sun.
But not that night. We were hoping the sun would take its time
so we could delay seeing what the light would reveal.</p>
<p>We expected what had happened, but what the light showed was
beyond devastation.</p>
<h2>Beyond natural</h2>
<p>We couldn’t recognize Shujaiya. It was like a tsunami of
bullets had struck the area. Or a blazing earthquake. Something
natural but disastrous. But what really happened was beyond
nature or even humanity. It was like the 1948 <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/nakba">Nakba</a> all
over again, with scenes similar to the 1982 <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/sabra-and-shatila-massacre">Sabra
and Shatila massacre</a>. There were flashbacks to the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/operation-cast-lead">Cast
Lead massacre</a> of five-and-a-half years ago, too.</p>
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<h2 class="element-invisible"><a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/civilians-flee-shujaiya-ashraf-amra.jpg">civilians-flee-shujaiya-ashraf-amra.jpg</a></h2>
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<img typeof="foaf:Image"
src="cid:part12.06050209.04000909@freedomarchives.org"
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Civilians flee from Gaza City’s eastern Shujaiya
neighborhood, on 20 July, where more than 70 people were
killed and hundreds injured by Israeli shelling. <span
class="credit">(<a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/ashraf-amra"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label
skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Ashraf Amra</a> / <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/apa-images"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label
skos:prefLabel" datatype="">APA images</a>)</span>
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<p>The <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-committee-red-cross">Red
Cross</a> proposed a humanitarian ceasefire in Shujaiya so
that medics could pull out the dozens of dead and hundreds of
injured. Israel refused the ceasefire at first, then accepted
it, and then broke it by bombing the area and <a
href="http://palsolidarity.org/2014/07/human-rights-defenders-under-live-fire-one-dead/">opening
fire on medics and ambulances</a>.</p>
<p>Medics managed to pull out seventy-two dead Palestinians, their
bodies splayed across the streets. More than four hundred
injured people were taken to the hospital. Medics say that the
numbers of the dead and injured may increase dramatically.</p>
<p>International and local journalists, medics and doctors were
crying in pure disbelief. They reported seeing a massacre that
can’t be unseen.</p>
<p>I guess we are all scarred for the rest of our lives.</p>
<p>Pictures of devastation and destruction were circulating from
that morning on. But what was very painful, to the extent that I
stopped breathing, are the pictures of parents carrying their
dead and injured children while they wept in a way that could
move mountains.</p>
<p>When will Palestinians be recognized as people? As humans? As
civilians?</p>
<p>When will our children have human rights and be safe?</p>
<h2>Self defense?</h2>
<p>Can you imagine the devastation of a father who is holding his
child dead in his hands? Can you imagine his loss? And how
ashamed and guilty he feels for not being able to protect his
child?</p>
<p>That’s why I vowed to never, ever to have children here. I will
not bring them to this world and fail to protect them. I will
not watch my children die. It is too painful watching other
children die and their parents weep; I can’t handle going
through it myself.</p>
<p>How could the world consider wiping out a whole area and its
residents as “self defense” and “righteous”? How can children be
considered “militants” and “terrorists”?</p>
<p>The mosque nearby started calling for a donation campaign, only
to make me feel more powerless. What can you give to those who
lost their loved ones, their houses and a life they once knew?</p>
<p>I wished I could give them my heart or ease their pain in any
way, but I couldn’t, so I joined a trivial donations campaign.
How can money or material things ever make up for the loss of
your child?</p>
<p>I spent hours feeling numb, paralyzed, breathless and stunned.
I couldn’t shed a tear.</p>
<p>And then, tears started flowing. So abundantly. They were very
hot, and burned my cheeks.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the Gaza-based Ministry of Health <a
href="http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=715340">said</a> that
more than 600 Palestinians have been killed and 3,700 injured
since the beginning of Israel’s ongoing offensive against the
besieged Gaza Strip, including the 72 killed and 400 injured in
the Shujaiya massacre.</p>
<p>People were showered with tank shells while they slept at home
in their beds. People either fled or died under the rubble.</p>
<h2>Farewell to humanity</h2>
<p>As I bid farewell to my humanity and soul today, and mourn
them, I bid farewell to the dead Arab nation and Arab leaders,
but without mourning. Human rights organizations, as well — I
bid them farewell; they have always failed to protect human
rights. Reports and documents do not protect innocent children.</p>
<p>I also bid farewell to all aid agencies in Gaza, for using the
blood of Palestinians as a propaganda stunt to collect millions
in “donations.” I bid farewell to international humanity.</p>
<p><em>Omar Ghraieb is a journalist and blogger from Gaza. His
blog is <a href="http://www.gazatimes.blogspot.com">gazatimes.blogspot.com</a>,
and you can follow him on Twitter <a
href="https://twitter.com/Omar_Gaza">@Omar_Gaza</a>.</em></p>
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