I do not take sides, as the Gaza civilians are victims of both Hamas and the Israelis, but FYI my nephew is head of
operations for the ICRC in Gaza, and therefore has first-hand knowledge of what's happening on the ground. His most
recent official interview for the ICRC is here. http://www.icrc.org/web/fre/sitefre0.nsf/html/palestine-interview-110109 Summary of his [personal] phone call with his mother [my sister-in-law] yesterday [translation from French -- with the
inevitable ICRC's vow to neutrality]:
- He's holding on in a bunker with metal shutters, he cannot bail out because he is responsible for too many people
looking up to him, but 4 ICRC expats have left because of physical/mental exhaustion, and his Palestinian colleagues
(Red Cross/Red Crescent) are equally exhausted, plus they have to get back to their families at night and organize
survival (assuming their home hasn't been destroyed yet.)
- He has to organize the evacuation and taking care of the dead and
wounded (100 yesterday.)
- The Israeli army deliberately intimidates, and aims at humanitarian groups, and they did shoot at an ICRC
ambulance convoy three days ago, nearly killing a driver.
- Everything is demolished, and sometimes the ICRC has to use donkey carts because it is the only way to get
through, and get at the dead and wounded. The Israeli army refuses to help.
- Palestinian kids are traumatized mentally, and forever.
- Both sides [Hamas & Israelis] have turned mad.
- The media doesn't always tell the truth. For instance, the supposedly phosphor bombs are only a rumor, and
nothing is confirmed. My nephew thinks that they are only lighting devices, but that they can burn people.
- The Norvac (Norwegian doctors) representatives (who keep denouncing the "phosphor bombs") had better take care of
the wounded rather than spend their time talking to the media. The ICRC doctors privilege doing a great job to talking
to the press.
- There were talks about having humanitarian planes taking wounded Palestinian kids to Europe for care-taking. That
is not the solution: those kids are traumatized to start with ("terrorized" as my nephew put it,) they only speak
Arabic, they are better kept with their families. There are great doctors in Gaza, but the long Israeli-enforced
apartheid and subsequent shortages limit their ability to work. The best thing to do is to send doctors in the immediate
area, i.e. setting field hospitals in Rafat on the border with Egypt, or on the border with Israel with doctors who
speak Arabic.
- The ICRC president came for one day to motivate the Gaza team, and said that this conflict was ICRC's worst since
the Solferino battle, which prompted Henri Dunant to create the Red Cross (Wikipedia reference).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cross
- The (reduced) IRC team in Gaza has enough food, water and electricity reserves for the time being, but they have
to work with constant bombardment/shelling, i.e. no sleep. They think that they are doing a great job, but don't have
much hope for the future of the Gaza people.
Previously: Al Jazeera Releases Gaza Video Archive Under Creative Commons
License
In a conflict where the Western news media have been largely prevented from reporting from Gaza because of
restrictions imposed by the Israeli military, Al Jazeera has had a distinct advantage. It was already there.
More importantly, the permissive CC-BY license means that the footage can be used by anyone including, rival
broadcasters, documentary makers, and bloggers, so long as Al Jazeera is credited.