14th Day of the War in Gaza
[Editor's Note: This is the first of what we hope will be many dispatches from our first correspondent in Gaza, Mohamed Al-Jabowe. Please leave comments with any suggestions, comments, or criticism. We have just begun working with him and hope to see his skills improve quickly. We understand the situation in Gaza is constantly changing and there are many interpretations. We will work to maintain distance from the subject, but as we will primarily be focused on the lives and experiences of those living in Gaza, we may err. Your comments are always welcome.]
According to our staff member Mohamed Al-Jabowe,
Gaza – The situation is not improving inside the strip, due to the constant bombing by the Israeli Army in the northern and middle areas of the strip. A battle started today between Hamas’ Marine forces and the Israeli Naval forces. The situation here is like a cage burning from the inside. UNRWA aid is not reaching families inside the strip. We heard today on the news that the Israeli government allowed UNWRA aid to arrive to the strip and stated they would not target any of the UNRWA employees. Despite this, we still did not receive any of that aid. We did not have any electricity for quite a long time where we live. We have only one container of gas left, because we stored some in our house, but when this tube is over we will have to cook and heat and prepare our food with wood fuel.
Most of the bombing today were in the northern side of the strip. While am writing this post I can hear the sounds of the missiles and sounds of gunshots from far away. My cousin has a Satellite TV system that works by a Car battery , and what I see now in the news has nothing to do with reality, the loss of life must be more than 800. It’s very difficult to have even one hour without sounds of explosions, and this what I have to post for now.
I will try to send you more information as soon as I have another chance. I have to go back and help my sister with getting milk for her baby. I hope I can make it alive back home tonight, ill keep you posted.
Tags: death, dispatch, first-person, gaza, mohamed, UN, UNRWA
January 10th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Keep up the good work! It’s an extremely brave and important thing you are doing.
Stay safe.
January 11th, 2009 at 11:58 am
This is a good thing you are doing. Watching for your next post – can you put an RSS feed on the site?
January 11th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
[...] has now set up Alive in Gaza, with first-hand accounts from the Gaza Strip. Mohamed Al-Jabowe reports: The situation is not improving inside the strip, due to the constant bombing by the Israeli Army [...]
January 15th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Friendly comment, since you asked suggestions. Seems to me most Americans don’t know the actual area of Gaza, personally think comparisons to locations in the United States would be helpful. Don’t know what your graphic capabilities are, but perhaps super-imposed over a map of a US city? Just a thought. That’s fancy, but just a statement of the area, in some way compared to something in the USA would help, I believe.
Along with, what’s the population density there? Again seems most Americans don’t know these basic facts. Perhaps just linking to these facts elsewhere on the Internet, even wikipedia, would be helpful. Just my 2cents, if not useful, that’s fine, again, just offered in a friendly way.