I just read a palestinian account of the bombings, over at israelity bites (linked from flip flopping joy):
I’ve never seen anything like this. It all happened so fast but the amount of death and destruction is inconceivable, even to me and I’m in the middle of it and a few hours have already passed. I think 15 locations were hit during the air raid on Gaza City. [some Israelis sources said 150 targets were struck] The images are probably not broadcast in US media. There are piles and piles of bodies in the locations that were hit. As you look at them you can see that a few of the young men are still alive, someone lifts a hand here, and another raise his head there. They probably died within moments because their bodies are burned, most have lost limbs, some have their guts hanging out and they’re all lying in pools of blood. Outside my home, (which is close to the universities) a bomb fell on a large group of young men, university students, they’d been warned not to stand in groups, it makes them an easy target, but they were waiting for buses to take them home. This was about 3 hours ago 7 were killed, 4 students and 3 of our neighbors kids, teenagers who were from the same family (Rayes) and were best friends. As I’m writing this I heard a funeral procession go by outside, I looked out the window and it was the 3 Rayes boys, They spent all their time together when they were alive, and now their sharing the same funeral together. Nothing could stop my 14 year old brother from rushing out to see the bodies of his friends laying in the street after they were killed. He hasn’t spoken a word since.
A little further down the street about an hour earlier 3 girls happened to be passing by one of the locations when a bomb fell. The girls bodies were torn into pieces and covered the street from one side to the other.
…
In general, I am against Israeli aggression. Their recent attacks, particularly those on Lebanon, have been uncalled for.
And I am concerned about this report that Israel is targetting groups of civilians.
However, I think the Hamas bombings in response to border closures were not called for, and I don’t begrudge Israel responding to violence with violence.
Normally I would be against punishing Palestinians for the actions of Hamas, but since they elected a Hamas majority in their government, they have less of my sympathy.
Still, Israel continues to respond with orders of magnitude more force than what has been inflicted on them. As an American I hardly have the right to condemn that, but as a human being I do.
The Israeli bombings should stop. Americans should put pressure on Israel to stop their non-violent aggression: the border closings, the wall building, etc. Hamas should stop bombing, and use diplomatic channels to keep the Palestinian borders open. And the Palestinians should vote Hamas out of office if they continue to fight non-violence with violence.
Update: bint alshamsa has a very different description of what’s happening over at My Private Casbah. And in retrospect, I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to say what the Palestinians should or should not do, given the unimaginable violence they are facing:
What’s going on in Gaza right now is no different from what went on inside of the Warsaw Ghetto. The Nazis first confined the Jews and then proceeded to deprive them of food and medical care. Soon people began to drop dead from diseases due to lack of treatment and lack of proper nutrition. When those in the ghetto realized what was in store for them, they used improvised explosive devices (IEDs), Molotov cocktails and whatever arms they could get their hands on to attack the Nazis. Did they think they could win? There was no way the weapons at their disposal could stop the Nazis from coming in and killing them all. Realistically, all they could do was peacefully die at the hands of the Nazis or die fighting. If they chose the latter, perhaps they’d manage to kill a few of the Nazis in the process, so I can understand why many chose to fight.
Read it all
