Diary, a day in an ambulance yesterday Vittorio Arrigoni From
ill Manifesto "The innocent people of Gaza, our war is not against Hamas against you but if they do not stop firing rockets you will find yourself in danger. " It 's the transcript of a recording can be heard answering the phone these hours in Gaza. The Israeli army is spreading the illusion that the Palestinians do not have eyes and ears. Eyes to see the bombs hit almost exclusively civilian targets such as mosques (15, the last of the Omar Bin Abdul Azeez Al Beit Hanoun) schools, universities, markets and hospitals. Ears not to hear the screams of pain and terror of children, innocent victims and yet predestined to each bombing. According to hospital sources, at the time of this writing there were 120 children killed in bombing raids, a total of 548 deaths, more than 2700 injured, scores of people missing.
Two days ago the Red Crescent hospital in the refugee camp of Jabalia, the night has never waned. Apache helicopters from the sky illuminating devices have launched all the time, so that we do not become aware of any difference between day and night. The repeated shelling of a tank located less than a mile from the hospital was seriously cracked the walls of the building, but we persevered until the morning. Around 10 or so, fallow field adjacent to the building bombs, machine gun fire all around: for the doctors of the Red Crescent that was a message addressed to us-army evacuation immediately, on pain of death. We transferred the wounded to other structures hospital and now is the operational base of the ambulances on the road to Al Nady, the medical staff is sitting on the sidewalk waiting for the calls, which occur feverishly.
For the first time since the beginning of the Israeli hospitals have seen the bodies of members of Palestinian resistance. A small number, in front of hundreds of civilian casualties, and after the invasion of land have multiplied exponentially. After the attack on the mosque in Jabalia (coincided with the entry of the tank) that caused 11 deaths and about fifty wounded, during the Saturday night escorting the ambulances, we realized the tremendous destructive power of projectiles fired by the Israelis . A Bet Hanoun a family who was warming up at home in front of a wood-burning stove was hit by one of these deadly guns. We have collected 15 injured, four basket cases. Then about 3 am we responded to an emergency call: too late, before the door of a house three women in tears we have put in her arms a child of four years wrapped in a white sheet, his shroud was already frosty. Still a family hit in full, this time the air force, in Jabalia, two adults with shrapnel in his body with explosives. The two children were injured slightly, but screamed as it was clear the psychological trauma they were experiencing, something that will mark them permanently for life more than a scar on his cheek. Even if no one remembers to mention them, there are thousands of children suffering from serious mental disorders terror inflicted by the continuous bombing, or worse by the sight of parents and brothers torn apart by explosions.
crimes which Israel is staining in these hours must be beyond imagination. The soldiers did not allow us to go to helping the survivors of this immense catastrophe unnatural. When the wounded are in the vicinity of Israeli armored vehicles that they have attacked us in the red crescent ambulances are not allowed to get closer, the soldiers peppered shots. We would need at least the basis of an ambulance of the Red Cross, in coordination with the Israeli military headquarters, to run to try to save lives: try to imagine how much time took such a procedure, a death sentence for some of the wounded awaiting transfusions or emergency treatment. Especially since the Red Cross has its wounded to think about, not in any way be available to all our call. Then we have to be stationed in an area "protected", a euphemism here in Gaza, and let us bring the relatives dying relatives, often in the shoulder.
So it went at around 5:30 this morning, we stopped with the engine running the ambulance in the middle of an intersection and stated our position over the telephone to one of the relatives of the wounded. After ten minutes of nerve-wracking wait, when had already decided to engage the clutch and evacuate the area to go to answer another call, we saw around the corner and head toward us, slowly, a wagon load of people driven by a mule. A couple with their two children. The best possible representation of this non-war.
This is not a war because there are two armies battle it out on a front, it is a unilateral siege led by armed forces (air force, navy and army) of the most powerful in the world, certainly the most advanced in terms tech military equipment, which attacked a miserable strip of land of 360 sq km, where the population is still moving on mules and where there is armed resistance to evil whose only strength is to be ready for martyrdom.
When the cart was close enough to the fact we were getting into, and with horror we discovered its macabre cargo. A baby was lying with his skull smashed, his eyes literally popped out of their sockets, we have gathered he was still breathing. His brother had his chest ripped open instead, he is clearly could count the ribs over the white scraps of torn flesh. The mother was holding her hands resting on his chest uncovered that, as if trying to fix something.
Another crime, and our personal yet another loss.
The Israeli army continues to target ambulances. After the doctor and nurse Jabalia died four days ago, yesterday fell to a friend, Abed Al Arafa Dayem, 35, leaving four children. At about half past eight yesterday morning we received a call from Gaza City, two civilians mowed down by machine gun of a tank, one of our ambulances of the Red Crescent is rushed to the scene. Arafa and a nurse charged the two fertility ambulance, they closed the doors ready to run to the hospital when they were centered in the heart by a bullet fired from a tank. The coup has beheaded one of the wounded and killed our friend, the nurse got away but is now recovering at the hospital where he works. Arafa, an elementary school teacher, was offered as a volunteer paramedic when there was shortage of staff. We are under a rain of bombs, no one was heard to call in a situation of such high risk. Arafa had presented itself, and worked aware of the dangers, convinced that his family over there were other human beings to defend, to help. We miss his jokes, his irresistible and contagious sense of humor that will brighten up the whole hospital Auda Al Jabali even in its darkest hours and dramatic, they are more deaths and injuries that come together, and we almost feel guilty, useless for not being able to do something to save them, as we are crushed by a relentless deadly force, the Israeli army's killing machine. Someone has to stop
this carnage, I saw things in these days, heard noises, smelled pestiferous miasma, that if I ever one day one of my offspring, I'll never have the courage to pass. Is there anybody out there? The desolation of abandonment, feeling isolated is equal to the view of a neighborhood in Gaza after a hearty campaign of air raids. Saturday night I spent on the phone the square of Milan in protest, I spent my time in the cell to the heroic doctors and nurses with whom we are working on, I saw them take heart for a brief moment. The events around the world demonstrate that there is still someone to believe, but the demonstrations have not participated enough to exercise pressure to ensure that the Western governments to force Israel into a corner, to assume its responsibilities as a war criminal and against humanity.
Many pregnant women are terrified that at this time giving birth to children of premature fruit. I have personally accompanied three to give birth. One of them, Samira, the seventh month, gave birth to a beautiful tiny boy named Ahmed. Running with her to the hospital board of Auda and leaving behind mirrors in the scenario of death and destruction just before where we were collecting corpses, I thought for a moment that this life could be about to blossom for the future of the beneaugurio peace and hope. The illusion is dissolved by the first rocket fell to the side of our ambulance, returning to the center of Jabalia Auda. These brave mothers bring to the world sadly creatures which absorb light in their eyes as before, nothing more than green military tanks and jeeps and lightning flashing above the explosions. What's next for the children who await life from the first moment of their birth experience suffering and cries of distress?
human remains.
Vittorio Arrigoni
