"The Israelis know us . . . they know there were no fighters here"

[DogPoundPup]

SALAH AL-GHOUL had a dream of dwelling peacefully on a farm on the Gaza Strip’s northern border with Israel. He began building his handsome duplex mansion in September 2005, the day after the Israelis had pulled out of the local settlements of Dugit and Eli Sinai. He invested his life savings of $770,000 in the house and adjacent farm buildings in a neighbourhood of clansmen. When the Israeli onslaught began on December 27th, 120 members of his extended family were confined to their homes.

While al-Ghoul’s wife, two sons and five daughters had gone to Gaza city, her son Mahmoud (17) and cousin Akram remained in the Sayafa house to care for the cattle, camels and poultry. At 4.15pm on January 3rd, Salah al-Ghoul and a labourer were in a shed feeding the calves when the house disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The two men covered their faces with their hands and hurried to the house to seek shelter but found a pile of rubble. Mahmoud and Akram were dead and dismembered.

As we drove in al-Ghoul’s elderly Land Rover to the bomb site, he repeated testimony he had sworn in an affidavit before a lawyer at the Palestinian Human Rights Centre which is closely linked to Irish NGOs Trócaire and Front Line. “They are our most reliable partners in Europe,” Jaber Wishah, the centre’s deputy director says of his Irish links. “They provide funds, send interns, organise events, and represent us when we cannot show.” Which is often, due to Israel’s siege of the Strip.Wishah probed al-Ghoul for details. “We had co-ordination with the Israeli military. My cousin was in constant contact with the local commander. The Israelis watch everything that goes on in this area. They even know which birds are nesting in which trees. They also know us and are aware that there were no fighters here.”

En route to his farm, we passed through a torn and tortured landscape. Roads had been erased, wide swathes had been ploughed by tanks through fields, and houses facing the sea had been blasted to clear the route taken by Israeli armour and troops moving north.

read more: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0127/1232923367028.html

[peacetalksforall]

1. kick.... please, please read. It's true - Israel wants Palestinians OUT OF THE GAZA

STRIP. All reports confirm each other.

I recommend reading this.