James M. Wall
On the sixth day of its asymmetrical war against Gaza, Israel destroyed a home for the handicapped in Beit Lahiya, killing two handicapped residents, and wounding three others, including the caretaker.
The destruction of the home came on an early Saturday morning while only five of the 19 severely handicapped residents were in the building.
Jamila Elaiwa, who founded the center 20 years ago, told the New York Times the remaining 14 residents of the Mabaret Palestine Society home were visiting their families.
Ms. Elaiwa spoke to the Times at Gaza’s Shifa’s hospital’s burn unit. She was there visiting the wounded survivors of the building’s destruction, two of whom were Mai Hamada, 30, and Salwa Abu al-Qomssan, 53, the caretaker, both of them with severe burns.
Jamila Elaiwa, the founder of the Mabaret Palestine Society, suggested the attack must have been pre-planned, and was not one of Israel’s unfortunate “accidents”, as Israel claimed was the case with the bomb that killed nine Palestinians sitting on the beach watching a TV presentation of a World Cup football match.
She recalled a small explosion on the building roof a few minutes before the bomb hit that destroyed the home for the handicapped.
That smaller explosion would have been an Israeli “roof knocking” message, which Israel claims is meant to warn occupants to leave the building. These were occupants, however, who were not physically capable of making a fast exit.
Two other wounded survivors of the blast are in intensive care. Killed in the bombing attack were Ula Wisha, 31, and Suha Abusada, 39, whose family reports “had been born severely handicapped and unable to speak.”
In its story reporting the bombing of the home, the Times reports that Israel bombed a mosque which Israel claimed “aerial photos indicated was harboring a weapons cache”.
The mosque was destroyed. No casualties were reported. What the Times did not report was that the “weapons cache” claim is a frequent Israeli excuse for bombing sacred buildings.
This is clearly an asymmetrical (as in excessively one-sided) war. It is also an ongoing war that is renewed almost every two years or so. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is not interested in a cease fire. Of course he is not.