The Independent from London, Greater London, England • 9

THE INDEPENDENT Monday 21 July 2014 lMonday 21 July 2014 THE INDEPENDENTl respect for the wounded is endless, their determination amid The last night was extreme. The of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, All sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all ians, all innocent. The heroes in the lances and in all of hospitals are working 12 to shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman loads (without payment in Shifa for the last four months). They care, triage, try to stand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, ing, not breathing, ing, not bleeding humans. Humans! Now, once more treated like animals by most moral army in the My respect for the wounded is endless, in their contained determination in the midst of pain, agony and shock; my admiration for the staff and volunteers is endless.

My closeness to the ian gives me strength, although in glimpses I just want to scream, hold someone tight, cry, smell the skin and hair of the warm child, covered in blood, tect ourselves in an endless embrace but we cannot afford that, nor can they. Ashy grey faces Oh no! not one more load of tens of maimed and bleeding. We still have lakes of blood on the floor in the emergency room, piles of dripping, bandages to clear out oh the cleaners, everywhere, swiftly shovelling the blood and discarded tissues, hair, clothes, cannulas the overs from death all taken to be prepared again, to be repeated all over. More than 100 cases came to Shifa in the last 24 hours. Enough for a large tal with everything, but here almost nothing: electricity, water, disposables, drugs, tables, ments, monitors all rusted and as if taken from museums of hospitals.

But they do not complain, these heroes. They get on with it, like warriors, enormous, resolute. And as I write these words to you, alone, on a bed, my tears flow, the warm but less tears of pain and grief, of anger and fear. This is not happening! And then the orchestra of the Israeli starts its gruesome symphony again. Just now: salvos of artillery from the navy boats down on the shores, the roaring the sickening drones (Arabic zennanis, the and the Apaches.

So much made by and paid for by the US. Mr Obama do you have a heart? I invite you spend one night just one night with us in Shifa. I am convinced, 100 per cent, it would change tory. Nobody with a heart and power could ever walk away from a night in Shifa without being determined to end the slaughter of the Palestinian people. But the heartless and ciless have done their lations and planned another dahyia onslaught on Gaza.

The rivers of blood will keep running the coming night. I can hear they have tuned their instruments of death. Please. Do what you can. This cannot continue.

Dr Mads Gilbert works at Shifa hospital in Gaza, which Medical Aid for Palestinians is supporting Mads Gilbert, a norwegian doctor who is volunteering at Shifa, treats a Palestinian girl at the emergency room aP Netanyahu: Hamas using rising death toll to make Israel look bad The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu terday dismissed criticism of spiralling Palestinian ian fatalities in Gaza, saying Israel tries to avoid them but that Hamas seeks to use egenically dead for its cause. Speaking to CNN on the 13th and bloodiest day yet of Operation Protective Edge, which began with airstrikes but morphed into a ground operation last Thursday, Mr Netanyahu did not directly answer when asked whether Israel is headed towards an out reoccupation of the Gaza Strip. Instead, he said Israel would take action is to halt Hamas rocket attacks against Israel support taking ever action is necessary to stop this insane he said. wants to go to excessive military plans, but what is happening here is The premier said all tinian civilian casualties are unintended and regretted by the Israeli army, but accused Hamas of wanting to up as many civilian dead as they to make Israel look bad. use telegenically dead Palestinians for their cause.

They want the more dead, the Mr Netanyahu said the mission of destroying Hamas infiltration tunnels the stated purpose of the ground campaign is gressing fairly But news reports said later that 13 soldiers had been killed in the Gaza fighting. Menachem Klein, a cal scientist at versity, said the ground goal is expanding from tunnel searches to the Hamas armed wing He predicts further escalation. means taking over more parts of Gaza City and a strip in southern Gaza and killing the maximum number of Hamas fighters. For the Gaza civilians this is a great Mr Klein added: is no way Israel can win here. Hamas can achieve thing just by surviving and causing casualties to the Israel Defence Forces.

The BEN LyNfIELD in JeruSaleM best thing to do is stop it now and go for a comprehensive Hamas kept up its rocket barrages of Israeli targets yesterday, which have killed two people. Diplomatic efforts were being stepped up, with UN Ban Moon due to meet ate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Qatar for talks on devising a ceasefire. US Secretary of State John Kerry today plans to visit Egypt, which put forward a ceasefire proposal last week that was rejected by Hamas. Mr Kerry, caught speaking to an aide on an open phone, criticised the scope of the Israeli military campaign, saying sarcastically: a hell of a pinpoint Ynet news agency said terday that the 13 deaths came various during the Gaza ing, which began 13 days ago with Israeli aerial ments, with the stated aim of stopping rocket fire by Hamas. Another five Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza on Friday and Saturday.

by a missile. He had four utes, after a telephone ing from the Israeli military, to evacuate his household of 15 people and had just aged it. The damaged house would be repaired, he vowed, he and his family would not leave. We discovered day that the house had been hit again, along with the one next to it. Further down the street, neighbours frantically gathering what belongings they could to get away during the lull in violence said that some of the Naizis had left to find a shelter, but others had stayed behind.

Some of the attacks were targeted. Among the dead was Osama the son of Khalil a Hamas leader, his wife and two dren. Craters gouged into a stretch of waste ground appeared to be aimed at tunnels used by militants to launch rockets into Israel. The Alwan family, however, demanded that the Israeli itary show why they attacked their home, killing two little boys. Three brothers were in the kitchen of their apartment at when it was hit by a tank shell.

Qassem, three, and Imad, six, were killed; Abdullah, 14, survived with leg injuries. Ambulances could not get to their street not allowed in by the Israelis, claim the residents and after waiting for 45 minutes they took the three brothers by car to where Palestinian medics and their vehicles had been stopped. had died instantly, Qassem was alive but ing heavily. He died during those 45 minutes we were an older brother, Mohamed, 19, said at the side of Abdullah, in the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. had dropped leaflets from the air a few days ago but most of the families stayed because we were not involved in anything that should make them attack us.

We need an answer from them, why they attack civilians. They have done this in the past and they are doing it Nayaf watching over his grandson at the tal, was desperate for peace. are surrounded by fear. If no one is killed by the end of a day, we think we are very Gaza if no one is killed by the end of a day, we think we are very A I PE A PP to I nd ep en de nt o. uk pp Palestinian medics carrying a casualty run past a burning building in aP Benjamin Netanyahu said he supported action is to halt rocket attacks Continued from P.1 In an open letter, a ds i recounts conditions in a Gaza hospital News Middle East crisis suffered in recent times by the Jewish state.

The military wing of Hamas had claimed that it had lured troops into a field. But the Israeli military stated that the deaths came in separate incidents overnight involving improvised explosive devices and a firefight. A Hamas military spokesman also said it had captured an Israeli soldier during fighting. The killing in of Palestinians, including a large number of women and children, was condemned by the Palestinian government led by President Mahmoud Abbas as a and a Mushir Masri, a senior Hamas official, said: have been carrying out successful military tions against the Israelis, they take their revenge on less But the Israeli Prime ister, Benjamin Netanyahu, charged that the town had become a of that had been used to fire rockets into Israel. The controversy over the Israeli mission, with the Palestinian death toll going past 425 in nearly two weeks of fighting, continued with the US retary of State, John Kerry, caught on a microphone ing: a hell of a pinpoint operation.

got to get over there, we ought to go tonight, crazy to be sitting around Behind the international diplomatic manoeuvres and the accusations and nations, the terrible human cost of unfolded of what had befallen Hania Um Aziz had been lying trapped with a broken leg in her home in Baghdad Street for 14 hours as airstrikes and tank shells pounded around the area. the time there was smell of blood coming from the woman said after being rescued. The bodies were those of her brother and niece, killed by tank fire. At the same time, the family was ing the neighbourhood, under fire, along with hundreds of others, when a shell burst between them. Mahmood was injured by spraying shrapnel, a woman 12ft away was cut in half.

But it was not just civilians who were present in Hamas fighters in black body armour could be seen taking advantage of a temporary ceasefire called to ate injured residents to slip out of the area and hide their weapons. Two of them ried along with a under a blanket, looking like a body covered by a shroud was being carried out. Relentless barrages from aircraft, armour and artillery made it extremely hazardous to pick up the dead and the injured. Two of those who tried, Fouad Jabr, a doctor, and Khalid Hamid, a medic, were killed. On the streets lay the wreckage of four ambulances left burnt and twisted out of shape.

Along with the fighting came the dispossessed, sands from the east of the tiny enclave joining the 50,000 who had already sought uge elsewhere. All the UN shelters, mostly schools, have been full to overflowing for days, but they still, somehow, have to fit in more in the days to come. With the human toll from mounting, the two sides agreed to a ceasefire requested by the International Committee of the Red Cross for cessation of hostilities for two hours. It was broken after 48 minutes with sporadic fire, for which the Israelis blamed the tinians. They responded with airstrikes but then agreed to extend the period by two more hours.

had been mered, with not one building left undamaged in many of the streets. The Independent had met Rafiq 65, three days ago, 30 minutes after his house had been hit GAZA ISRAEL Erez crossing Nahal Oz crossing Karni crossing Patrolled Israeli buer zone At least 67 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers killed Beit Hanoun Gaza City miles.