By Saud Abu Ramadan, Xinhua,
Gaza : For three hours every day, some 1.5 million residents in the Gaza Strip have a chance to get out of their houses, buy daily necessities and bury the dead. Stories of their unheard suffering emerge as well.
Some of these stories were reported in an unprecedented statement by the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), which criticized Israel for not allowing its crew to evacuate the wounded and dead who ended up in a house that later came under fire in al-Zaitoun quarter in southeast Gaza city.
The ICRC and Palestinian paramedics “found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own,” the statement said.
“One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses,” according to the statement.
Israel started its second phase of the war in Gaza on Saturday night, pushing ground troops into the coastal strip from three directions. As warplanes clear the way for tanks to advance in, civilians found themselves under fire and were forced to flee their houses.
The UN-run Asmaa elementary school is located in the Beach Refugee Camp in Gaza city. Tens of families, who fled their homes in northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya, sought refuge there.
“We did not bring anything from our houses and my children can not sleep on the ground in the night because it is very cold,” said Um Khaled al-Sultan, a mother of four.
Whenever they saw a journalist or an aid worker from the UN, the families rush to ask for covers, cloths and food.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) struggles to work amid the intensive airstrikes and tank shellings, especially as some of its local employees were killed in the Israeli operation. One of its schools in Jabaliya refugee camp was hit by tank shells, killing some 42 people.
Um Suhaib al-Sultan, another mother taking shelter in the school, said she had to tear her coat to use it for her four-month-old daughter in lieu of diapers.
The refugees in the school said they saw columns of black smoke rising from their houses while they were heading down for Gaza city.
Starting from Wednesday, Israel said it will give a three-hour calm to allow the people in the coastal strip to stock up on food and humanitarian things. The lull started at 1 p.m. local time (1100 GMT).
The declared three-hour halt to offensive also gives aid groups time to bring in and distribute goods and medicine and Gaza shops to resume business.
Ahmad Dhaher, a father who stood in a queue in front of one bakery, said he wants to buy bread for his six-member family. “I’m afraid and won’t be able to buy the bread because the queue is long and I’m sure the bakery can not meet the demands of all the people.”