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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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July 25th,
2006 - Civilians Bear Fear, Injuries, Death, Grief |
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Civilians Bear Fear,
Injuries, Death, Grief By Kathy Gannon The Associated Press July 25, 2006 Tyre, Lebanon - Dirty
bandages hid the worst of 8-year-old Zainab Jawad's swollen, bloodied nose
Monday. Her arm, fractured in two places, was strapped to her chest. Stretched out on a bed at
Najem Hospital, Zainab squeezed her brown eyes shut as memories of the attack
flooded back, some of her words muffled as she fought sobs. A day earlier, Israeli bombs
destroyed her family's home in the southern village of Ayta Chaeb. Then
rockets slammed into the family's car as they fled. "I don't want to
remember, but I can't help it. What I remember most is the sound, the sound
of the planes, and I was scared because I thought there were so many. I fell
asleep last night, but all I could hear in my sleep were planes." Zainab's aunt was in the next
bed. Her mother, Usra Jawad, and 4-year-old brother, Mohammed, were across
the hall. Mohammed's eyes fluttered as he slipped in and out of
consciousness; his leg was in a cast to his hip. His mother's leg was in
traction, with steel pins in several places. The week before, Usra
Jawad's three sisters visited her village to see the new family home. When
the bombing started, the four sisters fled in a car with the two children,
hoping to reach their parents' home north of Tyre. But rockets hit their car.
Two of the sisters, both teachers, were killed. "Now I have no house.
My sisters are dead," Usra Jawad said. "I can't do anything." Jawad Najem, a surgeon at
the hospital, said patients admitted Sunday had burns from phosphorus
incendiary weapons used by Israel. The Geneva Conventions ban using white
phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against civilian populations and in air
attacks against military forces in civilian areas. Israel said its weapons
comply with international law. "Mahmoud Sarour, 14,
was admitted to the hospital yesterday and treated for phosphorous burns to
his face," Najem said. Mahmoud's 8-month-old sister, Maryam, suffered
similar burns on her neck and hands when an Israeli rocket hit the family
car. The children were with their
father, mother and other relatives when the car was hit by an Israeli
missile. Their father died instantly. The Sarour family was
evacuated from Tyre to Cyprus on Monday aboard a ferry chartered by Germany. The Sarours had to go to the
port by taxi because the Lebanese Red Cross suspended operations outside Tyre
after Israeli jets blasted two ambulances with rockets, said Ali Deebe, a Red
Cross spokesman in Tyre. In the incident Sunday, one
Red Cross ambulance went south of Tyre to meet an ambulance and transfer the
wounded to the hospital. "When we have wounded
outside the city, we always used two ambulances," Deebe said. The rocket attack on the two
vehicles wounded six ambulance workers and three civilians - an 11-year-old
boy, an elderly woman and a man, Deebe said. "One of the rockets hit
right in the middle of the big red cross that was painted on top of the
ambulance," he said. "This is a clear violation of humanitarian
law, of international law. We are neutral, and we should not be
targeted." Kassem Shalan, one of the
ambulance workers, told AP Television News nine people were injured. "We
were transferring the wounded into our vehicle and something fell, and I
dropped to the floor," he said. Amateur video provided by an
ambulance worker confirmed Deebe's account of damage to the vehicles, showing
one large hole and several smaller ones in the roof of one ambulance and a
large hole in the roof of the second. Both were destroyed. The Israeli military said it
was investigating the incident. Israeli rockets have been
hitting around Najem Hospital for most of the past two weeks, nursing
director Inaya Haydar said. "I don't sleep very much at night, sometimes
two hours; sometimes I don't sleep at all." Six members of Haydar's
family were killed three days ago in Srifa, her home village southeast of
Tyre. Before the Israeli assault
began July 12 in response to Hezbollah militants' capturing two Israeli
soldiers, Haydar commuted 30 minutes a day to her village. Since the
bombardment began, she has not left the hospital. Haydar's parents and younger
sister have fled to the mountains north of Tyre. Her fiance, a Lebanese
studying engineering in Sweden, wants Haydar to leave, as well. "At midnight last night
he called me and said: 'Please leave there and come to Sweden.' But I can't.
If I leave ... then who is left here in the hospital to help our people and
our country. I am Lebanese, this is my country. I love my country. I should
stay." She gestured toward another
hospital room by way of explanation. Inside lay a day-old infant in an
incubator. The baby was born in Tibnin, south of Tyre; his mother stayed home
because she was too ill to travel after a Caesarean delivery. "He was two hours old
when he came and so sick," Haydar said. "They had to get him here
quickly. If we were not here, who would help him?" External link: http://www.truthout.org/article/israel-accused-dropping-phosphorus-bombs-littlest-victims-suffer |