January 11, 2009 9.48 pm

GAZA - On Saturday Israeli F16 warplanes bombarded with phosphorous canisters the Block 2 section, in the Jabalya Refuge Camp. Many residents of Jabalya are escaping the area, searching for a safe shelter in the home of relatives in the neighboring Beit Lahia project.

In the dark night the terrifying sound of Drones (unmanned recognition planes) circling in the skies above, a Drone can take photos of the number plates on the cars thousands of meters below on the ground, and also recognise and track locations of the signals from mobile phones.

Nearby the Beit Lahia project, was once, not long ago, full of life and people, a thriving Palestinian village. Al-Qarrara, has now been partly destroyed by artillery shelling and air strikes. The Israelis have attacked this village many times. They have also, prior to their "Cast Lead Massacre", aimed to kill the "terrorists" in Gaza, a genocide began in the early morning of the 27th of December.

In the first weeks of November, the Israelis breached many times, throughout the six month of the so-called ceasefire between the Israelis and the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. Among other criminal "operations", the Israelis murdered in Al-Qarrara; Wajed Muhareb 19, Mahmoud Taha Ba'lousha 21, Mohamad Abdallah Awad 26, Omar Salim El Alami 20 and Ammar Salhiya 21. They were all just young political activists, members of the popular Hamas organisation.

Yesterday, the people in Beit Lahia were walking together towards Beit Lahia project, across the lands and the fields, escaping from Al- Qarrara village, to what they hoped safety among friends. They said that a genocide is unfolding in their home village. Below are the accounts of the events, as described to me by surviving family members and relatives:

Amid heavy fire, Israeli death squads were operating, including snipers, were trespassing into the Al-Qarrara village, not meeting any hostility from terrified residents, nor from any armed resistance. The Israeli perpetrators kicked in the doors and smashed the windows, assaulting the residents while rummaging through their homes, turning everything upside down, destroying and plundering its content of furniture, framed photos of family members, children's toys, computers, small battery radios, mobile phones, TV and video electronics and small savings.

The villagers were then separated into two groups. The women and the children were demanded to go outside, leave their home village, or stay in the house. The men, including the young adults and teenage boys were forced outside in the cold weather, kicked and hit in the head with rifle butts. They were then taken to an empty building, or a field nearby and shot in the back in cold blood. After the killings, the bodies of the dead or the deadly wounded were dumped into shallow graves.

Back to Beit Lahia project nearby - people are fearing for their lives, about 1 kilometer from the city where Israeli troops are stationed, snipers on the rooftops nearby, waiting to attack. Meanwhile Israeli warships are covering these operations from afar. Many homes, schools, Mosques and food markets were bombed in Beit Lahia. On Saturday the food market in the Beit Lahia project was shelled.

All the banks and Western Union money transfer offices across Gaza are closed. In the northern parts of Gaza though, the people are suffering the most, from all kind of obstacles, being killed in an air strike, by artillery shelling, or by sniper fire. In the last six days here, the electricity has been cut off; people are starving; there is no food to be found, and no drinkable water. Because of the lack of electricity, the batteries that are used for water filters to make the water clean cannot be used without electric power.

Hiyam Noir is Axis of Logic's correspondent in war-torn Gaza. She is a courageous writer, poet, editor and publisher of Palestine Free Voice. Read her bio and all her reports coming directly from Gaza in: 

PALESTINE FREE VOICE!

and in AXIS OF LOGIC'S

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