Giving the lie to 'Israel's' initial collaboration in the Polio vaccination campaign, where self-interest and PR were its only concerns, the IOF targeted the tent encampment next to Al Aqsa martyrs hospital on the day the second round of vaccine was being given to children in another part of the hospital. Several missiles, apparently containing incendiaries, were fired at the tents full of displaced people around 1.30 am, with the resulting inferno burning at least four people alive and inflicting terrible burns on scores of others. Attempts to douse the flames and rescue those trapped failed, as wounded patients lying on hospital beds or trolleys could not move unaided, while many children rushed out with their clothes alight; doctors said many were unlikely to survive 3rd degree burns to over 40% of their bodies, given the absence of proper treatment and insanitary conditions in the besieged strip. The already overloaded Al Aqsa hospital was forced to treat them as well as it could, while officials concerned with the pointless polio vaccination campaign looked the other way. Looking the other way was not something that those on the scene could do, including the man who filmed the scene, from which the following frames are taken.
Neither could 'the world' look away, as the horrific video of the trapped and dying man spread - like wildfire - on social media. Not of course on the mainstream media, where the ritual censorship would have blurred the content and left it to the imagination, but the reality itself was so clear and so clearly incriminating that the video of the burning man wasn't shown - as the leading image shows; this was a still shot taken from a report in the Guardian. (A close and personal account of this traumatic event from a Gaza journalist exiled to Cairo was however republished by The Nation.) It may seem morbid or a little perverse to look at the video, but failing to do so means that the crime 'Israeli' forces committed can be forgotten; to watch and remember what you saw is thus an act of solidarity with the victims and the Resistance against this genocidal entity. It needn't be a cause for retribution - even though that might be seen as justifiable - but should be a reason to reject any and all attempts by 'Israel' and its allies to avoid the consequences of their terrible catalogue of crimes against innocent and defenceless humanity. I post here two clips, the longer one showing a little more of the scene and context, including the doctor's commentary given to Al Jazeera journalists at Al Aqsa hospital.
Perhaps 'irony' is not the right word, but the sheer cynicism that accompanied the conducting of the 'second round' of polio vaccinations in Gaza was summed up by one mother interviewed at the hospital, who said that sadly one of her children wasn't able to have his second shot as he had been 'martyred' in an Israeli bombing since receiving his first one. No doubt all of the children who were in the tent camp also had received their earlier doses of the vaccine, and many of those who were badly burnt in this fire but don't later succumb to their wounds will likely need amputations when gangrene affects those wounds. Making the situation worse at Al Aqsa hospital were victims from the previous day's Israeli attack on a school in nearby Nuseirat where 6000 IDPs were sheltering. It seems no coincidence that the IOF chose to attack this school the day before it was due to be used as a polio vaccination centre and the start of the second round of vaccinations. If you can stomach the anodyne nature of this OCHA update, it is worth studying for the catalogue of crimes committed by Israel since October 6th That such a situation can exist, and that the millions of healthcare workers and specialists in Western society are unable to rectify it, while those health workers on the ground are screaming for Israel to stop - is barely comprehensible. One wonders what has happened to our famously - and allegedly - civilised Western society to enable 'rogue' actors to get away with such blatant crimes, and not face universal condemnation, leave alone retribution and punishment.
Shortly after the Al Aqsa inferno, the heroic martyrdom of Yahya Sinwar took over the news and commentary, but the killing went on in Gaza, and particularly in Jabalia and the North where the IOF ploughed on with its campaign to starve or obliterate the 400,000 residents. This did raise a commentary in the media, as if putting in a word for the Palestinians, whose 'plight' remained a problem to be solved. One of these reminders came from BBC correspondent Fergal Keane in Jerusalem, reporting from Gaza contacts and media about the funeral for the younger brother of 19 year old Shaaban Al Dalou, who we saw burnt to death in the video above. Keane's story didn't include that footage, but we did see the distraught and badly burnt father who tried to save his family from the fire. The story of his desperate efforts and of the life and aspirations of his son Shaaban is told in this report from a journalist who grew up in Deir al Balah. Shaaban was seriously wounded in an Israeli attack on the Al Aqsa mosque a week earlier, and still attached to an I.V. drip. Below is a rough and ready screen recording of part of his report, including some accidental background sounds of a rufous whistler singing in the garden outside. Perhaps it's a reminder that despite everything, some birds may still sing in the trees of Gaza.
DM 18th October 2024