Letter to Richard Medhurst #11

Operation Cast Lead Part 9 “Go in Brutally”

Operation Cast Lead Part 9 “Go in Brutally”

According to Amnesty International: “Atta Hassan ‘Aref ‘Azzam, 44, and two of his children, Mohammed, aged 13, and Hassan, aged two and a half, were killed on the morning of the 7th of January 2009 by flechettes in their home in the village of Moghraqa, south of Gaza City. Most of the residents had fled the area after Israeli forces had taken position nearby. The Azzam family feared that if they left their home it would be destroyed and decided to stay. There was frequent shelling and shooting in the area so the family stayed inside except to fetch water. At 8 a.m. on the 7th of January they fetched water and a shell came through the room where Atta was sitting with two of his children. All three were killed. The other six members of the family fled to the nearest school, where they remained until after the withdrawal of Israeli forces.”

One IDF soldier stated: “...what shocked me was a talk we had with the commander of ***, he’s a colonel, and he gave our whole battalion a talk. The tone of it was really, first of all he started out with something like “Unfortunately we’re a democracy, so we can’t demolish Gaza to the extent that we’d really like.” Perhaps he didn’t actually say “unfortunately,” but he repeated, twice, that “the fact that we’re a democracy works against us, for the army cannot act as aggressively as it would like.” Then he said once again that we’re going into this operation aggressively, without ... Usually in such talks the army, the commanders mention the lives of civilians and showing consideration to civilians. Here he didn’t even mention this. Just the brutality, go in there brutally.”

According to Amnesty International: “In the al-Jaru area of Gaza City, between Jabal al-Raiss and Tal Surani, two tank shells were fired into the al-Jaru family home in the evening of the 8th of January 2009 from tanks stationed a few hundred meters away. Dr. ‘Aouni al-Jaru, a 37-year-old medical doctor, was working at his desk in the study, his 36-year-old wife, Albina Vladimir, a Ukranian national, was in the kitchen and their 17-month-old son Yousuf, 12-year-old daughter Yasmin, and 14-year-old son ‘Abderrahim were in their room. Dr. al-Jaru told Amnesty International: “At about 9.45 p.m. a first shell struck the house. I ran out of the study and my wife had run out of the kitchen, towards the children’s room, at the other end of the house. As she crossed the living room she was struck by a second shell; it cut her in two; she was holding baby Yousuf and he was also killed. Yasmin and ‘Abderrahim had also rushed out of their room and were injured by shrapnel, and so was I. There had been no shelling around the house before. We knew that Israeli forces were in the area, as usually happens during Israeli army incursions, and were wary of going out, but at home we didn’t feel in any danger. We never thought that we could be hurt in our home.” While Dr. al-Jaru and his children were in hospital and recovering with relatives, the Israeli army forced all the residents of the neighborhood to leave the area. When they returned, after the end of Operation Cast Lead they found that their home had been destroyed, along with all the homes of their relatives in the area. Forty-five houses belonging to the al-Jaru extended family, in which more than 250 people lived were systematically destroyed and razed to the ground.”

One IDF soldier reported about an officer: “He said, “in case of any doubt, take down houses. You don’t need confirmation for anything, if you want.” Perhaps it’s legitimate, but if you suspect the presence of an explosive charge, you should get confirmation for a tank to fire. In short, a tank would fire a shell on the basis of a suspected charge. This is perhaps legitimate, but he also said: “Fortunately the hospitals are full to capacity already, so people are dying more quickly.” Then someone answered him, one of the soldiers replied cynically: “So kill the doctors.” The commander replied dismissingly, not understanding his cynical intent, twice: “We’re a democracy, we can’t do things the way we would like to do them.””