Operation Cast Lead Part 4
The Samouni Family
On the 6th of January 2009 Tim Butcher from the Daily Telegraph reported: “In what the United Nations fears could be the bloodiest single attack of the Israeli assault, as many as 60 members of the extended Samouni family were killed near their homes in the Gazan town of Zeitoun while nine more died in hospital. Dozens of bodies are believed to remain under the rubble of a large house hit repeatedly by Israeli shelling in the incident ... “There are many houses where we live and they ordered us into the house of my brother, Wael,” Nael said. Wael, 39, another survivor, said as many as 100 members of the clan crowded into his single-story home with strict orders from the Israeli soldiers not to move. Three teenage members of the family — Walid, Moussa and Imad — were taken away for questioning by the Israeli army while the remainder waited anxiously without adequate food or water until night fell and fighting intensified outside. They thought they had survived the night when at 6.35 a.m. on Monday the house was suddenly hit by a shell that brought the roof down. It was then hit again and again. “I saw my father and mother, and three of my children killed,” Wael said. “There was blood and bodies everywhere but some people were lost under the rubble. My wife survived and we had no choice but to run as the shelling continued. I carried my five-year-old son with me but when we got to hospital they had to cut off his arm.”
Salah al-Sammouni told Amnesty International: “Soldiers came to the area at night [on the 3rd of January 2009] and at dawn on the 4th of January many relatives came to my house to stay with us. We thought that if we stayed in our house we would be all right. After a while soldiers came to the house and my father spoke to them in Hebrew; he told them: “These are my children, my family, there are no terrorists here.” The soldiers told us to leave our house and go to Wa’el’s house across the road and we obeyed. We were many relatives, about 100 altogether, many of them children. We stayed there all day and all night. We had hardly any food in the house and the children were hungry. Nobody could come to the area, not even ambulances. We were scared. The following morning (the 5th of January) three of my cousins and I tried to go out of the house, to the walled garden to get some tomatoes and some wood to cook something. As soon as we got out of the door we were shelled. My cousins Muhammad and Hamdi were killed and Wa’el and I were injured and we retreated back into the house. Then the house was shelled again — at least two shells — from above. Some 25 people were killed and most of the others were injured. My little girl, Azza, was killed and my wife was injured. My mother Rahma was holding baby Mahmoud (six months old) and she was killed but she shielded the baby with her body and saved him. My father was killed. Wa‘el‘s children, a boy and a girl, were both killed. Safa, the wife of my brother Iyad, was killed and Maha, the wife of my brother Hilmi, and their baby son Muhammad were all killed.”
The Goldstone Report stated: “In the morning of the 5th of January 2009, around 6.30 – 7 a.m., Wa’el al-Samouni, Saleh al-Samouni, Hamdi Maher al-Samouni, Muhammad Ibrahim al-Samouni and Iyad al-Samouni, stepped outside the house to collect firewood. Rashad Helmi al-Samouni remained standing next to the door of the house. Suddenly, a projectile struck next to the five men, close to the door of Wa’el’s house and killed Muhammad Ibrahim al-Samouni and, probably, Hamdi Maher al-Samouni; the other men managed to retreat to the house. Within about five minutes, two or three more projectiles had struck the house directly ... Saleh al-Samouni stated that overall 21 family members were killed and 19 injured in the attack on Wa’el al- Samouni’s house. The dead include Saleh al-Samouni’s father, Talal Helmi al-Samouni, his mother, Rahma Muhammad al-Samouni, and his two-year-old daughter Azza. Three of his sons, aged five, three and less than one year (Mahmoud, Omar and Ahmad), were injured, but survived. Of Wa’el’s immediate family, a daughter and a son (Rezqa, 14, and Fares, 12) were killed, while two smaller children (Abdullah and Muhammad) were injured ... The names of the other 15 members of the extended al-Samouni family killed in the attack on Wa’el al-Samouni’s house are: Rabab Izaat (female, aged 37); Tawfiq Rashad (male, aged 22); Layla Nabeeh (female, aged 44); Ismaeil Ibrahim (male, aged 16); Ishaq Ibrahim (male, aged 14); Maha Muhammad (female, aged 20); Muhammad Hilmi Talal (the six-year-old son of Maha); Hanan Khamis Sa’di (female, aged 36); Huda Naiel (female, aged 17); Rezqa Muhammad Mahmoud (female, aged 56); Safaa Sobhi (female, aged 24); al-Moa’tasim Bilah Muhammad (male, aged six months); Hamdi Maher (male, aged 24); Rashad Helmi (male, aged 42); and Nassar Ibrahim Hilmi (male, aged 6)...”
Three years later the Israelis closed their investigation into the incident. In May 2012 Harriet Sherwood wrote: “The Israeli military has closed its file on the killing of 21 members of a Palestinian family during the Gaza war in 2009, saying there were no grounds for criminal or disciplinary action against those responsible for the shelling of the house in which civilians were sheltering. “None of the persons involved ... acted negligently in a manner giving rise to criminal responsibility,” concluded the military advocate general following an internal investigation. The decisions of the brigade commander “did not deviate from the boundaries of discretion that a “reasonable military commander” operating in similar circumstances possesses”. The investigation “comprehensively refuted” claims that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had intentionally targeted civilians or had acted in a reckless manner, it said.
Twenty-one members of the extended Samouni family were killed on the 5th of January 2009, nine days after Israel’s onslaught on Gaza began. About 100 members of the family, including women, children, babies and the elderly, had been ordered by the IDF to crowd into a house. Survivors said they felt relatively secure because they were following IDF instructions. However, the following day, three or four missiles struck the house. Nine children were among the dead and medical access to the dozens of injured was denied for two days. The commander of the Givati Brigade, Colonel Ilan Malka, who gave the order for the strike, reportedly told investigators he believed militants were in the building and was unaware of the civilian presence.
I've lived nearly 70 years without fear of being bombed or shot at. Everyone in this recount will never have experienced what it feels like. I remember, as a teenager, the notion of going to work in a Kibbutz for a year sounded very exciting and adventurous. I didn't know the politics then, or for a very long time after.
Israel's objective has always been the same...kill as many Palestinians (especially Gazans) as possible...men, women, children. Destroy as many livestock as possible. Raze homes and businesses or, better still, allow 'settlers' to throw home owners out and move in. Yank as many olive trees as possible from the earth while poisoning drinking water and wells. Drive through streets with tanker trucks spewing sewage over homes, through open windows, etc.
Randomly attack and arrest boys and men on the streets (7 years olds and elderly too). Better yet, bash in the front door in the middle of the night, terrorize and threaten a sleepy family.
Arrest men and women on phony charges, torture and incarcerate them without due process.
This is Israel. After invading and stealing land, homes, and businesses in 1948- and forcing the inhabitants from their ancestral homes, Israel has methodically taken over land and built settlements on Palestinian land.
This week's attack by Hamas was a long time coming. But it smacks of false flag- something Zionists are notorious for and something that was likely orchestrated WITH Hamas' cooperation.
To expose the world to this crazy 'poor Israelis', 'Israel has the right to exist', 'the most moral army in the world', is a sick, sinister joke
Cast Lead was just one of many assaults on Gaza that never ended. They just ebbed and flowed- but those inhabitants always remained on death row. Thanks for sharing this piece of history of which most are unaware while the legacy media lies about it all.
Long Live Palestine! Long Live Gaza!