Focus Gaza diary: To die with hope  

By Mohammed Ali in Gaza City

Carrying pieces of wood from the destroyed building is the sign that Gazans' spirits keeping hope alive [Gallo/Getty]

"If I die now, at least I'll die with hope."

This morning, I heard people chanting outside, I wondered what it was, and then, the lights came on - the electricity had come back on; hurrah!

I immediately turned on the television, charged my phone, checked emails. For a moment, I felt somewhat liberated. These things that we often take for granted have become so precious of late.

Solidarity and trust

We have no clean water left. Our water tank is empty. My father could not turn away the increasing amount of people knocking at our door with empty jerry cans in hand. He did not realise how much water he had given out until it was too late.

Shops are running out of clean water; we were not able to find any in our neighbourhood. We can use the untreated water but we should really boil it first to avoid getting sick, but we face another obstacle; we have very little gas left.

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We will just have to drink the unsterilised water so that we can save the rest of the gas for cooking food. But, if you have never cooked with a gas burner, it makes the food taste of gasoline, the coffee taste of gasoline, we now even smell of gasoline.

I received a call from a good friend in Jabaliya, he was telling me how awful life has become for his family; sonic booms from F-16 fighter planes constantly shake his home - there is no chance any of his six children and wife are getting any sleep.

His sister's home has already been evacuated and he wants to leave as soon as he can. He has a small bag packed and ready to go.

I told him to bring his family and to stay with us - I am expecting him to arrive at any moment.

The news is getting more and more horrific as the situation here deteriorates. The latest report, I saw, was of a child clutching on to her dead parent's bodies for four days before anyone was able to come to her rescue, dogs are starting to eat the corpses that no one has been able to bury.

This reality does not seem to be reaching some parts of the world. Is it censored because people cannot cope with the truth of what is happening to us? If the truth did get out, would it make a difference?

Fortunately, we have a lot of solidarity and trust in our community, we share what we have - I guess this is why we have just about managed to feed ourselves.

Some shopkeepers are allowing people to buy food on credit; people's debts are quickly mounting up. But solidarity and trust will not feed us now that food - and everything else it seems - is running out.

Keeping hope alive

I applied for a scholarship in the UK several months ago. I was expecting to find out in early January whether or not my application was successful.

I have been waiting impatiently for days. I could not wait any longer so I finally called the British Council; I wanted to know the outcome to put my mind at rest.

They told me that they would call back in two minutes. During those two minutes I almost stopped breathing - this scholarship is the only hope I have at the moment for a better life.

The lady called back and said: "I am afraid we do not have an answer yet for you." To which I responded: "Please be honest with me; is it that you really do not have an answer or that you do not want to give me bad news at this point in time?"

The possibility of going to the UK is giving me the hope I need to live. My wife thinks I am crazy, as I talk to her as if we are definitely going; I describe the friends we will have, the restaurants we will go to, the walks around the parks.

At least if I die, I will die with a little hope, the hope that I will have the chance to live a better life, even if for now it is but a dream.

 Olmert 'to announce Gaza ceasefire' Truce expected after 22 days of war and deaths of more than 1,200 Palestinians.

Tusentals människor protesterade på lördagen på flera ställen i landet mot Israels krig i Gaza.

Israel shells UN school in Gaza



The UN has called for a war crimes investigation over the shelling of its school [AFP]

Israeli tank shells hit a UN-run school in Gaza, killing at least two people, as war in the Palestinian territory stretched into a 22nd day.

Heavy bombardment of so-called Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip - from artillery on the ground and jets overhead - continued on Saturday despite speculation that Israel will wrap up its military operations later in the day.

The death toll from the now more than three weeks of assault stands at 1,203 Palestinians killed, including more than 400 children according to UN and Palestinian medical sources.

At least 13 Israelis have also died in the same period, including three civilians.

School attacked

A Palestinian woman and a child were killed in the early hours of Saturday at the school run by the UN relief and works agency (Unrwa) in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza.

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Christopher Gunness, an Unrwa spokesman, said several rounds hit the UN school at about 6:45am. After a short pause, the third floor of the school took a direct hit, killing the two and injuring another 14 people.

Witnesses said four more people were killed when other shells struck nearby as people tried to escape.

About 1,600 civilians had sought refuge from the fighting inside the building, Gunness said.

"The Israeli army knew exactly our GPS co-ordinates and they would have known that hundreds of people had taken shelter there," he said.

"When you have a direct hit into the third floor of a UN school, there has to be an investigation to see if a war crime has been committed."

John Ging, the director of Unrwa, told Al Jazeera: "People today are alleging war crimes here in Gaza. Lets have it properly accounted for. Lets have the legal process which will establish exactly what has happened here.

"It is another failure for our humanity and it is exposing the impotence of our [the international community's] inability to protect civilians in conflict."

In Jabaliya refugee camp, a Palestinian doctor from al-Shifa hospital lost his three daughters and one niece during an Israeli air attack. Dr Ezzedine Abu al-Aish is a familiar voice in Israel, where he has been interviewed by local media.

At least 10 people were also killed late on Friday after a tank shell slammed into their home during a funeral wake in Gaza City.

Meanwhile, about five rockets were reported to have been fired from Gaza into southern Israel.

'Unilateral ceasefire'

While Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip intensified on Saturday morning, with some attacks reported in the afternoon, the country's security cabinet is expected to decide on ending the assault, Israeli sources have said.

The move would be seen as preferable to entering into an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas, unnamed sources have said.

Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, said on Israel's Channel 10 television that "the  end doesn't have to be in agreement with Hamas, but rather in arrangements against Hamas".

U

N and Palestinian medical sources say more than 400 children have been killed [AFP]

A unilateral ceasefire would allow Israel to avoid agreeing concessions with Hamas, such as easing the 18-month-old blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has prevented medical aid and basic supplies from reaching the Palestinians.

Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's prime minister, called for an immediate ceasefire and the removal of Israel's troops from the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

Egypt has been pushing Israel and the rival Palestinian factions to reach an agreement, and a Hamas delegation returned to Cairo on Friday for a second round of talks.

Responding to talk of unilateral action by Israel, Hamas on Saturday threatened to ignore such a ceasefire and continue fighting.

"Clearly, we have nothing new to propose ... either we hear what we have proposed [is accepted] or we will go back to the battlefield," Osama Hamdan, Hamas's representative in Lebanon, said.

"The [large] number of our martyrs will not push us to surrender, but to insist on resistance."

Speaking at a forum in Beirut, Hamdan called on Arab leaders to stand by the Palestinian "resistance", and urged European nations to cut ties with Israel for
its "crimes" in Gaza.

An unnamed Israeli official told the AFP news agency that Israeli troops would remain in Gaza in the event of any such ceasefire being called.

"If they [Hamas] decide to open fire, we will not hesitate to respond and continue the offensive," the official was quoted as saying.

Israel's stated aim of the war, which it dubbed Operation Cast Lead, was to halt Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel.