Gaza resident and journalist Tareq Hajjaj and Ahmad Al-Bazz, an independent journalist and filmmaker, told of the suffering faced by ordinary Palestinians since the decades-long conflict escalated sharply at the weekend.
Two Palestinian journalists have given first-hand accounts of the Israeli bombing campaign against the besieged Gaza Strip.Palestinian militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched a major incursion into southern Israel on Saturday, apparently taking the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) by surprise despite prior warnings from neighboring Egypt.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered electricity and water supplies to be cut off in the tiny enclave, home to more than two million people. The death toll after six days of fighting has exceeded 1,400 in Gaza, along with more than 1,300 in Israel. The IDF said 222 of its soldiers had been killed — the worst casualties since its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000 — and 97 more taken prisoner by Hamas and other militant groups. Dozens of Israeli civilians are also being held hostage in Gaza.Journalist Tareq Hajjaj told Sputnik from Gaza itself that he and other civilians «have no safe place to go.»The correspondent for the Mondoweiss website said that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s vow to «destroy Hamas,» the movement which governs in Gaza in partnership with the Fatah party-dominated Palestinian Authority based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was counter-productive.
