At this point, what is there to say? This is nothing new. What needed to be said has already been said a thousand times over.
As for you, you have been rather active on a non-insignificant number of my posts. Seems like I've found myself a new admirer. ^3^ ♥
The pasta ban might seem unnecessary at a glance, but it is entirely plausible that Israel harbors legitimate fears of Palestinian Khamas militants using pasta in rituals to summon the Flying Spaghetti Monster which would then wreak havoc on the Democratic nation of Israel. There's two-sides folks. . . two-sides!
The IDF's evidence is that since they themselves are guilty of using ambulances to conceal soldiers, their opposition definitely probably maybe does the same.
October 6: Palestinian killed as Israeli settlers attack West Bank town of Huwara
November 29: ‘Military camp’: Palestinian town of Huwara under 55-day Israeli closure
December 1, 2023: ‘My son was killed on October 6. There was no Hamas’
December 5: ‘Massacres await’: Palestinians in Nablus warn of deadly settler attacks
December 6, 2023: West Bank family sees no hope of justice in settler killings
December 9, 2023: Two teenagers killed, 15 detained in Israeli raids in occupied West Bank
December 14, 2023: Casualties mount in occupied West Bank as Israeli forces extend raids
December 20, 2023: ‘No safe place’: Jenin’s Freedom Theatre raided, daubed with Star of David
December 24, 2023: Muted Christmas as Palestinian Christians mourn for Gaza
December 25, 2023: Israel hits Bethlehem in Christmas raids on occupied West Bank
December 27, 2023: Six killed in Israeli strike on refugee camp in occupied West Bank
For some people, ignorance is a choice.
Here will be a compiled list of 972 magazine articles related to this conflict, continually updated as I delve into this harrowing treasure trove of information:
July 31, 2015: Palestinian baby burned to death in West Bank arson attack
July 31, 2016: A year since the Duma murders: Navigating justice and pain
October 12, 2020: For Israel, tens of thousands of Palestinian newborns don’t exist
June 8, 2021: Settlers shot Palestinian and mutilated his body as he lay dying
July 15, 2021: Joint militias: How settlers and soldiers teamed up to kill four Palestinians
April 5, 2022: Israel charges Palestinian journalists with incitement — for doing their jobs
April 10, 2022: Israel’s false promise of security
May 25, 2022: Israel says this book justifies Masafer Yatta expulsions. Its author begs to differ
July 8, 2022: This Israeli forbids Palestinians from building. He lives in an illegal outpost
July 11, 2022: Classified document reveals IDF ‘firing zones’ built to give land to settlers
August 11, 2022: ‘We killed a little boy, but it was within the rules’
August 30, 2022: Israel destroyed Palestinian village for luxury settlement that was never built
September 15, 2022: How Israeli media reported a ‘lynching’ that never happened
September 26, 2022: ‘We built the Palestinian Authority with blood. We won’t give up on it’
November 8, 2022: “He asked me how many children I have. Then he said: ‘Now you have one less.'”
October 5, 2022: In Jenin and Nablus, resistance and despair go hand in hand
January 24, 2023: A coming out party for Israel’s religious Jewish left
February 16, 2023: The theft of Harun Abu Aram’s body, home, and life
February 27, 2023: The pogrom is the point
March 2, 2023: ‘They were burning our house with kids inside. The army didn’t let us through’
March 5, 2023: ‘I couldn’t see if my brother’s murderer was a soldier or settler’
March 13, 2023: ‘Who hits a 64-year-old woman with a bat?’
March 22, 2023: Armed settlers break into Palestinian family home under cover of darkness
May 3, 2023: Revealed: The IDF unit turning ‘hilltop youth’ settlers into soldiers
November 13, 2023: How a hasbara group’s sham investigation put Gaza journalists in the firing line
November 23, 2023: What Israelis won’t be asking about the Palestinians released for hostages
November 30, 2023: A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza
December 8, 2023: ‘It would’ve been better if they shot us’: Palestinians recount prison abuse
December 11, 2023: ‘Diseases are spreading rapidly’: In Jabalia camp, thousands shelter in one school
December 19, 2023: Gaza’s rescue workers are haunted by those they couldn’t save
December 19, 2023: A Palestinian student briefly deleted her social media. Israel revoked her permit
December 28, 2023: Palestinian Christians in Gaza fear being ‘swept under the rubble or into the desert’
Why does reading through this sound so familiar?
A pillar in the family
The horrors that the al-Samouni clan experienced are the latest in a series of traumas that began during the 2008-2009 Israeli offensive when soldiers killed 48 of their family members in Operation Cast Lead.
The army had corralled several families under one roof and fired missiles at the house, killing dozens. Some people managed to get out, waving white flags, but when the Red Cross was granted permission to enter the building three days later, they were met with the harrowing sight of 13 injured people, including eight children, who spent days without food or water, surrounded by the bodies of their parents and relatives.
One of those killed was Zahwa’s husband, Attiya. Their daughter Amal, who is Abdullah’s twin sister, was only eight at the time but remembers everything in vivid detail.
“That cold January day, 100 Israeli soldiers raided our home and killed my dad in front of us,” the 24-year-old said. “They first threw a grenade at the entrance of the house, engulfing us in smoke.”
The soldiers shouted in Hebrew for the homeowner to step forward. Attiya, who had worked previously in Israel, raised his arms and identified himself.
“They shot him between the eyes, then in the chest,” Amal said. “Then they kept shooting, riddling his body with bullets.”
Earlier, as the tanks surrounded their home, Attiya had taught his children to say in Hebrew “We are children”, but it made no difference.
“After they shot my dad they began firing at us,” Amal said. “Abdullah and I were both wounded. They set a fire in one of the bedrooms, and we were suffocating from the smoke.”
Hamam was barely a year old at the time. Their brother Ahmad, four years old at the time, was shot twice in the head and in the chest and was left to bleed to death until dawn the next day, as the Israeli army prevented any ambulances from reaching the area.
Ahmad died in his mother Zahwa’s arms. She had lost her husband, her son, and her home and in the 15 years since that fateful day, the family had to work twice as hard to rebuild their lives.
August 22, 2023: Opinion | Diaspora Brothers, Don’t ‘Make Aliyah’
December 11, 2023:Opinion | The Gaza War Is Yet Another Self-made, Inescapable Israeli Imbroglio
December 17: Opinion | In Israel, 20,000 Gazans Are Responsible for Their Own Deaths. I've Never Been So Ashamed Send in e-mailSend in e-mail
December 29, 2023: Analysis | Israel Knows the Number of Calories Needed for Gazans' Survival. How Few Is a War Crime?