'I Lost Everything': Gazan Relives Strike That Wiped Out Family

[alsame]

'I Lost Everything': Gazan Relives Strike That Wiped Out Family
By Ayman Mohyeldin

GAZA CITY — Hassan Al Hallaq did what any sensible parent would do: When the latest bout of violence erupted here, he moved his family — wife, Samar, and two sons, Kenan 6 and Saji 4 — away from their apartment on the outskirts of town and into the middle of Gaza City.

Away from the border, away from the tunnels, the rockets and the front line, he thought his family would be safe.

The IT manager at a Palestinian Bank had lived with his family through two previous wars and knew his neighborhood in East Gaza would be targeted by the Israelis because it is close to the border.

So he did what the Israelis always told Gaza residents to do: He packed his belongings and moved his entire family along with his parents to his sister’s apartment deep into the city.

Continue reading
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/middle-east-unrest/i-lost-everything-gazan-relives-strike-wiped-out-family-n163091

"Telegenically dead Palestinians"

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[malaise]

1. These are war crimes - how do you survive this?

This type of civilian devastation has led the UN Human Rights Chief to say that Israel may be committing war crimes. But High Commissioner Navi Pillay, opening an emergency debate at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, also condemned the indiscriminate firing of rockets and mortars by Palestinian militants into Israel.

The international condemnations mean little to families in Gaza who feel the international community has abandoned them.

They are even more meaningless to survivors like Al Hallaq, who know they will never have their families back in their arms despite everything they did to protect them.
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[Aerows]

2. "how do you survive this?"

That poor family didn't.

Sad as hell.

[malaise]

3. I mean how do this man, his father and brothers

survive surviving while everyone else died?

[Aerows]

4. I don't know

It's horrific.

[alsame]

5. I can't even

imagine living with that much sorrow and survivor guilt

[Dustlawyer]

6. The Israelites are exterminating the Palestinians! Next they will tattoo numbers on the forearms

of the survivors, this time maybe a bar code.

They could go in and arrest the terrorists, fight the ones that fight, and spare the civilians. But the Israelis want to destroy what infrastructure the Palestinians have. They want blood and retribution. There are other less deadly ways to stop Hamas, but instead they think they can crush the Palestinians and break their will. They are creating future terrorist to perpetuate the cycle instead.

I am not a supporter of Hamas, don't get me wrong. It's just blowing up the hospitals is unconscionable. Send their version of SEAL teams in there, anything but this. The post I read from the ER doctor from the Netherlands just broke my heart.

[alsame]

7. No safe place

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