GPS News
WAR REPORT
West Bank Palestinian veterans shocked at Gaza violence
West Bank Palestinian veterans shocked at Gaza violence
By Hossam Ezzedine
Ramallah, Palestinian Territories (AFP) Nov 22, 2023

Palestinian doctor Ahmed al-Beytawi lived through the bloody clashes of two intifadas in the occupied West Bank, but the war in Gaza has reached new levels of violence.

Every day the 62-year-old doctor walks past a memorial outside the Ramallah hospital he runs honouring 22 Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in 2000 at the start of the second intifada, or uprising.

But the images of death and destruction seen since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7 are something he says he "has never seen" before.

In 2000, the "bodies were piling up, the morgues were full "and we couldn't go out" to bury them.

But the latest war in Gaza "is much more violent," he said.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Palestinian militants stormed across the border, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

It launched a major bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza, which the Hamas authorities say has killed 14,100 people, thousands of them children.

More than two thirds of hospitals in the besieged Palestinian territory are out of service, there is no electricity in the morgues, and bodies line the streets.

In Gaza, Beytawi's colleagues have been digging mass graves under Israeli tank fire and even in the courtyards of their hospitals.

Former soldier Wassef Erakat, 76, who fought in Lebanon during the 1975-1990 civil war, agrees this war is "the hardest and the most violent" he has ever witnessed.

Nearly half of the homes in the coastal Gaza Strip have been destroyed in relentless Israeli bombardments, UN officials say.

And some 1.5 million Gazans - more than half the 2.4 million population - have been internally displaced.

But for the former artillery officer for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) the Hamas and Islamic Jihad operations against Israel are also "unprecedented" and "meticulously planned".

- Unprecedented death tolls -

The information war has added a new dimension, igniting social networks.

Every day, the militant groups publish propaganda videos showing their fighters firing rocket launchers at tanks or stuffing explosives into Israeli armoured vehicles.

The conflict has moved way beyond the stone-throwing days of the first intifada, which exploded in 1987 and ended with the 1993 Oslo accords signed by then PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

And with the increased violence, the death tolls have reached unprecedented levels.

The October 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israeli communities left 1,200 people dead - the worst death toll since the creation of Israel in 1948.

On the Palestinian side more people have died in Gaza in the current wave of Israeli strikes than during the two intifadas put together.

And in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli fire - more than the total of the previous nine months.

For the first time in two decades, Israeli F-16s are again striking the West Bank from the air.

Heavily-armed Israeli troops are also again carrying out raids in Palestinian towns, manoeuvres supposedly eliminated in some areas of the West Bank by the Oslo accords.

"Israel felt it had been victorious because of its weapons and believed it had done away with the resistance," said Mohammed Zaghloul, recently released from prison after serving 20 years for attempted murder of Israeli soldiers.

But the fierce fighting in Gaza has changed the dynamic, said the former fighter with the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement.

"We have entered a totally different phase from the earlier ones in the conflict," he said, highlighting the fears of the "regional ramifications" of the conflict.

Once the current violence has died down however, it "could bring something politically positive" for advancing the Palestinian cause, he added.

Related Links
Space War News

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
WAR REPORT
Israel army shows reporters tunnel in Gaza hospital
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories (AFP) Nov 22, 2023
Israeli soldiers escorted journalists through a war-ravaged landscape to Gaza's largest hospital Wednesday, to show them a tunnel shaft they said was part of a vast underground network Hamas uses for military purposes. For weeks Al-Shifa hospital in the northern Gaza Strip has been the focal point of the fight between Israel and the Palestinian militants. Israeli officials say Hamas has been using the hospital to hide weapons and command centres - a claim denied by medical staff and the Islamis ... read more

WAR REPORT
EU lawmakers reject proposal to halve pesticide use

Brazil to unveil plan to increase farmland by 60%

Shear bliss for New Zealand's pampered sheep

Top producer Ivory Coast fears for cocoa output after rains

WAR REPORT
US chip curbs trip up China's AI-hungry tech giants

Alibaba cancels cloud service spinoff over US chip restrictions

First 2D semiconductor with 1000 transistors developed at EPFL Switzerland

Atomic dance gives rise to a magnet

WAR REPORT
Philippines, Australia launch joint air and sea patrols

X-59 gets a Patriotic makeover

Navy aircraft with 9 crew members crashes into water off Hawaii

Japan PM voices 'serious concerns' to Xi on Chinese military activity, Russia collaboration

WAR REPORT
Speed limit cut and car-sharing coming for jammed Paris ring road

Toyota ad rapped as 'irresponsible' to the environment

Hyundai opens high-tech Singapore electric car factory

US transition to electric vehicles faces delays

WAR REPORT
Argentina's Milei may find an unexpected friend in the IMF

China and Uruguay upgrade ties as leaders meet in Beijing

China opens probe into indebted asset management firm

Country Garden shares jump after China signals fresh support

WAR REPORT
Plants can absorb more CO2 from human activities than previously expected

Clearing mangroves makes 'muddification' worse

Kenyans brave heavy rain to plant trees

Forests could absorb much more carbon, but does it matter?

WAR REPORT
Massive 2022 eruption reduced ozone levels

Topographic changes on Earth measured

NASA's PACE arrives in Florida for final processing for 2024 launch

EagleView Unveils Developer Portal to Enhance Geospatial Intelligence Integration

WAR REPORT
Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.