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Video: Gaza calls for unity amongst Palestinians

July 16, 2014 at 5:35 pm

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Gaza: This is a house, in a residential neighbourhood in the city of Gaza, which was bombed by an F-16 fighter plane. As we can see, this house was bombed by an Israeli fighter plane and was destroyed together with adjacent houses. We are now in the adjacent house to show you the remains of this destruction caused by Israeli fighter planes. Now we are walking into the neighbours’ house to show you how people are suffering in the Gaza Strip during these days of the month of Ramadan as a result of this Israeli war that continues to be waged on the Gaza Strip.

Inside the house, as we can see, the destruction caused here when the next door was targeted; this severe damage. The area has been turned into utter destruction in the shadow of continuing targeted bombings. More than 200 houses have been destroyed in the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip which is today in its fifth day. The number of martyrs and the wounded is rising. Two Palestinians were hit in this area because the house that was targeted at night had been warned by a call from Israeli intelligence giving the residences a few minutes, about five minutes, to evacuate the house and those surrounding it.

To get a closer glimpse of the picture, let’s hear from the people themselves about their suffering. Here I have with me the lady who owns this house. Peace be upon you.

Lady: And peace be upon you and the Mercy of God.

Al-Jazeera correspondent: Describe to us what happened here. How would you describe it?

Lady: In the name of God most gracious most merciful. Allah suffices us and we depend on him. We are in the month of Ramadan and it is six in the morning. Having just finished morning prayers and about to have a nap, a drone rocket was fired on our neighbours, then hardly two minutes later an F-16 rocket was fired, then five minutes later another F-16 rocket. You can see for yourself the destruction this has caused and what happened to the young children. This building has five flats. Five young men. I, my parents, my two brothers, a total of five families exist here. You can see the walls shattered. Are these the military targets Israel talks about? Would Israel consider that it has won the war by doing this? If these are the military targets, then we come out victorious. Praise be to Allah. If these are the targets, then let them destroy them on the top of our heads. Let them do that and God-willing we have houses in the 1948 lands [Israel]. We shall, we hope in God, build our houses in the 1948 lands. We have nothing do with anything. We are innocent citizens staying inside our houses. What is this? Where are the farmlands they talk about? Where are the naval pieces they talk about? Where are the missile storage areas they talk about? We live peacefully, we see no such people. This is a densely populated area with nearly 20,000 houses in the neighbourhood. Where are the targets they talk about? And yet, they run away from the rockets fired at their settlements. God-willing they will be rocked and shaken by them. I only appeal to our Palestinian brethren. We have no one [to stand with us] but God and ourselves. We shall stand before all the Arabs on the Day of Judgement to call them to account and say to them “our sons, our children, our resistance fighters and our men, we ask God to serve us justice”. So, I only appeal to our Palestinian people. O my people in the 1948 territories, in the West Bank and in Jerusalem, rise up, rise up, there is nothing left for us, we have nothing more to lose. Let them destroy our houses on top of our heads. God-willing we shall rebuild them on their own remains. We shall return to the 1948 lands.

Al-Jazeera correspondent: May Allah bestow patience upon you. This is the picture in Gaza and this is the constant struggle the people in Gaza are being subjected to during this ferocious war.