Israeli tanks thunder into Gaza
The Voice of Palestine broadcasting centre warned of the "invading Israelis", minutes before an explosion destroyed the building
Suzanne Goldenberg in Gaza
Friday February 22, 2002
The Guardian
The tanks thundered through Gaza's darkened streets after midnight, and at the Voice of Palestine broadcasting centre, the security guards' radios squawked the alarm: "The Israelis are invading, the Israelis are invading. They have come to take the town."
The workers at the station fled; one technician jumped out of a second storey window, shattering his leg.
But the armoured invasion - the first on Gaza City since the start of the Palestinian uprising 17 months ago - went only as far as the hill housing the radio and television centre.
Forty-five minutes after the column of 18 tanks rumbled up the hill, covered by a spray of gunfire, a massive explosion ripped through the night.
"It was enormous - much much louder than the sound of a bomb being dropped by an F-16," said Ibrahim Ahmed, an engineer on the night shift. "People heard it 10km away."
And with that, the Voice of Palestine - a constant irritant to the Israeli government which accuses it of broadcasting messages of incitement - was off the air. Twin four-storey buildings were reduced to wildly slanting sheets of masonry and stacks of rubble. The station's $200,000 antenna curved like a rainbow over the wreckage, covered with the slithering ribbons of audio and video cassettes.
"That was a radio studio, and that was the control room," said engineer Ala Kalaja, pointing rubble.
Although television broadcasts resumed three hours after the explosion from a transmitter inside Yasser Arafat's beachfront compound, engineers reckon it could be six months before the Voice of Palestine returns. Its engineers spent the morning salvaging equipment from the ruins of their destroyed workplace.
In Gaza City, and other towns in the territory targeted by Israeli air and ground assaults overnight, the destruction caused little surprise. The last week has seen the most sustained violence of the 17-month uprising, with nearly 40 Palestinians, and 10 Israelis killed since Monday.
After six Israeli soldiers were killed at an army checkpoint in the West Bank on Tuesday night, the cruel logic of vengeance that has ruled over both Israelis and Palestinians demanded punishment, and it came.
"During the last days, they lost many soldiers, so we knew they would try to kill as many people on our side as they can," said Eyad Sobhi, a salesman in the southern town of Rafah.
On Wednesday night, F-16 warplanes flattened the police headquarters. Israeli helicopter gunships returned again yesterday morning, firing missiles on the offices of the elite Force 17, Palestinian security detail and the military intelligence. Meanwhile, the tanks thundered in, roaring into a refugee camp that borders Egypt in the pre-dawn hours, and razing a police post.
In these parts of Gaza - as in other towns of the West Bank that have been repeatedly in vaded by the Israeli army over the last months - such incursions have become almost routine. No policemen were injured in the assaults on Palestinian security installations because Mr Arafat's security forces have been sleeping in tents for months, pitched in a park across from the police station.
But this time there was a new ferocity to the assault. The soldiers mounted a block of flats, picking off four Palestinian gunmen in the lanes below.
"This time they went farther and farther. They shot at everything - including ambulances," said Anis Hussein. Two others were killed in the assault on the camp.
At 3am, Mr Hussein's daughter, Maha, aged 13, got up to go to the toilet. The front door of their home was open a crack. A bullet ricocheted off the breezeblock front of the house, found the gap, and buried itself in Maha's thigh.
"The worst thing was getting to the ambulance because they were afraid to come here," Mr Hussein said. So he cradled his screaming daughter in his arms and ran out the door, weaving between doorways and narrow passageways, with one eye fixed continually on the revolving cannon on the tank at the end of his road.
By daylight, such stories were losing their drama - so accustomed have the people of Rafah become to assaults by Israeli tanks and attack helicopters.
The crowd drifted away be fore Mr Hussein could finish his account.
In the lanes of Rafah yesterday, there was little discernible fear or excitement, only a dull acceptance that this is the way things must be.
On a dusty road near a jelly factory that marked the furthest reaches of invasion, a gang of children scrambled over a tank track. Some teenagers claimed it was a victory trophy - culled from an Israeli tank that was disabled by a mine.
The Israeli army said it had no reports of a disabled tank.
"These tanks are the most sophisticated weapons, but now you see we have demolished it," said Raed Limgari. "So you see some good came out of the night."
24 hours of violence
� Israeli tanks move into Gaza City for the first time since the start of the intifada and blow up the Voice of Palestine broadcasting headquarters
� Three gunmen are among six Palestinians killed as Israeli tanks make their deepest incursion into lands in Rafah since the start of the uprising. Forty others are wounded including a pregnant woman and a girl, aged 13. F-16 warplane flattens police HQ overnight. Helicopter gunships fire missiles at buildings housing Force 17 elite security detail, and military intelligence
� Palestinian gunman opens fire on Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in Baka al-Sharkiyeh. Troops return fire, killing the gunman and an Israeli Arab, the army says
� Israeli troops shoot dead a gunman near an army post in the West Bank and a 27-year-old Palestinian trying to cross the Qalandiya checkpoint with his wife and baby daughter
� Helicopter gunships attack Yasser Arafat's HQ in Ramallah
� Helicopter gunships hit a Force-17 HQ in Ramallah and police offices in Nablus and Jenin
� Palestinian police in Nablus say they have arrested three suspects in the assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi last October
� Explosive device thrown at Israeli troops near Hebron, the army says
� Israeli warships fire at Palestinian Authority security compounds on Gaza coast
� Israeli soldier wounded near a checkpoint in the Jordan valley, apparently by his own weapon
When asked for comments by the world media 'Mick' (ie the dodgy contributor to this site) was quite clear that unless his fellow baerwald fans got on their MP's (woops!) congressmen's backs, but not literally, they would likely get it in the neck sometime themseleves as the USA clearly is on one side of this war and he feared that some lunatic extremist was using all this to fuel a sense of outrage amongst malleable disenfranchised arabs...
the downward spiral
mick
location: Shambala
listening to: Sounds that can’t be made
registered: 2001.10.26
posts: 5114
[view all posts]
[view all posts]
–--
a truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent
a truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent
mick
(view)
Israeli tanks thunder into Gaza
The Voice of Palestine broadcasting centre warned of the "invading Israelis", minutes before an explosion destroyed the building
Suzanne Goldenberg in Gaza
Friday February 22, 2002
The Guardian
The tanks thundered through Gaza's darkened streets after midnight, and at the Voice of Palestine broadcasting centre, the security guards' radios squawked the alarm: "The Israelis are invading, the Israelis are invading. They have come to take the town."
The workers at the station fled; one technician jumped out of a second storey window, shattering his leg.
But the armoured invasion - the first on Gaza City since the start of the Palestinian uprising 17 months ago - went only as far as the hill housing the radio and television centre.
Forty-five minutes after the column of 18 tanks rumbled up the hill, covered by a spray of gunfire, a massive explosion ripped through the night.
"It was enormous - much much louder than the sound of a bomb being dropped by an F-16," said Ibrahim Ahmed, an engineer on the night shift. "People heard it 10km away."
And with that, the Voice of Palestine - a constant irritant to the Israeli government which accuses it of broadcasting messages of incitement - was off the air. Twin four-storey buildings were reduced to wildly slanting sheets of masonry and stacks of rubble. The station's $200,000 antenna curved like a rainbow over the wreckage, covered with the slithering ribbons of audio and video cassettes.
"That was a radio studio, and that was the control room," said engineer Ala Kalaja, pointing rubble.
Although television broadcasts resumed three hours after the explosion from a transmitter inside Yasser Arafat's beachfront compound, engineers reckon it could be six months before the Voice of Palestine returns. Its engineers spent the morning salvaging equipment from the ruins of their destroyed workplace.
In Gaza City, and other towns in the territory targeted by Israeli air and ground assaults overnight, the destruction caused little surprise. The last week has seen the most sustained violence of the 17-month uprising, with nearly 40 Palestinians, and 10 Israelis killed since Monday.
After six Israeli soldiers were killed at an army checkpoint in the West Bank on Tuesday night, the cruel logic of vengeance that has ruled over both Israelis and Palestinians demanded punishment, and it came.
"During the last days, they lost many soldiers, so we knew they would try to kill as many people on our side as they can," said Eyad Sobhi, a salesman in the southern town of Rafah.
On Wednesday night, F-16 warplanes flattened the police headquarters. Israeli helicopter gunships returned again yesterday morning, firing missiles on the offices of the elite Force 17, Palestinian security detail and the military intelligence. Meanwhile, the tanks thundered in, roaring into a refugee camp that borders Egypt in the pre-dawn hours, and razing a police post.
In these parts of Gaza - as in other towns of the West Bank that have been repeatedly in vaded by the Israeli army over the last months - such incursions have become almost routine. No policemen were injured in the assaults on Palestinian security installations because Mr Arafat's security forces have been sleeping in tents for months, pitched in a park across from the police station.
But this time there was a new ferocity to the assault. The soldiers mounted a block of flats, picking off four Palestinian gunmen in the lanes below.
"This time they went farther and farther. They shot at everything - including ambulances," said Anis Hussein. Two others were killed in the assault on the camp.
At 3am, Mr Hussein's daughter, Maha, aged 13, got up to go to the toilet. The front door of their home was open a crack. A bullet ricocheted off the breezeblock front of the house, found the gap, and buried itself in Maha's thigh.
"The worst thing was getting to the ambulance because they were afraid to come here," Mr Hussein said. So he cradled his screaming daughter in his arms and ran out the door, weaving between doorways and narrow passageways, with one eye fixed continually on the revolving cannon on the tank at the end of his road.
By daylight, such stories were losing their drama - so accustomed have the people of Rafah become to assaults by Israeli tanks and attack helicopters.
The crowd drifted away be fore Mr Hussein could finish his account.
In the lanes of Rafah yesterday, there was little discernible fear or excitement, only a dull acceptance that this is the way things must be.
On a dusty road near a jelly factory that marked the furthest reaches of invasion, a gang of children scrambled over a tank track. Some teenagers claimed it was a victory trophy - culled from an Israeli tank that was disabled by a mine.
The Israeli army said it had no reports of a disabled tank.
"These tanks are the most sophisticated weapons, but now you see we have demolished it," said Raed Limgari. "So you see some good came out of the night."
24 hours of violence
� Israeli tanks move into Gaza City for the first time since the start of the intifada and blow up the Voice of Palestine broadcasting headquarters
� Three gunmen are among six Palestinians killed as Israeli tanks make their deepest incursion into lands in Rafah since the start of the uprising. Forty others are wounded including a pregnant woman and a girl, aged 13. F-16 warplane flattens police HQ overnight. Helicopter gunships fire missiles at buildings housing Force 17 elite security detail, and military intelligence
� Palestinian gunman opens fire on Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in Baka al-Sharkiyeh. Troops return fire, killing the gunman and an Israeli Arab, the army says
� Israeli troops shoot dead a gunman near an army post in the West Bank and a 27-year-old Palestinian trying to cross the Qalandiya checkpoint with his wife and baby daughter
� Helicopter gunships attack Yasser Arafat's HQ in Ramallah
� Helicopter gunships hit a Force-17 HQ in Ramallah and police offices in Nablus and Jenin
� Palestinian police in Nablus say they have arrested three suspects in the assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi last October
� Explosive device thrown at Israeli troops near Hebron, the army says
� Israeli warships fire at Palestinian Authority security compounds on Gaza coast
� Israeli soldier wounded near a checkpoint in the Jordan valley, apparently by his own weapon
When asked for comments by the world media 'Mick' (ie the dodgy contributor to this site) was quite clear that unless his fellow baerwald fans got on their MP's (woops!) congressmen's backs, but not literally, they would likely get it in the neck sometime themseleves as the USA clearly is on one side of this war and he feared that some lunatic extremist was using all this to fuel a sense of outrage amongst malleable disenfranchised arabs...
The Voice of Palestine broadcasting centre warned of the "invading Israelis", minutes before an explosion destroyed the building
Suzanne Goldenberg in Gaza
Friday February 22, 2002
The Guardian
The tanks thundered through Gaza's darkened streets after midnight, and at the Voice of Palestine broadcasting centre, the security guards' radios squawked the alarm: "The Israelis are invading, the Israelis are invading. They have come to take the town."
The workers at the station fled; one technician jumped out of a second storey window, shattering his leg.
But the armoured invasion - the first on Gaza City since the start of the Palestinian uprising 17 months ago - went only as far as the hill housing the radio and television centre.
Forty-five minutes after the column of 18 tanks rumbled up the hill, covered by a spray of gunfire, a massive explosion ripped through the night.
"It was enormous - much much louder than the sound of a bomb being dropped by an F-16," said Ibrahim Ahmed, an engineer on the night shift. "People heard it 10km away."
And with that, the Voice of Palestine - a constant irritant to the Israeli government which accuses it of broadcasting messages of incitement - was off the air. Twin four-storey buildings were reduced to wildly slanting sheets of masonry and stacks of rubble. The station's $200,000 antenna curved like a rainbow over the wreckage, covered with the slithering ribbons of audio and video cassettes.
"That was a radio studio, and that was the control room," said engineer Ala Kalaja, pointing rubble.
Although television broadcasts resumed three hours after the explosion from a transmitter inside Yasser Arafat's beachfront compound, engineers reckon it could be six months before the Voice of Palestine returns. Its engineers spent the morning salvaging equipment from the ruins of their destroyed workplace.
In Gaza City, and other towns in the territory targeted by Israeli air and ground assaults overnight, the destruction caused little surprise. The last week has seen the most sustained violence of the 17-month uprising, with nearly 40 Palestinians, and 10 Israelis killed since Monday.
After six Israeli soldiers were killed at an army checkpoint in the West Bank on Tuesday night, the cruel logic of vengeance that has ruled over both Israelis and Palestinians demanded punishment, and it came.
"During the last days, they lost many soldiers, so we knew they would try to kill as many people on our side as they can," said Eyad Sobhi, a salesman in the southern town of Rafah.
On Wednesday night, F-16 warplanes flattened the police headquarters. Israeli helicopter gunships returned again yesterday morning, firing missiles on the offices of the elite Force 17, Palestinian security detail and the military intelligence. Meanwhile, the tanks thundered in, roaring into a refugee camp that borders Egypt in the pre-dawn hours, and razing a police post.
In these parts of Gaza - as in other towns of the West Bank that have been repeatedly in vaded by the Israeli army over the last months - such incursions have become almost routine. No policemen were injured in the assaults on Palestinian security installations because Mr Arafat's security forces have been sleeping in tents for months, pitched in a park across from the police station.
But this time there was a new ferocity to the assault. The soldiers mounted a block of flats, picking off four Palestinian gunmen in the lanes below.
"This time they went farther and farther. They shot at everything - including ambulances," said Anis Hussein. Two others were killed in the assault on the camp.
At 3am, Mr Hussein's daughter, Maha, aged 13, got up to go to the toilet. The front door of their home was open a crack. A bullet ricocheted off the breezeblock front of the house, found the gap, and buried itself in Maha's thigh.
"The worst thing was getting to the ambulance because they were afraid to come here," Mr Hussein said. So he cradled his screaming daughter in his arms and ran out the door, weaving between doorways and narrow passageways, with one eye fixed continually on the revolving cannon on the tank at the end of his road.
By daylight, such stories were losing their drama - so accustomed have the people of Rafah become to assaults by Israeli tanks and attack helicopters.
The crowd drifted away be fore Mr Hussein could finish his account.
In the lanes of Rafah yesterday, there was little discernible fear or excitement, only a dull acceptance that this is the way things must be.
On a dusty road near a jelly factory that marked the furthest reaches of invasion, a gang of children scrambled over a tank track. Some teenagers claimed it was a victory trophy - culled from an Israeli tank that was disabled by a mine.
The Israeli army said it had no reports of a disabled tank.
"These tanks are the most sophisticated weapons, but now you see we have demolished it," said Raed Limgari. "So you see some good came out of the night."
24 hours of violence
� Israeli tanks move into Gaza City for the first time since the start of the intifada and blow up the Voice of Palestine broadcasting headquarters
� Three gunmen are among six Palestinians killed as Israeli tanks make their deepest incursion into lands in Rafah since the start of the uprising. Forty others are wounded including a pregnant woman and a girl, aged 13. F-16 warplane flattens police HQ overnight. Helicopter gunships fire missiles at buildings housing Force 17 elite security detail, and military intelligence
� Palestinian gunman opens fire on Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in Baka al-Sharkiyeh. Troops return fire, killing the gunman and an Israeli Arab, the army says
� Israeli troops shoot dead a gunman near an army post in the West Bank and a 27-year-old Palestinian trying to cross the Qalandiya checkpoint with his wife and baby daughter
� Helicopter gunships attack Yasser Arafat's HQ in Ramallah
� Helicopter gunships hit a Force-17 HQ in Ramallah and police offices in Nablus and Jenin
� Palestinian police in Nablus say they have arrested three suspects in the assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi last October
� Explosive device thrown at Israeli troops near Hebron, the army says
� Israeli warships fire at Palestinian Authority security compounds on Gaza coast
� Israeli soldier wounded near a checkpoint in the Jordan valley, apparently by his own weapon
When asked for comments by the world media 'Mick' (ie the dodgy contributor to this site) was quite clear that unless his fellow baerwald fans got on their MP's (woops!) congressmen's backs, but not literally, they would likely get it in the neck sometime themseleves as the USA clearly is on one side of this war and he feared that some lunatic extremist was using all this to fuel a sense of outrage amongst malleable disenfranchised arabs...
–--
a truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent
a truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent
