[MUST READ] These Nine Graphics Show The Facts About What Life Is Really Like In Gaza
To understand what's really going on in Gaza, it's important to go beyond the headlines, and take a deeper look at the suffering faced by civilians this past week. We are listing down nine infographics that will help you gain a better understanding of what life is like for Gazans right now.
By Sadho Ram — 13 Jul 2014, 11:50 AM — Updated over 10 years ago
For those of us outside of Gaza, it's impossible to grasp what it's like to be there right now. But the tense escalation suggests that the bloodshed of previous strikes may be to come.
Between December 2008 and January 2009, Israeli strikes in Operation Cast Lead killed 1,391 Gazans — 344 of whom, according to Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, were children.
btselem.org
Just a few years later, in November 2012, 167 Palestinians were killed in an escalation. These victims don't usually have names or faces in the mainstream media, but they were the family members and friends of the people who have to continue leading their lives as usual in the Gaza Strip.
btselem.org
1. Gaza's 1.6 million residents are restricted to 141 square miles
2. Israel's escalation on Gaza hinges on its sophisticated anti-missile system
4. Food insecurity and water shortages are a fact of life in Gaza
6. A "period of calm" in Gaza means serious and deadly violence. In other words the "period of calm" is only "calm" for Israel.
This shows the hostilities that occurred in the period after Operation Pillar of Cloud in 2012
Image via aljazeera.com7. Israel's military might is many times more powerful than the Palestinians
8. During Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09, 1,391 Palestinians were killed in Gaza. In Israel, 4 Israelis were killed.
9. It's not just in Gaza operations that vastly more Palestinians perish than Israelis
Currently, Israel has ignored international appeals for cease-fire and widened its range of Gaza bombing targets to civilian institutions with suspected Hamas ties and deployed ground troops inside Gaza for the first time
A ball of fire is seen following an Israeli airstrike on Friday in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip
Image via wsj.netMore than 156 Palestinians have been killed in five days of bombardment. Four Israeli soldiers were hurt in clashes during the brief incursion to destroy a rocket launching site in northern Gaza, the military said. It said they have returned to Israeli territory.
edmontonjournal.comIt was the first time that Israeli ground troops are known to have entered Gaza in the current offensive. But the operation was carried out by special forces and did not appear to be the beginning of a broad ground offensive. On Saturday, Israel announced it would hit northern Gaza "with great force" to prevent rocket attacks from there on Israel.
One of the Israeli strikes hit a centre for the disabled where two patients were killed and four people seriously hurt
Palestinians removed a body from the rubble of their home that was destroyed in an Israeli air raid on Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Friday. Five Palestinians, including a woman and seven-year-old child, died when the house was hit, and 15 people were wounded, a Gaza emergency services spokesman said.
Image via thedailystar.netIn a second attack, on Saturday evening, an Israeli warplane flattened the home of Gaza's police chief and damaged a nearby mosque as evening prayers ended, killing at least 18 people, officials said.
edmontonjournal.comIn New York, the U.N. Security Council called unanimously for a cease-fire, while Britain's foreign minister said he will discuss cease-fire efforts with his American, French and German counterparts on Sunday. So far, neither Israel nor Gaza's Hamas rulers have signalled willingness to stop.
inquirer.net