No Room for Civilians to Hide in Gaza, Israel

There are no fortified shelters to keep civilians safe in Gaza many reports say. 

This is also the case for most Arabs in Israel proper. 

We learned this fact in 2006 and a new AP report "Israeli Arabs on Gaza firing line lack shelter" confirms the facts:

A rocket exploded a few hundred yards from Mateb Abu Nasr's house, driving home the message that tens of thousands of Israeli Arabs living within range of militant attacks from Gaza are just as vulnerable as their Jewish neighbors.

But there's a difference: When the wailing sirens warned of an incoming missile, Abu Nasr's family had nowhere to hide.

Homes in Jewish towns and settlements are required to have one room with reinforced walls and a steel door. Public bomb shelters are accessible, and protective barriers even have been erected in rural areas.

The Arab town of Rahat, population 45,000, is about 24 miles from Gaza and is situated on the outer perimeter reachable by the long-range rockets that Hamas has unleashed for the first time. Few homes here have a safety room, and there are no public shelters

"This is clear discrimination," said Hassan el-Rafia, an Arab regional official, who says the lack of defenses is typical of the way Israel treats its Arab citizens. Arabs comprise about 20 percent of Israel's population of 7 million people.

In the Negev region of Israel where the Qassam rockets fall, space is the best shelter, as evidenced by the relatively low death count from years of homemade missiles being firedfrom Gaza.

The lack of shelter also holds in Gaza which is populated nearly completely with Arabic people, whether Muslim or Christian.  And the enclave is considered one of the most crowded places on earth overall.  So where do you hide an army you ask?  According to Jamal Dajani as reporting at New American Media , a senior director at Link TV currently at Nahal Oz (blue 'tack' ), the Israeli army is stationed in the areas in which the Israeli settlers used to live.  

From a sister report at the Huffington Post "Gaza Burning" by the same author:

They are mostly in the former settlement of Nitzerim, an open area which enables them to cut off the northern part from the southern part of Gaza.

But apparently shells are hitting the crowded urban areas.  In fact one family was warned to move from their home and went to a relative's house only to lose most of the extended family when a shell hit that home according to a report in the New York Times "Warnings Not Enough for Gaza Families "

The Samouni family knew they were in danger. They had been calling the Red Cross for two days, they said, begging to be taken out of Zeitoun, a poor area in eastern Gaza City that is considered a stronghold of Hamas. 

No rescuers came. Instead, Israeli soldiers entered their building late Sunday night and told them to evacuate to another building. They did. But at 6 a.m. on Monday, when a missile fired by an Israeli warplane struck the relatives’ house in which they had taken shelter, there was nowhere to run.

Eleven members of the extended Samouni family were killed and 26 wounded, according to witnesses and hospital officials, with five children age 4 and under among the dead.

It's interesting that Gaza rocketeer are charged with deliberately launching missiles at civilians when they do such a bad job of hitting them, while the Israelis loudly proclaim they are doing everything they can to avoid civilians while they do such a good job of hitting them. 

Also see "The War Against Gaza "

tags: israel  gaza  qassam rockets  

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