top
Palestine
Palestine
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Srifa was a bustling hillside village. Then yesterday the Israeli jets came

by UK Guardian (reposted)
Aliyah, 30, lay on a life support machine in the Jabal Amal hospital in a coma. She was one of a handful of survivors who made it out of Srifa, a village in south-east Lebanon. The man treating her put her chances of survival at less than 20%. "She has severe injuries and has lost a lot of blood," he said.
Fatima Ali Ashma was more fortunate, but not much more. She lay on a hospital bed struggling to breathe.

The force of the blast which overturned the mini van she was fleeing in crushed her chest, damaging her lungs. She sustained severe injuries to her neck and arm.

Speaking slowly and with difficulty, she described what had happened to her. "In the morning we woke up to find that 10 people in the village had been killed. The authorities told us that if we could leave we should get out. So we got in the car and left. As we were leaving, they bombed the road in front of us." There were 10 people in the van with Fatima: all were wounded. "No ambulance could get through. Everyone who could has left Srifa, but the dead bodies are still in the houses."

The attack destroyed 15 houses, killed at least 17, and wounded at least 30. It happened on a day in which 63 people were killed in the bloodiest day of the Middle East conflict so far.

Srifa sits on a hillside overlooking a coastal plain that leads down to a sandy bay which ends with the white cliffs of Naqora and the border with Israel. It was a local beauty spot, where tourists came to see turtles lay their eggs. But it is also in the Hizbullah heartland from which rockets been fired into Israel.

Yesterday, plumes of smoke could be seen rising from its red-tiled rooftops, outlined on the horizon, as the Israelis flattened it. "There was a massacre in Srifa," its mayor, Afif Najdi, told Reuters.

More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1824750,00.html
by UK Guardian (reposted)
Jonathan Steele in Beirut
Thursday July 20, 2006
The Guardian

In small pockets of misery and distress tucked away across Beirut, thousands of Lebanese refugees are sheltering from Israel's relentless bombing.

Up to half a million people have been displaced throughout Lebanon, according to according to Roberto Laurenti, the Beirut representative of the United Nations Children's Fund, sparking a humanitarian disaster.

For many refugees to Beirut the first port of call is Sanayeh, a once attractive park no bigger than a London garden square. Two hundred people slept on the grass there last night. Another 4,800, including about 950 babies less than two years old, who arrived over the past few days have been sent to 28 Beirut schools which have opened their doors. Thousands more people from the south have moved to friends and relatives or rented flats. Many are in other towns or in villages in the mountains, well away from the border, though nowhere in Lebanon is entirely safe.

More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1824706,00.html
by bustling village
For a few years we have had quiet on the northern border. The first week
of July in Safed was great - the parking lot was full of tour buses, the
Klezmer festival was wonderful, with 5 outdoor stages.

As I'm sure you know by now, the beautiful city of Safed is now a ghost
town. Every single shop is shut, even the food stores, almost everyone in
the old city has left for friends or relatives in the center (I'm hosting 2
friends with
their kids), and some artists houses and galleries have been damaged.

I personally open my gallery in Safed for July - August only, the rest of
the year I live in Moshav Hemed near the center of the country. I was there
until lastThursday, when katushas fell in the commercial center, 5 min. from
my house.
Thank G-d, I left an hour before a katusha fell on my neighbours house (the
Mor
family, whose 5 small children are all in hospital, 1 in critical condition,
the
parents were also injured).

My house was damaged, but mostly broken windows/doors. The gallery is ok.
Yonatan Darmon's house is closer to the blast- no doors or windows left. On
Shabbat, another one fell next to Avraham Lowenthal's studio/house, they
weren't home. None of us has even gone back to asses the situation.

by Long live the resistance
After seeing what Israel is doing to its neighbors (again) I wholeheartedly support the resistance now.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$80.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network