Shell-Shocked: On the Ground Under Israel’s Gaza Assault

293 Pages·2015·1.6 MB·English

by  Mohammed Omer

Operation Protective Edge, launched in early July 2014, was the third major
Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip in six years. It was also the most deadly. By the
conclusion of hostilities some seven weeks later, 2,200 of Gaza’s inhabitants had
been killed, and more than 10,000 injured.
In these pages, journalist Mohammed Omer, a resident of Gaza who lived
through the terror of those days with his wife and three-month-old son, provides
a first-hand account of life on the ground during Israel’s assault. The images he
records in this extraordinary chronicle are a literary equivalent of Goya’s
“Disasters of War”: children’s corpses stuffed into vegetable refrigerators; a
family rushing out of their home after a phone call from the Israeli military
informs them that the building will be obliterated by a missile in three minutes;
donkeys machine-gunned under instructions to Israeli soldiers to shoot anything
that moves; graveyards targeted with shells so that mourners can no longer tell
where their relatives are buried; fishing boats ablaze in the harbor.
Throughout this carnage, Omer maintains the cool detachment of the
professional journalist, determined to create a precise record of what is occurring
in front of him. But between his lines the outrage boils, and we are left to
wonder how a society such as Israel, widely-praised in the West as democratic
and civilized, can visit such monstrosities on a trapped and helpless population.
PRAISE FOR SHELL-SHOCKED
“Mohammed Omer could easily have escaped the horror of Israel’s impending
assault on the trapped and helpless people of Gaza. Instead, he chose to stay, to
record, in searing and vivid detail, the savagery of Israel’s latest escapade of
‘mowing the lawn’ and the steadfastness of the victims of a hideous tragedy.
Few can match his courage and integrity, but all of us who live in countries
providing the arms and diplomatic support that made Israel’s actions possible
should ponder his words and ask ourselves what has been done in our name and
what we should do about it.”
—NOAM CHOMSKY
“Read ShellShocked. It’s author says, ‘I’m a journalist and I owe it to my people
and the Israeli people to get to the truth.’ Thank you, Mohammed, the truth is
like water, a basic necessity … without it we will not survive.”
—ROGER WATERS
“Written with painful immediacy, these are more than dispatches from a war
zone: they convey the human reality of people who manage to survive and
endure in conditions that have grown grimmer and more inhumane over the
years.”
—RASHID KHALIDI
“With a terrible and necessary exactitude, Mohammed Omer’s war chronicle lets
the world know the devastating losses borne by the Gazan people bombarded by
Israeli forces in 2014.”
—JUDITH BUTLER
“The truth about Israel’s crimes in Gaza can never be forgotten, never
successfully lied about and covered-up, because Mohammed Omer was there.
This great reporter and his family were under fire day after day. When I phoned
him, I could hear the explosions outside his front door. Yet, day after day he
produced eyewitness dispatches of such clarity and brilliance that, almost single-
handed, he reclaimed the honour of real journalism.”
—JOHN PILGER
“From the very heart of Gaza, a witness to war: history will record Mohammed
Omer’s searing testimony about what was done to his homeland by Israel’s
‘Operation Protective Edge’ … This is journalism of the highest order.”
—JON SNOW, CHANNEL 4 NEWS
“If you only have time to read one book on Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza, let it be
this one. Mohammed Omer’s on-the-ground reporting is stunning and
unforgettable, giving access to a daily reality few can imagine let alone endure.
Omer describes the landscape of Palestinian life and death in this tiny strip of
land during this horrific period. Yet, his accounts are not only about the
immense suffering of Gaza’s people but about their remarkable resilience and
dignity, which cannot be destroyed. An act of conscience and documentation,
Omer’s book will remain with the reader long after it is read.”
—SARA ROY
ALSO BY MOHAMMED OMER
Oslo Accords 1993–2013: A Critical Assessment
(co-edited with Petter Bauck)

© 2015 Mohammed Omer
Published by OR Books, New York and London Visit our website at www.orbooks.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher, except brief passages for review purposes.
First printing 2015
Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress.
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-939293-92-3 paperback ISBN 978-1-939293-93-0 e-book
Cover photograph by Anas Baba.
Typesetting and e-book conversion by AarkMany Media, Chennai, India.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
When my son screams
Darkness falls on Gaza
Our bodies are spent, but our spirit endures
Silent fear in Gaza
Rafah open, but crossings slow, selective
As civilian death toll rises in Gaza, Hamas sees growing local support
Palestinian children killed in Israel strikes
Food and water shortages hit Gaza hard as prices spiral
Israeli jets destroying Gaza water and sewage systems: officials
A family struggles to keep hope alive in Gaza
Psychological warfare intensifies in Israel–Hamas conflict
Palestinian journalists under Israeli fire
“I never like the night”
Hamas and the cease-fire that wasn’t
Palestinians fear “no place is safe” in Gaza
Gaza’s school exam joy replaced by fear and loss
Hamas growing in military stature, say analysts
Ambulance workers brave Gaza dangers
The cautious silence in Gaza between the noises of war
No respite in Gaza as casualties rise
Gazans support resistance despite heavy toll
Israel strikes Gaza apartment blocks
90 percent darkness in Gaza
Gaza’s infrastructure on the verge of collapse
Gaza’s Shejaiya carnage at Shifa morgue
Tank shells were falling like hot raindrops”
Al-Aqsa Hospital hit as strikes on Gaza’s medical facilities continue
Hundreds of families seek refuge in Gaza’s Churches
Gaza’s only cell phone network may go down
Hiding in the shadow of the pastor in Gaza
Two dozen killed as several UNRWA schools hit in Gaza
Gaza about to run out of fuel, electricity: officials
“Only stones remain”: Gaza lies in ruins
Rescue teams: on Gaza’s front lines
Gaza pulverized beyond recognition
As Gazans mark Eid, killing is still Israel’s “favorite sport”
Gaza mourns the dead during a joyless Eid
Death toll soars in Gaza as Israel unleashes “fiercest” bombardment
In Gaza, even the dead get no peace
Gaza families bake Eid “cake of resistance”
Israeli buffer zone tightens Gaza chokehold
Gaza: no place to bury the dead
When a shelter is a target
Palestinians struggle to “dig out bodies”
Butchery in Rafah: the dead are kept in vegetable refrigerators
Nowhere to hide in Gaza
What do Gazans think of Hamas, Abbas and Israel’s strikes?
Gaza’s voice from under the staircase
Palestinians left facing the odds alone after cease-fire
Ahmed’s story and heartache for Gaza’s lost
Voices from Gaza: Survivors speak out
Missing in Khuza’a: Dead or arrested?