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Red Crescent Society Every day I have been trying to get news to the world through radio interviews and writing in email, on Facebook. Telling the world what is happening to us. Reminding the world that we are not just numbers. We are human beings with stories, dreams, anger, laughter and everything in between. Trying to get the world to listen to the voices from Gaza, while Israel’s lies are told again and again in a much louder voice. You are a friend of MECA, so I know you understand all this. I am writing to ask you to show your caring and solidarity by making a contribution to the Middle East Children's Alliance now. Every day I go to the Red Crescent Society to treat children, women and men who are coming in with terrible injuries—head wounds and missing limbs, severe burns and shrapnel in their bodies. And we are running out of medicine. On the way home, I see families trying to live in bombed out homes—or no homes at all. I see the terrified faces of the children clinging to their parents and covering their ears from the horrible sounds of bombs. Last week, three children were killed on their way to buy food. Please give as generously as you can now. MECA will send funds for me and our Gaza team to: • Purchase medicine and supplies for patients at the Red Crescent Society and Al-Awda Hospital • Distribute milk and food to families who have lost their homes or have no source of income at all • Continue activities to provide psychological support to children once the bombing stops For an entire week, we have lived with the drones and jet fighters in the sky, with gunboats or warships hitting Gaza from the sea. Now tanks and soldiers are lining up on the border to raid Gaza any minute. And this assault against Gaza is on top of a very deteriorating humanitarian situation, with shortages of almost everything, including clean water, electricity and sanitation. So, please, I ask you to speak out, to march, to tell everyone what is happening to us. That we have no bomb shelters and our homes are being destroyed. That we are being attacked and killed only because we are Palestinians. That we are trapped in Gaza with no exits. That the majority of us are refugees and were pushed into the Gaza Strip during the 1948 Nakba. And, please, right now, give so the children can survive and have the chance to grow up healthy and strong. Please be as generous as you can. In Solidarity, Dr. Mona El-Farra, Red Crescent Society Mona Elfrra This is a message from Dr Mona Qasim Alfarra, who directs one of the hospitals in Gaza and who works day and night with her colleagues to provide health care and psychological support, especially for children. She posted it in Arabic on her Facebook this morning (Gaza time): Red Crescent Society Day 4 of the attack Where shall I start? How shall I start? Shall I start with the numbers which keep increasing and changing? 90 killed, mainly civilians. 600 injured. 140 demolished homes. Or should I start by mentioning all the different areas of the Gaza Strip that have been constantly hit, day and night. Nonstop. If it is only about numbers, then let me tell you all about thousands of Palestinian children who are terrified night after night, day after day by the sounds of the Israeli shelling. The children have deep feelings of insecurity when it is dark. And no shelters. The Israeli army has restarted their punitive home demolition policy, illegal under international law. Yesterday a six-story building where my relatives live in Khan Younis was hit and leveled to the ground. 106 relatives were made homeless. Even if the Israeli army’s goal was to punish one of Hamas activists, there is no justification for this cruel, brutal and collective punishment. Eight members of the Kawarea family were killed in Khan Younis. when the jetfighters destroyed their home. The Israeli army spokesman said sorry it was a mistake. What a gentle, well-behaved, and civilized army. Walking through the streets of Gaza City where I live can be a real nightmare. The drones and fighter jets are in the sky and you cannot anticipate what will happen in the next minute. Are they going to target a car behind you or in front of you? Will you be caught in the blast? Will others be dying right that minute somewhere else? Will others will be forced to leave their home in 5 minutes only to be bombed 2 minutes later? Yet despite the fear, I had to go to the Red Crescent Society of the Gaza Strip to be with the medical emergency team and help as much as I could. This morning we received an injured deaf young man from Jabalia. He was working in a farm that was hit. Tens of cows and sheep were killed too. I am so tired and sleepless. I don’t feel settled outside my home despite the generosity of my friends who are hosting me. But my building, my neighborhood, are too unsafe. Nowhere is safe. but with intense shelling nearby and broken windows, I had to leave. The shelling is continuous, crazy and everywhere. Warships fire missiles against the beach in Gaza City. Rafah town is under severe missile shelling , 10 people in Rafah were killed when their home was leveled to the ground by an American-made F16. The UN agency that runs schools and clinics for Palestinian refugees opened its schools to receive homeless people from different areas. Now larger numbers of people will drink from MECA water purification units. Nobody is asleep in Gaza. No place is safe. The Israeli military attacks are coming from every direction. From Gaza with love,
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