Fatima: "But it`s them who are the terrorists” - Gaza civilians strain under weight of “Israeli” attacks

Source: AFP, 03-11-2006
BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip: Abu Luaye Zaanin and his family have not left their home on the outskirts of Beit Hanun since the "Israeli" Army launched an incursion into the northern Gaza town early Wednesday. "The `Israelis` are shooting at anything that moves," he says.
They are not alone - most residents of this town have stayed off the streets since the start of "Operation Autumn Clouds."
"Israeli" tanks are posted at all the entrances to the town, whose streets have become battlefields between militants and "Israeli" soldiers. Only the occasional ambulance drives in and out, sirens wailing, to take victims of the clashes to hospital.
"For two days we haven`t moved from here," says Abu Luaye`s wife Fatima, surrounded by her three young daughters. "We all sleep in the living room. We are afraid to go upstairs or to the porch on the other side of the house. We are scared that they`ll see us."
Abu Luaye gets up to get a pot of steaming tea.
"It is one of the most difficult incursions that we`ve seen. During the previous ones, they didn`t occupy the whole city. Today they are everywhere," he says to the sound of a nearby explosion.
"This morning they killed one of our neighbors, Diab Bassiuni, on the corner of the street. He went out to get some water and they killed him. He was 70 years old. He wasn`t armed," Fatima says.
She gets up, carefully sticks her head outside the door and points to blood smears on the ground a dozen meters away: "Look - that`s where he died, may his soul rest in peace."
The radio inside the house is tuned to news bulletins. Suddenly the program is interrupted by a somber voice: "This is a message from the `Israeli` Army. "The [army] has entered Beit Hanun and asks all the inhabitants to stay at home until further notice." Several minutes later, the same voice relays another message: "The army is conducting a vast operation in Beit Hanun against (so-called) `terrorist` elements to prevent them from attacking `Israel`."
Fatima explodes with rage: "But it`s them who are the terrorists, not us! You see how they make us live."
"We haven`t had electricity since [Wednesday] night, and if this continues we won`t have water and food," says Abu Luaye.
Their fears are common ones.
"There are several tanks and bulldozers 80 meters from my house," Mohammad Awda, 37, a Zaanin family friend, says by telephone from his home in western Beit Hanun, not far from the "Israeli" border.
"They`ve destroyed the water system here and the electricity network," Awda adds. "I think they`ll stay in the town for a long time and I don`t know what we will do."