Civilians suffer as war drags on

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Source: CCTV.com | 01-05-2009 14:02

Residents of the bombarded Gaza Strip are demanding that their children stop being targeted in the Israeli offensive.

Without running water, ample food, and proper medical supplies, they find Israel's claim that a humanitarian crisis does not exist to be unconvincing.

A Palestinian man reacts at the hospital after two of his relatives were killed by an Israeli shell in Gaza January 4, 2009. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

Some Gazans ventured out of their homes to survey the destruction, as ambulances carries the dead and wounded to hospitals. Most shops, including bakeries, remained closed.

Israeli airplanes dropped leaflets urging residents to evacuate their homes to escape further air attacks. Umm Thaer, a mother of 12 and a resident of the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza, said she doesn't want to leave.

Umm Thaer, Khan Younis Refugee Camp Resident, said, "Why would we evacuate our homes? Why are they lying to the civilians? They say that their air strikes target the militants but this is all lies. They target the children and the houses. It's those who are sleeping who get hit in the air raids."

Medics say three Palestinian rescue workers were killed on Sunday, raising to seven the total number of medical staff who have died in nine days of bloodshed.

Of the more than 500 dead, a UN agency said at least a quarter were civilians. A Palestinian human rights group put the figure at 40 percent.

The United Nations said Gaza's utilities were barely functioning. Its electric power plant has shut down and the sanitation system cannot treat the sewage. Despite the winter cold, cooking gas and fuel for heating is no longer available.

Saeb Erekat, Chief Palestinian Negotiator, said, "Gaza is the most densely populated area on earth, 1.5 million people facing a dire human catastrophe."

From Bethlehem and Hebron to Beirut and Brussels, protests continued around the world on Sunday, and in some cases deteriorated into clashes. Some wore white sheets representing the sheets in which dead bodies are wrapped.

But with Israel accusing Hamas of using civilians as "human shields", and denying a humanitarian crisis exists in Gaza, an end to the suffering in Gaza still seems a long way off.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei