The following is from a doctor living in the Jabalia Camp inside Gaza:
Sent: Sunday, 9 March, 2008 8:07:29 AM
Subject: Re: Palestinians in the Midlands (UK) mourn the victims of Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank
Dear brother Kamel,
Thank you for your email and would like to send you how was my life during the brutal Israeli attacks.
“I am surrounded by firing on all sides of my house. We have no water or electricity and no phones and my children are thirsty. I am scared to death to take a cup of coffee for fear that my children won’t have any water to prevent dehydration. Sunday afternoon we decided to fast the second day.
Homelessness waits me around the corner or maybe in another five minutes, and that I was once homeless before,” Even when going to bed where the fire ceases, I start to imagine from where the bullet will come, from this window, this door or that wall. Or a bomb will destroy the wall and where the bullet will go to my head, chest arms or any part of my body. Even I started to think of my children who will be killed and what will happen if I was killed.
I am crying over Jabalya, because the Israelis have once again tried to silence the barrage of Hamas rockets that kill and maim and traumatize Israeli citizens. The greatest fallout is being heaped on the innocents civilians.
Jabalya is the largest of the Palestinian refugee camps (180,000), where I was born, raised and still living in. It was the birth place of the first Intifiada and people are looking for their rights to live in peace equally.
“How can the deaths of one or two innocent Israelis mean that we have to suffer the deaths of more than 130 innocent Palestinians in Gaza? Is that fair; can that be accepted by rational people of us. It will bring more animosity, hat redness and bloodshed. I am against sending rockets and I say this loudly, but in the meantime it needs from the Israelis also to condemn the Israeli attacks and Palestinian killings neither sending r?” (you know that I am against killing of human being and any civilian from both sides and no difference between Israeli and Palestinian blood, in the mean time I mentioned killing more than a hundred Palestinian civilians, the majority of whom are children and women will not bring peace to any I want to ask the Israeli leadership if they are serious about peace or not?
After Anapolis: Ehud Olmert announced to expand the Israeli settlements and started attacking Nablus and Ramallah. Are there any rockets from Nablus or Ramallah?
There is a need to work together and seriously to achieve the peace for all, not the peace that serves the interest of one group.
Immediate actions must be taken to prevent the situation from being irreversible and contain this violence.
In both communities there are enemies for peace. These actions start by building the trust through removing the check points and the closure on the Gaza Strip and have an independent state. At the same time Palestinians and Israelis had to work together and side by side to secure the lives of all.
All the best
I. A. MD, MPH
Jabalia Camp

3 March, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
Palestinians in the Midlands mourn the victims of Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank
Palestinians in the Midlands are mourning the death of over one hundred Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since 27 February including 70 fatalities on the 1st of March, amongst them were many civilians. They are shocked and horrified at the unfolding events in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and are concerned for the safety and wellbeing of relatives and friends who are again suffering under the collective punishment being meted out by Israel, a state that continues to operate above the Law and in defiance of accepted human rights conventions.
One particular member of the community, from Jabaliya in northern Gaza , has lost five close members of her family including 3 boys who were targeted by an Israeli missile while playing football outside their house. The children are Ali (8 years), Deeb (11 years) and Omar (14 years) all from the Dardona family. Her family are trapped in one room of their home, which has also been struck by an Israeli rocket.
Kamel Hawwash, Chair of the Midlands Palestinian Community Association (MPCA) said: “ Israel ’s cruelty against the helpless Palestinian people knows no bounds. Israel ’s Deputy Minister of defence, Matan Vilnai has declared that it intends to subject the people of Gaza to an increasing “Shoah” or “Holocaust”. We call on the British Government to intervene immediately to secure a halt to Israel ’s assault on the helpless Palestinain people”.
“Israeli forces also targeted medical teams and prevented from reaching the wounded. Members of an emergency medical team in Jabaliya were injured by Israeli gunfire while tending to an injured Palestinian. The man being stretchered away received further injuries while on a stretcher” said Mrs Abuarqub, MPCA Vice Chair and former worker with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
“ Israel ’s crimes will serve to reunite the Palestinian people and to strengthen their resolve to remain in their homeland and to resist the Israeli occupation until it has ended and a free, independent Palestine has been born. Israel ’s actions demonstrate that it talks peace but practices war and destruction” Hawwash added.
Kamel Hawwash
Chair
Midlands Palestinian Community Association (MPCA)