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Gaza War Doctor, Peace Activist Grieves Three Daughters

by Blue Crush | January 16, 2009 at 09:47 pm

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A Palestinian doctor who provided Israeli TV viewers with updates on the human toll of the violence in Gaza has now reported a personal tragedy. A fixture on Israeli television, he's now lost three daughters to bombing, and has rushed at least two other children to a Tel Aviv hospital.

Friday's report was different - with sobs, he told how three daughters and a niece were killed by an Israeli shell. "I want to know why my daughters were harmed," Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish said on Channel 10. "This should haunt (Israeli Ehud Prime Minister) Olmert his entire life."

Throughout the 21-day war, Abu al-Aish has brought accounts of war's tragedy to Israeli living rooms, making him for many the voice of Palestinian suffering.

Adu al-Aish works at Gaza's main Shifa Hospital and is a known peace activist involved in promoting joint Israeli-Palestinian projects, and an academic who studied the affects of war on Gazan and Israeli children.

The 55 year old gynecologist is a rarity among Palestinians, a Hebrew speaker who trained in two Israeli hospitals. His wife had died recently and he often spoke of his fears for his eight children during his broadcasts.

Israeli TV said initial reports indicated that a sniper had fired from either the family's building - which friends quoted by TV said they doubted - or nearby, and the Israeli infantry responded with a tank shell.

Abu al-Aish was able to arrange the transfer of two injured daughters to Israeli hospitals - something that has been extremely rare during this conflict. The Israeli army also for the first time allowed a Palestinian ambulance to go straight to the Erez border crossing, where the injured were transferred to Israeli ambulances.

"Everyone knew we were home. Suddenly we were bombed. How can we talk to Olmert and (Foreign Minister) Tzipi Livni after this?" Abu Al-Aish told TV reporters at the border crossing.

"Suddenly, today when there was hope for a cease-fire, on the last day... I was speaking with my children, suddenly they bombed us. The doctor that treats Israeli patients."

Gazan officials identified Abu Al-Aish's deceased daughters as 22-year-old Bisan, 15-year-old Mayer and 14-year old Aya. His niece was identified as 14-year-old Nour Abu al-Aish. At least two other daughters were injured and are being treated in Tel Aviv, Israel.

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Paschen

at 21:48 on January 16th, 2009

...

David Y. (not verified)

at 15:56 on January 17th, 2009

des (not verified)

at 02:48 on January 17th, 2009

Firing shells into built up residential areas in response to alleged sniper fire?

The awful tragic irony here is that it is the Palestinians not the bulk of modern day Israelis who now understand what it is like to live in ghettoes or under Nazi like oppression. The Israelis themselves appear to have forgotten and its clear that Hannah Arendt's views on the banality of evil -the fact that ordinary people can inflict the most unspeakable horrors on other human beings - is now totally applicable to the Israelis. This man lost his daughters through an act of state sponsored evil.