Gaza Journal: Warning Shots

GAZA, Palestine - Last week, the international community condemned Israel for the killing of unarmed demonstrators protesting the demolition of homes in Rafa refugee camp. The Israeli military claimed it was firing "warning shots" at the crowd, and that its operations in Rafa were necessary for Israeli security.

Before going to Rafa myself, I had my own experience of Israeli warning shots on Sunday while visiting Toufa refugee camp, a few kilometers north of Rafa in Khan Younis, Gaza. I was photographing the remains of Palestinian homes demolished by the Israeli military on the camp's western edge - guided by Ed Nyce, a peace development worker with Mennonite Central Committee, and Essam Matter and Moen El Shar, who work with one of MCC's partner organizations in Khan Younis. We had been surveying the damage there for maybe 15 minutes when a rapid series of loud cracks accompanied by the sting of flying concrete fragments told us we were under fire by the Israeli army post, which was separated from us to the west by several hundred meters of a sand and rubble no-man's-land.

Moen, who injured his thumb while finding cover, assured us that they were merely warning shots - that if they had wanted to hit us, they would have, illustrating this observation by pointing between his eyes.

But why would the Israeli army fire on us when we were presenting no obvious threat? We had been walking in plain view, and we received no other warning before bullets striking the concrete wall above our heads sent us scurrying for cover.

Upon returning to the Sharouq u Amal (Sunrise and Hope) children's center that MCC supports in Khan Younis, our story was greeted with concern and relief for our safety. But the center's director, Najwa Al-Farra, said that in a way she was glad we had had that experience, so that we could begin to understand and be even more motivated to tell our friends back home of the fear that people in occupied Palestine live with every day.

Earlier that same morning, we had visited the home of Jabril and Mohammed Maghrabi, brothers who attend the center. The wall of their bedroom is pocked with the bullet holes from Israeli gunfire. The boys' mother said that these shots are unprovoked and unpredictable - often coming in the middle of the night while the children are sleeping. Do these "warning shots" frighten them into submission to their occupiers? Jabril dreams of one day becoming a doctor. His brother Mohammed talks of becoming a resistance fighter.

That afternoon, we traveled to Rafa. Moen fears that his home there may also be at risk of demolition by Israeli forces. As we were speaking with a family camped near the rubble of their demolished home, Israeli troops opened fire on us once again, and we ran for cover with the refugee family.

Again we were in an open area, our activities were obvious and non-threatening, and we could only assume again that these were warning shots meant to scare us away.

We then visited the Hamsah School, one of three schools in Rafa that are housing some of the 1,000-plus people displaced by the Israeli military in recent weeks. There we met young Smaein Faramawi, whose left leg was in a plaster cast after being injured in a strike by a (U.S.-made) Apache helicopter that destroyed his home and killed three of his teenage friends.

Another man seeking shelter there asked Ed if telling us his story would really help them. Ed had to admit that no, our reporting would probably do little to improve their immediate situation, but that we still thought it was important to help people back home have a better understanding of what is happening. The man seemed to agree, saying that one thing we could do to help would be to "get your government to change its policy." He added, "We don't want food or water or clothing - we want freedom."

This story of warning shots is not meant to flaunt our experience of danger, but to respond as our Palestinian neighbors have asked - to tell this story to call attention to the often senseless violence they're facing constantly.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to actually be shot, or to be left homeless by a missile or tank or bulldozer. But I feel I now have a better understanding of the stupidity of violence, the flawed logic of all perpetrators of violence - Israeli or Palestinian, American or Iraqi - who believe that the terror of their violence will get them what they want, and not simply provoke greater resistance by the other side. That human instinct to resist violence gives me hope - accompanied by the fear that this resistance will simply take the form of further cycles of violence.

Ryan Beiler is Web editor for Sojourners. He is currently traveling in Israel/Palestine on a freelance photography assignment for the Mennonite Central Committee.