Day #4 – July 10, 2014 – Nowhere to go

The first ten days of Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’ were conducted from the ‘safety’ of distance utilizing Israel’s superior air power against the tiny enclave of the Gaza Strip.

Just how large is Gaza? Some comparisons may help put things into perspective.

The Gaza Strip is only 139 square miles,  about the same size as Detroit (138.8 square miles), Philadelphia (134.1), Las Vegas (135.8), or Portland, Oregon (133.4).  With its population at approximately 1.82 million people,  Gaza has a population density of 13,064 people per square mile. That’s about half the density of New York City (27,778 people per square mile) and about equal with Boston (13,321 people per square mile).

The Gaza Strip outlined in green. Egypt to the left (south) and Israel on the north and east. The Mediterranean on the west.

Thanks to this website, we can make some comparisons with other cities.

New York City – population 8.405 million (2013)

Melbourne – population 4.077 million (2010)

Los Angeles – population 3.858 million

London – population 8.308 million (2013)

Berlin – population 3.502 million (2012)

Tokyo – population 13.35 million (2014)

More comparison maps are available here. And check out the Washington Post’s density comparisons here.

The biggest difference between the Gaza Strip and Los Angeles, Berlin, New York or any other large city is that if missiles are striking from above, people in those other cities can leave, run for dear life to a shelter somewhere away from the battle zone. But no one can leave Gaza. Israel has closed the borders of Gaza, effectively imprisoning 1.8 million men, women and children who have nowhere to flee. In fact, Israel has blockaded Gaza for the past 8 years.

Israeli military commanders often boast about their precision weapons, claiming they minimize civilian casualties and “collateral damage.”  The reality is that the men, women and children in the Gaza Strip are guinea pigs in this obscene war game scenario.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF)  supplied 5,000 tons of munitions to its troops to use in this campaign last summer, more than a 533% increase over the amount of munitions the IDF used in Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09. (UN Report #408)  They carried out more than 6,000 airstrikes in Gaza in July–August 2014.  As a result, 142 Palestinian families had three or more members killed in the same incident owing to the destruction of residential buildings, for a total of 742 fatalities. An even higher figure is reported by some non-governmental organizations, which speak of 1,066 people, including 370 children and 241 women, killed inside their homes. (UN Report #111)

IMAGINE LIVING IN NEW YORK CITY, BOSTON,

OR LOS ANGELES AND RUNNING FOR COVER!

Israel is imposing collective punishment against all Gazans, attacking hospitals, schools, and power stations. (Photo: Imgur) http://fpif.org/violating-international-law-gaza/