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GAZA-STUDENTS (UPDATED) Nov-8-2006 (660 words) With photos posted Nov. 6. xxxi
Gaza students traumatized by fighting, says parish priest
By Judith Sudilovsky
Catholic News Service
JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Students at a Catholic school in the Gaza Strip were left traumatized by days of fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen, said the local parish priest.
The school, run by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, is about five miles from Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, areas the Israelis targeted when they entered Gaza Nov. 1, said Father Manuel Musallam, a priest at Holy Family Parish.
He said Nov. 6 that about 20 of the school's 650 students and two teachers who live in Beit Hanoun had been unable to leave their homes since the start of the military operation.
"We can't help (our students.) All the teachers ... are in the same trauma (as the students)," said Father Musallam.
Although the Israeli army withdrew from the area Nov. 7, the next day Israeli artillery shells killed 18 civilians in Beit Hanoun. Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the Gaza shelling to stop until an investigation is completed.
Father Musallam said the teachers and students from the parish school had not yet returned by midmorning Nov. 7.
The priest said that students were frightened Nov. 6 and wanted to go home when they heard that a 16-year-old boy was killed and a teacher critically injured when an Israeli missile struck a group of youths on their way to school, but he convinced the students to stay.
"Our job is to study. That is our weapon against the Israelis," he said.
The Ha'aretz newspaper quoted a Palestinian bystander as saying a group of gunmen had gathered near a kindergarten on the corner and had been the target of the attack in which the teen was killed. None of the gunmen was injured.
Father Musallam said one of his teachers told him by phone that Israeli soldiers had entered her home and put the family inside one room before they went to another room and continued a gunfight with Palestinians. The Israeli soldiers later tried to talk to the children and offer them chocolate, but the children were too afraid, the teacher told Father Musallam.
"War cannot stop war," Father Musallam said, noting that the level of destruction in Beit Hanoun was extremely high. "Fifty people have been killed, 200 injured and has the question been solved? It can't be solved. The children of the people who were killed will throw (the next round of) missiles. This time the missiles are very primitive. Next time the Palestinians will find more sophisticated weapons."
Omar Shabban, a representative of the U.S. bishops' Catholic Relief Services office in Gaza, described the situation as "unbearable" and said large areas of the Gaza Strip had food shortages, electrical outages and economic problems.
"The whole economy is under pressure," said Shabban. He estimated that of Gaza's 1.5 million people, only about 15,000 people who work for U.N. agencies, international nongovernmental organizations and a few private sector businesses were getting paid.
"Part of the problem in Beit Hanoun is poverty," he said. "Some of the people shooting the missiles are getting paid for it. Give them another option."
Those who are able to have left Gaza or are trying to move to Sudan, Kenya or Egypt, he said.
"The people who are leaving are those who could make peace in the future," he said. "(The situation) is pushing us to be extreme."
Constantine Dabbagh, executive director of the Middle East Council of Churches' Gaza office, said the council's clinics were at capacity because of the general situation. Everybody, he said, is "under tension."
"For five days (Beit Hanoun) is without food, without milk for the children. What is going on with the world? Is everyone sleeping? They should put more pressure on Israel to stop the aggression and find a solution. They won't break (the Palestinians') determination," he said, adding that people believe the United States and Western nations were helping Israel continue the attacks.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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