http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/887/re2.htm

What Words For This?
March 6-12, 2008

Al Ahram Weekly

Summary-

The people of Palestine are being blown to smithereens day after day by Israeli bombs. The article is describing some of the horrible stories ordinary citizens are facing at the Gaza Strip. Sadly 116 people died and 480 were injured from the bombings. People start to realize the danger and start to evacuate just a minute too late and they end up dead. They call these fights the “warm winter.” Starting at dawn Monday the 3^rd this campaign began. The biggest problem is that this is a one-way fight. The people can’t defend themselves from missiles or bombs. They just decimate and leave. The people also weren’t even allowed to move the bodies of the dead and that they just lied around decomposing, and getting ran over countless times by machines. Hospitals are working as hard as they can to aid the endless amount of people in need at the moment. Waiting rooms and even hallways have become emergency rooms! Even worse than that politicians wanted peace and even then it came to no result.

a) This article relates to the theme impact of interaction among and within major societies. The interaction between these societies is what has created this war and caused the death of so many innocent civilians.

b) These fights are all over a portion of land, the Gaza Strip. The land is home to many people and it was very vulnerable to these attacks.

c) The article is written by a man named Saleh al-Naami. From the name and other articles he has written we could conclude that he is Palestinian. We could also make the assumption that he was an insider because he seems to have the first hand information from the people at the Strip.

d) It seemed the author was trying to share sides of the story equally but I think he really wants to see this war end. He explains in detail all the people and families experiences that have died. He also gives the impression that it is “tragic” so it seems that he wants this over now before more innocent lives are lost.

e) It would help to see the point of view from a person (Palestinian) surviving a bombing to hear their exact words on how the event took place. Additionally, the point of view of Hamas and Fatah and hear the concrete reasoning why they wouldn’t accept splitting the region.

f) As I read this article I couldn’t feel anything but sorry for all the poor people who ended up losing their life over a piece of land. I feel like they should just split the land and get on with their lives. The way they are just ruthlessly killing everyone, including women and children, shows their disrespect for human life and I feel like an end to this “warm winter” should be in the near future or else that 116 death toll will rapidly rise.