What do Gazans Want from their Leaders Now?

Posted January 30th, 2009 by aaron

Reporter Tagheed El-Khodary, NY Times correspondent in Gaza, responds to questions posted by readers. One question in particular sparked quite a bit of controversy and discussion. The topic pertained to whether Hamas was deliberately firing rockets into Israel from civilian areas of Gaza. Ms. El-Khodary's response is copied below:

During one CNN interview, the presenter asked me, while the fighting was still going on, if Hamas was firing from residential areas. The answer I gave was Yes, since I had evidence of that and since I was a witness to the firing of a rocket from a civilian area. Then the presenter asked me why Hamas was doing that. My answer was that according to a senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas has no other option. Hamas says this is the only tool they have to put pressure on Israel to end the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip. Hamas’s logic is that the Gaza Strip is so small (physically, just the size of Detroit) that the drones and the F-16 jets will kill fighters on the spot if they fire from next to the border with Israel or from empty fields.

For the first time, during this conflict, it was hard to see the fighters and, unlike previous clashes, they weren’t suicidal this time. Firing the rockets towards Israel and survival were Hamas’s goals during the war. When I asked Zahar if by doing so, aren’t you endangering the lives of the civilians, his answer was to say that no one can dare to question the resistance against the Israeli military occupation.

To conclude, there are those voices in Gaza who are against the Hamas rockets but there are also voices here that are in support of the rockets. When you ask them why, their logic is “resistance and survival.” As a woman from the Jabalia refugee camp told me: “it’s symbolic … it’s a reminder to the world not to forget us.”

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