REPORTER: Thom Cookes
I've just been given 10 minutes notice that the Erez crossing into the Gaza Strip will be opened for an hour this evening, so that journalists who've been trapped in Gaza for the last few days can get out. I'm going the opposite way, with another group, trying to get in. But, once we are on the Palestinian side of the border, we realise that the Israeli Army has gone ahead of us.
We're now crossing the front line of a battlefield. As firing erupts around us we take cover in our vehicles. Back on the road to Gaza City, Israeli gunfire goes over our cars and tracers cross the road ahead of us. Once we're into Gaza we find that a Palestinian policeman was killed by Israeli shelling earlier this evening. His body is in the hospital, and the family has come in to see him. Two other people were killed and seven wounded in the same attack.
As with almost everyone else killed in the fighting, the policeman's funeral becomes a political demonstration. Money is so tight here, that as the guns fire into the air, young boys scrabble for the shell casings to sell as scrap metal. Over two weeks ago when the Palestinians captured Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit, the Israeli Air Force immediately bombed Gaza's main power station, it's still smouldering.
ENGINEER, (Translation): At around two in the morning, some aircraft arrived, Apache helicopters and F16s. One hovered over the middle of Nusirat and started bombing. The first thing it bombed was the generator The first one over there.
The same night, the main bridge between north and south Gaza was also bombed, effectively dividing the territory. Thursday morning, we drive up to the town of Beit Hanoun to look for the Israeli positions. My interpreter, Raed, points out the ruined orchards.
RAED, INTERPRETER: The orange trees, Do you see them? All this damage was done yesterday and before yesterday, with tanks and with bulldozer. Bulldozers and tanks they came through there and damaged the orange trees?
The Israeli Army has already moved on, so we head north-east. In Beit Lahiya, we almost drive straight into this Israeli tank. It's blocking the path of two Palestinian ambulances waiting to pick up casualties. As I'm filming, the turret swings around to face us. Without warning, the tank then opens fire.
REPORTER: I just walked back up the road towards the tank and there was a bunch of Palestinian kids with me. And as we walked up they started shooting at us so we try to get a bit closer to get some good pictures but I don't think we're getting anywhere near. They're actually firing at us. You can hear it in the background and now.
The next day the fighting in Beit Lahiya is house-to-house. Masked men with Kalashnikovs and rocket propelled grenade launchers take up position, and young men reel out wires ready to be attached to explosive devices.
NAMIR HADAD, ADVISOR TO PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT: There is one of the most modern armies in the world, this is the Israeli army in front of the Palestinians armed with... there is no way of making a comparison. This is why the Palestinians, we are trying to defend. But any how this is not the way for solving the Israeli, Palestinian conflict.
Hamdi Hur, a Palestinian cameraman working for Turkish TV, has been hit in the chest and arm by Israeli gunfire in Beit Lahiya. I was standing about 5m away from him, in a group of journalists. This is the flak jacket that he was wearing.
JALAL HALABI, PRODUCER TURKISH TV: This is as snipering action, this is not a normal bullets, OK and it's not the first time. People like to have media blackout. Ok they can do whatever they like.
REPORTER: Do you think they're trying to make or a media blackout?
JALAL HALABI: Yes of course, because it is this kind of war, is something like between civilians and they would like to hide the civilian casualties. This is exactly their intention.
A few hundred metres offshore an Israeli gunboat patrols. Every so often it fires warning shots at the Palestinian fishing boats, keeping them in the harbour. Quasim Zaanin and his family live in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza. His orange grove has been damaged each year for the last three years as the tanks have rolled through. As we talk, shells are falling in the fields around us.
REPORTER: That shelling, where is that from?
QUASIM ZAANIN: No they are coming from Erez, and there are others coming from Abu-Safir. Third from the gate of Beit Hanoun.
REPORTER: Why have they shooting? What about a shooting at? Why at the Israeli shelling? What are they trying to hit?
QASIM ZAANIN: It was a habit, for Israelis, if something happens they come to Beit Hanoun. If some, you know, which they call the rocket, if something goes there, they come to destroy the whole area.
MAN: We hope our trees and oranges are still there. We hope that, but we don't know. Because it is like you know in five minutes and the Israelis are here from that town from the other town their hearing five minutes.
QASIM ZAANIN: You know the lie of democracy in the West, there is no democracy. Hamas came to government by election, very very good election and very democratic election. When they come they change our place and make sanctions against the Palestinian people, not Hamas. Hamas is one party of Palestinian parties, but they punish all the Palestinian people. Why you elected the majority of Hamas in your national council? This is the main problem.
The last remaining bridge up to Beit Hanoun was hit last night by an Israeli air strike. The whole area is now without reliable power, food is running low, aid is blocked and the United Nations are warning of a humanitarian crisis in the making. Petrol stations in Gaza have also been closed for the last five days, and the pipeline carrying fuel in from Israel has been shut down. Raed, who has been driving and interpreting for me, has almost run out of diesel.
REPORTER: How much is left in the car now?
RAED: I have maybe one day left.
Overnight, Israeli tanks have entered at Karni, the main commercial crossing into Gaza.
DR JUMAA AL-SAQQA, HOSPITAL SPOKESMAN: Since the Israeli invasion, the last invasion to the north of Gaza strip and the east of Gaza City, the number of martyrs reached there to Shifa Hospital until now is 39. Twenty have reached to Shifa Hospital and others to other district hospitals. Number of injuries reached about 120 until now, 20% of them are children, about 80 of them are in Shifa Hospital. Shifa is now completely full, occupied by injuries and we are now converting the medical department to a surgical one and we are sending our patients outside the hospital here and there. A lot of casualties we dont know what we will do if this number has increased.
By Saturday afternoon, the Israelis have pulled out and with the UN convoy, I go to inspect the damage in northern Gaza. Many of the roads and buildings have been damaged by tanks, and have been riddled with gunfire. But it's the damage to the people that will endure.
PALESTINIAN MAN, (Translation): Look at this, I have been growing this for 50 years, I look after it better than my children. How can they do this? Damn the greatest rabbi among the Jews! Damn the rabbi!
REPORTER: When did it happen?
PALESTINIAN MAN, (Translation): Yesterday, they razed the land, it had peaches, apricots and figs. Ive never fired Qassam missiles or joined the army or anything. How can they do this? Its not fair. If I have a son Ill get him to make an explosive belt to attack the sons of Zion. Ill kiss my son on both cheeks and send him off to Israel. I want a belt too, may someone put one around my waist!
Just when I thought that some sort of calm had descended on Gaza, there came news of another Israeli attack. 6-year-old Rawan Hajaj, her mother, Amina, and brother Mohammad were killed when their house was hit from the air on Saturday night. Four other brothers are in hospital. The Israeli military confirmed that they launched an air strike in the area at the time. According to Namir Hadad, atrocities like this will only force Palestinians further into the arms of the Hamas Government.
NAMIR HADAD: Every time there was no signs about improving the Palestine economic situation and the possibility of peace, it is desperation. Desperation leads directly to people accepting the idea of Hamas.
REPORTER/CAMERA: Thom Cookes:
EDITORS: Angus Forbes, Rowan Tucker-Evans
FIXER/DRIVE: Raed Atharmamneh
FIELD PRODUCER: Mariam Shahin
PRODUCER: Ashley Smith
I've just been given 10 minutes notice that the Erez crossing into the Gaza Strip will be opened for an hour this evening, so that journalists who've been trapped in Gaza for the last few days can get out. I'm going the opposite way, with another group, trying to get in. But, once we are on the Palestinian side of the border, we realise that the Israeli Army has gone ahead of us.
We're now crossing the front line of a battlefield. As firing erupts around us we take cover in our vehicles. Back on the road to Gaza City, Israeli gunfire goes over our cars and tracers cross the road ahead of us. Once we're into Gaza we find that a Palestinian policeman was killed by Israeli shelling earlier this evening. His body is in the hospital, and the family has come in to see him. Two other people were killed and seven wounded in the same attack.
As with almost everyone else killed in the fighting, the policeman's funeral becomes a political demonstration. Money is so tight here, that as the guns fire into the air, young boys scrabble for the shell casings to sell as scrap metal. Over two weeks ago when the Palestinians captured Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit, the Israeli Air Force immediately bombed Gaza's main power station, it's still smouldering.
ENGINEER, (Translation): At around two in the morning, some aircraft arrived, Apache helicopters and F16s. One hovered over the middle of Nusirat and started bombing. The first thing it bombed was the generator The first one over there.
The same night, the main bridge between north and south Gaza was also bombed, effectively dividing the territory. Thursday morning, we drive up to the town of Beit Hanoun to look for the Israeli positions. My interpreter, Raed, points out the ruined orchards.
RAED, INTERPRETER: The orange trees, Do you see them? All this damage was done yesterday and before yesterday, with tanks and with bulldozer. Bulldozers and tanks they came through there and damaged the orange trees?
The Israeli Army has already moved on, so we head north-east. In Beit Lahiya, we almost drive straight into this Israeli tank. It's blocking the path of two Palestinian ambulances waiting to pick up casualties. As I'm filming, the turret swings around to face us. Without warning, the tank then opens fire.
REPORTER: I just walked back up the road towards the tank and there was a bunch of Palestinian kids with me. And as we walked up they started shooting at us so we try to get a bit closer to get some good pictures but I don't think we're getting anywhere near. They're actually firing at us. You can hear it in the background and now.
The next day the fighting in Beit Lahiya is house-to-house. Masked men with Kalashnikovs and rocket propelled grenade launchers take up position, and young men reel out wires ready to be attached to explosive devices.
NAMIR HADAD, ADVISOR TO PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT: There is one of the most modern armies in the world, this is the Israeli army in front of the Palestinians armed with... there is no way of making a comparison. This is why the Palestinians, we are trying to defend. But any how this is not the way for solving the Israeli, Palestinian conflict.
Hamdi Hur, a Palestinian cameraman working for Turkish TV, has been hit in the chest and arm by Israeli gunfire in Beit Lahiya. I was standing about 5m away from him, in a group of journalists. This is the flak jacket that he was wearing.
JALAL HALABI, PRODUCER TURKISH TV: This is as snipering action, this is not a normal bullets, OK and it's not the first time. People like to have media blackout. Ok they can do whatever they like.
REPORTER: Do you think they're trying to make or a media blackout?
JALAL HALABI: Yes of course, because it is this kind of war, is something like between civilians and they would like to hide the civilian casualties. This is exactly their intention.
A few hundred metres offshore an Israeli gunboat patrols. Every so often it fires warning shots at the Palestinian fishing boats, keeping them in the harbour. Quasim Zaanin and his family live in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza. His orange grove has been damaged each year for the last three years as the tanks have rolled through. As we talk, shells are falling in the fields around us.
REPORTER: That shelling, where is that from?
QUASIM ZAANIN: No they are coming from Erez, and there are others coming from Abu-Safir. Third from the gate of Beit Hanoun.
REPORTER: Why have they shooting? What about a shooting at? Why at the Israeli shelling? What are they trying to hit?
QASIM ZAANIN: It was a habit, for Israelis, if something happens they come to Beit Hanoun. If some, you know, which they call the rocket, if something goes there, they come to destroy the whole area.
MAN: We hope our trees and oranges are still there. We hope that, but we don't know. Because it is like you know in five minutes and the Israelis are here from that town from the other town their hearing five minutes.
QASIM ZAANIN: You know the lie of democracy in the West, there is no democracy. Hamas came to government by election, very very good election and very democratic election. When they come they change our place and make sanctions against the Palestinian people, not Hamas. Hamas is one party of Palestinian parties, but they punish all the Palestinian people. Why you elected the majority of Hamas in your national council? This is the main problem.
The last remaining bridge up to Beit Hanoun was hit last night by an Israeli air strike. The whole area is now without reliable power, food is running low, aid is blocked and the United Nations are warning of a humanitarian crisis in the making. Petrol stations in Gaza have also been closed for the last five days, and the pipeline carrying fuel in from Israel has been shut down. Raed, who has been driving and interpreting for me, has almost run out of diesel.
REPORTER: How much is left in the car now?
RAED: I have maybe one day left.
Overnight, Israeli tanks have entered at Karni, the main commercial crossing into Gaza.
DR JUMAA AL-SAQQA, HOSPITAL SPOKESMAN: Since the Israeli invasion, the last invasion to the north of Gaza strip and the east of Gaza City, the number of martyrs reached there to Shifa Hospital until now is 39. Twenty have reached to Shifa Hospital and others to other district hospitals. Number of injuries reached about 120 until now, 20% of them are children, about 80 of them are in Shifa Hospital. Shifa is now completely full, occupied by injuries and we are now converting the medical department to a surgical one and we are sending our patients outside the hospital here and there. A lot of casualties we dont know what we will do if this number has increased.
By Saturday afternoon, the Israelis have pulled out and with the UN convoy, I go to inspect the damage in northern Gaza. Many of the roads and buildings have been damaged by tanks, and have been riddled with gunfire. But it's the damage to the people that will endure.
PALESTINIAN MAN, (Translation): Look at this, I have been growing this for 50 years, I look after it better than my children. How can they do this? Damn the greatest rabbi among the Jews! Damn the rabbi!
REPORTER: When did it happen?
PALESTINIAN MAN, (Translation): Yesterday, they razed the land, it had peaches, apricots and figs. Ive never fired Qassam missiles or joined the army or anything. How can they do this? Its not fair. If I have a son Ill get him to make an explosive belt to attack the sons of Zion. Ill kiss my son on both cheeks and send him off to Israel. I want a belt too, may someone put one around my waist!
Just when I thought that some sort of calm had descended on Gaza, there came news of another Israeli attack. 6-year-old Rawan Hajaj, her mother, Amina, and brother Mohammad were killed when their house was hit from the air on Saturday night. Four other brothers are in hospital. The Israeli military confirmed that they launched an air strike in the area at the time. According to Namir Hadad, atrocities like this will only force Palestinians further into the arms of the Hamas Government.
NAMIR HADAD: Every time there was no signs about improving the Palestine economic situation and the possibility of peace, it is desperation. Desperation leads directly to people accepting the idea of Hamas.
REPORTER/CAMERA: Thom Cookes:
EDITORS: Angus Forbes, Rowan Tucker-Evans
FIXER/DRIVE: Raed Atharmamneh
FIELD PRODUCER: Mariam Shahin
PRODUCER: Ashley Smith