A PALESTINIAN nurse who has been living in Belfast for 23 years has said whole families in Gaza are being wiped out by Israeli bombings, with families now making the grim decision to split up so if they are bombed there is a chance some family members will be able to survive.

Mohammed Samaana who is from the West Bank works as a nurse in the City Hospital. Speaking to the Andersonstown News he said although not as greatly affected as Palestinians in Gaza, Palestinians in the West Bank are still living in fear and are being killed.

Speaking on Tuesday before the Al Ahli Hospital explosion in Gaza which has caused over 500 deaths, Mohammed said: “My brothers and sisters live in the West Bank. They are okay at the moment; things are not as bad in the West Bank as they are in Gaza at the moment but 61 Palestinians have already been killed there. Everywhere has been affected one way or another.

“Since Saturday last week they have closed all of the checkpoints and closed the only border with Jordan from the West Bank, travel is very restricted. Things in Gaza are worse at the moment but both areas are under siege now, there is very limited movement.

“In the West Bank they are shooting peaceful protestors and targeting civilians. They have no restrictions in terms of shooting civilians and before the attack on Gaza over 240 Palestinians this year have been killed in the West Bank, around 40 of whom are children. Armed Israeli settlers have been shooting and killing Palestinians and driving them off their land."

Mohammed said since the Nakba in 1948 when tens of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their land, and up until the present day, Palestinians in the West Bank have been increasingly suffering from incursions by Israeli settlers forcibly taking their land.

“My family live outside Nablus and after the Oslo Agreements (1993) they built a bypass road which can only be used by Israelis and settlers. They took land from everyone living there including my mother’s family and Palestinians are forbidden from building anything 150m on either side of the road.”

Concerning the recent horrific stories coming out of the besieged Gaza strip, Mohammed said Palestinian friends in Belfast had confirmed to him that families living their have had their homes destroyed, with others unable to contact their loved ones. Mohammed said families were consciously making the difficult decision to separate so if they are victims of bombings some in the family may survive.

“My friends from Gaza have had to leave their homes and friends from Belfast who have family in Gaza report that their homes have been destroyed. What has happened is you then have multiple members of one family in a building which is then hit by an Israeli airstrike and you have whole families murdered together. Now the families are splitting themselves between different households so if they get hit they all won’t get wiped out and some will survive.

“Targets have included non-military targets. A friend’s brother had his pharmacy destroyed. Even if they are alive they still have lost their livelihoods. Gaza is very high-rise housing and people are losing their businesses and homes. Many of my friends in Belfast have said they haven’t been able to contact their families in days so they don’t know what has happened to them. Others have lost relatives.

“They have bombed journalists and killed 13, killed 37 health professionals and bombed ambulances. Israel is targeting ambulances to prevent them from reaching the wounded and taking them to hospitals. Hospitals have also been bombed. Hospitals are being told to evacuate their patients including a ward with neo-natal babies on ventilators, so when they get taken off they will die."

As the humanitarian situation turns dire Mohammed said supplies are running out and the devastation to Gaza was immense and that the international response had left many Palestinians feeling very isolated, but stories were giving some hope of people speaking out against the occupation and onslaught.

“Food is very low, bakeries have run out of bread, hospitals have run out of supplies and have run out of fuel for their generators and are having to divert all power to keeping their emergency operating theatres open but more and more (patients) are arriving. A Palestinian is being killed every five minutes. Eighteen schools have been destroyed and 17,600 buildings and 2,800 have been killed.

“Palestinians fear being left alone internationally. The Western countries have sided with Israel, the British and Americans are providing aircraft carriers and air assistance for the Israelis and most of the victims are women and children.

"There is great anger in the Arab world. We have seen a restaurant owner in Oman who refused to serve British officers because the government is supporting Israel. There have been calls to boycott McDonalds because they have been providing free food to Israeli soldiers.”

Mohammed stipulated that what was being perpetrated was a war crime and against international law which prohibits collective punishment, stating also that those in Gaza had confirmed the Israeli forces were not giving warnings before bombing targets.

“It is collective punishment which is a war crime. It is a genocide and ethnic cleansing; Israel is forcing Palestinians to leave the Gaza strip towards Egypt. Americans are talking about getting Palestinians out of Gaza but that is ethnic cleansing. When Israel says it is safe to go to the border they are then bombing them. They are not giving pre-warnings before bombings which they have done on previous occasions, they are just bombing."

Mohammed said there are many ways in which people in Belfast can show their solidarity with Palestinians and highlighted a number of options open for people who want to voice their anger against the horror which is unfolding.

“The first thing is to boycott Israeli goods and anything that benefits from the Israeli occupation. The second thing is to contact your political representatives to try and get the governments in Britain and Ireland to use their influence to bring about a ceasefire.

“The third thing is to complain to the media channels about their bias against Palestine and them pushing out Israeli propaganda. The coverage is currently enabling these war crimes to be committed.

“You can also suggest donating to charities in Gaza and joining your local Palestinian solidarity group, there is a lot happening in Belfast which can help show solidarity with Palestinian people.”