Vittorio Arrigoni, Gaza, January 8 2011

Take some kittens, some soft little pussycats, and put them in a box,” says Jamal, a surgeon at Al Shifa hospital, the main one in Gaza, while a nurse places a couple of cardboard boxes just in front of us, covered with spots of blood. “Seal the box, and with all your weight and your strength jump on it until you hear the bones crack, and the last miaow is choked.” As I stare at the boxes dumbfounded, the doctor continues, “Now try to imagine what would happen immediately after a scenario like that was publicised: the justified outrage of the world, complaints by animal welfare organisations…” The doctor continues his story, and I cannot remove my eyes for a moment from those boxes placed at my feet. “Israel has locked up hundreds of civilians in a school as if in a box, dozens of children, and then crushed it with the full brunt of its bombs. And what were the reactions of the world? Almost nothing. It would have been better to be born animals, rather than Palestinians; we would have been better protected.”
At this point, the doctor bends towards one of the boxes, and opens it in front of me. Inside are mutilated limbs, arms and legs from the knee down or entire femurs, amputated from the injured who had come from the UN Fakhura School in Jabalia, more than 50 victims until now. Pretending I had an urgent phone call, I take my leave of Jamal; in fact, I head to the toilet, double up, and vomit.