News
Rosie Collington
Jul 23, 2014
Amid a rising death-toll in Gaza and new international pressure for a ceasefire, eyewitness video has emerged from the suburb that came under intense Israeli artillery fire this week.
Journalists Mohamed al-Masharawy and journalist Ahmed al-Shiyah found themselves caught up in the bombardment of the Gaza City district of Shejaiya on Monday.
In the video, named "Video witness: 4 minutes of terror during the Shejaiya massacre" on Facebook, the journalists appear to be with ambulance crews and at least one family.
Video description/translation:
As the bombs rain down - and with sniper fire audible in the background - one of the crew shouts "Go slowly! Slow down!" as they wait with the screaming children under the shelter outside.
The bombs continue to fall closer and closer, and the family they are with starts to move towards a building for better shelter.
Ahmed says to Mohamed: "Let's go with them. Come on, let's go inside with them." They realise there are ambulance crews fleeing the area where the bombs have just fallen behind them.
Mohamed shouts "Stop!", and they wait for the ambulance crews to join them. They shout "Come on, let's go! We have to go!" amid sustained sniper fire and take cover with the family.
It appears there are other families inside; the children are crying and screaming, "Come on, let's go!", but there is nowhere for them to flee to.
There then follows a brief period of relative quiet after a bomb falls either on the building or very close to it.
Towards the end of the video, although the images are obscured, it appears someone has been hit - or there are bodies around them from earlier shelling.
The video ends with either Mohamed or Ahmed saying: "There are martyrs here! There are martyrs! They've been killed!"
More: Just where exactly are Gazans supposed to evacuate to?
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