Your BAG/World Press Sunday: From Gaza City

World Press '08 - Spot News: Honorable Mention

Emilio Morenatti, Spain, The Associated Press.

Rockets launched from Gaza City towards Israel, 22 May

Comments

[black dog barking]

The heavens may not be smiling down on these actions but they've cast a dramatic light upon them. Perhaps the dark foreground is a byproduct of balancing the light levels to the brilliance of the rocket launches? I'm not a photographer and I can't reconcile the apparent midday-ishness of the light piercing the cloud cover overhead, the sunset / sunrise color of the sky, and eclipse-dark foreground.

IIRC, the heat signature of those launches is likely to draw a very fast (and explosive) retaliatory response. The surrounding urban density make collateral damage odds-on and the spiral of violent action and response ratchets up another notch.

[jtfromBC]

I don't know what to make of this photograph, Qassam rockets in this light suggest Halloween.
Homemade these appears to contain different amounts of propellants.

From Haaretz I note,

"From September 2005 until May, Palestinian gunmen fired almost 2,700 locally made rockets toward Israel, killing four Israeli civilians and wounding 75, according to Human Rights Watch.

Palestinian rockets also caused at least 23 Palestinian casualties, including two deaths, when they fell short of the border, the group said.

Between September 2005 and November 2006, the Israeli army fired more than 14,600 artillery shells into Gaza. Shells fired close to populated areas killed 59 people and wounded 270, most, if not all civilians, the report said."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/876929.html.

A detailed list of Qassam attacks and victims may be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Qassam_rocket_attacks

Obviously the Qassams are more a psychological than physical threat.

I was unable to find the names of Palestinians killed or wounded from Israeli artillery fire.

People photos from Emilio Morenatti in Gaza may be found at
http://www.ap.org/media/flash/morenatti.html

[MonsieurGonzo]

cross-posted; Azzaman : “U.S. troops erect walls in Mosul as inhabitants flee” :

“U.S. and Iraqi troops are carrying out military operations in heavily populated areas of the northern city of Mosul to flush out insurgents.

And in their bid they are separating and isolating residential quarters with security barriers and walls making movement rather difficult.

Some quarters like Yarmouk, Thawar and Siha are completed isolated.

The city, Iraq’s second largest with nearly three million people, has turned into a major stronghold for the Iraqi branch of Qaeda and anti-U.S. rebels.

But provincial officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the Qaeda and other groups opposing U.S. occupation have either fled or merged with the population.

With no guarantees given that the [American, et al] troops would not repeat the mistake committed in other rebel cities in the subjugation of which the U.S. employed warplanes and heavy artillery, tens of thousands of residents are fleeing to safer areas.”

The grotesque model of the ghetto as ersatz Green Zone now appears to be an established tactic and "transferrable" feature of Occupation policy. As historians we can now clearly see that the most concrete and enduring legacy of ‘The American Occupation of IRAQ, 2003- ’, will be walls.

ignorant of history even as they wander through it, American commanders fail to see that what ever is carved or cast in stone in the Middle East, even when time worn to rubble, tends to persist in perpetuity.

[Cactus]

V is for Victory

Wilfred Owen wrote poetry amidst the horror of WWI. Is that man's attempt to make sense of war; to find some kind of beauty when surrounded by blood and mud and death? So maybe photographers, photo-journalists, must somehow create just such beauty. It belies the terror those missiles imply.

However, I'm at a loss to explain the orange cloudy sky with sun-rays peeking through. In my old-fashioned mind it looks like a filter was used, but surely he has a digital camera, so maybe it is just some manipulation. It has the look of a desert sunset, but that can't be with the sun so high. 'Tis a puzzlement.

[MonsieurGonzo]

ref : “V is for Victory”

. . !

V, in deed, destiny: While occupiers must Vanquish, for the occupied Victory is survival; ie., time, if just being there be His blessing, is on their side. perhaps simply the fact of their firing works if only to remind, “We remain.” imho, this is the heroic theme of this image.

to my eye the sky light is at once a majestic scrim for this drama and enlightenment, heaven sent apparent. The ironic theme of this image is that even divine light fails to illuminate their Heart of Darkness : Good & Evil remain unfound, undefined; the message V duplicitous, thus.