By Leila Al Haddad

Just as I’ve made my way back to Maryland USA, getting ready to write a post about how my stint on Democracy Now went this morning, I learned that 10 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza as they were picnicking on the beach. 3 of them were children-two under the age of two. And their mother. And forty others wounded. We called my Aunt, who works with the al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza. She was hysterical, and this is a woman who seldom loses her grip.

She just spoke of blood and body parts, and how one of the cameramen at the hospital couldn’t hold it together and dropped his camera as he was filming after he heard a bloodied, battered girl crying out for her father.

I feel so useless being here in the United States, so impotent and angered, and I just want to cry and scream at once. After a week of energizing talks, in which I really felt I could contribute a little bit by informing people this happens.

My aunt also said the dreaded Sonic Boom Attacks had resumed and that Israeli air crafts were beginning to shell areas of Khan Yunis, in al-Qarara. And just last night, I was talking about how the sonic booms, under pressure from human rights organizations, had seemed to cease-albeit without official declaration. I spoke too soon.

The horror continues, and the main headline on Yahoo’s sidebar? “Hamas to resume attacks in Israel.”

I guess that answer’s Amy Goodman’s question to me this morning: “How do you think this all is being conveyed in the media?”