Islah, and the night was sheer horror...at the dawn refused to crack its nose, it took forever to see a bit of light as though the good lord up above wanted to give them yet more time to cook up yet more horror in the dark. then at 7.34 an enormous explosion shattered Ramallah et all around, shattered the double glaze glass of my verandah and the specific window pane from where i was looking out into the street to make sense of a sudden silence. I heard felt and ran from the explosion in the same second, I felt the glass passing micromillimeters from my face and stood in the safety of the kitchen staring at the clock it was 7.38/38- When I finally stood normally on my legs I went back saw the shattered glass on the floor , but no time to think , the phone rang and a friend from " inside" was asking me where was the explosion. Now I had a great view, a whole window pane all open in front of me but there was nothing to see for some 7/8 minutes. There was this massive barrage of black smoke, suffocating and blinding any vision. I called them back later to tell them it was the building just in front of Al Rahmeh hospital... see the distance separating my place from the explosion... the building was flattened and with the disapearing smoke appeared about a dozen soldiers grinning happily for a job well done.

The tanks and the bulldozers re-started their dance maccabre and moved on to flatten the remnants of the building. The noise of the explosion , the noise of the breaking glass from inside and outside was horrendous. I ran upstairs to make sure Um Jameel was ok , apart from broken glass... same serious broken glass but unlike me she was not trying to have a look, she was trying to have a sleep despite all the noise, only to be shaken by the explosion. Of course the explosion tore off the power supply cables and no communication possible with anyone except by phone... see why I wish I had your phone number, I would have been able to seriously disrupt your sleep. another massive explosion followed later at 9.30 flattening the building that's at the right of the entrance to the Mahbat; this time round there was no debris, no left overs from the stones or the concrete or the glass: just " something" that looked like an enormous ashtray full of ash, black black ash; ( (testing new explosives????) va savoir.. another one at around 2.30, but the men of the electricity company reparing the cables were told by the army to move away until they were allowed to come back; they passed near where I was standing trying to clear up a bit of the mess of my broken glass and told me that they were sure an explosion was on the way.

I called " inside" and shared the info , but they already new it was going to be the turn of the Istikhbarak building, in the direction of Hanan's house ( of course your friend Hanan - and certainly by now windowless.. again). I took no risks. courageuse mais pas temerraire , I went into the kitchen with my for ever best friend: a pack of cigs and my mobile.. just in case. It was also massive and unhinged all of the six window panes of my living room, but the men from the electricity company rushed in to help and with a magical twist put them back in place, saving me more broken glass to clear up . Vera called we shared our explosive experiences, we even managed to laugh about my also broken blue candle, told her it looked like a real "dandalero". told her I was boring you with unforwardable e mails and decided to have a sleep, before another explosion. 15.10: electricity restored, tanks and bulldozers still demolishing the already demolished. two injured , one killed by a sniper, and loads of fear, anger, repulsion, revulsion, worry for those inside, for the way things are being cooked up , for the unknown... you know the rest. Right now the helicopters have joined in and the dance maccabre is almost complete. the noise is unbearable;. I hope that Vera manages to sleep a bit , I can't see something so normal coming my way. Un Jameel is imperturbable as usual but soooo angry, and Salim's mother rather petrified. I better leave you before your anger gets at me.