2006年VOA标准英语-Innocent Civilians Caught in the Middle of War

By Peter Fedynsky
Washington, DC
17 July 2006
 
watch Casualities report

Lebanon's peace has been shattered, warplanes have bombed the Gaza strip, and rockets are falling from the sky over Israel.  VOA's Peter Fedynsky reports on the plight¹ of people on all sides of the conflict who are among the dead, the injured and the traumatized.

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Burning apartment building  
  
A Hezbollah rocket struck the sixth floor of an apartment building in the Israeli town of Nahariya.  A woman sitting on her balcony on the floor below was killed.  Another rocket strike elsewhere in town underscores the role that luck plays in determining who lives and who dies.

One man said he feels lucky. "I work here in the office.  I was lucky that I had to start at 9 in the morning and that it was 7:15 when the rocket exploded here and this is my desk.  Of course, if I had been sitting here, I don't know if I would still be alive."

 
Baby wounded by flying glass 
  
An infant is reported to be one of six children wounded by flying glass following Israel's attack on the Palestinian Foreign Ministry² building in Gaza City. 

Back in Israel, 460 patients in the Nahariya hospital were moved to a basement shelter.  One mother describes giving birth to a child in such circumstances.

In Lebanon, tourist resorts have been emptied.  Many vacationers from neighboring Arab countries quickly fled by car over a road that Israeli warplanes later destroyed.  Other raids against Beirut airport have stranded³ thousands of travelers whose only way out was by air.

A tourist, prepared to go to Paris says his flight was canceled. "I was supposed to go to Paris, and all the planes were canceled. All the flights were cancelled, due to the bombing."

Americans with relatives in Lebanon or Israel worry about the safety of their loved ones.

Lobna Fakih   
  
Lobna Fakih is a pediatrician in Detroit, Michigan.  Her husband and three sons are trapped in Lebanon. “I look at those pictures and my heart just drops but I have to just keep functioning and try to stay strong and figure out what I could do from this end to help them get back home."

Another Detroit resident, Richard Cohen, is equally concerned about people in Israel. "I can only imagine that the Israelis are very concerned about where the future course of events will be.  They have been forced, many of them, to go into air raid shelters and they've seen missiles land with explosions in parts of their cities in Haifa and other cities."

Richard Cohen   
  
Grieving relatives on all sides are now burying loved ones taken from them by a war that none of them wanted. As one person put it, "Always civilians⁴ get caught in the middle, unfortunately, in the middle of a war zone that they have nothing to do with."

As it happens, that was a statement by a resident of southern Lebanon.  It could just as well have been said by an Israeli or Palestinian.

1 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

2 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

3 stranded   

a.搁浅的，进退两难的

参考例句：

• He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里， 身无分文，一筹莫展。
• I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市，既没有钱，又没有朋友。

4 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。