“All of the world is a stage,” Shakespeare wrote. However on this stage immediately, there appears to be no place for one a part of the world – Gaza. As a substitute, the lights are shining brightly on Donald Trump for his victory within the US presidential election and the Democrats for his or her defeat.
Because the world’s consideration focuses on American politics, the world media has stopped reporting that persons are being exterminated in Gaza. Taking a look at media headlines, one would suppose the genocide has stopped, however it hasn’t.
Palestinian journalists and the hardly functioning medical authorities proceed reporting: 54 folks killed on November 5, 38 folks killed on November 6, 52 folks killed on November 7, 39 folks killed on November 8, 44 folks killed on November 9, 49 folks killed on November 10.
And these are simply the our bodies which were discovered. Numerous victims lie within the streets or beneath the rubble in levelled neighbourhoods.
The Palestinians of Gaza are being exterminated at a gradual tempo by US-made Israeli fighter jets, tanks, drones, quadcopters, bulldozers and machineguns.
In latest weeks, the genocide has taken one more depraved flip, with the Israeli military implementing what the Israeli media have known as the “Common’s Plan” – or the ethnic cleaning of northern Gaza.
Consequently, complete communities are vanishing in a marketing campaign that transcends army objectives, concentrating on the very existence of the Palestinian folks.
The cities of Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya had been historically sleepy villages as soon as cherished for his or her agricultural bounty and quiet life-style. They had been famend for the sweetness of their strawberries and oranges and their sandy dunes stuffed with grazing sheep and goats.
Close by stood the behemoth of Jabaliya, dwelling to the biggest and most densely populated refugee camp amongst Gaza’s eight camps, with greater than 200,000 residents. It’s the place the primary Intifada started in 1987 after an Israeli driver mowed down and killed 4 Palestinian labourers.
All areas of northern Gaza have been topic to repeated destruction for the reason that second Intifada. However immediately, they face a degree of violence and devastation which might be as unimaginable as they’re unprecedented, “a genocide inside a genocide” as described by Majed Bamya, a senior Palestinian diplomat on the United Nations. The mass demise, mass displacement and mass destruction are carried out with stunning ferocity, rendering all the north a wasteland.
In the beginning of this newest marketing campaign, about 400,000 Palestinians remained within the north, down from a inhabitants of 1 million. These folks got an ultimatum by Israel to depart however no ensures of secure passage or another place to shelter. Many determined to remain. Those that have tried to depart have usually been focused by Israeli forces and killed within the streets. Others who’ve made it have been tormented alongside the way in which.
In a single harrowing scene associated by a witness to journalist Motasem Dalloul, who posted it on social media, Israeli troopers separated youngsters from their moms and pushed them right into a pit. Then an Israeli tank circled across the pit, masking the kids in sand and terrorising them. Ultimately, the troopers began taking youngsters from the pit and throwing them over to the ladies.
In accordance with the put up: “Whoever caught a toddler was ordered to hold him and transfer away rapidly, with no assure that the kid can be their very own. Many moms carried youngsters who weren’t their very own, and had been compelled to depart with them, leaving their very own youngsters within the arms of different moms. This marked the start of a brand new chapter of struggling, with moms looking for their youngsters within the arms of different girls, making an attempt to calm the kids they held till they discovered their actual moms.”
For these Palestinians who determined to remain or are unable to depart, the horror continues. To drive them out or simply to eradicate them, Israel has deployed a deliberate coverage of compelled hunger. Its forces are systemically blocking humanitarian support from reaching the north, together with meals, bottled water and medical provides.
To speed up mass demise, the Israeli military can be stopping medical workers and rescue groups from reaching the wounded and others in want of medical assist. Those that handle to get to a hospital usually uncover upon arrival that it may possibly present neither medical care nor security. Many succumb to their accidents on account of a important lack of medical provides and personnel.
The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked the hardly functioning hospitals within the north. This led the UN particular rapporteur on well being, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, to label Israel’s actions as “medicide” on October 25. In accordance with a latest UN report, Israel has engaged in a “concerted coverage to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system”, together with “deliberate assaults on medical personnel and services” – actions constituting conflict crimes.
Throughout the newest Israeli assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, its remaining medical tools, provides, oxygen cylinders, mills and medicines had been destroyed. Thirty healthcare staff, together with Dr Mohamed Obeid, head of orthopaedic surgical procedure at al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, had been detained whereas offering care at Kamal Adwan. An unknown variety of sufferers and displaced civilians sheltering close by had been additionally detained. The Israeli military dismantled tents, stripped males of their clothes and transported them to undisclosed places.
The hospital’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh, was interrogated and ultimately launched, solely to find that his teenage son had been executed. The haunting sound of his voice main the Janazah prayer for his son pierces the soul and serves as a reminder of the brutal toll exacted by the occupation on Gaza’s medical professionals and their households.
With few hospitals and colleges in a position to present security, the remaining Palestinians are crowding into residential buildings. Consequently, the indiscriminate Israeli bombardment of residential areas is taking a staggering human toll, generally erasing complete prolonged households.
As I write this, the Abu Safi dwelling in northern Gaza has been struck, killing a minimum of 10 family members and injuring many others. These wounded and trapped beneath the rubble are calling out for assist, however rescue groups are prevented from reaching them.
On October 29, the Abu Nasr household’s multistorey dwelling in Beit Lahiya, which had turn out to be a sanctuary for greater than 100 displaced people from the identical prolonged household together with the practically 100 residents of the constructing, turned the scene of a horrific bloodbath when Israel bombed it.
No ambulance or rescue crew was permitted to achieve them, leaving neighbours — some wounded themselves — to dig by way of the rubble with their naked arms, clinging to the determined hope of rescuing survivors. Of the greater than 200 folks sheltering there, solely 15 survived, together with 10 youngsters, in response to witnesses. Greater than 100 stay beneath the rubble.
The Abu Nasr household was recognized for his or her generosity, at all times opening their doorways to anybody in want and sharing the restricted sources they’d. After the bloodbath, a neighbour shared how the household had been supporting displaced households who had settled close by with nothing for his or her youngsters. Regardless of the extreme shortages within the north and the continuing siege, the household’s grandmother provided them blankets, meals and water, checking on them every day till that tragic day after they had been focused.
This mounting toll captures a genocide in actual time wherein lives aren’t merely misplaced however extinguished with out a hint, each irreplaceable in an internet of relentless and interconnected loss.
Whereas Israel is making an attempt to erase Palestinian life in northern Gaza, it has not slowed down its genocidal assaults in the remainder of the strip. Palestinians proceed to face bombardment even in so-called secure zones.
My family felt the anguish of this actuality two weeks in the past.
That day, simply as I used to be getting ready to depart for work, my son cried out, “Mother, mother, that’s Aunt Majdiya on the information!” I rushed to the TV room, the place the display screen confirmed Majdiya – an everlasting survivor of the 1948 Nakba – sitting beside the physique of her daughter Suzan, 47, and clutching the lifeless type of her five-month-old great-grandson, Tamer. Members of the family encircled them.
The report relayed that Suzan and Tamer had been killed in a strike on Nuseirat camp, an assault that took a minimum of 18 lives. Later, we realized that one other of Suzan’s grandchildren, four-year-old Nada, was additionally killed as she lay sleeping beside her.
Majdiya is now mourning the sixth loss in her household. The sight of Suzan’s nonetheless physique and child Tamer in Majdiya’s arms, her face etched with grief, her arms trembling whereas she describes her loss, breaks the guts.
The silent sorrow of Suzan’s youngsters and siblings, gathered across the our bodies, is unforgettable. The picture of Bisan, Suzan’s daughter-in-law and the mom of Tamer and Nada, taking the final pictures by cell of her youngsters’s lifeless our bodies is unbearably haunting. After which Suzan’s 17-year-old son, clinging to his mom’s physique and pleading to be buried together with her, a depth of sorrow that defies description.
Only a few months earlier than her personal demise, Suzan had suffered the painful lack of her eldest son, Tamer, a 29-year-old taxi driver who helped displaced folks transfer from place to position. Tamer’s son was born just some days after his demise and named after him. Child Tamer lived for 5 months earlier than being killed final week whereas sleeping subsequent to his grandmother.
Looking for security, Suzan and her household had been compelled to flee a number of instances. First, they sought refuge with my brother-in-law within the Hay al-Amal neighbourhood of Khan Younis. When Hay al-Amal got here beneath assault, they moved to al-Mawasi, however shelter was laborious to seek out within the overcrowded space. Their subsequent cease was Rafah after which again to Khan Younis when Rafah was destroyed.
Exhausted however resolute, Suzan declared, “If we’re to die, then let it’s in Nuseirat close to our dwelling. We are going to dwell there, or we’ll die there, however I can’t die removed from dwelling.” So she and her household made the not possible journey from Khan Younis to Nuseirat camp, miraculously making it previous Israeli forces blocking the way in which between al-Zawaida and Nuseirat.
Maybe Majdiya’s solely comfort in her unimaginable grief was that she was in a position to supply Suzan and her two great-grandchildren a dignified burial, wrapping them in white shrouds.
So many households, particularly within the north, have been denied even the essential means for honouring their lifeless. Some have been compelled to wrap their lifeless family members in blankets, others in plastic rubbish baggage.
This lack of ability to supply family members a respectful farewell makes the ache and grief way more insufferable. This, in fact, is an intentional erosion of dignity. The Israeli military seems to be following the phrases of retired Common Giora Eiland, the creator of the “Common’s Plan”, who stated at a Knesset assembly: “What issues to [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar is land and dignity, and with this manoeuvre, you’re taking away each land and dignity.”
That is the painful actuality of Gaza – a actuality hidden from international view, but demanding pressing consideration and motion. Whereas the world could also be absorbed by the political drama within the US, Gaza faces systemic extermination, dehumanisation and brutality. To disregard this struggling is to be complicit within the erasure of a folks and their historical past. Palestinian folks will neither overlook nor forgive.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
