Photographs of bombed public shelters, food being cooked on makeshift hearths, and leaflets with ominous threats to leave Gaza falling from the skies pop up unceasingly on Palestinian lawyer and activist Ahmed Bassiuni바카라s X (formerly Twitter) handle. On October 8, a day after the deadly Hamas attack in Israel, Ahmed was one of the thousands of Gazans to receive terse air-dropped text messages from the Israeli government, asking them to evacuate and leave Gaza immediately. At the time he thought the messages were absurd. But deep within, Ahmed knew that things were about to get much, much worse. And they did.
Soon, bombs came hurtling down on residential areas in the Gaza Strip. The enclaves turned to rubble. It has been over six weeks since. The duration has seen over 15,000 Gazans killed. About 60 per cent of these casualties have been women and children. Ahmed has, however, managed to survive one of the most brutal assaults on Palestinian soil in his lifetime.
On November 20, Ahmed survived the massacre at Dar Al-Basiouni in Beit Hanoun, a city located to the northeast of the Strip. 바카라My family and I are still alive,바카라 he said in a social media post to reassure his loved ones. But on November 25, on the first day of the 바카라truce바카라바카라a four-day ceasefire for exchange of hostages and prisoners바카라 Ahmed got news of death.
As both sides braced for the exchange, Ahmed announced the death of his nephew Diab, along with his cousins Yasser and Adam. 바카라My sister바카라s son (Diab) is a 15-year-old child. The army arrested him the day before yesterday on Salah al-Din Street while he was travelling with his family from northern Gaza바카라. His brother, Yamen, has been missing for two weeks.
Ahmed is among the thousands of people living in nightmarish conditions for nearly two months since Israel바카라s offensive.
However, the Doha Institute-educated scholar refuses to leave Gaza. 바카라We will not repeat (what happened at) Nakba again. I will not tell the stories of displacement and bombing to my children as our grandparents did to us. My family and I have decided to stay,바카라 he says.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency estimates that 1.7 million people from Gaza바카라s 2.3 million population are now displaced. Over 35,000 Gazans are wounded, while 60 per cent of Gaza has been 바카라flattened바카라 which means that the region바카라s fuel resource is over and virtually every water and sanitation plant has been destroyed. The healthcare system, which was already stretched before October 7, has now completely collapsed. There is less than a litre of water available to Gazans a day and hardly any food, according to the agency.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended accusations of killing, starving, and dehydrating civilians in Gaza as 바카라collateral damage바카라, which happens in 바카라every legitimate war바카라. He has referred to the deaths and the destruction of the city as 바카라unintended casualties바카라.
The term 바카라collateral damage바카라 is an American euphemism that came into vogue during the Vietnam War as a crude justification for the deaths of civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure. 바카라That바카라s what Israel is doing in Gaza. It has tightened the preexisting blockade of Gaza into a more brutal siege, imposing a total blockade of food, water, fuel and other civilian items,바카라 says Amitabh Behar, acting executive director of Oxfam, India.
While every country has the right to protect its citizens, it must be done within the bounds of international law, Behar says. 바카라Cutting off borders and food and water for an entire population who are trapped in Gaza and unable to seek safety is a violation of those laws,바카라 he states. Even the pre-existing blockade, declared illegal by both the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the UN, was and continues to be collective punishment, according to the Oxfam India official.
바카라There are premature newborn babies now dying of hypothermia and preventable infections, traumatised mothers who have fled on foot from bombs into overcrowded shelters where they바카라ve not had any professional help or medicines. Premature births are up by a third. There are 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza. These are just some numbers,바카라 he states.
Working in occupied Palestinian territory since the 1950s, Oxfam has been addressing humanitarian challenges amid such escalations in Gaza. The crisis, Behar adds, persists due to years of blockade, military occupation, denial of Palestinian rights, and cycles of violence. 바카라Israel restricts food flow, using starvation as a weapon,바카라 claims Behar.
A visibly shaken Farhat Mantoo, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Executive Director, South Asia, adds that the way the Israeli government behaves with Palestinians will set the international standard for human rights violations in times of conflict. 바카라What we are seeing now is unprecedented. History will remember this,바카라 she states while highlighting the attacks on healthcare and aid workers. About 300 MSF staff, including Palestinians and foreign nations, are currently in Gaza.
바카라There is sewage flowing everywhere; there is no clean water available. Even our staff has been reporting incidents of not having sufficient drinking water, dehydration and starvation. We have lost many,바카라 Mantoo states, adding that only a total ceasefire would facilitate sufficient assistance to those who need it most.
On November 21, two MSF doctors, Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Ahmad Al Sahar and a third doctor, Ziad Al-Tatari were killed following a strike on Al Awda Hospital. Before that, a lab technician working with MSF, Mohammed Al Ahel, was killed on November 6 when his home at Al Shate Refugee Camp collapsed amid airstrikes in the vicinity.
Mantoo says that while the death toll could be counted, the impact of the siege on civil society as well as the people of Gaza, especially the youth, is devastating. 바카라We are seeing an increase in the demand for women바카라s pills as young women don바카라t want to menstruate in Gaza as there is no water,바카라 she states.
Targeting of healthcare and aid workers has compounded challenges for MSF, which has been working in Gaza and occupied Palestinian territories since the 1980s. An MSF evacuation convoy, despite agreement, was attacked on November 18, resulting in two casualties. This, despite long negotiations and an agreement between MSF and both parties to the conflict with regards to this movement.
Mantoo insists that a four-day ceasefire isn바카라t sufficient to fix Gaza바카라s healthcare crisis. She urges a total ceasefire and lifting of Israel바카라s blockade to facilitate vital humanitarian aid.
In Gaza바카라s collapsed healthcare system, dedicated doctors face dire conditions. Delivering babies, running ICUs without electricity, treating burn victims and performing surgeries without anaesthesia바카라all while trapped inside hospitals, aware of their own injuries and potential death. 바카라These are the real stories we are getting from our medical staff,바카라 adds Sana Beg, MSF바카라s Director of Communications, South Asia.
Oxfam바카라s Behar notes that the humanitarian pause in Gaza is insufficient, providing only temporary relief. He emphasises the need for a permanent ceasefire for lasting humanitarian solutions.
바카라The pause brings relief for Israeli families with hostages and Palestinian families awaiting the return of arbitrarily detained loved ones. Gazans will get time to find, bury and mourn their dead loved ones. But the number of trucks, litres of fuel and limited respites are poor proxies for the dignity and survival of Palestinians. Governments are hiding behind the smokescreen of humanitarianism while Israel carries out its campaign of collective punishment,바카라 he states.
In the past six weeks, millions of people have taken to protest across the world against what many are now calling a genocide of the Palestinian people. An estimated 5,500 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to Gaza바카라s government media office. It means that a child has been killed every ten minutes.
A fortnight ago, in a telling moment, a group of children taking shelter in Al Shifa Hospital held a press conference after an ambulance outside the hospital was bombed, killing 15 people. The children implored the world to save them from bombs. 바카라Since October 7, we바카라ve faced extermination, killing, bombing over our heads 바카라 all of this in front of the world,바카라 one of them said.
바카라We want shelter, food, and education and we want to live as the other children live,바카라 the child said, first in Arabic and then in English. 바카라We want to live, we want peace.
And we want judgment for the killers of children바카라.
Meanwhile, the people of Gaza have been learning how to live with the possibility of constant death, and a 바카라humanitarian pause바카라 does not mean much to them. 바카라The problem is that people in Gaza are afraid of calm. Because after the calm comes the rage of the occupation army,바카라 Ahmed Bassiuni writes.
Nowadays, Gazans like him who have decided to stay back at home and risk getting bombed don바카라t lock their doors anymore, because locked doors get compressed when bombs drop in the vicinity, preventing people from evacuating. Ahmed shares such tips on his X account.
Ahmed also speaks of a Bedouin in northern Gaza who has nicknamed his donkey 바카라Biden바카라 because of the beast바카라s pristine white skin. The Bedouin hopes that the West will see the donkey and intervene to stop this genocide, if not for the sake of people of all colours in Gaza, then at least for the sake of 바카라Biden바카라, the white-coloured ass.
(This appeared in the print as 'Too Little, Too Late')
