In Gaza, we lose a part of ourselves every day

By Marie Schwab

From Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya we receive images of parents wandering, dazed, desperate, carrying their dying child in their arms, without knowing where to go. Hospitals are besieged, bombed, evacuated, houses, shelters, schools are bombed. Where to go, with an injured child in your arms, who could be saved anywhere else in the world?

“We are announcing to the world,” said Eyad Zaqout, of the Gaza health ministry, “that there are no more ambulances in the North. Many injured people are lying bleeding in the streets and various targeted locations, and there are no longer any personnel or equipment to help them. » (1)

My gratitude and admiration go to these people who, in Gaza, risking their lives, in the sights of snipers and drones, go looking for the wounded in the streets, clearing the rubble with their bare hands.

Francesca Albanese, in her latest report on the Occupied Territories, shows Israel's desire to harm the group that constitutes the Palestinian people – not individuals as such, but as members of the group. (2)

As such, no Palestinian under Israeli occupation, in Gaza or the West Bank, is safe – whatever they do, wherever they are, whatever their age and condition.

The “Generals’ Plan” continues in northern Gaza, combining the blocking of all food and medicine and massive targeting of all life. For Jonathan Whittall of OCHA, the Palestinians are on “death row”. (3)

Anas al-Sharif, journalist, notes: “We are being exterminated before the eyes of the world.” (3)

What do we call those who target civilians, the wounded, doctors, and refuse care to the sick? What do we call those who block thousands of trucks carrying essential goods while a few kilometers away, children are literally dying of hunger?

Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, says he has never seen a civilian population experience starvation “so quickly and so completely”.

Thirty trucks per day enter Gaza (none of which reach the North). Before October 7, 2023, 500 trucks per day accessed it, and 50% of Palestinians in Gaza were already suffering from food distress. (4)

Israel, from October 7, could not have been clearer about its genocidal intentions. However, genocidal intent in itself constitutes an obligation for third States to intervene, according to Article II of the Genocide Convention. But the genocide is taking place, before our eyes, and the world continues to let it happen.

Heba Morayet of Amnesty International: “The world must wake up from its torpor as Israel uses siege, famine and atrocity crimes to forcibly displace and destroy civilian lives. » (3)

We have lost measure. “The world has become accustomed to our blood,” note the Palestinians of Gaza. (5) Letting it happen has become the norm. Silently watching the mass slaughter of children has become the norm. Babies amputeed before they even started to crawl? The norm.

As Professor Haim Bresheeth said before being arrested in London: “The world knows exactly what Israel is. Israel is not only colonizing Palestine. Israel also colonizes every Western government. It colonizes minds. » (6)

The more we let it happen, the more it goes without saying that we will let it happen. Our weak protests are understood as encouragement to continue the genocide. Israel will not stop. We have to stop it now. Israel continues its policy of colonial fait accompli, with 76 years of impunity. Total impunity in the face of violations of UN resolutions, the 4th Geneva Convention, decisions of the ICJ and the ICC, the Rome Statute, the Vienna Conference, the Apartheid Convention…

It's not that the nations can't stop Israel: they don't try. The fact is that they manage not to stop Israel, despite the legal obligation incumbent upon them.

All States, organizations, companies and individuals are affected by the ICJ decision of July 19 and the resolution of September 18 making any support, direct or indirect, to occupation, colonization and genocide illegal.

We are losing something of ourselves every day in Gaza. A part of our humanity. I would like to end with a thought for this mother, in Nuseirat, who learns of the assassination of her son in Beit Lahiya and bids him farewell via smartphone.

A thought for Rasha, 10 years old, who thought that her brother Ahmed, 11 years old, would survive her and to whom she left, in the will she had written, her threading beads and her pocket money.

Rasha was murdered on September 30, half of her face blown off by a bomb – which also murdered her brother Ahmed. They died together after living together for the last few months in terror and starvation.

“In another world, this would be a crime that would not be forgotten,” their uncle wrote. “But here in Gaza, these are just two among tens of thousands of victims. » (7)

Notes :

• (1) Israeli military attacks Kamal Adwan Hospital in besieged North Gaza, Al Jazeera, 5.11.2024
• (2) The Genocide as colonial Erasure, UN, The Question of Palestine, 1.10.2024
• (3) Simon Speakman Cordall, Israel’s new tactics in north Gaza stoke fears of ethnic cleansing campain, Al Jazeera, 8.11.2024
• (4) UN Experts accuse Israel of « Starvation Campaign » in Gaza & Demand to End Western Complicity, Democracy Now, 17.9.2024
• (5) Tareq S. Hajjaj, “Gaza: has the world become accustomed to massacres? », -, 7.9.2024
• (6) Prof. Haim Bresheeth’s anti-genocide speech before he was arrested for « terrorism », The Skwawkbox, 3.11.2024
• (7) Asem Alnabih, A Gaza Child's last will, Al Jazeera, 3.11.2024

November 9, 2024 – Posted by the author