This article was originally posted in LA Times
When I visited the Gaza Strip in September 2015, I walked over the rubble of what were once buildings in the northern neighborhood of Shejaiya. Other buildings were partially in ruins, and evidence of shrapnel in the walls and holes caused by bullets marked the houses that were left standing and where people still lived.
A year earlier, Israeli forces had launched Operation Protective Edge in response to rockets fired by Hamas. The assault on Gaza and its inhabitants lasted 51 days in July and August 2014. The military operation was the third major operation by the Israeli armed forces in Gaza in seven years, and by far the most lethal and destructive at the time. It killed then 2202 Palestinians, including more than 500 children, and 72 Israelis (62 of whom were soldiers). Thousands of Palestinians were injured, more than 18,000 of their homes were destroyed, 470,000 were displaced and large areas of Gaza were razed to the ground.
Amnesty International accused Israel of committing war crimes for indiscriminately targeting civilian homes without warning, and a United Nations human rights commission also reached a similar conclusion, suggesting that they may even have been “intentional killings”.
But if Operation Protective Edge was unprecedented for its lack of proportionality and for the fact that the soldiers did not distinguish between civilians and combatants, it pales in comparison to the violence Israel has unleashed against the Gaza population in recent weeks. The indiscriminate retaliation it has deployed, with the support of the United States, is terrifying.
An immediate ceasefire is needed to prevent further massacres and humanitarian aid must be allowed into Gaza to meet urgent needs. Our elected officials have a moral obligation to speak out on this because every day, Israel’s brutal airstrikes kill hundreds of people, including children.
President Biden recently stated at a press conference that he was not confident that “the Palestinians are telling the truth” about the death toll from Israel’s bombing. The following day, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza released a list of documented deaths since the bombing began on October 7. That figure now exceeds 8300, including more than 3324 minors.
When President Biden questions the veracity of the death toll, it has the effect of devaluing the lives of those killed by Israeli forces. That includes the 12-year-old son of poet and journalist Ahmed Abu Artema, whom I met and hosted in 2019 when the organization I work for sponsored him on a tour of the United States. In addition to his son, Ahmed lost three other family members and suffered second-degree burns from an Israeli airstrike on his home.
Writer Yousef Aljamal, who was recently in San Diego sharing stories about his family’s experience living under military occupation in Gaza, wrote that an Israeli warplane killed nine members of his family when it struck a residential building in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Other dear friends and co-workers have also lost dozens of loved ones, their homes have been bombed and they are without basic resources such as food, water and electricity.
The devastation in Gaza is not without context. Palestinians have suffered through 16 years of Israel’s land, sea and air blockade, and few are allowed to leave Gaza, what they call an open-air prison where 2.3 million people reside in 141 square miles.
In 2015, I met with young people in Gaza who described the pain of having an uncertain future because of how the wars had devastated their lives. They shared about the deep trauma that plagued them. They spoke of living fractured lives because the occupation controls who can enter and leave Gaza. They longed to return to their hometowns, the land of their grandparents, from where they were forcibly expelled in 1948 and made refugees.
But they also spoke of wanting to go to school to become doctors, educators and other admirable professions. They imagined living free without apartheid policies under military occupation. I wonder, where are these young people now, if they have survived the incessant bombardment, if they will ever experience lasting peace with justice?
El Tribuno del Pueblo brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: tribunodelpueblo.org. We’re all volunteers, no paid staff. Please donate at http://tribunodelpueblo.org to keep bringing you the voices of the movement because no human being is illegal.
