The Palestinian land of Gaza is
under discussion these days due to the massacre of thousands of civilians by
Israeli army. So here is article about the recent genocide to make the situation
clearer to our readers. I will definitely not call it a war as war requires two
sides but there is no 2nd party in Gaza, they are unarmed innocent civilians on
one side and a fully equipped Israeli force on the other side. So it’s clearly
genocide, not a war. But before telling my readers about the issue, an
introduction to the history of Palestine is important. So let’s have a look…
Palestine is the land where Muslims’ sacred Masjid Al-Aqsa is located. On May
15, 1948, the Nakba day, Israel’s illegal state was formed on Palestinian land
and nearly 7,50,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes while hundreds
were killed. These 7, 50,000 Palestinians became refugees residing in different
places like Gaza and even outside Palestine in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon etc. Later
in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank of Palestine too, which previously
belonged to the Palestinians. So Palestinian land was reduced to Gaza Strip and
Occupied West Bank only. The residents of Gaza cannot visit their relatives or
friends in the West Bank and vice versa. It’s prohibited by occupational forces.
Gaza is certainly like an open air prison… a 360-kilometer region which in 1952
UN declared to be insufficient for 300,000 people but currently 1.7 million
Palestinians are residing there with intense lack of food, drinking water, fuel,
medicines and other basic necessities of life. They are surrounded by Israeli
marines and ships in Mediterranean Sea on Eastern side and tanks and check posts
on the western and northern side. On south is the border with Egypt. As the
entire Gaza strip is filled with Israeli check posts so food/goods/medicines
cannot reach the people without permission of the occupational forces, thus
making life intolerable for the residents. Even daily life is not easy in Gaza
as Zionist troops invade the houses at any time, arrest people without any
charge and even kill them. But this open-air prison turned into a hell recently
in July 2014 when Operation Protective Edge was started in Gaza.
Before this operation, On 12, June 2014, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped
in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank as they were hitchhiking to their homes. The
three teens were Naftali Fraenkel (16, from Nof Ayalon), Gilad Shaer (16, from
Talmon), and Eyal Yifrah (19, from Elad). IDF (Israeli Defensive Forces) carried
out ‘Operation Brother’s Keeper’ in search of these teens and arrested 350
Palestinians which according to Israeli authorities were mostly Hamas leaders
whom they blamed responsible for abduction of the teens although Hamas denied
this accusation. On 30 June 2014, the search finally ended when bodies of the
teens were found in a field near West-Hebron. Israeli leadership vowed to take
revenge of teens’ death from Hamas although on 25 July 2014, BBC correspondent
Jon Donnison tweeted that Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld admitted
that kidnapping wasn’t done on the orders of Hamas leadership but the crime was
the action of a ‘lone cell’. Burning in the fire of revenge, on 2nd July, IDF
abducted an innocent 16-year old Palestinian boy, Mohammad Abu Khader, forced
him to drink fuel and then set him on fire. His dead body was found later in the
West Bank. According to the Institute of Forensic Medicines, which carried out
the boy’s autopsy, it was found that boy was burnt alive. As the news spread,
protests erupted all over Palestine.
Later, on 7th July, 2014, Israeli authorities announced that they would launch
operation ‘Protective Edge’ which according to them was to destroy the tunnel
network which was built by Hamas to attack them. Also western media reported a
few rocket attacks on Tel Aviv by Al-Qassam Brigade, (Hamas’ military wing),
which they took as a reason to launch the operation. But as the operation
started on 8th July, 2014, against the human rights and UN resolution IDF’s
bombs and missiles targeted the civilians in Gaza city instead of Hamas
hideouts. Initially they bombed mosques, buildings and houses in Gaza city
without informing. Later they used another brutal technique, before bombing Gaza
citizens received a call or sms from an unknown number saying we are going to
attack your home in ten minutes. After this open threat they bombed the home as
they were well aware of the fact that Palestinians had no place to evacuate. The
photographs of these threatening messages were shown by Palestinians on social
media too. Showing the worst example of brutality they bombed an area Shuja’iya
neighbourhood in Eastern Gaza on 20th July, 2014, killing 63 civilians out of
which 17 were children and causing thousands to take refuge in UN shelter UNRWA.
On top of that, they didn’t allow ambulances or medics to go there to collect
the dead bodies. Later they gave two hours from 12 at night to 2, to collect
dead bodies from Shuja’iya but as medics reached there, they started bombing
again. Even an Israeli snipers targeted a Palestinian man in front of the
medics, who was searching for the bodies of his relatives. They also bombed
Gaza’s main hospitals including Al-Aqsa Martyred Hospital situated in Deir Al-Balah,
Al-Wafa Hospital and Shifa Hospital not only killing patients but also
destroying expensive medical machinery. On media, Israel claimed that these
hospitals were the main headquarters of Hamas militants and their ammunition
storage houses too, so they bombed them but they warned the hospital staff to
evacuate before attacking. On the other hand, the Palestinians say that they
only warned authorities of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and the staff evacuated the
patients to Shifa Hospital after which they bombed the hospital on 11, July
2014. While Israel justifies its step to bomb hospitals and claims that they
informed the staff before attacking to avoid the death of innocent patients, the
question is where could the patients have been evacuated since there are only a
limited number of hospitals in Gaza? Bombing the hospitals was not only a direct
violation of human rights, but a brutal act of aggression as the hospitals were
already facing a severe shortage of beds and medicines. The wounded civilians
were lying on hospital floors.
The Zionists also attacked Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s biggest hospital on 21,
July 2014. Later Israeli authorities claimed that they were not involved in the
attack on Al-Shifa Hospital but it was struck by a rocket fired by Hamas.
On 24, July 2014, Israel shelled the UN shelter school UNRWA run by UN Relief
and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees situated at Beit Hanoon in Northern
Gaza Strip, in which nearly 63,173 refugees were present, killing nearly 15
people and injuring more than 200. However, later on 26 July, 2014 a 12-hour
truce was announced by UN from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Palestinian time. In the
duration of truce, medics collected the dead bodies from Shuja’iya, Khan Younis,
Beit Hanoon and other areas of Gaza strip, which made the death toll rise even
further. While I am writing this article, it’s 20th day of Operation and the
death toll is as follows:
Injured toll:
Total injured …… 6233;
In North Gaza…… 1912; In Central Gaza …… 1853; In Al-Wista …… 851; in Khan
Younis …… 906; In Rafah …… 711.
Of these
1994 are Children; 1169 are Women and 257 are elderly people.
Death Toll:
Total Deaths …… 1050
In North Gaza …… 189; In Central Gaza …… 297; In Al- Wista …… 129; In Khan
Younis …… 306; In Rafah …… 111.
Of which
236 were Children; 93 were Women; 47 were Elderly citizens.
(Source: Global Research Canada)
(Reference: Ashraf Al-Qudra, Gaza Emergency Spokesperson)
While the number of Israeli soldiers killed during clashes with Hamas is only 53
till now. One soldier captured and only 2 civilians killed. Gaza, Khan Younis
and Rafah, are the three main towns that suffered large scale destruction, with
rubble of buildings everywhere, countless dead bodies buried under them. Many
people in 8 refugee camps, who were forced to leave their homes in 1948, have
also been killed. A merciless massacre and intense destruction has been carried
out in three areas … Al-Shuja’iya, Khuzaa and Beit Hanoon. Many mosques,
streets, schools, universities have been erased by the intensive bombing. In
short, life is totally paralyzed in Gaza with no electricity, food, water or
shelter…
My readers, the above mentioned statistic is of 27 July 2014 and after cease
fire ended, attacks are still going on, killing countless innocent civilians.
One of the worst attacks was carried out on children playing in a park between
Al-Shifa Hospital and Shita Refugee Camp on Eid Day, i.e. 28, July 2014. It
killed 10 children. Once again the systematic killing has started. So a rise in
death toll is expected. Above all, it is also confirmed that, violating the UN
resolution, Israel has used phosphorous gas, chemical weapons and shells
containing 37.5mm darts … weapons prohibited by International Humanitarian Law.
As I’m writing this, news about attacks on Gaza are still coming in. I hope that
when you will be reading this article, the genocide would have stopped and there
would be peace in Gaza although not complete peace, as an oppressed nation can
never have it, but at least the massacre would have stopped.
While silence from world governments and officials is sad, still the
pro-Palestinians protests being carried out all over the world show that people
want this brutality to be stopped soon.
In the end, I request my dear readers that if you really have love of
Palestinian people and pain for them in your heart, least boycott all the
products from Israel. The bar code of their products is 729. Remember,
boycotting Israeli products means supporting Gaza and being against the
massacre. Your inaction at this injustice will be unforgivable as on the Day of
Qiyamah how will you it to Allah ta’ala? This is the least we can do to
show that we are with our Palestinian brothers. Close your Facebook accounts for
at least a few days. Write “Protest Against Israel” as the reason for closing
the account. Along with this, please never forget to pray for our suffering
brethrens in Afghanistan, Gaza, Syria, Burma, Iraq and wherever Muslims are
under occupation. May Allah سبحانہ وتعالی bless them with freedom soon, Aameen!
Editor’s Note: Update … Friday 2nd Aug. 2014: Israel has been pounding the Gaza
Strip for almost four weeks, which killed at least 1,675 Palestinians and
injured more than 8,300 others, according to Palestinian Health Ministry.