Editorial
One year after Israel’s aggressive actions in Gaza, the Palestinian territory is almost unrecognizable. Its residents are exhausted by continuous displacement and severe shortages, with no end in sight.
Khaled al-Hawajri, 46, described the recent bombardment of his Gaza neighbourhood as feeling like the first day of the war all over again. “Last night, we were terrorized by the bombardments from quadcopters and tank shells,” he said. Over the past year, al-Hawajri and his family of seven have been displaced ten times. Despite the devastation in Gaza’s north, he remains there because, as he puts it, “there is no safe place in the entire Strip.”
On Monday, Gaza City was barely recognizable, ravaged by relentless air strikes and fighting. Residents navigated sand-covered streets stripped of pavements, with buildings either destroyed or left without facades. Piles of rubble littered the roads. With fuel in short supply and prohibitively expensive, car traffic was almost nonexistent. Most people walked, cycled, or used donkey carts.
As Israel intensified its bombing on the war’s first anniversary, civilians were desperate for a return to calm. “There is no electricity or petroleum products. Even firewood is not available. Food is almost nonexistent,” said 64-year-old Hussam Mansour, speaking from a street in Gaza City surrounded by rubble and sand. The United Nations reports that 92% of Gaza’s roads and more than 84% of its health facilities have been damaged or destroyed due to Israeli aggression.
Mansour and his sons have all been displaced, and his apartment building was destroyed in an air strike. “Now, when I walk the streets, I do not recognize them anymore,” he said. Like al-Hawajri and Mansour, Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants have endured immense hardship, with no signs of relief, even after Israel reassigned divisions to the north of the territory.
Palestinians need international justice. The scars of colonization needs hailing. The world, united nations and Islamic countries should come forward for the rights of the people of Palestine.
