RAFAH — Abu Kamal, a 50-year-old Palestinian, has been living in terror since he was forced to flee the Saudi neighborhood in the western side of the city of Rafah earlier in May.
Abu Kamal has been displaced for many years, after his family’s home on the border strip was destroyed in 2001, at the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, when Israeli warplanes bombed the area and razed Palestinian homes built on the Palestinian-Egyptian border.
For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.
In 2013, after years of suffering, he and his family were given a home in the Saudi neighborhood. Abu Kamal now fears that his previous suffering will be repeated — he moved from one house to another, running after United Nations agencies and NGOs to secure his rent.
Abu Kamal follows the news of Rafah with great fear. He calls his neighbors and friends to find out the places which the Israeli army invaded, the houses that have been destroyed, and the identities of their owners.
Abu Kamal’s situation is like that of all forcibly displaced people, who live in fear of repeated displacement and of the destruction of their homes.
This feeling has accompanied me too for the past nine months, during which I lived as a displaced person moving from place to place. It is harsh to be without a home and forcibly displaced. You live with a sense of deficiency, fear and instability, you lose your privacy and long for your things and for yourself too.
Gaza continues to pay the price of survival with the blood of its children, women, youth and elders — not the least of which was the 274 killed in the Nuseirat camp massacre, who were killed when the Israeli army launched a military operation to free four Israelis that had been held hostages by Hamas since Oct. 7.
The Nuseirat Massacre
The morning of Saturday, June 8, was terrifying. I was next to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza when an Israeli warplane bombed an apartment building near the hospital. The bombing coincided with the sounds of violent explosions nearby. It later turned out that it was in the middle of the Nuseirat camp, which is about 3 kilometers from Deir al-Balah. I heard the sound of explosions, the whizzing of helicopter gunships, and the whistle of missiles before they exploded nearby.
The scene in the street was terrifying. People did not have enough information about what was happening. There was panic, with people fleeing southward from the town of Zawaida, northern Deir al-Balah, and Nuseirat. In the background, the sounds of planes and gunfire rose.
Israel insists that the people of Gaza pay prices they cannot bear
The price was very high. Israel insists that the people of Gaza pay prices they cannot bear, but they do so anyway: forced to be steadfast and patient, even if there is no hope to end this war at the horizon.
On the same morning before the attack, I had met my family’s neighbor, Dr. Omar, a resident of Al-Shaboura camp in Rafah. He was on a donkey cart. I could not recognize him, as he looked like he was in his eighties: unable to walk or sit, he was forced to lie on his back. At the beginning of the war, the Israeli military killed his wife, 12 of his children, and 13 displaced people who were sheltering in his house. Only he and one of his children, who helped him walk, escaped death.
He is now displaced in Deir al-Balah, after he was forced to flee from Rafah. In early May, doctors found that he had cancer and needs urgent treatment and surgery outside Gaza. He suffers from severe pain that prevents him from traveling, especially after the Israeli military occupied the Rafah crossing on May 7.
No privacy
In my new displacement shelter, the internet connection is weak. I have been here around three weeks and life is very difficult. What is more difficult is hearing people’s stories without being able to help. Everybody talks of harsh experiences.
Noura described life in the tents in one sentence: “We are exposed to each other,” and she said that she “lives in only one day, every day repeats this day with slight differences. The tent is a completely exposed world, there is no privacy even between sisters and family members, people are exposed to each other.”
The war and famine in Gaza are not ordinary news. At this time, Israel is proud of completing its control of the Salah al-Din (Philadelphi) corridor on the Egyptian-Palestinian border, while it continues to kill, destroy, and starve people. Some media outlets beautify the issue by saying that the Palestinians in Gaza are on the brink of famine. Despite all the warnings and condemnations, the world still treats the news of war and famine in Gaza as normal.
The situation is catastrophic in all areas of the Gaza Strip, and the genocide continues in its various criminal forms as if it was in its first day — with shelling, the sounds of artillery, explosions, and the killing of children and women. Israel insists and lies about its readiness for negotiations, while it continues its war.
No one believes that what brings people back to the reality of genocide is not only the sounds of aerial bombardment, the very close shelling of warships, the sounds of repeated clashes, and the news of death from all areas of Gaza, but also the fear of dying from hunger or disease, from oppression, anger, and sadness.
Before my displacement to Deir al-Balah, I would not leave the house before sunset and darkness fell. I did that intentionally every day, and I followed the lives of the displaced people residing in the shops and stores on the main street. I noticed that entire families were sitting at the doors of the shops until the end of work hours, waiting for the places to be cleaned so that they could sleep. Personal hygiene is discaded, dirty streets and the flow of sewage and its foul smell make people’s lives in the street miserable.
The world is weak, inhuman
There is a rule that says when the truth is harsh and painful, the lie is harsher and more painful, until people forget that it exists. Every lie people tell is a condemnation of the truth, and this applies to Israel and the United States, and everything else is just stupid statements and clichés.
For me the world is very scary, weak and inhuman.
Tanks never stop raiding refugee camps to recover the bodies of Israelis, and there is no trace left of Jabaliya, Bureij, Maghazi and East Deir al-Balah camps. There is no security or life for the Palestinians, only more death and destruction.
Some observers considered the U.N. decision to blacklist Israel of the utmost importance. The blacklist includes countries and groups that attack and kill children, and destroy schools and hospitals.
Anti-Semitism is the accusation for anyone who opposes the policy of killing, destruction, and racism.
Israel responded as usual by accusing the United Nations and its Secretary-General of anti-Semitism and of supporting terrorism, saying that the Israeli army is the most moral in the world. This is nothing new. Anti-Semitism is the ready-made accusation for anyone who opposes the policy of killing, destruction, and racism.
The Gaza war has entered its ninth month, and the blood of the Gazans is still flowing. It is a destructive war that has affected everything without exception. About 38,000 people have been killed, tens of thousands have been wounded, and thousands have gone missing.
Gaza is tired, broken-hearted, and alone — sleeping and waking up to massacres. Israel is searching for local leaders to replace Hamas and Fatah, and it continues to destroy Gaza.
What kind of force will run the Strip when it is shattered?
This is genocide
The Palestinian shield is beginning to erode, in light of Israel’s continued genocide, and the complete lack of possibility for a future. In light of the repeated talk about justice that millions are denied, genocide is understood as an expression and display of power, to the point that it may simply challenge the most accepted moral principle in the international system.
Israel claims that its legal system competently examines the violations and crimes committed by the Israeli army. This is a repeated lie. Israel will not be able to whitewash the crime scene and engage in endless investigations, intentionally.
It is sad that all this is happening, and it needs for Europe to recognize it too. This is necessary because Israel’s deception can only be exposed by the Europeans who gave it this immoral power to begin with.
This is only one aspect. Let us consider the Rafah massacre on May 27. The strategy announced by Israel is “killing as many senior Hamas leaders as possible in the hope that the movement will collapse, regardless of the number of civilian deaths – collateral damage.” This is genocide.
Israel’s clear, premeditated and precise plan is to kill as many Palestinians as possible. Israel is based on superiority, dehumanization and apartheid, which leads to genocide.
