Gaza Before The Israeli Genocide

CROSSFIREARABIA – According to many pictures and images Gaza was a wonderful place prior to 7 October 2023. The above picture of Al Rasheed Street, the one we used to hear about endlessly on Al Jazeera. It doesn’t exist any more – all destroyed due to Israeli bombs and malice.

Despite the Israeli-imposed siege on the enclave since 2007, the Strip was a plush territory with modern institutions, schools, universities, hospitals and a developing economy despite the squeeze. There was a sense of sustenance, cordiality, community and camaraderie among its people but no more.

It had an urban culture with buildings, towers, villas, house and yes, shanty refugee camps occupied by a population of 2.2 million that lived in the 364 square-kilometer strip but no more. For the lives of the people had been turned upside down.

The familiar face of Gaza disappeared quickly, all gone since 7 October when the Israeli army began its mass destruction and slaughter. Towns, cities and villages were razed to the ground whilst turning its people en masse into displaced persons running from one place to another to seek safe shelter.

But in Gaza there is no safe place, the Israeli military is making sure of that. Their bombs and weapons of mass destruction have made sure that men, women, children, old and young keep moving to where, nobody knows.

Israel has dropped 82,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip according to the Government Media Office in Gaza City. This figure was for early August, 2024 and its is likely to be much higher now. The amount of wreckage and debris is colossal. The UN Environment Program has stated amounts to 40 million tons of rubble (figures for July) and it would take 15 years to clear.

One blogger points out the Israeli military – army, air force and navy because Gazans are being bombarded from all directions – has dropped 36 kilograms of explosives for every man, woman, and child in Gaza.  

This is a giant number that can’t be fathomed by the human mind.

The image (as provided by the UN Satellite Center, 6 July) shows that each red dot points to a bombed place in Gaza with the blogger adding this is what genocide looks like.

The huge explosives were dropped by Israeli warplanes, tanks and from the sea since the Jewish state started its war on the enclave after 7 October, 2023.

Israel’s war on Gaza is being facilitated by US support which has provided Tel Aviv with much of the weapons and mass bombs – some of these MK84 and weigh 2000 pounds per piece, other bombs weigh 1000 pounds and others still 500 pounds – for willful destruction of a thriving Palestinian society.

The Israeli Defense Ministry stated last August that the United States has provided Israel 50,000 tons of military equipment and hardware since it launched its onslaught on the Gaza Strip after 7th October, 2023. This enormous tonnage was delivered to Israel through 500 mega transport planes and 107 ships delivering hardware through sea.

Israel has destroyed 430,000 houses, 821 mosques, 3 churches, 206 historical sites, 25,000 kilometers of sewage networks and 700 water wells so far and the carnage continues.

Israel has killed more than 41,000 civilians and over 95,000 in Gaza, yet its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war must go on, while the Joe Biden administration take a backseat and continue to supply the weapons.

CrossFireArabia

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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Israel Killed Raghad on The Way to School

17-year-old Raghad Hussein Ashour left her home, Monday morning, carrying her books and dreams, heading to an educational center in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. She was preparing for her secondary school exams and clinging to her right to education despite the war, displacement, and destruction that has affected schools and all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip.

But her path to knowledge was cut short. Raghad was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a vehicle in the Rimal neighborhood as she was passing near the site of the attack on her way to the educational center. Her academic dreams turned into a new tragedy reflecting the reality for thousands of students in Gaza.

According to her mother, Raghad was an outstanding student and one of the top performers in her studies. She refused to let the war sever her connection to education.

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After the destruction of schools and the disruption of the educational process, she had become accustomed to moving between the streets of Gaza and cafes in search of electricity and internet access to continue her studies and complete her assignments.

From Beit Hanoun to Displacement

Raghad comes from the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, but she and her mother were forced to flee to Gaza City to escape the relentless bombardment there. They settled in a displacement camp near the Saraya area in the Rimal neighborhood, where the young woman continued her studies amidst extremely difficult humanitarian conditions.

Raghad’s suffering wasn’t solely due to the war; she had been orphaned since childhood, losing her father when she was just two years old. She was raised by her mother, who dedicated her life to her upbringing and care.

As the years passed, the only daughter became her mother’s support and companion in facing life’s burdens and losses.

“Who will replace her?”

Standing before her daughter’s body, the grieving mother was unable to comprehend the magnitude of the tragedy. Her words, heavy with anguish, uttered, “My daughter was my only child… my rose was taken from me in an instant. Who will ever replace her?”

She added bitterly, “I used to move her from place to place during the war so she wouldn’t be taken from me. We slept together on the same pillow.”

The mother recounted years of fear for her only daughter, how she tried to protect her from death during repeated displacements and the harsh days of war, before losing her on her way to school.

In poignant scenes captured in widely circulated videos, the mother embraced her daughter’s body, weeping for dreams unfulfilled. She spoke of the joy of success that awaited her, and the future she had envisioned for her despite all the hardships, before those dreams were extinguished by the bombing.

Her death sparked widespread grief and reactions on social media, where many saw in her story a poignant illustration of the suffering of Gaza’s students who cling to education despite displacement, destruction, and the lack of basic necessities. For some, their books have become the final testament to dreams that were never meant to be fulfilled.

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