International Courant
Pricey President Biden,
I’m writing to you for the second time. I first wrote to you on November 4 after 47 members of my group, together with 36 from my circle of relatives, have been murdered in a single assault by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). The bloodbath occurred within the Khan Younis refugee camp, situated within the southern area of the Gaza Strip, the place individuals needs to be protected, as your ally Israel claims.
I’m not certain whether or not my first letter reached you or whether or not your media workforce knowledgeable you of its contents. Anyway, you have not modified your place. Your unequivocal help for Israel, together with via main arms transfers, signifies that many extra such massacres have since been dedicated together with your assist.
Since writing that letter, I’ve misplaced one other 220 members of my circle of relatives.
Only a month in the past, on January 31, my father’s cousin, Khaled Ammar, 40, who was displaced in Khan Younis, was killed alongside together with his total household when the place the place they have been staying was shelled by an Israeli tank. Khaled’s spouse, Majdoleen, 38, their 4 daughters, Malak, 17, Sarah, 16, Aya, 9, and Rafeef, 7, and their two sons, Osama, 14, and Anas, 2, have been all killed within the assault.
The victims additionally included Khaled’s disabled brother Mohammed, 42, and their mom Fathiya, 60. Their our bodies remained unburied for greater than every week. Khaled’s surviving brother, Bilal, 35, repeatedly referred to as for assist to the Palestinian Purple Cross, however they might not ship a rescue workforce to seek for survivors as a result of the IOF didn’t grant them permission.
Majdoleen and her two younger daughters, Rafeef and Aya, got here to see me final summer season after I visited Gaza. I nonetheless keep in mind Rafeef attempting to experience the bike of my youngest niece, Rasha. I nonetheless keep in mind them working down the road and consuming the sweets they purchased from my cousin Asaad’s store. Their laughter nonetheless rings in my ears.
However as we speak, Mr President, there isn’t a Aya, no Rafeef, no Asaad, who was additionally murdered by the IOF alongside together with his spouse, youngsters, mom, two sisters, sister-in-law and their youngsters. There aren’t any roads, no homes, no outlets, no laughter. Solely echoes of devastation and the deafening silence of loss.
As we speak, the residential space of the Khan Younis refugee camp the place I grew up has been diminished to rubble. Tens of hundreds of refugees, together with all surviving members of my prolonged household, have now been displaced to Al Mawasi and Rafah. They stay in tents. They don’t seem to be doing properly, Mr President.
I have never heard from them shortly as a result of Israel minimize off communications. On February 10, my cousin, Aziz, 23, walked three kilometers regardless of the hazard of reaching the outskirts of Rafah to make use of the web. He instructed me that dying has usually handed them by, however has spared them in the intervening time. They’re hungry, thirsty and chilly.
There isn’t any energy, no sanitation, no drugs, no communications or any companies out there to them, regardless of the Worldwide Court docket of Justice’s ruling that Israel should assure the supply of help to Gaza.
If individuals survive the Israeli bombs, they could not survive the injuries suffered through the Israeli bombardment and the explosion of communicable and non-communicable illnesses. The healthcare system has collapsed underneath the Israeli onslaught.
In February, the IOF besieged the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the second largest hospital within the Gaza Strip. There have been 300 medical workers members trapped within the hospital, together with 450 sufferers and roughly 10,000 internally displaced individuals looking for refuge in or across the hospital.
For days, the IOF didn’t enable a World Well being Group (WHO) rescue workforce to evacuate sufferers and workers or ship desperately wanted meals, medical provides and gas. Throughout this time, the medical workers confirmed exceptional braveness and dedication to their sufferers, attempting to maintain them alive regardless of the Israeli assaults. Dr. Amira Al Assouli, who rushed underneath Israeli fireplace to assist one of many wounded within the hospital courtyard, is an effective instance of this.
Quite a few individuals who sought shelter within the hospital constructing have been killed or injured; A few of these murders have been caught on digicam.
On February 13, the IOF despatched a younger man named Jamal Abu Al Ola, who had been detained and tortured by Israeli troopers, to the hospital to inform the Palestinians sheltering there to go away. Carrying a white PPE garment and together with his palms tied, he delivered the message after which walked in direction of the hospital gate – as instructed – however was shot useless. His execution was documented by a journalist on the hospital and launched to the general public.
Will you order an investigation, Mr. President? Will you demand that these liable for the homicide of Jamal and the numerous others at Nasser Hospital be punished or will you as soon as once more settle for the IOF’s model of occasions?
On February 15, the IOF raided the hospital, displacing hundreds of individuals amid heavy bombardments and forcibly disappearing tons of – together with no less than 70 medical employees. This continues a sample that began in Gaza Metropolis. When the IOF raided Al Shifa Hospital, it arrested a few of its workers, together with Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the hospital director, who stays in Israeli jail. The excuse then, as now, was that they have been attempting to find a Hamas command heart – a false narrative that you just, Mr President, have been completely satisfied to embrace.
Through the raid on Nasser Hospital, chopping off electrical energy and oxygen resulted within the deaths of no less than eight sufferers. When a WHO workforce was lastly allowed into the hospital, workers members described it as “a spot of dying.” After the evacuation of tons of of sufferers, some 25 medical workers members have been left to look after the remaining 120 sufferers within the hospital, with out an assured provide of meals, water or drugs.
Among the many common sufferers of Nasser Hospital was my relative Inshirah, who suffered from kidney failure and required weekly dialysis. She lived within the Al Qararah space, east of Khan Younis.
When the IOF bombed her space, she moved to a displaced individuals camp. When the IOF attacked the camp, it moved to Hay al Amal. When the latter was bombed, her youngsters determined to maneuver her to the Nasser Hospital space.
As circumstances within the hospital deteriorated, the frequency of her dialysis classes was diminished to as soon as each two weeks after which to as soon as each three weeks, inflicting her important struggling. When the IOF besieged the hospital, Inshirah was pressured to go away. Then we misplaced contact along with her and her youngsters. We do not know if she survived.
The overwhelming majority of chronically sick individuals like Inshirah wouldn’t have entry to correct healthcare following Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system. For them it is a dying sentence. Destroying a healthcare system is a struggle crime, do you know that, Mr. President?
Mr President, 2.3 million individuals in Gaza stay in a focus camp. They’re starved and mercilessly murdered. They’re bombed of their properties, on the streets, whereas fetching water, whereas sleeping of their tents, whereas receiving assist and even whereas cooking. In Gaza, individuals inform me that ingesting water prices blood, that bread is dipped in blood and that shifting from one place to a different means bleeding.
Even looking for meals to feed your youngsters can result in dying – as occurred to many dad and mom on February 28. About 112 Palestinians have been killed by the IOF as they tried to acquire flour to feed themselves and their households.
Their deaths are painfully actual. Similar to the deaths of little infants like Anas, youngsters like Aya, moms like Majdoleen and the aged like Fathiya. Among the many greater than 30,000 included within the official dying toll are; many extra hundreds have died however are recorded as “lacking.”
About 13,000 of the individuals murdered are youngsters. Many at the moment are dying of starvation. Israel kills six youngsters an hour. Every of those youngsters had a reputation, a narrative and a dream that may by no means be fulfilled. Do not the kids of Gaza should stay, Mr President?
Palestinians are among the many most educated nations in all the Center East. They’re a really curious individuals. Their most burning query all of them have as we speak is: “why”? Why should the Palestinian individuals undergo genocide by the hands of your ally, carried out together with your weapons and cash, when you refuse to name for a ceasefire? Might you inform us why, Mr President?
The views expressed on this article are these of the creator and don’t essentially replicate the editorial place of Al Jazeera.
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