Last week on the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, Israel began an intensification of its violent assault on the people of Gaza with attacks from land, air, and sea, with support and weaponry supplied by the U.S. government, sending more shells, drone missiles, bombs, and fire to kill Palestinians in hospitals, school shelters, tents, markets, and streets.
Since then, this intensification has only worsened every passing day and night, becoming more murderous, terrifying, and brutal. Israel has continued to target hospitals, including one that could offer treatment to cancer patients.
Israeli forces also continue to terrorize Palestinians in Gaza by dropping threatening leaflets from the sky, issuing so-called "evacuation orders" which force Palestinians to flee amidst the bombs with no safe place to go.
The women, men, children, who are not killed but are left trapped beneath the rubble, or who are rescued but left hurt and wounded, burned and besieged, starved and sickened, can not be given adequate treatment for burns or pain relief for their suffering, cannot be granted any comfort or assurance of even one moment of safety because of Israel's constant violent bombardment and genocidal attacks, cannot rest or breathe or heal. Israeli forces also continue to destroy any kind of construction or rescue equipment, as they also bomb and destroy whatever small food stores are left, while extending their illegal blockade to prevent food, medicine, water, and fuel from entering into Gaza.
How many times will I say that conditions are worse than they have ever been? How can each day and night, which are the worst possible days and nights, somehow be even worse than the preceding ones? And how many times will I have cause to wonder this? There must be an end, somehow, someway.
Israel has also launched what they are calling “Gideon’s Chariots,” formalizing their blueprint for permanent occupation, mass displacement, and expansion of genocidal violence. While this has been referred to in some media sources as the Israeli government declaring it is launching a "major ground offensive," there is no "offensive." This is a violent intensification and acceleration of genocidal violence unleashed upon families who are already traumatized, starving, and suffering and who are trying to survive.
Unleashed upon families. Fathers, mothers, children. Siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Cousins, friends, husbands and wives. People who just want a chance to live their lives.
Israel is violating international law, acting with impunity, and showing no indications they intend to stop. And Israel and the U.S. are also planning to further weaponize food and food distribution, effectively establishing concentration camps with the help of American mercenaries. This should be receiving more scrutiny and attention, especially from Americans, but so far it has not. And Israel's recent announcement about allowing in a mere nine trucks of so-called "aid" is merely a mocking and disdainful nod towards the increasing number of people throughout the world who have been protesting these past several days who want Israel to stop starving and killing Palestinians.
These past five days have been hell-like and continue to worsen. One of my friends recently sent me a video and voice note recordings of shelling and gunfire from the helicopters hovering above his tent. The video and sounds were enough to make my heart skip and my body to shudder, from the safety of my home, a 10 second clip--what must it be to be living through this, and for this to be only one threat, one source of fear, one cause of anxiety among so many, too many to count?
Everyone I talk to in Gaza is trying, trying so hard to keep going, to be ok. They are doing everything they can to take care of their loved ones, to be strong for each other. But there is a weariness, a fatigue, an exhaustion steeped in trauma, devastation, and starvation, compounded by being immersed in constant loss while also surrounded by an abundance of violent death.We need to keep doing what we are doing to end the genocide and the occupation, while we also continue to find new ways to stop it. We must keep giving all we can to help those who are trying to survive. I do not know how much longer we can continue like this, how much longer anyone can. But I feel strongly that time is not something we can spare. There is an urgency required of us if we are to adequately meet this moment.
One thing I am hoping more people are beginning to understand, one thing that I am trying to show with the presentations I have been giving, is that this is not something happening separately from us. The Palestinian people in Gaza are connected to us. And the people in the U.S. are connected to them. And this country is also the country that is enabling and supporting this genocide.
So again I request that you please do what you can, today, now, this moment to help. Send whatever support you can send to Palestinians in Gaza. Direct aid from us in terms of the funds we are raising right now is the only thing that is helping. And listen to what Palestinians are saying. Prioritize hearing their voices above the voices of others. And then talk to everyone in your life about this. Take whatever action you can take. Take up space. Take up room. Take up air time. Do whatever you can do. Nothing we have done so far has been enough. So we must keep trying.