GAZA, (PIC)
One thousand days have passed since the start of the genocide war launched by Israel on the Gaza Strip, but they were not just passing days in the lives of Palestinians, rather they were one thousand days of bombardment, killing, displacement, and hunger, during which the details of life turned into a daily battle for survival.
Children were born under the whirring of airplanes and knew no home but the tent, and entire families were wiped out from the civil registry, and neighborhoods that were buzzing with life became piles of rubble, while the residents still face an unprecedented humanitarian situation, in light of the continuation of the war and the decline of basic life requirements.
Over the course of these days, the features of the Strip changed radically. Many hospitals went out of service, schools turned into shelter centers, and water and electricity networks suffered extensive destruction, while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to displace multiple times, carrying what remained of their lives on carts or on their shoulders, searching for a safer place, without finding that in many cases.
Despite the passage of one thousand days, the war still weighs heavily on the details of daily life, as residents face an acute shortage of food, water, and medicine, at a time when the suffering of patients and the wounded is increasing, and fears of the worsening of the humanitarian catastrophe are growing with the continuation of Israeli military attacks.
Falling of the mask
In a reading of the political and humanitarian scene, the writer and political analyst Mustafa Abu al-Saoud said that the passage of one thousand days of the Israeli genocidal war in the Gaza Strip “dropped the mask from countries, organizations, institutions, and people who were calling and rushing to protect civilians, but they fell when it came to Gaza.”
He told the PIC reporter that the Israeli aggression enters its one thousandth day and approaches the end of its third year, confirming that this period is not just a number, but a stage in which Israel used various types of military force against civilians, and he said that “Israel practiced during this period everything in its arsenal of weapons against civilians in Gaza, and it is supported in this by all countries, either secretly or publicly.”
Abu al-Saoud believes that what happened during this war crossed the boundaries of military confrontation, to reveal the size of the contradiction in the positions of many international parties that raised the slogans of protecting human rights, but failed, or abstained, from taking effective steps to stop the suffering of civilians in Gaza.
He pointed out that the Strip, despite what it was subjected to of killing and destruction, was able to impose its presence on the international arena, and to return the Palestinian cause to the forefront of world attention, after many parties tried to marginalize it for long years.
Freedom and independence
He stressed that Gaza proved during these one thousand days that freedom and independence do not come for free, but rather need great sacrifices, adding that the Strip was able to change political equations and laws that regimes over decades could not change, as it inspired peoples and redirected the compass towards the Palestinian cause as a cause of right and justice.
Abu al-Saoud explained that what Israel promotes that the events of seven October 2023 were a reason for what is happening, ignores long decades of occupation and conflict, confirming that what happened on that date represents an advanced stage in the path of the Palestinian struggle, and not the beginning of the cause as Israel tries to portray it.
He pointed out that Israel, after it failed to achieve many of its military goals, may move towards intensifying humanitarian and economic pressures on the residents of the Strip, with the aim of prolonging the suffering and pushing Palestinians to options it did not succeed in imposing by military force.
Despite the harshness of the scene, Abu al-Saoud believes that the Palestinians in Gaza have accumulated extensive experience in dealing with successive crises, and that they, despite the pain and losses, still hold on to hope, adding that “the state of mind of the people of Gaza says that victory comes with patience.”
During one thousand days, the losses were not limited to lives and buildings, but extended to various aspects of life. Thousands of children were deprived of education, and hundreds of thousands of families lost their sources of income, while many live inside tents that do not protect against the heat of summer or the cold of winter, amid a continuous shortage of basic needs, and worsening health and environmental challenges.
With the genocide war entering its one thousandth day, the images of destruction and rubble, and the lines of people waiting to get water or food, and hospitals crowded with the wounded, still reflect the scale of the tragedy lived by more than two million Palestinians in the Strip.
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the genocide has resulted in the martyrdom of at least 73,066 Palestinians and the injury of 173,514 others, in figures that reflect the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe witnessed by the Gaza Strip, in light of the continuation of military operations and the worsening of living and humanitarian conditions.
Between its first day and its one thousandth day, many faces changed, and entire families disappeared, and children grew up amid the sounds of airplanes and explosions, but one thing remained present in Gaza; the will to live. For despite all the destruction and loss left by the war, the residents of the Strip still hold on to hope that the coming days will bring an end to this tragedy, and that they will return one day to their homes, and restore a life stolen by the war since one thousand days.