by Briar
When Israel has been committing Genocide against Palestinians for a year unchecked by the world, what more can one say?
Although it was unknown to many and not brought to center stage until October 7th, 2023 the violence perpetrated against Palestinians by Israel has been going on for many decades with mass expulsions, mass torture, and mass executions really escalating in 1948 during the “Nakba” (Catastrophe). For over 76 years Palestine and Palestinians have been subjected to the violence of the Israel Defence Forces – fueled by their many allies across the globe, including the United States. Despite the increased attacks and brutality in the last year, several countries have doubled-down on their support, some of which are offering even more aid than ever before. The US for example continues to approve aid package after aid package to be sent to Israel under the guise of “self-defense” resulting in billions more of US citizens’ tax dollars being funneled into Israel to commit mass slaughters and the killing of Palestinians in Gaza in addition to over 3 billion sent by the US annually.
Despite the many people across the world rising up in solidarity with Palestine, and denouncing Israel’s actions and the war crimes they are committing, Israel has been permitted to continue their inhumane and torturous brutalization of Palestinians in Gaza. Even when concentration camps are discovered, the war crimes have continued to pile up, Israel targets additional countries while threatening others, and the international court of justice has recognized the likely genocidal nature of Israel’s actions. They have yet to be stopped. Instead protestors are brutalized and condemned by the US government and their militarized police forces. The same US police and law enforcement personnel (including FBI, CIA, and even ICE agents) that train with the IDF where they learn and exchange “enforcement methods” intended to be weaponized against the people of the US, especially those with the courage to dissent and members of already marginalized communities.
When official counts of Palestinians murdered slows to nearly a stop while footage of new massacres continues to be published, what more can one say?
For the last year the world has watched as the official number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has exponentially grown at an incredibly rapid rate until it began to suddenly slow around 30,000 people despite frequency and force of attacks only increasing. Superficially this slowing number may look like less Palestinians in Gaza are being killed, but the true reason behind the sudden stalling is incredibly unsettling. To be added to the official count someone must be able to be both retrieved and identified. Their body has to be intact enough or recognizable enough to be ID’d. If this can’t be done they won’t be counted. Official reports are now stating well over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed.
As horrifying as it is to hear over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, worse yet is studies are now estimating that the real toll could be nearing 200,000 Palestinians in Gaza mercilessly slain! (Two-Hundred Thousand!) Israel’s onslaught has been so violent and intense that while we’ve watched as the official number has slowed, tens of thousands are unable to be officially recorded. Whether that’s due to decomposition occurring while dumped in mass graves, being crushed under tanks, buildings, and debris, completely eviscerated by missiles or all the other horrific ways they’ve been made unrecognizable, the “official number” is proving to be a gross underestimate. Likewise, official numbers often do not count “proxy deaths” which are caused by circumstances created by the genocide such as infection, starvation, lack of access to treatment for otherwise terminal chronic conditions, and more.
Among those targeted – the IDF has been indiscriminate; it does not matter if they are young or old, sleeping or awake, playing or praying, riding a bike or walking on foot, trapped in a car and calling for help, in their home or displaced in a camp. It does not matter if they’ve followed orders and have gone to so-called safe-zones, if they have white flags in their hands, or have their backs turned. It does not matter if the targets are people, pets, plants, or wildlife. They’ve made it abundantly clear; they aim to kill, and to cause mass damage.
When at least 16,000 children have been killed and more are shamelessly murdered daily, what more can one say?
The overall number for all Palestinians in Gaza continues to climb, as does the number of children killed. Those that aren’t killed survive in complete suffering, many having lost close relatives and parents. Many have become incredibly malnourished as they are starved and dehydrated by the Israeli blockades preventing food, water, and many other life saving resources (i.e. medicine, among other things) from entering Gaza. What does make it in has also resulted in many deaths, either when weaponized as bait, seen during the Flour Massacre, or when falling from the sky with failed parachutes killing people on impact, and others landing in incredibly unsafe locations where Palestinians must risk life and limb in hopes to get even just a little bit of nourishment to sustain themselves and their surviving loved ones.
Palestinian children are being murdered while sleeping, while playing, while held in their mother’s arms, and while their father’s hold them tight. They’re murdered at times with family, and other times alone, sometimes alongside their friends, and other times with strangers. Some only live for mere hours, sometimes only minutes, after their birth before becoming a martyr themselves – victims of the relentless Israeli bombardment. Those that do survive are denied the right of childhood, forced to grow up in a life of raids and bombings, kidnappings and unjust imprisonment, and witness to the massacre of their own people, even long before October 7th.
When hospitals, schools, mosques, and churches have been routinely targeted by Israel, what more can one say?
Despite being recognized as “safe zones” – hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, and other structures generally regarded as havens have repeatedly been intentionally targeted resulting in the deaths of thousands of Palestinians seeking refuge in Gaza. Netanyahu and IDF spokespeople have given various excuses to justify these war crimes, and assaults in violation of international law, but there is no justifying what is taking place.
Beyond the instantaneous mass casualties the targeting of these facilities causes, there are other critical consequences. The education system in Gaza has been incredibly damaged by Israel’s direct targets. With all universities being destroyed, 80% of schools either being damaged or wholly destroyed, and the inability to ensure a safe environment, schools are no longer operating, bringing many Palestinian children’s formal education to a complete halt, along with the dreams of thousands of Palestinians to pursue further education in college. Hundreds of professors and teachers have also been killed and many others are currently displaced.
Hospitals as well as other care clinics have been direct targets resulting in these facilities no longer functioning and people not being able to receive treatment. Those that are able to be partially utilized are flooded with the wounded and deceased. Bodies fill up the floors as they run out of room, people young and old writhe in pain, and agony due to a lack of medical supplies, pain killers, and personnel to treat them. Children cry and scream begging for loved ones, and parents are heard wailing over their martyred children. Often people are left to succumb to their wounds as there is no way to effectively treat them even if they manage to initially survive and get to a care facility.
To help paint a picture according to EuroMed Human Rights Monitor, Israel has either damaged or fully destroyed at least:
32 hospitals, 115 clinics, and 246 ambulances,
760 mosques, 3 churches, 489 schools, and 203 heritage sites
When people are getting amputations without anesthesia, painkillers, or sanitary conditions, what more can one say?
The constant assault has left much of the population in Gaza so severely wounded they require amputation. As was already established, the hospitals and the clinics are virtually inoperable, and facilities that are “usable” are so severely short on supplies that they are unable to provide the necessary medications and medical instruments necessary for the procedures needed. These two facts have created a now nightmarish reality. A reality where people are undergoing limb amputations in unsafe and unsanitary circumstances without any anesthetic, without any pain medication, and without easily accessible antibiotics to fight infection. These amputations are done with crude tools, like saws or literal butcher knives when that is all that can be found.
In December 2023, a doctor reported that he had to perform an unmedicated amputation on his 16 year old daughter on a kitchen table with a pair of scissors. They were trapped in their home surrounded by the IDF and he was posed with the horrible decision of going through with the excruciating procedure, and high risk of death following, or watch as she bled out. He was forced to use a dish sponge to attempt to scrub her mangled leg, and had people holding flashlights to help him see the arteries. This is not a one-off incident. With the viciousness of the seemingly endless attacks thousands upon thousands are losing limbs and requiring amputation. Euromed Human Rights Monitor estimates over 10,000 children have lost at least one leg in the last year.
When Palestinians have been live streaming their own gruesome Genocide for a year, what more can one say?
It’s been a year. It’s been a year of bloody, graphic, and gruesome footage. It has been a year of Palestinians begging and pleading for the world to intervene. It has been a year of human slaughter. It has been a year of mass graves. It has been a year of unimaginable torture, and trauma. It has been a year of genocide.
It’s time to do more than just watch and witness.
It is time to take action.
There is a way for each and every person to take action; it’s just a matter of finding what works for them.
Resources:
Fargo-Moorhead Mutual Aid & Direct Action Network: 
CODEPINK Fargo-Moorhead:
International news, updates, education via social media:
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights – USCPR.org
Basem Alhabel (first deaf Palestinian Journalist from Gaza) – @basem.in.sign
Palestine Red Crescent Society – @palestineredcrescent – palestinercs.org/en
Sulala Animal Rescue – @sulalaanimalrescue
Bisan Owda – @wizard_bisan1
Hind Khoudary – @hindkhoudary
Ahmed Hisham – @a7mhisham
Ismail Al Dahdouh – @Ismail.jood
Al Jazeera – @aljazeeraenglish – aljazeera.com
Let’s Talk Palestine – @letstalkpalestine
Operation Olive Branch – @operationolivebranch – linktr.ee/opolivebranch
Pulse of Pal – @pulseofpal
BDS – @bdsnationalcommittee – bdsmovement.net
To watch:
Naila and the Uprising
Five Broken Cameras
Born in Gaza – Watch on Youtube
To Listen (Podcast):
This is Palestine
The Palestine Pod
Rethinking Palestine
To Read:
Decolonize Palestine – decolonizepalestine.com
Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics – Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick
My People Shall Live – Leila Khaled (free PDF)
Handala’s Return:a Children’s Story And Workbook – The Palestinian Feminist Collective (free PDF)
Please consider donating to the following GoFundMe’s for family of Local Palestinians:
Urgent Plea: Help Saving Surviving Family in Gaza – gofund.me/92213432
Save My Family From the War in Gaza – gofund.me/7945d604
Relief for Abdallah’s Family Amidst Crisis – gofund.me/021e8fb0
RRCC 