The Ongoing Crisis in Gaza: A Commentary
Well folks, have you ever wondered what it must be like to live in a ‘free-range war zone’? You got your drone strikes in the north, ground combat in the center, and, if you’re really lucky, some airstrikes in the south – it’s like a buffet of violence where no one leaves happy. The Israeli military has confirmed that they are continuing their operations in Gaza. Apparently, it’s a busy time over there! The chosen verb was “eliminated.” I mean, it’s like they’re playing a twisted game of Dungeons & Dragons, where “eliminated” sounds much nicer than “killed.” You know, let’s just tidy up the language a bit while we’re at it!
And speaking of language, the death toll is climbing like a contestant on a reality show trying to outlast their rivals. In just the last week, a single strike in Beit Lahia took out 73 people, including a couple of families – because why disrupt just one life when you can do it to an entire clan? It’s shocking to think about: 400 Palestinian deaths in a week, and Joyce Msuya from the UN is calling it “appalling news.” Yes, Joyce, I’ll bet that’s the understatement of the century. It’s almost as if every highlight of the horror show has an unrelenting focus on numbers, isn’t it? More numbers than a banker’s ledger during a financial crash.
Hamas has declared it will keep fighting, even after losing its leader, Yahya Sinouar, the alleged mastermind behind the attack on October 7. To make a comparison, it’s like a football team that loses its star striker but decides to keep playing – just with a bit more chaos and, let’s face it, less profit-oriented razzmatazz. You’ve got to admire their tenacity, but it’s a deadly game where the stakes are higher than a giraffe on stilts.
The figures out of Gaza are staggering – we’re talking over 42,519 Palestinians dead, mostly civilians, thanks to the ongoing retaliatory actions. When you think about it in terms of human lives, those numbers start to feel like a macabre game of bingo, with people systematically checked off the list. A doctor, Raheem Kheder, mentioned deaths from recent strikes—two parents and their four children gone, just like that. And we thought family game nights could get intense!
Meanwhile, in the background, the health system is crumbling faster than a cheap IKEA shelf at a family gathering. Injuries? “Catastrophic situation” is what we call it when horror becomes so normalized you need a flowchart to track the dysfunction. Imagine a hospital turned into a triage unit during a zombie apocalypse – that’s the vibe here. The internet connection is halting progress, too; it’s almost like a twisted metaphor for the communication breakdown between the individuals suffering and the outside world.
In the end, the whole place seems to have more closures than a poorly planned retail outlet. People evacuated from the north at the start of the war, but they can’t go back. And while the Israeli army plays military chess with lives as pawns, 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced. It’s as if they’ve been given a ticket for a ride—a one-way ticket to nowhere. It’s tragic. It’s horrifying. And it’s a reality that shouldn’t be happening in the 21st century—or any century for that matter.
It’s hard not to feel a sense of loss, not just figuratively, but literally. The region’s beauty and its people are being obliterated by a humanitarian crisis that feels like it’s straddling the edge of a horror movie. Where do we go from here? Well, the answer’s not in the numbers, folks, it’s in the compassion we extend beyond the headlines. And while I may be cheeky in tone, the reality is anything but funny. Let’s keep our eyes opened – there’s far too much at stake.
The Israeli army announced on Sunday that it was continuing its operations in parallel in “the north, center and south” of the Gaza Strip, and having “eliminated dozens of Palestinians in close ground combat and airstrikes”.
The day before, a strike left 73 dead “and a large number injured”, according to the Civil Defense of the Gaza Strip, in an inhabited area of Beit Lahia, in the north of the Palestinian territory, where Israel is carrying out a new ground operation and aerial.
Before this strike, “more than 400 Palestinian deaths” were recorded in the north of the Gaza Strip since the start of the offensive launched by the Israeli army on October 6 in this sector.
“Appalling news from northern Gaza, where Palestinians continue to suffer unspeakable horrors under siege by Israeli forces,” said Joyce Msuya, the UN’s interim humanitarian chief.
Hamas affirmed that it would continue to fight in the besieged territory despite the death of its leader, Yahya Sinouar, killed Wednesday by Israeli soldiers and considered the mastermind of the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7, 2023 against Israel, who started the war.
At least 42,519 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed so far in the Israeli retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to data from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the Beit Lahiya strikes, saying it “continued to operate across Gaza, both through airstrikes and ground operations.”
The growing number of injured worsens the catastrophic situation of the health system
The dead included two parents and their four children, as well as a woman, her son, her daughter-in-law and their four children, according to Raheem Kheder, a doctor. The latter said the strike razed a multi-story building and at least four neighboring houses. Mounir al-Bursh, director general of the Ministry of Health, said the number of injuries following the strikes worsened “an already catastrophic situation for the health system” in northern Gaza, in a message on X.
Internet connection was cut in northern Gaza on Saturday evening and had not yet been restored as of midday Sunday, making it difficult to gather information about the strikes.
Israel has been carrying out a large-scale operation in the Jabaliya urban refugee camp, also in northern Gaza, for two weeks.
The army claims to have launched the operation against Hamas militants who had gathered there.
The north of the Palestinian enclave has already suffered the heaviest destruction of the war and has been surrounded by Israeli forces since the end of last year, after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Israel ordered the entire population of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, to evacuate to the south in the first weeks of the war and reiterated those instructions earlier this month.
Most of the population fled last year, but around 400,000 people are believed to have remained in the north.
Palestinians who fled the north at the start of the war have not been allowed to return.
The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.
