Expensive 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 in Khan Younis refugee camp, positioned within the southern area of the Gaza Strip, the place folks have been imagined to be secure, as claimed by your ally, Israel.
I’m unsure if my first letter reached you or in case your media crew made you conscious of its contents. Both manner, you haven’t modified your place. Your unequivocal assist for Israel, together with by way of giant weapons transfers, implies that many extra such massacres have been dedicated together with your assist since then.
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 his total household when the place they have been staying in 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, all perished within the assault.
Among the many victims have been additionally Khaled’s disabled brother Mohammed, 42, and their mom Fathiya, 60. Their our bodies remained unburied for over every week. Khaled’s surviving brother, Bilal, 35, made repeated requires help to the Palestinian Purple Cross Society, however they may not dispatch a rescue crew to search 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 time once I visited Gaza. I nonetheless bear in mind Rafeef attempting to trip the bike of my youngest niece, Rasha. I nonetheless bear in mind them racing down the road, consuming the sweet they’d purchased from the store of my cousin, Asaad. Their laughter nonetheless echoes in my ears.
However right this moment, Mr President, there isn’t a Aya, no Rafeef, no Asaad, who was also killed by the IOF alongside along with his spouse, kids, mother, two sisters, sister-in-law and their kids. There aren’t any roads, no houses, no retailers, no laughter. Solely echoes of devastation and the deafening silence of loss.
In the present day, the residential space of Khan Younis refugee camp I grew up in is decreased to rubble. Tens of 1000’s of refugees, together with all surviving members of my prolonged household, at the moment are displaced to al Mawasi and Rafah. They’re residing in tents. They don’t seem to be faring properly, Mr President.
I’ve not heard from them shortly, as Israel has reduce off communication. On February 10, my nephew, Aziz, 23, walked three kilometres regardless of the hazard to succeed in the sting of Rafah to make use of the web. He informed me that demise has handed by them many occasions however spared them for now. They’re hungry, thirsty, and chilly.
There isn’t a energy, no sanitation, no medicines, no communications, or any companies out there to them, regardless of the Worldwide Court docket of Justice ruling that Israel has to make sure the supply of help to Gaza.
If folks do survive the Israeli bombs, they might not survive wounds sustained within the Israeli bombardment and the explosion of communicable and non-communicable illnesses. The well being care system has collapsed beneath the Israeli onslaught.
In February, the IOF laid a siege on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the second-largest within the Gaza Strip. There have been 300 medical employees trapped within the hospital alongside 450 sufferers and about 10,000 internally displaced individuals looking for refuge inside or within the hospital’s neighborhood.
For days, the IOF wouldn’t let a rescue crew from the World Well being Group (WHO) evacuate sufferers and employees or ship much-needed meals, medical provides and gas. All through this time, the medical employees demonstrated outstanding braveness and dedication to their sufferers, attempting to maintain them alive within the face of the Israeli assaults. Dr Amira Al Assouli, who rushed beneath Israeli fireplace to assist one of many wounded within the hospital courtyard is one shiny instance.
Numerous individuals who sought shelter within the hospital premises have been killed or wounded; a few of these murders have been recorded on digicam.
On February 13, the IOF despatched a younger man named Jamal Abu Al Ola, whom Israeli troopers had detained and tortured, to the hospital to inform the Palestinians sheltering there to depart. Carrying a white PPE garment and along with his fingers certain, he delivered the message after which – as instructed – headed in direction of the gate of the hospital, however was shot lifeless. 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 answerable for the killing of Jamal and the numerous others at Nasser Hospital be punished or will you settle for the IOF’s model of occasions once more?
On February 15, the IOF raided the hospital, expelling 1000’s of individuals amid heavy bombardment and forcibly disappearing tons of – not less than 70 of them medical employees. This continues a sample began in Gaza Metropolis. When the IOF raided Al Shifa Hospital, it detained a few of its employees, amongst them, Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the hospital director, who stays in Israeli jail. The excuse then, as now, is that they have been attempting to find a Hamas command centre – a false narrative, you, Mr President, readily embraced.
Throughout the raid of Nasser Hospital, the slicing off of electrical energy and oxygen resulted in the deaths of not less than eight sufferers. When a WHO crew was lastly allowed to enter the hospital, its staffers described it as “a spot of demise”. After the evacuation of tons of of sufferers, some 25 medical staffers stayed behind to take care of the remaining 120 sufferers within the hospital with out a secured provide of meals, water or medicines.
Among the many common sufferers of Nasser Hospital was my relative, Inshirah, who suffered from kidney failure and required dialysis each week. She lived within the Al Qararah space, east of Khan Younis.
When the IOF bombed her space, she moved to a camp for displaced folks. When the IOF attacked the camp, she moved to Hay al Amal. When the latter was bombed, her kids determined to maneuver her to the neighborhood of Nasser Hospital.
Because the circumstances on the hospital deteriorated, the frequency of her dialysis periods was decreased to as soon as each 2 weeks after which to as soon as each 3 weeks, inflicting her vital struggling. When the IOF besieged the hospital, Inshirah was compelled to depart. Then we misplaced contact along with her and her kids. We have no idea if she has survived.
The overwhelming majority of chronically ailing folks like Inshirah can’t entry correct well being care after Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s well being care system. It is a demise sentence for them. Destroying a well being care system is a battle crime, do you know that, Mr President?
Mr President, 2.3 million folks in Gaza live in a focus camp. They’re starved and killed relentlessly. They’re bombed of their houses, on the streets, whereas accumulating water, whereas sleeping of their tents, whereas receiving help, and even whereas cooking. In Gaza, folks inform me that consuming water prices blood, a loaf of bread is dipped in blood, and shifting from place to position means bleeding.
Even the act of looking for meals to feed your kids can kill you – as occurred to many mother and father on February 28. Some 112 Palestinians were murdered by the IOF as they tried to get flour to feed themselves and their households.
Their deaths are painfully actual. As have been the deaths of small infants like Anas, kids like Aya, moms like Majdoleen, and the aged like Fathiya. There are among the many greater than 30,000 which were recorded within the official demise toll; many extra 1000’s have perished however are recorded as “lacking”.
Some 13,000 of the murdered are kids. Many at the moment are dying of hunger. Israel is killing 6 kids an hour. Every of those kids had a reputation, a narrative, and a dream that’s by no means to be fulfilled. Do the kids of Gaza not deserve life, Mr President?
The Palestinians are among the many most educated nations in your complete Center East. They’re a really curious folks. Their most burning query all of them have right this moment is, “why”? Why do the Palestinian folks should endure genocide by the hands of your ally, carried out together with your weapons and cash, whilst you refuse to name for a ceasefire? Are you able to inform us why, Mr President?
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.