5,087 Palestinians killed in 2 weeks by Israel, 40% of them children
"Never Again" means not now.
“Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself.” —Rabbi Abraham Heschel (1907-1972)
Aid donation links for Gaza below👇
Last night into the morning of October 23rd is being reported as the worst night of bombing in Gaza since this started 16 days ago.
5,087 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks, with 40% of the dead children. 1.5K are presumed trapped or dead under the rubble. 42% of homes in Gaza are destroyed or severely damaged (164,000 homes). 90 Palestinians have been murdered in the West Bank, where Hamas has no presence.
The number of dead or living buried beneath the rubble is now too large to be feasibly removed, with animals arriving and disease spreading from rotting corpses.
After Israel bombed the Al-Ahli Baptist hospital on October 17, the IDF also hit an UNRWA school on Saturday (10.21.2023), killing 29 UN staff members. UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.
38 of these UN buildings have been impacted by strikes since October 7, and on average their refugee camps now have 2.5 times more people than capacity allows.
Several aid trucks have passed the Egypt Rafah border, despite continuous bombing of the crossing.
Donate to UNRWA’s Gaza Emergency Appeal.
Anera is another larger network of aid groups accepting donations that has started to provide IV solutions to hospitals in Gaza. The majority of hospitals have little to no anesthesia left, and people are being operated on without anesthetic.
Another Gaza Hospital under Threat
As of yesterday, Israel called for the Al Quds Hospital in North Gaza to evacuate or bear the consequences. A doctors' group, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, filed a petition to Israel's Supreme Court warning Al-Quds hospital could not be evacuated.
In the last 24 hours, the IDF heavily bombed the residential area around Al Quds hospital, leaving many more people arriving to seek treatment. According to the BBC ☝️, Israeli airstrikes entirely destroyed the al-Zahraa neighborhood, with more than twenty-four blocks of flats razed to the ground.
One resident said they could still hear the screaming of people trapped under the rubble of their homes. “Ambulances cannot get here. People are screaming but we cannot pull them out," he said.
This morning a friend sent me a quote saying you cannot be a feminist if you support Hamas. Likely she got the impression I am a supporter of Hamas, from the fact I’ve shared many of the atrocities and protest actions happening over the last few weeks on social media.
Even at the European Commission (let’s not talk about the halls of power in America), there has been a damning refusal to speak directly on the war crimes and who is perpetrating this “humanitarian disaster” in Gaza. As Clare Daly, one of two Irish European MPs so aptly and bravely put it in Brussels this week:
“Is it a natural disaster? Who cut off the water, fuel and electricity? Who is bombing Gazan civilians? Are we not sure? Do we not know? There is a crime happening here and we are in it up to our necks.”
It gives a small indication of what we’re up against in terms of changing the narrative that dehumanizes all Palestinians as “terrorists” and “animals” — if we want to offer solidarity to those being terrorized by an inhuman, internationally illegal bombing campaign.
After receiving this message suggesting I was supporting Hamas, I watched a video explaining how the sheer force of an Israeli “precision” rocket upon impacting a building is enough to remove babies’ heads from their bodies, since their necks are weaker than an adult’s (complete with photos and videos).
Let’s say I will feel more up for a conversation about feminism in Islam when women and children are no longer being murdered at genocidal rates by a fascist state, backed financially by the U.S. and my tax money. (Here’s an article on the Israeli government’s neo-fascism from October 3, in Haaretz, the leading Israeli newspaper, four days before Hamas’ attack.)
Who among those in Gaza, and protesting online and in the streets against this pogrom, are actually supporting Hamas?
Since some seem to be wondering, let’s address it. It’s approximated that Hamas has roughly 20,000 fighters. (Historically funded and supported by Netanyahu’s far-right party, again as reported by Haaretz.)
The Gaza Strip is home to 2.2 million people. Hamas makes up 0.09% of Gazans living and dying under carpet bombing, a regimen of starvation and dirty water, with their night lit only by bombs and God’s stars.
Increasingly we’re faced with distraction tactics, meant to silence our horror at ongoing events. In the words of poet Saul Williams:
“The invading forces calculate their aggression in accordance to your exhaustion and loss of interest.
They need you to get caught up in trivial discussions, to feel that these things must simply run their course, to feel that you have no power to stop them, that it is out of your hands.”
In the first six days of bombing alone, the Israeli government claimed on X to have dropped 6,000 bombs on the 365 km² area of Gaza.
That’s more than the U.S. dropped in the first year of the “War on Terror” on the entire country of Afghanistan. More children were killed in the first week of bombing Gaza, than in the entire first year of the war in the Ukraine by Russia.
To quote Fariha Roisin’s newsletter on the Israelis’ perspective on Palestinian children:
People within the Israeli government ([namely] the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, who said there are no innocent civilians in Gaza; he knows half of Gaza’s population are children) have inferred that all Palestinians (this is a link to an interview with Tzipi Hotovely, Israeli Ambassador to the UK) are terrorists, and thus worthy of death.
MK Merav Ben-Ari, a member of Lapid’s party, announced in Israel’s parliament just this week: “The children in Gaza brought it upon themselves.”
This is what we’re talking about when we say genocide.
Hundreds of American Jews were arrested in Congress last week, saying NO to a genocide in their name.
Especially for my German fam who will not hear a word against Israel, and close their ears at the mention of Gaza:
If Jewish people internationally are calling it a genocide, we should believe them.
If you live in the U.S., call or write your representatives and take part in sit-ins and protests organized by IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace and Palestine Action. In the UK, there’s the original Palestine Action protest network and, in Germany, Jüdische Stimme (Jewish Voice).
The newly-founded Voices for Peace in Europe offers the ability to send a pre-drafted email demanding a ceasefire to representatives in any European country (in the country’s native language). I can also recommend Thomas Fazi’s Substack for daily news round-ups and analysis. If you know of any additional organizations getting aid through to Gaza (in the immediate term), please share in the comments.
Still what’s proved most effective historically is the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, being willing to use your voice for ceasefire to turn the tide, and taking part in non-violent actions to confront politicians in person, at their seats of power.
There is an incredible wave of protests and direct actions happening: from the congressional rotunda sit-in in D.C., to protesters filling the streets around the world (despite protest bans in France, Germany and Austria) and light shows over the Bundestag in Berlin.
It’s time to take part. “Never again” means not now.