Photo via @MiddleEastEye/Twitter
May 17, 2021, 4:18 pm*
Following mass protests against the forced displacement of Palestinian families from the homes, Israeli forces are cracking down hard with both a bombing campaign and a ground offensive into the military-occupied area known as the Gaza Strip, resulting in mass destruction and nearly 200 Palestinian deaths so far. According to the most recent reports, at least 55 of those killed have been children, including eight kids who died along with two women in the neighboring home of the weeping girl seen in a viral video on Twitter.
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Filmed by Middle East Eye, an independent news source with a Middle East perspective, the girl says that she just wants to help her people but says that she’s “always sick” and now this.
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“I can’t do anything, you see all of this,” she says, pointing to the rubble that used to be her neighbor’s house. “What do you expect me to do? Fix it? I’m only 10. I can’t even deal with this anymore. I want to be a doctor or anything to help my people, but I can’t. I’m just a kid.”
The Palestinians living in Gaza in particular, nearly half of whom live in poverty, suffer from poor air quality, worsening water quality and limited access, and only hours of electricity each day in what has been increasingly described as an open-air prison where feeling like you’re “always sick” is a common phenomenon. Palestinians must go through Israeli checkpoints in order to leave or return to Gaza and can be denied or detained at any time for any reason.
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These restrictions remained in place as Israel bombarded the largely defenseless Gaza with hundreds of air strikes. Hamas retaliated with some of their own missiles, but the vast majority were struck down by Israel’s “Iron Dome” defense system, which Gaza does not have. Israel has also been accused of using white phosphorus munitions, which is illegal under the Geneva Convention, and it wouldn’t be the first time.
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Over the weekend, Israel leveled a news media building containing offices for the Associated Press and Al Jazeera as well as local news, claiming that the structure also housed Hamas. Evidence of this has not been presented before or after they gave journalists an hour to evacuate and denying them additional time to retrieve the equipment they had to abandon.
“All of this, when I see it, I literally cry every day,” the Palestinian girl says, in tears. “I say to myself, ‘why do we deserve this? What did we do for this?’ My family says they just hate us, they just don’t like us because we are Muslims … You see all the kids around me, they’re just kids! Why would you send a missile to them and kill them? It’s not fair.”
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Israel has long claimed that they have no choice but to bomb civilians in the Gaza strip because Hamas allegedly hides among them as a “shield.” However, investigations by the BBC and multiple human rights organizations have found no evidence that this is true, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for people to take this as an excuse to bomb actual children.
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“As we have said, we have no indication of a Hamas presence in the building, nor were we warned of any such possible presence before the airstrike,” said AP President Gary Pruitt in a statement calling for an investigation into the bombing of their media building. “This is something we check as best we can. We do not know what the Israeli evidence shows, and we want to know.”
Calls to free Palestine and accusations that Israel has created an apartheid state have intensified along with this increasing aggression during one of the holiest Muslim holidays, with massive protests around the world calling for a ceasefire and rights for the Palestinians. Israel has so far refused calls to stop their assault and the U.S. has declined to pressure them into any kind of truce, instead providing them with weapons to continue.
*First Published: May 17, 2021, 1:47 pm
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