Today marks 38 days of Gaza being under constant attack. While most believe this siege began following Hamas’s attack on an Israeli festival, the oppression of Gaza dates back 16 years ago when 2 million Palestinians were pushed into a 140 square mile city- creating the largest open-air prison to exist. Although Israel has declared war on Hamas, a militant group from the Gaza strip, the Israeli military has repeatedly bombed Gaza and attacked Palestinians in the West Bank everyday since Oct 7.
As of today, AP News reports at least 11,255 Gazans have been killed, 40% of which being children, 2,700 people are missing, including 1,500 children and over 28,000 injured as reported from the Washington Post. Not only has the death toll risen to horrific heights, but those who are alive in Gaza are denied humanitarian aid, as the Israeli government shut off Gazan access to water, food, medical supply, electricity and fuel when the war was declared. AP News reported that over 200 trucks carrying aid were denied entry into Gaza and only 20 were allowed in, prior to the war, 500 trucks were issued daily, 20 trucks for over 2 million people will be insufficient and will not last for long.
With several hospitals bombed and out of supply, only half of the hospitals in Gaza remain standing and in danger. World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier informed BBC News that Al-Shifa, hospital in Gaza, is, “nearly a morgue.” Only one hospital in the North of Gaza is able to treat patients, while those in the South are under constant danger due to the frequency of attacks in that area.
As the hospitals and healthcare system collapses in Gaza, innocent people are not only out of homes, but out of hope for any sort of recovery. The United Nations reports that well over 1 million Palestinians in Gaza have lost their homes, affirming their statement that Palestinians are at risk of an “ethnic cleansing”. Future generations are getting wiped from their native land, as Gaza is a city where the life expectancy is so low, half of the population is children.
A ceasefire is what protests and large social media platforms are pushing for with celebrities like Kehlani, Kid Cudi, and Bella Hadid voicing their support for Palestine. However an ending is nowhere in sight- aside from the “daily 4- hour humanitarian pauses,” in the fighting of Northern Gaza. Netanyahu claims there will be no ceasefire until the 239 Israeli hostages taken by Hamas are released. An agreement is in the making between Israel and Hamas where Hamas will release 70-100 hostages in exchange for the release of 275 out of 6,000 wrongfully imprisoned Palestinian children and women in Israel.
President Joe Biden has expressed his support for Israel by sending over $14.3 billion in aid and military warfare to Israel while neglecting the Palestinian need for basic humanitarian aid. Nevertheless, 16 lawmakers from Congress have “signed on the ceasefire resolution,” in a recent article from CBS New York. Although America is divided in their positions on the war between Palestine and Israel, the world agrees that human lives are valuable, and the people of Gaza do not deserve to be ignored.
