By Duha Almusaddar, Programme Manager at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s Palestine and Jordan Office.
Since 7 October 2023, the people of Gaza have lived under non-stop bombardment by air, land, and sea, while trapped in unbearable living conditions. Ninety percent of the population is displaced. Meanwhile, two thirds of the buildings in the Gaza Strip are destroyed or damaged, forcing the majority of people to live together in overcrowded, inadequate tents whether in the blazing heat of summer or the freezing cold of winter. A lack of access to adequate clean water, sanitation, and hygiene is facilitating the rapid spread of diseases — compounded by diminished heath capacities as a result of the Israeli bombardment of health facilities and hospitals as well as the complete siege imposed on the Strip since 9 October of last year.
According to estimates by UNRWA, some 650,000 Gazan children continue face these horrors every day instead of attending school or returning safely to their homes. At the time of writing, the people who remain in northern Gaza are under siege and subjected to an ongoing massacre by Israeli forces. Evacuation orders, part of the forcible transfer of Gazans, continue to be issued, but even the so-called “safe zones” are subject to regular attack. People in Gaza are traumatized and exhausted, and feel abandoned by the international community as they do their best to just survive another day
Living through a Never-Ending Nightmare
Those who were able to exit the Gaza Strip before the destruction of the Rafah crossing with Egypt may have managed to escape the bombardment, but not the trauma nor the anxiety over our family members and friends who remain there. We all live with a crippling helplessness, forced to live life as if things were normal, while our hearts and minds are still in Gaza. Many are stranded in Egypt without the right to work or study and with little hope of their situation improving. It is not clear how long they can survive there — not to mention the difficulties in accessing costly health services without health insurance.
A relatively small number managed to leave thanks to their foreign nationality or residence permit, and some were able to apply for asylum. But the majority of the people who left Gaza are stuck in limbo, attempting to build a new future while at the same time trying to understand how life can go on while unspeakable horrors are taking place back home. They carry on with their daily lives despite the agony. Most try to be strong and continue on in hopes of someday returning to help rebuild, while trying to avoid thinking about the terrifying question of whether they will ever be allowed back.
All Gazans have seen the sites of our memories erased due to the complete destruction of their cities and homes. Despite all the military operations Israel had conducted and the siege it imposed for the past 17 years, at the end of the day, all Gazans could find comfort in the sea or a safe place to lay their head. Today, this is no longer possible — we do not have homes to go back to. There are no safe places left. Our future and loved ones have also been stolen from us. We will remain in limbo for decades while enduring excruciating pain from a level of trauma and loss that is impossible to put into words.
Our Struggles Are Connected
For the people of Gaza, the international solidarity from people around the world that began to emerge in late October was the first sign of hope. We thought it could pressure governments to withdraw their unconditional support for Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity as the first indications of genocide began to emerge. Sadly, these protests and demonstrations were met with violence and vicious crackdowns on freedom of expression and assembly in many places.
Nonetheless, they did contribute to some governments revising their arms agreement and stopping arms shipments going through their ports. South Africa presenting its genocide case against Israel to the ICJ also raised hopes, as did the ICJ advisory opinion on 19 July that confirmed the illegality of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. This was followed by a UN General Assembly resolution that states Israel must ends its unlawful occupation within 12 months.
Despite such important steps, more could still be done to force Israel to stop its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and now its war on Lebanon. Many have called for a complete arms embargo, sanctions, and cutting of economic ties. These measures should have been immediately taken as the first warnings of genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza began to emerge.
A Palestinian boy returns home after filling bottles with water from a vehicle distributing free water in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, 20 October 2024. Photo: IMAGO / Xinhua
The people in Gaza are tired and feel betrayed by a world that has permitted such atrocities. To those who went onto the streets for ceasefire, but were attacked and pressured to be silent: it is important to carry on. Today, we stand at a crucial point in history where our basic rights are under attack everywhere. Article 30 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights, drafted after World War II to fulfil the promise of never again allowing such crimes to occur anywhere, states the following: “Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.”
All these rights seem to be under attack in Gaza, but also are under threat worldwide — from the right to life, liberty, and security, the prohibition of torture, inhumane, or degrading treatment, freedom of expression and the right to assembly, the right to adequate standards of living, housing, health, and wellbeing, education, freedom of movement, and asylum. This fear is also echoed in the warnings of UN experts that the international legal order is breaking down.
Our struggles are interconnected. That is why the majority of those leading the solidarity movements and campaigns for a ceasefire and Palestinian liberation are people who themselves face oppression in their daily lives. We are at a pivotal moment — will we forego our rights and live in police states, or will we fight for a better world? We must not allow Gazans’ agonizing fate be in vain.
Taking Back Our Future
Everyone in Gaza feared that this day would come, but we never thought such brutality was possible — that the world would not only fail to stop it but would actually allow and support it. After all, it may have been a year of genocide, but it has been decades of ignoring Palestinians’ plight, of supporting an illegal occupation, of not applying sufficient pressure on Israel to implement UN resolutions, of ignoring international humanitarian law and human rights.
We wait for the ceasefire but also fear it, as the full extent of our loss will become clear, and we will find ourselves compelled to live with our cities destroyed, our loved ones killed, our families and friends separated. This cannot continue. There is no “day after” for Gaza without justice and accountability for all those who directed and supported these horrors. The day after must be decided by the Palestinian people living in Gaza, not the leaders who failed us, nor the international community that failed us as well. Only we can decide our future.