Throughout the night and day entombed under the loads of shattered material, the Palestinian children’s playmates, schoolmates, and neighbors disappeared in seconds. They continue to see the anemic faces and lifeless bodies.
They see the disgusting odor of death, decaying corpses under wrecked concrete, they hold their breath, and they cover their mouth with cloth. They walk quickly. Their neighborhood has become a graveyard. All that was familiar is gone. They stare in shock and wonder where they are.
They are scared of explosion after explosion, they shout, and they cling to their mother or father. They cover their ears. They see the white light of the missile and wait for the blast. Why do they kill children? What did you do? Why can no one protect them? They may lose a leg or an arm; they will go blind or be in a wheelchair. Why were they born? Was it for something good? Alternatively, was it for all this?
They will grow up but they will not be happy. They will not be able to live without their friends. Who will die next? Someone’s mother. Someone’s father. Someone’s brother and sister. Someone will get injured. Soon, you know someone will die.
At nighttime, they stay in the dark on the icy cement floor. The phones are working no more as the internet is off. They do not know what is happening. There are flashes of light. There are waves of blast voices. There are cries that do not stop.
When their father or mother search for food or water, they wait. That terrible feeling in their stomach never ends. They will never come back; they will never see them again. Their home will be the next target. The bombs will find them and it will be their last moment on Earth.
They drink saline dirty water that makes them very sick. Their stomach pains and they are hungry. Heavy bombing has destroyed the bakeries. There is no bread. They eat one meal a day. A cucumber. Soon this will seem like a feast. They do not play with their soccer ball made of rags and they do not fly their kite made from timeworn newspapers.
Under Israeli pressure, social media websites have blocked accounts and pages reporting on Israeli atrocities in Gaza, while foreign broadcasters have banned journalists who spoke out against the barbaric Israeli bombing of the oppressed Palestinians. Suppressing these voices is tantamount to suppressing freedom of expression.
Israel has been oppressing the Palestinians for more than six decades. The Muslim Ummah needs unity and solidarity against this. The humanitarian crisis intensified in Gaza, with children, including infants, martyred in the Israeli bombardment, while the total number of martyrs is nearing 12000. Journalist organizations around the world should take note.
The internally displaced persons were bombarded with explosives during a moment of respite, a heinous war crime. Even hospitals were not safe from Israeli brutality, and the mortuaries were filling up. It seems the so-called pioneer countries of humanity, including the United Nations, sleeping.
The Palestinian resistance remains strong, despite the Israeli government’s war crimes, indiscriminate and brutal massacres, and destruction of homes, mosques, hospitals, and public spaces. The Israeli army’s directive to the Palestinians to leave North Gaza and go to South Gaza is not an effective warning; it is a forced eviction, the results of which will prove dangerous.
The innocent and oppressed children of Gaza are crying out. The OIC meeting was not productive. No actions were taken. The Israeli army has crossed all its limits. The Muslim community should go beyond condemnation and stop the atrocities against Palestinians. For this, the Muslim world will have to play its role.
