The tragedy that is Gaza

 

A young Palestinian mother wanted to breastfeed her child but there was no milk. And because there was no food, she could not feed her anything either.

Reflect on that for a while.

When I read about Rajaa Jendiya’s plight, I became emotional. I’m sure you would too. Why should a baby, a child, suffer for the idiocy of adults?

What is the baby guilty of that it has to suffer in an adult-created conflict?

Jendiya, 29, whose husband was killed by Israeli forces in the Hamas-Israeli conflict about a week earlier, told the media recently that she was unable to feed her five-month-old child Mona.

“I used to breastfeed her, but due to the lack of food and my deep sadness, my breasts have almost run out of milk,” the mother of three was quoted as saying.

“She gets very small amounts and keeps crying all day and night. Also, she now needs to eat other kinds of food, but I cannot find any.”

She could not buy milk, she said, because it was scarce, and a bag of milk, which used to cost 15 shekels (RM19.50), now cost 90 shekels (RM117).

That about sums up the tragedy that is occurring in Gaza.

I only pray that the adults entangled in this idiocy will come to their senses and stop the armed conflict for, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, famine is projected to occur anytime between now and May.

The World Bank too warned recently that half the population of Gaza was at imminent risk of famine.

According to a report on Feb 29, the UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordination Office said at least 576,000 people in Gaza were “facing catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation” and were one step away from famine.

And the UN World Food Programme said almost the entire population of 2.2 million people required food aid.

Reuters quoted a report by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which assesses whether famine has occurred in a country, as saying 1.1 million people are facing “catastrophic hunger” in the Gaza Strip.

And now Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to go ahead with a ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which is overflowing with displaced civilians, and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says it has been barred by Israel authorities from transporting assistance to northern Gaza.

I can’t imagine how much more suffering this will cost.

I hope the US can talk sense into Netanyahu before it is too late. This belligerence must stop. Enough of this death and destruction.

The Reuters report said for famine to be declared, at least 20% of the population must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two out of every 10,000 people dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification institution said the situation in Gaza had already exceeded the 20% threshold.

The remaining two thresholds – the number of children acutely malnourished and the number of people dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease – “may also be breached at some point” in the coming months, Reuters quoted it as saying.

Famine had been declared twice in the past 13 years: in Somalia in 2011 and in parts of South Sudan in 2017.

The Hamas-Israeli armed conflict itself has taken 30,000 Palestinian lives and injured another 70,000, according to the Hamas health authorities.

A Feb 29 report said 576 Israeli soldiers had been killed since Oct 7 when Hamas militants attacked and killed about 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 200 others, precipitating the war.

Addressing the Human Rights Council on Feb 26, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “Nothing can justify (Hamas’s) deliberate killing, injuring, torturing and kidnapping of civilians, the use of sexual violence – or the indiscriminate launching of rockets towards Israel.

“But nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

He added: “I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

Unfortunately for the Palestinian civilians, there is no sign of an end to the conflict, or even a “humanitarian ceasefire”. And that’s tragic because more lives will be lost.

Despite thousands of hours of meetings and discussions and diplomacy, there seems to be no end to the suffering of civilians.

Soon after Israel retaliated against the Hamas attack on its soil, the diplomatic pressures and meetings to prevent the fight from escalating began. But it did not work.

Then, a flurry of talks began to end the conflict, again to not avail.

The latest attempt at negotiating a ceasefire, according to a March 5 Al Jazeera report, failed too.

It said the US, Qatar and Egypt spent weeks trying to broker an agreement in which Hamas would release Israeli captives in return for a six-week ceasefire, the release of some Palestinian prisoners and more aid to Gaza but to no avail.

On March 21, Arab ministers held talks with Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee general secretary Hussein al-Sheikh in Cairo to discuss efforts to end the Israel-Hamas war. They later met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Blinken had earlier met with leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

This latest round of negotiations started in late February but success seems elusive. The problem is that Hamas is not agreeing to the terms set by Israel while the latter is not agreeing to the conditions set by the former. And their intransigence is causing the continued suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

The UN Security Council has met several times but has only been able to express hot air.

Visiting the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing on March 23, Guterres renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying: “It is time to silence the guns.”

He urged Israel to give “total, unfettered” access to humanitarian goods throughout Gaza.

But is anyone listening? Are the superpowers which veto each other on the UN Security Council listening? Are Israel and Hamas listening?

It’s so frustrating for someone like me who is so far away from the conflict to know that despite all the rounds of talks and diplomacy, the war rages and people get killed.

I simply cannot imagine how those right in the middle of the conflict feel. Perhaps only older Malaysians who lived through the Japanese invasion of British Malaya in December 1941 will have an inkling of it.

And while the diplomats and leaders of Israel, Hamas and various nations discuss and issue statements, civilians on the ground continue dying.

What a tragedy.

How many more mothers must struggle to feed their children before the warring adults come to their senses? - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not reflect those of MMKtT.