Everyday I open up Instagram or TikTok, and the posts I see are always the same yet always so much worse than the last.
I am met with photos and videos that shake me to my core.
I am met with mothers and fathers crying over the lifeless bodies of their children, bloodied Palestinians missing limbs, dismembered body parts, and bags with dead bodies inside.
I hear the voice of trapped six-year-old Hind Rajab pleading for help after her family members were shot and killed in their car by Israeli forces. I later learn that Hind and the medics sent to rescue her were killed too.
Just the other day, I opened Instagram and saw photos of seven-year-old Sidra Hassouna, a young girl that had her entire life ahead of her, hanging from a wall, killed by an Israeli airstrike that ripped the legs from her body.
The day that I’m writing this, Feb. 13, I saw a mother and son covered in blood awaiting treatment at Kuwaiti Hospital after sustaining injuries from an Israeli airstrike in Rafah.
I am terrified for the people in Gaza every single day, and every day I am reminded that we have failed them.
In 130 days, at least 28,576 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the violent bombardment occurring in the Gaza Strip. Nearly 2 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced and an estimated 1.5 million are now crammed into Rafah, the southernmost point in Gaza Strip that borders Egypt. Rafah is now the most densely populated area on Earth at only 25 sq miles.
On Superbowl Sunday, while most Americans were tuned into their televisions watching the match-up against the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs, Palestinians in Rafah, an apparent “safe-zone,” were tuned into the sounds of air strikes coming down on them. 14 houses and three mosques were hit in the attacks; 67 Palestinians were killed.
Not only are Palestinians in Rafah being bombed, they are living in tents, sometimes at max capacity, and have limited access to food, water, and medicine. Even outside of Rafah, Palestinians continue to have bombs dropped on them day and night.
In their homes, Palestinians are targeted. Outside their homes, they are targeted. While they are sleeping, they are targeted. As they evacuate, they are targeted. In hospitals, in the streets, in their cars, they are targeted. Shot. Bombed. Killed.
Palestinians have nowhere else to go. There is no “safe place” for them. Nowhere in Gaza is safe.
Evacuating from Gaza entirely is really only feasible for Palestinans with the means and the resources to do so– and more often than not, that means with money they don’t have. The situation is so dire that family members of Palestinians in Gaza and Gazans themselves are creating GoFundMes to raise money for their evacuation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in an interview with ABC News earlier last week that Israel would provide “safe passage for the civilian population so they can leave” Rafah to avoid high civilian deaths.
The place Palestinians would most likely be relocated to? Areas to the north of Rafah that have already been desecrated by Israeli bombs, airstrikes, and gunfire and are sure to still have a militarized presence.
Time and time again the Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces have proved that their promises of “safe passage” are, best-case scenario, temporary.
The apathy of the western world in response to the atrocities occurring in Gaza is sickening. It’s only now that the United States gains the “courage” to say something about the implications of Israeli aggression or about the Palestinian lives lost. Yet, they refuse to call the situation for what it is– a genocide– or take meaningful actions to combat it.
It is clear there is no intention of stopping this genocide of Palestinians, no intention of stopping the onslaught of bombings, airstrikes, and gunfire they face every minute of every day. Benjamin Netanyahu has denied every other ceasefire proposal that has come across his desk.
I was not the first person to recognize what was occurring in Gaza, and neither was I the first to fully speak up on it. It took me a good two weeks after Oct. 7 just to truly grasp the gravity of the situation. Speaking up on social media is great, but it only does so much. Given my platform as a journalist, I should have publicly spoken on the matter much sooner– especially because Palestinian journalists risk their lives to document the genocide of their people. They die doing it.
I cannot reiterate enough that this is not a war in Gaza. This is not a war between Israel and Hamas. This is a Palestinian genocide being carried out by Israel and backed by their allies like the United States.
No matter how much the Israeli government or their western allies deny it, that much is the truth.
Palestinians in Gaza will never be the same as they were before Oct. 7. Many will never see their family members, their friends, their pets, or their homes again. They will never be able to get the violent images of death and destruction out of their head.
I will never unsee the atrocities in Gaza that I have been exposed to online, and I will never understand how our world leaders and everyday people like you and me can just look away and act like this is not happening.
Palestinians know that we are watching. They know that we hear their cries for help, and they know that most are not listening.
This will go down as the most documented genocide in history, and at least 28,576 deaths and 68,291 injuries later, we continue to fail Palestinians.