#yr11

Hind Rajab was six years old when her and her relatives attempted to flee Gaza City - under orders from Israeli forces - and their car came under fire. With all her relatives in the car with her deceased, Hind called emergency services and pleaded with them for three hours to rescue her. Paramedics had to wait for permission for their ambulance to move into the area where Hind was hiding, but even after they received the greenlight – just seconds after entering the location – their vehicle came under fire. For days, the PRCS pleaded for information about Hind and the two paramedics, who were missing. (Guardian, 2024)

Hind’s car, (The Times, 2024)

12 days later, the ambulance was found mere meters from the car where Hind was hiding, burnt out and containing the bodies of both paramedics. Hind had died, and her body was found alongside her relatives in the car. The Israeli army had deliberately targeted the ambulance, even after coordinating a safe access. (Guardian, 2024)

For the days between when Hind’s car was hit and the scene found, there were Israeli soldiers in the area. (Guardian, 2024) They would have heard Hind’s cries for help. They would’ve known that she was injured, and that an ambulance was desperately trying to make its way to her, to save her life. They would have been mere meters away while the ambulance burned and while Hind died. Steps away from a dying, injured, crying child, and yet nobody helped her.

Gaza in numbers (Al Jazeera, 2024)  

Since October 7, at least 12,252 Palestinian children have died, and 8,663 have been injured. (Al-Jazeera, 2024) Many of those injured are now amputees (Al-Jazeera, 2024), as10 children have lost one or both legs every day in Gaza since October 7. (UNICEF, 2023) That’s over 1,300 children with missing limbs, on top of the six children that die every hour in Gaza (Al-Jazeera, 2024)

Out of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, 85% are internally displaced and 1.7 million are living in refugee camps. Over 360,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged. 392 educational facilities and 267 places of worship have also been damaged, as well as many hospitals and refugee camps. (Al-Jazeera, 2024)

What are we doing about this?

My country (Australia) is not doing enough. Horrifyingly, a poll (Roy Morgan, 2023) found that 49% of Australians over 18 believe that Australia should "not take sides" in the conflict. How a population can see innocent civilians, many children, murdered and not want their government to do everything in its power to stop it is beyond me. Many countries still have ties to Israel, and many governments have officially decided to allow Israel to continue their siege of Gaza and genocide of the Palestinians, stating that a ‘two-state’ solution is the correct one. (Guardian, 2024) This ‘solution’ to the conflict believes that both Israel and Palestine can co-exist as two countries. This idea ignores the fact that from the start of the 7th century to the end of the first world war, the region was controlled and inhabited by Arab Palestinians. It was only after the dissolution of the Ottoman empire in 1920 that Britian established Palestine as a home for the Jewish people. (Wikipedia, 2024)

Imagine that you and your ancestors had been living in a country for 1,300 years when one day, boats full of people arrive on your beaches, and you must let them live in your country. Then, these people start to fight you for your land, claiming that it’s theirs, and most of the world agrees with them. You and your family are pushed out of your homes to make way for these people. (Wikipedia, 2024) Over decades, your army and theirs’ fight, and they blockade you from the ocean, air, and land (Britannica, 2023). They spray skunk water (Al-Jazeera, 2024) on your homes, they bomb your neighbourhood, your school, your hospitals, and your churches, they murder your family and friends, they force you and your people into cramped, dirty camps without food, medicine, or water, and yet the world still says that they should be allowed to keep the land they stole from you.

The conflict in Gaza is not a war between Israel and Hamas, it is a genocide. When Israel slaughters thousands of people in an ethnic cleanse, nearly all innocent civilians and children, and specifically targets schools, hospitals, and mosques, it is a genocide.

2/12/19

Chemistry notes.

GCSE coming soon boo!