‘Like Giving a Drowning Person a Breath of Air’
An eyewitness account of the ongoing devastation in Gaza
Israeli Actions Documented in This Report
Direct Military Actions:
- Continuing to bomb Gaza despite ceasefire agreements
- Destroyed more than 2,500 buildings since ceasefire was signed
- Dropped “the equivalent of many nuclear bombs in Gaza”
- Caused 71,000+ deaths and 171,000+ injuries (official tolls)
- Stunted physical and mental development of countless children through deprivation
Systematic Deception:
- “They disrupt evidence. They misrepresent. They bomb. And then they say: ‘We didn’t do it.'”
- Claims hospitals are “terror cells” not hospitals
- Claims tents housing families are “places where operatives were living”
- Labels journalists as “spokespersons for Hamas”
Patterns of Behavior:
- “Israel has broken every ceasefire it has ever had”
- Uses “yellow line” and concrete blocks as forced evacuation orders
- “The purpose is to smash the Palestinian social fabric. It’s to smash life.”
Stated Intent (per eyewitness observer):
- “Israel’s enemy is not Hamas, and it’s not Iran. The enemy is Palestinian life”
- “They don’t have a solution for that. They haven’t had a Holocaust yet.”
- “What they will do in the West Bank will be much worse than in Gaza”
Western Complicity:
- “Israel could not do this by itself. It needs the Emirates to feed it. It needs the British to surveil. It needs the American to veto and arm. It needs the Canadians to help train.”
The world remains on fire in many places, but it is easy to forget that things are still burning in Gaza, and the worst is not over for the Palestinians.
The Israelis are in the process of deciding whether once again to bomb what they fear is a rebuilt Hezbollah command in Lebanon. I’ve been told by an informed official that the Iranian Army, more than a million strong, may hold the fate of Iran. President Donald Trump, after attacking Venezuela and apprehending President Nicolás Maduro, now claims control of more oil in reserve than Saudi Arabia and Russia put together, and of course far more than China. Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone missing from the peace talks with Ukraine.
The Israel military, under the command of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is continuing to drop bombs on Gaza as yet another ceasefire is broken. Now squeezed into one half of Gaza, the Palestinians are staying put and doing all they can to stay alive. Some are even preparing to plant their crops for the coming season.
It is a miracle of endurance despite the fact that, as the New York Times reported this week, the Israeli Air Force and Army have destroyed more than 2,500 buildings in Gaza since the ceasefire agreement with Israel was signed last October. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian survivors are now living in tents that are flooded in heavy rain. It is a zone that is very cold.
As has been widely reported, there is now more food coming into Gaza, but much of it does not reach those in need but instead those most able to pay.
I recently had a long talk with a veteran observer of Gaza, who has been visiting the territory for years, long before and many times after the murderous Hamas attacks on Israel of October 7, 2023.
The official tolls for Gazans after the reprisals for those attacks began now stand at more than 71,000 deaths and more 171,000 injuries. There is no reliable estimate of the number of young children whose physical development and mental well-being have been stunted by the lack of food, safe housing, and sanitation during the ongoing Israeli war and occupation.
The veteran observer described to me the state of Gaza today:
“There were phases when there was a lot of food coming in, but now is not one of those phases. It’s not hard to find food, but it is very expensive, and some parts of Gaza will have more food than others. It’s winter, and it’s freezing, and people are recovering from a famine which is still there even though it’s no longer officially declared.”
Famine was officially declared in Gaza in August, but the designation was withdrawn after the October ceasefire.
She continued:
“So great. You get a few trucks of flour. A doctor told me that when you’re suffering from severe malnutrition, giving one a meal or two days of meals is like giving a drowning person a breath of air. But the machine has already started rotting where the body is eating itself, and that takes a lot longer to stop.”
“In terms of denial, we are in a different place as well. We are now in a Universal Declaration of Human Rights era where things are framed using the liberal language of Human Rights… The other thing that is different now is we are seeing in real time… bodies burning, people hungry, homes bombed… seeing it without knowing or understanding what to do.”
“‘I can see it’s a baby, but it happens to be a Palestinian baby. But Palestinians are terrorists, and terrorists are not babies.’ So people are like—how do you say?—malfunctioning. Their racism makes them numb.”
“State denial also has changed” after October 7. Of course, she said:
“Israel plays the usual role. They disrupt evidence. They misrepresent. They bomb. And then they say: ‘We didn’t do it.'”
“And because the world’s tolerance for genocide increased after October 7, they give Israel this space: ‘Okay, you can kill, but kill within these lines.’ Israel declares it’s raiding a hospital, but that’s not really a hospital. It’s a terror cell. ‘Yes, we’re bombing a tent, but that’s not a tent. It was a place where operatives were living. There are six journalists [from Al Jazeera] we’re going after. They’re not really journalists. They’re spokespersons for Hamas.'”
“Of course, it is a result of Israeli impunity. It is also a result of the Western tolerance and appetite for it. Israel is doing what the West has done for hundreds of years and isn’t doing now but Israel could not do this by itself. It needs the Emirates to feed it. It needs the British to surveil. It needs the American to veto and arm. It needs the Canadians to help train.”
“Israel has broken every ceasefire it has ever had. I think Hamas always knew they were going to break the ceasefire. I have colleagues monitoring every day the so-called ‘yellow line,’ separating the areas inside Gaza declared today to be in control of the Israeli Defense Forces from areas in Palestinian hands.”
“The yellow line is serving today as an evacuation order,” the Gaza veteran told me.
“The Israeli military sometimes puts yellow concrete blocks in the middle of the street, which means to everybody: ‘You need to leave.’ The purpose of the yellow line is to smash the Palestinian social fabric. It’s to smash life. That’s what it is. It’s not about security.”
The observer said that many “hungry, cold, and miserable” Gazans would flee if the Gaza crossing to Egypt is opened, as promised by the ceasefire agreement. It has not been opened because “Egypt does not want the bedraggled Palestinians.”
Far more important, she said, is the fact that many Palestinians “are not going to leave. I have footage friends sent me about how they’re rebuilding their homes with mud and clay by the sea. When a child is born, they’re born with generational knowledge. And very early on it’s a connection to the land. Even if the young person isn’t working on the land, it’s that this is ours and this is what makes you.”
Her predictions were dark:
“I don’t see an endgame that bodes well for Palestinians in the West Bank. I think Israel is the one that is not going to survive this genocide. Israel’s enemy is not Hamas, and it’s not Iran. The enemy is Palestinian life, and as long as there are Palestinians on that land, that is a problem. They don’t have a solution for that. They haven’t had a Holocaust yet. What they will do in the West Bank will be much worse than in Gaza.”
She went on to give me her personal view regarding Gaza today:
“Israel is already losing because it hasn’t managed in two years of dropping the equivalent of many nuclear bombs in Gaza to achieve anything militarily, really. It has killed, and it has slaughtered, and it has bombed, but it hasn’t gotten people [Israelis] back in Gaza yet. It hasn’t gained international support. It’s alienated [many its of its supporters].”
“These are the behaviors of someone who is losing—this kind of unhinged colonialism. At the end, it’s the most brutal and the most bloody… this is how they go out. But the community fabrics in Gaza are different. When people see a hungry orphan on the street, they take care of him as if he were their child. They have learned to be like refugees, so it is different.”
“This is not optimism. This is a reading that doesn’t put Israel as all-knowing, almighty, all-professional, all-capable. I think from what we are seeing on the ground, they are scared and very good at video games from a distance, but they can’t do hand-to-hand battle and are coming back traumatized after a few months. Their relationships to the land are different, and their stakes are different. But right now it is agitation and effective agitation. Strategic agitation is when an Israeli soldier is no longer able to go to a festival in the Netherlands.”