‘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 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 the Israeli Air Force and Army have destroyed more than 2,500 buildings in Gaza since the ceasefire agreement was signed. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian survivors are now living in tents that are flooded in heavy rain.
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. The official tolls for Gazans now stand at more than 71,000 deaths and more than 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.
“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. 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.”
“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,” the observer continued. “We are seeing in real time bodies burning, people hungry, homes bombed, seeing it without knowing or understanding what to do.”
“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.'”
The observer noted that Israel “has broken every ceasefire it has ever had. 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.”
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 displaced 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.”
“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 back in Gaza yet. It hasn’t gained international support.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
