The strength of Palestinian children and women amidst the genocide
Photo Courtesy: Mohammed Abed, AFP via Getty Images
As I sit and write this article, from the comfort of my own home, a place where I feel safe, I cast my mind to those innocent lives in Palestine. The ones who are left with no home, no family, and instead are surrounded by terror, violence and fear.
For those who may be unaware of what has been happening, on the 7th of October 2023, an offensive was launched from Gaza, Palestine, in reaction to Israel’s ongoing military dominance and occupation of Palestinian land. The conflict began nearly 75 years ago. Palestinians coined this time as “Nakba”, or “catastrophe” , to mark the period they were displaced from their land by Israeli forces back in 1948. Hundreds of villages were attacked, homes were destroyed, and lives were lost on a mass scale. The current situation has resulted in at least 4,008 children being killed in the last month alone, with the overall death toll reaching 9,770 people.
When it comes to the plethora of innocent children’s lives being lost, my heart breaks. I came across a post on social media, where someone outlined how tiring and heart wrenching it is to see either Palestinian children dying or dead on their screens. The line: “If the only choice we have to make their existence known is by showing their dead bodies- what kind of world are we living in? Viewing this genocide each day feels as if we are living in a dystopian world, a world where it is unfathomable to believe that lives are being taken in such an inhumane, and brutal manner. These children especially, have done nothing wrong, yet their lives and dreams are snatched from them. All they want to do is live, that is all.
Palestinian children in Gaza held a news conference on the 8th November 2023, pleading for peace and an end to the genocide. The conference was held outside Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital. Sky News shared the video where Palestinian kids plead “We invite you to protect us”. As I watched the video, I felt pure admiration for these kids, their strength, their stoicism and their ability to continue. Their desire to be protected, their desire for their human rights, food, shelter and education was made clear through the short one minute video. Despite everything that they face, they remain prevailing against all the adversities that come their way. They deserve protection. They deserve to be free. They deserve to have access to the basic human rights that we are so privileged to have, yet we do not even realise ourselves until tragedies like this take place in the world.
We also ought to think about the plight of women and young girls. Amidst the terror, women are chemically delaying their periods with pills because they have no access to sanitary products. There are also over 50,000 pregnant women residing in Palestine, with 13, 649 deliveries expected in the next month alone. Whilst we have the privilege of giving birth to our children in a safe, clean hospital, these women are instead subjected to the most inhumane conditions, having to deliver their babies amongst bombings and terror.
The brutality that we are witnessing today, there is no excuse for. There is no justification for the continual murder of these innocent souls, who have done nothing to deserve this adversity. We all deserve a right to live, the right to exercise our human rights, and the right to see another day.