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n October 7, 2023, Israel began actions that may constitute the most significant genocide of the twenty-first century. This campaign continues to this day. These actions cannot be viewed as merely a regional conflict. Rather, they reflect a deliberate and systematic policy aimed at destroying the Palestinian population. The coordinated denial of fundamental rights, coupled with the blockade and obstruction of humanitarian aid, constitutes a clear breach of core international legal principles, including the obligation to prevent genocide and protect human rights. According to Article 2 of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is defined as the commission of acts with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

The use of the term “genocide” at the outset of this analysis is deliberate. Israel claims that its blockade of Gaza is legitimate under international law and that blockades are recognized in the legal framework. However, since the establishment of the United Nations (UN), blockades have generally been considered a use of force and are therefore prohibited. A blockade can only be lawful under two exceptional conditions.

1. A blockade is imposed in response to a threat to international peace and security pursuant to a Security Council resolution.

2. It is applied as part of the right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter in response to an armed attack against a state.

Israel’s blockade of Gaza does not meet either of these conditions. There is no Security Council resolution authorizing the blockade, and Israel cannot invoke the right to self-defense because it is not engaged in conflict with another state, but rather with Hamas, a non-state resistance organization. Israel is not engaged in conflict with another state, but rather with Hamas, a non-state resistance organization. The right of self-defense applies only in response to an armed attack by one state against another.

Furthermore, the blockade must comply with International Humanitarian Law (IHL). A blockade that harms civilians and undermines their living conditions is a clear violation of IHL. The Gaza blockade deliberately subjects the Palestinian population to mass starvation, meeting the criteria of Article 2(c) of the Genocide Convention, which prohibits deliberately inflicting conditions intended to destroy a group, either wholly or in part. Therefore, the Gaza blockade qualifies as genocide under international law.

The global Sumud Flotilla and Israel’s intervention

In response to the genocidal campaign and to break the blockade, the Global Sumud Flotilla was formed in July 2025. It was the largest international, civil society-led maritime initiative featuring numerous activists.

The fleet comprised over 40 vessels and approximately 500 activists from over 44 countries and carried urgent humanitarian aid, including baby formula, medicine, and prosthetic limbs. The goal was to raise awareness of the acute crisis and establish a maritime corridor to Gaza.

The first convoy departed from Barcelona, Spain, on August 31, 2025. As the flotilla approached Gaza’s waters, Israeli forces intervened on the night of October 1, 2025. The Israeli Navy intercepted all of the vessels, seizing the ships and detaining hundreds of activists while they were still in international waters, approximately 70–75 nautical miles (130–139 km) off the coast of Gaza. This action, occurring so far from the coast, challenges the fundamental principle of international law that guarantees the freedom of navigation on the high seas.

The key question arises: How does Israel’s intervention against the flotilla correspond to international law? Most rules governing the law of the sea are codified in the 1958 Convention on the High Seas and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Many of these provisions also constitute customary international law, which is binding on all states, regardless of their status as parties to the conventions.

According to Article 1 of the 1958 Convention, the term “high seas” refers to all parts of the sea not included in a state’s territorial or internal waters. Article 86 of UNCLOS expands this definition to include all areas of the sea not included in a state’s exclusive economic zone, territorial sea, internal waters, or the archipelagic waters of an archipelagic state.

What does international law say?

Articles 2 of the 1958 Convention and 87 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provide that the high seas are open to all states and guarantee freedom of navigation. Article 88 of the UNCLOS stipulates that the high seas must be used exclusively for peaceful purposes. Article 89 prohibits any state from claiming sovereignty over any part of the high seas.

Additionally, according to Article 6(1) of the 1958 Convention and Article 92(1) of UNCLOS, a vessel on the high seas is, in principle, subject only to the jurisdiction of its flag state. However, to safeguard the common interests of humanity, both the Convention and customary international law recognize a limited number of exceptions. These exceptions include cases of piracy, the slave trade, illicit drug trafficking, unauthorized broadcasting, and situations where a vessel is suspected of sailing under a false flag.

Additionally, intervention may be permitted under an international agreement or a binding resolution of the UN Security Council. Coastal states may exercise the right of hot pursuit, which allows them to continue enforcement actions on the high seas in response to violations that began within their maritime zones. Together, these exceptions demonstrate international law’s effort to balance the flag state’s exclusive jurisdiction with the need to maintain order and security on the high seas.

Exclusive authority to intervene on vessels in international waters lies with the flag state. None of the limited exceptions under international law apply to Israel’s actions against the Sumud Fleet. The civilian vessels were not engaged in piracy, the slave trade, drug trafficking, or unauthorized broadcasting. They were duly registered and sailed under valid flags, eliminating any claim of statelessness or false flag operations.

The Israeli intervention was not authorized by an international agreement or a Security Council resolution either, which are the only lawful bases for such coercive measures beyond self-defense. Additionally, the doctrine of hot pursuit is inapplicable because the vessels were intercepted 70–75 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, well beyond Israel’s territorial waters. No violation originated within Israel’s maritime jurisdiction. Taken together, these considerations demonstrate that Israel’s intervention cannot be justified under any recognized legal exception and therefore constitutes a clear violation of international law. Consequently, Israel’s intervention violates not only the law of the sea, but also international law more broadly.

A persistent challenge to international law

The interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla is part of Israel’s longstanding pattern of enforcing an illegal naval blockade. The blockade of Gaza and the repeated use of force against civilian vessels in international waters constitute blatant breaches of fundamental international legal norms, including the freedom of navigation and the obligation to prevent genocide. Amidst a documented humanitarian catastrophe, the current crisis necessitates a stronger, unified global response.

The Global Sumud Flotilla was a legitimate humanitarian initiative. The international community must move beyond consistent verbal condemnation and implement concrete, unified actions to hold those responsible for these violations of international law accountable. Ultimately, stopping the ongoing genocide requires states to take decisive steps to complement the efforts of civil society aid missions and ensure that Israel’s violations of international waters are urgently addressed by relevant legal authorities.

According to leaked Israeli documents, it is unrealistic to expect that Hamas, which is claimed to have been rendered ineffective by only 17 per cent so far, will be completely eliminated as a result of the new occupation plan that has been launched. In other words, even if Israel were to gain complete control over Gaza’s infrastructure through a ground operation, it would not achieve full success due to Hamas’s continued presence in the tunnels. Furthermore, this would lead to the deaths of all the hostages, which would further deepen the fault lines within Israeli society.

Israel’s attacks on Gaza, which have been ongoing since 7 October 2023, entered a new phase in August 2025. Despite the passage of 22 months and the killing of more than 63,000 Palestinians, Israel’s genocidal Prime Minister Netanyahu, unable to rescue the hostages held by Hamas, contrary to his initial rhetoric that the sole objective of these attacks was to eliminate Hamas, he announced that he would begin implementing a plan for the total occupation of Gaza.

The Process Leading to the Invasion Plan

After Hamas released footage of two Israeli hostages, Evyatar David and Rom Braslavsky, in early August, saying that Netanyahu was endangering their lives by not agreeing to a prisoner exchange deal, public outrage against Netanyahu reached fever pitch in Israeli society, raising expectations that Netanyahu would have to do something to save himself from this situation. Netanyahu, who said he was shocked by the images of the two hostages, stated, ‘I understand exactly what Hamas wants. They don’t want a deal. They want to destroy us by using these horrific videos,’ and announced that he had requested the Red Cross to deliver food and medicine to the hostages.

After seeing these videos, Netanyahu said that his ‘determination to rescue the hostages and eliminate Hamas has been renewed.’ Indeed, immediately following this statement, in an interview with the American Fox News channel, he said that they ‘aim to take control of the whole of Gaza.’ However, to say that Israel’s plan to invade Gaza stems solely from Netanyahu’s sensitivity towards rescuing the hostages does not correspond with the reality on the ground.

Indeed, just a few days later, in an interview with Israel’s I24 channel, Netanyahu stated that he was ‘committed to the Greater Israel plan’ and that this was ‘a historical and spiritual mission,’ revealing the true intent behind the occupation plan.

Following Netanyahu’s statements, the issue of the occupation of Gaza was brought before the security cabinet, and after discussions there, the occupation decision was approved despite the opposition of the chief of staff. Subsequently, Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir prepared a new occupation plan, albeit reluctantly, and presented it to the defence minister. After Defence Minister Katz’s approval, Netanyahu approved the plan on 21 August, and the occupation plan, named ‘Gideon’s Chariots 2’, was implemented on the same day.

Details of the plan

In fact, the Israeli army already controls more than 85 per cent of Gaza with at least five of its brigades. In order to control the Gaza Strip more easily, the Israeli army opened four roads cutting across the strip on an east-west axis, thereby dividing it into five parts. During the ceasefire process that began on 19 January, Israeli army units withdrew from areas densely populated by Palestinians and positioned themselves in a manner that relatively encircled Gaza. This plan appears to involve the advance of troops stationed around Gaza into more inland areas, particularly the displacement of Palestinians living in the north, and a sweep of the Strip from north to south, advancing as far as the Rafah border.

So, the plan put forward as the plan to invade Gaza, involves reinforcing forces on the ground and then launching a ground operation with 100,000 troops, displacing approximately 1 million civilians living in Gaza City, along with Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the north of the Strip, and forcing them to move to camp-like facilities to be established in the south, thereby creating so-called safe zones. This would reveal that those left behind are Hamas resistance fighters. Subsequently, intensive bombardment would be carried out to destroy the tunnels still remaining in these areas and rid the region of Hamas fighters. Following the bombardment, special forces would carry out pinpoint attacks to eliminate any remaining Hamas fighters and rescue hostages.

The Ministry of Defence, which has called up 60,000 reservists to support the occupation plan, estimated to last approximately 4-6 months, has stated that it may call up another 20,000 reservists in September, depending on the situation. Thus, the number of reservists called up is expected to reach around 130-150,000.

Although it has been announced that new food distribution centers and medical support units will be established for Palestinians who will be forced to migrate south under the plan, it is known that the Israeli army’s real aim is not to help displaced Palestinians, but rather to force them to leave Gaza. Therefore, if this occupation plan is fully implemented, it is estimated that thousands more Palestinians could lose their lives both in bombings and during the migration to the south.

Reactions to the Plan

Israel’s plan to invade Gaza has been met with opposition from nearly all countries except the United States, and Israel has been urged to immediately abandon this initiative, which would lead to the loss of thousands more Palestinian lives. However, there has also been intense opposition to the invasion plan from within Israel itself. This is because, under this plan, if a large-scale ground operation against Gaza is launched, it was assessed that hostages already struggling to survive under difficult conditions could lose their lives or perhaps be executed by Hamas in response to these attacks. Consequently, criticism of Netanyahu and his government has risen, primarily from hostage families, but also from a broad section of society and politicians, mostly from the opposition.

While Israeli streets have long been the scene of protests by families of hostages, the protests have intensified due to the increased risk to the hostages’ lives posed by the occupation plan. In this context, the participation of approximately 400,000 people in the protest rally held in Tel Aviv on 16 August indicates that sensitivity towards the hostages will continue to grow within Israeli society.

However, the most significant reaction to the occupation plan came from active and reserve soldiers, led by the chief of staff. Even Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, known for his hawkish views on Gaza, opposed the occupation plan, arguing that the army was extremely tired and worn out from being at war for nearly two years and fighting on many fronts at the same time. He stated that it would be a more rational choice to negotiate a hostage exchange agreement with Hamas instead. Nevertheless, he came under pressure from cabinet members for making such statements and was asked to resign if he could not fulfill his duties.

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amas’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, as the name suggests, was motivated by a central focus on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Israeli aggression against the holy sites. The aim of the operation is to put an end to the 15-year blockade of Gaza and the related status quo in the Palestinian arena. It can be said that Hamas has achieved this goal at a tactical level in a short period of time. This operation has shaken global public opinion and forced it to take a position.

Although the operation carried out by Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has been hyperbolically described as “Israel’s 9/11,” it would be more accurate to characterize the al-Aqsa Flood as a successful deception operation in which Hamas skillfully managed to conceal its military plans by convincing Israel that it no longer wanted war.

Hamas meticulously continued its preparations for this operation while Israel, with an unexpected naiveté, thought that it was keeping Hamas under its control. It has even been claimed that during the preparation process, Hamas deliberately reduced the tempo and frequency of its actions against Israel. Military experts have claimed that the operation was the most surprising attack since the Yom Kippur War with some describing it as an unprecedented intelligence maneuver.

Why was Israel taken by surprise?

The timing of the operation, which coincided with the Sabbath, the Jewish day of worship and rest, created a shock factor that made it difficult for the Israeli forces to react immediately. Moreover, infiltration from multiple points (air, land, and sea) took the Israeli defense by surprise.

Hamas decided on the details of the operation with a very limited group of people in order to prevent leaks from within its ranks. Some analyses have also pointed out that recently Israel shifted its focus on the steps to be taken to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia and away from Hamas.

An analysis of the tactical phases of the operation reveals that as the rockets launched from Gaza caused surprise, infiltrations were carried out with motorized parachutes and hang gliders in the shadow of the rockets. The initial infiltrating elements and elite units of Hamas were seen fortifying area control and security which facilitated attacks on the concrete barriers reinforced with electronic systems. This allowed buldozers, motorcycles, and land vehicles to breach the barrier system, enabling more elements to infiltrate.

Drones carrying improvised explosive devices (IEDs) disabled the electro-optical systems of the Israeli watchtowers. At the same time, the communication line with the Israeli army headquarters was disrupted, limiting the ability to respond to the attack immediately.

The kidnapping of Israeli prisoners into Gaza will provide Hamas with political leverage to increase its bargaining power in future prisoners’ exchange.

Finally, it is argued that the Israeli army made a strategic mistake in deploying its troops mainly in the West Bank, which was one of the factors that facilitated the execution of this operation.

A

major escalation in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) launched a sudden and unprecedented attack on Israel, targeting settlements near Gaza and in the Negev. The surprise attack caught Israel completely off guard and revealed its lack of preparedness for a full-scale confrontation with Gaza, let alone a multifront war.

The roots of the escalation can be traced to the tensions between Palestinians and Israelis in recent weeks. The Occupied Palestinian Territories have witnessed an increase in violence by the Israeli military and settlers around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces/settlers in the West Bank, including settler attacks on Palestinian villages in the West Bank.

The Hamas attack began at 6:30 a.m. local time on Friday, when sirens went off in several areas, including Israeli settlements on the Gaza border. Rockets were then fired into Israel, reaching Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Unprecedent attack

The Hamas onslaught included waves of rocket fire into Israel and infiltration from Gaza into Israeli settlements. According to media reports, more than 5,000 rockets were fired at Israel in the early hours of the escalation.

The commander-in-chief of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif, issued a statement at 8:00 a.m. in which he openly declared the start of a military operation called Operation Al-Aqsa Typhoon. He confirmed that the first attack targeted Israeli positions, airports, and military sites. Deif explained the reason for launching the operation, stressing the “desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Israelis and their audacity to insult the Prophet Muhammad.”

He added that the operation aims to put an end to the Israeli violations, stressing that as of October 7 “the security coordination with the occupation will stop and the Palestinian people will also resume their revolution and establish a state.” Deif called for the unity of all Arab and Muslim forces to defeat the occupation, urging “everyone who has a weapon to use it.”

Palestinian control of Sderot police station and the use of drones

Palestinian fighters who stormed Sderot took control of the town’s police station. They reportedly took the entire police force hostage.

Hamas used advanced technology to coordinate its attacks, employing modern communication systems and aerial surveillance to identify Israeli targets. The Israeli military struggled to counter Hamas’s attacks, as Palestinian rockets were fired at different areas, making them difficult to intercept.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) responded with intensive air strikes on Gaza, destroying many Palestinian civilian and military targets. This resulted in a significant number of casualties, with over 560 deaths reported, including 78 children and 41 women, while 2,900 others were injured (as of Monday, October 9, 2023 at 3 am local time). Palestinians reported that entire families were killed under the rubble after Israeli air strikes targeted residential buildings.

In Israel, the escalation resulted in more than 700 casualties, including over 2,300 wounded. More than 100 Israelis were reportedly captured by Palestinian fighters and taken to Gaza. Israel said that of the 700 Israelis killed, more than 74 were members of its armed forces.

Lebanon joins the escalation

Mortar shells were heard in the Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shuba Hills in Southern Lebanon. Israeli army radio reported the firing of shells from inside Lebanon at Israeli army positions in the Shebaa Farms and Mount Hermon.

According to Reuters, quoting security sources, the shells hit an Israeli military position in the Shebaa Farms. The Israeli army responded by firing at what it called “targets in Southern Lebanon.” Hezbollah resumed shelling, saying it had targeted the Israeli intelligence site and other sites with a large number of artillery shells and guided missiles.

Gunmen from Lebanon broke into the Israeli borders, where they clashed with Israeli forces, injuring 6, one of them in critical condition.

The escalation has created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with 21,000 Palestinians displaced by Israeli air strikes on civilian homes. Many countries, including Egypt and Jordan, have called on both parties to cease hostilities and seek peaceful ways to resolve the conflict.

It is unclear how the escalation will end. Israel is seeking revenge for its losses, and the Palestinian factions will not stop until the siege of Gaza is lifted and a future deal is reached to exchange Israeli prisoners for the 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Light in Gaza: Writings Born in Fire (2022) is a book of, by, and for Palestinians. And that is precisely why everyone can learn from it.

Conceived and created out of a desire and a need to tell their own story, the authors assembled in this collection of essays represent Palestinian journalists, artists, writers, and academics who are engaged in a variety of disciplines, including architecture, artificial intelligence, economics, history, and literature.

What they all have in common is lived experience in Gaza under Israel’s brutal massacres and colonial occupation. What they all rightfully resent is being repeatedly portrayed in the media merely as numbers, as victims with no agency and no voice. Imagine seeing yourself or your loved ones constantly depicted in news accounts as a statistic, falling under the categories of dead or injured, your house damaged or destroyed, your neighborhood obliterated or somehow still intact. The figures themselves are in a way dehumanizing because they can never convey the lives of those you lost—your children, parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, and neighbors—let alone your own trauma and nightmares.

That Palestinians have long been denied “permission to narrate,” as the Palestinian intellectual Edward Said put it, has at least been acknowledged in Western circles for some time now, even though it still must be fought for. Palestinian narratives are beginning to achieve reliable though limited outlets, but a solid infrastructure capable of sustaining those voices is yet to be firmly in place.

This anthology of writings, however, seeks to go beyond “permission to narrate,” as one of the editors, Jehad Abusalim, puts it in the Introduction. Instead of merely narrating, the editors—all connected with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), including veteran Palestine solidarity activists Jennifer Bing and Michael Merryman-Lotze–and the authors seek in the words of Abusalim “to inspire action and offer a glimpse of hope,” and maybe even “provide an exercise in imagination.”

That the exercises in imagination sometimes appear counterintuitive and unexpected is a confession this reviewer has to make. One such exercise, “Ethical Implications of Experimental Design on Affected Communities in the Gaza Strip,” by the award-winning architect Salem Al Qudwa is a case in point.

Al Qudwa begins the essay by pointing to the lack of Palestinian agency in recovery and rehabilitation efforts following the deadly Israeli bombardments on the densely populated Gaza Strip in 2008-2009, 2012, and 2014 when 100,000 homes were destroyed or damaged. So much of Palestinian culture is based on the extended family, he notes, and yet when international aid agencies and other donor groups arrive to help rebuild, they seek little Palestinian input and ignore Palestinian culture, building units that isolate and break up families even further, adding to the trauma and sense of powerlessness.

So far, so good. But when the author announces that he seeks “to empower Gazans, making them self-sufficient and able to use existing resources without having to rely on Israel or other external sources for building materials,” this reviewer sensed a disquieting feeling. Isn’t the whole point to end the blockade and occupation and ultimately liberate Palestine? Isn’t the struggle inherently and wholly political? And isn’t an effort to build housing self-sufficiently merely an attempt to ameliorate an awful situation that can only be fully remedied once liberation comes?

Yet, as I read on and the author explained further the key importance of community planning in housing restoration, it suddenly dawned on me. So much of Palestinian resistance is based on sumud (Arabic for steadfastness). Al Qudwa’s “exercise in imagination” that resulted in the building of 167 houses was in fact designed to strengthen Palestinian families and culture. It represented “a matter of dignity and empowerment,” as he put it, and thus contributed to sumud , to the ability to carry on the struggle relentlessly.

Similarly, the poet Mosab Abu Toha’s essay, “Exporting Oranges and Short Stories: Cultural Struggle in the Gaza Strip,” explores his personal attempts to resuscitate libraries, art, and cinema in Gaza following Israel’s bombing of the Islamic University of Gaza in 2014, which included the destruction of its library. Abu Toha became particularly motivated to replenish children’s libraries, knowing that children make up half of Gaza’s population and suffered intense fear during the bombings.

Not all of the essays in this collection depict projects. Many describe in depth the manifestations of the Israeli government’s barbarity and its efforts to strangle Gaza and its resistance.  Every essay in this anthology is effective at describing these methods of control, particularly Suhail Taha’s “People’s Light in Gaza’s Darkness,” which details how Israel‘s control of electrical power to Gaza is an attempt “to break the people of Gaza.” Yousef M. Aljamal’s “Travel Restrictions as a Manifestation of Nakba: Gaza, the Path Backward Is the Path Forward.” exposes how the lack of freedom of movement for Palestinians represents Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing, which has never ceased since the 1948 Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe) when Zionist paramilitaries expelled more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages, creating the refugee population that is still the major component of Gaza’s population to this day.

It’s left to Palestinian artist Shahd Abusalama and physiotherapist Basman Aldirawi to address how to get to liberation in their respective essays “Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Permanent Temporality” and “Gaza 2050: Three Scenarios.” Abusalama stresses the importance of “a decolonial strategy,” “a one-state vision,” and the right of refugees to return to their homes. Aldirawi further explores the one-state solution and the deficiencies of a two-state approach.

Steadfastness is on display throughout this collection of essays. Writings born of fire are keeping the lights on in Gaza and all of Palestine.

On the morning of May 10, 2021, I rolled out of bed and headed to Capital Mall, Gaza’s only shopping mall. My plan was to buy a gray hat for my son Ayman (4) and pink hair clips for my daughter Mariam (3) to complement their Eid clothes. I wanted to please my kids and avoid their temper tantrums.

On the evening of the same day, however, my concern shifted to whether I will die or live, whether I will leave my kids behind or we will all die together.

On that evening, Israel started a war on the Gaza Strip and used internationally prohibited weapons: a total of 1,500 strikes took place in the 11-day war, injuring 1,900 Palestinians, and killing at least 260. Gaza health authorities reported 39 women, 17 elderly, and 66 children among the dead, and 1,800 houses, 3 towers, 437 apartments, and 3 mosques destroyed.

When the Israeli warplanes hit Gaza again recently, my daughter, Mariam, woke up from her nap, crying because of the loud noise. This brought back memories of the May war seven months ago.

A day before the war, we were eagerly awaiting Eid al-Fitr. I remember the smiley little faces of my kids while they rummaged through the shopping bags to see what I had bought. Mariam loved her new hair clips; however, Ayman didn’t like his new hat and tossed it to the side. I promised him I will replace it with whatever he liked. My kids are everything to me.

When the Israeli warplanes hit Gaza again recently, my daughter, Mariam, woke up from her nap, crying because of the loud noise. This brought back memories of the May war seven months ago.

A day after the start of the May war, we heard the shocking news that Israel had threatened to destroy the Hanadi Tower using warplanes. My thoughts traveled, “Is it going to be destroyed? Are they going to start a war? Is it our turn to die? What would happen to my kids if I were no longer around?”

What should I answer? He hadn’t lived through such terrible events before, and he is too young to understand the horrible truth. So, I decided to lie. “They are fireworks to celebrate the coming Eid.”

He looked at me, unconvinced, and asked, “Why is this tower being destroyed on TV?”

I smiled sadly and said, “They destroyed it because it’s old and they didn’t want it anymore.” He was convinced.

The next day, Al-Shorouq Tower was also threatened to be leveled to the ground in ten minutes by Israeli warplanes. It hosted nothing but companies, businesses, and press offices and was located at the heart of Gaza City, opposite my family’s house. My parents didn’t have time to leave their home. I called my mother to beg them to come to my place, but she said, “There is not enough time and no vehicles to pick us up. If we go on foot, the shrapnel will kill us. And if the tower collapses on us, we will die.”

I couldn’t hold my tears, I hung up the phone, waited for their news, and sent my prayers to God. One of my eyes was on the TV and the other on the window waiting for an explosion to happen.

A few minutes later, the awaited explosion occurred and Al-Shorouq Tower was leveled to the ground by Israeli F-16s warplanes. I didn’t dare to call my parents. How would I live without them? I am still young and I needed them. Ayman interrupted my tears, “Mom, why are you crying? Don’t be sad, they don’t need this tower anymore; it is old,” he innocently comforted me.

I took a deep breath and played the strong mom’s role and lied again, “Yes, that is true. But I’m worried about your grandfather and grandmother.” I picked up my phone to call them. I received a message. My mother wrote to me: “Don’t worry. We are completely fine. The house was damaged badly, but it’s okay.”

I was confused whether to feel happy for my parents’ safety or to feel sad for the disaster and destruction.

Every night, my husband and I would take shifts. One stays awake, and the other sleeps until the next explosion. We slept on the floor to protect our children from any flying glass.

Despite the danger that surrounded my mother, she used to contact me every single hour to make sure that we were fine. There is nothing in this world like a mother.

The morning after the war, I was busy cleaning the house, when little Ayman asked me, “Mom, did the fireworks end? Is today finally Eid? Can we go out now?” I said that we could. When I looked at him, he was putting on his gray hat, the one he had disliked before the war.

I smiled and thanked God that we were somehow back to our normal life.

In late June 2006, and soon after Palestinian factions captured the Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in an attack against an Israeli military outpost southeast of Gaza, Israel started a destructive military operation in the coastal enclave to bring its solider back. One of the main infrastructures destroyed by Israel’s military operation in Gaza at the time was Gaza’s only power plant, located in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp where I grew up.

Israel’s F-16s destroyed the power plant with a dozen missiles as my family gathered in the middle of the night to seek some sort of protection. I remember that night vividly as my mother brought us together while Israeli warplanes fired their missiles at the power plant a mile away from my family’s house. The house would shake and the screams of children at night would be heard even clearer, breaking the relative silence of the night which was violated by the sonic sounds of the Israeli warplanes.

In the same year, my youngest brother Omar was born. Today, he is 15 years old – the number of years of Israel’s siege on Gaza – and he has probably not enjoyed a single full day of electricity in his entire life in Gaza. The year 2006 saw the start of the power outages crisis in the coastal enclave, which has only got worse over the years. At the start of the crisis, electricity was cu off for four hours a day. As the demand for more electricity increased with Gaza’s population doubling by some 70,000 a year, and as fewer people were able to pay electricity bills due to the lack of jobs, the crisis has only got worse.

For years, Israel has prevented the entry of materials needed to fix the damaged power engines and the oil tanks destroyed by its warplanes. In many instances, Israel would link allowing shipments of manufactured fuel to run the Gaza Power Plant to ceasing hostilities. Meanwhile Gaza’s power plant, which produces 140 MW of Gaza’s total need of 450 MW, has rarely been able to function at full capacity. Gaza depends on other sources to cover the rest of its needs including two Egyptian and Israeli supply lines. In many instances, these two lines have gone down, and Israel has used the pretext of the security situation in the Gaza Strip to postpone fixing the Israeli supply line.

The electricity crisis has impacted all aspects of life in Gaza. From 2006 to this day, dozens of patients have passed away due to the lack of electricity in the intensive care units (ICUs).

As forest fires continue unabated in many parts of the world due to the recent heat wave, one can only imagine what this heat wave means for the people of Gaza. In a place like Gaza, where green areas are limited, and where thousands of people live in tin houses in ever-crowded refugee camps, the heat is even worse. The only place people can escape to is the Mediterranean Sea, much of which is polluted by untreated sewage water that is pumped into the sea because the only desalination treatment in the Gaza Stirp was also destroyed by Israel in 2008/9.

The electricity crisis has impacted all aspects of life in Gaza. From 2006 to this day, dozens of patients have passed away due to the lack of electricity in the intensive care units (ICUs). It has become nearly impossible for students to sit their exams or study due to the lack of electricity. Many factories and industries have stopped working due to the lack of electricity which is crucial to their functioning. All the people living in Gaza have had to change their lifestyle including when to cook, use the washing machines, or sleep, based on the power outage schedule.

So far, the international community has failed to provide tangible solutions to Gaza’s ongoing electricity crisis. First, it has failed to make Israel accountable and ensure it does not target Gaza’s already fragile electricity infrastructure. The international community has also failed to pressure Israel to allow the implementation of long-term projects in the Gaza Stirp that would solve the issue of power outages in the coastal enclave such as the proposal by Turkey to send a floating power plant; the proposal by Qatar to convert the power plant so that it operates on gas and to establish a gas line to provide Gaza’s power plant with the needed gas; or Algeria’s proposal to send fuel to operate the power plant.

The Palestinian division between Hamas and Fatah has added fuel to the fire in this regard. In many instances, the Palestinian governments of Gaza and the West Bank would exchange accusations over who is responsible for the crisis. Meanwhile, Israel, the occupying power, which should provide Palestinians with all needed services according to international law, acts with impunity.

The international community should hold Israel responsible and make sure that it provides Palestinians, who live under its tight siege in Gaza, with electricity.

The people of Gaza, who have experienced four major Israel offensives – the latest of which was in May 2021 and which resulted in the destruction of more infrastructure in the Gaza Stirp – deserve to live in dignity and to enjoy full, basic services. The international community should hold Israel responsible and make sure that it provides Palestinians, who live under its tight siege in Gaza, with electricity.

The denial of basic rights to the Palestinians has created a Palestinian generation that sees no hope in achieving a just solution to their plight. Meanwhile, the continuing electricity crisis in Gaza means that it is only a matter of time before another Palestinian family dies in a fire caused by candles.

Israel and the international community should fear the reaction of people like my youngest brother Omar. The situation in the Gaza Strip is unsustainable, and if the dignity and freedom of Palestinians there are not respected, regional security will always be at stake, and it will be a matter of time before another conflict breaks out, bringing even more destruction to Gaza’s infrastructure.

Twelve years ago, on December 27, 2008, I was sipping a cup of coffee as I took a short break from my university assignments. I was an undergraduate student preparing for my final exams when the Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out more than 60 air strikes against Hamas-run police stations, buildings, facilities, and military sites, killing approximately 200 Palestinians in the first few hours of the intensive air offensive.

Palestinians in Gaza are used to hearing sounds of explosions as they became part of their daily life routines – just like growing up under siege and occupation. They are used to the sounds of explosions and the buzzing of drones; helicopters and fighter jets hovering above their heads, day and night; missiles fired at targets in Gaza; or Israelis just killing their boredom by producing sonic bombs, breaking the sound barrier and smashing some windows.

Gazans’ Shocked

But the bombing I heard in 2008 was unusual even for Gaza.

The electricity went out, and I turned on my cell phone’s built-in radio only to discover that the signals of many local radio stations were no longer working. I went out to try to find out what happened as rumors had started to circulate: some said Israel had targeted the Hamas-run Al-Abbas Police Station in Gaza city.

Others claimed the target was the Abu Middain Police Station, east of Nuseirat refugee camp, while others yet said it was the building of the Ministry of Interior. It turned out that all these sites were targeted along with many more.

The intensive bombing campaign, which Israel later named “Operation Cast Lead,” was shocking even for Palestinians for two reasons. The number of sites targeted at the same time was unprecedented with nearly 60 sites simultaneously targeted by air strikes that caused huge explosions.

The second reason was that the military offensive started on a Saturday; Saturday is holy for the followers of the Jewish faith and a symbol of peace. Despite this, Israel chose a Saturday, violating the holiness of the Jewish Sabbath, to take the lives of hundreds of Palestinians.

The Israeli offensive lasted for 23 days, claiming the lives of more than 1,500 Palestinians, injuring some 6,000 others, completely destroying 4,100 houses, and partially destroying 17,000 others.

One of the victims was my neighbor Ahmed Altawil, an eight-year-old child whose family had evacuated their house following a rumor that the mosque next to their house would be bombed. While playing football near his uncle’s home, an Israeli strike killed him, ending his short life way too early. In 2014, the very same mosque was leveled to the ground, which caused a serious damage to Ahmed’s family house.

One of the victims was my neighbor Ahmed Altawil, an eight-year-old child whose family had evacuated their house following a rumor that the mosque next to their house would be bombed. While playing football near his uncle’s home, an Israeli strike killed him, ending his short life way too early.

One of the stories that Israel’s Operation Cast Lead left in the collective memory of Palestinians in Gaza is that of the Al-Samouni family. An Israeli officer asked the Al-Samouni family to stay in one room in their house in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza after the Israeli army occupied the entire area.

Following this, the Israeli forces bombed the house while they were still inside, killing 29 people of the same extended family. To add insult to injury, the Israeli Prosecution decided to close the investigation against the military officer who ordered the bombing. Justice for the Al-Samouni family and thousands of other Palestinian families is still to be served.

Will Justice be Served?

Today, Israeli leaders, such as Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert, who are responsible for the alleged crimes committed against the Palestinians in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead are still free. The chances of bringing them to justice for killing Palestinians are minimal.

At the same time, preserving the memory of Palestinian victims is equally important. It is important to tell the stories of Palestinians who lost their lives because of Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

A child like my neighbor Ahmad Altawil is not a mere number: he had a family and his death was deeply mourned. There are many stories that deserve to be told about Ahmad: his great love of football, for one, cut short by an Israeli strike that took his life in 2009, or the other air strike that destroyed his family’s house in 2014.

Preserving the memory of Palestinian victims is important, so is to tell the stories of Palestinians who lost their lives because of Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

Preserving these memories is essential for the victims, their families, and for any future justice for the Palestinian people.

A War on Memory

In the same context, Israel’s war on Palestinians, including Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008, is a war on memory and narrative as well as a war on the psychical presence of Palestinians, who are projected as the opponents of Israel’s settler colonial project, a master plan built on the notion that Palestinians are the unwanted Others.

Preserving this memory feeds into what Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish spoke of as “the invaders’ fear of memories,” keeping the Palestinian memory alive despite all attempts to erase it is a form of resistance too.

The world has to remember that as long as justice is not served in Palestine, the entire Middle East cannot achieve peace and security- even if governments claim otherwise. The youngest Palestinian children whose parents were killed in 2008 would turn 11 today, which means that the feeling of being oppressed has become generational and Israel will come to a point where it can no longer maintain a reality, the backbone of which is oppressing Palestinians.

One lesson from Israel’s Operation Cast Lead and other military onslaughts in Gaza is that using excessive force against Palestinians has only made them more determined over the years.

The brightest example of this determination is the Great March of Return, where Palestinians in Gaza, 75% of whom are refugees, following three destructive Israeli onslaughts, took the initiative and called for their return to their homes and towns according to the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194.

Israel needs to understand that it can’t continue its denial of the reality in Gaza, and that the Palestinians’ memories of their lives, the wars, and the lives of their ancestors in historic Palestine will continue to serve as fuel to the fire of their memories.

These memories will continue to live until the historical injustice in Palestine is addressed.