A Circle Of Certain Death: Don't Be Afraid, Stand Next To Me

Unimaginably, Israel's campaign of genocide and elimination escalates, with up to 800 Palestinians killed in 17 days "in full view of the world." Amidst relentless bombardment, displacement, starvation, trauma and shelling so incessant their "bodies don't stop trembling," Gazans recount apocalyptic scenes: limbs and corpses in the streets, body parts "hanging on the walls," children shot filling water jugs, hundreds trapped in homes and hospitals without power, water, food, aid: "All that’s left is the will to breathe."

Surely emboldened by the unceasing flow of arms and blood money from a complicit U.S., and an accompanying silence from much of the world, Israel has undertaken a series of massacres in central and northern Gaza - Nuseirat, Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun - where an estimated 100,000 Palestinians are trapped without food, water or "any illusion of safety." In Beit Lahiya, Israel flattened a crowded five-storey residential building in a "horrifying" attack that killed 93 displaced Palestinians, including at least 20 children. Nabil Al-Khatib, 57, and his family were sheltering in a UNRWA school until Israel began bombing it. Flying shrapnel wounded eight of his children and grandchildren before they could flee during a brief lull. "We picked up the children and ran,” he said. "We left everything behind, our lives as we knew them. But we had each other." He saw others who "have already lost everything - their homes, families, limbs...The horrors we have lived are indescribable. Even mountains cannot hold it."

Survivors describe "a nightmare beyond comprehension," with savage air strikes "vaporizing" victims, corpses crushed under rubble, limbs torn off, people bleeding out on the street from lack of aid. A poet in exile mourned his 7-year-old cousin and 18 trapped members of his family killed in a strike; the day before, he said, "I told everyone tanks and soldiers were besieging them, but no one heard." Often, IDF soldiers invade homes or shelters, evict residents, and set fire to what's left so they cannot return. Despite "catastrophic" conditions, Palestinian civil defense forces have had to suspend operations in the wake of attacks on its teams: "Our work has completely stopped." And while Israel claims it allows civilians to flee south "in a safe manner and through organized routes," the Palestinian Authority says survivors face a far grimmer choice. "The Occupation army is forcing residents to either flee under bombardment, or (stay to) face being killed by a strike "in what resembles a circle of certain death."

Injured young man hugs body of child killed in Israeli strike on Jabalia refugee camp(Photo by Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Israeli military leaders' bloody new assault reportedly followed political leaders' approval of an extremist "General's Plan," which entails an ever-more barbarous approach to ethnic cleansing. Among its goals aimed at "changing the doctrine of war" are calls to "move from the concept of deterrence to decisiveness," hiring more "offensive" officers, and focusing on "a clear (if delusional) victory against the enemy." En route, it is hoped, "All of Gaza will starve." And so it is. On Oct. 28, in "a new way to kill children," the Knesset passed a bill banning the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the key source of humanitarian aid for 2.9 million people in some 30 refugee camps. The move to ban UNRWA, which runs 147 medical facilities and schools for 660,000 children along with providing vital food and water, came after months of Israeli efforts to discredit the group's work by charging several employees - 230 of whom Israel has murdered - with taking part in Oct. 7 attacks - a claim both the UN and EU refute for lack of evidence.

Still, after a year of blocking over 80% of humanitarian aid at every turn while denying it was - and with Gazans getting about 10% of the food they need - Israel's latest move, critics say, has hastened "the collapse of the humanitarian system." With their incursions in the north virtually blocking most access to food and water, aid agencies say almost all Gazans face "punishing food scarcity." Most are lucky to eat one skimpy meal a day, nine of 10 children lack the nutrition they need to grow, babies born healthy too often die when their ill-nourished mothers can't breastfeed, about 50,000 children under five need or will soon need urgent treatment for malnutrition, fuel shortages and high prices have caused a “crippling" lack of vital bread, and at least 37 children are dead of malnutrition. "There is nothing," says Oxfam's Mahmoud Alsaqqa, "You are talking about tens of days that they are not receiving any supplies." Says another worker, "In essence, if people don’t die from the war, they face the very real threat of dying from hunger.”

Most harrowingly, hunger, like bombs, hits mostly children. Over 16,700 children have died in Israeli air strikes, including at least 710 babies under 1, their ages listed as "zero"; many thousands more have been maimed and wounded. One aid worker mourns "an entire generation sacrificed," and warns those children who have survived to date "are running out of time." Most distressingly - at least to those who retain the moral clarity to insist that, no matter what, you don't kill children - "Kids aren't terrorists." Many warn that the war risks becoming, for a generation of occupied, traumatized, parentless, understandably enraged Palestinians, a "terrorism-creation factory" for decades to come. Bilal Salem, a photojournalist documenting the carnage in Gaza, breaks down when he describes the way children "cling to their parents, desperate for protection their parents can’t give." “We move through the ruins like ghosts, trying to capture what’s left of people’s lives," he says, "but the truth is, there’s not much left.”

Relatives of Palestinians killed in Israeli attack mourn at al-Awda Hospital (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, after a year of Israel systematically targeting and crippling Gaza’s health system - one war crime among many - most of its 36 hospitals are barely functional, leaving hundreds of thousands of war victims without care. According to data from Gaza's Health Ministry, Israeli forces have killed 1,151 Palestinian health workers, including at least 165 doctors, 260 nurses, 300 support personnel, 184 health associates and 76 pharmacists. More than 300 health workers have been detained, and at least two prominent doctors have died under torture in Israeli custody. Most recently, Médecins Sans Frontières staffer Hasan Suboh was among those killed in one of Israel's attacks on homes in the north; his tattered MSF vest was found under the rubble. "To see it destroyed," said MSF in a statement, "is representative of how in this war, Israel, the U.S. government, and the rest of Israel's allies have disregarded the protection of healthcare workers, and ripped the rules of war to shreds."

The ongoing attacks in northern Gaza have left already frayed hospitals yet more overwhelmed, and literally besieged. Israeli forces have barred the World Health Organization from delivering supplies or evacuating patients, even as they've attacked those trapped inside. At Kamal Adwan Hospital, surgeon Dr Mohammed Obeid says at least 30 people are dead; another 130 patients need urgent care: “There is death in all types and forms. The bombardment does not stop. The artillery does not stop. The planes do not stop.” Dr. Mohammed Salha, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, says about 180 people - staff, patients, displaced families - are trapped inside as Israeli tanks stand guard and missiles bombard the area. Earlier, forces shelled the hospital's upper floors, killing or wounding over 40 patients and staff; the bombs set off a fire at a nearby school that took out the hospital's power. Israel ordered doctors to evacuate; they refused. “We are just waiting for death to come," said Obeid. "Or a miracle."

Boy injured in Israeli attack on Jabalia Refugee Camp is treated at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital (Photo by Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Amidst the vast devastation of Israel's genocide, survivors are often left with not just rage and sorrow, but a powerful desire to honor those lost to them, to insist on their humanity and tell their stories so "their deaths are recorded for posterity." Thus did Dr. Areej Hijazi, a Gaza obstetrician, write moving obituaries for three colleagues he studied with at Al-Azhar University whose deaths reflect the grievous depth and breadth of his community's losses. "These three dedicated physicians have been taken from us," he writes. "But their memories are alive in our hearts, and their work will continue to inspire us." Dr. Inas Mahmoud Yousef, 29, was a family doctor, mother to 3-year-old son Hassan, and pregnant with her second child when an Israeli missile hit her home last October. It killed her, Hassan, her unborn child; it also killed her husband’s parents, his brother, his wife and their two children. The only survivor was Inas’ husband, Dr. Ali al-Nweiry, an orthopedic surgeon; he had a spinal cord injury and is now a paraplegic.

Dr. Maisara Alrayyes, 28, was a member of Médecins du Monde, with a master’s degree in women's and children’s health from King’s College London. He was killed in a November airstrike with 11 relatives, including his parents and his wife, pregnant with their first child. The next day, Dr. Maisara’s two brothers couldn’t bear to leave their family under the rubble, and went to retrieve the bodies; another Israeli missile killed them. Finally, Dr. Nahed al-Harazin was head of obstetrics and gynecology at Al-Shifa Hospital. She was killed last December in an Israeli attack, along with her mother, two brothers, and their wives and children. Dr. Nahed and her family had refused Israeli orders to evacuate; she was so devoted to work that, during bombings, she'd sometimes walk the four kilometers to Al-Shifa if she had to. Once, Hijazi recalled, she reassured him when there was heavy shelling near Al-Shifa. "Don't be afriad," she told him. "Stand here next to me." "Mark the silence," writes poet Emily De Ferrari. "Mark the scream."

Body of Palestnian killed in Israeli attack on Jabalia lies in street(Photo by Hamza Z. H. Qraiqea/Anadolu via Getty Images)