Inside Gaza: Where death and desperation is the norm

Infograph: TBS

This is the tale of over 2 million people,  living on a strip of land spanning 140 square miles along the Mediterranean. Its air, land and sea are blockaded by Israel. More than 95% of its water is contaminated, 61% of its people live below the poverty line, 47% are unemployed, and 80% of its population depends on humanitarian assistance. And as if these were not enough, the Israeli jets keep pounding on them regularly, so deaths and wounds are a regular companion of these people.  

Residents in Gaza, the Hamas-controlled territory of Palestine, have been suffering for about two decades from an Israeli blockade which severely disrupts the flow of goods and assistance to the region. The UN Security Council Resolution 1860 of 2019 stressed the need to ensure a sustained and regular flow of goods and people, but what power is there to convince Israel? 

The suffering that people in Gaza face is so intense that people highly trained for dealing with countries in crisis often get overwhelmed and disoriented. Imagine a life where your kids and the elderly have to survive on completely contaminated water or stay without electricity for over 20 hours a day in the scorching heat. 

Imagine the settlers increasingly grabbing your lands, killing your people, defiling your holy place, dehumanising your existence in a way unprecedented in the modern world, and yet, the world turns a blind eye to your suffering. 

According to Statista, between 2008 and 2020, some 5,590 Palestinians and 251 Israelis died in mini wars. In the 2014 war alone, according to UNRWA, 2,251 Palestinians in Gaza lost their lives, 551 of them were children and 299 women, while 66 Israeli soldiers and five civilians were also among the casualties. 

Both Israeli and Palestinian deaths are deplorable, no doubt. But it is the dehumanisation of Palestinian life and agency, where things start getting insane. No matter what spin you put on it, it is the occupied who have been dehumanised, their right to claim back has been condemned, while the occupier is given the entitlement to self-defence, when the occupied are not.

And then look at Hamas, the militant outfit that emerged the most dominant force in Gaza thanks to a weak and corrupt Palestinian Authority (PA). Its inability to provide for its people only gets overshadowed when at wars. And over the years they controlled the enclave, they managed to have their wars with Israel. Known for massive storage of rockets that they like to fire on Israel, this Iran and Hezbollah-backed group is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union and the UK, as well as other powers. 

While the group is on the rope financially, their political support is weak. Ever since the Egyptian military regime has been in power, they cracked down on smuggling operations through the Gaza border, weakening Hamas' taxation of private smugglers. 

Daniel L Byman, a professor security studies in a Brookings article writes that Hamas struggles because it cannot overcome a fundamental internal tension. "It wants to fight Israel and rule Gaza, but it can't really do both. Israeli military operations and international pressure make it hard for Hamas to succeed on the governance front and will continue as long as Hamas continues to see fighting Israel as part of its mission," Byman writes. Even Israel occasionally tolerates smuggling from Egypt to Gaza and "even pushed Egypt's military regime" to ease up on Hamas, he adds. 

The wars like this, which gets more Palestinians killed, and a lot more Israelis this year so far due to Hamas carnages in music festival for example that alone killed 260, gives the militant outfit some strategical advantages in shadows just like it serves the right-wing government of Netanyahu in Israel. 

Roberto Valent, former Special Representative of the UNDP Administrator in Palestine, in a 2018 article said that the agriculture, manufacturing, trade and construction sectors of Gaza, thanks to the Israeli blockade, shrank to an "unprecedented level". 

"Today, Gaza's economy is much more reliant on consumer spending and international financial assistance than ever before. The liquidity squeeze and the increases in credit spending and debt also add to Gaza's economic blues. This is a deeply flawed economic model not created by Palestinians in Gaza themselves, but enforced by Israel's blockade," he wrote. 

Bordered by Israel in the east and north, Egypt in the south and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Gaza was occupied by Israel in 1967 from Egypt. It was placed under Egyptian administration after the 1948-49 war. Israel returned the land to Palestine in 2005, but only to impose the ravaging blockade in 2007 after Hamas took power in the enclave. 

And ever since, a tale of poverty and suffering from a chronic lack of water, fuel, and electricity — hand in hand with sporadic wars — have ravaged the lives of Palestinians stuck within this small territory. 

The war that Hamas announced on Saturday morning is the fifth of its kind between militants in Gaza and Israel ever since the 2005 withdrawal of Tel Aviv. Before this, wars in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021 were marked by devastating air strikes on Gaza by Israel. Militants in Gaza also fired rockets in Israel's direction, which were successfully diluted by the Iron Dome defence system introduced in 2011. This was the only time Hamas was successful in overwhelming the Iron Dome by targeting a massive number of rockets in less than half an hour. 

When Israel retaliated by targeting the high-rise buildings in Gaza, the dead bodies of the Palestinians piled up, overwhelming a healthcare system which is also dependent on international help. 

And as things stand, since much blood has been spilt on Israel's side by Hamas this time with over 700 Israeli deaths as of filing this story, Netanyahu vowed to make Gaza a 'deserted island' — which perhaps only means the land invasion will see the misery of Gaza's people like never seen before.