After 11 days of living under the Israeli occupation forces aggression, the people of Gaza have finally got the chance to sleep safely. A ceasefire has come into effect between Israel and the Palestinian factions in Gaza on Friday, 21 May at 2:00 am. However, after celebrating victory, they had to return to their neighborhoods and face another type of struggle, when they saw the view of rubble piles replacing their houses, their shops, and streets, and erasing their beautiful memories.
The international news organization Reuters referred to the ceasefire as a victory for both the Israeli and Palestinian factions on the one side, but on the other, they both started to assess the scale of damage in their territories. Indicating that the damage in Gaza is catastrophic, and will cost tens of millions of dollars.
The Gaza Strip has already had an economic challenge before the recent Israeli aggression, which the blockade does definitely have a hand in. This made the people of Gaza encounter struggles with all aspects of life. Reuters mentioned in its report that “humanitarian officials warned that the damage to Gaza would take years to rebuild”. As the WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said, “the real challenges are the closures”.
Arab Organization for Human Rights in the UK emphasizes the importance of opening immediate access to the Gaza Strip, in order to supply civilians with their needs. And worries have become larger after the electricity company in Gaza warned that its stations were subjected to great damage by the Israeli bombardment. AOHR-UK recalls that the shortage of humans’ basic rights caused by the Israeli blockade is considered a crime against humanity. As it does not make sense to deprive 2 million people of their basic rights to prevent the Palestinian factions in Gaza from restocking their “military arsenal”.
In its report, Reuters focused on the international calls for urgent medical supplies, in which they pay attention to both physical and mental health. Stating that mental treatment for the people of Gaza will be more complicated than physical treatment or rebuilding the city.
Later on, Reuters made a comparison between the views of two civilians on the attack, one from Israel and the other is from Gaza. While Samira Naseer, the mother of 11 children was sitting near the wreckage of a building in Gaza, mourning her losses after the aggression, Dan Kiri sipped his coffee in a café in the Israeli port city of Ashdod and expressed his excitement to end Hamas in the next operation. In a scene that shows the reality of the victory that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about. A victory that targeted the civilians of Gaza and left them with destruction and deficiency in basic needs.
According to its role in defending human rights, AOHR-UK joins the international human rights organizations in calling for an urgent move to save the people of Gaza. The Israeli occupation attack targeted educational, medical, and economic services in Gaza, and left millions of people in need of their basic needs like safety, education, food, clean water, electricity, medical care, and many more rights that they deserve as human beings. Furthermore, it condemns any kind of attack against civilians to avenge political conflicts and different views.
