GAZA IS EXHAUSTED
Can we save them?
I can’t stop thinking about what happened yesterday at the beach café in Gaza Port.
How many people had made their way there for a moment’s peace at the beachfront? To sit and have a coffee. To breathe for a few moments. To take a moment to forget the mayhem, madness, death, destruction, the daily search for food, water, medicine, shoes, clothes, essentials.
Did they just want to escape the blistering heat of their tents — even for an hour?
Did they come to a cooler spot where they could sit on the concrete and see the beauty of, and feel the light breeze from, the sea?
Did they come to forget for just a moment their loved ones who are no longer in this world — murdered in the most indescribable ways?
Did they come to forget for a moment their homes that they spent years building and furnishing? To forget the colour of their front door, their garden growing flowers and vegetables? To forget for a moment their precious possessions — gone and scattered among the ruins of Gaza.
Did they just come to meet with friends?
What were their thoughts as they sat under that shaded canopy, as they sipped a welcome cup of coffee or had a cool drink?
Were they looking beyond the sea, imagining the world just over there? The world that has failed to stop their annihilation. The world that has failed to get humanitarian aid to them. The world that has become increasingly silent over the years.
Or maybe they weren’t even thinking. Maybe they just wanted a mental‑health break. Maybe they wanted to forget everything that was behind them as they faced the sea and took in the peaceful sounds of the waves, each one bringing a promise of something better to their shore.
Whatever they were thinking, they did not know that somewhere there were IDF soldiers locking and loading them in their hair‑sights.
Anonymous, cowardly fingers somewhere directing a deadly drone towards them. Were they tapping on a control panel? Were they locking in their coordinates in a cold, calculated way? What did they see through the eyes of the drone?
Pressing buttons. Tapping numbers. Directing, directing, directing.
And then the final “button” that would obliterate them and the space they occupied.
I wonder: was that final button round or square? Did it have something written on it? Was it coloured? Was it even a button? How are these things controlled anyway? I guess that doesn’t matter.
What were the fingers like that tapped in the coordinates? What did the face behind those fingers look like? Was it American? Was it British? Was it German? Was it Australian? Was it Irish? Was it French? Was it Israeli?
Was it a woman’s or a man’s face? Was it young? Was it old?
I suppose none of those things matter to those who lost their lives, or those whose lives are forever changed now because of injury. It probably doesn’t even matter to all those who witnessed yesterday’s massacre and have to live with the trauma of that until their own turn comes.
"We went down and found people in pieces. The upper halves of people's bodies had been blown away."
At least seven Palestinians were killed and fourteen wounded in that strike. Many bodies were blown apart, according to eyewitnesses — the top part completely gone. Some were blown into the sea, and at least one drowned because they couldn’t swim back to shore.
And then shortly after, I received a distressing message from Gaza.
From Alaa Mazen, who was delivering water to Gaza’s Forgotten Families nearby.
He heard the shelling. These are his words:
“Joan. We are being exterminated, we are being exterminated! Enough injustice, enough death, enough daily suffering! What more do they want from us? What do they want? Where is the world? Where are the billions of people in the world? We have become just a passing news item for them.
Can you imagine these people who were killed today? They were sitting on the beach, trying to escape their suffering, just to catch their breath, when Israel came and targeted them. This is the nature of the Zionist occupation; they don't even want us to sit for a moment on the beach.
All we have left is God's support and the return of popular pressure. Therefore, speak about Gaza.
Speak up for us, friends! Let our voices reach the world! Prove to the world the truth about the damned Trump and Netanyahu! Speak up for us! We are being exterminated daily!”
He’s not asking for much. Just your voice.
What do Palestinians do anymore? They don’t even know what they’re supposed to deal with anymore.
The Israelis shooting them and blowing them to pieces? Stealing more and more of their land every day?
The burning sun turning their tents into ovens?
The daily hunt for water? The lack of food?
The lack of medicines?
The rats running through their tents?
The insects eating their skin?
The sewage building up all around them?
The diseases spreading through their camps?
The worry about the impending winter with no proper shelter?
Palestinians are being exhausted and overwhelmed by having to deal with too much.
But that is the plan.
The ones pressing the buttons know the plan.
And they are going to keep pressing those buttons until there is no one left.
And the only ones who can help are you.
We have to increase the popular pressure again. We have to organise those rallies around the world where thousands and thousands of people came out to protest. We have to find a way to let people know what’s really happening in Gaza.
We just have to. We have to re‑energise ourselves because if we don’t, we won’t be able to live with ourselves afterwards.
Or worse still, there will be no one left in Gaza alive.
Death to Israel. Anyone that supports this demonic colony needs to get fucked by a cactus and go straight to hell. I'm so sick of this shit. Enough already.
When is the world going to stand up and take all these monsters out?
I would never ask whether we can “save them”! But we must be loud and continue to put Israel on notice that the world is watching and acting. Their tiny act of “investigating” Hind’s murder is indicating that the genociders are hearing the world wide call. We cannot stop🥵🇵🇸
Meanwhile thousands of illegal settlements are being constructed in The Occupied West Bank. We cannot turn away. Take care of yourselves AND find your path to making justice possible.