Here is an important example of what life was like for the children of Gaza before October 7.
In a 2015 BBC interview, Syed shared his experience:
Syed's life was shattered on the day the 12-year-old, his 11-year-old brother Mohamed, and their six cousins went to Gaza's beach to play football.
It was the natural playground for young boys from a family of fishermen which has lived off the sea for generations.
"We didn't know that beach was dangerous," says Syed
His eyes still, round, sad pools, as he remembers 16 July, one of the most harrowing days of the war.
By the end of that day, Mohamed and three of his cousins were dead. An Israeli investigation said its air force mistook the children for Hamas fighters when a pilot fired twice at a "compound" next to the beach.
Syed and the three other boys who survived still show small scars on their legs and disturbing signs of being severely traumatised.
"For the son I lost, my tears will never dry," says his mother. But she fears she lost two sons last summer.
"Those left behind are lost like those who died," she laments, as she looks across their small one-bedroom home at Syed, who stares blankly into the distance.
Syed finds it hard to sleep, and too tough to go to school because it reminds him of his brother. Even the sea, which had been a constant reference point in his life, no longer feels safe. "I never used to get scared, but now I do," he tells me as we ride in a speed boat close to the shore and he fiddles nervously with the cords of his life jacket.
ID: via The Slow Factory Access
Gaza is a feminist issue, children's rights & human rights issue
⚠️WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE⚠️
📹 Scenes from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, where a child receives treatment after being bombed in his home by the Israeli occupation army on Monday.
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Hello Everyone!
Today is the first day of the weeklong strike for a ceasefire in Gaza.
I have realized that I do not think the message has spread far, at least on this website. This might be due to the lack of internet in Gaza, it has been down for days. Not much can be said by the citizens there, it's like some people forgot about them. I encourage all of you to share this post, or make your own, letting everyone know about this strike. This is something that should transcend the aesthetic of your blog. My blog was a gimmick blog, but for this week, it is a blog for spreading information and awareness.
Bisan Odwa (@wizard_bisan1 on instagram) has called for this strike. She is a journalist from Gaza, who has been experiencing this horrid violence for 15 weeks. 107 days. 2568 hours.
These were the images she posted, calling for this strike:
Reblog this, share this. Do not stop until every supporter of Gaza knows what we must do this week.
Free Palestine, Free Gaza, Ceasefire now!
I'm never forgetting the Palestinian babies that were left to starve to death then rot in their beds by the IOF.
I'm never forgetting the Palestinian doctors surrounded by bodies of dead children begging the world to stop the slaughter.
I'm never forgetting the Palestinian children who held a press conference in English to beg the world to stop murdering them because they want to live.
I'm never forgetting the Palestinian Priest who said "We will not accept your apology after the genocide" to the world.
I'm never forgetting the Palestinian Imam who used the speakers of the Mosque, not to call people to prayer but to call out to God while the world around them was burning from American supplied Israeli bombs.
I'm never forgetting the grandfather who held his dead grandchild in his arms. Or the father carrying the remains of his two children in plastic shopping bags. Or the mother holding her dead child in a shroud. Or the father sitting among the rubble after he lost his whole family. Or the girl trapped under a broken building begging for people to save her family first. Or the boy who cried when he saw his brother alive. Or the girl who asked if she was still alive after being pulled from the rubble. Or the boy who carried the remains of his brother in his backpack. Or the old man the IOF used for a photoshoot before they shot him dead after getting pictures. Or the little boy wearing plastic gloves to pick up the remains of his family. Or the graves desecrated. Or the body of that small baby girl left alone in a tent because no one knew who she was or if her family was alive, small and alone and not one person who knew her name to bury her. Or the young boy who was shot in the street while his sister watched from the window. Or the men and boys who were stripped naked in winter. Or those tortured. Or those made to stand in open graves. Or the people who were raped by IOF soldiers. Or Palestinian workers kidnapped by the IOF and then labeled with wristbands, each one reduced to a number, then made to walk back to Gaza to be killed in the world's largest open air concentration camp. Or the people of Gaza starving because Israeli Zionists are blocking aid trucks. Or the Israelis dancing and celebrating the death of Palestinians. Or the lies spread by Zionists and their supporters. Or the people profiting off the oppression and deaths of Palestinians. Or the people of the West Bank being killed or kidnapped by the IOF. Or old woman who was older than the creation of the terror state of "Israel" who was shot by snipers for saying that. Or the Israelis dressed up as Palestinians to enter a hospital and kill three Palestinians in their beds. Or every single Palestinian currently kept in an Israeli prison. Or the journalists, doctors, poets, men, women, children, and the unborn all massacred. Or the fact that WCNSF exists now. Or the woman who refused to wash the blood from her hands. Or the dead, unburied and unmourned.
I'm never forgetting those who chose silence in the face of a genocide.
I may not know all their names but I will not forget the over 30,000 Palestinians dead. Or the over 60, 000 people hurt. Or the unknown number of people missing, still lost under the rubble. Or the 12,000 children slaughtered. An entire generation crippled or murdered.
I will never forget these things when Palestine is free.
I'm sorry for the cruelty of this picture, but I couldn't see Amina and not share her story. Trigger warning: eye injury (bloody eyes).
Amina Ghanem, 13 years old, says: We were sleeping and we heard the sound of tanks when they came and walked over the caravan in which I, my father and my siblings lived. The tank squeezed us inside the tin all night, and we were ran over, until the morning. And when they finally let us out, I found that my father and my little sister have been killed. Now we've been brought here.
She tells her story in this video with her little brother beside her. They're all on their own. Their mother is outside of Gaza and cannot get in or get them out. They have no way of communication, their father and sister are killed.
The eyewitness of Genocide.
"A Palestinian father loses his temper while bidding farewell to his son who was killed in the Israeli bloodbath last night in Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip" from Wissam Nassar, 16/Mar/2024: