Gaza is literally breathing its last

Gaza is literally breathing its last 2025-04-08T11:16:12-04:00

A few months back, Palestinian parents in Gaza began a grim new practice: on each child’s arms and legs, they wrote the child’s name with a sharpie. They did this so that, if their children

gaza rose
Gaza rose. Photo by Author.

were blown apart by a bomb, their body parts could be identified. It became more and more commonplace for rescue workers to find only body parts. In some cases, bodies were completely vaporized.

I’ve seen too many videos in which a weeping or screaming parent holds up the headless body of a baby, with flames and explosions lighting the scene. Too many photos of children, bandaged and grimy, sitting on the floor of a morgue beside the shrouded bodies of their parents and siblings (BTW, we have never seen a photo of a beheaded Israeli baby because there never was one).

On Thursday, the Gazan health authority announced that 22,000 Palestinian children in Gaza have lost a parent; around 17,000 lost both.

A Palestinian teenager in the West Bank was shot dead for throwing stones. The Israeli military admitted it, calling the youngster a “terrorist.”

Back in Gaza, Israel ambushed and killed 15 medics on a rescue mission in March. The Israeli military claimed that they were targeting “suspicious vehicles” traveling in the dark without headlights. The New York Times reports that Israel’s story was totally fabricated. In fact the ambulances had their emergency lights going and were clearly marked.

The bodies were discovered handcuffed and dismembered, one of them decapitated. They had been wearing emergency worker uniforms and gloves and were apparently executed at close range, with bullet wounds in their heads and torsos.

World leaders had nothing to say.

Palestinians and their allies have been posting and protesting for almost 550 days now, hoping that humanity would wake up to this genocide and do something to stop it.

But it hasn’t worked. Most of the world can’t be bothered.

And now, it appears that we’ve reached the endgame.

The temporary “ceasefire” (which Israel violated hundreds of times) ended, and Israel unilaterally began bombing again, even more ferociously than before.

In addition, since March 2, Israel has not allowed anything – food, fuel, medical supplies, shelter – to cross the border into Gaza. Doctors Without Borders reported (in January) that ninety-two percent of housing units were damaged or destroyed, as are most of the hospitals. And yet the bombs keep dropping.

Now the people are too hungry and exhausted to run anymore. They are living in rubble, and expect to die in rubble.

‘It’s only a matter of days’: Palestinians bid farewell as Israel rains bombs on Gaza

President Trump recommended that all Gazans be relocated to various war-torn, poverty-stricken locations in Africa, or to the Sinai desert, so that he can create a playground for the ultra-wealthy.

He dismissed the ceasefire plans that had been meticulously made, and started demanding total surrender from the Palestinian people.

Like most of the world, Trump can not see Palestinians as human beings.

Can you?

Go here. Read a few back issues and find out what’s going on. Then call your Congress members (here and here) and tell them to stop the genocide.

Then tell everyone you know to do the same.

The Palestinian people have given up on us, but let’s not give up on them.

PS Grace-Colored Glasses readers may recall that my husband’s family live in Gaza. They are still there, struggling to survive, and though they never complain, I know they are hopeless.

What would you tell them, if you were me?


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FEATURED IMAGE: My niece sent me this photo, with the following caption “I planted this rose three years ago, and it never bloomed during those years. I lost hope that it would bloom, and suddenly a white rose appears, as if she says do not lose hope, two days ago she bloomed.”

About Kathryn Shihadah
I was raised as a conservative Christian, and was perfectly content to stay that way – until the day my stable, predictable world was rocked. A curtain was pulled back on conservative Christianity, and instead of ignoring the ugliness I saw, I confronted it. I began to ask questions I never thought I'd ask, and found answers I'd never expected. Old things began to fall away, and – behold! – the new me has come. What a gift to be a new, still-evolving creation. I found out that it's better to look at the world through Progressive Lenses, with Grace-Colored Glasses. A little more about me: I've been happily married to my husband for 35 years, and we have 4 grown children. My husband, a Palestinian born in Gaza, has taught me a great deal about the world outside the little white, middle class bubble in which I grew up. I was privileged to live in the Middle East for ten years, where I learned even more about the world, thanks to diverse friendships and extensive travel. For years, I've worked in advocacy for Palestinian justice. The more I learn, the more I see that the Palestinian issue is much like that of other oppressed and demonized groups, both in the past and today. I blog about Palestine at PalestineHome.org. You can read more about the author here.

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