“While we pray that a missile does not hit us, we have no choice but to stay at home,” said Mohammad Fazel, a 50-year-old pharmacist from Gaza. Why did we face such a situation? “Don’t we have human rights?”
The escalation of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’s retaliatory attacks has put the Gaza Strip on the brink of collapse. Prior to the Israeli airstrikes, there was a shortage of medical equipment and hospital beds in Gaza due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and the border blockade. Due to the increase in the number of wounded who urgently need medical treatment, Egypt, a neighbor of Palestine, has announced that it is ready to accept the wounded. But with the escalation of Israeli airstrikes, even transporting the wounded to hospitals has become difficult.
“We no longer have a place to receive the wounded,” Saed, a 39-year-old doctor at Al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza, told Tokyo Shimbun by telephone. “The hospital is now admitting more than 100 percent of its capacity.”
He added that with the start of Israeli airstrikes, all eight and six hospital beds have been filled, and in addition, the hospital is facing a shortage of medicine and even sutures. Many children who are taken to hospital receive minimal medical care, with some children losing their lives. Small corpses wrapped in a white cloth can be seen in the hospital morgue, including corpses that were badly damaged. Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have killed more than 1,000 people and killed 130 others. This has been a severe violation of human rights.
Egypt has announced its readiness to accept the wounded, but successive attacks by the Israeli army have prevented the transfer of the wounded to Egypt. “As long as the airstrikes continue, it is impossible to transfer the wounded to Egypt,” said a 46-year-old man from the Palestinian Authority security forces. Israel has closed its land, sea, and air borders since 2007 when Hamas took control of Gaza. The border between Israel and Gaza was severely restricted by the creation of separate barriers and the entry and exit of people and goods. Gaza, which covers about 60 percent of Tokyo’s 23rd district and has a population of about 1.9 million, is struggling to provide drinking water and electricity.
Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip continue, but Gaza residents cannot leave the area without Israeli permission. Some parents are trying to get their children covered by UN-sponsored schools to slightly increase their children’s chances of survival. “While we pray that a missile does not hit us, we have no choice but to stay home,” said Mohammad Fazel, a 50-year-old pharmacist from Gaza. Why did we face such a situation? “Don’t we have human rights?” Palestinians clashed with Ibn Rizm’s security forces in the West Bank on May 14 in protest of Israeli airstrikes, killing 11 Palestinians.
Does the world really believe Palestinians deserve human rights?
