7 October 2023, thousands of Hamas fighters attack Israel. They kill 1200 people. More than 250 are taken hostage and taken to Gaza. A few hours later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declares war against Hamas. Today marks one year of this war. In these 365 days, more than 40 thousand people have been killed in Gaza. Death, agony, hunger, destruction and shame have become the new reality of Gaza in a year. 21 pictures depicting 7 situations of Gaza in the story… 4 pictures of death in war… First picture is 9-year-old Khalid after losing his parents and siblings in an Israeli attack. A few months after this picture, Khalid was also killed in another Israeli airstrike in Gaza. Place – Dayr-al-Balah area of ??Central Gaza. 9-year-old Khalid Jodeh had started to understand that something bad was happening from the wrinkles on his mother’s moon-like forehead that were increasing day by day. Then on 22nd October, his entire family was wiped out in a massive explosion. The Israeli army, which had started air strikes from northern Gaza, had reached the heart of the Gaza Strip within 15 days of the war. Where Khalid lived with his family. Apart from his parents, a brother and a sister also died in the attack. Only he and his 7-year-old younger brother Tamer were left in the entire family. Tamer’s condition was not good, his back and one leg were badly injured in the attack. Khalid, who was only 2 years older than Tamer, used to encourage him to live. When Tamer cried, he would hug him and calm him down. Khalid would say that his mother and father were watching him from the sky, his crying would hurt them. Amidst the daily explosions in Gaza, Khalid’s courage also started to wane after some time. Tamer died within a few days. After the death of his brother, Khalid would suddenly wake up at night and start screaming in fear. A few months later, Khalid was also killed after being injured in an Israeli attack. Second photo Place- Khan Younis. Date- 17 October 2023. Mohammad Salem, who works for Reuters, got information that Israel has carried out a major attack in Khan Younis. Salem quickly reached the hospital in Khan Younis. Amidst the stampede there, his eyes fell on a woman who was crying with the dead body of a child in her lap. The people of the hospital were persuading her to take the dead body off her lap, but she was not ready to agree. On inquiry, it was found that the woman’s name was Inas Abu Mamar, whose house was destroyed in the attack on Khan Younis. All the members of her family were killed. The dead child in her lap was her 5-year-old niece Sally. Third photo This photo is of Palestinian photojournalist Mohammad Alaloul. The child wrapped in a white sheet in her lap is none other than her child. This child was killed in the Israeli strike on Al Maghazi refugee camp on November 5. Death does not discriminate against anyone in Gaza, it can come anytime, anywhere in the form of Israeli bombing. By the time Mohammad Alaloul reached home on November 5, all his four children had been killed. The attack happened at night, at that time everyone was sleeping. He says- My house full of children turned into a pile of rubble. Fourth picture – Rania of Palestine gave birth to twin children just a few weeks after October 7. There was happiness in the house. Rania named one of them Wesam and the other Naeem. Both were not even 6 months old when they died in the Israeli bombing. Rania is crying after covering them in a white sheet. She asks- what was the fault of my children. Photo- Reuters Note- In one year of war, more than 40 thousand people of Gaza have died in Israeli attacks. In the attack of 7 October, 1200 Israeli citizens were killed. In 365 days, Israel killed 35 people in return for one of its citizens. 4 pictures of agony in war… First picture: Due to Israeli attacks that started on 7 October, hospitals in Gaza started getting crowded with half-dead and wounded people. Doctors had to choose whom to save and whom to leave to die. There was a shortage of medicines, oxygen cylinders, anesthesia in hospitals. Many injured had to be treated without anesthesia. This picture is of Al Aqsa, one of the biggest hospitals in Gaza. A patient admitted on 5 November had to be treated on the floor. Photo- NYT Second picture: Some people in Gaza died after being buried under the rubble of buildings and some died of cardiac arrest. In many hospitals, doctors thought it better to save those who had a better chance of survival rather than saving patients who had cardiac arrest. In these circumstances, volunteers learned to give CPR so that they could save people’s lives. This picture is of Al Shifa hospital. A civil defence member is giving CPR to a man injured in the Israeli attack on October 16. Photo- The Guardian Third picture: Due to lack of space in hospitals, doctors had to make tables out of the patients. Due to Israeli attacks, people started crowding the hospitals in Gaza not just for treatment but also to take shelter. This continued for only some time, after which Israel started targeting hospitals as well. Photo- NYT Fourth picture: The war in Gaza affected more than 50 thousand pregnant women. On 20 November 2023, 29 pregnant women gave birth to premature babies in Gaza’s largest Al-Shifa hospital, who were safely evacuated and transferred to a hospital in Egypt amid an operation being conducted by the Israeli army in the hospital. Photo- AFP Note- Out of 36 hospitals in Gaza, 31 suffered heavy damage in Israeli air strikes. The largest hospital, Al Shifa, was completely destroyed. 3 pictures of hunger in war… The first picture This picture is of March 13, 2024. It was the month of Ramadan, but the war was going on. Meanwhile, a Palestinian girl is trying to get food in the crowd. Photo- AFP Many of those who survived the Israeli attacks in Gaza died of hunger. On 29 February, Israeli soldiers opened fire on the people of Gaza who had come to get food. According to news agency Reuters, 112 Palestinians were killed during this time. 760 people were injured. In its clarification, the Israeli army said only this – all the people started looting the essential goods. They were moving towards us, we thought they could be dangerous, so we fired. Second picture – On 27 May, the Israeli army attacked the city of Rafah located on the southernmost edge of Gaza. During this, people left homeless due to the war, many camps and the goods kept in them were burnt to ashes. Palestinian children are searching for food in those ashes. Photo- Reuters Third picture – During the 365 days of war, there were many occasions when Israel was accused of stopping food-laden trucks from entering Gaza. Accusations and counter-accusations continued for weeks. People kept dying of hunger in Gaza. Meanwhile, on 23 April, food items were dropped there through parachutes. Photo- AFP Note – Gaza is surrounded by Israel in the north and east. Egypt is in the south and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. As soon as the war broke out, Israel first started a blockade in Gaza. Gaza’s Defense Minister Yoav Galant had said – We will stop all food and water supply to Gaza. Since then, no goods from food to medicines come to Gaza without Israel’s permission. 3 pictures of shame in war… The first picture Death is not the most painful thing in Gaza. More painful than that is being stripped naked and tortured and humiliated. It was on December 8, Israeli media house Haaretz’s journalist Moti Milrod took a picture after a clash between the Israeli army and Hamas boys. In the picture, Israeli soldiers are seen taking half-naked Palestinians in a truck. There is also a woman and some small children in the truck. After this, many media reports came, which claimed that Israel is detaining innocent Palestinians without proof and torturing them. An eyewitness Heba told her story to Al Jazeera. She said – That was a day that cannot be forgotten. First they tortured my husband. After this, his jaw was broken. They hit him a lot on his face. They kept hitting him until blood started flowing from my husband’s mouth. He said – The soldiers first took off the clothes of all the men, tortured them and then killed them. We were watching all this. We felt that now it was our turn. Heba’s son Adi Salem was one of the few people who could survive from here. Second picture In all religions, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, after death, the person who dies is given a farewell with full respect. When more than 100 people are being killed every day in the war, families are being wiped out, then Palestinians cannot even expect to be buried with respect. Third picture On 12 December 2023, the Israeli army carried out heavy bombing near the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Palestinian girl Sidal Abu Jamia, who was sleeping in a tent outside the hospital, died after a shrapnel hit her head after the explosion. To identify her, the nurse wrote her name and address on her stomach. 2 pictures of destruction in war… First picture: A woman was pulled out from a pile of rubble after her house was destroyed in an Israeli attack on June 14. People in Gaza have died by getting buried under the rubble of their own houses. Second picture: Palestinians returning to see their destroyed homes after Israel’s airstrike on October 9. The total population of Palestine is around 21 lakhs. After the war began, more than 17 lakh people have left their homes and shifted to camps. Note: There is so much rubble in Gaza that it can fill Egypt’s largest pyramid Giza 11 times. Along with 10 thousand people, those missiles are also buried in the rubble that did not explode. 2 pictures of memories in war… First picture: A Palestinian woman crying after her husband’s death in an Israeli airstrike, holding his blood-soaked shoes to her chest, the last sign of his death. The second picture is of the bodies of Palestinians being collected from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in July and brought for last rites. During this, a Palestinian child cries holding his father’s shoes, his last memento. 3 pictures of children of war… The first picture is of 9-year-old Yazan Kafarneh who died of hunger in Gaza on 4 March 2024. His mother said crying that no miracle was needed to save Yazan, only nutritious food was needed on time. He had a disease since birth. After the war started, due to not getting proper food, his disease kept increasing and finally he died of hunger. On 22 March, UNICEF said in its report that like Yazan, 22 lakh people in Gaza do not have food to eat. After the war started, more than 10 lakh people are living here hungry or with half stomach. The second picture is of 5-year-old Aya, one of the thousands of children of Gaza, who is living with her family in the UN relief camp after the war started. Holding a toy in her hand, Aya is looking at the Israeli fighter plane passing over the camp with a bomb and gunpowder. The third picture is of 7 October 2023, on the first day of the war, after the Hamas attack, the sound of Israeli fighter jets started resonating in the sky of Gaza. During this, a child is looking at the sky from the UN school with his sister in his lap. (Note- So far 16 thousand children have died in the Gaza war, more than 18 thousand children have become orphans) —————————- On the completion of one year of the war in Gaza, war has broken out on another front in the Middle East. For the last 2 weeks, Israel has been carrying out air and ground attacks in Lebanon. Read in this report what has happened in Lebanon so far… Netanyahu said – fighting war on 7 fronts: We will definitely attack Iran; Defense Minister said – Iranian attack did not cause even a scratch. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video message before the completion of one year of Israel-Hamas war. In this, he said that our country is fighting a war on 7 fronts. Netanyahu said, “We are protecting our country from attacks by Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, West Bank terrorists, Houthis of Yemen and Shia militants of Iraq-Syria.” Read the full news here…
