Gaza Still Needs You | The Nation

Is Israel's genocide in the Gaza Strip really over? This question is on everyone's mind right now.

As of this writing, Hamas released last remaining Israeli hostages, Israel release thousands of Palestinian hostages, and Donald Trump was got it like god in Jerusalem, declaring that “the long and painful nightmare is finally over.”

We can only hope that Trump is telling the truth: after two full years of Israeli attempts to exterminate the population of Gaza, the Palestinians can begin to live again without the constant specter of death and destruction hanging over them. Let's hope Trump's apparent desire for a Nobel Peace Prize and the grandeur of the theatrics surrounding his ceasefire agreement – coupled with a trip to the Israeli Knesset and generous “peace summit” in Egypt, it means he is too interested in stopping genocide to allow it to start again. Let's see.

If the current ceasefire does hold, and if Israel and Hamas agree to implement the next stages of the Trump deal, it will be tempting to let Gaza slip from the forefront of our collective minds. This is, in a sense, understandable. It has been a difficult and draining two years for everyone who cares about Palestine. The devastation of the genocide left deep scars. It’s natural to want to leave it all behind—to allow yourself to make this problem someone else’s for a while.

But that's not an option. Even if the genocide is over, Gaza still needs you. His people still need all of us. And here's why.

Gas almost doesn't exist anymore

The scale of Israel's destruction of the Gaza Strip is so great that it can sometimes seem abstract. But it's all too real.

Israel has destroyed or damaged almost every residential building and the vast majority of all buildings in the Gaza Strip. 95 percent of the population displaced. There is practically there is no healthcare system left. Israel has committed scholasticidedestroying Gaza's educational infrastructure. Near 100 percent agricultural land of Gaza unsuitable for use.

By some estimates, by April 2024, Israel had dropped more bombs on the Gaza Strip than was dropped on Dresden, London and Hamburg combined during World War II. By last week Site news reportedIsrael “dropped more than 200,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip in 730 days, about 13 times the force of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.”

In other words, there is almost nothing left. And what's coming won't help.

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The “peace plan” is terrible

Trump's 20-point plan was presented not only as a mechanism to stop genocide, but as the key to what Trump wants to do. described on Monday as “the highest award for peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.” But this will not bring peace or prosperity to Palestine. This colonial nightmare the purpose of which is to deepen Israeli-American dominance in the Gaza Stripcomplemented by the terrible imperial “Peace Council” led by Trump with the help of, among other things, war criminals, Tony Blair. Such a scheme can never lead to the real world.

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Destruction is not only physical

Last week in NationI published a piece about the ceasefire by a young writer from Gaza named Ali Skyk. This passage has stayed with me:

I walked through the ruins of Al Rimal in search of a café with internet access to take the exam. The streets were unrecognizable. Shops were destroyed. The houses were piles of ash and steel.

I met my 27-year-old friend Khaled Al-Sakka, the only survivor of his entire family. When I told him about the ceasefire, his eyes filled with tears. “Why was I left to suffer alone?!” he asked. I didn't have an answer. I just hugged him and whispered, “God gives you strength.”

There are a lot of people like Khaled. According to the Associated PressOver the past two years, approximately 11 percent of Gaza's population has been killed or wounded. This is equivalent to nearly 38 million people killed or injured in the United States.

The death of 3,000 people on September 11 sent us into a spiral from which we have not yet recovered. Imagine the level of trauma and suffering that the death or injury of 38 million people would cause. This is what people in Gaza face – and they face it in conditions that do little to help them recover.

Israeli violence continues

Journalist Saleh Aljafarawi was killed in Gaza City on Sunday. The people who killed him were reportedly related Israeli-backed death squads that have been roaming the Gaza Strip for months. Some of these militias were linked to ISIS. This is not what the world looks like. This is what the slow-motion attempt to continue the destruction of the Palestinian people looks like. And now this will happen with the integral support of the so-called “international community”.

If the Palestinians ever achieve true peace, sovereignty and self-determination, it will not be because of this plan. We must all not accept this plan as an eternal fait accompli, but continue to fight for the true liberation of Palestine. This means maintaining pressure on Israel, the US and the world. This means continuing the struggle to end occupation and apartheid. This means we must continue to hold our politicians and elected officials accountable. This means not leaving Palestine.

So yes – if the bombs really stopped falling, that's something to celebrate. But after that, it's time to get back to work.