Al-Mawasi was once a place of rare beauty on the crowded coast of the Gaza Strip. Stretching about 12 km (7.5 miles) between Khan Younis and Rafah, it was one of the most magnificent beaches, with its rolling golden sand dunes. Its stunning scenery, breathtaking sunsets and a soothing sea breeze made it a popular spot for families.
But al-Mawasi, the peaceful beach, no longer exists. The Israeli genocide transformed it from a recreational area into a place of endless horror.
In late October, as Israeli warplanes rained bombs and missiles across the Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation forces designated al-Mawasi as a “safe zone” where Palestinian civilians fleeing Israeli aggression could supposedly seek refuge. Israeli commanders later claimed that they considered the area a “permanent security zone.”
Although infrastructure was sparse in Al-Mawasi and aid agencies warned that it was unsuitable for a displacement camp, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza City, my hometown of Khan Younis, and later Rafah, flocked there, with nowhere else to go. Many set up makeshift shelters made of plastic sheeting or blankets, barely able to protect the dignity of their families. Life in the camp was miserable, with hunger, disease and thirst afflicting its inhabitants.
It soon became clear that the “permanent security zone” was not safe at all.
In February, Israeli forces attacked al-Mawasi, which housed a shelter for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff and their families, killing two people and wounding six, including women and children.
In late May, Israeli forces again shelled the area, killing at least 21 Palestinians, including 12 women. The attack came just days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to halt its genocidal offensive against Rafah.
On June 21, Israeli forces again attacked al-Mawasi, killing at least 25 Palestinians and wounding 50.
These are just a few examples of the constant attacks by Israeli forces, to which the Western media has paid little attention and offered few details beyond Israeli denials.
On June 27, I received a message from a doctor in my family. My heart sank as I read his description of a new attack on al-Mawasi. This time, the Israeli occupation forces had targeted al-Shakush and the regional park areas.
“These areas are full of displaced people, tent camps, pergola tents and temporary shelters. People are living on top of each other,” my relative’s message reads. “The tanks came in without warning, crushed some tents and opened fire indiscriminately. I saw people fleeing in terror. Some managed to grab some of their belongings, while others left with nothing, running for their lives.”
“Many lay down on the ground, away from the gunfire. Others took refuge in any available shelter, while still others sat in the street, waiting for what seemed like an endless nightmare to end.
“Today I went to the hospital and saw a large number of injured people in this area,” the message continued. “This incessant process of chasing, persecuting and tracking people from one place to another, similar to monsters hunting their prey, is beyond my understanding.”
The next day, I received testimony from another doctor, who had also witnessed what happened at al-Shakush.
He was returning from his shift at the hospital when Israeli tanks began to arrive from all sides, shooting indiscriminately and without warning. He ran to save his family and managed to get them out. Gunfire erupted, turning the scene into a living hell.
In the panic, people abandoned all their belongings and some even their children, whom they found running in terror. Along the way and running, the doctor helped people load the dead and wounded onto donkey carts, but he was unable to provide them with any medical help. Like others, he ran to save his life and that of his family. As soon as they reached what they thought was a safe place, his wife fainted from terror.
The UN reported “several casualties” and at least 5,000 people displaced by the new Israeli attack on al-Mawasi. Medical sources reported at least 11 dead and 40 wounded.
A few days after the al-Mawasi massacre on July 1, the scene of devastation and horror moved to the eastern part of Khan Younis, one of the most picturesque areas of the Gaza Strip. The towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Khuza’a and the al-Fukhari neighborhood, where the European Hospital is located, were ordered to evacuate.
The orders from the Israeli occupation forces arrived in the evening, without giving residents time to pack their belongings. Amid the rubble of their destroyed homes and makeshift tents, residents faced such distress that one relative described the experience as living “on the day of judgment.”
According to the UN, Israeli occupation forces have forced a quarter of a million people to leave Khan Younis. The European Hospital has also had to be evacuated, with many patients transferred by their families on donkey carts to the devastated Nasser Hospital, the scene of a recent massacre.
In this exodus, reminiscent of the mass displacements of the past nine months, residents rushed to al-Mawasi, which was still suffering from Israeli attacks. Many of them were in fact returning to al-Mawasi, having left Khan Younis a few weeks earlier to join the ruins of their homes in order to make way for the flow of people fleeing Rafah. The return to Khan Younis was prompted by the Israeli occupation forces’ own statements that Rafah residents fleeing the city could safely go there, as well as to al-Mawasi.
As with every displacement, people endured the ordeal of searching for family members – dead or alive – while seeking new temporary shelter and securing water, food, toilets and other basic necessities.
My siblings and their families, also displaced in al-Mawasi since December, described to me the frightened faces of children, women and men, the sick and the elderly, wandering the streets without direction.
Today, nine out of ten Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety, moving from one place to another, from one tent to another, only to be attacked again and forced to flee. The entire population of the Gaza Strip, more than half of whom are children, is subjected to unimaginable but very real levels of cruelty.
The systematic and constant attacks on Palestinians in so-called “safe” areas, as well as the destruction of their infrastructure, make no military sense. Their sole aim seems to be to kill and terrorize as many civilians as possible.
My sister told me that now they are all waiting to die and are mentally prepared for any type of death, “but the hardest is probably dying of oppression.”
Yes, Palestinians are dying under Israeli bombs, under Israeli bullets, but also because of the feeling of oppression. It is that unbearable feeling that you feel when you witness the genocide going on, hour after hour, you know that your turn and that of your family will come and you will not be able to stop it. It is that unbearable feeling that you feel when you hear the screams of the wounded dying in excruciating pain, when you see children without limbs and you know that you cannot help them. It is that unbearable feeling that you feel when you know that the world has been watching the genocide for nine months and has done nothing to stop it.
Palestinians believe that the Israeli occupation forces aim to destroy “al-bashar wa al-hajar wa al-shajar” – human beings, stones and trees – that is, everything. Nine months after the start of this genocide, it is more than obvious that this aggression is not directed against the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, also known as Hamas. It is a total war against Palestinian existence.
This conclusion has also been confirmed by human rights experts. “This killing is nothing but a destruction of Palestinian lives,” South African lawyer Adila Hassim told the ICJ during a hearing on Israel’s genocide case in January.
The inaction and complicity of the Western world, the lack of proper investigations into these crimes, and the slow pace of proceedings in international fora – including the delay in issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the International Criminal Court – demonstrate a blatant disregard for accountability and justice. The deliberate targeting of Palestinian lives is not only a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, but also an attack on the very foundations of humanitarian principles and human dignity.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
