Three years after Israel’s deadly assault: Gaza lives

After Cast Lead.

Exactly three years ago, at around 11 am, the Israeli military began its 22 day assault on the besieged Gaza Strip; one that will be engraved in our minds and hearts forever. It was a regular day in Gaza, but then, suddenly pandemonium broke out when 80 Israeli warplanes launched a surprise attack on the unsuspecting population, killing hundreds of people within five minutes. Wives left widowed, husbands left wifeless, children left orphaned, mothers and fathers left childless. Gaza’s martyrs are not just a number. They are people. People who will not be able to kiss their daughter’s foreheads on her wedding day. People who will not be able to walk the graduation stage and shake the principal’s hand. People who had a whole future ahead of them, left shattered by US-made Israeli bombs and bullets as the world watched silently.

Apparently, right before the attacks, Israel dropped thousands of leaflets on Gaza, warning them that all hell will break loose. How kind of them, to warn a besieged population with no escape, that deadly attacks will start any minute. Can you imagine the terror felt in a Palestinian mother’s heart as she receives that memo while her children are in school, her husband at work?

We all remember where we were when the assault on Gaza started. I had just landed in Dubai on a family trip. Every morning when I left the apartment room, there was a newspaper waiting right in front of the door. It was the same headline every morning, with a photo of a demolished home, a dismembered child. 150 killed in Gaza. 200 killed in Gaza. 300 killed in Gaza. When will the nightmare end? When? When will the world wake up?

What happened during the 22 days was not a war. The fourth strongest military on earth equipped with F-16s, Apaches, tanks, armored vehicles versus homemade rockets is not war. That’s a massacre. 1,400 human beings murdered in 22 days. That’s a blatant massacre.

Gaza: The mother of resistance; umm al muqawama. The mother of steadfastness; umm al sumood.

Beautiful Gaza; once a strip of land between Egypt and Mesopotamia where caravans of merchants and traders traveled, became an open-air prison holding 1.6 million people. Despite all of Israel’s efforts, Gaza stands tall and Palestine lives! Palestine lives because her people won’t bend down on their knees. They will resist. They will fight. They will prevail.