A growing number of journalists and first responders in Gaza are going on hunger strike amidst the famine. “If you want to eat, you have to run after aid trucks. I refuse to do it,” says Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for the Gaza Civil Defense.
Growing reports show that Israel has been fomenting armed gangs to loot food supplies in Gaza and sow chaos — and it’s killing those who attempt to stop it. But this strategy isn’t new: Israel has waged a war on Gaza’s civil government from the start.
Israel bombed three schools-turned-shelters, intensifying attacks across Gaza City and ordering residents to evacuate. Eyewitnesses report that the Israeli army is sending booby-trapped vehicles into neighborhoods and detonating them remotely.
A group of Civil Defense and Palestinian Red Crescent crews in Gaza disappeared when they went to Rafah on a rescue mission. A week later, the bodies of 15 first responders were found dead and buried in the sand by the Israeli army.
Although trained as a social researcher, when the war began in October 2023 I joined the search and rescue team in the Gaza City neighborhood of al-Shuja’iyya. Here are some of my stories of being a first responder during the Gaza genocide.
On September 17, the Israeli army bombed a block near the al-Bureij refugee camp, completely destroying seven homes and trapping dozens under the rubble. When rescuers arrived at the scene to help, Israeli drones started firing at them as well.