‘Just a miracle from God would end this insane war’: Gaza city resident’s plea under attack from ‘gas and smoke bombs’
It’s now almost two months since Israeli forces began their bombardment of Gaza and Gaza City in particular, where Aminha lives with her weeks-old baby and the good news — the astonishing news — is that they are both still alive.
Aminha was studying at the Islamic University of Gaza when the Israelis began military operations against the Palestinian enclave. She gave birth to a baby boy a couple of days after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, which resulted in 1,200 deaths.
In the ensuing period Israel has dropped 40,000 tonnes of explosives on Gaza Strip where Aminha and her family live, equivalent to almost three Hiroshimas and leaving Gaza the most dangerous place in the world for children to be — of more than 15,000 Gazans killed, 5,500 have been children.
During October and November — it’s incredible she and her baby survived — the situation became increasingly difficult for Aminha. On November 18 she messaged: “No food, no drinking water, no electricity, no gas for cooking and no milk for my newborn baby.”
I offered to send money and she said “if there is a humanitarian truce I will tell you the way to send it”.
Then — finally — a four-day ceasefire was called on November 24. The pause was extended and, on Friday (November 30), Aminha messaged to say it was safe for her to get to a Western Union desk and receive money (there being no functioning banks in Gaza). So I went to the nearest post office in Cambridge and the staff sorted out the transfer — all Aminha had to do was go to the Western Union office and give a code, and the cash would be transferred to her phone.
But in the three-hour window between my receiving the message and the funds being transferred, the Israelis began bombing again: 178 Gazans were killed in the first 48 hours after the truce ended.
This morning’s (Saturday, December 2) exchange began with my question:
‘What’s happening please?’
Aminha: ‘The situation you mean?’
Me: ‘Yes. Are they really bombing again?’
Aminha: ‘True and in a more violent way. They throw gas and smoke bombs at us. They are targeting shelter schools that they told us were safe. The situation is so difficult that it cannot be described’
Me: ‘If they are throwing these gas and smoke bombs, does it mean they are near????’
Aminha: ‘Near my place you mean?’
Me: ‘Yes’
Aminha: ‘Yes’
Me: ‘Can you hear them?’
Aminha: ‘They told us to go to southern Gaza, and now they are targeting it, and we do not know where to go’
Me: ‘I don’t know what to say. Also in the West Bank they are doing these things now’
Aminha: ‘Just pray for me and my family’
Me: ‘I am. I will find out what you are supposed to do and get back to you. Please also keep me posted’
Aminha: ‘I will’
I asked for advice from a trusted authority about whether Aminha and her baby — and possibly her other family — should stay or head south.
I also asked him if he knew about gas and smoke bombs being used.
His answer was bleak, bleaker than the worst I had expected.
‘Yes I heard of it,’ he wrote. ‘People who went from north to south before the truce were shot, detained, looted and humiliated by the Israeli soldiers on the way so I really can’t advise anybody to leave their homes in such a situation and in the same time people are being bombed in their homes and hospitals and schools are not shelters anymore as they are targets as well.’
I got back to Aminha within an hour.
‘It’s probably best to stay where you are,’ I wrote. ‘It’s not safe in southern Gaza, it’s not safe on the route to southern Gaza. This is the worst of times and you and your baby and family are all heroes. The invading army has gone mad and no one is stopping them. It’s unimaginable what you are going through. Humanity is doomed if the Palestinian people don’t get justice soon.’
Aminha replied: ‘Just a miracle from God would end this insane war’
