We should take a moment to honor the thousands of Palestinians injured, disabled, killed in Israel’s seven-week bombing siege of Gaza in July & August 2014. Israel used illegal munitions like flechette shells (small dart shaped projectiles clustered in an explosive warhead) & DIME weapons (micro shrapnel in rocket warheads) against unarmed Palestinians in densely populated areas. At least 2,300 Palestinians including 500 children were killed & 17,000 were injured, many permanently disabled. At estimated 200,000 were left homeless. Israeli bombers targeted schools, medical facilities, refugee centers. The UN & human rights organizations reported that Israeli bombers directly targeted children.
There are hundreds of photos from that siege that show the unbearable grief of families carrying their dying children to hospitals. There are countless photos of traumatized children & weeping medical personnel overwhelmed by the tragedy as they themselves were targeted by bombers. The photos of four Palestinian boys playing ball on the Gaza City beach being bombed to death by Israeli warplanes have become iconic condemnations of Israeli genocide.
During the siege, millions of people in small hamlets & major cities across every continent protested to denounce the siege & to stand with Palestinians. Since 2014, Israel & its allies have only escalated the genocide against Palestinians whilst active solidarity has not been sustained. There is a need for international collaboration & coordination that can sustain regular public protests & action to unify the struggles against genocide in Palestine & Kashmir, that can oppose the so-called ‘war on terror’, & defend Uyghur & Rohingya against genocide.
(Photo of children fleeing the bombing in Gaza in July 2014 by Sergey Ponomarev/NY Time.