Can You Look Into Her Eyes America And...

THE question for every American.

The mother of this newborn baby did not live long enough to name her.

…Still Do Nothing?

Look into the eyes of the orphaned infant above and tell her you just aren’t up for it. That you are too busy. That you have some shopping to do. That you are too stressed out. That you are too bummed out. Buck up.

By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (2/1/24)

From the earliest stages of the Gaza genocide I have called and then in December urged other Substackers to refer to the travesty of what is happening in Gaza as the US/Israeli genocide, because without your tax dollars, our American weapons and intelligence coordination and diplomatic cover and bipartisan complicity of our politicians, this genocide couldn’t happen. Add to that the dishonest and “yeah, but” diversionary coverage and biased commentary of the US corporate media, and the American corporate death machine has been running in high gear.

WE — the United States — are making it all possible.
WE — the United States — are the ultimate war criminals here.

In a few days we will be at the four-month anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and the beginning of this international crime. Under the sway and ownership of the Israeli Zionist/fascist political action committees and their hefty campaign donations, Joe Biden (the single largest recipient of Zionist lobby cash) and the vast majority of our bought off congress haven’t wavered a notch in their support of the genocide. (The largest donor to my congress cretin, Rep. Mike Gallagher (WI-D), is AIPAC. Whenever I repeatedly contact him about that influence on his decisions regarding his lockstep support of the genocide, I get off-topic emails where he dodges, ducks and deflects like any other bought-off DC hack and quickly falls back to bragging up his time in the Marines — where he worked as an intel officer in Iraq. Hmm…)

WE are responsible

Let’s be clear, while Israeli “Defense” Force members are pulling the triggers, firing our tank shells into pulverized hospitals, dropping our massive 2,000-pound bombs on refugee camps and plowing up Palestinian graveyards, WE — the United States — are making it all possible. WE — the United States — are the ultimate war criminals here.

This genocide and the terror and loss documented with each of the children reported on below is on us — the United States of Terrorism. All the Gaza death and terror; limbs torn from little kids and the lost, unaccounted tens of thousands buried beneath the rubble of the thousands of buildings we have destroyed; all that barbarism done by Israel in Gaza is all fully MADE IN AMERICA. We and our leaders in both parties are directly and completely responsible.

We are guilty.

And don’t whine when we are hit by the inevitable blowback to our criminal cruelty. It will come. When it does, point to the criminals in the White House and on Capital Hill.

Trust me, I know … it’s unpleasant dealing with slippery congressional war criminals, but I urge you to do so. Look into the eyes of the orphaned infant above and tell her you just aren’t up for it. That you are too busy. That you have some shopping to do. That you are too stressed out. That you are too bummed out. Buck up.

Speak out.
Organize. Resist.
Contribute to Gaza relief.
Call out our murderous war criminals.
Cut all aid and weapons to Israel. FOREVER!!!

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Shattered, Hungry & Alone - The Children Killed & Orphaned By The U.S. In Gaza

Ultimately, it is our country that is responsible for the catastrophe of Gaza.

9,000 Palestinian Children’s Limbs Amputated Amid Ruthless Israeli Bombings

By Yolanda Knell
The BBC (1/32/24)

Born amid the horrors of the war in Gaza, the month-old baby girl lying in an incubator has never known a parent's embrace.

She was delivered by Caesarean section after her mother, Hanna, was crushed in an Israeli air strike. Hanna did not live to name her daughter.

"We just call her the daughter of Hanna Abu Amsha," says nurse Warda al-Awawda, who is caring for the tiny newborn at the al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

In the chaos caused by the ongoing fighting and with entire families almost wiped out, medics and rescuers often struggle to find carers for bereaved children.

"We have lost contact with her family," the nurse tells us. "None of her relatives have shown up and we don't know what happened to her father."

Children, who make up nearly half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, have had their lives shattered by the brutal war.

"They kept telling me they were being treated upstairs in the hospital," says Ibrahim as his father clutches his hand. "But I found out the truth when I saw photos on my dad's phone. I cried so much that I hurt all over."

Although Israel says it strives to avoid civilian casualties, including issuing evacuation orders, more than 11,500 under-18s have been killed according to Palestinian health officials. Even more have injuries, many of them life-changing.

It is hard to get accurate figures but according to a recent report from Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, a non-profit group, more than 24,000 children have also lost one or both parents.

Ibrahim, lying on the hospital bed, lost his sister, mother and grandfather in a missile strike on his home.

Ibrahim Abu Mouss, just 10 years old, suffered severe leg and stomach injuries when a missile hit his home. But his tears are for his dead mum, grandfather and sister.

"They kept telling me they were being treated upstairs in the hospital," says Ibrahim as his father clutches his hand.

"But I found out the truth when I saw photos on my dad's phone. I cried so much that I hurt all over."

The cousins of the Hussein family used to play together but now they sit solemnly by the sandy graves where some of their relatives are buried by a school-turned-shelter in central Gaza. Each has lost one or both parents.

"The missile fell on my mum's lap and her body was torn into pieces. For days we were taking her body parts from the rubble of the house," says Abed Hussein, who lived in al-Bureij refugee camp.

"When they said that my brother, my uncle and my whole family were killed I felt like my heart was bleeding with fire."

With dark bags around his eyes, Abed stays awake at night frightened by the sounds of Israeli shelling and feeling alone.

"When my mum and dad were alive, I used to sleep but after they were killed, I can't sleep any more. I used to sleep next to my dad," he explains.

Abed and his two surviving siblings are being looked after by his grandmother but everyday life is very hard.

"There's no food or water," he says. "I have a stomach ache from drinking sea water."

"Everything is sad," says Kinza, whose father was killed by a missile.

Kinza Hussein's father was killed trying to fetch flour to make bread. She is haunted by the image of his corpse, brought home for burial after he was killed by a missile.

"He had no eyes, and his tongue was cut," she remembers.

"All we want is for the war to be over," she says. "Everything is sad."

Nearly everyone in Gaza now relies on aid handouts for the basics of life. According to UN figures, some 1.7 million people have been displaced, with many forced to move repeatedly in search of safety.

19,000 orphaned

But the UN's children's agency, Unicef, says its biggest concern is for an estimated 19,000 children who are orphaned or have ended up alone with no adult to look after them.

"Many of these children have been found under the rubble or have lost their parents in the bombing of their home," Jonathan Crick, chief of communications for Unicef Palestine, tells me from Rafah in southern Gaza. Others have been found at Israeli checkpoints, hospitals and on the streets.

"The youngest ones very often cannot say their name and even the older ones are usually in shock so it can be extremely difficult to identify them and potentially regroup them with their extended family."

Abed Hussein, whose parents were both killed, says he can't sleep at night without them

"Let's keep in mind they are often also in a very dire situation," Mr Crick says.

"They may have their own children to take care of and it can be difficult, if not impossible, for them to take care of these unaccompanied and separated children."

Mental health crisis

Since the war started, a local non-profit organisation, SOS Children's Villages, which works with Unicef, says it has taken in 55 such children, all aged under 10. It has employed additional specialist staff in Rafah to give psychological help.

A senior SOS staff member tells me about a four-year-old who had been left at a checkpoint. She was brought in with selective mutism, an anxiety disorder which left her unable to speak about what had happened to her and her family, but is now making progress after being welcomed with gifts and playing with other children she lives with.

Unicef believes that nearly all children in Gaza are now in need of mental health support.

With their lives shattered, even when there is a lasting ceasefire, many will be left with terrible losses that they will struggle to overcome.

Link to story

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WHAT WE HAVE BECOME: Pediatrician Details 'Cataclysmic' Reality For Gaza Kids Under Israel Assault

"I remember I was counseling new mothers on breastfeeding, and I looked out of the ward, and there were plumes of smoke rising in the air and bombs narrowing in on the hospital, and it felt very surreal." — Dr. Seema Jilani.

By Julia Conely
Common Dreams (1/31/24)

In what one historian called "an understated plea for the world to not look away," a pediatrician who has provided care across the globe and in numerous war zones described in an interview with The New Yorker on Tuesday how over two weeks working in a hospital in Gaza recently, she saw firsthand how Israel's U.S.-backed assault on the blockaded enclave has created conditions unlike anything she has witnessed elsewhere.

Dr. Seema Jilani, a senior technical adviser at the International Rescue Committee, told journalist Isaac Chotiner about the life-and-death decisions doctors in Gaza are being forced to make on a daily basis, even as they try to keep their own families safe from Israel's relentless air and ground attacks.

Jilani arrived in central Gaza for a two-week assignment around Christmas Day and immediately began working alongside Palestinian doctors at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, where she worked to save as many lives as she could as the facility faced a dwindling supply of medical equipment and medications including morphine—forcing them to rely on over-the-counter drugs like Motrin to provide pain relief to people with serious injuries and burns.

"Within the two weeks that I was there, I saw it go from a semi-functional hospital to a barely or nonfunctional hospital as a result of increasing violence in surrounding areas," Jilani told The New Yorker.

The U.S.-born pediatrician, who has treated civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan previously, described a one-year-old boy who was among the first patients she treated at Al-Aqsa:

His right arm and right leg had been blown off by a bomb, and flesh was still hanging off the foot. He had a bloodstained diaper, which remained, but there was no leg below. I treated the baby while he lay on the ground. There were no stretchers available because all the beds had already been taken, considering that many people were also trying to use the hospital as a shelter or safe space for their families. Next to him there was a man who was on his last breaths. He had been actively dying for the last twenty-four hours, and flies were already on him. All the while, a woman was brought in and was declared dead on arrival. This one-year-old had blood pouring into his chest cavity. He needed a chest tube so he wouldn't asphyxiate on his own blood. But there were neither chest tubes nor blood-pressure cuffs that were available in pediatric sizes. No morphine had been given in the chaos, and it wasn't even available. This patient in America would've immediately gone to the O.R., but instead the orthopedic surgeon bandaged the stumps up and said he couldn’t take him to the operating theater right now because there were more pressing emergencies. And I tried to imagine what was more pressing than a one-year-old with no hand and no legs who was choking on his own blood. So that, to me, was symbolic of the impossible choices inflicted on the doctors of Gaza, and how truly cataclysmic that situation is.

Doctors and nurses in Gaza are trying to provide care in a state of "chaos," Jilani told the magazine, with patients arriving at the few remaining functional hospitals "on makeshift stretchers, if you're lucky, or by an ambulance that was overflowing with people, [or] via donkeys."

Jilani's organization also posted a video of her speaking about her time in Gaza, where she saw one physician pitching in at the hospital after he had visited a friend who was there.

"That's the level of devastation but the level of commitment that the Palestinian healthcare forces is having right now," said Jilani.

(UNICEF photo)

Since Israel began its bombardment in October, Jilani and other humanitarian volunteers have gone to Gaza to help "fill in some gaps" left by doctors who have been displaced and forced to leave their homes to protect their families. As Jilani's assignment drew to a close, the situation at Al-Aqsa grew more perilous.

"Each day became more and more tense, with more and more people piling into surrounding areas looking for safe shelter," Jilani told The New Yorker. "I remember I was counseling new mothers on breastfeeding, and I looked out of the ward, and there were plumes of smoke rising in the air and bombs narrowing in on the hospital, and it felt very surreal. One day, a bullet went through the ICU. The next day, the road to the hospital had been deemed unsafe for us to use. And then the Israeli military dropped leaflets, designating areas surrounding the hospital as a red zone. Given the history of recent attacks on medical staff and facilities in Gaza, our team was unable to return, and people began evacuating the area in panic."

Soon after Jilani left Gaza, Al Jazeera reported that hundreds of patients and medical staffers were missing from Al-Aqsa after being "forced to leave" due to Israeli strikes in the area.

Jilani told The New Yorker that prior to the mass evacuation from the hospital, "there was a period of time when I believe they ran out of fuel."

"I don't know if that has been refreshed or not, but all I know is I can't stop thinking of whether my patients got out, my babies in the neonatal I.C.U. incubators," said Jilani. "Who would take care of them? The kids with facial burns: How are they going to be able to see enough, and be well enough to leave? So I don't know, and I wish I did have more information on that."

19,000 children orphaned

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported Wednesday that as Israeli forces have killed at least 26,900 Palestinians since October 7, 19,000 children in Gaza have been left orphaned. In addition to facing the threat of relentless bombings and ground attacks, the enclave's population is also "starving to death," the World Health Organization's emergencies director said Wednesday, with all 2.2 million residents "at imminent risk of famine" due to Israel's blocking of humanitarian aid.

While traveling to Al-Aqsa from Rafah, on the border of Egypt and Gaza, Jilani told The New Yorker that she witnessed "a sea of human tragedy," with huge crowds of displaced people "walking barefoot" or crammed into donkey carts or vehicles, with "looks of total resignation and abject despair."

"I'm a pediatrician, so I didn't expect to be of great use in a war zone," Jilani said. "I'm disheartened and really disturbed to say that I had many, many pediatric patients who were war-wounded, burned orphans, traumatic amputations, and that is something different than what I witnessed in Iraq, or elsewhere."

Dónal Hassett, a historian at University College Cork in Ireland, called Jilani's account "harrowing."

"May this Isaac Chotiner interview with Dr. Seema Jilani about her experiences treating patients in Gaza be a wake-up call," said Noah Gottschalk of the refugee agency HIAS.

(Common Dreams work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.)

Link to story with video clips