An elderly Palestinian man walks through the destroyed Al Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, December 2023. Photo: Middle East Eye.
By Yousef Fares – Dec 30, 2023
No one can claim that the people of Gaza have a unanimous opinion regarding the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation. Gaza is a normal human community, not a mythical place as some might believe. Its social classes vary in the extent to which national and religious values are present in their lives. In fact, there is a large segment of the population preoccupied with personal concerns: bills, children, and the nuclear family—above all else.
When this diverse human society is placed under extreme pressure, which it has been experiencing for over 80 days, it is logical that the people in this society will have a variety of different reactions and opinions.
Some people in Gaza believe that the price paid in the Al-Aqsa Flood is much greater than any practical political goals that can be achieved, and they express this by saying “we burned the forest to fry an egg.”
However, there is also a large segment that sees the Al-Aqsa Flood as the beginning of the end of “Israel,” or at the very least as a battle to break the “Israeli” domination of the region.
Those who interpret the confrontation from a political standpoint believe that any price paid for resistance is worth it, as its outcomes will benefit future generations destined to live a life completely different from the seven generations of the Nakba. They do not observe from an ivory tower; rather, they have paid a ghastly price in the blood of their children, families, and livelihoods.
Israeli General Killed Israelis on 7 October Then Lied About It
The vast majority of people here attribute every calamity and misfortune to the will of God and His destiny, and they begin every conversation about the martyrdom of family members, the destruction of homes, and the amputation of children’s limbs with “Alhamdulillah” (Praise be to God). They believe that hardships, like joys, are a matter predetermined by the Creator before their birth. And they engage in a perpetual struggle of investing hardship and sorrow into “God’s marketplace.” Hence, they transcend all weariness and conceal all pain.
This is merely an anchoring to understand the reality of the social scene in the Gaza Strip because, unfortunately, Gaza’s inhabitants have recently become a tool for projecting single perspective onto the entire society. One camera from a biased news outlet captures an embittered citizen cursing the Resistance, attributing the cause of this tragedy to the victim, not the oppressor. Many thousands of dollars are then invested to propagate his opinion as if it represents everyone.
Moreover, the occupying forces, in the ugliest levels of criminality reminiscent of Nazism, arrest hundreds of citizens, strip them of their clothes, then interrogate them at gunpoint about their opinions regarding Hamas and Yahya al-Sinwar. What can anyone say in such a harrowing situation?
On December 29, the enemy’s media released a video showing hundreds of young men arrested in the Beit Lahia neighborhood about two weeks ago. One remarkable aspect of the footage is that the youth, stripped of their clothes and surrounded by dozens of rifles, curse the Resistance and Yahya al-Sinwar, blaming him as the root of their tragic circumstances. We met one of the survivors, who confirmed to Al-Akhbar that the soldiers threatened to shoot their limbs and bodies, and that the impulse behind this response was fear and the instinct to survive. The man told us, “The enemy soldiers seemed very angry, vengeful, and extremely ferocious. We felt that just provoking one of them would be enough for them to shoot everyone.”
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/DZ/SC
Yousef Fares
Yousef Fares is a Palestinian reporter in Gaza. He is an author at Al-Akhbar News and he regularly posts updates on his telegram channel.
