This Is the Worst Phase of the Gaza Genocide
With aid deliveries being limited severely since March, Palestinians are facing extreme levels of starvation, isolation and murder by Israel.
Yousef Aljamal
After 20 months of the Israeli genocidal assault on Gaza, Palestinians are not just dying, they are being starved, isolated and pushed past every limit of human endurance as living conditions have reached disastrous levels. This is not only the darkest phase of the genocide, it’s also the most deliberate.
It has become common for people to go to bed hungry because food has become scarce. Palestinians in Gaza consider themselves lucky if they have a sack of flour. My brother-in-law, a pediatrician, joked about the lack of vegetables and their skyrocketing prices by posting a photo of a potato he bought for $4.
“Congratulations on buying a potato for $4,” he wrote. Some of his friends continued the joke by asking him to make an appointment so they could show their children the potato. Palestinians never lose their sense of humor, even during the darkest times.
Since March 2, no humanitarian supplies have entered Gaza, and only 250 food parcels remain in UNRWA storage. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said, “while hunger is spreading and deepening in the Gaza Strip, nearly 3,000 UNRWA trucks of lifesaving aid are ready to enter,” but Israel continues to bar their entry. As famine spreads, a photo has emerged on social media showing Palestinians in Gaza eating a turtle. I was born and raised in Gaza and have never seen anything like this in my life. A kilo of turtle meat sells for 100 NIS, or about $27.50 USD.
Banias Abu Harb, a teacher from Gaza, told me: “This is the worst stage of the genocide in Gaza. We have run out of energy, food, and basic necessities. The massacres are relentless and nonstop. Emotionally and materially, we are unable to go on.”
Palestinians in Gaza are not only starving; they are also at high risk of being killed at any moment.
My cousin’s son, Moumin, is in the intensive care unit after being badly injured in an Israeli strike. He was nearby when a drone targeted and killed two Palestinians. Both of his legs were amputated. Earlier, an Israeli airstrike killed his younger brother. His father, Hatem, was taken prisoner by Israel last year alongside 20 medical workers from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The pain his mother suffers is indescribable. My aunt could not handle losing her eldest son and daughter, along with their spouses and children. She had a major stroke last week and went into a coma. Her health is unstable.
It is heartbreaking to be far away from family in a time of extreme crises. And Israeli-imposed obstacles to supporting loved ones from afar are prohibitive. It is becoming increasingly difficult to send cash to Gaza, which is experiencing a severe cash shortage. Most people use banking transactions, which incur fees ranging from 3% to 8.5%. For most Palestinians, sending cash is out of reach, as commission rates reach 43%. The black market is thriving in Gaza. It’s hard to imagine how Palestinians without family support survive, as food prices, when food is available, can empty the pockets of even well-off families.
Majd Omar Alkurd, who lives in northern Gaza, told me that this is “the worst time of the genocide because it has combined everything at once: displacement, famine, uncertainty, and horror. What distinguishes this period from other periods of the genocide is that it comes after nearly seventy [more or less] days of a ceasefire. We all thought we were close to the end of the bloodshed, but it returned, bringing with it famine, fear, and horror, along with carrying tents and running towards the unknown as more buffer zones suffocate our breaths.”
Sadly, death has become the norm. Israeli bombs targeting the Baptist Hospital is no longer breaking news. Targeting municipalities, food distribution centers, and journalists — and even burning them alive on camera — does not make headlines. Palestinians are treated as if they are less than numbers. The bodies of 14,000 Palestinians remain under the rubble. To make matters worse, Israel intentionally destroyed the 100 bulldozers that the Gaza and Jabaliya municipalities used to clear the rubble from homes. Videos have emerged of Palestinians digging through the rubble with their bare hands, trying to find their loved ones. They find body parts every day.
Trump’s visit to the region in May didn’t bring about a ceasefire and now Arab leaders are collaborating with Israel and the US via usage of their airspace and through initiatives like the Abraham Shield Plan than working towards a ceasefire in Gaza. This in the midst of a world stage that seems to be making things more complicated for a ceasefire to come to fruition.
As Trump touts a ceasefire agreement as imminent, the U.S. proposal is still meeting Israel’s demands than that of the Palestinians, especially it lacks the call to permanently end the war in Gaza.
While the Middle East changes shape without them, Palestinians are left to suffer.
Water is becoming scarcer. Before October 7, 2023, 97% of Gaza’s water was unfit for human consumption, and Palestinians can barely find water to drink now. Showering is a luxury if one’s home is still standing; 80% of homes have been destroyed by Israel’s bombs. The American Friends Service Committee’s team miraculously has been able to distribute some water and vegetables. The scale of our aid cannot come close to meeting the tremendous need in Gaza; aid must enter Gaza or the most vulnerable will die.
The level of fatigue that a 20-months-long genocide has brought to Palestinians in Gaza experience is indescribable. Many people are asking about ways to leave. I receive messages almost every day from family and friends asking if there is a way to get them out of Gaza, especially since news has spread that some European countries are evacuating dozens of Palestinians with ties to Europe.
My neighbor, Khaled Al-Nabulsia, lamented the loss of his 12-year-old daughter, Salma, in an Israeli airstrike on April 23. Khaled and I often took the same taxi to work. I saw a photo of him leading the funeral prayer for his daughter. He looked so different from how I knew him. He had lost a lot of weight and aged quickly in the last two years. The genocide has turned young people in Gaza into older people, never by choice. Children think like adults, adults think like elders, and so on.
Many Palestinians in Gaza feel abandoned by the rest of the world. They have every right to be frustrated. They are experiencing the worst phase of the Gaza genocide while it feels like the international community’s efforts aren’t enough to bring about a ceasefire or end US weapons sales to Israel. Those Palestinians in Gaza who feel abandoned deserve life and dignity, nothing less.
My friend Khaled Al-Nabulsia’s 12-year-old daughter Salma should have had the opportunity to live a full life. Israel has stolen that opportunity from her and thousands of other children like her while the world just watches. We must fight for Palestinians like her — all Palestinians — while they are still alive, before they become a statistic.
We cannot look away, even during the worst phase of the Genocide. We must continue to relentlessly work for it to end.
Yousef Aljamal is Gaza Coordinator at the Palestine Activism Program at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Aljamal holds a doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies, is a Palestinian refugee from Gaza and is a senior non-resident scholar at the Hashim Sani Center for Palestine Studies, University of Malaya, Malaysia. He has contributed to a number of books on Palestine, including Gaza Writes Back and Light in Gaza.
