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After six days of Israeli air strikes on Gaza, part of a recent and still-spiraling escalation in the Israel-Palestine conflict, over 160 Palestinians have been reportedly killed. While Israeli strikes are targeting Hamas and other militant groups that are firing rockets into Israel, a local UN office estimated on Friday that 77 percent of people killed in Gaza up to that point were civilians, including 30 children. A separate UN agency estimated on Sunday that 70 percent of the killed were civilians, including 27 children.
What does it feel like to be in Gaza right now, under ever-looming threat of bombardment from above? Mohammed Suliman, a resident of Gaza City who identifies himself on his blog as a 22-year-old graduate student, has been tweeting, often poignantly, of the experience.
In bed. Drones buzzing dully. Everyone fell asleep. An F16 flies scarily before its noise fades into the distance. I anticipate a blast.
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 10, 2014
I turn on the TV. I hear a doctor describe how one wounded child pleaded with him to stop treating him and treat his baby brother instead.
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 11, 2014
Shahd, 9, was killed in an airstrike that targeted a municipality car. Her sister Salwa, 10, was critically injured. They were passing by.
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 11, 2014
In a hospital room, dad cries in agony over the body of his baby son. Holding him in his hands, he tearfully cries: Wake up, I got you a toy
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 11, 2014
I wake up. I hear warplanes fly. I turn on the radio. Patriotic songs are blaring. Death toll has risen. With a heavy heart, I send a prayer
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 12, 2014
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 12, 2014
Relatives of four Palestinians killed by Israeli air strikes mourn in Gaza City (Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Yasser receives a call from IDF. Evacuate in ten minutes. He wasn't home though. His family was. Hysterically, he phoned home. No one picked
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 12, 2014
I hear two Palestinian missiles. I duck and raise my head again. Frantically, Israeli warships resume shelling. I throw myself on the ground
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 12, 2014
Anas is a doctor. During Cast Lead, a missile hit his house killing his parents. He survived. Yesterday, a missile hit his house killing him
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 12, 2014
I had a Linguistics professor, who always sounded critical of Hamas. His house was bombed today. He and his family escaped an imminent death
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 12, 2014
The al-Nuseirat Refugee Camp in Gaza City, after Israeli bombing. (Ezz Zanoun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
I walk into the kitchen. The smell of explosives, of death, penetrates my entire flat. Warplanes fly overhead. I anticipate more blasts.
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 13, 2014
I declared myself an excellent anticipator of coming blasts. Four terrifying blasts hit what seems to be the same target. Death is nearer.
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 13, 2014
Petrified, my ears buzz and don't seem to recover. Leila's stomach starts hurting. Each blast sounds louder and more horrifying. Death nears
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 13, 2014
I've lost my words. Bombs rein down on my area. Behind the dining table, Leila and I sit close to each other. Death is what we are tweeting.
— Mohammed Suliman (@imPalestine) July 13, 2014
The Israeli strikes on Gaza are the most intensive since late 2012, which began with a air strike to kill a senior Hamas militant leader in Gaza. The worst round of fighting before that, in 2008, eventually escalated into an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza; it is not clear whether that will happen again now. This most recent round of violence began when members of Hamas, apparently acting independently from Hamas leadership, murdered three Israeli students in the West Bank, two of them children.
Suliman is also victim of one of the conflict's less overt but still pernicious effects: of driving people to themselves endorse the killing of innocent civilians on the "other side" while they lament the deaths of innocents on their own. This does not in the least soften the suffering in Gaza that Suliman well conveys, but it's a reminder of how the suffering can become self-perpetuating. It's also a reminder of how people become desensitized to, or outright reject, the suffering of certain civilians simply because they have the wrong nationality — a problem that persists on both sides of the Green Line.
Read our comprehensive explanation of the Israel-Palestine conflict here.
