“Survivors of the Israeli Genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”
Aggressions leave overnight, but their psychological effects remain stuck in the hearts of the victims despite the passage of years.
The pain of these stories remains a motive for us to continue the resistance and reach our voice to the world.
The change of reality lies in unity, resistance, and continuity by spreading the truth, refuting the story, and litigation with the international community in its courts, even if it is subject to double standards.
In the presence of many people, the Gaza-Based 16th October Media Group held a conference in Gaza City entitled “Survivors of the Israeli Genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”, which highlighted the physical survivors of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip over many years and the impact of the aggression and loss in the short and long term.
This event was organized as part of a wider event called the Genocide Memorial Day, which is held in various countries, such as the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Netherlands, and Mexico to name a few.
Genocide Memorial Day (GMD) is a day focused on remembering man’s inhumanity to man. It takes place on the third Sunday of January each year.
The third Sunday of every January was chosen as the date for the event in 2010 to commemorate the first anniversary of the end of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, an example of ongoing genocidal acts in the current age.
For the GMD project, the act of remembrance is not limited by the background of either the victims or the perpetrators of any of the genocides.
It aims to raise awareness of genocide for new generations to understand the causes and recognize the warning signs of such atrocities.
The Palestinian journalist, Momen Qaraqa, who won the most courageous journalist award from the Netherlands, talked about his multiple injuries during the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which led to the amputation of his feet, injury to the upper body, and continuous suffering from the injury, but he continues to cover the news and highlight the crimes and massacres of the Israeli occupation against our Palestinian people for more than seven decades.
He added that the Israeli fighter jets targeted Al Jawhara building in the aggression of 2021 which led to the loss of journalists’ press offices and equipment, which made the matter worse, but this did not stop the will of the Palestinian people and journalists, every time they get up from under the rubble and kept steadfast.
They used their mobile phones, utilized social media, documented the crime, revealed the truth, and clarified the picture and massacres committed against the Palestinian people for decades.
He also added that the international community is supposed to protect journalists in wars, as more than 55 journalists have been martyred, most notably Shirin Abu Aqla and Yasser Murtaja in front of the cameras, witnessed by the international community.
The international community must put pressure card on successive occupation governments to end the violations of the occupation against Palestinians in various occupied Palestinian cities.
Riad Ashkentna, the survivor of the Al-Wahda Street massacre in the 2021 aggression, said that the days cannot erase the horror of the trauma that he experienced with his 9-year-old daughter Suzie, as the two lost five members of their family.
He is stressing that they are still suffering from PTSD despite all the psychological support they received. He described that by saying just closing his eyes brings him back to the day of the massacre and to the pictures of his wife and four daughters who left irrevocably.
Ashkentna added that the only recovery for him and his daughter Suzie is for justice to prevail and for the truth of their reality to be revealed.
He said that the international community must stop only condemning the massacres of the occupation they must help by real actions through accountability for the occupiers because the occupation practices in all areas of Palestine are international terrorism crimes.
Mira Issa, another survivor of the horrors of war, narrated the story of the martyrdom of her young brother Bara’a, who was her best friend. Besides mourning the loss of her brother, she calls the entire world for the prosecution of this illegal Israeli occupation to bring to justice the perpetrators of war crimes. She highlighted that the entire world must be aware of the horror of the Israeli occupation that threatens us all.
Issa added in her speech that her brother Bara’a is one of the thousands of innocent victims of the appalling Israeli occupation massacres against Palestinian civilians. She reported that the Palestinian Ministry of Health mentioned that the Israel Defence Forces killed 60 children in the 2022 Gaza–Israel clashes in just three days.
All these crimes highlighted the horror of the illegal Israeli occupation that threatens the lives of Palestinians. She ended her speech by mentioning that the Israeli occupation kills the children in Gaza, but Palestinians always bravely fight against this unjust occupation.
Youmna Alsayed, an Aljazeera reporter, spoke about her experience as a reporter in Gaza by saying “Being a journalist from a well-known agency or a civilian in a residential building will not protect you from the rockets launched by Israeli forces. ” She added that her co-workers who suffered from the Israeli war against Gaza and reported the Russian- Ukrainian war told her that the two wars were different.
In Ukraine, you had a place to escape to, the international community has given them refuge. Whereas in Gaza men, women and children are targets in every war the Israeli authorities conduct in the occupied territories.
