Gaza the Death Zone of Displacement, Destruction and Decimation: Historically the First Ever Livestreamed Genocide
“It’s the first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time,” stated Blinne Ni Ghralaigh, an adviser to the South Africa team at the International Court of Justice
Published in
6 min readOct 8, 2024
Gaza marks a year on after Israel unleashed a war on the besieged enclave following Hamas’s deadly offensive on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.Israel’s claim to “eradicate Hamas” has since seen only the displacement, destruction and decimation of Gaza and its people. An estimated 41,870 Palestinians have been killed with 69 per cent of victims being children and women.On TV, phone and computer screens the world continually watches in silence the echoes of children’s cries as Gaza becomes evermore a graveyard for children as an overwhelming estimated 16,756 children have been killed without impunity in the past 365 days of unrelenting Israeli military offensives.Over 25,000 of the surviving children are left without one or both parents according to the Gaza Governmental Media Office. They continue to suffer from an humanitarian crisis and since October 2023, according to UNICEF, over 1,000 children have become amputees often without anesthesia.Dunia Abu Mohsen, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl, whose parents and siblings were killed, also lost her leg to an Israeli airstrike on October 27, 2023 in Al-Amal neighborhood in Khan Younis.:
“I want someone to take me abroad, to any country, to install a prosthetic leg, to be able to walk like other people”.Without a shred of vengefulness she optimistically envisioned her future:
“I want to become a doctor, like those who treat us, so that I can treat other children”.Adding:
“I only want one thing: For the war to end.”However, on December 17, in a targeted attack an Israeli tank-fired shell hit the hospital and struck her in the head killing her and injuring others. Sadly the war did not end but ended her instead.
The Western media’s coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza has been disproportionate and weaponized in favour of the Israeli regime in Gaza. The focal point has always been the October 7 Hamas attacks and any historical pretext has mostly been overlooked by the media outlets. Allowing for the justification of Israel’s genocidal actions and maintaining the status quo.Journalists in studios were often asking guests: “Do you condemn Hamas?” This purposefully served to delegitimise any pro-Palestine sentiment immediately.Any discourse pre-October 7 about occupation and apartheid was overshadowed by the Hamas attacks. There has been justification for the collective punishment of civilians and the bombings of schools and hospitals as Hamas was allegedly hiding there.Meanwhile the Israeli occupied West Bank where there is no Hamas, saw in 2023 reports, by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), of the killing of 492 Palestinians which included 120 children.
Samuel Mena an American journalist whilst attending a pro-Palestinian rally in Washington DC on Saturday, October 5 tried to self-immolate having become deeply disturbed by the way US media framed Israel’s war on Gaza and the loss of Palestinian lives. In a speech posted online the previous day he voiced his concerns about the objectivity of the US media's portrayal and coverage of the war.
“It's we, the American journalists, through lazy negligence at best or through corporate influence at worst, created the environment, incubated, and carried to term the tools that the leaders of our government would use to dismantle the truths of the world in which we live”.At the rally before setting his left arm alight he expressed:
“To the 10 thousand children in Gaza that have lost a limb in this conflict, I give my left arm to you. I pray my voice was able to raise up yours, and that your smiles never disappear”.He was hospitalised with injuries that were not life threatening.
Unsurprisingly the Western media’s lack of moral conviction and courage to report unbiasedly on Gaza led to more going online to consume the news on various social media channels.On YouTube Palestinian journalist, activist and filmmaker Bisan Owda documented surviving a year of genocide inside Gaza’s death zone of displacement and destruction.Reporting from the front line since the start of the war in Gaza,
Hassan Hamad, a teen journalist working as a freelance TV reporter, was killed on Sunday, October 6 following threats from an Israeli officer to stop filming Israeli attacks in Gaza.and was reporting on a new Israeli attack before being killed in his bedroom, in Jabalia refugee camp, by artillery fire.Prior to his murder, Hamad months earlier shared a screenshot of a threatening WhatsApp message from an Israeli number he was sent:
“Listen… If you continue spreading lies about Israel, we'll come for you next and turn your family into... This is your last warning.”
A year on since Isreal started “defending itself” from innocent children like Dunia and the 11,346 women killed, the tragic stories of the Gazans is unending and yet the world stays silent apart from performative displays of outrage and continual failures to stop the war and genocide of Gaza.Since the 1967 war, Israel’s military rule over Palestinians has seen the increasing expropriation of Palestinian land. The subsequent Palestinians right to exercise self determination is always seen as acts of terror.Nearly eight decades of living under violent occupation and constant threats of violence can only result in the rise of resistance groups like Hamas. These groups work in favour of Israel as they use them to divide and conquer the Palestinians.Following the October 7 “unprecedented” Hamas attacks, Israel sought to dehumanise the Palestinians in a warfare rhetoric seen by Nazis' portrayal of Jews as “savages” to justify their actions against them.A discredited report about Hamas and “40-beheaded babies” served to dehumanise and morally disconnect the world from the Palestinians and ensure Israel could eradicate the Palestinians under the guise of self-defence.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s use of dehumanising language and annihilation rhetoric also served to paint the Palestinians as the villains in Netanyahu’s political theatre.He likened Palestinians to “Amalek” and his biblical invocation by citing 1 Samuel 15:3: “Now go and smite Amalek” showed Palestinians to be a threat to the Jews.Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant upon announcing Gaza’s siege stated:
“We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”He then imposed restrictions on food, water, fuel and electricity.
According to UN estimates, 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been repeatedly displaced.Also a UN assessed satellite footage indicates 66 per cent damage to infrastructure in Gaza.The World Bank estimates from the end of January that there has been 18.5 billion dollars worth of damage in Gaza.
The Palestinians did not stand a chance to gain global support until it became apparent that a genocide was prevalent in Gaza.There can never be justification for Hamas’s deadly attacks on Israeli civilians, in as much as Israel making justifiable its ensuing genocide of Gaza.
