On the Sixth Month of Genocide: An Interview from Gaza

AA: How are things in Gaza? We know a genocide is happening, we don’t know how that actually reflects in real life. What is the situation on the ground?

MZ: The situation in Gaza is disastrous. We can see the genocide in almost all aspects of our lives. Direct killings, deliberate starvation and mass displacement and dispopulation. The Salaheddine Road is a few hundred meters away from our house, it’s the main road between Gaza and Khan Younes, and it goes through refugee camps [of the natives ethnically cleansed during the 1948 occupation of Palestine] in the middle of the Strip. The terrorist cells occupied it for two weeks. I recorded the destruction that happened there. They destroyed everything between the Al-Maghazi refugee camp and the Breij refugee camp. I don’t mean they targeted everything, or hit everything, or destroyed a lot of things, I literally mean “they destroyed everything“. The schools, the houses, the streets (literally, the streets’ concrete so cars, like ambulances, can no longer use them), the water pipelines, the sanitation pipelines, the electricity station, the UN supply depot. I walked there to record the flattening, and I could smell the stench of the martyrs under the rubble. The Palestinian defense forces succeeded at neutralizing a number of terrorists so the cells did not manage to remain, but they made sure the place would be inhabitable before they withdrew. I’ve known the word “genocide” all of my life but only now do I really grasp what it means.

AA: This is… there are no words. You said you could see the genocide in all aspects of your life and you mentioned starvation. Does this include the closure of the Rafah crossing? Also, Israel and Egypt have been trading barbs, each accusing the other of being responsible for the siege. Who do you think is the one enforcing the siege?

MZ: The siege has obviously made things worse. It is the only way we breathe, since the colony forbids anything from reaching us by land or sea. Of course, starvation is one of the genocide’s essential weapons. 90% of Gazans depend on the UN as their main and sole provider of foodstuff. Not only meat and sugar but also rice, flour, fruits and most vegetables. And instead of offering humanitarian help, or even just allowing others to offer humanitarian help, the imperalist powers are now defunding the UNRWA. This is less graphic than bombs but it’s just as lethal, just as criminal.