On October 11th last year I was meant to travel to Gaza along with my colleagues Stewart Gillan, minister of St Andrew’s Jerusalem and Doug Dicks, our Ecumenical Associate, who has worked here in Israel/Palestine for many years with the Presbyterian Church of the USA. The Department of Services to Palestinian Refugees (DSPR), part of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), was to have been our host. We would have visited clinics and workshops, psycho-social projects which help children live with trauma, and IT training projects.
Of course, these hopes came to nothing. The horror of October 7th put paid to our plans, and the horror since means that the places and the people we would have visited have changed beyond recognition, and some of the people we would have met have been killed.
The numbers are beyond comprehension. Between 7th October 2023 and 8th September 2024, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, at least 40,972 people have been killed and 94,761 have been injured. These numbers are likely not high enough, because bodies are missing under collapsed buildings or have been vaporized by the ordinance used, such as 2000lb bombs.
According to Wikipedia, quoting Euromed Monitor, by late April 2024 it was estimated that Israel had dropped over 70,000 tons of bombs over Gaza, surpassing the bombing of Dresden, Hamburg and London during World War II.[1]
All these enormous numbers make it hard to sustain empathy, or even begin to imagine the devastation and the multiple traumas experienced.
A letter sent 8th September from our partners the DSPR- MECC, whose projects we would have been visiting, has made it real. I’m going to quote their tribute to their colleague Wala’ Fathi Al-Masri, a nurse, killed that day.
Wali’ Fathi Al-Masri 1984-2024
‘Just moments ago, we were struck by the heartbreaking news of the loss of our dear colleague, Wala’ Fathi Al-Masri and her daughter Mira. They were tragically killed in a brutal shelling attack on a residential area of Khan Younes, and her three sons were injured. Wala’ was a dedicated nurse who had been with DSPR-MECC Gaza for over 15 years, who showed a strong commitment and compassion. Born in 1984, she served with distinction in our clinics in Al-Shejaiya and Al-Daraj before the war on Gaza. She and her family were forcibly displaced to Rafah during the first month of the war, where she served as a nurse in our Rafah clinic for several months, then was forced to move again with her family as a result of the invasion to Rafah on 6th of May. Wala’ continued her work as a nurse in the mobile clinics in Khan Yunes and Dair El-Balah until she was killed in this barbaric attack.
Wala’ was a role model of resilience and kindness, always maintaining her smile and sense of humor despite the dire circumstances. Her dedication as a mother to her three sons and daughter, as well as her professionalism as a nurse, was extraordinary. As we mourn her loss, we pray for her and her daughter’s souls to rest in peace and hope that her three sons receive the medical treatment they desperately need amidst the collapse of the healthcare system.’[1]
Wala’ and her family had been forced to move at least twice and DSPR clinics were destroyed. Despite this, Wala’ and her colleagues set up mobile clinics, using their skill and treating people in whatever way they could.
The Israeli Army claim that Hamas operatives are based among the civilian population. Hamas has denied this, though there is some evidence of using civilians as cover. Given the total destruction of much of Gaza, which is a small piece of land anyway, (365 sq kilometers) the proximity of civilians to Hamas fighters is inevitable. Ninety percent of Gaza’s population – more than 2 million people – is currently displaced, and almost all of them are crowded into a ‘humanitarian zone’ designated by the Israeli military, which covers 14 percent of the centre and south of the Strip in the areas of Mawasi, Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah.[2]
As the anniversary of 7th October approaches, less than one month away, I wonder how this anniversary can be marked in a way that recognizes the human suffering and loss of Israelis and Palestinians but does not draw crass equivalences or minimize responsibility for using weapons of such magnitude against a largely female and youthful population. I asked an Israeli friend. ‘Lament’, she said.
And perhaps in our remembering we need to focus in on individuals who should all have equal rights and status as human beings, and whose sense of care and duty and resilience and humour needs marveled at and celebrated; as well as deeply mourned.
The World Council of Churches has designated 16-22nd September as The World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel. The theme is ‘Gaza’ and the Scriptural text is Matt 25:40 ‘Lord, when did we see you?’[3] Stewart Gillan and I have written a liturgy on these themes, modelled on our order of service here in St Andrew’s Jerusalem and Tiberias. It is available here: https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/worship/weekly-worship/monthly/2024-september/additional-material-for-the-week-of-prayer-for-peace-in-palestine-and-israel-16-22-september-2024
Included in it is a poem by Rafaat Alaarer who was killed in Gaza on 6th December 2023.
If I Must Die by Rafaat Alaarer
If I must die, you must live to tell my story to sell my things to buy a piece of cloth and some strings, (make it white with a long tail) so that a child, somewhere in Gaza while looking heaven in the eye awaiting his dad who left in a blaze — and bid no one farewell not even to his flesh not even to himself — sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above, and thinks for a moment an angel is there bringing back love. If I must die let it bring hope, let it be a story.
Rafaat Alaarer, poet and professor and citizen of Gaza, pinned this poem in a Tweet. He was killed on 6th December 2023. He has no surviving family and no lawyer to process literary editorship. It is the world’s most recited poem and there is a Twitter thread of it translated in every language.
[1] https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6282/200-days-of-military-attack-on-Gaza:-A-horrific-death-toll-amid-intl.-failure-to-stop-Israel%E2%80%99s-genocide-of-Palestinians