By Nejoud Al-Yagout

The United Nations warned that the Gaza conflict is undergoing its “darkest moment” after the Zionist entity raided the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. Can you imagine how a Gazan (or resident of Gaza) must feel hearing that? Its darkest moment? Can anyone see the irony of this description? This can’t be their darkest moment because they have always been engulfed in darkness. And since October 7, the lights were officially turned off in Gaza.

To call this moment the darkest moment in the conflict is to whitewash all the heinous and atrocious crimes that have been perpetrated against Gazans for eons. One of its darkest moments was when it was built as an open-air prison. Another “darkest moment” is how Gazans are made to feel as untouchables in their own land. Yet another darkest moment was when the world turned its back on them, even while expressing shock and horror at their fate. Over 40,000 people have been killed in a year.

Can we imagine the outrage and global support if that many people were killed in Kuwait by a foreign power within the span of a year or in any other country? Why is it OK for Palestinians to die then? Why? We watch the news and hear every day of Palestinians being shot point-blank or as they attempt to flee the fate of their family members and loved ones or while they are trying to deliver a baby at a hospital or receive treatment. Ten here, fifty there. Are we immune to these numbers?

We hear of children being killed every week. Are we that insensitive? And then to discount all the darkest moments that Gaza has gone through by claiming it is at its darkest moment seems almost cruel at best. If we held all of Gaza’s darkest moments, even the most expert jurists in the world would not be able to determine which is the darkest.

Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch stated: “As many people around the world are once again traveling two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gaza’s more than two million Palestinians remain under what amounts to a 15-year-old lockdown.” And this was before October 7. Can you imagine a 15-year lockdown? We couldn’t handle mere months of a lockdown! By the second or third month, people were rebelling against impositions and finding ways to circumvent laws, because they had the privilege to do so, without risk to their lives and homes.

Gazans have been enduring almost two decades of a lockdown without any privileges, without anyone able or willing to save them, with their lives and homes constantly at risk. Isn’t that dark enough to be considered a darkest moment? What about the fact that a foreign colonizing power prohibits Gazans from building an airport or seaport on their own land? What about all the Gazans who have lost family members, homes, and access to proper education and medical care? Aren’t those circumstances among their darkest moments?

In an article for The Guardian, Owen Jones reveals that “food was stockpiled less than 30 miles across the border at a (Zionist) port, including sufficient flour to feed most Gazans for five months; it was deliberately withheld.” Isn’t that one of Gaza’s darkest moments — when an occupying power intentionally deprives its victims of the right to resources? Aptly, the title of Jones’ article is: “What atrocity would [the Zionist entity] have to commit for our leaders to break their silence?” Perhaps that is a question the world needs to ask. How many more “darkest moments” in Gaza will it take for the world to prove to itself that it is humane, after all.

We cannot pinpoint Gaza’s darkest moment while Gazans are groping in the dark. It can’t get any darker than it was then or than it is now. What the future holds, we do not know, but what we cannot do is ignore the fact that we have turned our back on Gazans. And no matter what we say or do, so long as the fate of Palestinians consists of one darkest moment after another, we will never be free (not even those who oppose freedom for Palestinians).