Tareq S. Hajjaj
Mondoweiss / September 7, 2024
Despite the shift in the media’s attention to regional developments and the Israeli invasion of the northern West Bank, the massacres in Gaza continue in silence. In the first three days of September, Israel committed nine massacres in the strip.
Israel’s massacres against civilians in the Gaza Strip have not stopped for a single day since October 7. Despite the shift in the media’s attention in recent weeks to regional developments and the massive Israeli invasion of the northern West Bank, the massacres in Gaza continue in silence.
The Gaza-based Health Ministry releases a daily casualty report. In the first three days of this month alone, Israel committed nine massacres across Gaza, resulting in the deaths of a total of 128 people. This number only includes the bodies that have reached Gaza’s beleaguered hospitals. The Ministry states that hundreds more people are still stuck under the rubble from the past few days alone.
The massacres usually result from airstrikes on displacement centers. Most of the time, they are schools that have been converted into shelters.
On September 1, Israel bombed the Safad School in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City. Fourteen people were killed as a result of the collapse of the building on top of its occupants. Palestinian Civil Defense crews arrived on the scene and reported witnessing hands covered in blood and ash sticking out from under the rubble, some of them moving as if to ask for help. Civil Defense teams broke parts of the collapsed roof with hammers to pull out bodies and survivors.
Zuhair Mughrabi, 40, was next to the school when the bombing happened. He and his family survived, but he cannot shake the sounds in his head of the screams of victims trapped under the rubble of the school.
“Three days ago, the army invaded parts of eastern Gaza City; people ran out from these areas to this school. Then the army bombed this school without any warning. The school is full of displaced families, women, and children. There is nothing here except grieving families who run away from death,” Mughrabi said.
“The [school] building was full of people, and they bombed it. Many people are still under the rubble. Most are children and women, but no one can pull them out. Even the Civil Defense Teams don’t have the appropriate equipment to dig and pull them out.”
As people were digging through the rubble to find their family members, the Israeli army allegedly called the neighbors of the school and ordered them to inform the people inside that the military would bomb the school’s remaining two buildings.
“We were trying to help pull people out of the rubble when we received a call from the Israeli army to evacuate the other buildings,” Mughrabi recounted. “We evacuated for an hour, and then the army destroyed the school with another two missiles. We saw people under roofs and others lying down, and a concrete column weighing over two tons was falling down on a martyr. This is tough, and we do not know what to do or where to go next.”
“This is madness. It’s a safe school full of displaced families, most of them women and children; we thought that there isn’t even a one percent chance that this school would be bombed.”
Witnesses: the army only sent a warning after the bombing
Samir Albibi, 40, describes the moment of the bombing as causing a flash of light that was “more lighting than daylight.” The fire, people running unthinkingly, the screams, the blood, and the carnage caused him to think that it was doomsday.
“It was quiet before the massacre. There weren’t even any drones in the sky, and suddenly, this whole place turned to fire,” Albibi says, pointing to the schoolyard. “We found out after that people were torn to pieces and scattered here and there. I saw someone’s intestines on the ground.”
“We were running and hitting up against each other without knowing who was still alive from our families and who we were leaving behind. It was like the end of days. I don’t even think doomsday would look like this,” he said.
It was like the end of days. I don’t even think doomsday would look like this
Samir Albibi, survivor of school bombing
“After we witnessed the massacre, the Israeli army called on us to evacuate. They should’ve warned us before bombing the first building on people’s heads,” he said. “They know the school is full of displaced people, and they bombed it anyway; there are more than 30 people still under the rubble; they could warn us before killing us if they were even concerned about civilians’ lives.”
Survival by fate alone
Ibrahim Addas, 32, is taking care of his sister and her six family members after the death of their father in this genocide. They all lived in one classroom in the Safad School. The class was located in the first building that was bombed without warning. But that day, his nieces insisted he take them to the beach; they all felt suffocated and wanted fresh air.
“I took them to the beach, all of us, and we left everything in the classroom. In the afternoon, our relatives called and told us that the school had been bombed,” Addas recounted.
“We went back to the school in a hurry, and we watched the second bombing from a close distance. Only fate had led us to leave the school that day. Otherwise, we would be under the rubble without anyone knowing anything about us,” Addas said.
“If we all were in the class, as we usually are, we would all have been killed. The world has gotten used to our blood and our daily killing,” he said.
Baptist Hospital bombing
The al-Ahli Arab Hospital was also bombed over the weekend on Saturday, August 23. Yousif Sa’di, 23, a photographer and eyewitness to the bombing, told Mondoweiss that the Israeli army had targeted a medical lab in the hospital. Sa’di is always at the hospital to cover events and was only five meters away from the building when the Israeli army bombed it.
“Suddenly, the bomb struck the location, and I found myself over 50 meters away from the explosion. It was an unexpected and difficult moment for people after the bombing. Most of the people who were critically injured or got killed were children and women, so many people inside the hospital got injured but shrapnel and stones flew after the bombing,” Sa’di said.
Dr. Hussam Ghaban, a physician who was on duty at the time of the strike, treated the injured as they arrived by the dozens from the site of the explosion.
“The targeting of the lab building was sudden. We received no warning,” Dr. Ghaban told Mondoweiss. “The hospital yard was full of people. In the first moments of the bombing, over 7 people were killed, most of them women and children. After that, the number kept going up every few hours.”
“The next day, more of the injured died,” he continued. “And in the days after that, more people who had sustained injuries from the strike succumbed to their wounds.”
“It was too scary to witness such a massacre and work under these conditions. In the busiest work times, dozens of women and children arrived at the hospital, most of them were torn to pieces and most of the injuries were critical,” he said.
“In such conditions around us, we were working to save people’s lives and provide them with what is available and what we can offer. These are hard times, the hardest for people in Gaza.”
The Baptist Hospital in Gaza City was bombed before in October 2023, and over 400 people were reported to have been killed in one of the most horrifying massacres in the early days of the genocide.
Abu Mohammed, 49, was in the hospital to visit one of his relatives who had recently been injured in a different bombing when the Israeli strike hit the building.
“I came here to visit my injured nephew, I’m lying down next to him now, we both are injured.” Abu Muhammad said.
“Two bombs happened when we were in the hospital, it was scary to witness this. Shrapnel, stones, and people were flying everywhere. I saw bodies of people just flying here and there. The Israeli army bombs any place regardless of the people around and how many there are, without any warning, they kill everyone,” Abu Muhammad said.
“This situation is beyond our imagination, it’s too scary, you can’t go out of your home and get back safe, you may get killed at any moment.”
Tareq S. Hajjaj is the Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent, and a member of the Palestinian Writers Union
Mahmoud Abu Hamdah contributed to this story from Gaza
