“When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.” This African proverb encapsulates the very sad reality of the ongoing war in Gaza. Ajith Sunghay, the head of the U.N. Human Rights Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, reported that women and children in the besieged enclave are scavenging for food among heaps of garbage. Following his recent visit to the war-torn region, Sunghay described the situation as a daily battle for survival. “I was particularly alarmed by the prevalence of hunger,” he said, adding that even in central Gaza where aid organizations are present, food shortages are pervasive.
The northern part of Gaza is an entirely different story. Sunghay revealed that approximately 70,000 people remain stranded there, trapped by what he described as Israel’s “repeated impediments or rejections of humanitarian convoys.” The U.N., unable to deliver aid to the region, has left the displaced population living in squalor, with little access to food or sanitation. “It is so obvious that massive humanitarian aid needs to come in – and it is not,” he stressed, calling on Israeli authorities to permit the flow of essential supplies.
A Humanitarian Nightmare
Sunghay’s description of displaced persons’ camps depicts a picture of human suffering. Families are torn apart, with loved ones lost or buried under rubble, and survivors struggling with injury or illness. “The women I met had all either lost family members, were separated from their families, had relatives buried under rubble, or were themselves injured or sick,” he shared. He recounted their desperate pleas for a ceasefire, many breaking down in tears before him.
Yet, as the cries for humanitarian aid grow louder, the obstacles only seem to multiply. Looting has further depleted the limited aid supplies within Gaza, with nearly 100 food aid trucks raided in mid-November. Meanwhile, Israel’s government agency, COGAT, accused U.N. agencies of inefficiency in distributing aid.
The U.S. Watches Closely
On the international stage, the United States has weighed in, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin laying out a 30-day plan for Israel to address the worsening conditions in Gaza. They warned that failure to act could impact U.S. military aid to Israel. Despite this, the Biden administration concluded earlier this month that Israel was not actively obstructing assistance to Gaza, seemingly absolving the Israeli government of legal violations under U.S. law.
Israel, for its part, defends its military operations in northern Gaza, launched in response to the October 2023 attack by Hamas. According to the Israeli army, their ongoing offensive aims to dismantle militant networks and prevent future attacks. Yet, the human cost of this operation continues to mount, with civilians bearing the brunt of the destruction.
A Ceasefire or Prolonged Suffering?
The Gaza crisis lays bare all the crazy ealities of modern warfare, where politics, defense, and human lives intersect in tragic ways. As women and children sift through trash for survival, international powers debate solutions that seem to prioritize strategy over humanity. The question remains: how much longer? Indeed as the African proverb goes, “War has no eyes.” and in Gaza, it seems the world is blind too.
