gaza’s health ministry reports that their hospitals have declared total collapse. they were already functioning at half capacity, using vinegar for antiseptic and operating on children without anaesthesia. and now they’re gone, in a population were millions are living on the streets, where there is no longer any water so diseases are running rampant, where people are wearing masks because the bombing that has already decimated 50% of gaza’s infrastructure and buildings has made breathing difficult for everyone due to the dust and ash in the air, where only 14 trucks of food or water or medical aid have been allowed to enter when the estimated need is over 500. imagine how it is for the 50,000 women in gaza who were pregnant before october 7th, for all the disabled residents, for all the diabetics, for the cancer patients, for the ICU patients, for the neonatal units, for people with severe burns, for people with broken bones
we all knew about tumblr’s stance on palestine/israel, constant deletions of photos, posts, suppressing #palestine tags, but now they straight up deleted liza @komsomolka , one of the loudest voices for palestine’s liberation on tumblr… she gave me permission to post this:
fuck israel, fuck america, fuck tumblr, fuck the suppression of the oppressed voices!!!
from the river to the sea, palestine will be free 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸
i don’t really know how to relay the horrors that palestinians are describing first-hand, if you can speak arabic and follow people from gaza online there are some phrases i don’t think anyone will forget, some things for the arabic-speaking world will scar for life just like muhammed al-durra scarred me as a child. at least five of the people i followed since last week (journalists, photographers, students, artists, tiktokers) are dead now. it’s becoming terrifying to follow someone from gaza, because you don’t know if they’re going to be alive tomorrow. i don’t really know how to describe this feeling? what is it to follow some kid on tiktok who’s making jokes while planes drop bombs around him and think “i hope he stays alive?”
for those of you who don’t speak arabic, there are many many palestinians in gaza posting updates in english:
many of them are also translating other posts from arabic. you can follow them on twitter.
there are also many gazans reporting from gaza and recording vlogs in english for an international audience that you can follow on instagram
(yara eid is the only one who is not physically present in gaza, but her family is and recently lost her best friend, the photojournalist Ibraheem Lafi in the strikes. she has lots of good and informative videos & interviews on the situation)
please note that these are people living through an actual siege and genocide, experiencing hell on earth for the past fifteen days with no relief and risking their lives to even get these occasional messages through. the content they share is not easy to watch and even more difficult to forget.
