After a two-year Israeli offensive that wiped thousands of families off the civil registry in the Gaza Strip, reducing them to mere numbers in a long list of hundreds of thousands of martyrs, wounded, and displaced, the full extent of the human tragedy and collective suffering has been unfolding since the ceasefire agreement was announced on the 9th of this month.
The cities of the Strip were reduced to rubble, entire neighborhoods were obliterated under relentless bombardment, and thousands of families were displaced from their homes, seeking shelter in ruined schools or tents that offer no protection from the summer heat or the winter cold. With the collapse of the health system and the complete lack of electricity and water, Gaza has become one of the world’s most humanitarian crises, according to United Nations reports.
Among these tragedies is the story of journalist Wajdan Abu Shamala, who lost nearly 400 family members in this Israeli offensive, earning her the title of “survivor of the genocide perpetrated against her family.”
Wajdan told Al Jazeera that losing her family “is not just a number in the daily statistics, but a true human tragedy.” She explained that most of them were killed under the rubble of residential towers bombed by Israeli warplanes without warning, while the bodies of many others remain buried under the debris due to the lack of rescue equipment.
Wajdan’s tragedy was just one chapter of the suffering endured daily by the residents of the Gaza Strip. In another scene, survivors stand in front of destroyed hospitals searching for any trace of their relatives, while the bodies of the martyrs are piled up in refrigerated trucks or under makeshift blankets, as hospitals are overwhelmed by the sheer number of casualties.
