By Pratik Bhattarai
Nov. 6, 2023
Protestors calling for a ceasefire are wearing traditional Palestinian scarf ‘Keffiyeh’ in Downtown Charlottetown on Nov. 4, 2023.
Mohammed Lahloub is frustrated.
Some of his family members are stuck in Gaza.
They don’t have food.
They don’t have water.
They don’t have electricity.
They don’t know when the next bomb is dropping.
“Contacting them is a little bit difficult because they don’t have electricity all the time. And since the latest escalation one of them has passed away but others are safe as far as I’m aware.”
He was killed by an Israeli airstrike.
The P.E.I. resident, a software developer, has other family members are all over the world.
“Some of them are in Egypt, some are in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE and Canada.”
But they were once in Palestine.
“Originally, my family was from Yafa, It’s Jaffa now, I guess. And during the Nakba in 1948 they lost their home and moved to Gaza. And in 1967 during another war, they left Gaza.”
The current conflict isn’t new, he said.
“It is an occupation and there’s always going to be conflicts, but the issue is with scale and civilians, and we don’t want civilians to die on either side.”
As of today, Israeli airstrikes has killed more than 10,000 people in Gaza including 4,104 children.
The conflict escalated on Oct. 7, when some 3,000 militants led by Hamas breached the southern Israeli Border and killed about 1,400 Israeli and foreign nationals, including the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers and civilians. They also took an estimated 250 hostages in Gaza.
Since then, the Israeli government has cut electricity, food and water supply, medical supplies, and internet in the Gaza strip.
More than 1.4 million Gazans have been displaced since Oct. 7.
Gaza strip is one of the two Palestinian territories, located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is home to 2.3 million Palestinians, 70 per cent of whom are refugees, who were forced to leave their homes in 1948, which the Palestinians call the ‘Nakba’, which means catastrophe in Arabic.
Gaza has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967 and under a blockade since 2005.
Ian Dowbiggin, history professor at University of Prince Edward Island, said Israel has a right to defend itself because Hamas’s attack was an infringement of Israeli sovereignty.
“When countries have retaliated against similar invasions, in all these cases, there has been much loss of life and destruction of property, sadly, but attempts by international organizations to enforce peace have almost always made the original problem worse.”
Hamas claimed its attack was a retaliation to the “Desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque,” increase in settler violence in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza strip blockade.
Since the attack, the Israel Defense Force has dropped more than 18,000 tons of bombs.
The IDF ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, which is home for 1.1 million Gazans.
The Israeli defense minister stated the reason for evacuation order was to separate civilians from Hamas militants.
“The camouflage of the terrorist is civil population,” he said. “So, those who want to save their life, please go south.”
Many human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, said IDF has been indiscriminately targeting civilians and essential infrastructure like hospitals, roads, schools, electrical plans, telecommunication plants, churches, and mosques in the Gaza strip.
They’ve also designated Gaza to be an “open air prison” because Israel controls its food, water, medicine, and construction materials.
Lahloub said this conflict was not a result of Hamas attack on the Oct. 7 but an outcome of the violent occupation of the Palestinian people for decades.
“I’m not here to defend what Hamas did, but I won’t be surprised when the people that are living in oppression in Gaza push back, even a little bit.”
“It is called an open-air prison because Israel controls everything in Gaza. So, a lot of people would rather die than live in such conditions.”
Since the attack, settler violence on the Palestinian people living in the West Bank has also increased. More than 140 have been killed since the start of the latest escalation.
“There is no Hamas in the West Bank, but Palestinians are still dying there, so what’s the excuse of Israel to kill Palestinians in the West Bank?” Lahloub asked.
The immediate solution is to call for a ceasefire to stop the dying and the bloodshed, said Lahloub.
A worldwide protest calling for a ceasefire was held on the Nov. 4.
More than 200 people gathered in downtown Charlottetown in support of the call for a ceasefire.
Rania Farouk Ismail, secretary of the Muslim Society of P.E.I. said what’s happening in Gaza is a “genocide” and people need to wake up and force their government to call for a ceasefire.
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