nuseirat refugee camp
Nuseirat, Like Gaza, Is a Representation of a Culture That Cannot Be Broken
I write this because I fear that readers and viewers would only associate Nuseirat with massacres, with lifeless bodies lined up on the floor, covered by the very blankets they used to cover themselves at night.
I clearly remember my first day at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, school in a refugee camp in Gaza. I was five years of age. It felt like my life was over.
The distance from Block Five of the Nuseirat Refugee Camp to the New Camp—located within the municipal boundaries of Nuseirat—was long, exhausting, and terrifying.
I had to walk for several miles, on a very dusty journey that compromised my new, specially tailored red suit and orange sandals.
The words “massacre” and “Nuseirat” became so intertwined in recent months that new headlines often omit further details.
On the arduous journey, passing through citrus orchards and heaps of sand, I was accompanied by hundreds of children, some more experienced and confident, and others, like me, crying all the way to the UNRWA Elementary School for Boys.
On the way, I learned about the “crazy man of the orchard,” the disheveled guard who chases after unruly children whenever they try to pluck orange fruits from the Hirthani trees. I also learned about the unleashed dogs that belonged to some Bedouin tribe, whose bites may result in many rabies injections and terrible pain.
By the time I reached class, my tears turned into sobbing. Learning how to read and write seemed like a worthless exercise, considering the risks of becoming a pupil at an UNRWA school in Gaza.
Alas, there is no immediate happy ending, as I was, indeed, chased by the “crazy man,” bitten by the dogs, ruined my sandals, and ruined my red suit with the large, silver-colored buttons.
But, ultimately, it was all worth the effort. My peers, starting on that very first day of the school year, are now the very great intellectuals of Gaza, the journalists, the teachers, the doctors, the parents, the people that made Gaza the tenacious place that is inspiring the whole world. Many of them have been killed or wounded in this war. Many are still fighting to keep Gaza itself alive.
Though I no longer live in Nuseirat, my relationship with the place grew even stronger with time.
In Arabic we say, “Those far away from the eyes are also far away from the heart.” Gaza, however, is an exception, because the people we leave behind are unforgettable, and because their suffering, especially during times of siege and war, is too extreme to ignore.
As I checked my mobile phone on Thursday, June 6, for news on Gaza, nine months after the start of the war, once more the breaking news: “Massacre in Nuseirat” topped the headlines. The massacre seemed terrible even before the gory details were released.
A few days later, on June 8, a much bigger tragedy occurred; hundreds were killed and wounded.
The words “massacre” and “Nuseirat” became so intertwined in recent months that new headlines often omit further details.
As I viewed the images of those killed and wounded in the Al-Sardi School and later at the central market, I feared that I would recognize some of the faces. This nightmarish scenario has happened before, and repeatedly so, where I would discover that family members, friends, or neighbors were killed or wounded through the news.
Consequently, whenever fresh images from the Gaza onslaught appear, I am always on guard.
In the case of the school massacre, I did not recognize anyone, possibly because the victims are mostly displaced Palestinians from many other areas in the Gaza Strip, whether north or south.
I thought about the school itself. The cluster of UNRWA schools hit in the latest attack hosted more than 50,000 people—mostly children and women.
Only months earlier, that very school was a source of joy, knowledge, friendship, but also trepidation for little children who were being torn away from their families.
Then, like all schools in Gaza, they became shelters to host the bulk of the Gaza population which has been chased by bombs, repeatedly, from the north to the center, from the center to the south and, again, to the center, and so on.
This journey of displacement, along with the accompanying famine, is yet to end. But massacres at United Nations schools-turned-shelters are a whole different level of cruelty.
To alleviate some of the suffering, many volunteers in the camp have been holding all kinds of communal activities at some of these shelters.
Volunteer clowns perform regularly, volunteer barbers cut hair, teachers hold classes, women bake together, local football clubs organize tournaments. All of this is done to reassure the children that, despite the ongoing suffering and the sound of bombs all around them, they will always remain safe inside.
But there is no such safety, neither at schools nor mosques, churches nor even hospitals.
I write this because I fear that readers and viewers would only associate Nuseirat with massacres, with lifeless bodies lined up on the floor, covered by the very blankets they used to cover themselves at night.
Nuseirat, like Gaza, is a representation of a culture that cannot be broken, no matter the firepower, or the extent of the massacres.
For me, Nuseirat is a life that was fully lived, memories that cannot be forgotten, and a future of freedom and dignity that is waiting to take shape.
'Another Day, Another Israeli War Crime': IDF Kills 17 in Attacks on Nuseirat Refugee Camp
"We want a cease-fire now," said one resident of central Gaza. "Enough of our blood, I say it to Israel, America, and our leaders too. The war must stop."
Israeli forces killed at least 17 people early Tuesday in attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, the site of a recent operation in which Israel's military massacred more than 270 Palestinians to rescue four hostages.
Reporting from central Gaza, Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud said it has "been another bloody night" in the area, noting that Israeli forces attacked two homes in Nuseirat that were "accommodating displaced families who had recently evacuated from Rafah."
"The first strike killed 10 people, including women and children. Five of them were from the same family. We're looking at double the number of injuries. More people are still trapped under the rubble," Mahmoud added. "An hour later, the second attack targeted another family's home. The victims include not only the parents and their children, but also the grandparents."
"Another day, another Israeli war crime," Progressive International co-founder Yanis Varoufakiswrote in response to the strikes.
Overnight Israel bombed two homes in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least 17 people pic.twitter.com/4MJgEJGMmQ
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 18, 2024
The attacks came after an Associated Pressinvestigation detailed how Israel's relentless, U.S.-backed bombardment of Gaza is wiping out entire Palestinian families. Examining 10 deadly Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip between October and December, the outlet found that "in no case was there an obvious military target or direct warning to those inside."
"In one case," AP added, "the family said they had raised a white flag on their building in a combat zone."
The analyzed strikes killed more than 500 people from several families, AP found. "Nearly every Palestinian family has suffered grievous, multiple losses," the outlet observed. "But many have been decimated, particularly in the first months of the war."
The Israeli military carried out Tuesday's strikes on Nuseirat less than two weeks after killing at least 274 Palestinians in an operation at the refugee camp that rescued four hostages taken during the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said last week that the number of Palestinian civilians killed during the Israeli operation "seriously calls into question whether the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution—as set out under the laws of war—were respected by the Israeli forces."
The attacks on Nuseirat came amid Israel's continued assault on Rafah, a city in southern Gaza that
more than a million people have fled in recent weeks in the face of an Israeli ground invasion that has further imperiled efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to starving Palestinians.
According toReuters, residents of the city reported "heavy bombardments from tanks and planes in several areas" on Tuesday. One resident, identified by Reuters as a father of six, told the news agency that "Rafah is being bombed without any intervention from the world, the occupation is acting freely here."
Another resident, who was displaced to central Gaza, said that with every "hour of delay, Israel kills more people."
"We want a cease-fire now," he added. "Enough of our blood, I say it to Israel, America, and our leaders too. The war must stop."
UN Human Rights Office Says IDF's Deadly Nuseirat Raid May Amount to War Crime
Israeli forces killed at least 274 Palestinians in the refugee camp on Saturday while conducting an operation to save four hostages.
Citing the "principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution" that international humanitarian law demands military forces obey, the United Nations' top human rights office on Tuesday said the raid conducted at Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces over the weekend may amount to a war crime.
The IDF conducted the operation at the camp in the central Gaza Strip in order to free four Israeli hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, and Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) told reporters their release was "clearly very good news."
But the OHCHR, Laurence said, is "profoundly shocked at the impact on civilians of the Israeli forces' operation," which killed at least 274 Palestinians, including 64 children and 57 women, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
"The manner in which the raid was conducted in such a densely populated area seriously calls into question whether the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution—as set out under the laws of war—were respected by the Israeli forces," said Laurence in a statement.
Actions by both the IDF and Hamas, he added, "may amount to war crimes."
As it has since beginning its bombardment of Gaza in October in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, the IDF blamed the civilian casualties on Saturday on the militant group, saying the hundreds of deaths were the result of Hamas operating in the densely populated Nuseirat camp.
But while Laurence said the OHCHR was "deeply distressed" by Hamas' capture of hostages and its operating in densely population areas, Rutgers Law School professor Adil Haque concurred with the office that Israel is obligated to protect civilian lives in Gaza regardless of Hamas' conduct.
"The fact that your adversary is breaking international humanitarian law does not change your obligations," Haque told The Washington Post. "The foreseeable harm to civilians was disproportionate to the legitimate aim of rescuing the four hostages."
Eyewitnesses and aid groups have said the attack began in broad daylight andstarted after IDF soldiers entered the camp in a humanitarian aid truck. The operation was carried out with jets, drones, and tanks and included strikes in the vicinity of a maternity clinic that has been converted to a hospital to help care for people wounded in Israeli attacks since October.
Paramedic Abdel Hamid Ghorab told the Post he witnessed "random and continuous bombing in the vicinity of the hospital with unprecedented intensity."
"All they cared about was carrying out the operation, even if it was at the expense of all these lives," said Ghorab.
Israeli lawyer Michael Sfard told the Post that the 274 casualties "is enough to raise questions about whether the use of fire was indiscriminate," which would be a violation of international humanitarian law.
"Was the air power used on a prospected military objective, or was it a random, indiscriminate use of bombardment in a very densely populated area?" he asked.
As the OHCHR made its statement, Writers Against the War on Gaza condemned The New York Times' publication of "a whitewashed puff piece on the Nuseirat refugee camp massacre," authored by former IDF soldier Ronen Bergman, which they said was aimed at dehumanizing Palestinian civilians while including no context about potential war crimes by the IDF.
"The framing of this article, typical of New York Times coverage of the massacre, foregrounds four (alive) Israelis over hundreds of dead Palestinians, and presents the IDF as swashbuckling heroes," the group wrote on the X account of its project, The New York War Crimes. "This prefigures the reader to accept the justification for IDF butchery."