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NDTV
18-05-2025
- Health
- NDTV
NDTV Exclusive: Rows Of Body Bags - Gaza Bleeds As Israel Unleashes Gideon's Chariot
Outside the many makeshift 'tent hospitals' scattered across Gaza, rows of body bags lie on the ground. Grief-stricken people move from tent to tent, searching desperately for missing family, torn between the hope of finding them alive and the dread of discovering them among the dead. Israel's ongoing military offensive in Gaza has entered its most intense phase yet with the expansion of Operation Gideon's Chariot, a campaign that has triggered mass displacement, crippled the territory's medical infrastructure, and pushed Gaza's civilian population further into humanitarian catastrophe. The latest escalation, marked by a sustained wave of Israeli air and ground strikes, has resulted in hundreds of new casualties in the last few days, according to local health authorities. On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike hit a tent encampment in Khan Younis, a southern city sheltering displaced Palestinian families, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens. Among the victims were women and children. Several tents caught fire after the attack, exacerbating the suffering of civilians who had already lost their homes in earlier strikes. Hospitals in Collapse Dr Khaled Alshawwa, a 31-year-old surgeon in Gaza City, described the conditions as "unimaginably worse by the hour." Operating in a makeshift tent hospital with minimal supplies and no basic safety, he warned of systemic collapse. "The operation has triggered a wave of mass casualties for the past few weeks, entire families are arriving in pieces, and the wounded are lying on floors without beds, supplies, or even water. Our patients are starving, literally. Children undergoing surgeries are malnourished and dehydrated. We are seeing post-operative complications like anastomotic leaks due to protein deficiency," Dr Akshawwa told NDTV, from Gaza City's Rimal neighbourhood. "Hospitals are collapsing. I am operating in a field hospital made of tents, which places both the healthcare team and our patients in direct danger. Yesterday, a bullet fell from the sky, pierced the tent, and landed just beside a patient's friend. Our teams are exhausted, some have been living in the hospitals for days or weeks, risking their lives under constant bombardment to treat the injured," he added. Dr Alshawwa told NDTV how he and his peers, given Gaza's acute food shortage, are often surviving on one tiny can of food a day. "We are doing our best, but what we are witnessing is beyond a crisis. It is a human catastrophe," Dr Alshawwa said. A Journalist's Perspective Ismail Abu Hatab, a photojournalist based in Gaza, echoed the sentiment: "The situation is extremely difficult. The killing, hunger, and displacement are ongoing. There is no food, no water. The Israeli army says they are conducting an operation called Gideon's Chariot to occupy and displace people." Israel has been distributing leaflets in northern Gaza urging civilians to flee south. Yet, as Gazans have repeatedly said, there are no truly safe areas left in the Strip. Renewed Offensive On March 18, after a two-month ceasefire, Israel resumed its military campaign following the October 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,218 Israelis and resulted in 251 hostages being taken. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said the current operation seeks to fulfill all war objectives, including the "defeat of Hamas" and the return of hostages. Over a 100 people have died in Gaza since Friday. Over the past 72 hours, Israel has conducted what it termed "extensive strikes" across the enclave. According to the IDF, more than 150 Hamas targets were hit in a 24-hour span. Gaza's civil defense agency reported over 100 deaths on Friday alone. By Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry estimated that 2,985 people had died since March 18, bringing the war's total death count in the besieged Palestinian enclave to over 53,000. "Over the past day, the IDF launched extensive attacks and mobilised forces to seize strategic areas in the Gaza Strip, as part of the opening moves of Operation Gideon's Chariots and the expansion of the campaign in Gaza, to achieve all the goals of the war in Gaza, including the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas," the IDF said in a statement. Despite the scale of the operation, Israel has not succeeded in completely dismantling Hamas or securing the release of remaining hostages. Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 57 remain in Gaza. Israeli authorities believe 34 of them are dead. Disputed Aid Access Israel's blockade on humanitarian aid has entered its third month. Aid groups report critical shortages of food, fuel, water, and medical supplies. US President Donald Trump recently acknowledged the dire conditions. "A lot of people are starving," he said on Friday in Abu Dhabi. "We're looking at Gaza, and we're going to get that taken care of." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet voted on May 4 to allow vetted aid distribution through private American contractors. But implementation has been delayed, with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, one of the contracted NGOs, urging Israel to resume food flows.
CBC
06-02-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Trump's proposal to take over Gaza outrageous, say Palestinians and advocates in Toronto
Family members with loved ones in Gaza and activists say they are outraged that Donald Trump has suggested that Palestinians should be relocated while the U.S. takes over and redevelops the territory. Bashar Alshawwa, a Toronto resident whose wife and four children are in the West Bank, said the U.S. president's plan to take over Gaza threatens Palestinians. Alshawwa came to Toronto six months ago. He says his family lost 130 loved ones in the Gaza war in approximately the last 16 months. Alshawwa, a water diplomacy specialist at the advocacy group Swim Drink Fish, said he had hoped the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would bring justice to Palestinians. "It's shocking. It's really shocking. It's alarming," Alshawwa told CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Wednesday. "Instead of justice, Mr. Trump is now announcing a plan of displacement, ethnic cleansing of my people, and what's not just a tragedy, it's an ongoing crime against humanity." On Tuesday, Trump announced that he wanted the U.S. take "ownership" of Gaza after the war and turn it into a "riviera of the Middle East." Trump made the suggestion during a news conference at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too," Trump said. "We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs." On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed Trump's remarks, saying the president only sought to move the roughly 1.8 million Gazans temporarily to allow for reconstruction. Gaza 'not a business project' for the U.S. Alshawwa, however, said the remarks instill fear and trigger painful memories for Palestinians of displacement and forced migration. He said Gaza has deep emotional and historical significance to Palestinians, even though whole areas have been levelled. Gaza is not a "business project" for the U.S., he added. In a separate interview with CBC Toronto, Alshawwa said Palestinians would welcome any initiative to help them rebuild their country. But Trump is suggesting something that is against international law and that is unacceptable, he said. "It's a new colonial settlement project by the United States," Alshawwa said. "As a father of four kids still back home in Palestine, I don't want my kids to suffer from this endless, insane and unjust conflict," he added. Plan spoken about as 'some kind of real estate deal' Yara Shoufani, an organizer with the Toronto chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement, a group that works to keep youth engaged in fighting for freedom and liberation for Palestinian people, said the comments are appalling. She said the idea of people leaving Gaza is not an option. "He's outlining a plan for the ethnic cleansing of the entire population of Gaza. He's talking about the forcible removal of two million people out of their homes and speaking about it essentially like it's some kind of real estate deal," Shoufani said. Michael Bueckert, interim president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, based in Montreal, said the comments represent an "existential threat" to Palestinians in Gaza and an expression of "genocidal intent." "Unfortunately, I'm worried that the Canadian government is going to be kind of cautious about approaching Trump. But we have to be clear: Israeli and U.S. officials are openly plotting genocide and ethnic cleansing — not using euphemisms — but in very clear terms. We need to take this seriously. More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the 15-month war, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Due to the chaos of war, verifying the exact number of casualties has been challenging and subject to scrutiny. The Palestinian Civil Defence has said it is searching for roughly 10,000 bodies believed to be remaining under the rubble. The coastal enclave has been largely demolished by Israel's military following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. That assault killed 1,200 people with around 250 hostages taken into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel has rejected accusations of genocide by saying it abides by international law and has a right to defend itself after the Hamas attack.
