I am writing to you regarding the situation in Gaza / Palestine, and the need for an immediate ceasefire. As I write this letter the death toll stands at over 7,000, with almost 3,000 children slaughtered. There are over 15,000 people injured, again many of these are children. This is obscene. This is a genocide that we are witnessing. The Srebrenica genocide took the lives of 8 372 people. The death toll numbers in Gaza are fastly reaching the same, they may well have passed it already, because despite President Biden saying he doesn't believe the numbers, these death and injury numbers are reported directly from the hospitals to the administration in the West Bank.
I don't know if you're able to do anything from the Welsh Senedd (assembly), but I have absolutely no faith in the main part of the Labour party, and I know a lot of people who feel the same, especially after hearing Keir Starmer saying it is perfectly fine to cut off over 2 million people's electricity, water, food, medicine and fuel. These are war crimes, and he knows this. Additionally he called, 'Collective punishment' of over 2 million people fine, and went as far as calling it, 'Self defence'. This too is a war crime. Israel has used cluster bombs, white phosphorus bombs, sent people from the north of Gaza to the south, telling them it's safe there, then bombed them in the south. Israel has bombed civilians leaving the north. They have tried to force over 1 million people out of their homes, openly trying to force them out of Gaza into Sinai, which is in Egypt. Israel has also killed 57 UN workers, killed 32 journalists. They even targeted the family of an Al-Jazeera journalist. Israel also targeted, and killed, the family of the head surgeon at the Indonesia hospital, why would they target and kill the family of a doctor? Israel have bombed schools, market, mosques, churches: they completely destroyed 11 mosques and churches, including the Greek orthodox church, which was the third oldest church in the world, plus Israel knew it was sheltering civilians inside it.
On top of all the above Israel have been bombing hospitals, including the Al-Ahli hospital, which it later denied after huge public outrage, although they proudly promoted doing it online, before the world wide outrage. The so-called evidence they produced has been proven to be unreliable, false, but Israel and the IDF have a history of lying to the media. Additionally Hamas, or any other group in Gaza, has never had a rocket powerful enough to flatten a building. Israel says that a third of all rockets fired into Israel miss, and land in Gaza. That would mean that for every 1,000 rockets fired, around 333 land inside Gaza, and not once over the many years of firing rockets, has one of their rockets caused that much death and destruction inside Gaza, and don't forget, Gaza doesn't have an Iron dome protecting it.
Israel only allowed 20 trucks of aid into Gaza. That was for over 2 million people. There was only enough bottled drinking water for 22,000 people for one day. They didn't allow any aid into the north of Gaza, and they bombed some of the aid. Flour was sent to a bakery to feed the civilians of the Nuseirat refugee camp, and Israel bombed the bakery there, the only one they have. They're trying to starve the people. This is clearly collective punishment. On top of all that Israel is now telling all the civilians of the north, if they don't leave they'll be classed as terrorists. They're even calling the noryh of Gaza the, 'battlefield'. This area is a housing area!
All the above are violations of international laws and war crimes. Keir Starmer knows this, isn't he a human rights lawyer? Obviously you have to condemn what Hamas did, because killing, kidnapping or hurting of civilians is wrong, but what the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guferres said was correct. Hamas didn't do this act for no reason. There has been an illegal blockade in the Gaza strip for over 15 years. Israel controls the borders of Gaza. They decide what comes in and out, including the amount of water they get. The amount of food, fuel, even medicines. There have been many people who have died because they've needed specialist medical treatment, the treatment is available in the West Bank, but Israel has refused them permission to travel to the West Bank, so they needlessly die. Some people call Gaza an open air prison, but prisoners have rights. They get food, medicine, they even get let out. This isn't the case for most Gazans, so Gaza is more like a concentration camp.
Israel regularly bombs Gaza, before Hamas' attack on October 7th, Israel had killed over 200 Palestinians this year alone, around 40 of them were children. You have all these Western countries rushing to fully support Israel, while it commits a public genocide, but where were these leaders when Hamas and Palestinians had done non violent acts. Hamas agreed to hold an election in Gaza, even though they knew they wouldn't have won a majority, and power would have most likely been shared between Hamas and the ruling administration in the West Bank, but Israel and the USA wouldn't allow Gaza to have an election. If they hate Hamas so much why didn't they allow an election to happen, this would have resulted in Hamas losing some of it's grip and power in Gaza?
Where were the world leaders and politicians voices when the Palestinians in Gaza held peaceful marches, trying to end the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza, and the right of return for refugees? These peaceful marches started on 30th March 2018, and lasted for over a year. Every week the Palestinians would peacefully march, this was called, 'The great march of return' demonstrations. The IDF would fire tear gas into the crowds, and snipers would shoot the Palestinians with live rounds; they didn't just shoot, kill and injure the demonstrators, they also shot and killed medics, photo journalists. Most of the international media and world leaders ignored this. What do the Palestinians have to do to get noticed, and be treated like human beings?
Everyone will say they're supporting Israel because of the hostages, but that is a lie. Israel doesn't care about the hostages, if they did they wouldn't be carpet bombing Gaza. Israel is putting all of the hostages in greater danger. I think Israel is deliberately trying to kill the hostages so they can blame Hamas
Israel has a history of targeting Palestinian children. When Israel went to war Sith Gaza on September 27th, 2008, they dropped 100 tonnes of bombs in Gaza on day one, but they decided to start the bombing of Gaza 11:25am, that is the time when the morning school shift and afternoon shift change, so at 11:25, all the children are out on the streets. In another war when they knew the children were out they dropped White Phosphorus bombs at the children. And they call themselves the most moral army in the world.
Gaza is a tiny strip of land, it's roughly 26 miles by 6 miles, and over 2 million people live there. Gaza is the most densely populated area in the world. The people cannot leave. Gaza is not a country, it has no army, no navy, no air force, it has no seaport, no airport. It doesn't control any of its air space or sea space, and it doesn't control any of its borders. Gaza has borders with Israel and Egypt. The Egyptian border is called the Rafah crossing, it is mostly closed. Due to Gaza being such a densely populated area, you should NEVER drop any bombs, because it's impossible to not hit any civilians. That's why they say Hamas are using human shields, but in actual fact it is Israel who are using civilian targets. The people of Gaza are human targets for Israel.
There are no words to describe the current living conditions inside Gaza right now. There is no clean water, people are being forced to drink dirty contaminated water, or sea water. There is very little food, people are queuing for up to 12 hours to get bread, and some times they get none. People are going hungry. There is no fuel, so there is no electricity, unless people have solar power, but most don't. Due to the lack of fuel people are dying in the hospitals, people are also dying in the hospitals because of lack of medicines or the electricity needed to power the medical equipment. There is also the problem with the air quality due to all the bombs, and all the dust from the buildings getting destroyed. There is also the problem of the smell of rotting bodies; the stench is terrible due to the dead bodies trapped under the rubble. The flies are also out of control. The children are starting to get ill, runny noses, coughs, fevers. They have no running water to clean themselves properly. No working toilets due to no fuel and no clean water. And one of the saddest things I heard, was that they can hear the screams of children and adults trapped under the rubble of their homes. They're screaming for help but they can't get to them because the rescuers are the civilians; and they're sleep deprived, hungry, thirsty, grieving and traumatized, plus they don't have the equipment needed or the fuel. The people of Gaza have been let down by the West, and let down by humanity.
Israel and its supporters like to say things like, 'Israel has the right to defend itself', but you cannot be defending yourself after the event. And self defence can only be used with reasonable force. There is nothing reasonable about what's happening in Gaza. The other thing people like to say is, 'Hamas is using human shields', this is just to blame Hamas for the huge death toll of civilians. The real reason for saying things like, 'Israel is defending itself', and 'They use human shields', is to dehumanize the Palestinians, to make them sound like backward crazed animals, who are ruthless savages, primitives, subhuman. Each time someone says one of those sayings, they are taking part in a psychological game of dehumanizing Palestinians and inciting hate for Palestinians and Arabs. This act is antisemitic because Arabs are Semites.
If this so-called war was just about Hamas and Gaza, why are the Palestinians in the West Bank getting raided, attacked and arrested in such large numbers too? Over 100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7th? They're even beating and arresting Palestinians for doing social media posts on Gaza. This is not the actions of a democracy, it's the actions of a fascist government. Israel have bombed a mosque in the West Bank, they're destroying Palestinian roads, bulldozing houses, damaging and sabotaging the water supply, this is collective punishment for all Palestinians. The other worrying thing is, the right wing Israeli government are arming the Israeli settlers, apparently the US President sent thousands of machine guns for them, the settlers are well known for attacking the Palestinians.
This whole situation is getting out of hand, the whole Middle East is a ticking time bomb. This is so serious it could even lead to a third world war! What would happen if Russia and Iran joined in, maybe even China. NATO could never take on 2 or 3 super powers. In a little over 2 weeks Israel have dropped over 12,000 tonnes of bombs over Gaza, that is an equivalent to an atomic bomb. That is roughly the same size bomb that was dropped over Hiroshima. And still they're bombing the most densely populated area in the world.
Even if this doesn't start a bigger war, it will have consequences for us, especially after our leaders and shadow cabinet politicians openly supported this genocide in Gaza. This is a breeding ground for religious extremists. These politicians are playing with our safety too. Has everyone forgotten that Tony Blair's reputation never recovered after backing America and going to war, which resulted in a huge amount of innocent people getting killed? We also had the 7/7 suicide bombings because of it. We do not want that to happen, that's why we need our representatives to call for a ceasefire. We need peacemakers not warmongers.
I have read that our non democratically elected Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's family business, 'Infoysy', has significant business interests in Israel, if this is found out to be true, it would be hugely embarrassing and awkward for him and the Conservative party because it would be a huge conflict of interest. The UK and all the Western leaders who have supported what is going on, has completely lost the moral high ground with the Russia / Ukraine war. This will apply if Keir Starmer wins the next General election, but I know many Labour supporters who are saying they will not vote for him because of what he's said.
Hearing senior Labour MP's like Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry and David Lammy support war crimes and genocide, will leave a stain on the reputation of the Labour party for many generations to come. Will Welsh Labour speak out and call for a full ceasefir, not a humanitarian pause. No matter what you call it a pause is just as inhumane, they're saying, they'll feed them up, patch them up, then let them be bombed and slaughtered again. We need to call for a ceasefire and release of all hostages before this gets more out of hand. Israel is not defending itself, and its not at war, it is attacking, and Hamas is not using human shields, these sayings are used to dehumanize Palestinians and create more hate for them and Arabs, which also causes hate to raise for Jewish people too. What you would call real antisemitism. Both Jewish and Muslim people have the right to live in safety, with no hate.
I will finish my long letter with a message from Hamza, he is a Palestinian living in Gaza, he is my friend, and he doesn't like or support Hamas, he has been vocal about this for years, but he lives in northern Gaza with his family. Because he lives in the north, Israel is clashing him and his family as terrorists, his children are both under 5 years of age, and they've been classed as terrorists! How does he protect his family? Maybe you have a message for him?
Something else to keep in mind, apparently it has been reported that there are huge oil and natural gas resources in Gaza and the West Bank, it is worth billions. This was only discovered a few years ago in a UNCTAD study.
One of the many sad things about this attack by Israel, is when you read about the children who have been murdered by Israel. You read their short life stories, full of dreams and goals; lots of them wanted to learn English, so they could tell the world about their situation. These children just wanted to be accepted and loved, like all children do. The children of Gaza understand that they are not valued, they're not seen as good, they understand they're seen as less than other children, and all they wanted to do was show the western world they are not bad. They wanted to spread peace and love, but they'll never get the chance. Maybe you could show these children that they are loved, they are valued, and their lives do matter. This oppression and colonialism is modern day slavery. The Palestinians are not free, they are chained to Israel. They are slaves and we must set them free. Please call for a full ceasefire, and put more pressure on the Labour party to change their policy. No one wants to have their names linked to genocide and war crimes.
IAM Hamza from the darkenss palce in world( Gaza) . The largest central prison in the world. The number of prisoners here is more than two million people. There is no food, water, electricity, or medicine available. Everyone here is breathing with difficulty from the lack of oxygen due to the continuous bombing of Gaza. There is dust and dirt flying all over the place. Our children are crying from fear of Israeli bombing and lack of food. Where there is no ultimate life. At night when the barbaric and indiscriminate Israeli bombing begins. My wife, my children, and I gather together and hope that if we are bombed, none of us will live, so that none of us will be alone. I hope that the war will end and that the world will stand with us because we are victims of barbaric wars. And that the leaders of the Israeli occupation be brought to the International Criminal Court for committing genocide against the Palestinians. I hope that our children will live in peace and tranquility. I hope they live like the children of the world.
