From Chongqing to Gaza’s mass assassination factory
Over three years, the Japanese killed nearly an equivalent number of civilians as those murdered in Gaza in the past two months.
"Israel" resumed its genocidal war on Gaza following a brief pause, insufficient to address the plight of the thousands of missing children trapped beneath the rubble. Personally, I've been trying, since October 27, to reach a former colleague in the Bureij refugee camp. The unnerving lack of response echoes as ominous as a silent stone. I hesitated to contact others, afraid I might get the same silent treatment, or worse yet, discover the dreaded truth.
Then, it came from an unexpected corner. On November 23, I received the news of the tragic death of my relative, Mariam (Mary), her daughter and grandchildren in Nuseirat refugee camp. A day earlier, news outlets had covered a drone attack that obliterated a car, leaving charred bodies of women and children beyond recognition. Little did I know I had been watching the very car Mariam and her family had taken to escape their camp in a desperate attempt to find a "safer" shelter for her grandchildren.
Mariam, who was born in Palestine in the year of the Nakba in 1948, and grew up in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. In the 1970s, she married a member of the PLO and was displaced in 1982, again, now from Lebanon. Subsequently, following the Oslo Accord, her family resettled in Gaza.
The last time I saw Mariam was more than a decade ago during my visit to our old camp, which happened to coincide with hers. She complained that I had been to Gaza without stopping by to see her. I explained that I was unaware she had relocated to Gaza. In reality, I had been to Nuseirat camp, and we could have crossed paths in an alley or at the small market. Nevertheless, the thought didn't occur to me that she could be there, and it was likely that after more than 20 years since our previous meeting, we wouldn't have easily recognized each other.
