A ceasefire in Gaza - but no peace for Palestinians

There are no quiet nights in Gaza, neither before the ceasefire nor since the Sharm el-Sheikh peace declaration.

It was all smiles at the Egyptian beach resort as world leaders, including many from Arab and Muslim countries, shook hands with US President Donald Trump, who claimed he had solved not just this conflict but 3,000 years of history.

The fanfare did not stop Israel from violating the declaration for one minute. The Israeli army did not even pause for breath.

This morning, I woke up to parents holding their children’s lifeless bodies, and the tears of mothers who lost their children while they were sleeping.

Israel bombed various areas in Gaza, in a message designed to deliver the maximum terror, taking the lives of 104 civilians, among them 46 children and 18 members of one family.

Like many in Gaza, they have died anonymously.

I don’t suppose anyone will make the effort to print their names, ages, or imagine what they dreamed about when they were asleep, what they planned for the day after, and what was the last thing they said or did before they went to bed and never woke up.

Joy forbidden

For most of the world, Palestinians have become an object, with no feelings, memories or life stories; no past, no present and certainly no future.

How differently our slain, and our grief, are treated from the Israeli hostages and their families.

The media in Israel and abroad didn’t stop for a moment detailing their lives, the trauma they went through in the tunnels, the girlfriends waiting for them on their release, the food they loved.

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On the day of the ceasefire agreement, Channel 13 showed the wife of the Israeli hostage Elkana Bochbot, waking up her five-year-old son and telling him that his father would come back home.

The three presenters on TV had tears in their eyes.

The roads in Israel were bedecked with flags and signs to welcome the 20 hostages who survived their own air force’s bombardment for two years.

I drove to Bochbot’s house in Meveseret Tzion near Jerusalem. I stood in front of his family’s house. More than 100 people stood outside with Israeli flags, singing songs to celebrate his release.

Our pain has never been equal, and our children's lives simply don't have the same value

His wife, son and other family members stood on the balcony and waved hands to the crowds like royalty.

The day before, the Israeli army raided the homes of several Palestinian prisoners in the occupied West Bank whose names were included in the list of prisoners to be released in an exchange deal.

“The soldiers raided the house, threatened us and told us that we were forbidden from showing any signs of joy or welcoming those congratulating him on his release,” Razan, the daughter of prisoner Taleb Makhamreh from Yatta, south of Hebron, told Middle East Eye.

“They also fired random bullets in the neighbourhood, wounding a young man in the hand, and assaulted other young men.”

Palestinians are not allowed to grieve, or celebrate for that matter.

'Are my kids alive?'

Haitham Salem, a freed Palestinian prisoner from Gaza, broke down in tears upon his release after he was informed that his three children and wife had been killed two weeks earlier.

Shaking and sobbing in video footage taken at a Gaza hospital after his release, he said: “Are my kids alive? They’re dead … I swear they are dead. In four days, it was supposed to be my daughter’s birthday.”

He held up a bracelet he made for her while in Israeli detention.

“I made this for her, I made it myself.”

His daughter was the same age as the released hostage Elkana Bochbot’s son, who had celebrated his birthday days ahead the release of his father.

Our pain has never been equal, and our children’s lives simply don’t have the same value.

But no one will shed tears for Salem’s loss, and no one from the family survived to greet his release.

Our pain has never been equal, and our children’s lives simply don’t have the same value.

While Israel declares its right to defend itself, no one is defending Palestinians in Gaza or the occupied West Bank.

Every talk show on TV, every person on the streets in Israel will say: Israel has the right to defend itself. It’s never the same when it’s about Syria, or Lebanon, or Palestine.

Have you ever heard someone say “Palestinians have the right to defend themselves”?

Terror attacks, carried out under the protection of the Israeli army, are taking place in the occupied West Bank every day. Settlers are burning cars, cutting down olive trees, beating and shooting and killing Palestinians, who have no protection from anyone.

Clear lesson

It seems that more than 68,000 Palestinian lives in Gaza, among them 20,000 children, are not enough.

Overnight, Israeli bombs can take another 100 lives, the state taking care to inform the US before they do so - and miraculously the “ceasefire” is declared by one and all to continue the next day, before even the bodies of the children have been buried. 

A week ago, during a clash between police and Hapoel football fans in Tel Aviv, an injured Hapoel fan said to Haaretz: “Police beat everyone up. We’re not in Jabalia.”

I gave birth as Gaza burned. What world will greet our next child?

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It was a tacit acknowledgement that Israeli forces are allowed to do anything they like to Palestinians in Jabalia.

All the governments that signed the Sharm el-Sheikh declaration preach at Palestinians that the only way they can achieve sovereignty is through negotiation, not armed resistance.

But in the days since the declaration, Israel has given a very clear lesson to everyone that there is no negotiation, no agreement that it will abide by. It breaks agreements faster than the ink has dried on the paper.

A postwar model - potentially a new status quo - is being created by Israel, allowed by the Arab and Muslim leaders who smiled and shook hands with Trump in Egypt.

The right to defend itself has been replaced by a right of response, which actually means the right to continue killing Palestinians at any time of its choosing.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.