By Alice Cuddy BBC News, Jerusalem
The call to Mahmoud Shaheen came at dawn.
It was Thursday 19 October at about 06:30, and Israel had been bombing Gaza for 12 days straight.
He’d been in his third-floor, three-bedroom flat in al-Zahra, a middle-class area in the north of the Gaza Strip. Until now, it had been largely untouched by air strikes.
He’d heard a rising clamour outside. People were screaming. “You need to escape,” somebody in the street shouted, “because they will bomb the towers”.
This story made me cry. I am disabled and not always mobile. There are loved ones in my family who are elderly, cannot walk far, and depend on medication.
I cannot even imagine what it must be like to try to evacuate at short notice, with nowhere to go.
It is brutal, just incredibly sad. Israel’s military has a long history of weaponizing disability, as you may know, and it’s been illuminating to examine that further.
When you’re ready, the excellent disability-focused podcast Death Panel offered some insights I had never encountered elsewhere. Please listen to the following episodes on SoundCloud or wherever you would like. I hope they can offer some solace and empowerment.
Public Health and Palestine with Danya Qato
Body Politics with Jasbir Puar
Thank you.
It’s a radicalizing experience, to say the least.
they need to go south - that’s somewhere.
You’re either incredibly ignorant or deliberately trying to incite hatred.
Go south??
You mean to this refugee camp that Israel told them to go to, that they then bombed anyway?
Well… yes.
North = you’ll get bombed.
South = you’ll get bombed maybe.
East = you’ll get shot.
West = you’ll get shot and drown.
It’s a shitty situation, but I’d pick South. 🤷
I’m not sure your argument is fair. “Maybe” is anywhere. Two nights ago half the casualties came from the South.
I understand why many people chose to stay home and die together with their families rather than be dragged around forever and then die anyway.
From what it looks like, North, East and West, are more of a “for sure” than a “maybe”.
I also understand why people choose to die at home, it’s somewhat harder to understand why anyone with a chance to live would willingly stay in the area, since all of Gaza has been reeking of “death camp” for well over a decade.
Ah yes, please leave your home, with everything in it included, all your memories, possessions, everything and leave within 2 hours “south”. Just generally “south”. Oh and you can’t come back btw, your house wont exist.
Tf?..
everyone needs to block this absolute garbage troll
Where Israel is also bombing rofl please just stop