পাঁচ মাসের ওমরের আছে ভাগ্যজোর,
বেঁচে গেলি তুই, সামলে রাখিস জীবন তোর…

He has been rescued from the arms of his dead mother… there are three fractures in one of his tiny legs, and one can readily find two blood clots near his left eye. Thanks to the Internet, the entire world has seen the blood-stained image of five-month-old Omar al-Hadidi, in the lap of a nurse at a hospital in Gaza. Mohammad al-Hadidi, Omar’s father, was heard saying: “I have no one left in the world, but you.” The 37-year-old Mohammad recently lost his other children – Suhayb (13), Yahya (11), Abderrahman (8), and Osama (6) – and their mother Maha Abu Hattab (36) in Israeli air strikes.

The Israeli Army fired a series of missiles at some multi-storeyed buildings in Gaza immediately after Eid-ul-Fitr (celebrated on May 13, 2021). On the occasion of Eid, Maha Abu Hattab, along with her children, went to her brother-in-law’s residence near the Shati Refugee Camp outside the city of Gaza. Mohammad recalled: “The kids put on their Eid clothes, took their toys and headed off to their uncle’s house to celebrate. They called in the evening to beg to stay the night and I told them: All Right.“

Mohammad continued: “I slept at home alone… and woke up suddenly to the sound of bombing. As a neighbour called me to say that an Israeli missile had hit my brother’s home. I hurried over as fast as I could, but when I got there the home was rubble, and rescue workers were pulling out bodies. My sister-in-law and four of her children were also among the dead.” Clutching little Omar to his chest, the father exclaimed, while weeping: “All my other sons breastfed, except for Omar who refused from day one. God was preparing us and we had no idea.” Mohammad said that he was waiting for his baby to be declared well. Then, he would return to home with Omar. “I will care for him and bring him up on my own,” he told the press.

The 11-day clashes between Israel and Palestine killed 61 children till May 21 when Israel and the Hamas agreed a truce set by Egyptian mediators. However, many children were still trapped in the rubble, with little hope of survival. The Israeli Army claimed that it gunned down more than 100 Hamas militants! It further claimed that members of the Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, but pragmatic, militant and nationalist organisation had fired hundreds of rockets at the Israeli territories, prompting the Army to retaliate. As per a statement issued by the Government of Israel, 12 Israelis were killed in Hamas attack.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Health slammed the Israeli Armed Forces for destroying the only COVID-19 test centre in Gaza. It created a great uncertainty about the Coronavirus test of the Palestinian people. It may be noted that the rate of infection is very high in Palestine.

Although Israel has claimed that it is targeting the armed militants, including from the Hamas outfit running the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Groups have repeatedly condemned strikes that killed Palestinian women and children in the overcrowded territory of some two million inhabitants.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das