On the 23rd, the 17th day of the war that broke out after a surprise attack on Israel by the Islamic militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, the number of deaths in Israel and Palestine approached 6,500. Of these, 77% (about 5,000 people) are estimated to be Palestinian. In order to convey the voices of Palestinians who suffered as much as Israel, this newspaper interviewed residents of the West Bank, where the Palestinian autonomous government is located, and Palestinian students living in Korea.
Fatim Mohamed Ali (24), who works as a dental hygienist in Palestine/Provided by myself.
Fatim Mohammed Ali (24), who works as a dental hygienist in the West Bank of Palestine, told this newspaper on the 23rd, “After the war between Israel and Hamas, the tyranny of the Israeli military has become more severe not only in the Gaza Strip but also in the West Bank, and the number of Palestinians being beaten to death is increasing.” “I hope the Korean people also understand the cruel reality faced by Palestine,” he said. The reason why Ali, who likes Korean dramas, chooses ‘Mr. Sunshine’ as the most impressive work is because it deals with the independence movement during the Japanese colonial period. He said, “Just as the people in this drama suffered from Japanese oppression, the people of Palestine are still struggling to live every day,” and “I think Koreans know better than anyone else what it is like when another country invades their homeland and tries to exterminate their people.” did.
Eight years ago, Ali’s older brother lost his life while fighting against Israeli soldiers. It is said that at that time, the Israeli army invaded Ali’s house, ransacked the entire house, and kidnapped his father. Ali claimed, “Israeli troops still frequently beat Palestinians and treat them like animals.” However, he said, “I don’t think all Israelis want war,” and “Israel’s current Benjamin Netanyahu government, which only wants to destroy Palestine, must take responsibility for this situation.”
On the 23rd, the 17th day of the war between Israel and Hamas, the number of Israeli and Palestinian deaths approached 6,500. Of these, about 5,000 are estimated to be Palestinians. The photo shows a villager holding an unconscious child in an Israeli airstrike in a village in the central Gaza Strip, a Palestinian autonomous region, on the 18th (local time). /AFP Yonhap News
Ali said that one cannot understand the background of this war unless one truly knows the hellish life of Palestinians, which is no different from being imprisoned. In addition to controlling various resources such as water and electricity, they also took away the privacy of Palestinian residents by monitoring all communications, including the Internet. He said, “Previously, people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were not able to change their residence at will, and even when they went out, they had to be subject to frequent and cruel checks by Israeli soldiers.” He added, “In this case, if there is any content related to ‘Hamas’ on the smartphone, no “There were numerous cases of people being severely beaten or imprisoned for six months without judicial protection,” he said.
He argued that Israel is advertising to the international community that they are innocent and that Hamas is a terrorist, but in fact, the exact opposite is true. Israel is harming civilians by indiscriminately bombing homes, schools, hospitals, and stores in this war.
“I worry every day about the fate of my relatives remaining in Gaza. “The 17 neighbors who recently lost their lives in an Israeli airstrike are all my mother’s acquaintances.”
Sabah Abu Attaya
Saba Abu Attaya (20), a Palestinian student studying abroad at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, told this newspaper on this day, “I contact my relatives by phone or messenger every day to check on their well-being, but communication is not working properly due to the war.” His biological relatives are still living in the Gaza Strip, and his mother’s relatives have fled to Lebanon and Jordan. After the Hamas raid, Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes devastated the neighborhood where Abu Attaya’s family lived, and the house where his family lived collapsed.
He grew up in Germany, but visited the Gaza Strip several times as a child to see his family. “Israel surrounded the Gaza Strip with a huge wall and created an ‘urban prison,’” he said. “Even free access to resources necessary for survival, such as food and medicine, is difficult. “It wasn’t allowed,” he said.
Abdullah Dwiqat
Regarding Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, kidnapping and killing civilians as hostages, he said, “It is always heartbreaking when civilians are sacrificed in war.” However, he said, “I think it is a very unfair claim by the Western media to demonize Hamas by emphasizing some of its cruelties while not pointing out anything about Israel’s evil deeds of recklessly killing and detaining Palestinian civilians.” Abdullah Dwikat (41), a Palestinian of Jordanian nationality who is pursuing a doctoral degree at Seoul National University, also said, “When Ukraine counterattacks against Russian forces, the entire Western world stands on Ukraine’s side, but why do they turn a blind eye to the case of Palestine, applying particularly harsh standards?” He said.
Palestinians contacted by this magazine argued that the focus should be on the historical context of Israel’s persecution of Palestinians rather than the fact that Hamas’ invasion of Israel was the direct cause of this war. They also unanimously said, “It is very sad that the atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people have not been brought to light, and that Hamas is being condemned as a terrorist group in the Western world.”
They have the view that Hamas’ terrorism is a means of an ‘independence movement’. Dwickat said, “The West accuses Hamas of being a terrorist, but don’t other countries also use weapons to defend themselves when someone invades their land? We also have the right to defend ourselves.” Ali also said, “Hamas is fighting for the independence and freedom of Palestine.”
Nevertheless, they emphasized that, like the West, Palestine also wants peace. “What Palestinians need most now is the right to live in safety, the right to have a homeland like any other people, the right to move freely and the right not to raise our children in fear,” Dwickat said. “We don’t want to fight and we don’t want to use weapons.” “He said. Abu Attaya also said, “Palestinians also want peace where they can live freely together with Jews and Christians.”
Palestinian children hold out their bowls to receive food at a UN school in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on October 23. Since the outbreak of war, Israel has cut off water, electricity, fuel, and food supplies to the Palestinian region, where 2.4 million people live, resulting in chronic food shortages./AFP Yonhap News
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2023-10-23 18:01:24
