As of October 12th, 2023 the Israeli Air Force reported over 6000 bombs were dropped on the roughly 140 square miles that make up the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip was home to nearly 2 million people and is comparable to the size of Las Vegas with 3x the population. That equates to over 42 bombs per square mile Palestinians have endured the past six days. After several days without an electricity supply, water, food, or aid, it is impossible to capture an accurate civilian death toll in Gaza.

Israel defends the air strikes as targeting Hamas, but nearly 70 Palestinians evacuating to South Gaza ahead of Israel’s threat have been killed by targeted airstrikes, with most of those victims reported to be women and children. Thousands of homes reduced to rubble has displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and with Israel’s threat to evacuate North Gaza, the remaining families must decide if they should leave their homes behind, or stay behind with what little they have left. Both options have deadly consequences as bombed streets make travel impossible and unsafe while visibility creates an easy target.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) an international, independent, medical humanitarian organization previously known as Doctors Without Borders, posted on X that Israel has given the Al Awda Hospital located in Northern Gaza, just two hours to evacuate. The post was updated two hours later to inform that the mandatory evacuation has been postponed to 6am and the evacuation of patients remains complicated. The hospitals were already facing a humanitarian crisis with several thousand injured patients needing care with supplies running out and aid being blocked from entry.

MSF International quoted their General Director, Melinie Nicolai on another post on X stating “Gaza is being flattened, thousands of people are dying, this must stop now. We condemn Israel’s demand in the strongest possible terms.” The post was followed by an update that said “We are talking about more than a million human beings. “Unprecedented” doesn’t even cover the medical humanitarian impact of this.”

To read about the work MSF is doing or to donate visit their website here.

It’s impossible to capture the dread in Gaza right now; without electricity and minimal cellular signal, families abroad worry as the hours go by with no updates. Boots on the ground updates from journalists are becoming less frequent as they focus on survival with at least ten journalists killed by air strikes, and countless more injured.

The Committee to Protect Journalists are working to maintain the safety and report the death toll of journalists and can be followed for updates here.

With the borders of Gaza sealed and nowhere for displaced Palestinians to flee, it is important to acknowledge the ceaseless violence, murder, and human rights violations committed by Israel as genocide. To read the United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor report on Israel from 2022 visit the official report here. It is a comprehensive official report of the atrocities Palestinians have long experienced under Israel occupation prior to the October 7th attack.

With no end in sight for Palestinian civilian suffering and nowhere to go, it is imperative to demand justice, and for Israel to face judgement for war crimes they’ve committed at the International Criminal Court.