Joy in Installments After 466 Days, and Only Four Days Left for the Ceasefire in the Flood of Al-Aqsa War

Written by :  Mohamed Al-Otaify 

                        Sarah Benkraouda 

 

No one could have imagined, as they flip through TV channels, the extent of the joy experienced by the people of Gaza and the families of the Israeli prisoners held by Hamas, in a battle that no one thought would last this long.

In its wake, all human values have committed suicide, and hatred has bared its fangs, justifying vengeance in a manner that cannot even be described as human.

The wheel of war spares no one... deaths, injuries, mourning, destruction, devastation, seas of blood. Displacement, fear, and even terror. There is no difference between homes destroyed over the heads of their residents and shelters packed with people hoping to survive.

 

It is a war that does not know the word  " MERCY ", a term we casually repeat.

 

The mistakes of one group are borne by an entire people, as evidenced by the fact that, in these moments, entire populations dance  and sing merely at the announcement of a ceasefire agreement after more than a year and three months of unending conflict.

We cannot say that there were humanitarian standards respected between the two sides, or even conventions applied in a war that has only grown fiercer day after day . Amid a global sense of despair, with supporters and opponents on either side.

Opportunities arose to end the war during prisoner exchanges, and tears flowed between the prisoners and their families, even as they bid farewell to their captors, setting an example for human science.

Politicians around the world witnessed this. Yet, politicians returned to grow harsher, becoming more brutal as part of a systematic revenge designed to change the human concept and deepen cruelty, perhaps even extracting mercy from our modern lives.

 

We saw prisoners have all their rights violated in prisons, prisoners being shot to death. We witnessed the inhumane treatment of prisoners far from any ethical standards. 

We saw media outlets taking pleasure in broadcasting many stories that should never have been shared in order to preserve human values.

Children survived while their parents died. Many families had their homes demolished over their heads, turning from the living to the dead.

Urban areas were reduced to rubble. Corpses trampled by animals, screams, wailing, and blood. Hunger, no water, no medicine.

Paralysis spread in the ruins, where the only sound was gunfire, and the only scent was that of gunpowder.

This is the state of all of us in this historical moment, which must be recorded for future generations with the blood of the dead in this struggle, to be a witness to the loss of honor and the absence of basic human decency that should embody ethical values.

We have endured a painful experience that has thrown the world off balance, turning what was once moral into something permissible.

This shows that we are entering a new era that recognizes only power, the decline of values and ethics that once imposed themselves, in one way or another, on the world .

We saw hunger and thirst on land that provides food for its people without anyone giving charity, nor throwing their food into the sea like smugglers on the borders who fear border patrols.

We saw ships carrying food and drink for the Israeli people being bombed or stopped in the Red Sea to prevent them from reaching the innocent, much like what happens to the innocent in Gaza .

The world watched as the forced displacement of innocents unfolded, people with nothing to their name except obedience, living their lives in submission between the hands of their captors from Hamas and the enemy of Hamas in this battle : Israel .

The image is bitter, heartbreaking, stripping away every meaning that even comes close to humanity . I can not find a comparison between our world and others, even in the realm of demons and spirits .

The elderly, the sick, children, and even hospitals treating patients, were not spared from the language of war, which threatened them with weapons and forced them into submission to the fire .

In these moments when we feel happiness at the announcement of a ceasefire, we do not want to discuss the numbers of the dead and wounded on both sides or the magnitude of the losses .

Isn't this a lesson that leads us to emerge into a different world, one that carries smiles for everyone, with kindness and peace for the world?

In our world, we must learn from this lesson and plan for a shared future after we leave the remnants of hatred, rancor, and wars behind us. We must chart a new future after we have awakened from this catastrophe. If we were to ask, " Who benefits ?"

The truth is that war must always have a victor, and the victor sets the terms. We do not wish to discuss the terms that ended the war or who the victor is .

What we are concerned with,  is creating a world free of wars.

Here is a war that lasted for an entire year and several months, and we see with our own eyes the extent of the destruction in multiple directions, whether it be urban, economic, environmental, or political.

We will witness the tangible damages on the ground . And here we see the dancing and joy of the people at the announcement of the end of the war.

 

Here we talk about safe societies that believe in peace and in a dignified life that provides happiness, exchange of experiences, and the benefits of human creation on Earth . Without fear or obstacles that limit their desire for a bright new future in which they can realize their dreams and ambitions, far from the shadow of wars and hatred.

This war must first point to those responsible for it and the responses of the enemy to its violations.

What we need is a new international constitution that limits conflicts and puts an end to the hatred that triggers wars and struggles.

We dream of a generation or two that do not see wars or conflicts, but rather a peaceful life with no place for the bloody images we witnessed in the Gaza War, or even in the Russia-Ukraine war.

 

Does the world expect artificial intelligence to write this constitution for us? Or can we write it ourselves through the bitter experience we have lived and witnessed, with all its negative consequences?

 

I have delivered the message... O God, bear witness .