Plestia Alaqad, a young Palestinian from Gaza, has garnered a massive following on social media, with multitudes tracking her live updates from the war-stricken coastal region following the commencement of Israel’s military operations in retaliation to Hamas’s offensive launched on October 7th last year.
At a cafe in Beirut, she speaks of the mix of pride and fear her family felt about her role in conveying “the undiluted truth about the Gaza situation”. They were anxious that she or they could fall victims to the hostilities.
Alaqad, a 22-year-old journalist, and her family had to vacate their home multiple times due to the severe bombardment and repeated evacuation orders by the Israeli army. They finally moved out of the ravaged Gaza in November. Thanks to a relative who secured visas for her family, Alaqad moved to Australia, spending significant time in Melbourne last year until she relocated to the American University of Beirut (AUB) to study in August.
Alaqad received a scholarship named after Shireen Abu Akleh, an American-Palestinian journalist who was killed while covering an Israeli military raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank two years ago. This allowed her to pursue a master’s degree in media studies at AUB.
On beginning her studies at AUB, Alaqad expressed on Instagram: “No matter how many universities are obliterated by Israel in Gaza, Palestine, it will not hinder young women like me from seeking education in our struggle for justice. In challenging times, I find solace in Shireen’s words: ‘it calls for resilience; uphold your spirits’.”
Over a month post her Instagram declaration, however, she once again faced the grim reality of war at her doorstep, as Israeli forces entered the Lebanese border, forcing several poverty-stricken towns and regions to vacate. The Israeli military operation, claimed as a measure to dismantle the infrastructure of the Iran-supported militant group Hizbullah, has been denounced by UN representatives for the severe impact it has been having on civilians.
Lebanese authorities report that over two thousand people have lost their lives in Israeli attacks since the preceding October, and it is estimated that over a million individuals have had to flee their homes in Lebanon, a country already grappling with crisis and ill-equipped to handle their needs. “Witnessing people been ousted from their homes in Lebanon is devastating, especially since I understand what it entails,” comments Alaqad.
Owing to recurrent Israeli assaults on Beirut’s southern outskirts and increasingly the central locales, Alaqad’s lectures have had to be cancelled. “The constant disruption from Israel which affects not just my life, but those of countless others, leaves me exasperated and seething,” she expresses. “Living in a world where my survival in the next hour is uncertain, not knowing if I will ever hear my friends’ voices again, and perpetual displacement, is exhausting.”
In close proximity to AUB, within the Hamra district of Beirut, another Palestinian woman from Gaza is recuperating in a hotel following surgery. Last October, an Israeli attack aimed at her parent’s dwelling in Jabalia, to the north of Gaza city, resulted in Ibtissam Zinati’s right leg being severely wounded. The said offensive took the lives of 22 of Zinati’s relatives including her two children, parents and her siblings.
“Now, all I’m left with is three children and my spouse in Egypt,” Zinati narrates while, in the adjoining room, her daughters Layan (10) and Leen (5) engage in a quiet play with a toy tea set. Their elder brother, Hamza (14) joins them a little later. At the time the airstrike occurred, he was not home, leading to the death of two of his siblings. Leen, however, lost one and a half fingers while Layan had to undergo surgery to remove her liver and a portion of her spleen due to the damage caused.
During the summer, the Ghassan Abu Sittah Fund committed to provide medical care for Zinati’s children at AUB’s hospital, where four other families hailing from Gaza were also being treated. According to Dania Dandashli, a psychoanalyst collaborating with the fund established by British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu-Sittah, the plan was originally for the children. However, it soon became evident that many injured mothers needed assistance in caring for their kids. Dandashli noted, “Every mother present here has suffered serious leg injuries.”
Back in Gaza, while medical personnel managed to extract shrapnel from Zinati’s abdomen, she got no other medical attention for her injuries besides intermittent cleaning, and “very little” pain management, she reported. Zinati underwent her first of a series of surgical procedures after she departed Gaza for Egypt in January. Dandashli revealed that many children and their mothers escaping from Gaza arrived in Beirut with severe infections, their injuries having been neglected since the previous October.
The offspring of Zinati who survived are anticipated to heal physically, yet their mother has deep concerns about the mental trauma they have encountered, with the most impact being observed in Leen, she points out. The young girl of five has in the past, attempted to throw herself out of a window in a distressing call to join her siblings, incited by the fear of Israeli air strikes on southern Beirut, which Zinati tries to explain as mere fireworks. Zinati expresses her fears, not wishing the fate of Gaza to befall Beirut.
Currently finding themselves amidst the chaos of war, Dandashli comments on it as being highly disconcerting. The possibility of treating more children from Gaza in Beirut remains uncertain until a ceasefire in Lebanon is achieved. The nation has already seen the death of more than 120 children due to Israeli strikes since the past October, as reported by the health ministry of Lebanon.
Considering the absence of a dedicated paediatric intensive care unit in southern Lebanon, the fund has redirected some of its energy towards assisting a hospital in Saida to set up such a unit, to augment the survival chances of children severely injured in the south. As Dandashli puts it, the war is wrecking the future of the region and predicts a no victor outcome.
The civilians who have survived the humanitarian crisis in Gaza are witnessing a decline in their living conditions.