Scouring the news brings grim updates from Gaza

Suzan Muhsen embraces her deceased son Tamer — Suzan Muhsen, the eldest niece of the author’s husband, embraces her son Tamer after his death.
Bisan Muhsen

The aphorism that truth is the first casualty of war is matched now with my experience that certainty is the second.

As 300-plus days of genocide unfold in the Gaza Strip, I watch from western Canada, uncertain about the well-being of many loved ones. Our family in Edmonton mines the internet for clues about the fate of family and friends trapped inside Gaza’s deathly prison.

The Muhsen family home in Nuseirat – one of Gaza’s eight official refugee camps, situated in the middle of the territory – was destroyed by the Israeli military on 19 June. Among the reported victims was Tamer Muhsen.

I wondered whether this was the son of Suzan, the eldest niece of my husband Nasser.

Uncertainty gnaws at Nasser’s face as we desperately seek information. Initially, there is no clear answer, but we scour the Telegram feeds of Palestinian journalists who bring the name of every dead body to our living room.

They confirm the news: Tamer Muhsen, 29 years old, a taxi driver, succumbed to his injuries. His father Adel, a taxi driver too (both work with the same taxi), and his two younger brothers, survived that attack but were severely injured.

Our attempts to reach Gaza for updates prove futile; unanswered calls drive us to social media, where Nasser’s niece Eman, in Khan Younis, writes on Facebook: “The news hit my heart like a thunderbolt. I am shocked by his martyrdom. May God grant patience to Bisan (his wife), his parents, siblings and family.”

With Tamer’s death confirmed, our anguish deepens.

Videos circulating on social media show Tamer’s lifeless body lying outside what was once Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital – one of the Gaza hospitals targeted and rendered dysfunctional or out of service by Israeli military attack. His father Adel, who lost his leg, and grieving mother Suzan, are seen kissing his face before he is buried.

After dozens of attempts, we finally make contact with Gaza. Shattered by the loss of Tamer and overwhelmed by grief, Suzan could not bear to speak to anybody, including her uncle in Canada.

Repeatedly displaced

Forced to flee multiple times, Suzan’s family knows displacement all too well. Initially ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate Nuseirat refugee camp, Suzan sought refuge with my brother-in-law, her uncle, in Hay al-Amal neighborhood in Khan Younis. When Hay al-Amal came under attack, they moved on to al-Mawasi but shelter was hard to find and costly in the overcrowded area. The next stop was Rafah.

When Suzan and her family decided to return to their home in Nuseirat, they were embarking on a journey Gazans grimly refer to as the “journey of death.”

Moving in Gaza carries deadly risks. Many people have been shot at, lost their lives or detained along the way.

Tamer Muhsen sits in front of a car — Tamer Muhsen in Nuseirat refugee camp before Israel’s Gaza genocide took his life.
Bisan Muhsen

Like thousands of other targeted homes all over the Gaza Strip, including my own, Suzan’s home was ruthlessly attacked without any warning or justification.

In June, one friend counted 200 homes that had been destroyed while walking through the wreckage of houses of friends, family and neighbors. She said it looked like Khan Younis had been put through a blender.

The violation of international humanitarian law is clear. The hypocrisy of the Western governments providing many of these weapons – or lending diplomatic support to Israel – is also clear.

Sadly, even a new prime minister in the United Kingdom and new US president early next year will not end this hypocrisy. However, we can all work to ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his fascist government, which blatantly calls for and supervises the unfolding genocide, will face justice in an international court for the daily crimes they are committing.

We must hold our governments accountable to ensure the moment Netanyahu’s arrest warrant is issued, he is unable to set foot outside of Israel without being arrested.

This is our task – for Tamer and the tens of thousands of other Palestinian men, women and children killed and injured by order of Netanyahu.

Ghada Ageel is a third-generation Palestinian refugee. She grew up in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza and is currently visiting professor at the department of political science at the University of Alberta.