"Humanity is Ending Here." Let's Prove That Untrue.

"People like you are the reason why people like me are still here fighting and surviving." -- Hind Khoudary

The smell of death.

Many of you probably don’t know it. 

But every Palestinian knows how it smells.

It has like a sweet smell

not stinking, but a sweet undertone

almost as if it wanted to make fun of it all.

Very sweet, very lovely

and then ending up like this. 

—Maria B. Canaan, 18

In the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, at least six children and one adult male medical worked died of hypothermia in Gaza. The children are

Aisha al-Qassas, 21 days old,

Ali Issam Saqr, 23 days old,

Ali Hussam Azzam, 4 days old,

Sila al-Fasih, 14 days old,

Jumaa Butran, 1 month old,

and Ali Outran, Jumaa’s twin brother, 1 month old.

Imagine being pregnant, houseless, in a genocide. Imagine going through labor with little to no medical assistance or support. Imagine the rays of joy your infants bring you amidst such horror. Imagine your hope and fear for their survival.

Imagine your grief at their deaths.

Say their names. Say a prayer for their families. I don’t think you need to pray for their souls because I’m pretty sure they caught the express bus to heaven.

I will spare you the portraits of the children, but trust me when I say you can see that the children were starving, as were their mothers during pregnancy and breastfeeding. It’s a miracle they were born at all.

Being hungry and thirsty are directly related to dying from cold. Without fat on your body for insulation, without moisture coursing through your veins to help regulate your temperature, your odds of survival decrease dramatically.

But people wouldn’t be dying of hypothermia if Israel

a) hadn’t bombed their homes, mosques, schools, hospitals, and every other conceivable shelter into dust with weapons the U.S. and other Western nations continue to supply to them;

b) didn’t keep setting their tents on fire and bombing them; and

c) would let sufficient nylon and other tent-making supplies, as well as blankets, into the Gaza Strip. They do not, and the West allows this inhumanity.

As Truthout.com put it, these infants died just miles from trucks filled with winter supplies that Israel won’t allow into the Gaza Strip.

Every one of these deaths is on the hands of those of us living in Western “democracies.” I don’t know about you but I don’t think there’s enough soap in the world to wash that much blood off.

“You can’t imagine the situation right now. We are all freezing and shaking due to the very cold weather. … Especially those who are in al-Mawasi very close to the beach are suffering from the cold,” reported journalist Hind Khoudary on Al-Jazeera.

To make matters worse, according to both Democracy Now and Al Jazeera, winter storms have flooded thousands of tents, including a makeshift field hospital.

“There’s been a lot of flooding with many tents roofless and the half- collapsed buildings people managed to hide in,” Hind Khoudary wrote to me New Year’s Eve. “Sadly, it’s going to be another busy night as we cross into the new year. Much to do, helping others, kids, elders, injured people, etc.”

“The living conditions are not compatible with human life,” said Dr. Mimi Syed, an emergency medical physician who just left Gaza after volunteering for a month, in an interview yesterday with Democracy Now.

The water supply in Gaza is horrendously contaminated. The filtration, the chlorine, the solvents are not available. Let me rephrase that. They are available but Israel won’t let them in. Residential filtration systems require fuel, which (All together now) Israel refuses to allow in.

For the most vulnerable, this spells disaster. Every child Dr. Syed saw in Gaza has diarrhea. Every child is showing signs of malnutrition. That is leading to organ failure. The elderly face the same risk.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza could potentially die by February from this unholy triumvirate of contaminated water, malnutrition, and cold as they struggle to fight off even low-risk diseases, according to American doctor Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon who volunteered with the European Hospital in Khan Younis (Southern Gaza).

Half the population of Gaza is made up of children. Ninety percent of the population is unhoused. “When it rains, these [temporary] shelters don’t provide any protection from the flooding,” Dr. Syed said. Even adults can’t survive a 50 degree winter if they’re wet constantly for three months straight.

Their sewage system has been destroyed. In Al-Mawasi, the so-called safe zone, “1.8 million people are living in a place that has 121 toilets.” And Israel won’t allow soap into Gaza.

There’s little data available, but based on what is known, Dr. Sidhwa believes at least 60,000 people in Gaza have died of malnutrition alone since October 7, 2023.

Now, a theme throughout this piece has been that Israel is not letting necessities of life into Gaza. But some food, and other necessities do get in. At the moment it’s about 10 trucks per week (as opposed to 500 per day before October 7, 2023).

However, with the complete breakdown of the Palestinian proto-state, gangs have taken to looting the aid and then selling it back to their own people at outrageous prices. News flash: there are opportunists even among the Palestinians.

So when people learn there is a truck coming, they ask for money, because they know it’s the only way they’re going to get food, or clean water, or, sanitary napkins for their family.

There is some nylon for tents, and some food, and some material for blankets and clothing. But the cost of everything leaves much of it out of reach for people in need.

Al Jazeera journalist Hind Khoudary at work

One of the miraculous gifts I’ve received from this horror is my new pen friendship with Hind Khoudary. Hind’s husband and in-laws were able to leave Gaza shortly after the genocide started, but she stayed behind with her remaining family. Israel then killed both her brother and father and destroyed their bakery.

Hind, like most of the rest of Gaza, now lives in a tent. She shares whatever she has with anyone in need. It’s nowhere near enough. So she’s asked for financial help.

My husband and I are in debt from sending money to help Palestinians survive winter in Gaza. It pains me that we have nothing more to send Hind. She calls me her aunt, and I call her my niece and yet, at this precise moment, I can’t help her.

I am humbly asking you, from the bottom of my heart, please help my niece help her people. Hind is an honorable person. Any money you send to her will do good for the people. I know you are overwhelmed by the need and requests for help. In a separate article, I have a suggestion for navigating that going forward.

I am trying to raise just $1,000 by January 8th to help Hind. This is a drop in the bucket, but it is a drop that would give her and her community some help and her spirit some strength.

Her GoFundMe page keeps getting shut down due to unsubstantiated accusations from pro-Israel activists, so she’s working directly with an ally in Britain, using her PayPal account.

For any donors not giving in pounds Sterling PayPal will charge you a fee to make a “gift” to her. I am sorry for this, but for now it seems the only way.

Please, give as generously as you can. Message me privately through Substack and I will give you the current fiscal agent’s information. Please donate as “gift” and under note please put “For Hind Khoudary.”

AND THEN PLEASE SEND ME THE RECEIPT at phillips_val@yahoo.com. Why? Because Hind a) needs to know how much was donated for the people of Gaza to this account and b) she and all the other people in her community pray every day at 3am for the people outside the country who are helping them. In fact, she asked that, if any of you need prayers said for someone, you let her know (I can let her know).

Everyone I hear from who has family in Gaza says this is the best, most efficient way to get money directly to the people who need it.

“Humanity is ending here,” Dr. Syed said while working in Gaza, but clearly she doesn’t truly believe humanity is beyond hope of redemption or she wouldn’t be advocating for Palestinians.

Hind doesn’t believe it either. “People like you are the reason why people like me are still here fighting and surviving because of the support that we received from you and knowing that the world is counting on us. The only hope is to expose all the atrocities here.”

Hind is exhausted but she is the walking definition of a stiff upper lip and a remarkably optimistic spirit. I leave you with her final message to me from yesterday.

“The thing we are most grateful for is to be here to witness this day. The people of Gaza are strong. Insha’allah 2025 comes with peace.”

Please give as generously as you can. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.