“As the pause is coming to an end in hours, we’re preparing ourselves to face death again… to wake up to find ourselves under the rubble, to spend sleepless nights hearing the indiscriminate Israeli bombing…” these words of Maha Hussaini, journalist and activist from Gaza entail fear for the lives of hundreds of Palestinians as the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas comes to an end. While Hamas announced it was seeking to extend the truce should serious efforts be made by Israel to release more Palestinian detainees, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has informed that he would resume its campaign in Gaza with full force once the temporary truce comes to an end.
With Israel’s brutal aggression on Gaza entering its seventh week, leaders across the Middle East, humanitarian organisations, activists, and associations of civilians across the world have demanded a ceasefire in Gaza. Meanwhile, the mounting humanitarian crisis in Gaza has left over four thousand children dead in Israeli airstrikes while hospitals, schools, and spaces deemed ‘safe zones’ according to international war laws have been ravaged. They lie as graveyards now.
In the fragmented reality of Palestinians, the people of Gaza are expressing their deep sorrow, the pain of losing everything, families, friends, memories and homes. But they stand firm on their beliefs. Beliefs in their right to resist the occupation to win their dignity and freedom, just like the world's other nations.
And far away from Gaza, in north India’s Uttarakhand, a battle continues to rescue 41 migrant labourers who have been trapped inside the under-construction Sylkiara tunnel that collapsed in Uttarkashi. With multiple machines imported to fasten the rescue operations, the process to success gets delayed with increasing hindrance. The tunnel collapse exposes how we stand collectively guilty of ignoring the several warnings of environmental disaster that come with the fragile Himalayan ecology.
Outlook’s next issue explores the two simultaneous circumstances -- First, how the road to peace in Gaza becomes more and more torturous as the old strategies crumble under new rubbles. Second, the cries of the families of the migrant workers who remain trapped inside darkness for over two weeks. Who should they hold accountable?
