Gaza which is spotlight of global media nowadays due to war between Hamas and Israel is facing a severe humanitarian crisis. The continuous aerial bombardment by Isreal and constant exchange of firing between Hamas and Isreael has trapped twenty five lakh Gazans into a humanitarian tragedy. Gazans lack food, water, electricity, medicine etc. Horrifying videos and images are circulating on social media from day first of this war depicting Gazans in sufferring, pain and trouble shaking the conscience of every good human being. While there have been efforts by international community to send necessary aid to Gaza, however it is reaching slowly to people in crisis due to high intensity of conflict, unwillingness of israeli government to deliver aid to sufferring Gazans and absence of proper distribution mechanism. In this article I have explored ways to send more aid into the Gaza strip so to minimise the pain of Gazans and maximise their pleasure.
To deliver aid more and more with safety both Israel and Hamas has to show respect to international law while fighting so as to minimize civilian casualities. The militarily dominant player Israel should refrain from targeting non-combatants, destroying civilian infrastructure, indiscriminate bombing etc. More and more aid trucks at least eight hundred a day should be sent to Gaza through various crossings. Major powers of the world should use their diplomatic and political offices to contribute towards safe sending of aid. Various international organizations which raise funds and send aid must be encouraged and supported by rich people and governments of various countries.
Stronger powers like US, Britain etc. can drop the aid packages in Gaza at suitable locations through air planes. Maximum diplomatic pressure should be applied on Israel to let muslim countries like Turkiye, Egypt etc to deliver medicines and food through various crossings. Non-governmental organizations like Freedom Floitila which try to deliver aid by directly going into Gaza through sea must be encouraged and supported diplomatically, economically and even militarily by ensuring their security from Israeli attacks as Israel attacked Mavi Marmara in 2010 which tried to break the blockade of Gaza strip leading to killing of nine activists.
If the Israeli government does not cooperate in well deliverance of aid to Gaza, muslim countries like Türkiye having the economic and military potential should do humanitarian intervention in Gaza war by sending aid ships through sea and dropping big aid packages through planes accompanied by Turkish war planes. The Turkish planes carrying aid protected by war planes can land on Gaza, stay their for some hours and warn Israel of devastating consequences if they did not allow reaching aid to Gaza in future. Such a humanitarian intervention will be applauded by almost whole of the world as public opinion is in favour of Palestine now. Though it carries high risk of face to face confrontation between Turkish and Israeli air forces with battlefield ecosystem favouring Israel, Turkiye with faith, reason, science and wisdom can shoot down Israeli planes and establish no fly zone for some minutes in the skies of Gaza whose people are yearning for protection from israeli missile strikes. This intervention can boast Türkiye in the whole muslim world and can be priclaimed as “Leading state of muslim civilization” both in the minds of intellectuals and hearts of 1.3 billion muslims.
Let us end this article with the following song by Haidar Eid who is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Literature at the Al-Aqsa University, in the Gaza Strip
If the sun sinksAnd if a dark wave extends over the world
In a sea of clouds
And you lose sight
Of the road ahead
Oh walker
Oh wanderer
You have no direction (left)
Except the eyes of wisdom’’
Guest Author: Farooq Ahmad Lone, Pursuing a BA via IGNOU works in the Agriculture Department of J&K