PALESTINE
These Last Few Hours Are the Hardest
Who will be the last child to get killed in Gaza?
Ever since last weekend, when I first heard rumors of a ceasefire in Gaza, I was holding my breath. Praying it will bring a reprieve to the people of Gaza. These last few hours are tense. It’s all coming back, if I let it. A 15-month-long reel of maimed and mangled children. I push the unbearable thoughts away.
In his autobiography, Seventy, Lebanese American writer Mikhail Naimy described his experience serving in World War I. The US army sent his unit to the frontline on the last day, as they were negotiating a ceasefire. Spending the night in a makeshift hole under constant shelling, he contemplated how every war had a last soldier killed. Had they ended the war an hour sooner, that soldier would be alive. But then another soldier would be last to get killed. By logical induction, Naimy’s paradox is a solid condemnation of all wars, for every war has a last one to die — a death that is completely preventable.
Except here, they’re not killing soldiers but civilians, even children. Over a hundred Palestinians were killed in the last day, after the ceasefire was agreed upon.
These last few hours are particularly stressful as everyone waits to find out the fate of their loved ones. Soon, the prisoners will be released, but which prisoners? Soon, the borders will open and someone will count the living, and the dead. Which is which and who is who?
With love,
Ramsey Hanhan
Author and Public Speaker
