Beneath the Surface, Lies the Truth

Motasem Ahmed Dalloul is a journalist in Gaza and a specialist on Middle East affairs. He holds a Master’s Degree in international journalism from the University of Westminster in London. Recently, his seven-month pregnant wife Rahim, and two of his sons, were killed by the Israeli bombing. He continues, resiliently, to work as a journalist reporting from the ground, despite the horrors he has personally encountered and the risks that Palestinian Press personnel face.

RebuildGaza24 recently asked him to comment on the current situation, as he struggles to survive the ongoing Israeli starvation campaign, concurring illnesses, exhaustion, multiple displacements, and the continuing genocide after ten long months.

We asked if food is being delivered by aid agencies in the quantities they are implying, especially into north Gaza. The Israelis are claiming that hundreds of trucks are entering the region without obstruction and food is plentiful, despite that we know that famine is at a critical stage. There is an abundance of evidence to contradict the mainstream media statements, which are blindly adopting the false israeli narrative. “Only canned food and white flour are being delivered,” Motasem replied. “The only thing we can get at the moment is canned beans, peas, halawa and chicken.”

“Most of the people in this area,” he added, “have started suffering several illnesses due to the consumption of just canned food, such as malnutrition, loss of weight and constipation, for example.” Canned food is the least nutritious diet; but a bigger concern is the question of tin, aluminum and BPA from the metal absorbing into the food.

BPA stands for bisphenol A, an industrial chemical that has been used to make certain plastics and resins for decades and is used widely in the tinned food industry. The canning process also requires high heat, so the contents have fewer water-soluble vitamins such as vitamin C and B and much larger quantities of artificial preservatives. It also depends where the food was processed as to the dangers involved in a limited sole-canned-food diet. No one really knows the long term implications, but early-day effects are becoming evident with the amount of food poisoning, gastroenteritis, skin rashes and sickness being regularly reported.

“People are also suffering from a lot of infectious diseases due to the polluted environment in Gaza, the scarcity of clean water and the lack hygienic supplies,” Motasem continued. “A striking example for this is evident in those who are wounded: people find they need a lot longer for their injuries to heal even if they are just small bruises or minor scratches.”

We asked him: have you seen any sign of the alleged mass roll-out of Polio vaccines the Israelis are claiming to have sent in last month or is it just propaganda? “I’m afraid it is all just propaganda,” he replied without hesitation. “I myself have children, grandchildren and relatives who need vaccinations, and they haven’t been vaccinated for anything.” Remember this when you next see a slick marketing campaign for vaccinations being rolled out by the foreign Medical Aid Organisations and international NGOs.

Motasem is not the only parent who can debunk the Israeli claim to be monitoring the rising diseases in Gaza. Most wanted to remain anonymous in fear of being targeted for telling the truth, but no one we spoke to so far, has seen any sign, or any attempt, to protect the people of Gaza from any of the contagious diseases being slowly declared as prevalent, or to laboratory test the many skin diseases and virulent rashes simply being labelled as “of-unknown-origin”. But, Motasem added: “If vaccines were indeed delivered, they would be useless anyway, unless there was a secure environment where people could travel and paramedics could receive and vaccinate people safely. The UN appeal for a 7-day-truce to carry out the vaccination campaigns is proof that the Israeli claims are false.”

Finally, we asked Motasem a most difficult question: If there is no ceasefire, what are your thoughts about how you will stay alive? “Even if a ceasefire is reached very soon,” he replied, “it would be difficult for everyone here to survive because repairing the basics of a safe, secure and healthy life will take an enormous amount of time to be restored. But under continuous Israeli fire, we continue living without homes. In northern Gaza, we have neither homes, nor tents.” Without shelter, or a subsistence food source, contaminated soils and the destruction of all infrastructure, finding a way to live and thrive, minus the Israeli bombing, is an unknown chapter of suffering and continued dependence on aid hand-outs — and that’s only if the ceasefire materialises now, abides by the conditions laid out by Palestinian leaders, and is permanent; it won’t come. We are nowhere near the end of the Israeli extermination campaign — we are but a quarter of the way through.

At RebuildGaza24, we aim to provide clean water to as many thousands as we can, and a constant supply, ‘from sunrise to sunset’ as network director Dr Mohamed says. We can’t stop Polio, or turn canned food into fresh produce, or get life saving medicines into Gaza, but if we can extract clean water, then we are doing more than the World Health Organisation, or complicit World leaders, or the international organisations charging extortionate prices for a gallon container.

Our water is free, free to everyone, without giving up their IDs or disclosing information to Israeli, British or American spies, and what’s more, it’s one hundred per cent Palestinian.