True Heroes: Israel’s Deliberate Target of Municipalities

By Aseel Ghaben

Gaza (Quds News Network)- From day one of the war in Gaza, Israel’s stated aims weren’t confined to only eradicating Hamas and destroying its military power, besides, Israel was vividly keen to leave a zionist footprint on every Gaza wall, street, and cultural landmark; to find a dummy picture they could cling their victory upon. That has been characterized by massive devastation across the besieged strip.

Throughout their blatant attacks on civilian houses, hospitals, mosques, universities, municipalities, and civilian headquarters, Israeli occupation soldiers meant to promote to their people how powerful the Israeli army is that “can reach every corner in the strip and can destroy, without limits, whatever confronts them.”

Among the Israeli targets, since the onset of war, were municipality staff and their workplaces, in which Israel bragged previously about turning Gaza into the “Stone Age”.

Since October 7, the Israeli army has destroyed the headquarters of the municipalities of Gaza, Al-Zawayda, Al-Zahraa, Khan Yunis, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Rafah, and others, killing almost all municipal leaders as well as workers, according to Gaza Government Media Office.

Israel’s destruction of infrastructure prompted experts to announce Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and Al-Shuja’iyya disaster areas, yet the people of Gaza have insisted on calling those working in the humanitarian and service field true heroes.

Shadi Jamal Azarah, “the rose-colored man” as his neighbors used to call him, fell victim while on duty to Israel’s apatite for killing. Azarah headed the account department at Al-Bureij municipality in the middle area and was in charge of distributing cooking gas to civilian displaced people in the camp.

I met the Azarah family and navigated with them Shadi’s work during the genocidal war.

Killed Without Drinking Cold Water

The 48-year-old Palestinian Azarah was en route towards the Abu Hameesa school, an UN-run school when an Israeli airstrike attacked the southern part of the school as well as the minaret of Al-Rahman Mosque near Da’abes roundabout in Al-Bureij camp, in the Middle area.

Hurried and overwhelmed with the list of names of people who registered to receive gas cooking tubes following a long cutout, Shadi was hit with a metal shrapnel that went directly into his heart.

The shrapnel that hit Shadi and came out from a tank shelling on Al-Rahman mosque inflicted about five other people taking shelter in the school, moderately wounding them.

“He tottered several times, walked a short distance toward the heart of the school, then collapsed as if a mountain split into pieces,” said his neighbor, Mohammed, who was in the school waiting for his turn to receive an aid box.

“My brother passed away with a smile on his face shortly after,” Rami, the older brother said, recounting that he was also in the school’s administration room, reforming the ceiling and lambs when someone came from afar screaming and telling him that his brother, Shadi, is breathing his last.

For Shadi’s mother, Om Rami, his death marked the hardest shock to her heart, like thousands of bereaved mothers who lost their sons in cold blood, especially since he was an active assistant in their store for renting brides’ dresses.

“He was an obedient and soft-hearted son. Just some hours before going to school, he told me to prepare some food and cold water so that he could break his fast after a long hot day. He was killed before drinking the cold water I prepared for him, but the solace is that he was killed fasting his day,” Om Rami added while bursting into tears.

Abu Rami revealed that when they asked Shadi to stop serving in a gas file in fear of any Israeli attack after they saw that municipal personnel were also in the crosshairs of Israel’s deliberate target, he went to a Sheikh and asked if he could continue to serve his people, would this be constituted disobedience to parents.”

“He returned to us with gleefulness filling his heart after the Sheikh said NO and told him to continue his duty,” Shadi’s father added.

Shadi persisted in his mission to distribute gas until he was killed in the place he spent most of his time in, serving people as much as he could, and leaving behind him a moral legacy to his children.

“Of course, the news of killing my father was difficult, painful, and a tragic loss to us,” said Shadi’s son, Muhammed, who is a third-year student in the medicine faculty at Al-Azhar University, clarifying that his father’s death came as his siblings are still young and they may not be able to handle life as much as in the presence of their father.

“We are not the first family who lost precious ones. All Palestinians are suffering in different ways. This war has stolen everything beautiful from our hands,” he concluded.

Deliberate Assassination Attempts

It was the evening of June 6th when Shadi was killed and moved to Al-Awda Hospital in Al-Nuseirat before he was buried by the family and neighbors in his hometown, Al-Bureij, the next day.

“He was serving his people and fasting to Allah the day he was killed,” said Om Rami, referring to his good end.

As a municipality member who was active in the service field during the war, Shadi, along with other three municipality colleagues, survived several assassination attempts by the Israeli army before his killing.

An hour before he was killed, he went to print papers including the names of the beneficiaries registering in the gas file, and an Israeli airstrike hit a nearby place, damaging a house and wounding some passerby people.

He survived the attack knowing very well he would be in the crosshairs of any upcoming Israeli assaults.

“When Shadi was going to print the papers and they struck a nearby house, he fell to the ground and then came out of the dust with light wounds in his hand,” Abu Rami revealed.

He continued: “Striking the house was meant to kill Shadi as the gas file was in his hand, but the strike was somewhat late to hit him directly.”

Two days before this attack, Shadi and three other colleagues were gathering at Nour family house near the main market roundabout in the camp, where they were discussing matters about gas management and distribution. Their gathering didn’t last more than half an hour so they survived three missiles on the house.

Abu Rami explained that the eastern part of the house was attacked as soon as the three stepped out of the door’s threshold, which caused them some injuries.

“Two days following this incident, we were excruciated by his killing,” Shadi’s father, Abu Rami, concluded.

Two days before the killing of Shadi Azariah, the Israeli military was waging an escalation on Al-Nuseirat camp in the Middle area, where it assassinated the mayor of Al-Nuseirat camp, Dr. Iyad Ahmad Al-Maghari, along with a group of citizens and municipality workers. They were killed on duty serving people, like Shadi and other hundreds of municipality workers.

Rights groups stated that the massacre was a war crime. Gaza Government office and health sources said, “This crime is part of a series of crimes committed by the Israeli occupation army against municipalities and their leaders, including the assassinations of the Mayor of Al-Zahraa, Mr. Marwan Hamad, and the Mayor of Al-Maghazi, Mr. Hatem Al-Ghamri in the near course of time.”

Leaders of the families’ union of Al-Bureij viewed the assassination of officials, municipalities’ mayors, and workers in humanitarian and service sectors in the strip as a way Israel has utilized to destabilize the internal front of Gaza and impose a reality that’s compatible with Israel’s aims to intervene in Gaza issues whenever it wants.

Who Should Serve the People Instead?

Israel has been talking about post-war plans, since the beginning of the war on Gaza, attempting to devise plans to find an alternative to Palestinians’ rule.

In doing so, the Israeli army has geared military power to attack security men, police officers, humanitarian aid workers, government employees, and service providers in addition to their civilian vehicles.

Furthermore, they resorted to a plan to divide the Strip into small clans attempting to cooperate with them if necessary; however, the army started to assassinate leaders of the clans on Al-Rashid Street about three months ago.

Israel, otherwise, developed an aid bubble plan by communicating with some Palestinian families displaced to the south and telling them that they are allowed to head through the Netzarim barrier in preparation to return to their homes in the north, believing that these families would accept to work within this plan.

The Palestinian families were aware enough of the Israeli conspiracy and knew they would be ambushed so they rejected it.

As a ceasefire deal is looming and negotiations are still on the table, these days, and with Netanyahu’s address to Congress in Washington, news leaked about a secret meeting between Netanyahu, UAE, and the USA in the Emirates handling the post-war day.

On July 23rd, Israeli media reported that Netanyahu demanded that the UAE send its forces to Gaza, rebuild it, and control the education system and curricula.

Some days earlier, Lana Nusseibeh, an assistant Minister for Political Affairs in the UAE, called for “a temporary international mission that responds to the humanitarian crisis, establishes law and order, lays the groundwork for governance and paves the way to reuniting Gaza and the occupied West Bank” in an opinion article she published in the Financial Times.

Legal experts believe that there should be an “equivalent conflict” between two “equivalent powers”, states in a bid for international force to be sent; otherwise, in a situation like Palestinians living under the fire of war for ten months and most of the casualties are children, humanitarian missions and international efforts to save them should be respected.

Several Palestinian organizations, institutions, figures, and factions also unanimously stated that sending international powers to govern Gaza contradicts the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

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