Gaza — A defining moment in our moral history

When I arrived in Jerusalem last week, a colleague greeted me with these words: “Traveling here is not just a journey through space, but a journey through time.”

For me it was February. For the people I met in Israel, today is still October 8th.

Across the Middle East there are sources of trauma rooted in the tragedies of history and current wars. From Tel Aviv to Ramallah to Amman, the deep pain people carry from the Holocaust, the Nakba, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, Hamas’s brutal October 7 attacks, and the trauma of Israel’s mass siege. I was shocked. And shelling. Families of the dead, injured, displaced, missing, and hostages live in fear every minute of every day.

We have never seen a humanitarian crisis like this before. Gaza is completely walled off and cut off, without adequate food, water or regular communications. Experts say people in northern Gaza are on the brink of starvation. Disease is rampant, there are few partially functioning hospitals, and there are little or no basic medicines and supplies. Even life-saving cancer and diabetes treatments have been repeatedly blocked.

The little aid that has been granted and delivered is just a drop in the ocean of need. When earthquakes devastated Haiti, Turkey and Syria, satellite phones, gasoline and other essentials in the disaster relief toolkit were brought in. However, restrictions around Gaza have not allowed sufficient humanitarian personnel and supplies to be brought in.

The scale of the destruction, spread over more than four months in what President Biden called “indiscriminate bombing,” is unparalleled this century. 1 in 100 Gaza residents killed. Thousands of children died and thousands more lost one or both parents. More than 60% of houses are goneThe same goes for schools, universities, hospitals, and businesses.

The surviving Palestinians have no way to escape and no place to go. Most Gaza residents have taken refuge in the narrowest areas of the Gaza Strip. My colleagues at CARE, where I am president and CEO, now call the southern city of Rafah the largest and most crowded refugee camp on earth. Further bombing and ground invasions there would mean even more catastrophic casualties and close the main corridor for humanitarian supplies.

Dire statistics alone cannot capture the heart-wrenching scale of the reality. As one CARE colleague said, “The horrors you see in photos and videos pale in comparison to the horrors we are experiencing.” People report eating grass, pet food, and feeding it to their children. Another colleague moved his family four times within Gaza. He described trying to calm his children as bombs rained down and struggling to answer when his 6-year-old son asked, “What’s the grave?” When she learned that her best friend and cousin had been killed.

We learned that a boy among more than 1,000 amputees who lost both arms asked his father, “When will he grow back?” Doctors reported performing an emergency hysterectomy without anesthesia.

As Thursday’s tragedy made all too clear, the catastrophe itself is at a critical turning point. Children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems can die within days from acute malnutrition and dehydration. The spiraling breakdown of law and order due to sheer human desperation and lack of governance systems is extremely worrying.

Only an immediate ceasefire by all parties, the release of hostages, and the urgent restoration of humanitarian and commercial assistance can change this situation. There’s absolutely no time to waste. In a phrase we heard many times, one of my colleagues said: We need a ceasefire to save our lives and the lives of our children. ”

Americans have a special role and responsibility in this crisis. Many of the “dumb bombs” that caused so much death and destruction were engineered and provided by the United States. United States three times; vetoed the ceasefire resolution Before the United Nations Security Council.

This is a defining moment in the moral history of America and the international community. What we do or don’t do now will be etched in time and will determine the lives and deaths of thousands of people and the future arc of the Middle East.

Michelle Nunn is President and CEO of CARE.