Written by: Baha Rahal

404 is not a number found in UN records, Arab summit archives, or UN Security Council resolutions. It marks the days of genocide and forced displacement in Gaza—days filled with bombing, death, destruction, hunger, fear, and thirst. In Gaza, people flee from one area to another, seeking shelter in makeshift tents at the border, exposed to harsh elements. Every day in Gaza tells a story, every hour brings fresh waves of pain. As the war continues, the suffering intensifies beyond what any soul can bear.

The systematic starvation in northern Gaza, combined with relentless bombardment and ongoing massacres, reflects deliberate policies aimed at depopulating the area. These actions, along with attempts to separate central and southern regions, mirror tactics used in the West Bank—fragmenting cities, isolating regions, and imposing a new occupation-driven geographic reality. This includes the partitioning of Gaza, land seizures, the creation of buffer zones along borders, and the establishment of military zones to control all boundaries, including the critical Philadelphia Corridor.

Amid the horrors endured in Gaza, daily life is marked by relentless bombings, massacres, and a siege-driven starvation that has persisted for 404 days. Images of displacement, destruction, and cries of loss and hunger serve as stark reminders of the suffering. People desperately seek refuge, yearning for an end to the massacres and hoping for global intervention to stop the genocide and halt the oppressive plans imposed by the occupation.

Life in Gaza has become unbearable—no hospitals, healthcare, universities, schools, homes, shelter, food, or medicine remain. The occupying forces continue its relentless brutality redrawing the Strip’s geography in a way that threatens the fate of those remaining, following plans of ethnic cleansing and mass expulsion.

The Israeli government is intent on continuing its war of extermination, exploiting the international climate, the American elections, and the victory of Netanyahu’s ally Donald Trump to maximize its gains, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem. This is part of announced plans, most recently the Smotrich 2025 plan, which seeks to establish a new reality in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem. The plan aims to isolate Palestinian cities and villages, placing them under total control and perpetual poverty, similar to a ghetto system, seizing 70% of West Bank and occupied Jerusalem land for settlement expansion, increasing settlers, and building segregated roads. This renders Palestinian geographical continuity—between cities, villages, and the north, center, and south of the West Bank—subject to a gate controlled by soldiers at military checkpoints.

The Netanyahu government openly declares its plans daily and has begun implementing them, allocating budgets, harnessing resources, and preparing allies in the upcoming Trump administration to support its vision of expansion, land seizure, expulsion, and displacement—aimed at emptying Palestine of its people to impose full occupation. This forces us to ask: what are we going to do?

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's views and not necessarily the Association's or donor's opinion.