REMEMBERING THE GAZA WAR

In 2014, Israel launched a 51-day assault that targeted homes, hospitals and schools and killed over 2,200 Palestinians, 1,500 of them civilians, including more than 500 children. 71 Israelis (66 of them soldiers) were also killed in the same period.

 
 

In partnership with the IMEU and Just Vision, Donkeysaddle Projects published five videos in five weeks marking five years since the assault, offering a powerful and poignant reminder of the human costs of siege and war—while highlighting the hope that springs from the resilience of Palestinians in Gaza.

PART 1

In 2014, Israel launched a 51-day war on Palestinians in Gaza. 11 members of the Al-Hilu family, including 3 babies, were killed when two Israeli F-16 missiles targeted their family home.

PART 2

“They destroyed the place.” Israeli forces shelled a Gaza preschool in Beit Lahiya during its summer 2014 assault. Five months later, remnants of Israeli missiles remained on the kindergarten floor, while Palestinian children built towers from the rubble. The second video in a five-part series takes you inside Kifah’s kindergarten, exposing the impact of Israel's 2014 assault.

PART 3

During Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza, hospitals couldn’t keep up with the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes. A lack of mortuary coolers in Rafah forced doctors to use ice-cream freezers to store the bodies of seven children until Israeli missile strikes subsided. Rafah artist Duaa Qishta’s installation focuses on the slain children who were held in these freezers.

PART 4

In 2009, Israeli forces demolished the Awajah family’s home and killed 9-year-old Ibrahim. The family built their new “dream house,” but during the 2014 assault on Gaza, Israel destroyed that too, severing the olive tree that Ibrahim had planted as a small child. Our video follows the Awajah family from one destroyed home to the next, with Ibrahim’s tree a symbol of resilience, regeneration and the “sumoud” (steadfastness) that Palestinians are famous for.

PART 5

During the 51-day Israeli assault on Gaza in 2014, nearly 18,000 Palestinians homes were destroyed, including Azza Qassem’s, a Palestinian national and women’s liberation activist from the besieged Strip. Our video follows Azza as she walks through what now remains of her family home. “Just Before Dawn” concludes with a note of hope, as Azza reminds her viewers that Palestinians are strong, resilient and will steadfastly remain on their land and hold onto their humanity and dignity.

Azza tragically passed from COVID on September 27, 2021. Please take a moment to read our tribute to this fierce, remarkable warrior for justice.