There are humans in Gaza

THE Mushtaha residential tower stands tall next to a sea of tents in the West of Gaza City. A guided bomb from an Israeli military jet hits its base, throwing debris, dust, and a cloud of ashen hell into the air.

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While the video captures the air barely clearing, and even as we get a glimpse of the building still managing to stand, a second bomb hits. The Mushtaha tower comes down on itself in an explosion that rattles the earth.

There have been mice inside the tower, and insects. Cockroaches and their ilk. These insignificant creatures stand no chance as the world literally collapses around them. With no one to explain what is happening, no one around to evacuate them, the mice and the cockroaches die in their hundreds and thousands, and the former tower becomes their tomb.

The Mushtaha is not the first residential building to crumble upon its residents in Gaza. We know it was not the last, and the way things are going, it seems many more will meet the same fate. But I know something that those who bring these buildings down do not seem to know, for I have seen the videos. Many videos, every day. It is not just mice and cockroaches that live in Gaza.

Therefore, heed my advice, O Israeli soldier: be gentle with that trigger, for there are humans in Gaza.

There are humans in Gaza, living inside those very buildings, like Abu Salah Khalil and his family that lived in the Mushtaha tower. As reported by Al Jazeera last week, until they received evacuation orders just 30 minutes before the attack, the building "had become a shelter for Abu Salah's family members, including his elderly parents, his brother's family, and his own wife and children —17 people in total."

Abu Salah's father had lost the use of his legs in an attack on their previous home in Gaza, and he was carried down by his son. In the crowded stairwell, Abu Salah lost track of his own children while he was attending to his father. Somehow everyone managed to get out on time. Not long after that, the bombs arrived.