A harrowing video from Gaza surfaced on social media on Monday, which showed people continuing as normal, seemingly unresponsive to an Israeli airstrike occurring in their vicinity.
VIDEO — “Learned helplessness”: Footage of local people who seem unresponsive and accustomed to Israeli airstrikes reveals reality of daily life in Gaza#HearGaza #IsraeliCrimes pic.twitter.com/vcgRdJptlj
— DAILY SABAH (@DailySabah) May 17, 2021
In the video, people are seen watching casually as a building is destroyed with an airstrike, behaviour Twitter users describe as "learned helplessness."
The death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip has risen to 212, the Palestinian Health Ministry said earlier the same day.
The grim figure includes 61 children, 35 women and 16 elderly people, the ministry said in a statement, adding that 1,400 people have been injured during the offensive.
The Israeli military has staged airstrikes across the Gaza Strip since May 10, leaving behind a massive trail of destruction across the coastal territory.
Ten Israelis have also been killed in Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
In its recent indiscriminate attacks, Israel has also targeted the press and Turkish journalists, drawing condemnation from press institutions around the world.
The airstrikes on Gaza were preceded by days of tension and Israeli aggression in occupied East Jerusalem, where hundreds of Palestinians were assaulted by Israeli forces at Al-Aqsa Mosque and in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.