This piece is written to implore everyone who reads its to say a prayer for the people of Gaza. For a week, Israel had bombed Gaza in response to rockets fired from the strip by Hamas Military Wing. As of writing this, 222 Palestinians have been killed and 1570 injured. Of the dead, there are 40 children and 25 women among the over 150 civilians that have been killed. On the Israel side, 1 person has been killed and 15-20 persons have been injured.
Although the targeting of Hamas is seen as an act of self-defense on the part of Israel, the civilian casualty is very disturbing. A case is of this is the killing of four children by an airstrike on a beach in an area that has not seen any militant activity according to foreign journalists. Calls for a ceasefire have not been to loud as the UN security council is divided on how to carefully draft a resolution that will not offend Israel ,or rather, its right to self-defense.
But the root to the recent conflict can be traced to the collapse of peace talks in April as a result of Israel expansion of settlements in occupied territory. Gaza is a land of 12km by 40km inhabited by 1.7 million people and is the world's most densely populated area.. The continued building of settlements made the Palestinian Authority to pull out of peace talks and apply for membership in a UN organizations as a move to seek a larger UN recognition. The blame of the collapse of the peace talks was put on Israel. Two months later, Hamas and Fatah the two rival factions in Palestine formed a unity government, a move which was welcomed by most EU countries to the consternation of Israel prime minister. Timeline of the war and the situation that lead to it.
- Three Israel teenage settlers were abducted while hitchhiking home.
- Israel blames Hamas and Hamas denies any knowledge of it. It was later found out that two Palestinians with no link to Hamas were responsible.
- Israel launches a search for the abducted teenagers and in the process, kills 7 Palestinians and arrests over 300. Many of those arrested were actually prisoners that were released months before. Houses of suspects were also demolished.
- The bodies of the teenagers were found buried.
- Israelis call for revenge, a call echoed by many government officials, leading to revenge attacks on Palestinians living in Israel.
- A teenage Palestinian boy was abducted on his way home, his burnt body was discovered a few days later with autopsy revealing that he was burnt alive.
- Six Israelis were arrested in connection to the murder and two confessed to the crime and are awaiting trial.
- Hamas in response to the arrest of its members, fires rockets into Israel.
- Israel responds by airstrike.
- Egypt propose a ceasefire which Israel accepts.
- Hamas rejected the ceasefire saying it was not consulted and that terms were not favorable as it wants a long term ceasefire that includes ending the blockade on the Gaza strip, releasing rearrested members and opening all crossings into the strip.
- The fighting continued with the civilians bearing the brunt.
- A five hour truce was negotiated to allow UN humanitarian aid enter Gaza.

We hug bowls of food for iftar while our brothers in Gaza hug the bodies their dead children. The least we can do is to say a prayer for them

I have written the brief "timeline" so as to forestall any negative comments. I am asking you to say a prayer not trade sentiment-laden remarks. if we let ourselves to be consumed with hate, we would be no different from those we hate.

Also say a prayer so that our beloved country win the war against terror. #prayfornigeria

Not forgetting everywhere that is being rocked by one conflict or the other, south Sudan, CAR, Ukraine, Iraq, Syria e.t.c #prayfortheworld #weareallinvolved

PS: please if you do not have anything positive to write, kindly refrain from posting negative comments.

Source: I read most of the news from the BBC and AlJazeera and I have been following the conflict.

may Allah put save our brothers and sisters in the biggest world concentration camp. and shame the oppressors. aptly put I mean your timeline.

UPDATE:
-israel prepares for ground invasion after failure of ceasefire plan with aim 'to destroy tunnels' used by Hamas
-israel distributes pamphlets telling residents in the nother part of Gaza to leave. But to where? note that Gaza has been blockaded by israel and egypt since 2006. Israel controlls the air, sea and land entrances to Gaza. egypt also controlls a part of the land entrance.
- israeli ground offensive starts amids continued land, air and sea bombardments
- civilian death toll rises.
-worst death toll so far occured on 20 july in shujayea where 68 people were killed most of whom were civilians. Among which there are 17 children, 18 women and fourteen elderly persons. Its is reported that bodies litter the street everywhere. A video surface showing a wounded man being shot by israel sniper as paramedics were trying to get to him during a two hour humanitarian ceasefire.
-as of this writing, 573 people have been killed in Gaza, majority of whom are civilians, and over 3000 have been injured so far.
On tthe israeli side, 25 soldiers and 2 civilians have been killed and 101 soldiers injured.
-Hamas claims to have captured an israeli soldier, a claim denied by israel.
- a few hours earlier, an hospital was hit by israeli tank shells, killing five patients and wounding another 50. Its the third hospital to have been hit.
-Hamas has fired 2000 rockets into israel so far, many of which has been intercepted by israeli iron dome defense system. 2 deaths have occured from the rockets so far.
-the 'UN' secretary general and US secretary of states are due in cairo on july 22 for ceasefire talks.
N.B: the role of Egypt as a mediator had been debated, since the new Egyptian government considers Hamas as an off shoot of Muslim Brotherhood which it considers a terrorist organisation and by implications considers Hamas as a terrorist organisation too.
-the US has repeatedly sided israel, though it is now demanding a ceasefire.
-Hamas wants any ceasefire plan to include lifting of the blockade on Gaza, a move israel and egypt is reluctant to accept.

I still iterate my calls for a prayer for the people of Gaza. For the defenseless children, women and elderly that have nowhere to go and no bomb shelters to hide. May Allah bring then peace and succor.

Not forgetting all civilians also caught up in the ukrainian crises, the syrian war, CAR crises and other trouble spots in the world.

Last but not least,may Allah give us peace in our dear country Nigeria.

I express condolence with the victims of Kaduna and Kano bomb attacks and pray that the perpetrators of these attacks are brought to justice and made to face the full wrath of the law, not forgetting the wrath of Allah that will surely be visited on them also. May the enemies of peace in this country be put to shame.

UPDATE

Death toll now stands at about 1,110 on the Palestinian side with majority of them civilians and 55 Israelis consisting of three civilians and 53 soldiers
-Fighting resumed on Monday 28 July after about 12-18 hours of humanitarian ceasefire
-On 24 July a UN school that was sheltering refugees was hit in Gaza, killing 16 and injuring 150. It came a few days after some weapons were discovered in a vacant UN school by UN Human Rights inspection team. No warning was given before the attack according to the director of UNRWA.
-Ceasefire plans proposed by US secretary of states have been rejected by Israel and the Palestine Authority with Israel criticizing John Kerry.
-On July 28, ten people including nine children were killed when a missile struck a playground in a refugee camp. Israel denies it carried out the attack saying a Hamas missile that landed short was responsible, while Hamas said it was an israeli missile and that it had collected shrapnel at the site of the attack to show that it was an israeli missiles.
-An israeli missile struck a clinic close to the hospital where victims of the attack on the refugee camp were taken.
-At least another five Palestinians, including three children, were killed in other attacks on Monday. A four-year-old boy died when tank shells hit his family's house, and another person was killed by tank shelling in a separate incident.
-4 israeli soldiers and 12 people were injured by mortar attacks in southern israel.
-In New York, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council called for "an immediate and unconditional humanitarian ceasefire". while it was the council's strongest statement yet on the Gaza war, it was not a resolution and therefore not binding.
-Hamas wants israel to withdraw its army as a precondition to any long term ceasefire which must include lifting the blockade on Gaza and easing economic restrictions on Gaza, while israel wants the demilitarization of Gaza as precondition to talks and any ceasefire agreement. These irreconcilable differences remain an obstacle to ceasefire agreements.
-There have also been protests in Occupied West Bank and Jerusalem against the war in Gaza with protesters clashing with police resulting in the deaths of about 7 protesters.

Lets keep praying for the citizens of Gaza and hope that a ceasefire is reached soon that will not only end the present suffering of the people there, but also leads to lasting peace in the strip.

Also pray for all conflict zones in the world which includes but not limited to CAR, South Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine e.t.c