The Israeli occupation’s brutal offensive against the Gaza Strip continues at the same time it has intensified its siege on the Palestinians living (and dying) there. The occupation state has created a humanitarian catastrophe in its anger and thirst for Palestinian blood. The Palestinians are told to leave but there is nowhere for them to go when the border crossings are sealed and bombed. Even the &ldquosafe south&rdquo has been bombed.
The latest Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians are reminiscent of what happened in the 2014 Gaza War when 550 Palestinian children were killed 11000 homes were destroyed and Gaza was cut off from the outside world without electricity drinking water or irrigation with everything entering and exiting being monitored and the when and how controlled. There were no supplies of any kind no medicine or medical equipment no spare parts no fruits and vegetables no flour or feed no fuel for cars and even the power plant that supplies the remaining third of the electricity grid was cut off. As it is today.
The Zionist state does not hide its collective punishment to bomb Gaza &ldquoback to the Stone Age&rdquo as former Chief of Staff Benny Gantz boasted in an election video in 2019. In doing so it is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity it is treating international laws and conventions with open contempt and its responsibilities as the occupying power to provide the necessities of life to the people under occupation are deliberately ignored.
To the threat of starvation and dehydration now has to be added the risk of disease because of the lack of clean water and the shattered sewage system. The Palestinian healthcare system is at breaking point with no medicines and medical disposables and no fuel for generators needed to power incubators intensive care units and dialysis machines. Hospitals are grinding to a halt while the casualties mount up in the corridors and medical facilities are being attacked.
The poverty in Gaza is such that hundreds of thousands of people depend on the UN World Food Program and UNRWA neither of which have an adequate budget. It is barely enough at the best of times. This is not the best of times.
How long will the international community enable Israel to act with impunity against the Palestinians?
How many Palestinian men women and children need to be killed before Israel’s bloodlust is sated? US President Joe Biden is reported to be planning to visit Israel soon to show his support. He is misreading the public mood if he thinks that allowing the apartheid state to kill civilians at will is going to boost his upcoming re-election campaign.
In lashing out at the Palestinians the Israeli political and military regime is trying to cover its embarrassment at the security failure which allowed Hamas to attack settlements in southern Israel relatively easily. The image of the so-called Israel &ldquoDefense&rdquo Forces is tarnished forever not only in terms of its capabilities but also its self-proclaimed &ldquomost moral army in the world&rdquo label. Its troops are terrorists in uniform.
Israel is continuing to bomb Gaza relentlessly and the death toll is rising by the minute. The rules of the game have changed so much that the nuclear-armed settler-colonial state has thrown the rule book out of the window. The air force is trying to inflict the greatest possible number of casualties to force Hamas to surrender before the international community wakes up and says enough is enough.
What is most striking is that US support for Israel’s aggression is much more than words from the White House. It has supplied &ldquomilitary aid&rdquo and sent an aircraft carrier naval strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean as if Israel is engaged in a war against another state rather than the largely civilian population of the besieged Gaza Strip.
With thousands of Palestinians already killed including entire families whole neighborhoods flattened and illegal munitions used Israel is exacting a high price from the people of the Gaza Strip for daring to resist its military occupation. The Hamas attack was a symptom of the situation not the cause that lies with the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The fact that efforts are now being made to remove the Palestinians from Gaza altogether either by killing them or driving them into Egypt signals that a new Nakba is Israel’s intended end result. Injustice and oppression can never last forever and Israel knows this. It is bound to fail sooner or later.
– Dr. Adnan Abu Amer heads the Political Science and Media Department of Umma University Open Education in Gaza. His article appeared in MEMO.
