Israel began bombing Gaza following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, where they killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 260 people. Since then, the IDF has forcibly displaced a million Palestinians from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip, only to expand its indiscriminate bombing to the very place it told people to seek refuge.
As we go to print, Israel is intensely bombing Khan Younis, south Gaza, forcing residents and refugees to move to Al-Mawasi.
The question of how the narrow coastal Bedouin town (one kilometre wide and fourteen kilometres long) is supposed to host 2 million Palestinians is of no interest to the occupying force. Its aim is to ultimately ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Will the world allow it? Only time will tell.
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, said there was “grave danger that what we are witnessing may be a repeat of the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 Naksa, yet on a larger scale. The international community must do everything to stop this from happening again.”
“Israel has already carried out mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians under the fog of war,” the expert said. “Again, in the name of self-defence, Israel is seeking to justify what would amount to ethnic cleansing.”
The rationale for the indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians was laid down by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu at a press conference, when he likened Palestinians to the biblical Amalek tribe, widely seen as the archetypal enemy to the Jews. “You must remember what Amalek did to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.”
The Old Testament orders an ‘attack on the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle, and sheep, camels, and donkeys.’
A senior far-right member of the Israeli government said Gaza could not survive as an independent entity and called for the exodus of Palestinians.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said: “I welcome the initiative of the voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world. This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the entire region after 75 years of refugees, poverty, and danger.”
To justify the unjustifiable: cutting off water, electricity, fuel, and food to Gaza, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant branded its occupants “human animals,” a language that human rights experts around the world say exemplifies the “dehumanisation” process that precedes genocides.
As we go to print, an Israeli air strike on the UN-run Al-Fakhoura school in Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza killed more than 200 civilians, including children, and injured many.
Four premature babies died in the largest hospital in Gaza, Al Shifa Hospital, due to the Israeli siege. Fifty five Palestinians died in the hospital because of a lack of medical supplies.
Israel ordered patients and medical staff to evacuate the hospital, which doesn’t have ambulances to transfer patients. Thousands of Palestinians taking shelter at Al Shifa Hospital were forced to leave by Israeli soldiers.
To date, over 12,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 5,000 children, 3,300 women, and 30,000 injured. Twenty-five hospitals have been destroyed, and 200 medics and 56 journalists have been killed.
Amnesty International deemed the Israeli army’s order to people in northern Gaza and Gaza City to “evacuate” to the south an ineffective warning amounting to forced displacement, a violation of international humanitarian law.
Worse still, hundreds of thousands of Gazans who fled to the south of the enclave are now being told to once more move as Israel prepares a full-fledged attack on Khan Younis.
“They asked us, the citizens of Gaza, to go to the south. We went to the south. Now they are asking us to leave. Where do we go?” said Atya Abu Jab, outside his tent where his family, who fled Gaza City, now live, one of a long row of makeshift homes. Indeed, where do they go?
The West, which has the power to end the slaughter of Palestinian civilians, is not only content to watch Israel’s indiscriminate bombings and destruction of Gaza; it is aiding and abetting it through increased aid and unwavering political support.
The UN has consistently recognised that Israel is flagrantly violating international humanitarian law.
As repugnant as the West’s role in one of the deadliest genocides against Palestinians is, the global south’s and, more notably, the Arab and Muslim countries’ reluctance to lend sanction to their pleas for a ceasefire has reduced their criticism to little more than grandstanding.
In the UK, both the Conservative government and the opposition Labour Party have refused to call for a ceasefire to prevent the deaths of more innocent Palestinians, with only the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party supporting one.
However, with abhorrently mounting civilian deaths in the enclave, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is following US President Joe Biden’s attempt to downplay his complicity in blatant war crimes. “I have been consistent from the start that while Israel has a right to defend itself, it is important that it comply with international law,” he said.
However, when pressed by The Muslim News on which international law Sunak believes Israel has broken, a spokesman for the PM did not answer, implying that Sunak is either reluctant to say it in public or that he does not believe Israel has violated any such laws.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on November 15, the Westminster Leader of the Scottish National Party, Stephen Flynn, eloquently echoed the sentiments of many in the House of Commons on the question of humanity, or lack thereof.“
How much worse does it need to get? In Gaza, 4,609 children are already dead. Babies in the neonatal intensive care unit are dying because they do not have access to oxygen. For Members across the House, this is a question of values and of conscience. Does the Prime Minister not agree that should there be a vote on an immediate ceasefire, Members across the House should be afforded a free vote?” What is happening in Gaza shows there is no humanity left in most Western countries, not for Palestinians at least.
Despite unfathomable suffering—in some cases, the loss of up to 40 family members—Palestinians, both at home and abroad, have demonstrated incredible perseverance and fortitude in the fight for survival, as evidenced by their diaspora determination to continue campaigning even when mourning.
This is evident in the testimonials by British Palestinian families published on page 1 of the paper.
Photo: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. (Credit: Simon Walker/No 10 Downing Street)
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