The massacre of Palestinians continues into its tenth month. According to the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM), the death toll has exceeded 38,000, but these figures are conservative as medics only count those admitted to hospitals. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed neighbourhoods that have yet to be rebuilt.
According to a study published last week by the prestigious British Medical Journal, The Lancet, the likely number of war-related deaths in Gaza is over 186,000: in addition to counting those who died under the rubble, the study pointed to indirect deaths due to lack of food, water and shelter. With almost all of Gaza’s hospitals out of action due to Israeli bombardment, an unknown number of people have been buried in improvised graves throughout the besieged enclave.
For months now, Israel has intensified its indiscriminate bombing of homes, schools, mosques, hospitals, UN buildings and even “safe zones” designated as such by the Israeli army.
On 13 July, Israel fired heavy rockets at a makeshift tent city near Khan Younis, killing more than 90 people, mostly women and children, and wounding more than 300. The Israeli military said the intended target was Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif. However, the Hamas press office later said that Deif was alive and safe. A day later, Israeli warplanes struck a UN school housing only civilians, also killing dozens of refugees.
UN officials say Gaza is no longer safe: nearly 2 million people have been displaced more than once, at least 700,000 Gazans face hunger and severe food shortages. There are more than 20,000 orphans in Gaza, and at least 150 women are expected to give birth every day without access to health facilities.
As reported by Saudi Arab News on 16 July, Israel has been holding the seized Rafah crossing point on the border with Egypt for weeks and all aid deliveries from Egypt have been stopped. The US dismantled a temporary pier that was to help deliver desperately needed food, water and medicine. Israel now controls all checkpoints, preventing fuel, food and medicine from entering the Strip.
Netanyahu uses US election clashes to his advantage
Even Israeli officials admit that Netanyahu is sabotaging efforts to broker a ceasefire for personal reasons. He wants the war to go on as long as possible. He assumes that the Biden administration has exhausted all means of pressuring Netanyahu to end the war. He is using the feverish US election campaign to his advantage, as Biden is weakened, fighting for his political life and facing criticism from within his own party.
The Israeli Prime Minister hopes to prolong the war until after the US elections in November, counting on a Trump victory to buy him more time.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has resumed supplying Israel with heavy bombs while defending the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories. It has pressured the new British government not to withdraw its objections to the ICC President’s request for arrest warrants.
International Court of Justice and UN Court reluctant to accuse Israel of genocide
The International Court of Justice has announced that it will issue an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories on 19 July. The UN General Assembly passed Resolution 77/247 requesting the Court to issue an advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied territories – more than 50 countries submitted arguments on the legal consequences of Israel’s actions in the territories in February.
The ruling is certain to be rejected by Israel and challenged by the US.
Since last October, the Israeli government has stepped up illegal settlement construction in the West Bank and in June approved a major land grab in the Jordan Valley. It is now transferring administration of the West Bank from the military to civilian authorities, effectively annexing the entire territory.
Because of blackmail, intimidation and all kinds of pressure, the International Criminal Court is reluctant to act against Israel, and the UN court has yet to rule on Israel’s genocide. The UN is paralysed while Israel continues to persecute women and children, starve babies and destroy hospitals in full view of the world.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called on Netanyahu to annex the occupied West Bank if the International Court of Justice rules that Israeli settlements are illegal. He said on 15 July, according to the Times of Israel: “No one will expel the Israeli people from their land” (in February, 52 countries submitted arguments to the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Israel’s actions in the occupied territories).
Tel Aviv aims to rewrite the laws of war
The Al Jazeera website noted in a 15/07 article that Israel is trying to rewrite the laws of war: Most people probably don’t know that Wikipedia has a page called “Israeli Kill List“, it starts in July 1956 and spans over 68 years to the present day. Most of those on the list are Palestinians. Among them are well-known figures such as Ghassan Kanafani of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir of Fatah, known as Abu Jihad, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin of Hamas and Fathi Shaqaqi of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Looking at this long list, one can conclude that the number of assassinations and attempted assassinations committed by Israel has increased exponentially over the years, from 14 in the 1970s to more than 150 in the first decade of the new millennium.
However, these numerous killings have not weakened the will of the Palestinians; on the contrary, they have strengthened their determination to see the struggle for their rights through to the end.
An important milestone in this process was the UN Security Council meeting on 17 July, hosted by Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov in New York.
He stressed that an early ceasefire and cessation of violence in Gaza and the West Bank would create the conditions not only for a lasting solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but also for overcoming other flashpoints in the vast Middle East.
Vladimir MASHIN, PhD in History, political observer, especially for “New Eastern Outlook”