The ongoing suffering in Palestine demands immediate action, as a just and lasting peace is not only essential for the survival of its people but for the integrity of international law and human rights.
As Israel relentlessly pursues the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in Gaza, narratives of atypical and audacious Gazans and international workers are surfacing. Humanitarian workers and doctors refuse to be intimidated by the terror tactics of the Israeli army, euphemistically referred to as the Israel Defence Forces.
An army that has possibly killed 46,537 Palestinians and wounded 108,583 in Gaza in what are not-so-final figures since Israel began its war on the enclave on October 7, 2023, is unashamedly brutish. If one were to wait until the rubble has been excavated, Gazans are certain that these numbers will turn out to be gross underestimates.
The United Nations approximation of the time needed to retrieve the bodies using the rather archaic tools under their control, especially given the trying climatic conditions and with the scorching heat of the summer can only provide a guess. With summer months just ahead, they fear accelerated decomposition of bodies and the subsequent increasing threat of epidemics spreading. The OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) also foresees grave challenges, citing the Palestinian Civil Defense Authority’s assessments that the recovery of dead bodies from the debris would turn out to be a gigantic challenge, owing to a lack of bulldozers, excavators, and personnel.
The situation is nothing short of catastrophic. The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of whom have been displaced multiple times. Entire neighborhoods have been razed to the ground amid unceasing Israeli bombardment across much of the Gaza Strip from the air, land, and sea, wreaking unimaginable havoc. Schools, hospitals, and service institutions have collapsed under the bombing.
Israel’s actions increasingly violate and defy international human rights law, international humanitarian law, the Geneva Convention, the Genocide Convention, and countless UN resolutions calling for an end to barbarism blatantly enacted by Israel. And all this has advanced despite total international disapproval by the international community. The USA has done little to push Israel to alter its primitive and savage war tactics. Instead, it has provided arms, ammunition, and funds to its war against its project of ethnic cleansing. Biden—a desperately loyal Zionist—is using up all resources at the disposal of his government to support the barbarism shamelessly enacted by Israel in full public display. This is, perhaps, the war fought in the glare of television and social media coverage.
Israel has unleashed genocide. The Genocide Convention defines genocide as the committing of certain acts “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such,” including killing members of or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group and deliberately inflicting on the group. The Israeli regime has consigned these and other conventions to scrap.
On November 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court office dealing with the Situation in the State of Palestine received a further referral of the Situation in the State of Palestine, from South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, and Djibouti. On receipt of the referral, the Prosecutor confirmed that it is presently conducting an investigation into the Situation in the State of Palestine, which remains ongoing and extends to the escalation of hostilities and violence since the attacks that took place on October 7, 2023.
On January 18, 2024, the Republic of Chile and the United Mexican States additionally submitted a referral to the Prosecutor with respect to the situation in The State of Palestine presently under investigation and reiterated their commitment to cooperate with the Court. In response, the International Criminal Court has, on the basis of evidence collected and examined by the Office, declared that it had identified reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav Gallant, the Minister of Defense of Israel, bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least October 8, 2023. A Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, was also charged. He was later killed by Israeli Forces.
Each charge has at its root substantive evidence in line with relevant articles in the Convention. These include including the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, willfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health, or cruel treatment as a war crime contrary, willful killing contrary or Murder as a war crime contrary. Multiple other crimes include intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, extermination and/or murder, persecution as a crime against humanity contrary, and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity.
International Response and Accountability
Avid Zionist supporters claim the war began when hundreds of Hamas gunmen crossed from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, and taking 252 hostages back to Gaza on October 7, 2023. Hamas’ attacks must therefore be seen as part of their legitimate resistance to an occupying force to Israel’s Nakba in 1948 and has widened with greater cruelty and intensity with each passing year, and every war fought between Israel and Gaza. In addition to these wars, there have been the Palestinian-initiated ‘Intifadas’ (Arabic for “uprising” or “shaking off.”).
The Palestinians are tired of western hypocrisy which has offered the Palestinians multiple formulas for peace. They have been rejected out-of-hand because those solutions will confirm Palestine as an apartheid State where people will be compelled to live in Bantustan-type ghettos. Mainstream western media, in the main, refer to Hamas’ action as illegal conveniently forgetting that Gaza was reduced to a mere ‘concentration camp’ for 18 years by the occupation.
The people were put under regular threat to attacks and house demolishing, indiscriminate killings of innocent people, notably children, by unconscionable and heartless sharp shooters – some in their teens and whose term in the Israeli army was a mere fun-routine of killing and destruction. It was said that Gaza would be unlivable by 2020 – one of few political predictions that preceded the time frame. After the current war, the situation is going to be dramatically worse.
Billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild Gaza when the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas ends, according to assessments from the United Nations. The United Nations has warned that removing 40 million tons of rubble left in the aftermath of Israel’s bombardment could take 15 years and cost between $500-600 million. The debris is believed to be contaminated with asbestos and likely holds human remains. Rebuilding Gaza’s shattered homes will take at least until 2040 but could drag on for many decades, according to a U.N. report released in May.
The streets around the world are absolutely repulsed by the scenes in Gaza. Anger on the street can no longer be concealed or suppressed. The numbers are large and hundreds and thousands are defying their law enforcement authorities. The people courageously act in solidarity with their defiance. Cities and Universities in the USA and Europe have shown signs of duplicating the Vietnam protests and the anti-apartheid Movement in South Africa. Here too, University authorities and the government have threatened harsh revenge under the influence of the Jewish lobby which functions under the banner of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) which is the largest pro-Israel pressure group in America. 98% of AIPAC-backed candidates won their general election races in 2022. Such is the extent of their political clout and reach.
Although the media does not carry news of anger on the Arab Street, it is common knowledge that the views of the people and regimes are sharply divided. This is, perhaps, the one reason that the shot at ‘normalization’ of relations between Arab countries and Israel remains blocked. Israel hoped that the demolition of Hamas would allow more access to and fro from Israel to the Gulf countries and would further bring them capital and trade.
On January 1, 2025, 450,000 people gathered at Istanbul’s Galata Bridge to express solidarity with Palestine. It also marked the 453rd day of the genocide. They marched from mosques across the historic peninsula and beyond after early morning prayers, beating the wintry chill and carrying Turkish and Palestinian flags. The event was organized by the National Will Platform, a coalition of 308 NGOs. The demonstrators, including the elderly, women, and children, prayed for an end to the Israeli massacre in Palestine before assembling on the bridge, which spans the iconic Golden Horn, to demand international action against the ongoing atrocities. They demanded that Israel “Stop Genocide in Gaza. Boats also supported the protest from the sea.
Bilal Erdogan, the chair of a foundation’s board of trustees, declared: “The “masks of the West have fallen in Gaza. The protesters asked: “Where are human rights? Where are children’s rights? Where are women’s rights? Where is press freedom, freedom of expression? Protesters chanted “Murderer Israel will be held accountable” and “Martyrs do not die.” In the spirit of Palestinian “Sumud” they asserted, “Mothers’ eyes have no tears left, and fathers have no strength in their knees. Every square meter of Gaza has been watered with the blood of martyrs…Our hearts can no longer bear the cries of children, fathers, and mothers. We want this to end immediately.”
The Future of Israel and Palestine
Israel is collapsing. In the meantime, Israel is collapsing. Yitzhak Brik, the former commander of Israeli military colleges and a long-serving army ombudsman said, Israel would not survive a prolonged war on Gaza. Israel is hurtling towards the edge of an abyss. If the war of attrition against Hamas and Hezbollah continues, Israel will collapse within less than a year.” Numerous other Israeli and Western analysts warn that things could easily take a grim turn for Tel Aviv. With the BDS gaining momentum, Israel confronts the real threat of economic boycotts and a push for arms embargoes.
In 2024, more than 82,700 Israelis left for the countries they originated from. A minuscule minority have returned. Some of Israel’s best-known intellectuals like Ilan Pappe, Gideon Levy, Ramzy Baroud, and a myriad of other thinkers, including orthodox (but progressive) Jews are certain that the Zionist project is rapidly drawing to a close. There are thinkers and highly placed army personnel who deem the war as a stupid misadventure.
Despite the relentless pounding of Gaza for the past 10 months, there are no signs that Hamas plans to surrender. The Palestinian resistance group continues to hold hostages and launch hit-and-run attacks on the occupying forces. By contrast, the anger that Israel will leave as the residue of the war will be a vastly larger and more militant generation willing to do anything it takes to reclaim their identity, dignity, and win justice for the rest of their history.
Israel’s army is facing desertions, and more ‘refuseniks’ with the ranks of fighters quickly depleting. Hamas is a resistance group and cannot be wished away using a magic wand. Israel typifies Humpty-Dumpty in the Nursery school rhyme. Netanyahu has placed Israel on the wall and fall, he will. All his colonialist and racist allies will simply walk away and Israel could once again fade into history.
