Horror in Gaza

The terrorist Israeli state is ramping up attacks on Palestinians as new reports show a much higher death toll than previously reported.

 

Over the past week there have been numerous attacks on sheltering civilians. Airstrikes killed 90 people and injured more than 300 at the al-Mawasi camp. People were told they were in a safe zone and were still bombed while in their tents. 

 

There were also five separate Israeli attacks on Palestinians trying to shelter in UN schools. At one school, hundreds were watching a group of youth playing football when the bombs started falling. More than 100 people were injured and 30 were killed. 

 

The Israelis will not allow the Palestinians a single hour of peace.

 

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) are once again demanding that Palestinians leave Gaza City as they prepare their next invasion. More than 300,000 people have been forced out of the city as the attacks increase.

 

In the Shujayea neighbourhood in Gaza City more than 60 people were killed and 120,000 people lost their homes due to the IOF assault.

 

The IOF seizes areas and then abandons them. As Palestinians return the IOF unleashes new horrors on those that are trying to find some shelter. 

 

Meanwhile 10 UN investigators released a reportsaying that famine has indeed come to Gaza and more than 20 percent of the population is on the verge of starvation. The report stated, “Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza,”

 

This is a blatant war crime but the Israelis can rely on the Imperial powers—primarily the US to shield them from punishment.

 

Lancet study

 

A new report from the prestigious British medical journal The Lancethas revealed that the death toll in Gaza may be much higher than previously estimated.

 

The Lancet has done studies like this before. For example, they released a comprehensive report investigating the numbers of dead in Iraq after the US invasion in 2003.

 

They count not just the people who have been killed by direct fire but also those who die because of lack of medical treatment or by disease caused by the conditions of the war.

 

They estimate that as many as 186,000 Palestinians, or eight percent of the population, may have been killed in the past 9 months. That is likely a conservative estimate. 

 

The complete destruction of the main hospitals is key to the research and findings but they also took into account things like the spread of infectious diseases—made worse by the destruction of sanitation infrastructure. The Israelis long ago banned many cleaning supplies from going into the strip and these shortages continue to grow more acute.

 

And a recent Save the Children report estimates that the remains of 21,000 children are likely still buried under the rubble in Gaza. This is on top of the more than 15,000 children known to be killed by Israel.

 

Meanwhile Western governments and the corporate media continue to gaslight people with stories of a fictitious ceasefire deal. They complain that Hamas has not agreed to a deal but fail to mention that the Israeli state has publicly said that they will not support any deal that forces them to abandon their fight against Hamas. So essentially the Israelis will only support a deal if there is no ceasefire.

 

Imperialism

 

The Israeli state exists to support the needs of the major Western Imperial powers. From its origins under the auspices of the UK government to recent support from the US, Israel can be relied upon to be the outpost of the Imperialists in the Middle East. As Biden himself said, “If Israel didn’t exist we would have to invent it.”

 

This is behind the foot-dragging on the question of the ceasefire deal and the reason why the US will never truly challenge the Israelis’ conduct.

 

It is the movements on the ground in both the major Imperialist nations and the resistance in the region that will end the horror.

 

The Gaza genocide is a central fault-line in our world today and is reshaping political consciousness on a mass scale. The direction of the struggle will have repercussions for decades to come.

 

Israel is key to Western dominance of the Middle East, which means that the apartheid state has unlimited support. 

 

The reduction in coverage of the genocide and the onslaught of pro-Israel propaganda in our mainstream news shows that the ruling class is united in their support for the Imperial project. 

 

And the Canadian government is in lockstep with the US and the other Western Imperialists. That means we must continue to focus on Trudeau's support for the genocide in Gaza and up the pressure to stop both arms sales to the Israelis and to stop buying Israeli made weapons.