Amjad Mehmood
—The innocent Palestinians of Gaza City have been facing deadly carnage from the Israeli forces since October 7, 2023. According to media reports, over 12,000 innocent Palestinians including a minimum of 4,500 children and females are martyred by Israeli forces while thousands more are missing or inhumed under the debris.It’s been over a month since Israeli missiles invaded Gaza Strip, a land of 2.3 million population. The destruction is unprecedented as a result of Israeli government’s inimical approach by violating all of war rules and launching the most intense bombing campaigns inrecent history. Reportedly, Israeli forces launched 12,000 attacks across the besieged territory of Gaza from October 7 to November 1, 2023.
According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, as reported by Al-Jazeera, Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the Gaza Strip since the start of war which is equivalent to two nuclear bombs. To compare the intensity of explosives showered on Palestinians in Gaza, one can easily understand that the nuclear bomb “Little Boy” dropped by the US on Hiroshima in Japan during World War II generated 15,000 tonnes of high explosives which destroyed everything within a one-mile radius.
Al-Jazeera reported that according to satellite image analysis based on Sentinel-1 radar data by researchers Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University, about 18% of overall buildings in Gaza Strip have been damaged since the start of war. This damage is further categorized as 30-40% in North Gaza, 24-32% in Gaza City, 6-9% in Deir el-Balah, 5-8% in Khan Younis and 3-5% in Rafah.
The recent satellite images and photographs that surfaced on media platforms show that buildings in the entire city are leveled to the ground including hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, and homes. Food, water, communication, internet, and medical systems in Gaza were completely trampled after Israeli forces attacks. The reports collected by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), World Health Organization (WHO),and the Palestinian government depict that about 222,000 residential units were damaged with more than 40,000 completely destroyed while278 educational facilities, 270 healthcare facilities, 9 places of worship, 45 ambulances and 11 bakeries areeither damaged or completely destroyed as a result of Israeli attacks up to November 7, 2023. The largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip, Al-ShifaHospital is one of 270 healthcare facilities that the Israeli military has attacked.
The traumatic situation in Palestine jolted the world and protests started everywhere including in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, and Asia against the Palestinians’ genocide. The millions of protesters chanted against Israeli provocations and stressed upon their governments and world superpowers to stop the war in Gaza.
The British Empire took control of the area known as “Palestine” after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire which ruled in the Middle East during World War I. The tension between Jews and Palestinian Arabs started when the United Kingdom started to establish a ‘national home’ in Palestine for Jewish refugees. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, a pledge made by then Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Britain’s Jewish community set the tone of the century’s biggest dispute over the peace of land. This declaration was also endorsed by the newly-created League of Nations (later formed as the United Nations) in 1922.The number of Jewish refugees in the state of Palestine grew significantly between the 1920s to 1940s as a majority of them were fleeing from persecution in Europe, especially the Nazi Holocaust in World War II. The Jewish settlement in Palestine caused the violence between Jews and Arabs. Later in 1947, the United Nations voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish (Israel) and Arab (Palestine) states, with Jerusalem becoming an international city.In 1948, incapable of solving the problem, Britain withdrew and Jewish leaders declared the creation of the State of Israel.
BBC News in its recent report explained the history of the Israel-Gaza war stating that Israel occupied East Jerusalem, West Bank, most of the Syrian Golan Heights, Gaza, and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsulaasa result of the 1967 war and pushed thePalestinian refugees and their descendants to live in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in neighboring Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. The Israeli government never allowed the Palestinians to return to their homes considering them a threat to its existence as a Jewish state. Currently, Israel occupies the West Bank and claims the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, and contrary to this Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as their capital. The United States is the only country on earth that recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital during President Donald Trump’s regime. During the last 50 years, Israel has built settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and made the place home to 0.7 million Jews. The United Nations Security Council considers these settlements illegal under international law however, Israeli obduracy admits no law in the world and no rules of humanity.
Media has very limited access in the war zone in Gaza and communication systems are completely wrecked by Israeli forces attacks. The reporting about actual damage on the ground is quite a difficult task hence, embedded journalism through military-controlled mouthpieces is at its peak presenting the whole scenario as a counterattack in self-defenseagainst Hamas militants who have launched a targeted operation to damage Israel on October 7, 2023. The Jews’ stronghold in Western media is serving the common cause of greater Israel by justifying the war crimes. Turkish and Arab media outlets are reporting to some extent the facts of Israeli forces’ deadly attacks on innocent habitants of Gaza.
Despite the public dissent, President Biden’s government in the US and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government in the United Kingdom completely backing to Israel. The role of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is not more than a puppet. Both global leading platforms restricted their role to request Israel tostop attacking Gaza when already over 12,000 innocent Palestinians have lost their lives and the city is tumbledown.
Palestine and Israel have cherishedvitriolic ties since the British Empire laid the foundation of conflict by accommodating Jewish refugees in the state of Palestine. Over the years, the mighty Israel occupied over 60% of the Palestinian land. In recent media talks, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed his thoughts to remain ‘determined’ to continue bombardment on Gaza.
Peaceful coexistence within the legitimate boundaries is the only solution for Palestine and Israel. Wars just bring destruction and ruin the lives of people for years to come. Gaza is facing non-stop hostility and an inhuman attitude from Israeli forces. The symbolic support of the world is neither stopping Israel from illegal oppression nor healing the wounds of innocent Palestinians. The world superpowers, the United Nations, and influential Muslim countries should play a proactive cum practical role in stopping the carnage of Palestinians by halting Israel to carry out further war crimes.
Photo by Mohammed Al-Masri/Reuters
Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/picture-alliance/dpa/AP