دمي فلسطيني
The war (well, more aptly be called an ethnic cleansing) in Palestine is one of the most enduring and contentious conflicts in the world today. Quite rightly called an open air prison, Gaza’s people are petrified! Rooted in historical, religious, and political factors, this struggle has persisted for decades and more recently emerged once again. At Zenith, we hold our beliefs firm and unwavering – this is unjust and the aggressors are not held accountable enough.
Before we get into it, let’s lay out some key facts about the current state of Palestine!
- 510 Palestinians have been killed! 2,761 have been injured since clashes started on Saturday
- The population of Gaza is 1.6 million, with over 50% under 18.
- 38% of Gazans live in poverty.
- 54% of Gazans are food insecure and over 75% are aid recipients.
- 35% of Gaza’s farmland and 85% of its fishing waters are totally or partially inaccessible due to Israeli military measures.
- Over 90% of the water from the Gaza aquifer is undrinkable.
“We are at war,” stated Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a recorded statement on Saturday, following a military attack on Israel initiated by Hamas in the early hours.
However, for Palestinians, being at war is an enduring reality that has shaped their daily lives for the past seven decades.
Since the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, which resulted in the forced displacement of 750,000 Palestinians from their towns and villages, successive Israeli governments have committed hundreds of human rights violations, including ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and mass killings, all of which are considered war crimes according to international law.
While Palestinians have long asserted that Israel’s practices are part of a war waged against their very existence, Israel has managed to avoid accountability for its violations, enjoying complete impunity for more than 75 years.
At 6.30 am on Saturday 7th October 2023, residents in Gaza were abruptly awakened by the sound of explosions echoing through the blockaded Strip. This time, it was not another Israeli military assault; rather, it was barrages of Palestinian homemade rockets launched towards several towns and cities in Israel.
According to Hamas, its military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, carried out the attack in response to the desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem, as well as the increasing settler violence against Palestinians.
While the attack is described as “surprising” by many, an escalation of events was undoubtedly anticipated, given Israel’s tightening of restrictions and the increase in assaults across the occupied Palestinian territories in recent months.
In the first nine months of 2023 alone, Israel has killed at least 230 Palestinians, a level of violence that has already exceeded the total death toll during 2022. According to the United Nations, this is also the highest recorded number of casualties in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians since 2005.
During just the first half of this year, at least 1,148 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians were documented. This nearly equals the 1,187 attacks recorded during the entire previous year.
This surge in Israeli military and settler brutality signifies an unprecedented level of violence across all the Palestinian territories, fueled and encouraged by a troubling sense of impunity and a lack of accountability for those responsible. For them, the attack by Palestinian armed factions against Israel this weekend was not so much a surprise in concept as in scale and nature, both of which were unprecedented in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The expectation is that Israel’s response will not significantly differ in nature and impact from its previous assaults on the Gaza Strip.
During its military offensives in 2008-2009, 2014, and 2021, for instance, Israel systematically wiped out entire families, obliterated neighborhoods, and targeted various facets of essential infrastructure in the blockaded enclave.
Residents in Gaza expect that the current Israeli operation will continue for a longer period. However, they have already endured seven decades of brutal assaults and long understood that Israel does not need a specific pretext to initiate another devastating attack on the strip.
Israel’s continuing oppressive and discriminatory system of governing Palestine constituted a system of apartheid, and Israeli officials have committed the crime of apartheid under international law.
