SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
northern gaza
A Palestinian's Year in Review: Genocide in Gaza
While Israel's desperate attempt to control the global narrative on the Gaza genocide largely failed, the ethnic cleansing continues.
Dec 30, 2024
The story of the Israeli war on Gaza can be epitomized in the story of the Israeli war on Beit Lahia, a small Palestinian town in the northern part of the Strip.
When Israel launched its ground operations in Gaza, Beit Lahia was already largely destroyed due to many days of relentless Israeli bombardment which killed thousands.
Still, the border Gaza town resisted, leading to a hermetic Israeli siege, which was never lifted, even when the Israeli military redeployed out of much of northern Gaza in January 2024.
Beit Lahia is largely an isolated town, a short distance away from the fence separating besieged Gaza from Israel. It is surrounded mostly by agricultural areas that make it nearly impossible to defend.
Yet, a year of grisly Israeli war and genocide in Gaza did not end the fighting there. To the contrary, 2024 has ended where it started, with intense fighting on all fronts in Gaza, with Beit Lahia, a town that was supposedly 'conquered' earlier, still leading the fight.
Beit Lahia is a microcosm of Israel's failed war in the Strip, a bloody grind that has led nowhere, despite the massive destruction, the repeated ethnic cleansing of the population, the starvation and the genocide. Every day of Israel's terrible war on the Palestinians serves as a reminder that there are no military solutions and that the Palestinian will cannot be broken, no matter the cost or the sacrifice.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, remains unconvinced. He entered the new year with more promises of 'total victory', and ended it as awanted criminal by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The issuing of an arrest warrant for the Israeli leader was a reiteration of a similar position taken by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the start of 2024.
The ICJ's position, however, was hardly as strong as many had hoped or wanted to believe. The world's highest court had, on January 26,ordered Israel “to take action to prevent acts of genocide”, but stopped short of ordering Israel to halt its war.
The Israeli objectives of the war remained unclear, although Israeli politicians provided clues as to what the war on Gaza was really all about. Last January, several Israeli ministers, including 12 from Netanyahu’s Likud party, took part in a conference calling for the resettlement of Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. “Without settlements, there is no security,” extremist Israeli minister of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, said.
For that to happen, the Palestinian people themselves, not merely those fighting on the ground, had to be tamed, broken and defeated. Thus, the 'flour massacres', a new Israeli war tactic that was centered around killing as many Palestinians as possible while waiting for the few aid trucks that were allowed to reach northern Gaza.
On February 29, more than 100 Gazans were killed whilequeueing for aid. They were mowed down by Israeli soldiers, as they desperately tried to lay their hands on a loaf of bread, baby milk or a bottle of water. This scene was repeated, again and again in the north, but also in other parts of the Gaza Strip throughout the year.
The aim was to starve the Palestinians in the north so that they would be forced to flee to other parts of the Strip. Famineactualized as early as January, and many of those who tried to flee south werekilled, anyway.
From the early days of the war, Israel understood that to ethnically cleanse Palestinians, they must target all aspects of life in the Strip. This includes hospitals, bakeries, markets, electric grids, water stations, and the like.
The Gaza hospitals, of course, received a large share of Israeli attacks. In March, once more, Israelattacked the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City with greater ferocity than before. When it finallywithdrew, on April 1, the Israeli army destroyed the entire compound,leaving behind mass graves with hundreds of bodies, mostly medical staff, women and children. They evenexecuted several patients.
Aside from a few statements of concern by western leaders, little was done to bring the genocide to an end. Only when seven international aid workers with the charity, the World Central Kitchen, werekilled by Israel, a global outcry followed, leading to the first and only Israeliapology in the entire war.
Desperate to distract from its failure in Gaza, but also Lebanon, and keen on presenting the Israeli public with any kind of victory, the Israeli military began escalating its war beyond Gaza. This included thestrike on the Iranian Embassy in Syria on April 1. Despite repeated attempts, whichincluded the assassination in Iran of the head of Hamas's Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, on July 31, an all-out regional war has not yet come to pass.
Another escalation was taking place, this time not by Netanyahu but by millions of people around the world, demanding an end to the Israeli war. A focal point of the protests were student movements that spread across US campuses and, ultimately, worldwide. Instead of allowing free speech to flourish, however, America's largest academic institutionsresorted to the police, who violently shut down many of the protests, arresting hundreds of students, many of whom were not allowed to return to their colleges.
Meanwhile, the US continued to block international efforts aimed at producing a ceasefire resolution at the United Nations Security Council. Ultimately, on May 31, US President Joe Bidendelivered a speech conveying what he termed an “Israeli proposal” to end the war. After some delay, Hamasaccepted the proposal, but Israelrejected it. In his rejection, Netanyahureferred to Biden's speech as “incorrect” and “incomplete”. Strangely, but also unsurprisingly, the White Houseblamed the Palestinians for the failed initiative.
Losing faith in the American leadership, some European countries began changing their foreign policy doctrines on Palestine, with Ireland, Norway and Spainrecognizing the State of Palestine on May 28. The decisions were largely symbolic but indicated that western unity around Israel was faltering.
Israel remained unfazed and, despite international warnings,invaded the Rafah area in southern Gaza on May 7, seizing control of the Philadelphi Corridor - a buffer zone between Gaza and the Egyptian border that extends for 14 kilometers.
Netanyahu's government insisted that only war can bring their captives back. There was very little success in that strategy, however. On June 8, Israel, with logistical support from the US and other western countries managed to rescue four of its captives held in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. To do so, Israelkilled at least 276 Palestinians and wounded 800 more.
In August, another heart-wrenchingmassacre took place, this time in the Al-Tabaeen school in Gaza City, where 93 people, mostly women and children, were murdered in a single Israeli strike. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, women and children were the main victims of the Israeli genocide,accounting for 70 percent by November 8.
An earlier report by the Lancet Medical Journalsaid that if the war stopped in July, “186,000 or even more” Palestinians would have been killed. The war, however, went on. The rate of genocide in Gaza seemed to maintain the same killing ratio, despite the major regional developments including the mutual Iranian-Israeli tit-for-tat strikes and the major Israeli ground operation in Lebanon.
In October, Israel returned to the policies of targeting or besieging hospitals, killing doctors and other medical staff, and targeting aid and civil defense workers. Still, Israel would not achieve any of its strategic goals of the war. Even thekilling of Hamas’ leader, Yahya Sinwar, in battle on October 16 would not, in any way, alter the course of the war.
Israel's frustration grew by leaps and bounds throughout the year. Its desperate attempt to control the global narrative on the Gaza genocide largely failed. On July 19, and after listening to the testimonies of over 50 countries, the ICJissued a landmark ruling that “Israel's continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal.”
That ruling, which expressed international consensus on the matter, wastranslated on September 17 to a UN General Assembly resolution “demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine within the next twelve months”.
All of this effectively meant that Israel's attempt at normalizing its occupation of Palestine, and its quest to illegally annex the West Bank was considered null and void by the international community. Israel, however, doubled down, taking its rage against West Bank Palestinians, who, too, were experiencing one of the worst Israeli pogroms in many years.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, by November 21, at least 777 Palestinians have beenkilled since October 7, 2023, while thousands more were wounded and over 11,700 arrested.
To make matters worse, Smotrichcalled, on November 11, for the full annexation of the West Bank. The call was made soon after the election of Donald Trump as the next US President, an event that initially inspired optimism amongst Israeli leaders, but later concerns that Trump may not serve the role of the savior for Israel after all.
On November 21, the ICCissued its historic ruling to arrest Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The decision represented a measure of hope, however faint, that the world is finally ready to hold Israel accountable for its many crimes.
2025 could, indeed, represent that watershed moment. This remains to be seen. However, as far as Palestinians are concerned, even with the failure of the international community to stop the genocide and reign in Israel, their steadfastness, sumoud, will remain strong until freedom is finally attained.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Outcry After Biden Admin Pushed for Retraction of Northern Gaza Famine Report
"It sure looks like USAID is allowing political considerations—the Biden administration's worry about funding Israel's starvation strategy—to interfere," said one human rights expert.
Dec 27, 2024
Veteran human rights expert Kenneth Roth said Thursday that the withdrawal of a report on imminent famine in northern Gaza negates "the whole point" of the office that produced the analysis: "to have a group of experts make assessments about imminent famine that are untainted by political considerations."
The decision by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) to retract its December 23 alert on the rapidly spiraling starvation crisis in the northern part of the besieged enclave came after the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, publicly criticized the report.
FEWS NET, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said in its report that Israel's "near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies" for nearly 80 days has made it "highly likely that the food consumption and acute malnutrition thresholds for famine... have now been surpassed in North Gaza Governorate."
The report referenced the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the United Nations-backed assessment that classifies famine as "phase 5" and declares famine in a region once more than 30% of children under age five are acutely malnourished, more than two people per 10,000 die each day from starvation, or once 20% of households face an extreme lack of food.
On Thursday, a note on the group's website said the "December 23 Alert is under further review and is expected to be re-released with updated data and analysis in January."
FEWS NET is hardly the first group to warn of impending famine in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have been carrying out a ground offensive since early October and where nearly all humanitarian aid has been cut off for thousands of Palestinians who are trapped in the region.
Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, said the area was facing a "full-blown famine" in May, and independent United Nations experts made a similar assessment in July.
But the FEWS NET report drew criticism from Lew, who said the analysis relied on "outdated and inaccurate" data pertaining to how many people are currently in northern Gaza.
The report was based on a population of 65,000-75,000 people in northern Gaza, said Lew, but Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) "estimates the population in this area is between 5,000 and 9,000," said Lew, while the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) "estimates the population is between 10,000 and 15,000."
"At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this," said Lew.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations was among those who said Lew appeared to reject the report by boasting "about the fact that [northern Gaza] has been successfully ethnically cleansed of its native population."
Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Lew's "quibbling over the number of people desperate for food seems a politicized diversion from the fact that the Israeli government is blocking virtually all food from getting in."
"The Biden administration seems to be closing its eyes to that reality, but putting its head in the sand won't feed anyone," he told the Associated Press.
The Biden White House has been a vehement supporter of Israel's bombardment of Gaza since October 2023, insisting that the country is only defending itself following a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel—even as the death toll has passed 45,000 and as numerous reports have shown that Israel is waging attacks that officials know will kill hundreds of civilians.
In October the administration said it was giving Israel a month to ensure sufficient humanitarian aid was getting to Palestinians and threatened to cut off military aid, but when the deadline passed, no changes to U.S. political and military support were made.
The U.S. is prohibited from supplying weapons to countries that are blocking U.S. humanitarian aid under its own laws, including Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act."
Roth suggested that by pushing for the retraction of the FEWS NET report, USAID was acting on its vested interest in denying that Israel is starving Palestinians.
"It sure looks like USAID is allowing political considerations—the Biden administration's worry about funding Israel's starvation strategy—to interfere" with the report, Roth told the AP.
Scott Paul, a senior manager at Oxfam America, told the outlet that Lew "leveraged his political power to undermine the work of this expert agency."
Keep ReadingShow Less
As US Celebrates Thanksgiving, Israel-Imposed Starvation and Suffering in Gaza Intensifies
"There is no military necessity or justification under international law that permits the prevention of basic necessities from reaching a civilian population."
Nov 27, 2024
As millions prepared to celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States on Wednesday, human rights advocates provided dispatches from nearly 6,000 miles away in Gaza, where the Biden administration has continued to provide political and military support for Israel's onslaught despite public disapproval for the war among Americans.
Palestinians in Gaza are now facing their second winter amid Israel's bombardment and near-total blockade on humanitarian aid, which began in October 2023.
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement that Israel's blocking of deliveries including blankets, shoes, and clothing has left Gaza's 2.3 million—nearly half of whom are children—vulnerable to the elements, especially since at least 70% of homes in the enclave have been destroyed in the last 13 months.
"Euro-Med Monitor notes that Israel restricts the entry of such items as part of its efforts to impose harsh living conditions on the Palestinian people that will ultimately lead to their actual destruction, as part of the comprehensive crime of genocide it is committing in the Gaza Strip," said the group. "There is no military necessity or justification under international law that permits the prevention of basic necessities from reaching a civilian population."
At least 1.9 million people in Gaza are internally displaced, and as Euro-Med Monitor said, "the vast majority of displaced people in the Gaza Strip continue to live in tents that do not provide adequate protection from the cold and rain."
"The war in Gaza is a war on children. There is no plainer way to illustrate this than to look at the people who make up the death figures—over 4 in every 10 people verified killed in Gaza are children."
Hundreds of thousands of people, including women, children, and elderly people, have been left without appropriate clothing for harsh weather—and at greater risk of contracting respiratory infections and other illnesses, which health authorities in the enclave are poorly equipped to treat due to Israel's blockade.
A woman named Ruba told the humanitarian group Save the Children that in northern Gaza, where Israel began an offensive in early October, she has been "trapped with [her] children under relentless bombs, rockets, and bullets, with nowhere to run."
"My mother is paralyzed, and I cannot leave her behind. My brother has been killed, my husband was taken, and I don't know if he's alive. Our home was destroyed over our heads, and we survived by a miracle," Ruba said.
"With no food, no clean water, and constant fear, both my children have developed rashes, and my daughter is passing blood, but there is no medicine, no help, and absolutely nothing I can do," she continued. "They cry and ask me why we can't just leave, why their father isn't with us, why we can't go back to a normal life.”
Humanitarian workers with the group have observed children barefoot in streets littered with sewage and debris from Israeli attacks, sometimes walking "in the rain while wearing only light, shabby clothing."
"Children who lack shoes are more likely to sustain wounds and injuries, leaving them susceptible to infection in an environment devoid of medical supplies and medications because of the strict blockade," said Euro-Med Monitor.
"Israel's continuous and severe deprivation of the fundamental necessities of life is an act of genocide, as it seeks to strip the Palestinian population of the most basic means of protection, with the aim of physically erasing their existence," said the group. "Children and other vulnerable groups are specifically targeted by Israel as they are more affected by this deprivation, which exacerbates their suffering and raises the death rates among them; due to the lack of refuge from winter weather, these rates will undoubtedly spike without international intervention."
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warned Wednesday that severe food shortages are also set to worsen without immediate international intervention and a cease-fire.
The groups' warnings come two weeks after the passing of a U.S.-imposed deadline for Israel to significantly ramp up humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza. The Biden administration in October ordered Israel to allow at least 350 aid trucks into Gaza per day, or else it would invoke U.S. laws that prohibit the government from providing military aid to countries that block U.S. humanitarian relief.
But even as experts said Israel was continuing its blockade and failing to meet the Biden administration's terms, the U.S. took no action to end its support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces.
"The war in Gaza is a war on children," said Jeremy Stoner, regional director of Save the Children. "There is no plainer way to illustrate this than to look at the people who make up the death figures—over 4 in every 10 people verified killed in Gaza are children."
"Safe humanitarian access must be granted immediately to allow food, water, winter supplies, and medical assistance to reach those who are trapped in the death zone in the north," added Stoner. "The international community must step up and make sure that happens, in line with their obligations. Without access and a cease-fire, we are condemning children to perish in hell on Earth."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular