By Dave Brody
Israel’s genocide against the people of Gaza has been underway for nearly a year. Even before these atrocities began, Gaza was already one of the most deprived and overpopulated and places in the world. Photographs of conditions there today demonstrate the scale of the mounting horror. Young children living in tents next to growing piles of refuse and solid waste. The bombed-out hospitals, schools, mosques and homes. Nine out of ten people in Gaza are currently displaced, with many having been forced to move repeatedly.
The duplicitous nature of Israel’s claims to be pursuing ceasefire negotiations is continually exposed by their genocidal actions. The Rafah Crossing has been closed since May, preventing most food, water and medical supplies from entering the Strip. In addition, many of Gaza’s desalination plants currently have been destroyed or rendered inoperative.
This has led to an acute shortage of food and water, with the average daily per capita water consumption of the population of Gaza down to between 3 and 15 litres per day. The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that between 50 and 100 litres per day are required to ensure that most basic needs are met. The famine that had previously been documented as afflicting only Northern Gaza is now rampant throughout the strip, and UN human rights experts have noted the deaths of Palestinian children from starvation and malnutrition.
Meanwhile, Israel shows no sign of stopping. On 9 July 2024, Israeli airstrikes targeted a school sheltering displaced people, killing at least 29 and wounding many more. A video of the attack has circulated on social media – in it, Palestinians can be seen playing football moments before the bombs hit. This is only one of four schools that were targeted in July. The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has said the targeting of schools being used as shelters demonstrated “a deliberate policy intended to prevent security across the entire Gaza Strip and deny displaced Palestinians stability or shelter, even if that shelter is only temporary”. Israel has also continued to issue evacuation orders in zones sheltering people who have already been displaced, undermining efforts to expand the availability of aid.
True scale of the genocide revealed
A report published by the scientific journal THE LANCET has stated that although the reported death toll is currently below 40,000 people (itself a staggering number), this count does not reflect the true scale of the horror being inflicted on the people of Gaza. For one thing, that figure doesn’t take account of the more than 10,000 people buried beneath the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings.
The figure is further increased when account is taken of the indirect deaths which have been, and will be, caused by Israel’s war crimes. The report states that this figure is likely to be high, given “the intensity of the conflict; destroyed healthcare infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water and shelter; the population’s inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organisations still active in the Gaza Strip”.
The report goes on to explain that in recent conflicts, the indirect deaths are generally between three and fifteen times the number of direct deaths. Even applying a conservative figure of four indirect deaths for every direct death, the report estimates a total death toll of more than 186,000, or 7.9% of the population of Gaza – even with an immediate ceasefire. This would rank with some of the worst crimes against humanity ever committed.
Israeli brutality is not confined to Gaza – the entire Palestinian population is under threat. While the genocide in Gaza has been distracting attention, Israel has been ramping up its land seizures in the West Bank. According to Israeli watchdog group Peace Now, Israel has formally annexed 23.7km2 of land in the West Bank so far this year, an “unprecedented” rate. On 4 July, the Israeli government approved 5,295 homes in illegal settlements. These actions further undermine the basis of any kind of “two-state” settlement.
There has also been a marked uptick in violent atrocities in the West Bank. The BBC reported on 30 June 2024 that three Palestinian men were tied to the bonnets of Israeli army jeep and driven at speed along village roads. This is just one example of the torture being meted out to the civilian Palestinian population. Vigilante violence by settlers has also increased. Meanwhile, nearly 10,000 Palestinians have been detained in the West Bank since 8 October 2023.
It has been nearly two months since Genocide Joe Biden unveiled the supposed “Israeli proposal” for a three-stage peace negotiation resulting in a ceasefire. Since that time, progress has been slow. Israel has utterly refused to consider any ceasefire which does not allow them to “achieve all their war aims”, including the destruction of Hamas. Clearly, this would be no true ceasefire.
The lack of progress reflects Israel’s desire to inflict maximum suffering on the civilian population of Gaza. However, this desire to complete a war of extermination is in contradiction with the wishes of Israel’s imperialist backers. Occupied with supplying weapons to Ukraine and facing domestic pressure over reduced standards of living, the western imperialists’ appetite for another protracted war is small. The genocide is also causing significant unrest, and even appears to have impacted the results of the recent elections in Britain and France.
Israel itself faces economic and military pressures. Despite Israel’s vastly superior firepower, much of the tunnel network in Gaza remains operational, and Israel’s is far from achieving its goal of eradicating resistance groups. Meanwhile, the recent escalation of fighting against Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has raised the spectre of a regional conflagration.
It is in this context that Netanyahu has recently been forced to the negotiating table. While repeated acts of intransigence on the part of the Israelis may leave little room for optimism as to the success of this most recent round of negotiations, there is a possibility an agreement will be reached. However, any agreement reached under the auspices of imperialism can only continue to oppress the Palestinians and deny them their democratic and national rights. We must continue the fight against Israeli apartheid, brutality and genocide, until Palestine is free from the river to the sea.
