DC Edit | Israeli Military Control Of Gaza City Is Unwelcome
The senseless fury of the October 7, 2023, cross-border terror attack by Hamas on Israelis, killing 1,200 and taking 250 hostage, brought upon the Palestinians an unrelenting campaign of destruction of civilian areas and the dehumanisation of a whole people, of whom more than 61,000 have been killed — mostly women and children — and more than 1.5 lakh injured
Israel is to go on the offensive again to take military control of Gaza City into which more than a million Palestinians have crammed themselves in apartments or makeshift camps amid the rubble created by Israeli air raids. The world, by now accustomed to the indescribable cruelties inflicted on the Palestinians, may look on hopelessly in its inability to do anything about Israel’s continued trampling of the people of Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet has taken this decision to occupy Gaza City after long deliberation and overruling the Army chief Lt Gen. Eyal Zamir who is loath to recommend such an operation considering the difficulties of taking on the remnants of the Hamas fighting force ensconced there amid the civilian population.
Gaza City, in the north of the Gaza Strip, is one of the few areas not under evacuation orders while most Palestinians have been forced northwards as Israel built a security zone upwards of the Egyptian border. What this will entail is greater spread of the famine that has gripped the people as Israel has made the free flow of food and medicines aid near impossible.
The senseless fury of the October 7, 2023, cross-border terror attack by Hamas on Israelis, killing 1,200 and taking 250 hostage, brought upon the Palestinians an unrelenting campaign of destruction of civilian areas and the dehumanisation of a whole people, of whom more than 61,000 have been killed — mostly women and children — and more than 1.5 lakh injured.
Much more of this horrendous infliction of cruelty on the Palestinians will now be enacted as Israel looks to get back the 20 hostages still thought to be alive in and around Gaza City. To end the operations, Israel seeks disarming of Hamas, a demilitarised Gaza, total security control over the enclave and the establishment of an alternative civilian government that should not include Hamas.
Though it already controls over 75 per cent of Gaza, save for a coastal strip running from Gaza City to Khan Younis in the south, what Israel is laying down are impossible conditions as Hamas holds on to a few hostages in tunnels. The few still alive are being deliberately starved as retaliation for Israel denying food aid to Palestinian civilians who are forced to get by on broth that aid workers distribute as food for the day.
If some people are left who do not accept what Israel is doing in Gaza is genocide, it may be because they are diehard supporters of the State of Israel. Much of Europe is also turning against Israel’s continued oppression of the Palestinians, with France declaring its support for a two-state solution and the UK ready to do so soon unless a ceasefire comes about.
Driven on by his hawkish war cabinet and the far-right parties in an umbrella ruling coalition, Mr Netanyahu would see the latest move to annex Gaza city as another way of extending his hold on power. And he well knows there will be no end to the war unless Hamas is prepared to release the hostages which it will not do unless there are guarantees of a durable ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. The impossible conditions for truce will ensure Mr Netanyahu stays in power.
