Mostafa Barghouthi
In this text, Mostafa Barghouthi draws up the macabre balance sheet of the last year and clearly announces what awaits the Palestinians if nothing is done: the annexation of the rest of the occupied territories, the continuation of apartheid and the completion of ethnic cleansing. While affirming the continuation of resistance, ‘whatever the cost’.
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Israel’s war on Gaza, which began on October 7th 2023, is unprecedented in modern history. Since that date, Israel conducted three war crimes in parallel: genocide, collective punishment of a civilian population, and ethnic cleansing.
During the first year of this devastating war, which has now expanded as we expected to Lebanon, the Israeli army bombed the 2.2 million inhabitants of Gaza living in less than 140 square mile, no less than 83,000 tons of explosives.
This means 32kg of explosive for each man, woman, or child. To put this number into perspective, 83,000 tons is four times more than the explosive power of each of the nuclear bombs thrown on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War. Nearly 80% of all homes have been partially or completely destroyed.
In Germany only 10% of homes were destroyed by the end of the Second World War. The Israeli war machine intentionally destroyed all universities, more than 70% of schools, 34 out of 36 hospitals, 165 health institutions, 80 health centers, 137 ambulances, 178 shelters, 611 mosques and all 3 churches in Gaza.
“Dad, will my hands grow again
when I grow up?”
Israeli bombardment killed more than 41,595 Palestinians, in addition to more than 10,000 who are still missing under the rubble. Among those killed, 70% were children, women, and elderly. Nearly 17,000 Palestinian children have been killed, including 115 children who were born and killed during the war.
Some, like the children of Mohamed Abu Alkumsan, lived for less than three days. It was heartbreaking to hear him explain how happy he was that his wife managed to give birth during the war to two healthy twins, how he rushed to get birth certificates for them, and how shocked he was when he returned to his apartment to find both his children and his wife killed by Israeli bombardment.
Besides, 96,251 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were injured. This figure includes 4 000 who had amputations, among them 1 300 children. On one of the days of this seemingly endless and brutal war, I was heartbroken when I turned on the television and saw a five-year-old Palestinian child who had lost both his hands asking his father: “Dad, will my hands grow again when I grow up?” The father could not say a word, his eyes full of tears.
By the end of September 2024, the Israeli army had killed or injured 6.5% of the population of Gaza. Had this happened in the USA it would mean proportionally that more than 20 million Americans are killed or injured in less than a year.
The Israeli military attack on Gaza was accompanied by a ruthless campaign to dehumanize Palestinians. It was led by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli Army Minister Galant who called Palestinians “human animals”.
The fascists Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gavir, both of whom were previously accused by the Israeli Judiciary of belonging to terrorist Israeli groups, ran campaigns to eliminate Palestinians who, according to them, were all terrorists even children.
No longer living, no longer caring
During Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, the Israel military did not only target civilians indiscriminately, but also specifically targeted medical personnel. By the eleventh month of the war, they had killed more than 880 medical doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and other health professionals.
They also arrested and tortured, sometimes to death, no less than 200 health workers. This includes Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh and Dr. Iyad Rantisi, previously head of Orthopedic surgery at Shifa hospital, and Obstetrics and Gynecology-respectively at the Kamal Edwan hospital who were tortured to death at the Sde Timan and Ofer prisons.
The Israeli attacks on Palestinian medical and health facilities clearly intended on destroying medical resources for the treatment of the sick and injured. Out of the 95,000 injured, at least 25% could die due to absence of medical facilities and proper treatment and are unable to receive proper medical treatment because of Israel’s refusal to allow them to leave Gaza.
Israel did not only conduct a genocide through bombardment, but they also allowed an explosion of epidemics and diseases by depriving people from food, proper nutrition, clean water and all forms of energy such as electricity and fuel.
According to Palestinians Medical Relief, which runs medical operations in Gaza, providing medical treatment to about 200,000 patients monthly, on September 2024 there were 1,737,524 infected with infectious diseases as a result of displacement., including 112,000 suffering from an outbreak of infectious hepatitis, 3,500 children with severe malnutrition, hundreds of thousands suffering from skin diseases including scabies and impetigo, several children with Meningitis and 6 cases of suspected poliomyelitis in addition to one confirmed case.
The WHO was obliged to run a new polio vaccination campaign under Israeli bombardment, since Netanyahu refused to allow a humanitarian ceasefire even for a few days.
According to PMRS every person in Gaza gets sick an average of 3 times a month, sometimes with respiratory infections, gastroenteritis, or skin diseases.
Today 10,000 cases of cancer don’t get proper treatment, 12,000 people are in urgent need for medical evacuation, and 350,000 suffer from chronic diseases that require continuous medical care and supply of medications.
Beyond Gaza
Journalists and media personnel were also major targets of the Israeli attacks. The aim was and continues to be to prevent the truth about the Israeli war crimes from reaching the world. Foreign journalists were forbidden from entering Gaza (except for one CNN correspondent for 3 hours only), and 174 Palestinian journalists were killed, many with their families, including Al-Jazeera correspondents, which is one of the main media outlets covering Israel’s war on Gaza, and which was punished by closing its offices in Palestine by the Israeli government.
This was the first war in modern history that international journalists were forbidden from covering, and yet no serious protests against this Israeli behavior of the suppression of the free media was made from the mainstream western media. If it wasn’t for the courageous Palestinians journalists from Gaza and news outlets such as Al-Jazeera, and Al-Mayadeen, or for the young social media activists, the world would not have known about the Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
Israel is now expanding its genocide to the West Bank. 720 Palestinians, mostly civilians, among them 150 children have been killed by Israeli settlers and military in the West Bank during this last year.
More than 11,000 prisoners have also been arrested. Israeli bulldozers have caused massive damage in many cities and refugee camps like Jenin and Tulkarem, destroying infrastructure. Moreover, the Israeli government has dismantled most of the areas that are meant to be under the control of the Palestinian authorities, invaded several cities, and stripped the PA from any civil authority in Area B (Oslo Accords).
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