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Re: 40 Killed In Hamas Attacks In Israel
It has been just over six weeks since a ceasefire came into effect in Gaza, and it’s clear that it would more accurately be called a “reduce” fire, rather than a cessation. Scores of people are still being killed; enough, in any other scenario, to be deemed both alarming and newsworthy. More than 100 people have died since 19 January, Gaza’s civil defence service spokesperson says. Those killings constitute, alongside other breaches, a grim record of hundreds of reported ceasefire violations by the Israeli government.
The latest among them is Israeli authorities’ decision to halt humanitarian aid into Gaza, in order to put pressure on Hamas to accept new ceasefire terms: mere hours after the first phase of the ceasefire expired, Israel cut off all supplies. In doing so, Israel is using food and civilian relief as a political tool to achieve its objectives, a move that the Qatari foreign ministry, the midwife of hostage releases and ceasefire agreements over the past few months, called “a clear violation” of the terms of the truce and of international humanitarian law.
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In the West Bank, the pattern of slow but grinding assault has been unfolding for months, and escalating for weeks. The overall death toll in the West Bank since 7 October due to intensifying settler violence and Israel Defense Forces attacks stands at almost 1,000, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The ceasefire has only exacerbated the situation. As Gaza draws less of its resources and active military engagement, Israel has shifted its attention to the occupied territories in the West Bank in a process that has been described as “Gaza-ification”.
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The moment a ceasefire was agreed, Israel launched Operation Iron Wall, a military campaign in the West Bank, as if signalling with its timing that this is now a forever war of permanent vengeance. In the past year alone, more than 224 children have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. To give an idea of how sharp the inflection point is, this number constitutes nearly half the total number of children killed in the West Bank since records began 20 years ago. Among them are Ayman al-Hammouni, his shooting caught on camera, adding to the archives of video and audio records of the chilling, panicked last moments and deaths of children across Palestinian territories. Among them also is two-year-old Layla al-Khatib, shot in her own home. And the unborn child of Sundos Jamal Mohammed Shalabi, eight months pregnant, who died along with the child when she was shot. And on it goes: relentless, unthinkable, unstoppable.
It has been just over six weeks since a ceasefire came into effect in Gaza, and it’s clear that it would more accurately be called a “reduce” fire, rather than a cessation. Scores of people are still being killed; enough, in any other scenario, to be deemed both alarming and newsworthy. More than 100 people have died since 19 January, Gaza’s civil defence service spokesperson says. Those killings constitute, alongside other breaches, a grim record of hundreds of reported ceasefire violations by the Israeli government.
The latest among them is Israeli authorities’ decision to halt humanitarian aid into Gaza, in order to put pressure on Hamas to accept new ceasefire terms: mere hours after the first phase of the ceasefire expired, Israel cut off all supplies. In doing so, Israel is using food and civilian relief as a political tool to achieve its objectives, a move that the Qatari foreign ministry, the midwife of hostage releases and ceasefire agreements over the past few months, called “a clear violation” of the terms of the truce and of international humanitarian law.
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In the West Bank, the pattern of slow but grinding assault has been unfolding for months, and escalating for weeks. The overall death toll in the West Bank since 7 October due to intensifying settler violence and Israel Defense Forces attacks stands at almost 1,000, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The ceasefire has only exacerbated the situation. As Gaza draws less of its resources and active military engagement, Israel has shifted its attention to the occupied territories in the West Bank in a process that has been described as “Gaza-ification”.
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The moment a ceasefire was agreed, Israel launched Operation Iron Wall, a military campaign in the West Bank, as if signalling with its timing that this is now a forever war of permanent vengeance. In the past year alone, more than 224 children have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. To give an idea of how sharp the inflection point is, this number constitutes nearly half the total number of children killed in the West Bank since records began 20 years ago. Among them are Ayman al-Hammouni, his shooting caught on camera, adding to the archives of video and audio records of the chilling, panicked last moments and deaths of children across Palestinian territories. Among them also is two-year-old Layla al-Khatib, shot in her own home. And the unborn child of Sundos Jamal Mohammed Shalabi, eight months pregnant, who died along with the child when she was shot. And on it goes: relentless, unthinkable, unstoppable.
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