Image Source: The New Yorker
Gaza – Children in Gaza are reportedly fighting over food scraps, and on social media, videos show Palestinians putting flour mixed with dirt and ash into their pockets. So hungry are they in the enclave that Palestinian fishermen, lacking fuel, risk their lives daily rowing to sea but face live fire from Israel’s occupation forces, compelling them to endure their suffering at gunpoint.
As the terror against innocent civilians persists, Western colonisers consistently turn the other cheek, choosing not to address the ongoing atrocities.
Currently, in Gaza, Palestinian men, women, and children are facing death due to constant bombings in densely populated areas and increasing scarcity of food and water. Reports suggest desperation has led some to loot the same aid trucks meant to help them.
While the Hague ruled for the free flow of humanitarian aid to the people, lengthy inspections at different checkpoints and Israeli protesters hinder the entry of trucks into the war-ravaged area. The ongoing bombardment also disrupts aid transportation, contributing to the deteriorating conditions.
Even before the resistance attacks, getting humanitarian aid into Gaza was insufficient and challenging, with many already relying on UN aid. Approximately 500 aid trucks entered Gaza daily before the entire population became dependent on it. The number of trucks entering Gaza has decreased drastically, and the demand cannot be maintained.
Compounding the situation, on the same day the ICJ ruled for humanitarian aid delivery, several Western countries withdrew funding from the primary UN agency in the area. The decision to cancel funding was prompted by allegations of UNRWA workers’ involvement in the events of October 7.
Unfortunately, this decision was made without a second thought, allowing the humanitarian crisis to persist and escalate, albeit not through direct military means. In terms of starvation and famine, there are no human shields, only the tragic reality of a growing number of dead civilians each day by Israel and their Western allies.
Despite Israeli officials claiming to target Hamas precisely – in residential areas, hospitals, religious buildings, and refugee camps, and not the Palestinian civilians, they persist in using collective punishment as a weapon, openly violating international humanitarian laws without facing repercussions or consequences.
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Gaza Under Blockade for Over 15 Years
Several days following October 7, Israeli authorities declared a total blockade on the Gaza Strip. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant asserted the intention to sever the flow of water, electricity, fuel, and medication into the Palestinian territory.
What raises eyebrows is the apparent disregard for the fact that Gaza has been under siege by Israel for almost 17 years. Since 2007, Israel has consistently breached humanitarian laws, asserting control over Gaza’s land, airspace, and territorial waters.
For more than 17 years, they have imposed an embargo on Palestinian goods, hindering any potential economic development and exacerbating poverty and unemployment. The movement of Palestinians in and out of Gaza has been severely restricted, along with their access to the seas beyond the Gazan shore.
This prolonged and largely uncriticised collective punishment, manifested through infrastructure demolitions, trade embargoes, and the denial of self-determination, has played a pivotal role in the current plight of the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, as well as the 1.4 million displaced in Rafah, currently experiencing deterioration, sickness, and famine.
Similar forms of collective punishment are being enforced in the other Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Despite Israeli rhetoric attempting to dehumanise Palestinians and attribute their current conditions to resistance on October 7, people worldwide who stand for liberation recognise that this is not the first time colonisers have attempted to manipulate and distort the history of indigenous peoples.
