Just a pause in Israel’s destruction of Gaza
IF YOU thought that Israel’s recent bombardment of civilian homes and apartment buildings in Gaza was unforgivable, consider the fact that six years ago it destroyed many times more civilian housing units in its 2014 war on Gaza.
The only difference was that then US president Barack Obama had not restrained Israel’s total onslaught on Gaza for seven weeks, turning a blind eye while it destroyed 50 000 civilian housing units in one of the most densely populated places on the planet – where 2 million people live in an area of 362km².
Had US president Joe Biden not thrown down the gauntlet this time, albeit way too late, Israel would have destroyed a lot more than the 17 000 residential and commercial units which the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said it did in its 11-day military campaign.
People forget how many civilians were killed in Gaza by Israeli military air strikes in 2008, 2009, 2012 and in 2014. The bombing campaign of 2021 was just another in a long line of massacres, this time taking the lives of 240 Gazans.
Six years ago the number was10 times higher, when Israel killed 2 310 Gazans. Each spate of attacks traumatises another generation of young Gazans, leaving tens of thousands homeless, and countless people trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
By last Friday’s ceasefire, Ocha said Israel had bombed 40 schools in Gaza in 11 days. In 2014 Israel bombed 230 schools in Gaza in its seven-week military campaign. This time 72000 people were displaced, while in 2014 it was 380 000 Gazans displaced.
History repeats itself in cycles in Gaza. In the 2009 Israeli military campaign against Gaza, the Israeli military targeted the area of the Al-Fakhura school, killing more than 40 people. A UN inquiry concluded that there had been no firing from within the school, and no explosives in the school, as Israel had contended.
The trail of misery is always the same. Currently, clean drinking water has remained scarce due to damage to some of Gaza’s water and sanitation facilities.
According to Ocha, about 800 000 people don’t have access to safe piped water, and electricity is in short supply. In the 2014 war, Gaza’s sewerage treatment facility and power plant, as well as dozens of wells, and reservoirs were damaged by Israeli bombings. At that time 15000 tons of raw sewage filled the streets.
The health crisis facing Gazans this time is grave. The Israelis killed two prominent doctors in their air strikes; one was the head of internal medicine at Al-Shifa hospital, and the other was a top neurologist. Aid workers say that medical facilities lack basic supplies and equipment like blood bags.
Complicating the situation is the surge in Covid-19 infections, which was taking place even before the bombings began. The violence forced people into crowded shelters and into each other’s homes, making it impossible to practise social distancing. The Covid-19 vaccination programme also came to a halt, and a bomb destroyed Gaza’s only lab to process the already limited number of Covid-19 tests.
The strike on Al-Rimal clinic in Gaza City damaged the administrative offices of the health ministry. At this clinic, doctors and nurses had administered hundreds of vaccinations, prescriptions, and screened more than 3 000 patients daily. Another air strike essentially destroyed the Hala al Shawa clinic in northern Gaza, which also provides primary health-care services and vaccinations, while another damaged four ambulances nearby, according to the health ministry.
According to the WHO, 19 health facilities have been damaged in the Gaza Strip from Israeli bombardment. An Israeli air strike damaged a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) trauma and burns care clinic and tore down the room where the clinic sterilises its medical equipment. The clinic, which normally serves about 1 500 patients a year, had to close.
It cannot be that all the Israeli air strikes (which are known for their precision and accuracy) on hospitals and clinics could have simply been mistakes. And this is not the last time that Gazans will be suffering from such gross violations of their rights under international humanitarian law.
The current truce is just a temporary fix, and strategies are likely being devised for the next round of attacks, whether that be in weeks, months, or years. In the wake of the devastation of the 2014 Israeli bombing campaign, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said that it would take no less than 15 years to rebuild Gaza. The Israelis found a pretext to start the next round of bombardment within six years. For Gazans it is nothing but a process of building and rebuilding, and rebuilding again.
The international community needs to impose a solution, and once and for all ensure the implementation of UN resolutions, or impose severe penalties for non-compliance.
The US, as the biggest financial and military backer of Israel, needs to find its conscience and resolve that another Gaza massacre will never again take place. Tragically, the current US administration has shown no such resolve.