Israel today stands like a bear with a sore head. Unable to beat Hamas despite its mass fire-power, it has turned on the civilians, first killing them – as they are still doing, albeit in lower intensity mode, as if this supposed to be a good thing – and is now starving them to death.
Its leaders have told the people so many times ‘if you want us to stop get ride of Hamas.” The Islamic organization however, is proving strong as it is still fighting the Israeli army all over the Gaza Strip as it shows no sign of diminishing.
It is naïve on the part of Israel to think that you can get to the Hamas fighters through civilians. What do families, women and children know about Hamas or where are they hiding? They are civilians not fighters!
It’s one of its multitudes of strategy of death Israel is pursuing to the hilt. Its leaders have no compunction about its recent starvation tactics even as the world looks on. After all, it is they who are in control and to hell with the consequences.
Israel, its politicians and military are on a military rollercoaster of ethnic cleansing and destruction and despite what many people in the world may say about the affair.
Aid trucks in their 1000s and with hundreds of thousands of food and other supplies await on the different crossing borders of the Gaza Strip. They are standing still and continue to be refused entry by the Israelis who have adopted a ‘very slow’ approach towards letting these truck inside with the excuse being these vehicles have to be searched.
In reality, they don’t want to let these trucks and are stranded on the periphery of Gaza. They don’t move unless Israel tells them to. It’s like saying to the world ‘you can send as much trucks as possible but they don’t come in unless we say so,’ because Gaza is still part of the occupation the Israelis imposed on Palestine.
Consequently, more and more people are dying of hunger in spite of the daily bombs dropped on the Strip from the air. These people as well as men, women, old, children have not eaten properly in months, going on scraps of food if they are lucky.
Today, north Gaza is characterized by famine with many literally dropping dead on the roads. The animal feed they’ve been forced to grind and eat in the past months have long run out.
They now stand at the hands of the mercy of God and the bloody actions of the Israelis. Now one has any power of persuasion! Well, the US president Joe Biden may be able to force the hands of Benjamin Netanyahu but he doesn’t want to.
Whilst before people in Gaza were reduced, first to eating one meal a day and a meal every three or four days, today they stopped, maybe altogether. Can you imagine running out of grass and pasture because it has been eaten not by animals but by humans.
Off course, with this mass hunger UN agencies warn of severe consequences in terms of malnutrition and endemic diseases that would finally lead to death.
But neither Israel nor their cohorts, are listening. Israel is suffering internally because they are not achieving their objectives of neither finishing Hamas or getting to their 136-or so hostages and are therefore turning on the civilians.
The sight of people running after wheat trucks while being shot at by Israeli snipers has become too much for US Senator Bernie Sanders.
“The whole world is watching. (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is starving the children of Gaza. We cannot be complicit in this atrocity,” he said in a video message on his X social account.
Its has long turned out to be a battle between Israel against civilians – at 2.3 million, with most of whom displaced because of their bombed-out homes.
It’s estimated there are 700,000 people who have stayed in northern Gaza and have refused to move south and these are the people currently facing mass starvation. Although the whole of the Gaza Strip is facing blockade and mass starvation, it is the north that is taking the brunt at the moment. But the way the Israelis are moving, the turn of the south will come next, if they are not stopped.
The Israeli government led by the extremists and backed by the United States and most western governments are ignoring the calls of many in the world, including the United Nations to stop the genocide, starvation and establish a ceasefire to end the killing that have been non-stop since last October. Such calls are falling on deaf ear.
We must not let Netanyahu and his army squeeze the life out of Gaza. Many brave people, internationally, are speaking against the genocide and starvation. Hopefully, Israel’s plans will be frustrated before it is too late.
The author is a writer based in Amman Jordan
