The world cannot watch silently the unprecedented human catastrophe unfolding in Gaza

Kazi Mostaque Ahmed :

When the US and European countries are expected to work for an immediate ceasefire stopping Israel’s merciless bombardment of Gaza killing thousands of civilians including women and children, it is shocking that they are actually drumming up support for the Israeli atrocities. Israel is committing crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Against whom the Israeli airstrikes are being targeted: Hamas or Gaza civilian inhabitants? If the attack was against Hamas forces alone, we would not have anything to say. But flattening Gaza and killing thousands for the last 17 days after Hamas’s October 7 assault amply suggest what is there in the vengeful minds in Tel Aviv: collective punishment of the Palestinians which itself constitutes a war crime, according to the Geneva Conventions. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have also slammed Israel for committing war crime.

Israel’s demand that 1.1 million Gaza inhabitants including doctors and patients evacuate the northern Gaza in 24 hours – which expired more than a week ago, but Israel again imposed it – towards the southern Gaza is an impossible thing.

The World Health Organisation described it as a “death sentence”. To maneuver to safe places is not possible for the people already traumatized by the ongoing bombing and total blockade of food, water and fuel supply into Gaza.

Ironically, Israeli authorities have ordered the very people whom they have kept in a state of siege in Gaza for the last 16 years. This is against international humanitarian law. The UN human rights office also declared that Israel’s siege of Gaza and its evacuation order could amount to the international crime of the forcible transfer of civilians.

In the face of questions from journalists during his tour to key Arab nations including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed that the US had urged Tel Aviv to avoid civilian casualties.

But the ground reality is, the massacre of civilians has been still going on without any brake and Palestinian casualties are nearing 6000. In his diplomatic effort Mr Blinken failed to convince Arab countries to see Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Why did Hamas attack Israel at this point of time despite knowing full well that Israel’s reaction would be disproportionate and brutal? Palestinians were left with nothing as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed at the United Nations General Assembly this year the map of a “Greater Israel” obliterating Gaza and the West Bank.

Against this backdrop, Hamas must have felt that it needed to do something to send the message to Israel and to the world that they are there with their legitimate rights for their homeland that has been under occupation since Israel’s creation in 1948.

Among the objectives also, Hamas might have wanted to tell their Arab brothers that they must not leave them alone by normalizing their relations with Israel. The recent developments after the Hamas attack suggest that Hamas has achieved this objective also to a great extent. Notably, Saudi Arabia has been forced to suspend its normalization of ties with Israel.

Moreover, the compound of Al Aqsa, the third holiest site for Muslims after Mecca and Medina, was desecrated in recent times by the far right leaders of Israel. Israeli police stormed the mosque several times shooting the praying Muslims. Hamas called its October 7 attack “Al Aqsa Flood” with an aim to restore the mosque’s sanctity and existence.

The US and its European allies are for long trying to project Hamas, like Israel, a terrorist organization; but the reality is Hamas represents the Palestinians in Gaza as much as the Israeli government represents the Israelis.

Indeed, there are Palestinians who do not like the strategies of Hamas, but there are many Jews in Israel and outside who also do not like the present far-right government in Israel under the power-hungry dictatorial Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hamas is fighting to free their land of occupiers, the state of Israel that has kept terrorizing the Palestinians through decades all the while stealing their lands. Israel boasts of its terrorism as its army bragged that they dropped 6000 bombs in only six days causing wholesale destruction of Gaza, which is unprecedented in history.

A ground operation into Gaza by the Israeli military is now impending. It is very likely that such an invasion can conflagrate the entire region with war spilling over the neighbouring states. Hezbollah of Lebanon would inevitably be drawn to war. Iran and Syria may also be directly involved in this war.

Soon after Hamas’ attack on October 7, US President Joe Biden reacted very rashly. Sending two carriers to the Middle East and giving carte blanche to Benjamin Netanyahu’s all actions — some of which amounts to crimes against humanity — reflect Biden’s recklessness as well as his unabashed bias towards Israel.

On a previous occasion, to make the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu happy, Joe Biden had said that one need not be a Jew to become a Zionist. Now he went on to compare Hamas’ attack on Israel with the Holocaust. This is as nonsensical as it is dangerous. The White House under him has only escalated the explosive situation prevailing in the region.

Shockingly, on his visit to Tel Aviv recently Joe Biden reaffirmed the US’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza without any condemnation of the Israeli air raid on Gaza’s al-Ahli Arab Hospital that killed at least 471 people. The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak followed his footsteps.

This time again, Israel shifted the blame for the hospital explosion to a Palestinian militant group as it did after killing the Al Jazeera journalist Shirin Abu Akleh a year ago. The unequivocal US support for Israel — Joe Biden assured Netanyahu by saying “The US has Israel’s back” — made it impossible for holding Israel accountable for committing crimes against humanity for years.

One thing must be clear: Israel cannot be secure pushing the Palestinians, the occupied people, to live as sub-humans whose lives can be expended. After all the horrors that have unfolded since October 7, if the Israeli military’s ground invasion of Gaza begins, it would be catastrophic for the whole Middle East.

Against the grim prospects of war, the regional Muslim countries can offer hope to the Palestinians. They ought to stand with the persecuted people for their legitimate demand of statehood with every kind of assistance. But for now, countries must work for an immediate ceasefire before the situations go further out of control.

The writer is Executive Editor of The New Nation.