After Killing 5000 Palestinians, Israel Can Only Confirm That It’s Killed 13 Hamas Officials
Punishment, humiliation and terror in Gaza
The New York Times reported on Sunday that according to combined statements from Israel and Hamas, of the thousands Israel has killed in airstrikes “at least 13” were Hamas officials. The Times’ use of “at least” is a generous choice; another way of writing it would be that Israel can confirm that at most 13 Hamas officials have been killed since October 7. While the number doesn’t not include low level Hamas fighters or administrators, it is still surprisingly low for an operation ostensibly aimed at removing Hamas from the strip as Israelis have claimed.
Israel’s attack on Gaza is ongoing for the 19th day, continuing the flow of horrific stories and images out of the besieged enclave. Just over the weekend, Israel killed 400 people in an indiscriminate overnight barrage. Today, per the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israel has killed 700 more over the last 24 hours. Observing the widespread carnage, Amnesty International has announced that there is “damning evidence of war crimes as Israeli attacks wipe out entire families in Gaza.”
Numerous rights organizations have sounded the alarm about deteriorating conditions on the strip as half of Gaza’s 2 million population has been displaced. The enclave is running out of fuel, medicine and food. Israel has also taken the cruel step of cutting off the flow of water and electricity to Palestinians. The Palestinian ministry of health has announced that disease is beginning to spread as tightly packed masses lack access to clean water.
Miniscule convoys of aid have done very little to alleviate the situation, though they have allowed the media to generate headlines touting Washington’s humanitarian efforts. While Gaza homes and hospitals only have enough fuel for the next couple of days, this vital resource wasn’t included in these convoys as an “apparent concession to Israel” according to the Washington Post. Israel’s bombing of the only crossing out of the strip has only exacerbated the cruelty.
Israel justifies inflicting this kind of horror by claiming it’s doing so in the interest of “collapsing governance and sovereignty of the Hamas organization.” The small number of Hamas officials actually killed raises the question of Israel’s true goals with its assault in the strip. Despite propaganda about Israel’s “right to defend itself” Israel’s attacks on Gaza are mean to “punish,” “humiliate” and “terrorize” the people of Gaza to use the words of a 2009 UN Human Rights Council Report on Israel’s Operation Cast Lead. In other words, the target of the attacks have been the population of Gaza.
In fact this seems to be a war against all Palestinians. After the Hamas attack on 10/7, settlers in the West Bank erupted into state supported violence against the occupied Palestinians, even using airstrikes and US-supplied Apache helicopters to kill children. As Palestinians in the occupied west bank organize and march against these pogroms and Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, Israel responded with extreme brutality that has nearly a hundred dead.
In addition to intensifying the war against Palestinians in the territories, Israel has nearly doubled the number of prisoners in detention, and stepped up the cruelty of the already-notorious carceral conditions. Prisons have reduced food to two meals a day with markedly decreased the quality of food. Prisoners have reported increasing rates of physical and psychological abuse.
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