Another day of terror in Gaza By Dr. Yusuf Makki
Translated from Arabic by Ibrahim Ebeid.
August 16, 2024 We borrow the title of this talk from a statement by the UNRWA Commissioner, in which he described what happened last Saturday, August 10. in the school of the followers, Tabieen in Arabic, which sheltered refugees in a major massacre committed by the Israeli occupation army against peaceful civilians and cost a hundred martyrs, not to mention the wounded, whose numbers reached much more. The crime was widely condemned locally, regionally, and internationally. The government media office in Gaza described it as a horrific massacre that caused the death of 100 Gazans, considering the crime a war of extermination aimed at ethnic cleansing, and called on the world to condemn it, and denied Israel’s version about it, which said that the Israeli airforce weapon, bombed a headquarters used by Hamas and Jihad for command and control in the school of followers in the center of Gaza City, and explained that it is full of lies and false information. The statement stressed that the occupation targeted two floors in the school, the first housing women, and the other was a prayer room for the displaced. The Civil Defense in Gaza appealed to the world to intervene immediately to stop the massacres against unarmed civilians in shelters. He explained that the occupation targeted 13 centers to shelter the displaced since the beginning of this month. Similarly, Hamas rejected the Israeli allegations, describing what happened as a horrific crime and a dangerous escalation in the series of crimes committed in Gaza by what it described as neo-Nazis and as a clear confirmation of the continuation of Israel in the war of extermination against the Palestinian people, targeting schools and hospitals. Israel’s criminality in the Gaza Strip would not have continued without American support, which makes Washington a partner in it. The Palestinian presidency condemned the Israeli crime and held the United States and the occupation responsible. UN Rapporteur Francesca Albanzi commented on the crime, saying Israel was committing mass massacres of Palestinians in school after school. In Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned in the strongest terms the occupation targeting the Al-Taabieen school, which shelters displaced people in eastern Gaza, and condemned the failure of the international community to hold Israel accountable for these violations. She stressed the need to stop the mass massacres in the Gaza Strip, which is experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe due to the violations of the occupation. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry, in turn, said that the deliberate killing of Palestinians is conclusive evidence of the lack of political will on the part of Israel to end the war. Iran said the aim of the operation was to prolong the war and disrupt the hostage swap. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry described the bombing of the school as a flagrant violation of the rules of international law and a systematic targeting of civilians. The Lebanese Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli shelling and the killing of children and civilians and considered the continuation of this as evidence of the Israeli government’s disregard for international law. The Qatari Foreign Ministry also condemned the crime and called for an end to Israeli practices. The Omani Ministry of Foreign Affairs renewed its call on the international community to stop the attacks, hold the occupation accountable, and impose international sanctions on Israel. What we have referred to is a few of the wide flood of statements and condemnations issued against the Israeli crime, which was only one in a large series of crimes that continued since the seventh of October last year until this day and caused the death of nearly forty thousand Palestinians, and the injury of more than ninety thousand. The series of killings continues without moral, humanitarian, or legal deterrence. Netanyahu’s extremist government will continue what we described in a previous interview as a flight forward this policy, inside and outside the Palestinian territories. In Sidon, southern Lebanon, an Israeli march killed Samar al-Hajj, a Hamas leader. The issue of assassinations was the subject of our previous conversation, entitled Brinkmanship. The Israeli government, with its current behavior, calls for a wide regional war, betting on American support. The aim is to prolong the war, which is over ten months old, and expand its territorial and logistical ranges. In doing so, it endangers the lives of prisoners and abductees and obstructs a prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and the occupation army. This stands against the wishes of Israeli families, who are looking forward to the return of their prisoners. It also confirms Netanyahu’s determination to continue the war as the means available to him to continue in power and achieve his main goal of forcibly displacing the people of Gaza and forcing them to leave. Netanyahu cannot claim to be keen on reaching a deal with the Hamas leadership while at the same time assassinating its leaders and plunging new parties, such as Iran and the Houthis, into a direct conflict. Most likely, the entire region will be headed into unimaginable chaos. Netanyahu is betting on the US administration’s preoccupation with the election campaign, which is almost settled between Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party and Donald Trump of the Republican Party. The two sides are working to gain his satisfaction as a guarantee for them to win the support of the Zionist lobby inside America, with one difference, which is Kamala’s emphasis on protecting Palestinian civilians and securing their right to subsistence. Netanyahu is also betting on Trump coming to power and enabling him to continue the war of extermination and expel Palestinians from their lands, not only in the Gaza Strip but also in the West Bank. This obliges all Arabs, peoples, and leaders to vigorously confront projects to liquidate the Palestinian cause, which is no longer being hatched in the dark
