In the months since Oct. 7, the world has been taken aback by the number of deaths reported out of Gaza: The latest death toll stands to be 34,735+ most being women and children.
When the terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Israel had a right to defend itself when it conducted an invasion and military resistance in the Gaza Strip with the initial intent to seek out and fight back against the terrorist group Hamas and more importantly get back the hostages taken during the initial attack. However, as this war moves on, it is increasingly more apparent that the Israeli government until March 28 when the hauge the top UN court ordered that they improve the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza they did punish civilians by not allowing crucial humanitarian aid through and attacking and bombing areas with heavy civilian concentrations, causing a high number of civilian deaths. These actions are beginning to become overwhelming as large protests against the war break out in Israel
The Israeli government is destroying civilians by implementing tactics that many claim break the Geneva Convention, such as collective punishment for the actions of Hamas, and not responding to ICJ court orders to ensure the safety of civilians. Israel and the IDF are increasingly destroying civilians and humanitarian aid workers and show no intent to stop. Regardless of whether or not these collateral deaths while hunting Hamas are or are not intentional, it has to stop and there is no explanation for the murder of upwards of 30,000 people most being innocent women and children.
The attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 was unjust and devastating, killing 1,400 people in a day, with many of those being civilians by going house to house performing egregious acts. In the beginning, they were defending themselves from terrorist attacks. More than 1,500 terrorists from Islamic Jihad and Hamas infiltrated Israel on October 7. The Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eli Cohen, said “Hamas are the new Nazis,” and that the civilized world must unite behind Israel to defeat them. Regardless of any prior treatment of the people of Palestine, these actions cannot be justified.
During the beginning of this invasion and until now, opinions and words said by people of power within Israel and dangerous rhetoric being moved to the mainstream is a cause for concern and potentially shows how this war could not just be about defending Israel but rather to inflict damage and attack the Palestinian peoples. “The language of systemic dehumanization is evident here,” lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said for South Africa in remarks before the International Court of Justice during South Africa’s trial to accuse Israel of genocide. She continues by saying “Genocidal utterances are therefore not out in the fringes. They are embodied in state policy”. Some of the dangerous rhetoric being referred to, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, from the far-right Jewish Power party, suggested that Israel drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza and said there were “no uninvolved civilians” in the territory.
Even though the attacks on Israel by Hamas are inexcusable and appalling, this does not justify the war crimes being inflicted upon the Palestinian people. As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres says, “And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” he said, emphasizing: “Even war has rules.” the displacement of the people in Gaza is staggering and brutal because one million Palestinians have been forced from their homes; entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble, and UNRWA schools and hospitals—many of which provide shelter to displaced Palestinians—have been hit by Israeli bombs.
According to Lynn Hastings, the Occupied Palestinian Territory’s resident coordinator, humanitarian coordinator, and deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, there have been almost 1.4 million people displaced in the Gaza Strip, with nearly 600,000 of them taking refuge in UNRWA facilities “in increasingly dire conditions.” “In Gaza, there is nowhere to run to. Civilians are damned if they flee and damned if they don’t.” She stated that since Oct. 7th, at least 42% of all housing units in the Gaza Strip have either been destroyed or damaged, citing data from the Gaza Ministry of Housing. This severe loss of housing is devastating to primarily civilians causing a huge crisis and not Israel’s target Hamas. And now it is not only the civilian population of Gaza that Israel is destroying but also the volunteers that try and help these innocent people, such as aid workers from the World Central Kitchen.
On April 1, seven workers from World Central Kitchen were attacked while in a convoy and killed by an IDF drone strike after leaving one of their warehouses in clearly marked vehicles. Also, the IDF was informed of the aid workers’ movements beforehand, so they knew where they were coming from and where they were going. The reason for this attack was that the IDF thought there might be a chance that the aid cars were actually carrying armed militants. Tom Dannenbaum a professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University who is an expert on humanitarian law said, “attacking in the context of doubt is itself a violation of international humanitarian law.”
There also seems to be no end in sight for this destruction and suffering of the Palestinian people as Israel is refusing to cooperate with the ICJ. On Jan 26, The ICJ issued an order that said the occupied Gaza Strip needs “immediate and effective measures” to safeguard Palestinians from the threat of genocide by providing enough humanitarian aid and enabling essential services. Israel has refused to cooperate with the ICJ, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Like every country, Israel has an inherent right to defend itself. The vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it was justly rejected. … We will continue to do what is necessary to defend our country and defend our people.” The world community has been putting pressure on Israel to make it easier for more aid to enter Gaza as a result of pictures and reports of horrendous conditions. In an effort to transport in additional aid, Washington recently declared it would construct a pier off the coast of Gaza in addition to airdropping food into the Mediterranean enclave. On May 8. the Israeli military announced on Wednesday that it had reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza. However, according to the United Nations, no humanitarian aid has yet reached Gaza, and there is no one on the Palestinian side to accept it, as workers fled during Israel’s military incursion in the region.
It is this refusal to cooperate that is so scary because they have shown an intent to destroy the people there with the dangerous rhetoric used by officials and media but even worse these hazardous words have been turned into actions. Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said “The taking of hostages. The purposeful withholding of humanitarian assistance to civilians. The targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure. The indiscriminate use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The use of civilian objects for military purposes. The collective punishment of an entire population,” Martin continued by saying .”The list goes on. It has to stop. The view of the international community is clear. Enough is enough.”
This war was started as a just war. However, it has pivoted sharply into an unjust brutal destruction of Gaza and its people. It is imperative to recognize the appalling actions being committed by Israel to be recognized and responded to as such. Even though this is a war, Israel is killing a massive number of not only civilians a majority being women and children who were undeserving of the suffering and horrid end that they faced due to unjust war practices which have gone so far as to be called genocide by another country, being South Africa.
I am not a zionist, and I am not Jewish. I am also not Palestinian, and I am not Muslim. I am an uninvolved student from Aspen and this disconnect from any personal interests may pose the question, why does my opinion matter? And to that, I say the fact that I have no ties yet my opinion is so strong is what matters because I am an outside, unbiased perspective who is not influenced by any pre-existing bias and can see humanity and see that what is happening is wrong and state what others cannot due to their potential involvement in this very complex situation. And the fact that I could see how wrong it has become makes me wonder why many others, specifically in positions of power, cannot.