Israel rejects truce in favour of “war to the bitter end”

30Dec08

The death toll in Gaza has now risen to at least 363, with more than 1,720 people wounded. More than 62 civilian women and children are among the dead. According to human rights organisations most of the casualties so far are civilians and non-combatants, murdered in “wilfull killings” that constitute “war crimes” and “unlawful attacks”. Israel has systematically destroyed the infrastructure of government in Gaza, including attacks on such patently civilian targets as a university and a television station.

An Israeli strike on a mosque in a refugee camp destroyed the surrounding shops and pharmacy and killed five girls from the same family. Senior UN officials have signed a letter protesting indiscriminate Israeli attacks on UN facilities, one of which killed eight children. Gazans living in multi-storey tower blocks have been receiving random phone calls warning them to leave their homes, even though often no subsequent air-strike takes place. These calls “seem to aim to spread fear among the civilian population”, Amnesty International observes, a practice which “violates international law”.

The Red Cross warned yesterday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “alarming”, with medical teams “stretched to the limit”. A humanitarian worker in Gaza describes the devastation:

“The situation in Shifa [a hospital in Gaza] is really bad. There were corpses in corridors covered with blankets. The mortuary couldn’t cope with the number of bodies. Two bodies were left on stretchers, one wrapped in a blanket. They leave them until families can recognise them…

“There is talk [the Israeli air strikes] were targeting the police and security forces but in Shifa hospital, I saw many, many civilians, some dead, some injured, some were children, some were women, some were elderly people…

“There’s no gauze so they are using cotton, which sticks to the wounds. They can’t sterilise clothes for the operating theatre. They’re using wrong sized syringes. They’re working 24 hours. They’re referring cases from one hospital to the next. One hospital was running out of anaesthesia. They’re also drawing blood and there’s no alcohol. This is a disaster.”

Throughout the air and naval assault the crippling siege has remained intact, and Gazans are suffering “food shortages and a breakdown of basic infrastructure”. All of Gaza’s mills have now shut down, and UNRWA’s stock of wheat grain is at zero. Many Gazans are without electricity or water, while humanitarian organisations are unable to distribute aid, on which 80% of Gaza’s population depends for survival.  According to Gaza’s health ministry,

“One hundred and five drugs and 230 basic supplies, like alcohol, cotton, needles and IVs [intravenous drips] are out of stock.”

The health system is “completely overwhelmed” – of Gaza’s 20 ambulances, a full 50 percent are not working due to a lack of spare parts.  An international relief boat bringing supplies was fired upon and rammed by Israeli gunboats, and prevented from reaching Gaza.

Israel is continuing to reject a ceasefire, instead pledging “war to the bitter end” against the Hamas government. “[T]here is no room for a ceasefire”, declared Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit. “There is no reason that we would accept a ceasefire at this stage,” explained Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. The Hamas regime will be ‘obliterated‘, ventured Israel’s ambassador to the UN. Olmert has described the assault thus far as only “the first of several stages”, promising to pursue Hamas with an “iron fist”, while Deputy Defense Minister Mattan Vilnai has promised “a prolonged conflict and … weeks of combat”.

The massive bombing is set to boost Livni’s popularity ahead of the February elections, with 81% of Israelis supporting the attacks. Certainly it has been cheered on by the media and the political class, with even the ‘dovish’ Meretz party having called for an assault.

It has now emerged that Israel violated not one truce but two. According to UNRWA chief Karen Abu Zayd, Israel launched its air-strikes during the middle of a 48-hour ‘lull’ with Hamas. She explained:

“What we understood here (was) that there was a 48-hour lull to be called, and this was called by the Israelis … They said they would wait 48 hours. That was on Friday morning, I believe, until Sunday morning, and that they were going to evaluate.”

“There was only one rocket that went out on Friday, so it was obvious that Hamas was trying, again, to observe that truce to get this back under control…

“Then, everything got loose on Saturday morning at 11:30 am. We were all at work and very much surprised by this.”

This was part of Israel’s strategy of deception designed, as Israel’s leading daily notes with rapturous approval, to “[increase] the number of people who were killed”. As lenin writes,

“There is a bit of evil, Machiavellan genius in this: break one truce, blame the other side for breaking it, then promise to honour another truce, then use the interval provided to launch a devastating series of attacks – and then blame the other side for having brought it on themselves with some feeble rocket fire.”

There have been massive protests against the bombing in the West Bank, the Middle East and throughout the world. In London more than 2,000 people blocked the street outside the Israeli embassy and more demonstrations have been called around the country. Israel is, as the UN special rapporteur describes, “committing a shocking series of atrocities by using modern weaponry against a defenceless population – attacking a population that has been enduring a severe blockade for many months”. We need to step up the pressure on our governments to go beyond mere rhetoric (or in the US’s case, at least advance to mere rhetoric) and force an end to this horrific bloodshed.

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Tags: Barak, blockade, Cast Lead, Gaza, Hamas, Human Rights, humanitarian, Livni, siege, war crimes