Death and destruction in Gaza
THE new year has not brought much hope for an end to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, which has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians since it began in October 2023. The Zionist regime has intensified its bombardment of the enclave, targeting whatever has been left of the health facilities in Gaza and killing scores more amid a renewed push for a ceasefire.
Months of negotiations have failed to end the war, and there is little expectation that the fresh round of talks, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, will succeed. While Hamas has said it is committed to reaching an agreement, a key obstacle to a potential deal has been Israel’s reluctance to a lasting ceasefire.
The surge in Israeli air strikes has only brought more death and misery to the hapless population of Gaza. The relentless bombing has worsened living conditions in the territory, leaving over a million people homeless. With no shelter and medical facilities, children are freezing to death in the biting cold — the Israeli onslaught has restricted the entry of humanitarian aid, including blankets and tents.
The war, which is backed and financed by the outgoing Joe Biden administration in the US, has left some 18,000 children dead. According to UN data, Israeli bombardment has destroyed or damaged over 90 per cent of Gaza’s homes. The sustained attacks on hospitals and medical workers have brought the healthcare system in the enclave to the brink of total collapse, according to a recent report by the UN’s human rights office, which “catalogues the besieging and targeting of hospitals and their immediate grounds with explosive weapons”. The attacks have killed hundreds of medical workers and damaged lifesaving equipment. It says that 80pc of Gaza’s healthcare system has been destroyed. Many preventable deaths have occurred due to lack of care, including of mothers and newborn babies.
For the next US administration, there is no concept of a two-state solution.
The report says that the attacks could “amount to war crimes”. But Israel continues with its atrocities because of US backing and the inaction of the international community. According UN human rights experts, the siege “appears intended to permanently displace the local population as a precursor to Gaza’s annexation in further violation of international law”. Israel has also extended its war to the occupied West Bank.
The escalation comes at a time when a new administration is about to take over in the US. Not that the Biden administration has been any less supportive of Israel’s war of aggression, but the incoming president, Donald Trump, is likely to give carte blanche to the right-wing government in Tel Aviv.
While Trump has vowed to bring peace to the Middle East, many analysts believe that his return to the White House will only bring more death and destruction to Gaza. He has repeatedly declared his blanket support for Israel. During an address to a Republican Jewish convention in 2023, he said he would “defend our friend and ally in the State of Israel like nobody has ever”.
In his first term as president, Trump had recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in a departure from Washington’s original position that had opposed the city as the capital of Israel. His administration had also declared the settlements in the West Bank to be legal.
Moreover, his handpicked cabinet is full of staunch supporters of the Zionist regime, some of whom have publicly called for the complete destruction of the Palestinian resistance.
Last year, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Senator Marco Rubio, declared that he opposed a ceasefire in Gaza and believed Israel should destroy “every element of Hamas”. “These people are vicious animals who did horrifying crimes,” he said.
Trump’s nominee for national security adviser, Mike Waltz, wants the next administration to “let Israel finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza. An even more fanatical supporter of Zionist expansionism is Trump’s choice of US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor who has consistently backed the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and has described a two-state solution in Palestine as “irrational and unworkable”.
Meanwhile, Trump has picked Congresswoman Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN, which she has labelled a “cesspool of antisemitism”. The views of some other nominated members of the incoming Trump administration on the Palestinian issue are no less vitriolic.
Not surprisingly, the installation of such a supportive administration in Washington has given huge impetus to the Zionist regime to escalate its air and ground attacks in the occupied territory. Close alignment with the incoming US administration seems to have amplified Israel’s sense of impunity, making it more difficult to pressure the Zionist regime into a ceasefire deal in Gaza and stop its oppression in the occupied West Bank.
Israel has made it clear that it would only agree to a ceasefire deal that ensures it maintains its military control of Gaza as it does in the West Bank. The Palestinian resistance groups have said they are committed to accepting a ceasefire and have even approved a list of 34 hostages to be exchanged in a possible deal. But they have also reiterated that any deal is contingent upon a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire. Given Israel’s intransigence, there is no hope of any breakthrough.
Neither is there any likelihood of the incoming Trump administration pressing Israel for concessions. According to some analysts, Trump would most likely allow Israel to annex the West Bank if it ended the Gaza war. For the incoming US administration, there is no concept of a two-state solution with a separate Palestinian state.
Trump would most likely build on his 2020 ‘peace plan’ that would legitimise Israeli annexation and Palestinian subjugation. With his cabinet packed with radical pro-Israel elements, it is hard to imagine that the incoming president would be willing to accommodate Palestinian demands. There is no hope for peace in the region as long as Israel continues its genocidal war with the support of the US.
The writer is an author and journalist.
X: @hidhussain
Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2025