Israeli rampage continues unabated in Gaza and the region, and even after massacre after massacres of innocent civilians, children and women since October 7 last year, the world has failed to stop the crimes against humanity, largely because of its backers the US and some of its western allies, which are supplying it weapons, in the name self-defence, to be used to break Palestinians’ resistance to the occupation.
Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 39,550 people, mostly children, women, and civilians.
The Israeli escalation in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and the region, is leading to the prospect of a regional war that would bring destruction and ruin not only to the region, but also badly impact the entire world. The occupation forces take pride in targeting defenceless civilians. Israeli strikes hit two schools in Gaza City yesterday, killing at least 30 people, while Israeli bombardment of a school compound in Gaza City killed at least 17 people on Saturday. The compound was housing Palestinians displaced from their homes in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
In other incidents, at least nine Palestinians were killed on Saturday in Israeli drone attacks targeting two vehicles in the northern occupied West Bank.
In a landmark opinion, the International Court of Justice last month declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all existing Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel has been on an assassination spree, killing several high-profile Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in quick succession. However, there is reason to believe these killings, widely celebrated as a show of power now, will serve to embolden these groups and prove harmful to Israel’s security and the region’s stability in the long term.
The assassination of Hamas leader lsmail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital on Wednesday silenced a moderate voice in the group’s leadership and likely pushed it to assume an even harder, less compromising stance against Israel. He had negotiated ceasefires in the past and was attempting to achieve another one before he was killed.
Qatar and Egypt are key players in the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas and they have questioned the future of negotiations following Haniyeh’s assassination.
“Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?” Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani wrote on X. “Peace needs serious partners and a global stance against the disregard for human life,” he said.
