Israel’s Gaza annexation plan must be stopped
The planned full-scale military take over and annexation of the Palestinian Gaza strip by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has once again ratcheted up the stakes in the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conundrum. In defending the indefensible aggression, Netanyahu stated that the occupation will be preceded by a planned military offensive into Gaza City, saying ‘’Israel had […]
displaced gazans head home through rubbles
The planned full-scale military take over and annexation of the Palestinian Gaza strip by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has once again ratcheted up the stakes in the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conundrum.
In defending the indefensible aggression, Netanyahu stated that the occupation will be preceded by a planned military offensive into Gaza City, saying ‘’Israel had no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas’’. Amplifying further, Netanyahu said that Israel’s goal was not to occupy Gaza but to ‘’free Gaza from the suffocating stranglehold of Hamas which presents a clear danger to both the Palestinians and Israel’’.
As expected, the move has drawn worldwide condemnation. At the emergency meeting of the United Nation’s Security Council, China condemned the move and called it ‘’a collective punishment of the people of Gaza which is unacceptable’’. Russia warned against ‘’a reckless intensification of hostilities’’.
All this comes against the background continuation of war by Israel on the Palestinian residents of the Gaza strip which has so far claimed more than 60,000 lives. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have lately been ramping up its operations in this regard.
In pursuit of this objective, the Israeli government has used as Cassus belli, the condemnable action of rogue elements of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on October 7, 2023 resulting in the deaths of scores of Israeli settlers in the occupied areas.
Since that unfortunate episode, the IDF had invaded Gaza and subjected its residents to a continuous reign of terror with ground and air bombardments reducing virtually every useful infrastructure including hospitals, schools, water works to rubble. In furtherance of this aim, the IDF has besieged Gaza denying the inhabitants any form of relief both from within and outside. The Israeli government had refused all entreaties and requests by aid and donor agencies to allow relief materials to the besieged Gaza people even bombing shooting and killing relief convoys from International humanitarian agencies.
The image of malnourished, starving and dying Palestinian women, children and old people denied of food and medicines reminds us ironically of the experience of the Jews during the Holocaust under the Nazis in Germany. The irony is further strengthened by the fact that it is the children and grand children of those who experienced the Holocaust are the ones repeating similar actions in Gaza.
An outraged world has rightly called attention to the horrors of the Israeli actions in Gaza and demanded a stop to the siege and starvation of children and women in the strip. According to Ramesh Rajasingham of the UN humanitarian office describing the situation in Gaza, ‘’ This is no longer a looming hunger crisis; this is starvation. Humanitarian conditions are beyond horrific.’’
The Israeli government which has always reminded the world of the atrocities committed against the Jews and demands the world to recognise Israel’s right to self- defence and existence is the one that has been denying the Palestinians the same rights which the United Nations and relevant International organizations accord Israel.
Putting it into perspective, analysts and observers believe that the Israeli plan to occupy the Gaza strip is a preemptive move to stall the announced intention of a number of countries including such staunch Israel supporters as France, Britain, Spain and Germany, to recognise the state of Palestine in September. It is in order to stave this move that Israel has decided to take over the Gaza strip effectively shutting out any legitimate international recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to statehood as recognised by UN resolutions. Knowing fully well that it stands isolated on its latest intentions on Gaza, Israel is working to break the resolve of the world to bring an end to its unacceptable behaviour. This in a way parallels the ‘’final solution’’ of Nazi Germany intention to obliterate the Jewish people from the face of the earth.
But while the world has shown revulsion at the action of the Israelis in Gaza, much more needs to be done. In our previous editorials on the subject, we had pointed out that Israel is encouraged in its ways by the support it gets from the government of the United States of America which shields it from international censure on its policies and actions in Palestine and the Middle East.
We in the Daily Trust fervently call on the world not to forget the lessons that history teaches us on the on-going actions of Israel in Gaza. It is on record that the US led a coalition of allied powers to stop Nazi Germany from trampling on the freedom of peoples across Europe and the world especially the Jews. The Palestinians, whose rights and privileges to their own statehood as recognised by UN resolutions and by majority of the countries in the world, deserve to be saved from genocidal intent of the Israelis in Gaza.
What is imperative before the world now is to act to save the Palestinians from possible extinction at the hands of the Israeli government by stopping the Israeli plan to invade and annex the Gaza strip. The world needs to be reminded that it was largely the failure to take concerted global action that enabled Nazi Germany to seek to exterminate the Jews through the Holocaust. The unspeakable horrors of that unfortunate episode in world history should guide and instruct us that never again should the world allow a repeat.