New Delhi: Gaza has refused to kneel. It’s bleeding, burning and burying its useless, nevertheless it doesn’t look like damaged. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured Washington promising to “power Hamas to give up” and to “finish Gaza as a menace”, Hamas known as it “psychological defeat” – pointing to army commanders who, after months of relentless struggle, had nonetheless did not deliver their captives residence.
“Gaza is not going to give up. It has develop into clear that there isn’t any approach to safe the discharge (of the captives) besides by way of a critical take care of the resistance,” declared the armed Palestinian group.
That resistance is now surrounded by fireplace and famine. The Israeli army killed practically 100 Palestinians throughout Gaza in a single day, putting houses and hospitals. The Zeitoun Medical Clinic was compelled to close down after direct assaults. Al-Shifa Hospital is working on hours – perhaps minutes – of gasoline. By daybreak, medical doctors concern the final remaining machines might go darkish.
Whereas Israel spoke of “humanitarian cities”, it bombed support strains once more. The Gaza Authorities Media Workplace confirmed a staggering toll – 751 Palestinians killed and 4,931 injured since Could 27 whereas queuing for meals at support distribution websites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Basis. Between June 30 and July 6 alone, 168 had been killed ready in support strains.
The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, answered again with a lethal ambush. Three explosive costs. A gunfight. 5 Israeli troopers killed. A number of wounded. On either side, younger lives are being claimed quicker than ceasefire papers could be drawn.
In the meantime, in West Financial institution cities, armed settlers joined Israeli troopers in raids. Palestinian houses had been stormed. Olive groves had been torched. Villages cracked below boots and gunfire.
However the story of Gaza in the present day will not be advised in firepower. It’s advised in sq. metres.
In keeping with the Euro-Med Monitor, Gaza’s 2.3 million folks at the moment are packed into lower than 15% of the territory. That offers every man, lady and youngster much less house than a detainee in Guantanamo Bay. No water. No meals. No shelter. No healthcare. Simply sky overhead and craters underfoot.
“After 21 months of steady Israeli assault, Palestinians within the Gaza Strip are confined to lower than 15 p.c of the enclave,” stated the rights group in an announcement.
“That is a part of a deliberate coverage that displays a genocidal course of by Israel to uproot the folks and erase their bodily and demographic presence by way of mass killing, compelled displacement, hunger and systematic destruction of life,” it stated.
The world watches. The European Union (EU) says it’s involved. Palestinians in Ramallah say concern is now not sufficient.
Varsen Aghabekian, minister of state for overseas affairs, met the EU’s particular envoy Christophe Bijou in Ramallah. Her phrases had been sharp, pressing and exhausted.
She urged the EU to behave “instantly” to cease Israel’s “genocide, displacement and hunger”.
She reminded Europe that Gaza’s cries can’t be drowned out by statements or diplomacy. She known as for motion.
She demanded that Europe’s “coverage be translated into actions and steps that promote simply peace by embodying the unbiased Palestinian state”.
And in Gaza, surrounded by ash and silence, a battered folks echo that decision. They nonetheless sleep beside the ruins of their houses. They nonetheless bury their useless with their naked fingers. However they nonetheless refuse to give up.