Independent newspaper editor Shane O’Grady described the “tragic mistake” made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Rafah as an absolutely terrible act, and that by using battlefield weapons to eliminate a “terrorist” threat, Netanyahu revealed the fatal flaw in his war on the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). .
The writer believes that Netanyahu’s description of what happened to the fifty displaced Palestinians – most of whom were women and children – who were burned to charcoal in an Israeli air strike as a “tragic accident” is no less insulting to the honor of the innocent dead.
The Israeli prime minister, even if he wants to be seen by his country, its enemies and the world as one of the new generation of global strongmen, should not speak this way.
The writer wondered how many people would die, become disabled, orphaned, hungry, or traumatized by the time Netanyahu finishes his mission, and added that the matter did not seem to be a source of great concern to him, even if some of these people were “hostages.”
It seems clear, from words and actions, that the lives of Palestinians have no value to him, as the writer puts it. Seeing pictures of those tents burning is nothing more than a war crime.
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The usual refrain, O’Grady added, is that Israel is taking “every possible precaution” to protect civilians caught up in the fighting in Gaza, and that the IDF is doing “its best not to harm those who are not participating” in the conflict. This was considered another version of the “collateral damage” of “bad things that happen in war.”
The writer continued that destroying Rafah is a crude and ineffective means of assassinating Hamas members, or even bringing them to justice for the war crimes they committed, which is less likely. All that can be said about the near future is that the war will not end soon, perhaps even when Rafah is leveled to the ground. When there is nothing left to bomb, and the people of Gaza have nowhere to run, this war will not end.
Realistically, there is nothing that the United Nations, international courts, Europe, or even the United States can do to restrain Netanyahu. The basics remain the same: Israel will not suffer from an arms embargo, because the United States and Germany, the main suppliers, will never impose this embargo, and Netanyahu knows this, and he also knows that he can count on Donald Trump, if he is lucky.
It has sufficient weapons stocks and indirect ways to obtain new equipment to continue the war. It does not take a lot of ammunition to turn a village or a hospital into ashes. Meanwhile, “we are waiting, and the Palestinians are suffering,” O’Grady said.