Palestinians in Gaza enter the new year as defenseless and besieged as the last.
Israel’s war against the enclave continued until 2024, killing 23,842 people and injuring 51,925 in that year alone, bringing the grisly official death toll to 46,376, according to the Health Ministry. from Gaza.
Israel has resorted to siege and starvation tactics, as well as scorched earth bombing, drawing accusations of genocide from rights groups and United Nations legal bodies.
All have documented Israel’s systematic targeting of hospitals, shelters for displaced people, aid workers, journalists and so-called safe zones, which are often anything but.
In northern Gaza, the Israeli army imposed a complete and suffocating siege in an attempt to starve fighters and drive out civilians, in what has been called “ethnic cleansing.”
These tactics violate international law and create the conditions necessary to kill a people “in whole or in part,” which meets the UN Genocide Convention’s definition of genocide, rights groups say.
“This last year has been very dark for us. How can I describe it another way? It has been beyond tortuous,” said Eman Shaghnoubi, 52, from Deir el-Balah in Gaza.
“We went from one humiliation to another,” she added, highlighting the perpetual displacement of Palestinians in the enclave.
In Gaza
Israel has rendered 34 Gaza hospitals “non-functional” and forced the complete closure of 80 health centers, according to the Gaza government media office.
In recent days, Israeli forces stormed the only major hospital remaining in Gaza’s devastated north, evicting staff and patients before burning down the medical facility.
Torrential rains are currently lashing the tent cities that replace many towns in Gaza, with deaths from hypothermia rising as freezing temperatures continue to stabilize.
Shaghnoubi, who has six boys and two girls, said her children struggle to survive in the cold and her small tent does not protect the family from the pouring rain.
“My children sleep on soaked sheets at night,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Shereen Abu Nida, 40, also said she and her four children face difficulties due to the terrible living conditions caused by the war. Worse still, her husband was kidnapped by Israeli forces about a year ago, leaving her alone to care for her children.
“I had to go through this whole year alone, all alone,” she said, her voice trembling.
Musa Ali Muhammad al-Maghribi, 52, added that his family has little hope for the future.
He said his nine children are sick and he cannot find medicine, nor is there enough food or clean water for his family, an ordeal facing the most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
“(Israel) destroyed us,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune. “Every day we just hope to die.”
Netanyahu prolongs the fight
Despite the extreme difficulties, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows no signs of wanting to stop the assault.
Mediation efforts for some form of ceasefire, which continued throughout much of the conflict, failed in the face of what many, including US President Joe Biden in June, called political self-interest. from the Israeli Prime Minister. minister.
Accusations of exploiting the war on Gaza for personal gain focus on Netanyahu’s attempts to sidetrack his ongoing trial on charges of corruption, fraud and breach of public trust, which he denies.
Additionally, the prime minister’s corruption trial suggests Netanyahu is seeking to prolong the war to distract from accusations of negligence or incompetence during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,139 Israelis.
Accusations of opportunism have come both from Netanyahu’s right-wing cabinet and from the streets, where tens of thousands continue to rally in support of a deal that would see the release of prisoners captured in the attack by Hamas.
International impotence
The international community has failed to stop – or mitigate – the carnage in Gaza, largely because of the United States’ unreserved political and military support for Israel’s war against the enclave.
In addition to providing more than $20 billion in aid to Israel since the start of the war, the United States has torpedoed diplomatic efforts within the UN to end the war, including removing recent reports of a potential famine underway in northern Gaza.
In January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to do everything possible to prevent any act that could be considered genocide. Despite this, Palestinian-based and international rights organizations, including Amnesty, have concluded that Israel has actively engaged in a campaign of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Similar international measures have also been taken against Hamas and Israeli leaders. In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.
Israel claims to have killed Deif in July. Netanyahu and Gallant remain wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In October, Israel defied international pressure and voted to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), widely recognized as one of Gaza’s main lifelines. When the ban comes into effect at the end of January next year, Gaza will lose its main aid agency and with it, much of the network that distributes food, medicine and the infrastructure necessary for life.
In December, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of continuing the work of UNRWA and, for the third time, in favor of an immediate ceasefire. Despite this, Israeli strikes on Gaza continue and the agency’s future remains uncertain.
Palestinians in Gaza, like Abu Nida, simply hope the war ends soon next year.
“This has been the worst year of my life,” Abu Nida said.
“No one in the world has lived through the days we are living through,” she said.
