By Andrea Tucci,
Israel has resumed large-scale attacks on Gaza with a wave of airstrikes and artillery fire across the already devastated territory. Among the victims are said to be some senior Hamas officials but also many civilians, including women and children.
For weeks, the Israeli government had been threatening to launch an offensive. Israeli authorities justified the attack by stating that their goal was to target Hamas leadership, which they claimed was regaining control of Gaza. According to them, this action would facilitate the release of more hostages. However, many Israeli hostage families disputed this irrational assumption.
Truly, Israel was able to attack because, after weeks of truce, it had replenished supplies, ammunition, and weapons partly thanks to U.S. supplies. Moreover aircraft and other equipment were repaired, and troops had time to rest.
According to some experts, there are at least three reasons of the resumption of strikes:
- Netanyahu never intended to move to the second phase of the ceasefire, which would have meant withdrawing Israeli forces from Gaza, effectively leaving Hamas as the de facto governor.
- Full support from the Trump administration to renew attacks against Hamas.
- Domestic political factors, as Netanyahu needed the support of his right-wing allies to maintain his leadership, and these allies strongly opposed a permanent end to hostilities in Gaza.
The Israeli government has never hidden its desire to restart the war.This is despite a late-February survey by the Israel Democracy Institute showing that nearly 75% of respondents supported moving to the second phase of the ceasefire, while only 24% supported a return to intense fighting.
The truth is that “Netanyahu wants an endless war in Gaza that most Israelis no longer want to fight”.
In recent days, a report by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, was presented to the UN Human Rights Council. This document detailed alleged sexual and reproductive violence committed by Israeli forces, including:
- The killing of pregnant women
- The rape of male detainees
- The destruction of an IVF clinic along with 4.000 embryos
The report also details attacks on maternity wards and other healthcare facilities for women, restrictions on food and medical supplies entering Gaza, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. The UN Human Rights Council stated that these actions align with two categories of genocide under the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention: the deliberate imposition of living conditions aimed at the physical destruction of the Palestinian people and measures to prevent births.
“The frequency, prevalence, and severity of sexual and gender-based crimes across the Occupied Palestinian Territory constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity and lead the commission to conclude that: “Sexual violence is increasingly used as a method of war by Israel to destabilize, dominate, oppress, and destroy the Palestinian people”.
This latest attack seems to have destroyed any hope of ending the hostilities that began in October 2023. The new offensive came some weeks after the end of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement reached in January, which was supposed to lead to:
- A permanent end to the war
- A complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza
- The release of all remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas since the October 7, 2023, attack, in which 1.200 people were killed in Israel and that Israel’s military response to that attack has so far resulted in over 48.700 Palestinian deaths.
Hamas claims Israel violated the agreement by failing to move to the second phase of the cease fire. Israel, on the other hand, proposed extending the first phase by 30-60 days to secure the release of more hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners an offer Hamas rejected. Israel also claims Hamas broke the ceasefire by refusing to release additional hostages.
The grim reality is that the two-month pause in hostilities is now over. A new agreement to stop Israeli attacks seems highly unlikely. Contrary, Israeli officials have declared that this is just the beginning of a much larger offensive that will continue until Hamas releases the 59 remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, more than half of whom are believed to be dead. This would inevitably lead to more civilian casualties, mass displacement, and further destruction.
It should be emphasized that as of today no crime has been documented as thoroughly as those committed by Israelis in Gaza, yet, very few are calling out this crime for what it is. Reports have meticulously documented Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure:
- 83% of all plant life
- Over 80% of farmland
- 95% of livestock
- More than 80% of water and sanitation infrastructure
Effectively, Israel has deliberately and systematically made Gaza uninhabitable destroying Homes, hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, and churches.
Israel’s total blockade of all humanitarian aid to Gaza few days ago is an undeniable violation of international law. Future generations might ask how was it possible for such an obscene crime to be facilitated for so long? No one in Western politics or media will be able to say: “I didn’t know what was really happening.'”
However one day, I hope, that our next generations will demand accountability for those who facilitated all of it…
