Gaza killings

Gaza is once again witnessing mayhem. It is under an aerial strike from the Zionist state after almost a year of hiatus. In a reminiscent of Hiroshima-Nagasaki tragedy, which incidentally also took place on August 6, 1945, there is little that the world has learnt. The planet is unsafe and aggressors continue to have a field day. Israeli transgression has no limits, as it is a pampered client state of major powers who believe in hypocrisy when it comes to realpolitik. The latest onslaught on the world’s second largest concentration camp has led to more than a dozen casualties, including women and children, and the sorties flown from Tel Aviv continue unabated.

The new offensive is apparently owing to skirmishes that came into the Jewish lands from the occupied territories. But the magnitude of response is quite unfortunate. Israel believes in indiscriminate use of force, and there is no check on it. International organisations as well as all those who preach peace and democracy look the other way. This indifferent attitude was reconfirmed as US President Joe Biden last month visited the Middle East, and, during his first leg to Israel, failed to highlight the dispute which awaits a two-state solution for the last seven decades.

Israel says it flew the sorties against a Palestinian group, killing one of its senior commanders, in Gaza. It is ironic that there is no recourse to established norms of international law, and Israel is scot-free to indulge in barbarism. A year ago, in May 2021, during an 11-day long fierce bombardment, Israel killed more than 250 people in Gaza and destroyed property that the UN estimated at more than $2 billion. Similarly, the Aid Flotilla episode had pushed the region at the brink of disaster, steps away from a major conflagration.

It is little hoped that even this time the world conscience will wake up. Gazans are living a desperate life blockaded from all sides, as the only outlet towards Egypt through the Sinai desert is also conditional. The impugned peace process is making no headway and the Palestinians are reeling under terror and torture. So is the case with IIOJK, where the children of the lesser god are maimed and exterminated.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2022.

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