Israel’s continued savagery

As Muslims across the globe delve into Eid festivities, there is a parallel world that marks another day of apocalypse. Following the Islamic and cultural tradition, Muslims start a vibrant day of Eid celebrations after Eid prayers, while in the parallel world, Muslims are offering Eid prayers amidst strikes and blasts, unaware of their next breath.

Israel has not spared a day of Eid to Palestinians. As the Israeli military raided further into Nuseirat refugee camps on the first and second days of Eid, more deaths made it to the headlines. More famine and starvation followed as Israel appeared to be using starvation as a weapon in what a Saudi Arabian professor terms as the ‘war of attrition’. On 10 April, the family of Hamas chief, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed while truce talks were in progress in Cairo. The Israeli military’s claim that the strike was necessary, as Haniyeh’s sons were proceeding towards carrying out a terrorist activity, can potentially become self-contradictory. This is because Israel is being viewed with skepticism over attempts to deviate and derail the truce talks by shifting the attention of Hamas and other participants. It may be worth pondering over the possibility that the strike may have been, indeed, necessary for Israel to evade the pressure exerted by the US to agree to a truce and pledge ceasefire, allowing more channels of aid into the beleaguered Gaza Strip and reverting plans of invading Rafah.

There has been growing voices unanimously attacking Israel’s conduct of the war, especially the horrendous famine and healthcare crisis it is causing to Palestinian people, and now its continued brutality on the special occasion of Eid. It does not make a difference if the US calls it Israel’s ‘mistake’, the reality is that Israel still has the strength to evade warnings and truces, and carry on destabilising the Middle East as a consequence of the carnage.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2024.

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