Israel, an occupier and apartheid state, continues to perpetrate genocide, the most heinous crime of modern times, after nine months. Yet the Israeli violence has gone beyond the definition of genocide under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. An enemy of humanity, Israel killed more than 36,000 people and injured over 81,000 others over the course of eight months. It has forcibly displaced almost two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, approximately 87 percent of the area’s total population, destroying 370,000 (or 65 percent of all) homes in a fully conscious and planned manner.1
After nine long months, Israel continues to subject the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip to starvation. Today, children, women, and elderly people are dying –literally and actually dying– of hunger. Furthermore, Israel has destroyed houses, schools, mosques, and hospitals with 75,000 tons of explosives.2 According to the reports and statements of international organizations, the entire population of the Gaza Strip suffers from acute and serious food insecurity,3 and half of Gazans have been experiencing famine, which means that they are at risk of dying due to starvation.4
The war in Gaza began in October, and it remains impossible to stop it despite all ceasefire call from international communities. It is quite obvious that Israel does not want to stop the war, to stop killing, or to stop its destruction –that it wages a war of annihilation against the Palestinian people in the face of the international community’s obvious and shameful weakness. It is clear that the international community cannot protect civilians or deliver sufficient aid to our besieged people in Gaza, especially the besieged and deprived people in the North. At this point, the plight of our people in Gaza deserves to be recognized as beyond catastrophic.
Different parties, such as South Africa’s case in International Couth of Justice against Israel arguing Israel’s actions qualify for genocide supported by many states and organizations, have already realized that the Israeli occupation amounts to genocide, massacres, and an all-out war of attrition in Gaza.5 At the same time, it represents a new kind of war –a war of starvation. The number of people becoming martyrs in this war of starvation has been on the rise, especially among children. There are countless children fighting for their lives in intensive care units due to starvation. The occupation hinders the efforts of humanitarian organizations and refuses to take into consideration requests by international organizations to deliver aid. That is because blocking humanitarian aid is considered part of the pressure campaign designed to force the local population to leave their homes and become displaced.
It is clear that the international community cannot protect civilians or deliver sufficient aid to our besieged people in Gaza, especially the besieged and deprived people in the North.
For more than 76 years, Israel has committed the crime of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians. It aimed to kill and psychologically destroy the Palestinian people, eliminating their traces and legacy, and erasing their identity and culture. As a force of occupation, apartheid, and genocide, Israel planned to remove the Palestinians from their territory and steal the territory, history, and narrative that represented their bond with their native land. Having deliberately crippled the Gaza Strip’s healthcare system by attacking 94 health care facilities (26 hospitals damaged out of 36) and rendering inoperative all such facilities,6 Israel also eliminated most of the local economic centers in an attempt to kill the Palestinian national economy. Moreover, it destroyed, in whole or in part, 200 archeological sites (including twelve museums bearing the marks of the Arab civilization in Palestine),7 along with 404 schools or universities8 and 486 mosques –part of an attempt to undo the Palestinian people’s culture and heritage.
The world has responded to Israel’s crimes by failing to stop the genocide, by keeping silent, or by supporting it. Indeed, even though the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to stop killing or causing physical or mental harm to Palestinian civilians, to stop preventing childbirths, and to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid as a precautionary measure, the genocidal force continues to kill, destroy, damage, torture, and engage in ethnic cleansing.
At this point, we cannot help but ask the following: What kind of reports has Israel provided to the International Court of Justice regarding its compliance with the above-mentioned interim measures? What kind of misleading information did that report contain? After all, the whole world has been watching Israel’s crimes on live television since the Court issued its ruling.
Disregarding the court ruling to keep committing all forms of genocide, Israel continues to prevent births, exposing more than 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza to unsanitary and inhumane conditions as well as the risk of dying during childbirth.9 In line with Israel’s crime of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people, which has been underway for 76 years, it prevents childbirths and kills newborns through systematic and organized crimes, making systematic efforts to eliminate the future generations of the Palestinian people. Accordingly, it has killed around 14,000 Palestinian children and some 10,000 Palestinian women on live television as part of a massacre of women and children.10 This means that more than 73 percent of the genocide’s victims are women and children.
Instead of living up to its responsibility of promoting international peace and security by passing a binding resolution to stop Israel’s aggression and violence, the Security Council could not play its proper role due to the use of several unjustified vetoes within a short period of time
Instead of living up to its responsibility of promoting international peace and security by passing a binding resolution to stop Israel’s aggression and violence, the Security Council could not play its proper role due to the use of several unjustified vetoes within a short period of time. This process was broadcast live and directly over conventional and social media, offering Israel protection and giving it an opportunity to commit the crime of genocide for over eight months.
The genocide machine, systematically pushed the local population to the southernmost section of the Gaza Strip near the Palestinian-Egyptian border by using 70,000 tons of bombs and munitions that Israel received from the countries (in)directly supporting this genocide.11 Israel attacked Rafah, which is home to 1.65 million Palestinians despite constituting just 20 percent of the Gaza Strip, for the purpose of implementing Israel’s plans and driving the Palestinians out of the Palestinian territories. Rafah was a place where people fleeing from Israeli offenses elsewhere in Gaza took refuge. Therefore, attacks to the Rafah pose a threat to the Palestinian people and their righteous cause but also deal a heavy blow to the entire region’s security, dragging the region into new stages of conflict and effectively eliminating the possibility of peace, security, and stability in the region.
In addition to systematically destroying Palestinian refugee camps and their infrastructure for the purpose of renewed displacement and elimination, Israel’s crimes in the occupied West Bank have been on the rise, including daily raids against tens of Palestinian towns, villages, and camps, the acts of terrorism carried out by Israeli settlers, the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, the destruction of homes, the burning of farms, and the arrest, torture, and elimination of Palestinians. Israel, in cooperation with settler gangs, has killed around 500 Palestinians,12 arrested about 7500 citizens,13 injured more than 5500 people, and demolished hundreds of homes in the West Bank since October 2023.
We are particularly grateful to our brothers and sisters in Türkiye, including its president, government, people, parliament, and non-governmental organizations, for their determination to support the political rights of our people
Moreover, Israel besieged the holy al-Aqsa Mosque to infringe on people’s freedom of worship by preventing worshippers from entering the mosque for six months. It also doubled down on its Judaization and settlement activities, destroying homes and forcibly displacing its residents in the occupied city of Jerusalem. In recent days, Israel has also announced its intention to build thousands of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories over the next few days.
In addition to the above, the occupier state continues to engage in systematic acts of provocation against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), an organization that operates under a renewed UN mandate featuring clear obligations toward Palestinian refugees in all relevant countries. For the record, this systematic activity is not new, since Israel has long been trying to deprive the UNRWA of its resources and to end its mandate for the purpose of eliminating the cause that it represents in the eyes of approximately 6 million Palestinian refugees. Israel’s war of aggression has not only portrayed the UNRWA, its schools, its headquarters, its staff, and its cadres as military targets. It also made arbitrary charges of terrorism against the organization without any investigation or assessment, which caused some countries to stop funding UNRWA. In this sense, we call on those nations that took such precautions to revisit and reverse those steps, to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the UNRWA, its institutions, and its personnel in Gaza, and to look into the objectives and roots of Israel’s accusations. The occupier state’s systematic destruction of refugee camps in the West Bank aims to complete its plan to terminate the existence, cause, and right of return of the Palestinian refugees.
The State of Palestine and its determined people, who refuse to let go of their territory, reiterate that they categorically reject Israel’s plans regarding the day after, stress that the Gaza Strip remains an indispensable part of the State of Palestine, and underline the need to ensure that the State of Palestine can perform its administrative responsibilities in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, which are parts of the United Palestinian State’s territory in national, political, and geographical terms. Within the framework of a comprehensive peace vision that rests on ending the Israeli occupation and making concrete the independence of the State of Palestine within its 1967 borders (in line with approved international references) and with Jerusalem as its capital, we are prepared to live up to our commitments pertaining to restoring peace, security, and stability in the region as an indivisible part of the international community.
We must replace the language of statements and condemnations that the world has used regarding the Palestinian cause for decades with economic, legal, political, and diplomatic precautions that can enable the international system to become sufficiently active and ensure that the world understands our message and interests as it should.
We extend our gratitude to the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Communication Committee, including Türkiye as one of its members, which strived constantly and tirelessly to communicate the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza and to change the relevant nations’ respective stances regarding the Palestinian cause’s justice and its non-transferable rights.
In recent days, the International Court of Justice witnessed a major development regarding the Palestinian cause as South Africa filed a lawsuit against the State of Israel, accusing it of committing the crime of genocide. Furthermore, we witnessed the General Assembly’s decision to request a recommendation from the Court regarding the nature of the regime that Israel has created in the occupied Palestinian lands as well as the defense of more than 53 countries and organizations, including the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, regarding the responsibilities of the member states. We thank those nations that have filed those lawsuits and urge all remaining countries to monitor the Court’s activities pertaining to the lawsuits filed by South Africa and Nicaragua in particular and to offer their support.
We are particularly grateful to our brothers and sisters in Türkiye, including its president, government, people, parliament, and non-governmental organizations, for their determination to support the political rights of our people, for sending humanitarian aid and medical supplies, and for treating the wounded and the sick in Turkish hospitals.
We hereby stress that the great Palestinian Arab people, the rightful owners of the territories, narratives, heritage, and culture that have put down roots in the Palestinian territories for millennia, will not be defeated by the enemies of humanity, which carry out violent and racist attacks with the support of the hypocrisy and double standards of the Western states, despite witnessing horrible scenes of criminal conduct, suffering, blood, destruction, and displacement. We also underline that the Palestinian women will rebuild their country in line with the rhythm of the Palestinian narrative, to make concrete the independence of the State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, and to give birth anew to many heroic generations that will experience their freedom, culture, and humanity.
Endnotes
1. Jared Malsin and Saeed Shah, “The Ruined Landscape of Gaza after Nearly Three Months of Bombing,” The Wall Street Journal, (December 30, 2023), retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-destruction-bombing-israel-aa528542; “Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel - Reported Impact | Day 236,” United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, (May 29, 2024), retrieved from https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-reported-impact-day-236.
2. “200 Days of Israel’s War on Gaza,” Al Jazeera, (April 23, 2024), retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/4/23/photos-200-days-of-israels-war-on-gaza.
3. “Famine Imminent in Gaza, Humanitarian Officials Tell Security Council, Calling for Immediate Ceasefire,” United Nations, (February 27, 2024), retrieved from https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15604.doc.htm; “Urgent Action Needed to Prevent Starvation in Gaza; IRC and MAP Call for an Immediate Ceasefire and Scale up of Aid,” Reliefweb, (February 28, 2024), retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/urgent-action-needed-prevent-starvation-gaza-irc-and-map-call-immediate-ceasefire-and-scale-aid.
4. “IPC Report: Half of Gaza Experiencing ‘Catastrophic’ Hunger, Famine Imminent in Northern Governorates,” Care International, (March 18, 2024), retrieved from https://www.care-international.org/news/ipc-report-half-gaza-experiencing-catastrophic-hunger-famine-imminent-
northern-governorates.
5. “Genocide Case against Israel: Where Does the Rest of the World Stand on Allegations?” Euronews, (January 14, 2024), retrieved from https://www.euronews.com/2024/01/14/genocide-case-against-israel-where-does-the-rest-of-the-world-stand-on-allegations.
6. “Nearly 600 Attacks on Healthcare in Gaza and West Bank since War Began: WHO,” United Nations, (January 5, 2024), retrieved from https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/01/1145317.
7. Mahmoud Hawari, “Israel Destroys Palestinian Cultural Heritage Sites in Gaza,” Institute for Palestine Studies, (February 28, 2024), retrieved from https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1655264.
8. “Education under Attack in Gaza, with Nearly 90% of School Buildings Damaged or Destroyed, and No University Left Standing,” Reliefweb, (April 16, 2024), retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/education-under-attack-gaza-nearly-90-school-buildings-damaged-or-destroyed-and-no-university-left-standing.
9. “Pregnant Women and Mothers in Gaza Are Fighting to Keep Themselves and Their Babies Alive amidst Healthcare Collapse, the IRC Warns,” International Rescue Committee, (April 2, 2024), retrieved from https://www.rescue.org/press-release/pregnant-women-and-mothers-gaza-are-fighting-keep-themselves-and-their-babies-alive.
10. Sarah Ferguson, “More than 13,000 Children Reported Dead in Gaza as Famine Nears,” UNICEF, (March 19, 2024), retrieved from https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/more-13000-children-reported-dead-gaza-famine-nears.
11. “200 Days of Military Attack on Gaza: A Horrific Death Toll amid Intl. Failure to Stop Israel’s Genocide of Palestinians,” Reliefweb, (April 24, 2024), retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/200-days-military-attack-gaza-horrific-death-toll-amid-intl-failure-stop-israels-genocide-palestinians-enar.
12. “Shocking Spike in Use of Unlawful Lethal Force by Israeli Forces against Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank,” Amnesty International, (February 5, 2024), retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/shocking-spike-in-use-of-unlawful-lethal-force-by-israeli-forces-against-palestinians-in-the-occupied-west-bank/.
13. Awad Rajoub, “485 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Attacks in West Bank since Oct. 7: Health Ministry,” Anadolu Agency, (April 22, 2024), retrieved from https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/485-palestinians-killed-in-israeli-attacks-in-west-bank-since-oct-7-health-ministry/3198181.
