On the 35th day of Israel's war on Gaza, the settler-colonizer state once again attacked a hospital -- in fact, attacking Al Shifa five times in 24 hours. Not just that, Israeli tanks have reportedly been surrounding four hospitals in Gaza from all directions, while Israel also attacked a school in Gaza killing 50 people. With the most heartbreaking images coming out of Gaza for the 35th day, Israel has continued on its usual ways: promising respite and delivering terror. As Palestinians waving white flags have tried to flee to southern Gaza, they too have come under Israeli attack. Effectively, the message from Israel this past month has been: what we really want is to kill all Palestinians -- or remove the live ones to any place but the occupied territories of Palestine. For anyone still confused, this has certainly not been about Hamas.
The Second Nakba has been terrifying to watch as it unfolds on our TVs and cellphones. As the UN's humanitarian office has said, northern Gaza is 'hell on Earth'. The death count in the city has crossed 11,000 people, more than 40 per cent of them children. A hell on earth that doubles as a graveyard for children. Protests have continued across the world but -- much as the solidarity has been heartening and narrative shift in the West has been tangible -- it is equally terrifying just how little power the people hold anywhere in the world. The West has been not only complicit but an outright cheerleader of this genocide of Palestinians. Although some more voices have joined in the call for a ceasefire, the US and its leaders have refused to even acknowledge the brutality they are funding. US President Joe Biden's unequivocal 'Not a possibility' to a question regarding a ceasefire is a telling sign that for now the US thinks it can eventually deal with the PR fallout of the ethnic cleansing they have supervised. This despite the fact that American diplomats posted in Arab nations have said that there is “growing fury” in the Arab Street over the US's support for Israel and that this could lose them "Arab publics for a generation”.
It has all been very blatant -- all fig leaves off, all niceties gone, all rights-speak forgotten as the West refuses to censure Israel and save the people of Gaza. The sheer impunity with which this has been done, with no regard for international law or humanitarian considerations, has also placed the idea of a rules-based order under question -- something the dispossessed around the globe have been pointing out for decades. The ideas of justice and humanity and rights are for those that decide their definitions and their jurisdictions. For everyone else, there is only brute global power politics. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu knows this very well which is why his genocidal policies have not ruffled many policymaking feathers in the US or Europe. He has now said that once the 'war' is over, Gaza will remain under Israeli security control. As for the much-celebrated 'Muslim world', most governments in the Middle East have largely paid lip service to the Palestinian cause, probably waiting for a more opportune time to reconnect with Israel. Meanwhile, voices keep falling silent from Palestinian social media accounts as Gazans realize that the powerful of the world have greenlighted this genocide.