Around 100 Palestinians were killed on August 10 in an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced people in Gaza City. Three Israeli bombs hit al-Tabin school killing women, children and the elderly. The attack took place while people were performing dawn prayers. Israel’s military accused Hamas of using the building as a command center which Hamas denied. The bombs blew the bodies of worshippers into smithereens. Their body parts were collected in bags before being buried. The toll in Gaza has now touched around 40,000. And as with the indiscriminate killings of Palestinians over the past ten months, the west has remained largely unmoved by the al-Tabin school bombing. What is more, the west has continued its policy to fund and arm Israel so that it pursues the war unrestrained. This has emboldened Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu to drag its feet on the ceasefire deal with Hamas. And the west which imposes unilateral solutions – sometimes even without the sanction of the United Nations – in other conflicts is standing by and watching as Israel goes on wilfully massacring Palestinians on a daily basis. It has already largely leveled the tiny strip of land called Gaza.
Contrast this with the West’s approach to Ukraine where it engages in its familiar charade about human rights. One positive takeaway for the world from the Gaza genocide has been the growing recognition that the west’s commitment to its grand principles is fake and hypocritical. And that it has a different yardstick for the violations of international law when it comes to non-white people.
That said, it is urgent for the world to work for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. A mere temporary halt in hostilities is insufficient. What is needed is a long-term solution that addresses the root causes of the conflict and paves the way for a lasting peace. The new emphasis by the international community on a permanent ceasefire, complete withdrawal, prisoner exchange, reconstruction, and the return of displaced persons is a step in the right direction.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza cannot be overstated. The war has pushed the enclave to the brink of starvation, with over a million people facing extreme hunger. The immediate cessation of hostilities and the delivery of aid are imperative to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population. Moreover, allegations of potential war crimes by Israeli forces further complicate the situation, necessitating accountability and justice. It is time that the west acts, just as it did once in 1995 in order to end the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims.
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