Northern Gaza has now incurred greater destruction than Dresden did after years of Allied bombing during WWII. Southern Gaza is quickly catching up as the Israeli bombardment follows Netanyahu’s directive to “thin” the population of Gaza “to a minimum” by pushing the Gazan population into neighboring Arab countries and into the sea (ostensibly, to force them to seek refuge in Europe).
More civilians have died during the last two months in Gaza than during years of conflict in Bosnia, Iraq, Syria, or Yemen. Children accounted for around 6%-10% of deaths in those conflicts. In Gaza, 40-50% of deaths are children. The UN, Doctors Without Borders, and other aid organizations report that there are no safe places for civilians in Gaza. Every place is a target.
The civilian death and casualty toll is horrific. One out of every 150 people has been killed. The Lancet, a respected medical journal, has independently verified the Gaza Ministry of Health data and found that the recorded death rate for UN relief workers is actually *higher* than that of the civilian population. This is likely due to the sheer number of bodies buried under rubble that have not yet been counted. People are also routinely dying from treatable injuries and lack of access to food and clean water. Diseases are spreading. Medical care has collapsed.
More UN workers have been killed in this conflict than in any other, ever. It is also the most deadly conflict for journalists in the last 30 years. Media outlets and the homes of journalists are being explicitly targeted for destruction.
American military equipment is being used to eviscerate the population of Gaza. But we are not “at war.”
There is absolutely no excuse or justification for this ethnic cleansing. Every aspect of this conflict could have been prevented with a political solution to the conflict: a one-state democracy with equal rights for all. All this required was a few principled leaders with political courage and will. Instead, we are witnessing a campaign of indiscriminate slaughter while our political leaders engage in cowardly equivocation, denial, show trials, and performative “resolutions” to legislate for the American people what they should think.
Sources:
ft.com/content/7b407c…
aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/1…
theintercept.com/2023/12/03/net…
reliefweb.int/report/occupie…
thelancet.com/journals/lance…
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
brookings.edu/articles/gaza-…
time.com/6342821/israel…
time.com/6330906/israel…