Adiesl Ismail writes that he is shocked upon witnessing that the despicable actions of the Israeli Defence Forces are allowed to continue for more than a year. File picture: Neil Cohen/AP Photo/IDF, HO
I am shocked upon witnessing that the despicable actions of the Israeli Defence Forces are allowed to continue for more than a year!
Please understand me, the atrocities perpetrated on 7 October 2023 by Hamas are undoubtedly, unacceptable, period! But as the UN's Secretary-General, António Guterres indicated, there was a context for the actions of Hamas.
The 1100+ Israelis killed on 7 October are nothing in comparison with the number of Palestinians killed by the IDF before this day; and which is completely ignored.
Between 1987 and 1993, a total of 1500 Palestinians were killed. Between 2000 and 2005, 3200 to 3500 were killed.
Comparable to 7 October 2023, over three weeks between December 2008 and January 2009 during the IDF’s Operation Cast Lead, 1417 Palestinians were killed!
And in 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, 2200 Palestinians were killed. Note, the latter is twice the number of Israelis killed on 7 October!
Also, during 2023 up to 6 October, 250 to 300 Palestinians were killed. Yet, despite the large number of killings of innocent Palestinians by the IDF, there was no outcry in support of the Palestinians. This provides some insight into the context before 7 October.
Further, there are approximately 30,000 Hamas members that comprise 1.3% of the Gaza population of 2.3 million. Hence, Israel’s military action supposedly against Hamas, affected 98.7% of the Gaza population who are not linked to Hamas at all!
Despite the IDF having killed many times more Palestinians than Israelis on 7 October, as shown above, the IDF’s revenge attack masked - as self-defense - against the ENTIRE Palestinian population ensured that the Palestinians had no access to schools, universities, hospitals with damage to infrastructure reported by the United Nations to be estimated totalling tens of billions of dollars.
Suppose we overlook the tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian children and women killed. The 100,000+ innocent Palestinians injured and maimed by the IDF, and focus on its action of destroying essential infrastructure in Gaza that provide water, electricity, and sewerage.
In that case, it is bound to result in the death of many more tens of thousands of Palestinians caused by the reintroduction of viral diseases such as polio, cholera, etc.
Based on the indiscriminate and despicable actions of the IDF, can one conclude that Israel appears to have the eradication of the Palestinians as an end goal in sight?
You be the judge.
* Adiel Ismail, Mountview.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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