In the wake of the United Nations finally declaring what is happening in Gaza to be a genocide, the ethnic cleansing and ground invasion of Gaza City by the Israeli military has started.
Yesterday, September 16th, 108 Palestinians were killed in the more than 150 airstrikes the Israeli military conducted to clear the way for the ground invasion that began shortly afterward. As of the writing of this article, another 51 Palestinians have been killed today, with 38 of the dead being in Gaza City. This comes after a report titled “Skewering History: the Odious Politics of Counting Gaza’s Dead” estimated the death toll in Gaza to be over 680,000 people.
Last week on September 9th, Israel ordered the full evacuation of Gaza City, a city with over one million inhabitants. These Palestinians are forced to evacuate to the so-called “humanitarian zone” in Al-Mawasi. According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Al-Mawasi is anything but safe, it “lacks the infrastructure to accomodate the large numbers forced into it through hundreds of evacuation orders,” and has been the site of 109 airstrikes by the Israeli military since October 2023. Millions of Palestinians living in Gaza have been displaced and forcibly expelled countless times since the genocide began.
Of course, Israel is blaming Hamas for the invasion, with IDF officials saying that the untold destruction they have wrought upon Gaza City was due to the buildings being near “terrorist infrastructure.”
The reality is: Hamas agreed to the latest ceasefire deal proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as far back as late August. According to Haaretz, an Egyptian official close to President Abdel-Fatah al-Sissi claims that the ceasefire demands were from Netanyahu directly, not from US envoy Steve Witkoff. The official said “What you call the ‘Witkoff plan’ and what we call the ‘Netanyahu plan,’ because it was his idea from the very start – the whole idea of a partial deal, the return of 10 living hostages and 18 dead ones and the 60 days of negotiations about the rest, it was all dictated by Netanyahu… Witkoff presented it so it wouldn’t appear that Hamas was accepting what Netanyahu is demanding.”
Knowing that Netanyahu soon after ordered an airstrike targeting Hamas negotiators in Qatar, it becomes clear that there was no real intention from the Israeli government to honor any kind of ceasefire proposal – not even their own.
I believe that this ground invasion, the ethnic cleaning of Gaza, and the genocide of the Palestinian people was the plan all along. On August 31st, a plan to ethnically cleanse and develop Gaza into a the “Gaza Riveria,” written by many of the same Israelis who created the genocidal Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, was leaked by the Washington Post.
What more will it take for the international community to act and save what remains of Gaza? How much more depraved and evil can the Israeli regime become?
All I know is that we must stand up against this genocide in any way we can. Bring politics to your workplace, to social events. Gaza needs to be in the front of everyone’s minds in the United States, since this genocide would be impossible without the direct military aid and political protection Israel gets from the United States.
Make sure to clear your calendar on October 4th, where the Palestinian Youth Movement will protest the genocide near the US Capitol Building. Details are below.
Rise Up for Gaza Protest, October 4th
News Articles:
UN inquiry finds Israel is committing genocide, calls for arms embargo – Mondoweiss
108 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza on Tuesday – Middle East Monitor
Skewering History: The Odious Politics of Counting Gaza’s Dead
Number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks so far hits 51 – Al Jazeera
Mass displacement in Gaza as Israeli ground invasion intensifies – Al Jazeera
Israeli military evacuation order triggers panic in Gaza City – Reuters
Gaza: Starvation or gunfire: this is not a humanitarian response – Amnesty International
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