A Palestinian Year in Review: Genocide, Resistance and Unanswered Questions

A Palestinian twelvemonth successful review. (Design: Palestine Chronicle)

By Ramzy Baroud  

As acold arsenic Palestinians are concerned, adjacent with the nonaccomplishment of the planetary assemblage to halt the genocide and reign successful Israel, their steadfastness, sumoud, volition stay beardown until state is yet attained.

The communicative of the Israeli warfare connected Gaza tin beryllium epitomized successful the communicative of the Israeli warfare connected Beit Lahia, a tiny Palestinian municipality successful the bluish portion of the Strip.

When Israel launched its crushed operations successful Gaza, Beit Lahia was already mostly destroyed owed to galore days of relentless Israeli bombardment which killed thousands.

Still, the borderline Gaza municipality resisted, starring to a hermetic Israeli siege, which was ne'er lifted, adjacent erstwhile the Israeli subject redeployed retired of overmuch of bluish Gaza successful January 2024.

Beit Lahia is mostly an isolated town, a abbreviated region distant from the obstruction separating besieged Gaza from Israel. It is surrounded mostly by cultivation areas that marque it astir intolerable to defend.

Yet, a twelvemonth of grisly Israeli warfare and genocide successful Gaza did not extremity the warring there. To the contrary, 2024 has ended wherever it started, with aggravated warring connected each fronts successful Gaza, with Beit Lahia, a municipality that was supposedly ‘conquered’ earlier, inactive starring the fight.

Beit Lahia is simply a microcosm of Israel’s failed warfare successful the Strip, a bloody grind that has led nowhere, contempt the monolithic destruction, the repeated taste cleansing of the population, the starvation and the genocide. Every time of Israel’s unspeakable warfare connected the Palestinians serves arsenic a reminder that determination are nary subject solutions and that the Palestinian volition cannot beryllium broken, nary substance the outgo oregon the sacrifice.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, remains unconvinced. He entered the caller twelvemonth with much promises of ‘total victory’, and ended it arsenic a wanted criminal by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The issuing of an apprehension warrant for the Israeli person was a reiteration of a akin presumption taken by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) astatine the commencement of 2024.

The ICJ’s position, however, was hardly arsenic beardown arsenic galore had hoped oregon wanted to believe. The world’s highest tribunal had, connected January 26, ordered Israel “to instrumentality enactment to forestall acts of genocide”, but stopped abbreviated of ordering Israel to halt its war.

The Israeli objectives of the warfare remained unclear, though Israeli politicians provided clues arsenic to what the warfare connected Gaza was truly each about. Last January, respective Israeli ministers, including 12 from Netanyahu’s Likud party, took portion successful a conference calling for the resettlement of Gaza and the taste cleansing of Palestinians. “Without settlements, determination is nary security,” extremist Israeli curate of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, said.

For that to happen, the Palestinian radical themselves, not simply those warring connected the ground, had to beryllium tamed, breached and defeated. Thus, the ‘flour massacres‘, a caller Israeli warfare maneuver that was centered astir sidesplitting arsenic galore Palestinians arsenic imaginable portion waiting for the fewer assistance trucks that were allowed to scope bluish Gaza.

On February 29, much than 100 Gazans were killed portion queueing for aid. They were mowed down by Israeli soldiers, arsenic they desperately tried to laic their hands connected a loaf of bread, babe beverage oregon a vessel of water. This country was repeated, again and again successful the north, but besides successful different parts of the Gaza Strip passim the year.

The purpose was to starve the Palestinians successful the northbound truthful that they would beryllium forced to fly to different parts of the Strip. Famine actualized arsenic aboriginal arsenic January, and galore of those who tried to fly southbound were killed, anyway.

From the aboriginal days of the war, Israel understood that to ethnically cleanse Palestinians, they indispensable people each aspects of beingness successful the Strip. This includes hospitals, bakeries, markets, electrical grids, h2o stations, and the like.

The Gaza hospitals, of course, received a ample stock of Israeli attacks. In March, erstwhile more, Israel attacked the Al-Shifa Medical Complex successful Gaza City with greater ferocity than before. When it finally withdrew, connected April 1, the Israeli service destroyed the full compound, leaving down wide graves with hundreds of bodies, mostly aesculapian staff, women and children. They even executed respective patients.

Aside from a fewer statements of interest by occidental leaders, small was done to bring the genocide to an end. Only erstwhile 7 planetary assistance workers with the charity, the World Central Kitchen, were killed by Israel, a planetary outcry followed, starring to the archetypal and lone Israeli apology successful the full war.

Desperate to distract from its nonaccomplishment successful Gaza, but besides Lebanon, and keen connected presenting the Israeli nationalist with immoderate benignant of victory, the Israeli subject began escalating its warfare beyond Gaza. This included the strike connected the Iranian Embassy successful Syria connected April 1. Despite repeated attempts, which included the assassination successful Iran of the caput of Hamas’s Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, connected July 31, an all-out determination warfare has not yet travel to pass.

Another escalation was taking place, this clip not by Netanyahu but by millions of radical astir the world, demanding an extremity to the Israeli war. A focal constituent of the protests were pupil movements that dispersed crossed US campuses and, ultimately, worldwide. Instead of allowing escaped code to flourish, however, America’s largest world institutions resorted to the police, who violently unopen down galore of the protests, arresting hundreds of students, galore of whom were not allowed to instrumentality to their colleges.

Meanwhile, the US continued to artifact planetary efforts aimed astatine producing a ceasefire solution astatine the United Nations Security Council. Ultimately, connected May 31, US President Joe Biden delivered a code conveying what helium termed an “Israeli proposal” to extremity the war. After immoderate delay, Hamas accepted the proposal, but Israel rejected it. In his rejection, Netanyahu referred to Biden’s code arsenic “incorrect” and “incomplete”. Strangely, but besides unsurprisingly, the White House blamed the Palestinians for the failed initiative.

Losing religion successful the American leadership, immoderate European countries began changing their overseas argumentation doctrines connected Palestine, with Ireland, Norway and Spain recognizing the State of Palestine connected May 28. The decisions were mostly symbolic but indicated that occidental unity astir Israel was faltering.

Israel remained unfazed and, contempt planetary warnings, invaded the Rafah country successful confederate Gaza connected May 7, seizing power of the Philadelphi Corridor – a buffer portion betwixt Gaza and the Egyptian borderline that extends for 14 kilometers.

Netanyahu’s authorities insisted that lone warfare tin bring their captives back. There was precise small occurrence successful that strategy, however. On June 8, Israel, with logistical enactment from the US and different occidental countries managed to rescue 4 of its captives held successful the Nuseirat exile campy successful cardinal Gaza. To bash so, Israel killed astatine slightest 276 Palestinians and wounded 800 more.

In August, different heart-wrenching massacre took place, this clip successful the Al-Tabaeen schoolhouse successful Gaza City, wherever 93 people, mostly women and children, were murdered successful a azygous Israeli strike. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, women and children were the main victims of the Israeli genocide, accounting for 70 percent by November 8.

An earlier study by the Lancet Medical Journal said that if the warfare stopped successful July, “186,000 oregon adjacent more” Palestinians would person been killed. The war, however, went on. The complaint of genocide successful Gaza seemed to support the aforesaid sidesplitting ratio, contempt the large determination developments including the communal Iranian-Israeli tit-for-tat strikes and the large Israeli crushed cognition successful Lebanon.

In October, Israel returned to the policies of targeting oregon besieging hospitals, sidesplitting doctors and different aesculapian staff, and targeting assistance and civilian defence workers. Still, Israel would not execute immoderate of its strategical goals of the war. Even the killing of Hamas’ leader, Yahya Sinwar, successful conflict connected October 16 would not, successful immoderate way, change the people of the war.

Israel’s vexation grew by leaps and bounds passim the year. Its hopeless effort to power the planetary communicative connected the Gaza genocide mostly failed. On July 19, and aft listening to the testimonies of implicit 50 countries, the ICJ issued a landmark ruling that “Israel’s continued beingness successful the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal.”

That ruling, which expressed planetary statement connected the matter, was translated connected September 17 to a UN General Assembly solution “demanding an extremity to Israel’s concern of Palestine wrong the adjacent 12 months”.

All of this efficaciously meant that Israel’s effort astatine normalizing its concern of Palestine, and its quest to illegally annex the West Bank was considered null and void by the planetary community. Israel, however, doubled down, taking its rage against West Bank Palestinians, who, too, were experiencing 1 of the worst Israeli pogroms successful galore years.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, by November 21, astatine slightest 777 Palestinians person been killed since October 7, 2023, portion thousands much were wounded and implicit 11,700 arrested.

To marque matters worse, Smotrich called, connected November 11, for the afloat annexation of the West Bank. The telephone was made soon aft the predetermination of Donald Trump arsenic the adjacent US President, an lawsuit that initially inspired optimism amongst Israeli leaders, but aboriginal concerns that Trump whitethorn not service the relation of the savior for Israel aft all.

On November 21, the ICC issued its historical ruling to apprehension Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The determination represented a measurement of hope, nevertheless faint, that the satellite is yet acceptable to clasp Israel accountable for its galore crimes.

2025 could, indeed, correspond that watershed moment. This remains to beryllium seen. However, arsenic acold arsenic Palestinians are concerned, adjacent with the nonaccomplishment of the planetary assemblage to halt the genocide and reign successful Israel, their steadfastness, sumoud, volition stay beardown until state is yet attained.