With Israel launching a military operation in the Gaza Strip, codenamed Operation Gideon Chariots, to pressure Hamas to release the hostages still remaining with them, there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel for the helpless civilian population of Gaza.
That the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no compunction at renewing the nightmare for the Palestinians has exposed to the international community how untrustable it is. It may be recalled that in January this year, Israel and Hamas had agreed to an initial phase of six weeks’ ceasefire, in which the latter released 33 hostages and the former around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
While that phase concluded relatively smoothly, Israel has reneged on starting the second phase, in which talks designed to end the war were due to begin, and instead demanded more hostages be released before negotiations can start, even as it restarted the aid-blockade, preventing food, fuel, electricity, aid and medical supplies getting to Gaza to exert pressure on Hamas. More than 3,000 have been killed since Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18, with the figure increasing every day.
Aid groups have warned of dwindling fuel, food and medicine supplies in Gaza, home to about 2.4 million people. But the Israeli government denies that Gaza was facing starvation and reiterated that the blockade is to force Hamas to release the remaining hostages.
The sheer viciousness of the new wave of attacks and the aid-blockade also reveals the self-centred motivation behind the renewed Israeli offensive, Tel Aviv being totally unconcerned that so far over 50,000 civilians have been butchered in Gaza, indubitably the biggest genocide in contemporary history.
Apparently, Netanyahu was bothered by the lack of focus his actions in Gaza were getting from the international community, and the almost dismissive attitude being displayed by US President Donald Trump. It may be noted that Israeli operations in Gaza have intensified as Trump concluded his trip to the Middle East without a visit to Tel Aviv.
This seems to have rattled Netanyahu, especially Trump’s acknowledgement that people were starving in the besieged Palestinian territory and that he was going to take care of it. But rather than be cowed down, Trump’s warning has spurred him on to increase the bombing of Gaza and enhance the torture being inflicted on the civilian population.
The only ray of hope on the horizon is that the Qatari and Egyptian-led negotiations to broker a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, currently underway in Doha, attain a degree of success sufficient to restrain Israel. It is encouraging that a Hamas delegation as well as a delegation from Israel are holding separate talks with an Egyptian delegation, since only a positive outcome can bring about an end to the Gaza nightmare.