Hell on earth: On Israel and Gaza.
The world should restrain Israel from occupying Gaza.
Gaza, as the Red Cross has put it, has already become “hell on earth”. In 19 months, Israeli forces have killed more than 52,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children. Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, many, multiple times. Tens of thousands have been wounded in a territory that lacks even basic medical facilities. Israel has imposed a renewed siege on the 365-sq.-km strip, deepening an already dire hunger crisis, and threatening, as the UN Human Rights Office warned, the viability of the Palestinians continuing to live in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has decided to call up tens of thousands of reservists and launch an intensified ground offensive in the enclave, aimed at capturing and holding territory, and taking direct control of aid delivery. Israel has already reduced to rubble much of northern Gaza, and forcefully moved the over one million people who used to live there before the war began in October 2023. Now, Mr. Netanyahu says that as part of the new offensive, Palestinians would be moved again from their makeshift shelters and refugee camps. The Israeli government claims that “military pressure” is the only way to force Hamas to release the remaining hostages. But in the name of combating Hamas, Mr. Netanyahu has unleashed a relentless assault on the entire population of the Gaza Strip, even as the rest of the world watches passively.
Despite the use of callous, inhumane military tactics, which led the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant against Mr. Netanyahu, Israel has faced little resistance from the most powerful nations. West Asia’s only nuclear power continues to receive weapons from its western allies. The Biden administration provided consistent military and diplomatic support throughout the war. And President Donald Trump, who once threatened to empty out the Palestinians from Gaza, appears to have given a carte blanche to Mr. Netanyahu. With no meaningful restraints, Mr. Netanyahu is now poised to make another grave mistake by expanding the offensive. Over the past 19 months of war, the best opportunity for peace was the implementation of the January 2025 ceasefire agreement. It required, in the second phase, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas releasing the remaining hostages. But Israel’s refusal and also Hamas’s refusal to hand over the hostages without Israeli pull-back led to the resumption of fighting. If Mr. Netanyahu proceeds with his plans, it will not just deepen the moral and humanitarian crisis but also deal a devastating blow to any attempt to end the conflict through talks. The world should show greater moral and institutional courage in confronting mass violence and forced displacements perpetrated by nation-states.