One million lives in Gaza shattered!

TDT | Manama                                     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

As Israel readies for a ground attack on Gaza, home to over 2.3 million Palestinians, the United Nations said yesterday that over one million people there have been displaced since last week, following sustained bombardments and Israel’s directive to evacuate to the south.

The bombardments have flattened neighbourhoods and left at least 2,450 people dead, including over 720 children, Gaza’s health ministry said yesterday.

Israel said yesterday that the death toll from the Hamas attack last week has reached 1,400. In a joint statement issued yesterday, the Arab League and the African Union warned that an invasion by Israel could lead to genocide.

Iran’s foreign minister said no one can guarantee control of the situation and the non-expansion of conflicts if Israel sends its soldiers into Gaza. Israel yesterday shut its border area with its northern neighbour Lebanon to civilians, with its defence minister saying it had no interest in a war in the north and doesn’t want to escalate the situation.

US fear

In Washington, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said they feared the prospect of Iran getting directly engaged in the conflict. Thousands of pro-Palestinian protestors had gathered in the US capital on Saturday, calling for a ‘Free Palestine’.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who recently toured the Middle East for diplomatic talks to avoid a wider crisis, appealed to China, a close ally of Iran, to use its influence in the region to ease tensions.

But the Chinese foreign minister said yesterday that Israel’s response has gone beyond the scope of self-defence and called on the Israeli prime minister to cease its collective punishment of the people of Gaza.

China supports the just cause of the Palestinian people in safeguarding their national rights and the root cause is that the Palestinian people’s right to statehood has been set aside for a long time, the foreign minister was quoted as saying.

“This historical injustice should end as soon as possible,” the foreign minister was stated to have told Iran’s foreign minister during a phone call, according to an official readout by China.

In Rome, Pope Francis called for humanitarian corridors in Gaza and urged that children, the sick, the elderly, women, and civilians should not fall victim to the conflict. Thousands marched in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, yesterday in a pro-Palestine demonstration.

Egypt said yesterday that it plans to host a summit on the future of the Palestinian cause. By yesterday evening, Israel said it is considering resuming water supply in the southern part of Gaza, so that the civilian population would move there.

The move comes a week after cutting off water, electricity, and food supplies to Gaza. As the border crossings controlled by Israel are closed, along with the Rafah border crossing point with Egypt in the south, the 2.3 million people of Gaza have nowhere to go and are effectively trapped in the Palestinian exclave that is 41 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide.