Several eyewitnesses in Gaza city say snipers were shooting dead civilians after the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) issued a new evacuation order and told Palestinians to head south as it steps up its offensive across the coastal strip.
The attacks reportedly took place as civilians evacuated a number of neighbourhoods in Gaza City, having been ordered to leave on Wednesday, even as mediators from Qatar, the United States and Egypt were meeting with Israeli officials in Doha for talks seeking a ceasefire. One man told Al Jazeera he was sitting when he saw an Israeli sniper who shot a man on a bicycle carrying canned food. “The sniper shot him directly,” he said. “We were unable to move his body. Even the paramedics were unable to access the street. They couldn’t retrieve or evacuate the body of this person.” Ambulance staff forced to turn back reportedly told the man they had not received instructions to retrieve bodies. “The sniper shot him directly,” he said.
The Israelis are becoming more ruthless and arrogant in their purge of the Palestinians of Gaza. If what the eyewitnesses say are true then the Israeli military has appointed itself the arbitrary judge, jury and executioner of all those Palestinians that cross their path in Gaza. All those relevant parties involved in protecting Palestinian rights, the Qataris, the Egyptians and Washington should be calling for an immediate ceasefire. The Americans and their allies in Europe for their part should cut off all trade with Israel and impose sanctions on the Zionist regime. No more weapons or financial aid for the Israelis. South Africa has at least taken some action by taking the case of genocide against the Israelis to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Palestinian civilians of Gaza and the West bank cannot be allowed to be treated like cannon fodder at the hands of the Zionist regime.
Israel’s army has repeatedly ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to leave areas that it had previously declared were safe to return to – in both northern and southern Gaza. On Wednesday, it dropped leaflets addressed to “everyone in Gaza City” warning people to leave the “dangerous combat zone”, days after ordinary evacuations of the city’s Daraj, Tuffah and Old City Neighbourhoods. B’Tsalem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, has called Israel’s orders for Gaza City’s entire population to evacuate “absolute madness”. In a post on social media on Wednesday, it said the international community must now intervene and “demand that Israel immediately stop the war”. The talks on a ceasefire and an exchange of captives held in Gaza for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons were ongoing in Qatar’s capital on Thursday.
The war has taken its toll on the Palestinian people. The Israelis have likely done more harm than good to their cause and goals by perpetrating this large-scale genocide in Gaza. The evacuation of civilians from Gaza City will put the vulnerable at risk. The risk of women, children and the disabled being put at risk can lead to them becoming easy targets for sadistic Israeli snipers. Only when the rest of the world stands up to the tyranny being perpetrated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will we see some change. More nations from across the world are coming together to recognize Palestine’s statehood. However, it will take the efforts of all those concerned particularly the US government to end the war. The Qataris are right to argue that the exchange of the Israeli hostages taken on the seventh of October for the Palestinian prisoners is the only way for a path to a ceasefire.
Meanwhile as the Israeli occupiers continue to hunt the Palestinians as if they are feral animals Netanyahu is contemplating a layover in Europe during his trip to Washington later this month, despite concerns over an arrest warrant application from the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to Israel’s national media.
Kan News reported on Wednesday has been evaluating the feasibility of such a layover in Europe, given that the ICC is seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant and Netanyahu faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the starvation of civilians in Gaza as a method of war, wilfully causing great suffering, wilful killing, international attacks on a civilian population and extermination, among other charges. No warrants have been issued yet. The ICC prosecution has submitted an application, which is currently under consideration by ICC judges in the pre-trial chamber. The prosecutor also seeks the arrest of Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, its military wing’s commander-in-chief Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, better known as Mohammad Dief, and its political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Netanyahu is not the most popular figure in Israel or the Western nations among ordinary people who are pacifists. You will still have the war mongers who support his regime but they are less than half of the pro-Israel establishment. Netanyahu already faces charges of corruption within Israel, while he uses the war in Gaza as a means to stay in power. It is a means that has proven deadly to the residents of the strip. Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav have created a death trap that has become deeply racist due to its selective nature. Unarmed Palestinians have been deliberately killed by IDF snipers. The result is that he and all those responsible for genocide should be held accountable.
Haniyeh the political leader of Hamas and prime minister of Gaza along with his associates should face trial for the massacre of 7 October as well as release the remaining hostages in their custody. However, their reasons for why they did what they did need to be told by them. Their motives need to be explained and the reasons behind the attack on eight of October that led to the war need to be scrutinized.
Article written by:
Yacoob Cassim
Journalist at Radio Al Ansaar
