While the UN Security Council held a high-level emergency meeting on January 6 since the international pressure mounting for an end to the 11-day Israeli offensive in Gaza, Israeli tank shells and missiles continued military operations against Hamas killing more than 45 Palestinians at a UN school where civilians had taken shelter. So far Israel's “Operation Cast Lead” in Gaza has left more than 660 Palestinians, including 215 children killed and more than 3,000 wounded since Israel began its offensive.
At Tuesday's four-hour UN Security Council meeting, virtually every Arab leader denounced the Security Council's failure to adopt a legally binding resolution to stop the Israeli offensive and demand a durable cease-fire. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said the Council's “deafening silence” placed “a big question mark” over its credibility “and the entire system of international security.”
While Israel is defiant in wrecking aerial and ground attacks on civilians in Gaza through continuous bombardment, the world watches like a bewildered spectator. So far, a big number of victims are women and children whose details are horrifying. Gaza hospitals announced inability of receiving the wounded due to lack of medical equipment and tools. Corpses of Palestinians were thrown on the corridors, rooms and units of hospitals. Amputated bodies are strewn throughout hallways because the morgues in the city can no longer accommodate the dead.
Israel is once again repeating what it did in its 34-day war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, albeit with greater belligerence. As in 2006, so now, the UN is giving the Israeli military ample time to kill as many civilians as possible. In 2006, the Israeli air force destroyed Lebanon’s infrastructure in the name of war on terrorists, so now Israel’s forces are reducing the Gaza Strip to rubble to punish Hamas ‘terrorists’.
The ground assault that began on Saturday last that has added to the civilian population’s agony: hospitals are without electricity and running water; food and medical supplies, already restricted because of a year of blockade, are running out; and the death toll has crossed 500, while the number of injured is a matter of opinion. The massacre is likely to continue because Israel’s prime minister and defence minister have indicated that the assault would last for quite some time. In brief, in a small strip of land, Israeli soldiers are practicing what invading hordes have done through history on a wider scale.
Political analysts put it straight: Israel thrives on war and peace is perhaps a threat to Zionism. It has put forward demand, as condition of truce, that Hamas must be disarmed completely. But there is a hiccup. While the leaders of Hamas indicated their readiness to accept a Palestinian State within the 1967 borders and want blockade to end for a lasting peace, Israel does not agree to it, hence the killing of innocent civilians in the war offensive. Khaled Meshaal, Hamas leader, informed former president Jimmy Carter of this decision in April 2008. In May 2008, as per reports, Yves Aubin de La Messuziere, a retired senior French diplomat had held discussions with Ismael Haniyeh and Mahmoud Zahar – two prominent Hamas leaders who confirmed Hamas’ readiness to accept a Palestinian State within the 1967 border, but this truce is contrary to the Israeli political game plan.
Along with other countries, India has also condemned Israeli military operations; Israel seems not in a position to listen to any pressure till the US backing is strongly behind it. In a world where terrorism is hated and despised with utmost vehement, state terror is what the Israel is following that only gives birth to counter offensive. The US, on the other hand, is totally blind to the brutal killings of civilians; even President Bush has pointed out that for lasting peace Hamas, not Israel, is responsible, setting aside the UN resolution, asking for withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian territory.
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