According to reports from the international news agency Tasnim, in light of the Zionists’ admissions regarding war crimes and genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz has published a brief article examining these atrocities. It states that while occupation was the most prominent issue in the past, ‘genocide’ is now the most pressing concern.
The article emphasizes that genocide is a legal concept that must be proven to have genuinely occurred. However, there is no difficulty in demonstrating the intent, as members of the Israeli cabinet coalition have explicitly called for genocide.Haaretz continues by asserting that genocide can symbolically represent the war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza: the slaughter of innocent civilians, destruction of vital infrastructure (with 78% of buildings and infrastructure in Gaza obliterated), and the use of hunger as a weapon against the civilian population. The Israeli army has devastated the majority of agricultural lands in Gaza, leading to severe food shortages. Moreover, according to United Nations reports, Israel has reduced Gaza’s water storage capacity by 84%, alongside incidents of looting, torture, and abuse against detainees.
The article points out that explaining these crimes to Israelis is nearly impossible in a society where even uttering the word ‘genocide’ is taboo. For instance, how can one explain to a cousin that the execution of a decree by an Israeli official against all Gaza residents is wrong, or that calls to burn Gaza, justified by the claim that all its inhabitants are guilty, represent a catastrophic moral collapse?Haaretz refers to a list compiled of victims from the Gaza war, revealing that among the 72,063 fatalities, 17,594 were children under 16, including 3,150 infants and toddlers. The data analysis indicates that at least 47% of those who lost their lives in Gaza were women, children, and the elderly who had not engaged in combat with Israeli forces either on October 7 or afterward. In other words, nearly half of the human toll inflicted by the Israeli army on Gaza consists of civilians who were entirely innocent and had taken no action against Israel.
In its concluding remarks, Haaretz states that these statistics position Israel as the nation responsible for the highest number of innocent civilian deaths during all wars in the 21st century. Furthermore, it cites a recent international study indicating that approximately 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza have died since the onset of the war on October 7, 2023, either directly due to Israeli attacks or indirectly from the consequences of the blockade and famine, making this conflict the deadliest of the 21st century.The Hebrew media also highlights a research report led by Professor Michael Sabaghat and Dr. Khalil Al-Shuqaqi which emphasizes that the figures released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health underrepresent the actual situation on the ground. The report addresses Israeli officials’ attempts to discredit Palestinian casualty statistics asserting that contrary to official claims the numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry are not only accurate but likely lower than the true figures.
Weeks earlier the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights estimated that based on predictions indicating a reduction of over 10% in Gaza’s population due to ongoing military assaults the death toll could exceed 200000. Stuart Casey Maslin head of the Geneva Academy stated that by October 2023 Gaza’s population had decreased by over 10% which corresponds to nearly 200000 deaths. He added that the figures released so far do not reflect the full extent of human casualties with many victims possibly trapped under rubble and not yet rescued or officially recorded. The significant population decline serves as a serious indicator of the scale of this humanitarian catastrophe and these estimates require independent verification; however if accurate they suggest that the number of victims far exceeds the officially reported figures.
