Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

[SvennoJ]

Fighting continues, but maybe things are changing. Things are not going all that well for the IDF on the ground as well

Israeli army says 4 soldiers killed in southern Gaza fighting

The Israeli army has announced the death of four more soldiers during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip last night, including a squad commander from an elite infantry unit. The deaths bring the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since October 7 to 604, including 268 killed since the start of ground operations on October 26.

Earlier, the military wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, claimed nine Israeli soldiers were killed in az-Zanna district in eastern Khan Younis and five in the city’s al-Amal neighbourhood.

Intense fighting under way in southern Khan Younis city

A statement released by Hamas’s military wing says its fighters ambushed three Israeli tanks in az-Zanna area, in the east of Khan Younis city.

The district has been under heavy bombardment and artillery shelling for the past month. People who managed to get there and inspect it report about 95 percent of residential buildings, infrastructure, and public facilities have been – not partially or severely – but completely destroyed.

The Qassam Brigades says it killed nine soldiers there and four more in a separate attack. The Israeli army issued a statement saying four of its soldiers were killed in Gaza on Saturday.

The Israeli military is operating in the western part of Khan Younis, specifically in al-Amal neighbourhood and within al-Amal Hospital where extreme fighting is ongoing. Civil defence crews and witnesses say civilians are trapped in the area.

_{A Palestinian woman inspects destroyed residential buildings in Khan Younis}

Palestinians and the world must not lose hope

Those mobilising against the Israeli genocide face exhaustion and burnout. This is the result of Israel’s ‘war of attrition’.


If I were to describe the past 26 weeks, it would be one hour after another of just barely pulling through. I have asked myself, what is the point of writing another piece about Israel’s remorseless sadism?

Between pitching this article and finding the strength to actually write it, more than 3,000 Palestinian children, women and men were killed. Al-Shifa Medical Complex was completely destroyed and the extrajudicial killings in the West Bank have only intensified.

The feeling of numbness, of paralysis among Palestinians is one of the aims of the Israeli “attrition” strategy. A war of attrition is meant to create the conditions to drain, exhaust and weaken an opponent. It is meant to diminish the capacity to fight back


Israel’s goal is the emotional, moral and mental depletion of those resisting its occupation and colonisation so they lose motivation and commitment to engage and mobilise in the face of brute repression.

It has applied this strategy in “peacetime” as well. Following in the footsteps of European colonialists and their logic of pacification, Israel has sought to wear down the Palestinian population into full submission by making life impossible at all levels. While feeding the world the false narrative of “self-defence”, it has tried to create the moribund Palestinian: not necessarily dead, but always on the edge, constantly facing the choice between death and torment.

I do not think I will ever be able to fully explain what it is like to be a Palestinian – in all the shades of bruises we come in. It is not for the lack of words as much it is for the recognition that if I were to speak of the horrors, I am not confident that those who listen would bear to hear all the pain embedded in the Palestinian experience.

For the past 182 days, Palestinians have been plunged into waves of deep grief, penetrating pain, and a crippling fear of anticipated loss. Quivers of terror remain stuck in our spine unable to escape, just like us.

One of the most testing parts of this aggression is having to manage this grief. So many people we know are either killed, arrested or displaced. Palestinians have suffered not only physical displacement but psychological displacement as well; our mental and emotional anchors have been dislodged. It is an excruciating type of pain to keep witnessing the different ways in which Palestinian bodies can be turned lifeless.


Does he mean it?

British support for Israel ‘not unconditional’: Cameron

British support for Israel is “not unconditional”, UK’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron writes in The Sunday Times, a week after it killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, including three Britons, in Gaza.

“There is no doubt where the blame lies: Israel’s inquiry has already enumerated the inadequate processes and the unacceptable conduct of the IDF [Israeli forces] personnel involved. This must never happen again,” Cameron wrote.

“Our backing is not unconditional: we expect such a proud and successful democracy to abide by international humanitarian law.”

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 07 April 2024