The carnage continues in Gaza as Israeli bombs continue raining-down on residents in every corner of the small strip, where thousands of women, elderlies and children continue to die in darkness while, the world watches in Shock and Awe.
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This week started with Israel cutting-off all telephone and internet communications across Gaza while dropping leaflets on targeted areas warning Palestinian civilians their homes are about to be bombed from air, land and sea.
Last weekend was the most-horrific, as Israel launched the promised ground invasion and pummeled Gaza with indiscriminate bombing and Israeli settlers increased deadly attacks against Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank.
Millions took to the streets in protests worldwide, including Jews abroad and families of captives at home demanding an end to the fighting and supporting negotiations for prisoner exchanges.
With increasing calls for a ceasefire and allowing humanitarian aid (food, fuel and water) into Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also facing cracks in his emergency National Unity government and his War Cabinet.
The Israeli leader is being increasingly-blamed for the ‘security lapse’ that caught Israel’s border guards sleeping on the morning of the holiest day of the Jewish calendar and last weekend Netanyahu forcibly and quickly retracted a public statement on ‘X’, after trying to shift blame to the security forces.
Hamas said it was ready for a prisoner exchange – all Israelis for all Palestinians held in Israeli prisons – but PM Netanyahu, as the man calling all the political and military shots, has shown no inclination to negotiate.
In the meantime, Hamas and Iran have already started talks with Russia regarding its citizens in Gaza, while the UK is pressing for safe passage for its citizens.
But while wide cracks are starting to appear in the Israel government over who is ultimately responsible for the current dire straits that have both Israelis and Palestinians living in limbo, Hamas continues to get support in its unequal fight as a non-state actor against a heavily-militarized state with nuclear warheads.
Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan told a huge rally in Ankara last week that Hamas ‘is not a terrorist group’, but a force fighting against illegal occupation -- resulting in Israel recalling its ambassador to Tel-Aviv.
The United Nations (UN) was also attacked by Israel last weekend and described by government spokespersons as ‘irrelevant’ after the General Assembly voted in favor of a non-binding resolution calling for humanitarian relief – including water – being held-up at border crossings to be allowed into Gaza.
The UN’s Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA), World Health Organization (WHO), Human Rights Agency, Red Cross and Red Crescent, Human Rights Watch, the US-based Committee for Protection of Journalists (CPJ) and other relief and human rights agencies continue demanding an end to the war on Gaza, but with no end in near-sight.
Israeli has long been losing the propaganda war and Cabinet ministers last week continued demonizing Hamas, claiming hospitals bombed in Gaza were ‘Hamas command centers’ and its combatants were ‘using civilians for water…’
Desperate Gazans raided warehouses for food last weekend, while Israel continued using water, fuel and food as weapons of war.
But the international pressure continues to mount from all quarters for a ceasefire and for aid flows into the besieged strip, where almost half-a-million people have been forcibly moved to Khan Younis in the south -- only to be bombed on-the-way, or on-arrival.
Turkey continues calling for a united Arab response -- and on Israel to ‘Listen to the world’ -- while Qatar wants maximum global pressure on Israel to implement the UNGA’s resolution.
Egypt and Hamas (together) also again loudly opposed plans to relocate surviving Gaza victims to Egypt’s Sinai region last weekend.
With the world pressing for a ceasefire, Israel has embarked on a clear mission of maximum destruction in minimum time, with the stated aim of ‘destroying Hamas completely’ and literally razing Gaza to the ground, while treating all its citizens as ‘Hamas supporters’.
‘Destruction of Hamas’ is practically-impossible, however, as both Hamas and Hezbollah (the latter based in Lebanon and considered ‘ten times more lethal…’) have grown stronger after every previous war with Israel.
Vengeance rules the roost in Tel-Aviv, but by killing an average of 2,000 Palestinians per week (thus far), Israel is actually investing in prolongation of the continuing fight for creation of a liberated Palestinian state.
After the first three weeks, it’s crystal-clear to the entire world that Israel has absolutely no intention of stopping the bombing and killing, with PM Natanyahu quoted on Monday as insisting he ‘will not resign’ and ‘will not negotiate a truce’ – and promising Israelis the war will be ‘long and difficult...’
Meanwhile, after the first three weeks of the War on Gaza (October 7-28), the numbers continue to consume Palestinians -- and overwhelm the world:
• 8,306 Palestinians killed, including 3,200 Children
• 1,600 Gazans still under rubble, including 700 children
• 110 doctors and medical workers killed
• 110 Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers in the Occupied West Bank
• 1,950 Palestinians injured in the West Bank
• 64 UN staff killed
• 24 journalists killed
• 230 Israelis in captivity in Hamas captivity
• 50 captives killed during Israeli bombing
• 60,000 Gazans seeking shelter around Al Shiva hospital
• 15 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals forced to close
• 600,000+ Palestinians are sheltering at UN facilities
• 300,000 Israeli reservists on standby to be deployed to Gaza
• 200 nuclear bombs available to Israel’s army
• 6,000,000 Palestinians live in exile worldwide
• 4,500,000 Palestinians live under occupation
• 2,300,000 Gazans are imprisoned within 365 square-kilometers
• 1,400,000 Gazans besieged in Khan Younis; and
• 490,000 Israeli settlers have built illegal settlements in Palestine
Meanwhile, children who’ve lost family members (among them one who lost 21 and another who lost 41) continue drawing pictures of death and destruction, while the carnage continues relentlessly -- and world leaders talk, diplomats discuss and Israel continues trying to eliminate an entire people in their own homeland.