Gaza.. Normalization with crime

The immoral nature of war is based on the intentionality of committing crimes, in contrast to producing a state of sectarian or collective identification, which pushes towards normalization with crimes, through the intention of disrupting the moral principle that condemns them, which is what summarizes the narrative of the war taking place in the Gaza Strip so far, as the daily massacres committed against Palestinians cannot be separated from the will of systematic Israeli killing, which is based on a horrific state of normalization with its crimes, which enabled it, not only to sustain its crimes against the Palestinians, but also to disrupt any possibility of pursuing it and stopping its massacres, in addition to linking the cessation of the war in Gaza to Israeli conditions.

Naturally, any war in the world takes place between certain parties, which are somewhat equal in their strength, such that the rules of engagement can be tracked and the tools of mutual deterrence can be measured, and most importantly, the crimes that target civilians can be monitored, with the aim of measuring the extent of the commitment of the conflicting parties to protecting civilians, which is guaranteed by international laws in wars. However, the war taking place in the Gaza Strip, according to the daily conflict equation and its results, is a one-sided war, but its horror, crimes and violence include the entire society, as the justifications for eliminating the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), the pretext used by the Israeli entity to launch its war on Gaza, have become a daily, comprehensive and systematic war against the Palestinians, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants, nor between the civilian structure that requires protection in any war, and the military structure.

Although Israel’s racist policy towards the Palestinians is consistent with its colonial doctrine as an occupying state, the coercive use of striking force, which targets the lives of civilians and is backed by political cover from its allies, has made it obstruct any moral level to stop its crimes against the Palestinians, let alone hold it legally accountable, and then continue to float and perpetuate the state of violence, including consolidating its economic and humanitarian siege on the Gaza Strip, and turning its coercive measures against civilians into a daily and permanent condition of life.

While the results of its military operations in Gaza have turned the Strip into a scorched and uninhabitable land, the Israeli army’s operations have not stopped, but have taken on the form of an open, multiple and continuous war, from launching military operations on cities in the northern part of the Strip with the aim of creating a geographical buffer zone, to bombing cities in the middle and south of the Strip, in addition to targeting residential areas and turning them into a military zone, which has led to an escalation in the pace of its crimes against the Palestinians, in addition to subjecting them to successive and continuous cycles of displacement and internal displacement.

At another level of crimes, and also of intentionality in killing, the policy of collective punishment pursued by the Israeli entity against the Palestinians is working to establish an unprecedented state of targeted violence, and to perpetuate their suffering. In addition to the periodic evacuation orders that affect Palestinians in the cities of the Strip after every Israeli army operation, which means that they lose their temporary shelter, and face inhumane conditions that go beyond the dispersion of families to the loss of their means of survival, the entity has deliberately disrupted the supplies of life for the Palestinians besieged in the Strip, and managed it to establish its punitive policy.

While its devastating war on the Gaza Strip has turned most of the population into disabled and displaced forces in displacement camps, which has exacerbated and expanded the state of poverty, the human losses resulting from the Israeli war on Gaza have led to most Palestinian families losing their breadwinners, which has made securing humanitarian interventions a necessary condition for survival. However, the Israeli entity’s management of the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip constitutes another crime against humanity, as the militarization of the Strip and the erosion of local authority, represented by the Hamas movement, have resulted in the absence of effective networks that organize the process of distributing humanitarian aid, in contrast to turning the Israeli entity’s authority into a primary body that controls its entry, as it has employed this to starve the Palestinians.

In addition to continuing to obstruct the entry of humanitarian aid into the cities of the Gaza Strip, through militarizing the outlets it controls and imposing strict control measures, it has raised the levels of risks to which humanitarian supplies are exposed, by deliberately targeting them directly, not to mention lifting the cover from the humanitarian organizations operating on the ground and targeting them and restricting their activities, which has taken the humanitarian crisis in all the cities of the Gaza Strip to the last level of famine. On the other hand, the comprehensiveness of the Israeli military targets in the Strip, and its failure to neutralize any safe humanitarian and civilian site to which Palestinians resort, including the areas that the Israeli army designates as safe areas from time to time, raises the levels of its crimes against humanity.

While targeting camps remained a pattern for the Israeli killing machine, the Israeli army did not stop there, but rather moved its battle to hospitals, which became a battlefield. It recently targeted Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, even though this came under the pretext of using it as a military center for Hamas fighters. However, stripping a health facility of protection and turning it into a military target constitutes a crime against humanity. In addition to arresting more than 240 hospital visitors, patients and staff, targeting the last hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, in light of the destruction of the health system, means the intention to kill citizens, by depriving them of receiving treatment and doubling the levels of deaths resulting from diseases, including groups in need of care, from the elderly to newborns.

The continuation of the Israeli army’s operations in the Gaza Strip and the expansion of its list of targets are in line with the official strategy adopted by the Israeli government to prolong the war, which means, in light of the internal challenges it faces, investing in Gaza as an existential threat to Israel, to achieve military and political gains as well. Consolidating the military situation in the Gaza Strip into an open war against Hamas, including launching periodic military operations to hinder the organization of its ranks, makes the Strip effectively subject to the occupation authority, i.e. gradually imposing a fait accompli, and investing it now and in the long term, to allow it to adhere to the military option, not as an option to negotiate with Hamas and complete the hostage deal, but to ensure the continuation of the war in Gaza and not linking it to any negotiating context, which enables it to continue targeting the cities of the Strip. In addition, undermining any possibility of the existence of a local Palestinian force in Gaza that manages the institutions of the Authority, in light of Israel’s linking the existence of the Authority to the understandings of the post-war period, makes determining the fate and future of Gaza political matters. Two Israelis, in addition to its transformation (Israel) into an effective force on the ground at the present time, means the continuation of the inhuman reality that it relies on to subjugate the Palestinians.

Although the Israeli government, as well as Hamas, are seeking to preempt the inauguration of US President Donald Trump to complete the first phase of the hostage deal, whether this happens or not, the Israeli government, which is supported by the US administration, whether current or future, is moving in a comfortable position, and is isolated from any external political pressures that would force it to stop the war in Gaza, and thus ensure the continuation of an open war that is not restricted by a specific time, and is conditional on achieving its goals.

Gaza is a separate sector, not only militarily, but also humanely. Here, all humanitarian and moral laws are suspended until further notice, while war crimes and crimes against humanity remain the Israeli law that governs the rhythm of daily life for Palestinians, and does not only make them an available target for killing, but also allows the destruction of all possible components of life in front of them, from hospitals to camps for the displaced, in exchange for normalizing its crimes, and transforming the will to kill and exterminate into normal actions. In another year, the time cycle for killing Palestinians becomes regular, and the possibility of survival becomes a difficult task, perhaps impossible.

(New Arab)