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Editorial

“This is not just Israeli Genocide...”

Now the last functioning hospital in Gaza is gone. In Gaza, those who are still alive may envy the dead. The plight of the wounded and injured defies description. Then children and women are badly affected. The year 2024 was the worst for children worldwide. As per UNICEF report 479 million children have been affected in conflict zones and 43 million were displaced, mostly in the global South.

The world has watched hospitals bombed, children burned, and doctors hunted down. Destroying healthcare systems is a genocidal tactic to accelerate death. ‘Doctors Against Genocide’, a humanitarian organisation, demands action—an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East, protection for hospitals, and accountability for crimes against humanity. But Israel is not listening and a cease-fire is unlikely to be effected anytime soon, notwithstanding endless negotiations in Doha. Israel is delaying the process but Hamas is no less responsible in showing rigidity.

A number of medical personnel were burned to death in the fire allegedly set by the occupation forces in Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza. The Israeli military has stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, forcing doctors and patients to walk on foot to the southern part of the region. The hospital’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, is reportedly threatened with arrest. The Israeli military, however, says, ’a small fire in an empty building was unrelated to its activity. They deny Hamas's claims that troops set fire to north Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital. Most Arab states didn’t believe Israel’s contention. Nor do human rights bodies working at the international level subscribe to Israel’s defence arguments. In a statement released by the United Nations on December 29, 2024, a group of independent rights experts slammed Israel for defying international humanitarian law and inflicting maximum suffering on civilians. The Director-General of WHO too condemned Israel’s use of force against hospitals in Gaza.

Israeli forces reportedly burned operating rooms, surgery, laboratory, maintenance, and emergency units at Kamal Adwan Hospital. The fire has now started spreading to all buildings of Kamal Adwan Hospital. All medical services in the northern Gaza Strip have been suspended. The army is said to be forcibly transferring patients under threat of arms to the Indonesian hospital.

The Israeli army stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital after besieging it and issuing evacuation orders. Hundreds of wounded, patients, doctors and nurses are in the hospital and their fate is unknown.

A doctor working at the European Gaza Hospital died as a result of the severe cold. His body was found inside his tent in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Yunis city.

Gaza children freeze to death due to cold and lack of shelter. Winter blankets and supplies have been stuck for months waiting for approval to enter Gaza. And UN is helpless; it is not allowed to do humanitarian relief work.

As clarity on Israel’s planned genocide with the tacit approval of the US grows, so does the international community’s silence.

“This is not just an Israeli genocide–this is an Israeli, European and US genocide!” Today’s imperialism represented by the Global North with 49 countries, is in reality fascism. And fascism means war, war on the vast majority of the world’s population spreading over 145 countries in the Global South. The underdeveloped and underprivileged countries in the South bloc are too disunited to challenge the North. So they are suffering. Even in the case of the Israel-Hamas war they look divided. So Israel can have its way in contravention of all international laws and the so-called Geneva Conventions. So, hospitals are their legitimate target under the spacious plea that they are actually sheltering terrorists.

The Global North is an integrated military, political and economic bloc led by the US and Israel is an integral part of this grouping. The leftists across the world talk of fascism very loosely and yet there is no urgency to develop an international anti-fascist front as it was developed during the Second World War.

31.12.2024
[Contributed]

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 29, Jan 12 - 18, 2025