Column | Long time for sanctions against Israel

Will there ever be a day after the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip? I asked you and myself nine months ago in a gloomy column and I got 13,000 people even more gloomy. I write this column after the start on 16 May of a new Israeli offensive with the aim of removing the remaining hostages from Hamas and beating Hamas, or to beat Hamas and then automatically free the hostages, free, For those who listen to Prime Minister Netanyahu. Anyway, the entire area is still occupied, remaining buildings are still flattened (because Hamas command social centers, says Israel) and both two million Palestinians driven together in the southern corner. Driven together to protect them, in the words of Netanyahu. Or, in my words, to tip them over the border with Egypt if possible.

‘Gideon’s charios’ is called the offensive, and because the names of offensives often display the nature of the beast, I have it Bible book Richtenen stored. That is about the victory of Gideon, with a lot of help from God, about the Midjanites, an Arabic tribe that was constantly bothering the children of Israel. After Gideon they didn’t do that anymore.

The new offensive in itself can hardly be distinguished from what is not called an offensive in Israel: more than two months from Hongerblokkade, accompanied by bombing with more than 2,500 Palestinian dead, of whom more than 370 between 13 and 16 May. In total, more than 53,000 Palestinians have now been killed since the war started after Hamas’ slaughter in Israel of 7 October 2023. In majority women and children, additional damage to Hamas hunt. What does it save. Nobody is innocent explained An Israeli parliamentary member last week.

Malnutrition is now also going to make more and more victims: « People are stuck in a cycle that lacks a lack of varied food, malnutrition and illness, » warned the World Health Organization WHO last week. Netanyahu’s new, « minimal » amount of help will not change anything.

Googel UN organization OCA For victims and the hair -raising damage: homes, schools, hospitals, water systems, just everything needed to survive. The UN treasures that if it ever comes to resolve Gaza can require between sixteen and eighty years, depending on the building pace. First debris must be cleared. Unocha’s briefing of 8 April estimates that the war has produced 50 million tons of rubble, of which the clearance can cost up to 20 years. But not everything is necessary immediately. The actual question is who will pay the required billions as long as there is no structural solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The answer is nobodybecause next destructive war rounds are certainly. At the expense of your tax money: In 2001, Israeli troops destroyed the port of Gaza under construction, in which the Netherlands had invested 23 million euros.

More and more politicians, scientists and human rights organizations are speaking of genocide. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk On Saturday, the bombing, the perspective of population, the systematic destruction of entire neighborhoods and the denial of humanitarian aid increased to ethnic cleansing. « We have to put an end to this insanity. »

Which ‘we’? Netanyahu is probably planning to continue the war. « We can agree a cease-fire for a certain period, but we go to the end. » US President Trump mainly thinks in terms of a golden future with the Gulf States. Arab and Western governments are rolling in powerlessness, so well expressed by Prime Minister Schoof who called Israel’s plans « worrying. »

Between Monday midnight and Tuesday morning, sixty people were killed again at Israeli attacks. It is long time for sanctions.

Carolien Roelants is Middle East expert. She writes a column every other week.

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