THERE is no doubt that Israel’s human rights atrocities in Gaza in the last two months are the worst we have witnessed in modern times.
The bombardment and siege of Gaza since Oct 7 have killed over 17,000 people, including more than 7,000 children, injured more than 40,000 and displaced 1.6 million persons, while thousands are still unaccounted for under the rubble.
Of those killed, around 41% are children and 25% are women, turning Gaza into a “graveyard for children”, according to United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
More than 200 medics, 102 UN staff, 56 journalists, frontline and human rights defenders, have also been killed.
The most recent casualty is Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed in a strike on Gaza last Friday.
Alareer, who fiercely denounced Israel and its policies towards the Palestinians, was one of the leaders of a young generation of writers in Gaza.
After the US vetoed a security council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory on Friday, Human Rights Watch has accused the US of “complicity in war crimes” by giving Israel weapons and “diplomatic cover” as it commits atrocities in Gaza.
UN experts have said there is evidence of increasing genocidal incitement, overt intent to “destroy the Palestinian people under occupation”, and loud calls for a “second Nakba” in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory.
“This occurs amid Israel’s tightening of its 16-year unlawful blockade of Gaza, which has prevented people from escaping and left them without food, water, medicine and fuel for weeks now, despite international appeals to provide access to critical humanitarian aid. As we previously said, intentional starvation amounts to a war crime,” the experts said.
They noted that half of the civilian infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed, including more than 40,000 housing units as well as hospitals, schools, mosques, bakeries, water pipes, sewage and electricity networks.
“Israel remains the occupying power in the occupied Palestinian territory, which also includes the Gaza Strip, and, therefore, cannot wage a war against the population under its belligerent occupation,” they added.
More than a dozen member states of the World Health Organisation, including Malaysia, China and Indonesia, have submitted a draft resolution, urging Israel to respect its obligations under international law to protect humanitarian workers in Gaza.
The member states expressed their “grave concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, especially the military operations in the Gaza Strip”.
They called for Israel to “respect and protect” medical and humanitarian workers exclusively involved in carrying out medical duties as well as hospitals and other medical facilities.
I urge all human rights defenders and journalists, all concerned non-governmental organisations, not only in Malaysia but throughout Asia, to stand with the Palestinian people, to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and to condemn the war crimes by Israel, with the complicity of the US and the West.
Days before his death, Refaat wrote the following poem:
If I must die, you must live to tell my story, to sell my things, to buy a piece of cloth and some strings, (make it white with a long tail),
So that a child, somewhere in Gaza, while looking heaven in the eye, awaiting his dad who left in a blaze – and bid no one farewell, not even to his flesh, not even to himself – sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above, and thinks for a moment an angel is there, bringing back love.
If I must die, let it bring hope, let it be a tale.
The writer is a former member of Parliament and director of human rights organisation Suaram. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
