Gaza’s 2024: A year of war and suffering gaza news
Palestinians in Gaza are entering the new year as helpless and endangered as last year.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel’s war on the enclave continued until 2024, with 23,842 people killed and 51,925 injured during this year alone, bringing the horrific official death toll to 46,376.
Israel has used siege and starvation tactics as well as scorched-earth bombings, leading to accusations from rights groups and UN legal bodies that it is committing genocide.
All have documented Israel’s systematic targeting of hospitals, displacement shelters, aid workers, journalists, and so-called safe areas, which are often anything but.
In northern Gaza, Israeli forces have imposed a complete and suffocating siege in an effort to starve out fighters and drive out civilians, in what has been described as “ethnic cleansing”.
Rights groups say these strategies violate international law and are creating conditions to kill people “in whole or in part”, matching the definition of genocide in the UN Genocide Convention.
“This past year has been very dark for us. How can I describe it any other way? This has been more than torture,” said Iman Shaghnoubi, 52, of Deir al-Balah, Gaza.
Commenting on the continued displacement of Palestinians into the enclaves, he said, “We have moved from one humiliation to another.”
inside gaza
According to the Gaza government media office, Israel has “disabled” 34 hospitals in Gaza and forced 80 health centers to close completely.
Over the past few days, Israeli forces attacked the only remaining major hospital in Gaza’s devastated north, driving out staff and patients before setting the medical facility on fire.
Torrential rains are currently lashing the tent villages located in place of many of Gaza’s towns and cities, and deaths from hypothermia are rising as freezing temperatures continue to fall.
Shaghnoubi, who has six boys and two girls, said her children are struggling to survive in the cold and their small tent does not protect the family from heavy rain.
“My children sleep on wet beds at night,” he told Al Jazeera.
Shereen Abu Nida, 40, also said she and her four children are facing hardships due to the terrible living conditions caused by the war. Worst of all, her husband was kidnapped by Israeli forces about a year ago, leaving her all alone to take care of her children.
“I have had to spend this entire year alone,” she said in a trembling voice.
Musa Ali Muhammad al-Maghribi, 52, said his family has little hope for the future.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people face an ordeal, he said, with nine of his children sick and unable to get medicine, nor enough food or clean water for his family.
“(Israel) has destroyed us,” he told Al Jazeera. “Every day, we just expect to die.”
Netanyahu escalated the fight
Despite the extreme difficulty, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows no signs of stopping the attack.
Efforts to mediate some form of ceasefire, which have continued throughout the conflict, have failed in June in what many, including United States President Joe Biden, described as political expediency on the part of the Israeli Prime Minister . Minister.
Accusations of exploiting the war on Gaza for personal gain center on Netanyahu’s efforts to divert attention from his ongoing trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of public trust, all of which he denies.
Furthermore, the prime minister’s corruption trial suggests that Netanyahu is trying to prolong the war to deflect attention from accusations of negligence or incompetence during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that killed 1,139 Israelis. They went.
Accusations of opportunism have come from both within Netanyahu’s right-wing cabinet as well as from the street, where thousands of people are rallying in support of a deal that would see those taken captive during the Hamas-led offensive.
international impotence
The international community has failed to stop or reduce the genocide in Gaza because of America’s unqualified political and military support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
In addition to the more than $20 billion in aid provided to Israel since the war began, the US has promoted diplomatic efforts within the UN to end the war, including recent reports of possible famine in northern Gaza. Including suppressing.
In January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to make every effort to stop any acts considered genocide. Despite this, rights organizations based in Palestine and internationally, including Amnesty, have concluded that Israel is actively engaging in a campaign of genocide within the Strip.
Similar international action has also been taken against both Hamas and the Israeli leadership. In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant, as well as Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.
Israel claims that it killed Deaf in July. Netanyahu and Gallant are wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In October, Israel rejected international pressure and voted to impose sanctions on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), widely considered one of Gaza’s key lifelines. When sanctions come into force at the end of January next year, Gaza will lose its key aid agency as well as much of the network that distributes food, medicine and the infrastructure needed to sustain life.
In December, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to continue the work of UNRWA and, for the third time, to reach an immediate ceasefire. Despite this, Israeli attacks on Gaza continue and the future of the agency remains uncertain.
Palestinians like Abu Nida in Gaza hope the war will end soon this coming year.
“This has been the worst year of my life,” Abu Nida said.
“No one in the world has gone through the days we are living through,” he said.
