‘No parallel’
Another voice condemning the situation in Gaza is that of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who last week described the situation in Gaza as “horrific.”
“What we are witnessing in Gaza is a level of death and destruction that has no parallel in recent times,” Guterres told reporters on July 14.
His remarks came amid calls for an immediate ceasefire, which he said was “not enough.”
“It is essential that that ceasefire leads to a solution, and that solution can only be possible if both Palestinians and Israelis can have a state where they can exercise their rights,” Guterres said.
Hundreds of Palestinians continue to be killed; even children collecting water were not spared. Unicef called such slayings an “outrage that must end,” saying civilians must be protected and treated with dignity. No one, including children, should risk their lives to get food, water or any other aid, it added. UN aid agencies in Gaza said no fuel, basic health services and clean water could be delivered because of the Israeli blockade.
The United Kingdom charity group Save the Children has strongly condemned the British government for continuing to supply Israel with weapons and parts for F-35 fighter jets that are used to bomb and kill thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, in Gaza.
“The UK public sees what is happening. They will not be silent while their government is complicit in Israel’s atrocities by continuing to license the transfer of arms,” Save the Children said as it called for their supply to be suspended.
Now, another has added his strong voice to the outrage: Israeli former prime minister Ehud Olmert. In a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian newspaper, he claimed that the planned containment of Palestinians in a so-called humanitarian city was actually forced detention in a “concentration camp,” and it would be “ethnic cleansing.”
If this plan pushes through, Olmert said, it would be a “blueprint for crimes against humanity.”
And once the Palestinians are detained in the camp, they would not be allowed to leave, he added.
This project is backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist ministers. Israeli human rights lawyers and scholars have warned that if implemented “under certain conditions, it could amount to the crime of genocide.
Olmert also said the recent killing of a Palestinian American citizen and many more by Israeli settlers in the West Bank aimed to drive out the people there and expand Israel’s borders.
“The attacks were war crimes,” he said. “[It is] unforgivable. Unacceptable. There are continuous operations organized, orchestrated in the most brutal, criminal manner by a large group.”
“These guys are the enemy from within,” he told the Guardian. “In the United States, there [are] more… expressions of hatred [toward] Israel. We make a discount to ourselves saying: ‘They are anti-Semites.’ I don’t think that they are only anti-Semites; I think many of them are anti-Israel because of what they watch on television, what they watch on social networks.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu continues his war with impunity and with no clear end in sight./PN
