October 7, 2024, marks one year since the onset of the aggression against Gaza and subsequently against all Palestinian territory. A year has gone by since one of the most heinous acts of genocide began; since the curtain was drawn on the complicity of the international community and Western institutions, against a people who, according to international law, are defending their right to exist. A year has passed since the attempt to uproot a people from their land, filled with lies and rhetoric aimed at portraying the Zionist occupation as the victim.
Over the past year, the world has witnessed the brutality of Zionist practices, carried out under the cover of Western countries, led by the United States. The world has also observed the fragility of the international community and its inability to restrain Israel and halt the genocide. What the Palestinian people are currently experiencing, alongside all the peoples of the region, is not new; it reflects practices that have characterized the region for decades, including assassinations of prominent leaders, violations of national sovereignty, and ongoing aggression that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions from their homes.
The situation in Gaza has become critical as Israel’s campaign to destroy the Strip, eradicate all means of survival and push the population to evacuate, advances. This aggression has been met with steadfast resistance from the Palestinian people, determined to not face a second Nakba.
A year of killing in the largest genocide is the continuation of historical Israeli aggression
In the year of Israeli aggression in Gaza, the world has witnessed all kinds of attacks and killings that are best described as war crimes. This assault has been broadcast on social media and news channels, with the world bearing witness to the martyrdom of more than 41,000, injury of 96,000, and disappearance of more than 10,000 under the rubble.
The aggression has resulted in massive destruction of infrastructure and basic services, making Gaza a land of rubble that lives by the light of daylight and the sound of explosions, and whose night is illuminated by the blaze of explosions, rockets and bombs. Despite this, Palestinians refuse to surrender and continue to return to their destroyed homes, even while being targeted by occupation soldiers.
The Israeli occupation has been targeting Gaza for more than ten years, in an effort to annex the Strip. In 2008, Israel used internationally banned weapons such as white phosphorus and depleted uranium against the people of Gaza, killing more than 1,430 including more than 400 children and 240 women, in addition to wounding 5,400 and destroying more than 10,000 homes.
The aggression was repeated again in November 2012, when more than 180 Palestinians were martyred, including 42 children and 11 women, and about 1,300 others were wounded, before a ceasefire was established as part of an agreement signed in Cairo.
This was followed by attacks in July 2014. This 51-day aggression was inaugurated with the kidnapping, torture and burning of Palestinian child Muhammad Abu Khdeir by settlers. The war resulted in 2,322 killed and more than 11 thousand wounded, with massacres being committed against 144 families, each of which had at least 3 members killed.
In March 2018, the Palestinian people in Gaza launched the Great March of Return protests and every Friday marched to the apartheid wall to demand Israel and Egypt to end the crippling land, air and sea blockade imposed on Gaza since 2007. The peaceful mass protests which continued into 2019 were met with brutal violence by Israeli Occupation Forces who, using live ammunition, killed over 200 people and injured over 20,000, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
On November 12, 2019, the occupation carried out new raids on Gaza, wherein 34 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 others were wounded. Two years later, in May 2021, the occupation repeated its attack on Gaza, killing more than 250 Palestinians and wounding more than 5,000. A ceasefire was established after international mediation, and in August 2022, Israel launched another operation that killed 49, including 17 children, while more than 360 Palestinians were injured.
October 7 came after decades of Israeli attacks that affected various parts of Palestine. In the occupied territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinians had been facing a multiplicity of assaults from Israeli forces and settlers who often attack under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces. This was even recognized by the US Deputy Secretary of State, Vedant Patel, who expressed that “after a careful process, we found five Israeli units responsible for individual incidents that constitute serious human rights violations,” indicating that “all of these incidents occurred before October 7, and none of them occurred in Gaza.”
Gaza is in a humanitarian emergency
As previously mentioned, in the year of Israeli genocidal violence in Gaza, Israeli forces have so far killed more than 41,000 people, including about 17,000 children and more than 11,000 women, in addition to more than 96,000 injured and 10,000 missing. According to the International Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Palestinian People, the occupation committed more than 4,650 massacres against civilians, most of whom were targeted inside their homes or in shelters. This is amid a mass forced displacement campaign, which has displaced two million people, over 90% of the total population of the Gaza Strip.
The occupation committed egregious war crimes against Palestinian children and their families by using them as human shields during battles. Recordings documented the introduction of Palestinians into tunnels in order to avoid ambushes, similar to the placing Palestinians in the front lines of the exchange of fire or even hiding behind groups in order to avoid injury.
During this time, the occupation authorities have arrested more than 5,000 Palestinians in Gaza, under the “illegal combatants” law. Prisoners have been subjected to extremely harsh physical and psychological conditions, and subjected to various forms of torture and abuse including rape and sexual harassment.
Since the beginning of the aggression, the occupation has targeted hospitals and healthcare centers, seeking the complete destruction of the health infrastructure in Gaza. On October 17, Israeli forces bombed the Baptist Hospital (Al Ahli Arab Hospital) in central Gaza, massacring over 500 Palestinians, most of whom were women and children who took refuge in the hospital to shelter from the bombardment. Al Shifa Hospital was occupied for over two weeks by Israeli forces, during which they terrorized patients and health workers, destroyed equipment, and killed hundreds of people. Since October 7, more than 1,000 health workers have been killed by Israeli forces. Additionally, the occupation has systematically prevented the entry of medicines and medical supplies, which hastened the fate of the sick and wounded adding to the number of martyrs while exacerbating the health crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The health sector was not the only one that was destroyed. Education has been a constant target of the occupation, with many educational institutions being reduced to rubble. According to data from the United Nations, over 500 educational buildings have been completely destroyed or severely or partially damaged. 84% of all of Gaza’s schools will need to be at least partially rebuilt. The high death toll of children and young people in this genocide means that thousands of students have been killed as well as hundreds of teachers and professors. According to the Ministry of Education, 630,000 school students and 88,000 university students were prevented from attending their educational programs for the second year in a row.
The mass displacement crisis in Gaza has seen tens of thousands seek refuge in hospitals and schools, only to be displaced or targeted in Israeli attacks. Millions have been forced to live in tents and overcrowded shelters and sometimes in the streets, without the basic necessities of life. Many Gaza residents have been displaced repeatedly, some up to 10 times, moving to areas designated by the occupation as safe, which routinely become new targets – illustrating what the United Nations stated in January 2024 that there is no safe place in Gaza.
Starvation has also routinely been wielded as a weapon against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza strip. In August, the United Nations reported that the malnutrition levels among children in northern Gaza witnessed a 300% increase from May to July 2024. The primary reason behind the acute levels of malnutrition is the illegal blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza which has caused shortages in essential supplies and a limited availability of fresh produce and meat.
Since the beginning of Israel’s renewed aggression on Gaza, Israel has cut off the supply of fuel, and electricity, as well as pipelines that supply water to the population of Gaza. They have forced the complete closure of desalination and sewage plants, exacerbating the lack of clean drinking water and poor sanitation. This has led to the spread of bacterial infections transmitted by contaminated drinking water, such as dysentery, typhoid, and polio which has returned to Gaza for the first time in 20 years. The severe overcrowding of IDPs in buildings that have been used as shelters, without minimum standards, has also increased the rates of infectious diseases such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, inflammatory skin diseases, and hepatitis C virus, exacerbated by lack of sanitation, malnutrition, lack of medical supplies, and the collapse of the health system.
Public health experts have warned that without an immediate ceasefire and the entry of essential supplies, infectious diseases could kill even more children than Israeli bombs already have.
The entire world has united in the demand for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as the only opportunity for life to return to the Gaza Strip.
