The most important thing to understand about what's happening in Gaza is that Israel is carrying out a genocide.
The word ‘genocide’ has been invoked with reference to previous Israeli “operations” in Gaza, and with some justice. But on those occasions, people were describing the animating ideology and the essential character of the violence and of the IDF’s attitude towards Palestinian civilians and civilization.
I’ll leave it to others to debate the merits of invoking genocide in this way; the important point is that when I say today that Israel is carrying out a genocide, I am saying something very different. I am saying that Israel has deployed troops to Gaza this time not merely to punish or to hobble the development of Palestinian civilization in Gaza, but this time intends to actually, completely and systematically, eliminate Palestinian existence in Gaza. Previous operations have always caused thousands of deaths, widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, and displacement of tens of thousands of Gazans; this time practically the entire population of 2.2 million people have already been displaced, and Israel shows no sign of backing down from its brazenly displayed intent to kill or send fleeing into Egypt every single Palestinian in Gaza. In short, I am not saying that the Israeli power structure is motivated by genocidal beliefs and attitudes but that they are actively and deliberately exterminating the entire Palestinian population of Gaza.
So far, I have simply been providing an overview, but having stated in simple terms what is happening in Gaza, I will now expand on and document the facts which bear out that overview.
I have mentioned that as brutal as all Israel’s attacks on Gaza have been, none of them were a fraction as savage as the present war.
For contrast, over the course of Gaza War of 2008-2009, 4,000 homes were destroyed1; since October 7, 300,000 homes have been destroyed, representing over 70% of all homes in Gaza.2
In the 2008-2009 war, 29 ambulances were destroyed3; in the present war 123 ambulances have been destroyed4. In 2008-2009, 16 healthcare workers were killed; since October 7, 340 healthcare workers have been killed.
Just as staggeringly unprecedented as the number of healthcare workers killed, 124 journalists and media workers have been killed. 184 UN staff have been killed as well, 156 of them with UNRWA.
During the 2008-2009 war, aid crossing into Gaza was squeezed down to 120 trucks a day compared to 500 a day before the hostilities; in the last six days, an average 51 trucks a day have been allowed to cross into Gaza. The daily total for the first four of those days was 7, 19, 45, and 9 respectively, increasing to 100 and 130 in the last two days.
This does not in itself prove that a genocide is under way, but the staggeringly heightened severity of the assault compared to previous assaults corroborates Israel’s clear intention to destroy Gaza and Gazans, not merely wound them as it has in the past.
The evidence of genocide, which South Africa documented in some detail in their submission to the ICJ, is simple and direct. First, the highest echelons of the Netanyahu government (including the Prime Minister himself) have expressed genocidal intent explicitly and unapologetically, including delivering clear incitements to genocide directly to IDF troops preparing to invade Gaza. Second, in conducting the war in Gaza, they have done exactly what they said they would do, leaving no doubt as to whether their statements reflected serious intent.
Netanyahu, among others, has repeatedly invoked the biblical story of Amalek, in which God commands Saul to exact revenge on the Amalekites by destroying them. Simply put, it is a story of retaliatory genocide:
“Put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”
He invoked the story on October 28 when he addressed the Israeli forces as they prepared to launch the invasion, telling them to “remember what Amalek has done to you.”5
President Isaac Herzog expressed the prevailing attitude towards Palestinian civilians in his remarks on October 12:
“It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware not involved. It’s absolutely not true. … and we will fight until we break their backbone.”67
Most brazen of all has been the Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Of particular significance is an Israeli army ‘Situation Update’ of October 9 in which he announced that Israel was “imposing a complete siege on Gaza...”
“No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”8
There are a couple of things to note about this. Firstly, he is announcing a total siege of Gaza – the whole of Gaza and everybody in it – which makes it abundantly clear that when he says they are fighting human animals and will act accordingly he is referring to the whole population. Secondly, it is precisely the siege tactics about which he was so open with the world which poses the most serious and imminent risk of successfully carrying out genocide, through mass starvation, through the complete collapse of any capacity to provide healthcare, and through the lack of sanitation and running water which so insidiously conspires with extreme malnutrition to cause multiple overlapping and rapidly spreading epidemics of disease in a population whose physical capacity to survive those diseases has been radically compromised.
Gallants behaviour in particular will bear significantly on South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ. Not only did he make the above statements inciting genocide in his capacity as Defence Minister, but he also – like Netanyahu – carried this message to the front lines: he, too, spoke to troops on the Gaza border as they were preparing to invade. And to these troops, the very people who had the clear capacity to put his genocidal rhetoric into action, he said that he had “released all the restraints” upon them.
“Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything.”9
Mr. Ngcukaitobi, presenting the portion of South Africa’s case dealing with intent to the ICJ, distilled Gallant’s message: “Eliminate everything. Reach all places. Without any restraints.”10
About the implementation of Gallants stated policies and the consequences attending them we will have much more to say in a moment.
There have been even more extreme public statements by members of government in less powerful positions, which although not as significant as the declarations of the Prime Minister, President, Defence Minister, and other similarly high ranking officials, nonetheless show the normalisation of genocidal rhetoric throughout the government. For instance, one Likud MP, Recital Gottlieb said:
“Bring down buildings!! Bomb without distinction!! Stop with this impotence. You have ability. There is worldwide legitimacy! Flatten Gaza. Without mercy! This time, there is no room for mercy!”11
I will say again that this war is unprecedented in the extremity of its violence, its systematic obliteration of Gaza’s civil society, and the cruelty of the imposed suffering caused by mass – near total – displacement, starvation, lack of sanitation or drinking water, breakdown of the healthcare and hospital systems, exhaustion of medications, of the anaesthesia and analgesics necessary to treat the huge number of trauma cases included in the 68,552 people who have been injured in Israel’s bombardment and invasion, of regents and other laboratory supplies necessary for diagnostics, vaccines and treatments needed to slow the rapid spread of diseases, and on and on.
These deprivations represent a deliberate campaign by Israel to make life in Gaza impossible. It is this campaign of dehumanisation and starvation, and not the more obvious slaughter by bombs and bullets – significant as they are – which is the coup de grâce in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. The facts on the ground suggest that, unless Israel changes the way it is prosecuting the war drastically and immediately, there will soon be a mounting death toll from disease and famine that will quickly eclipse the nearly 30,000 killed by Israeli armament so far. I’ll now review the facts of this campaign. in some detail.
In a November 8 press release, UNOPS reported a “staggering 92 percent drop in water consumption from pre-conflict levels.” In addition, the press release reported that “with the vast majority of sewage stations now inoperative, the people of Gaza face a water and sanitation crisis of catastrophic proportions.”12 This lack of sanitation or clean drinking water is in large part a result of the blockade of fuel, without which water pumps and sanitation facilities can’t function.
The food situation is even more dire. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification projections for December 8 to February 7 predict that the entire population of the Gaza Strip would be “classified in IPC Phase 3 or above (Crisis or worse)...
“This is the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country.”13
Of these, fully 50% are in phase 4 (emergency), and quarter of all households in phase 5 (catastrophe).
Israel has brought this about in a number of ways. Firstly, they have sabotaged and undermined Palestinian society for decades, deliberately transforming Gaza from a productive and functioning society into a crippled and besieged one, entirely dependent for survival on external aid and on Israel’s will to allow that aid to cross borders it unilaterally controls.
As we have already established, the Prime Minister and Defence Minister, among others, stated plainly after October 7 that they would no longer allow aid to reach Palestinian citizens, and that this was to punish them. As Richard Falk said in an interview with Truthout this week . . .
“The basic logic of Netanyahu, [Defense Minister Yoav] Gallant, [Minister of National Security Itamar] Ben Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich all along has stressed forced displacement, destruction of homes, and attacks on hospitals, schools and UN buildings. The unmistakable message to the Palestinians written in blood is ‘Leave or we will kill you,’ and at best, make Gaza unlivable.”14
They have done just what they said they would do.
They have made the delivery of aid to, and distribution within, Gaza near impossible. The ferocity, unpredictable, and wide distribution of the military assault within Gaza is the most basic and likely the most consequential obstacle to safe and effective aid deliveries, but this is far from the only impediment to feeding Gazans that Israel has engineered. The way Israel has exerted control over aid within Gaza amounts to a pattern of deliberate obstruction and obfuscation. As Craig Jones told CNN in regards to whether Israel has abided by the ICJ’s ruling...
“I don’t think there’s any other way of interpreting it other than a deliberate strategy: for the over management or deprivation of aid into Gaza in the first place and then into the specific parts of Gaza where the aid is needed most.”15
To begin with, aid organisations have to apply with Israel to conduct any aid deliveries, and the Israeli authorities have been highly restrictive in granting their approval. They have been particularly miserly in allowing aid deliveries to the north of Wadi Gaza where the humanitarian situation is the most dire: in January, 61 aid missions were planned for the north, of which more than half (34 missions, or 56 percent) were flatly denied. Of the remainder, only 16 percent were actually facilitated, and a further 3 percent partially facilitated.16
More outrageous than this bureaucratic obstruction, there have been multiple incidents of direct attacks on aid convoys and warehouses storing aid by the Israeli military. On February 5, for instance, Israeli forces fired upon an aid convoy bound for the north of Gaza after giving the mission the greenlight and approving the route, before ultimately denying it permission to proceed.17
Worse still, Israeli forces have opened fire on desperate civilians lining up to receive aid on multiple occasions. On February 19, Al Jazeera reported that “desperate Palestinians rushing toward aid trucks to fetch food in central Gaza were forced to flee after Israeli troops opened fire on them.”18 The next day, in a separate incident, “at least one Palestinian man has been killed and many others wounded in northern Gaza after Israeli forces opened fire on desperate crowds waiting for food aid.”19 The conflict tracker Airwars report that there have been at least five such instances in which civilians have been killed or injured.20
Israel’s government is also openly seeking to destroy the UNRWA, the main agency responsible for coordinating and delivering aid to Gaza. As reported by Sharon Zhang for Truthout this week, the UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote to the President of the UN General Assembly warning “that the agency will soon no longer be able to carry out its mandate because of the massive international defunding of the agency as well as moves by the Israeli government to even further suppress the agency from operating, like moving to evict the UNRWA from its headquarters in East Jerusalem.”21 As Zhang also reported, further moves to hamper UNRWA include legislative efforts in the Knesset to remove the organisation’s diplomatic immunity and ban it from operating in Jerusalem, government officials denying visas to international staff of UNRWA, the imposition of fines, even going so far as to block a shipment of flour because it would go to the UNRWA, all of this in addition to actively lobbying allies to suspend funding.
This belligerent posture and obstructionism are not limited to the UNRWA, either. Reviewing whether Israel has complied with the interim measures ordered by the ICJ, Human Rights Watch notes that Israeli authorities have “apparently destroyed the offices of at least two humanitarian organizations in Gaza” since the courts ruling one month ago.22 The report from Human Rights Watch also corroborates that Israeli officials are obstructing what little aid does enter Gaza from reaching the north and other particularly desperate areas, noting that their “survey of humanitarian organizations found that ‘almost no aid is distributed beyond Rafah,’ Gaza’s southernmost governorate.”
At the same time Israel has been prolifically destroying what local means of producing food existed before October 7. The UN Council of Human Rights reported in a January press release that Israel is “destroying and blocking access to farmland and the sea.”23
“...approximately 22% of agricultural land, including orchards, greenhouses, and farmland in northern Gaza, has been razed by Israeli forces.”
“...Israel has reportedly destroyed approximately 70% of Gaza’s fishing fleet.”
“...Most bakeries are not operational, due to the lack of fuel, water, and wheat flour along with structural damage.”
“...Livestock are starving and unable to provide food or be a source of food.”
“...The destruction of more than 60% of housing in Gaza also directly impacts the ability to store and cook food.”
Furthermore, “satellite imagery indicates that the razing of agricultural land continued in northern Gaza during the seven-day ceasefire, which began on November 24 and ended on December 1, when the Israeli military was in direct control of the area.”24
We have mentioned that water and electricity have also been severely restricted. Gaza as a whole has been under a total electricity blackout since October. With regards to water, Human Rights Watch notes in their report on Israeli compliance with ICJ orders:
“After initially cutting the entire supply of water that Israel provides to Gaza via three pipelines, Israel resumed piping on two of its three lines. However, due to the cuts and widespread destruction to water infrastructure amid unrelenting Israeli air and ground operations, only one of those lines remained operational at only 47 percent capacity as of February 20. Officials at the Gaza Coastal Municipalities Water Utility told Human Rights Watch on February 20 that Israeli authorities have obstructed efforts to repair the water infrastructure.” [Emphasis mine.]
There is a clear pattern of cruelty and deprivation, which we will take a second to recap and summarise.
We have Israeli officials at the highest levels, including those responsible for directing the war effort, openly declaring that all of Gaza deserves to be denied access to food, water, fuel, and electricity as punishment for the actions of Hamas. This was put into practice within days after October 7. Electricity was cut off and remains cut off five months later. Water, for which Gaza is dependent on three pipelines controlled by Israel was cut off from all three; under enormous external pressure it was resumed on two pipelines, but this was quickly reduced to a single half-operational pipeline by indiscriminate bombing. Entry of fuel into Gaza has been restricted to significantly below what is necessary for the operation of water pumps, sanitation, bakeries and other food production facilities, electricity for hospitals and other basic infrastructure, profoundly exacerbating a sanitation crisis and the resultant rapid spread of disease and hampering treatment thereof, profoundly exacerbating severe shortages of food and drinkable water, completely preventing the operation of ambulances, and a host of other severe and mutually re-enforcing catastrophes. In other words, below the bare minimum needed for the most basic services necessary for survival.
Food production has been ground to a halt, undermining any capacity people in Gaza had to stave of famine by their own efforts. This has been achieved by the deliberate razing of agricultural land, the deliberate destruction of most of Gaza’s fishing fleet, by an unprecedented bombing campaign that has forced many farmers whose crops weren’t razed to abandon them, by the restriction of animal feed resulting in the starvation of their livestock which consequently cannot produce or serve as food.
This leaves only external aid. The amount of such aid allowed to enter Gaza has in turn been radically restricted – to a quarter pre-war levels at the highest and much of the time significantly less. Aid missions are delayed by endless bureaucratic hurdles and more than half of them flatly turned down. When aid missions are approved and coordinated with Israeli officials, we have Israeli forces firing on them and preventing them from reaching their destination. When aid missions reach their destination, we have Israeli forces opening fire on the desperate civilians trying to receive the aid.
It is profoundly difficult to understand how anyone could examine these facts and not conclude that it is Israel’s intention that the people of Gaza starve. It would be difficult to conclude otherwise based solely on the facts; it becomes incredible in light of the fact that Israeli officials have told us this is their intention.
That the starvation of the entire civilian population is deliberate is further underscored by the fact that Israel is using humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip in ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, and that the Co-ordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli government body responsible for delivering aid to Gaza has said it could increase the supply of aid if cabinet gave them the order.25
There is more to be said – a great deal more – but it has taken enough space already to establish the facts about what Israel is doing to Gaza. I will follow up on these facts, as there are important questions to reflect on regarding the future and the character of both Israel and Palestine, regarding Jewishness and the Jewish diaspora, and other monumental issues this episode has brought to the fore. But the single most important and overriding thing, that which must precede any other discussions is this: that Israel is right now carrying out a genocide, and it is morally imperative that all possible efforts are made to stop it.
It should be unmistakably clear, in light of the facts, that journalists and pundits engaging in absurd obfuscations and apologia like framing the war as a question of whether Israel has a right to self-defence, are utterly without merit, and intellectually and morally bankrupt and repugnant.
It defies comprehension how writers like Raphael S Cohen can be published by serious outlets like Foreign Policy arguing that “Israel’s critics have failed ... to offer a coherent alternative way forward.”26 Israel’s most ardent critics – the humanitarian organisations they are preventing from feeding civilians, famine experts, etc. – have offered alternatives copiously, the nut of which should be patently obvious: stop deliberately starving the entire civilian population.
This isn’t journalism. This isn’t even polemics. This is a play, put on for the benefit of those so stupid or so soulless that they are prepared to sanction or tolerate genocide.
‘Gaza “looks like earthquake zone”’, Aleem Maqbool, BBC News, January 20, 2009
‘Israeli bombardment destroyed over 70% of Gaza homes: Report’, Al Jazeera, December 31, 2023
‘Health Situation in the Gaza Strip’, World Health Organization, February 4, 2009
‘Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel – reported impact | Day 131’, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, February 15, 2024.
‘Netanyahu’s references to violent biblical passages raises alarm among critics’, NPR, November 7, 2023.
‘Israeli president Isaac Herzog says Gazans could have risen up to fight ‘evil’ Hamas’, Rageh Omaar, ITV, October 13, 2023.
It could be argued by some readers that the quote, presented here as it was presented in the brief filed by South Africa at the ICJ, is misleading, and that reading the full article or his full comments would put these words in a different light. Frankly, this would be an exercise in sophistry. The substance of the quote as excerpted is only altered insofar as President Herzog is rambling in his comments and attempts to backpedal and soften his remarks when he is pressed.
The first two sentenced of the excerpted quote were the first two sentences of his answer to the question of “what Israel can do to alleviate the impact on the over two million civilians in Gaza, many of whom have nothing to do with Hamas.” What can Israel do to protect civilians in its conduct of war and to minimise direct and indirect harms that may befall them as a consequence of this war? The entire nation is involved; it is NOT TRUE that civilians were not involved. He could hardly be clearer.
‘Defense minister announces ‘complete siege’ of Gaza: No power, food or fuel’, Emanuel Fabian, The Times of Israel, October 9, 2023.
‘Gallant: Israel moving to full offense, Gaza will never return to what it was’, Emanuel Fabian, The Times of Israel, October 10, 2023.
‘Public sitting in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel)’, verbatim record, International Court of Justice, January 11, 2024; pp. 34.
Recital Gottlieb, Twitter, October 7, 2023. [link]
Press Release, UNOPS, November 8, 2023
‘Gaza Strip: Acute Food Insecurity Situation for 24 November – 7 December 2023 and Projection for 8 December 2023 – 7 February 2024’, IPC Famine Review Committee, December 21, 2023
‘Rafah Attack Escalates “Most Transparent Genocide of All Time,” Scholar Says’[a], Daniel Falcone, Truthout, February 24, 2024.
‘Exclusive: Israeli forces fired on food convoy in Gaza, UN documents and satellite analysis reveals’, Katie Polglase and Muhammad Darwish, CNN, February 21, 2024.
‘Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #110’, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), February 4, 2024.
Ibid; see [15].
‘Israeli soldiers fire at Palestinians approaching aid trucks in Gaza’, Al Jazeera staff, Al Jazeera, February 19, 2024.
‘Israeli forces kill, wound Palestinians waiting for food aid in Gaza’, Al Jazeera staff, Al Jazeera, February 20, 2024.
‘Two weeks under scrutiny: Patterns of harm reported in Gaza following ICJ ruling’, Airwars, February 26, 2024.
‘UNRWA Has Reached “Breaking Point” Due to Israel’s Attacks, Agency Chief Says’, Sharon Zhang, Truthout, February 23, 2024.
‘Israel Not Complying with World Court Order in Genocide Case’, Human Rights Watch, February 26, 2024.
Press Release, Special Procedures (UN Council of Human Rights), January 16, 2024.
‘Israel: Starvation Used as Weapon of War in Gaza’, Human Rights Watch, December 18, 2023.
‘The Gaza hospital where treatment is by torchlight and “13 babies does of malnutrition on one day”’, Alistair Bunkall, Sky News, March 7, 2024.
‘The Brutal Logic to Israel’s Actions in Gaza’, Raphael S Cohen, Foreign Policy, February 29, 2024.