What happened in Gaza?

by Donna Saggia
published Feb. 2 '09

When the bombing ended and international agencies entered Gaza, the destruction shocked even experienced aid workers.

Gaza’s infrastructure was devastated: Hospitals, schools, police stations, 4,000 homes and 219 factories were destroyed by aerial bombing, tank shelling and armored bulldozers.

Most shocking of all, and what drove millions around the world into the streets in protest, was the Israeli military’s criminal recklessness towards civilians, prompting many to call for war crimes prosecutions.

Israel claims its soldiers did not target civilians, and that noncombatants died because Hamas used them as “human shields.” This claim is the centerpiece of Israel’s war propaganda, and is contradicted by the U.N., aid agencies and eyewitnesses. There are reports, in fact, that Israeli soldiers used Palestinians as human shields.

“Our sources in Gaza report that Israeli soldiers have entered and taken up positions in a number of Palestinian homes, forcing families to stay in a ground floor room while they use the rest of their house as a military base and sniper position ... [Palestinian families] are effectively being used as human shields,” said Malcolm Smart of Amnesty International.

Others witnessed Israel’s targeting of civilians. A Danish aid organization reported that the Israelis destroyed three of its mobile clinics, which were clearly marked with red crosses. The Red Cross reports that ambulances—again, clearly marked—were attacked and several medics were killed. The head of neurosurgery at El-Arish hospital reported that brain scans made clear that some children had been shot at close range. This reinforces what Palestinians have been reporting: Israeli soldiers forced people out of their homes, then shot them at close range as they stood defenseless.

The use of aerial bombs and white phosphorus against 1.5 million Palestinians crowded onto a tiny strip of land was bound to result in horrendous casualties. The Palestinians were defenseless: They had no anti-aircraft weapons, no tanks and no bomb shelters. The Israeli military, using advanced weaponry from the U.S., had little to fear in its one-sided massacre.

The cease-fire
Israel claims it bombed Gaza in retaliation for Hamas breaking a cease-fire and launching rockets into southern Israel. But the facts speak differently.

The cease-fire was indeed broken—by Israel. How? First, under the terms of the cease-fire, Israel was to open the border crossings. Instead it kept the crossings 80 percent closed; food and medicine only trickled in and Gaza’s humanitarian crisis worsened. Second, Israel was not to initiate attacks. However, on Nov. 4, 2008, it launched air and ground attacks inside Gaza, killing six Hamas men.

Nevertheless, Hamas signaled that it wanted to renegotiate the cease-fire on the condition that Israel lift the blockade. Israel refused. Hamas then declared the cease-fire over on Dec. 23, 2008, and resumed rocket attacks in retaliation for Israel’s refusal to lift the blockade.

The blockade
Israel’s blockade of Gaza is “collective punishment” and a violation of international law. Israeli settlers left Gaza in 2005, but the Israeli military merely moved across the border and blockaded all air, sea and land entries into Gaza. No food, medicine or people could pass through the controlled borders. Gazans could not export crops, import food and medicine, or leave the territory. Many lived on humanitarian aid, most of the children became malnourished, and the unemployment rate spiked. This siege continued for three years.

War
Israel did not renew the cease-fire because a war against Hamas would better serve its purpose.

Hamas, an acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, is the only effective resistance Palestinians have against the Israeli occupation. After Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian elections, the U.S. and Israel supported Fatah (Hamas’ rival) in an attempted coup. The coup failed and Hamas drove Fatah out of Gaza.

Hamas’ success did not play well among the Israeli public, which had been moving to the right since Israel “lost” the 2006 war in Lebanon. The Israeli “liberals” needed to reverse this right-wing trend, weaken Hamas, and restore Fatah to power. Bush was leaving office in mid-January and Israeli elections were in February—this gave “liberals” Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni a narrow window to regain the initiative in Gaza.

The war was staged to be an overwhelming show of force and was timed to end before Obama took office. The “smoking gun” would be Hamas rockets, and the provocation would be the November 4th Israeli attack on Hamas. George Bush, of course, gave the green light for the massacre and the U.S. Congress provided the cheering section—while the rest of the world looked on in outrage.

This calculated decision by morally bankrupt Israeli and U.S. leaders left 1,300 Palestinians dead (412 children) and 5,450 wounded (1,855 children). Many of the wounded are now amputees; some will die from their wounds; all will be traumatized for years. No war crime was considered too extreme for Israel’s “defense”: targeting civilians and disproportionate force—witnessed by a 100:1 reprisal ratio not matched even by the Nazis during WWII—were the norm, rather than the exception.

The larger picture
The first rocket was fired from Gaza into Israel in March 2002—35 years after Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank.

So, before there were Hamas rockets, there was the Israeli military occupation. The military continues to control Gaza’s borders, and settlers continue to build towns on the West Bank—in violation of international law. The Israeli occupation is the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; not Hamas, not Iran, and not “the Arabs.”

Before its electoral victory, Hamas offered Israel a long-term truce in return for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and the establishment of a Palestinian state. This offer was again repeated in 2006, and each year since then. Despite these efforts, Israel has consistently refused to negotiate with Hamas.

Hamas is the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. It would be unwise for the new U.S. administration to ignore the constructive role Hamas must play—and has repeatedly stated it is willing to assume—in any genuine peace agreement.

Donna Saggia is a freelance writer in Minneapolis.