When Israel bombs, starves or shoots Palestinians, mainstream U.S. media downplays the atrocities.
Loss of life is chalked up to mistakes or the tragedy of wartime mayhem. It’s not. It’s murder.
The Israeli Defense Forces’ recent slaughter of hundreds of Gazans to retrieve four Israelis taken captive by Hamas is another bloody example of unlawful killing, genocide, murder and media collusion.
“Hell.” That’s what the Israeli military attack, artillery shells and bombings looked like, said Mohamed al-Habash. “We saw many fighter jets flying over the area. We saw people fleeing in the streets. Women and children were screaming and crying,” he told the Associated Press.
The assault in Nuseirat, which the Associated Press described as “a built-up refugee camp dating to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war,” was another mass slaughter since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and other militant groups.
“According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 270 people including children and other non-combatants were killed during intense fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in and around the Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday (June 8), in the middle area of the war-torn enclave. More than 600 were reportedly injured with hospitals overwhelmed,” said UN News.
The IDF hit a nearby UN school being used as a shelter in the Shati refugee camp on June 7. Local officials reported 37 people, including 14 children, were killed. Photos from the attack showed blood flowing in the streets.
IDF forces had struck another UN school June 6, killing at least 40 people as the building was used to house Palestinian families who had nowhere to go. The Israelis claimed a shipping container at the school was being used by Hamas as a meeting place and one member of Hamas was killed.
Since it launched an essentially one-sided offensive, Israel has killed at least 37,084 Palestinians, with thousands more bodies buried under debris as of June 9. Almost two million Palestinians are displaced and facing starvation.
In late March, the UN reported IDF bombardments in Gaza had racked up “direct hits” on 212 schools. “Of the 563 school buildings in Gaza, 165 of the 212 that received a direct hit are in areas designated for evacuation by the Israeli military,” said the UN.
The refugee camp attack was widely praised and Israel’s rescue of four hostages was lauded with almost nothing said about nearly 300 Palestinians killed. This is simply unfortunate wartime mayhem, analysts would argue. It’s not. It’s murder.
When outright murder isn’t applauded, Israeli war crimes are attributed to “mistakes.” Remember Rafah? It’s literally been days since video captured the screams, horror, fear and panic as tents in a refugee camp were set ablaze.
Palestinians fleeing and seeking safety died after an Israeli strike that the Zionist state said killed Hamas members. The collateral damage was at least 45 Palestinian deaths as bombs hit. Fires spread, burning children, women and men alive in tents. Some were dismembered.
The attack was widely condemned outside of America as a massacre and violation of human rights law. Inside of America, the press mentioned the human tragedy and repeated Israel’s propaganda that the incident was a mistake to be investigated.
Is there any other place on earth or incident where the criminal is allowed to probe and render a judgment on his crime?
While Palestinians die in Rafah, the Biden administration plays politics and word games. Since there has not been an all-out invasion, Israel has not violated President Biden’s red line, and U.S. money and arms keep flowing, say the White House and its supporters.
The Rafah massacre occurred shortly after the International Court of Justice ordered “an immediate cessation of military operations” in Gaza. Israel scoffed at the decree.
Prior to that, the International Criminal Court sought warrants charging Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant with war crimes.
Israel and America responded by threatening both forums for global justice, vowing to defend Israel and threatening to bar jurists and staff from entering the United States.
Congressional legislation was proposed to ensure U.S.-Israeli intimidation and punishment and crush any hope for justice.
Meanwhile, Mr. Netanyahu has been invited to speak to Congress July 24. While there is talk of some liberal Democrats boycotting the speech, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) signed the letter inviting Mr. Netanyahu to speak, according to The Hill.
In broadcasts June 10, CNN aired video edited by and supplied by the Israeli Defense Forces going about their genocidal work. Some experts admitted Israeli soldiers posed as civilians during the operation, which is against the rules of war.
The images played up the “heroism” of heavily armed troops terrorizing civilians and joy over the release of Israelis held hostage. They were shown reuniting with their families and celebrating. Not one family from hundreds of Palestinians killed was shown and not one Palestinian was mentioned by name.
Like other murderous “mistakes” and atrocities discovered, Rafah has been forgotten. Remember when Israeli Defense Forces told Palestinians to flee South? Then bombed them. That, too, was called a mistake.
Israel has committed other heinous crimes: Palestinian officials say more than 500 bodies were recovered in mass graves at Gaza hospitals in May, some mutilated and with signs of torture. Victims’ hands were tied and some were missing their heads, said the Gaza Ministry of Health.
According to accounts given to UN personnel, Israeli authorities dumped detainees or bodies of Palestinians taken to Israel back into Gaza. Detainees said they “were routinely rounded up, stripped to their underwear and loaded into trucks, blindfolded and bound.”
After arrest came “shocking inhumane treatment, including waterboarding, severe beatings, attacks by dogs and being forced to hold (a) stress position for hours, sometimes 12 hours, 24 hours.”
Israel, which controls food coming into Gaza, has been warned against using starvation as a “weapon of war.” The warning came after a May report forecast famine for 2.3 million people unless fighting stops and aid shipments increase.
“The extent of Israel’s continued restrictions on entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned.
These acts aren’t mistakes or mayhem, they are the intentional destruction of an entire people.
—Naba’a Muhammad, editor, The Final Call
