Israeli Occupier forces recently resumed genocidal terror on Palestinians in Gaza, killing over 400 people in the first 24 hours of massive airstrikes. Days later, Israel rolled in tanks and ground troops, killing over 100 more people.
The attacks that began on March 18 brought an unstable multi-phased ceasefire, signed in January between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, to an end.
Phase 1, which halted the fighting and exchanged Israeli captives held in Gaza for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, officially ended March 1. Phase 2, mired in contentious dispute and mutual accusations of violating the agreement, never got started. Now, Palestinian blood is spilling again.
“From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing might,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a televised statement on March 19. “And from now on, negotiations will only take place under fire,” said a statement from his office.
Mr. Netanyahu’s return to war effectively scrapped moving toward Phase 2 which was slated to release the remaining 59 of the 250 Israelis taken captive during Hamas-led attacks on illegal Jewish settlements on October 7, 2023.
This phase was also supposed to set the stage for ending the war. Mr. Netanyahu claims the actions were to force Hamas into releasing the captives being held. However, Al Jazeera reported that Israel had decided to remove itself from the negotiations for Phase 2.
In the statement, Mr. Netanyahu said he ordered a return to war because Hamas refused offers to “release our hostages” and “flatly refused” a proposal by Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy.
He proposed extending Phase 1 of the truce by several weeks in exchange for Hamas releasing additional hostages. Hamas maintains they want to stick to the original agreement.
In 17 months of deadly war starting Oct. 7, 2023, Palestinian carnage according to the Palestinian Health Ministry was nearly 50,000 people killed, tens of thousands more injured, and displaced 2.5 million from their abodes. It has also triggered a humanitarian crisis. Other sources count the numbers of fatalities much higher.
“The bombings this week come after Israel imposed a total blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza, exacerbating the already dire humanitarian crisis,” said an action alert from Peace Action, a grassroots peace network.
“Whether you choose to call it gross human rights violations, ethnic cleansing, or genocide, the consequences for the Palestinian people are catastrophic and will likely have long-lasting effects on generations to come,” said the alert.
On March 18, when Israel resumed killing and forcing Palestinians back on the move again, it was a resumption of genocide, observers pointed out.
“This is an acceleration of the genocide that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people as a whole,” said Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories in a March 18 posting on the X social media platform.
“We already failed to prevent it, and our Governments have an even greater obligation to stop it now,” she continued. “As the world wakes up to the harrowing images of children slain by Israeli bombs across the entire Gaza Strip AGAIN, we cannot bear witness to global leaders JUST DOING NOTHING,” Ms. Albanese wrote.
Palestinians face serious risk of mass ethnic cleansing as Israel advances a long-held plan to take Palestinian lands and remove Palestinians under the fog of war, the UN expert said in a separate statement. While ethnic cleansing is not a standalone crime, it involves actions that constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, said Ms. Albanese.
Palestinian American activist Linda Sarsour expressed her feelings on Facebook regarding Israel’s actions. “Mass casualties and injuries as Israel resumes heavy bombardment on the Gaza Strip. We are back right where we started in the genocide.
Women, men and children – starving with little resources AND while they were sleeping during the holy month of Ramadan. My body is shaking. I don’t even know what to say or do anymore. 17+ months of mass murder we as Americans are paying for,” she posted on March 17.
When the war started, Ms. Albanese warned that Israel would use the “war against Hamas” to acquire Palestinian land and further displace Palestinians.
“What Israel is doing in occupied Palestine today has strong echoes of the 1947-1949 Nakba and the 1967 Naksa,” Ms. Albanese said.
Nakba means “catastrophe,” which forcibly expelled 800,000 Palestinians in 1948. Naksa means “set-back,” referring to the 1967 Six-Day War, resulting in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and Israel also occupying the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights.
Currently, over five million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency). Given this, Palestinians demand the right to return to their homes, a right recognized by UN Resolution 194, but denied by Israel.
“The world meanwhile is pretending not to see history repeating itself,” said Ms. Albanese.
History demonstrates that Israel’s strategy for a “Greater Israel” devoid of Palestinians relies on forceful displacement, repression, and destroying their lives, homes, and infrastructure while denying their return.
“Israel’s conduct aiming to ethnically cleanse the land between the river to the sea, amounts to a genocidal campaign to erase Palestinians as a people,” she reasoned.
Restarting the war that critics argue Israel never really stopped, cannot be detached from the goal of “Greater Israel” and remaking the Middle East. The international community must uphold its obligation to protect Palestinians from annihilation.
“Palestine is a wound. What is happening to the Palestinians is a tragedy foretold, and a stain on Israel’s history for which we bear collective responsibility. It is never too late for the world to stand up and do the right thing,” said Ms. Albanese.
Her words echo a sentiment expressed by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, of the Nation of Islam.
“What is happening in Palestine becomes a test for the whole human family,” Minister Farrakhan said, on Feb. 25, 2024, during his Saviours’ Day message entitled: “What Does Allah The Great Mahdi And The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East?”
“If you could look at their suffering, and it doesn’t move you, you have lost your humanity. If you can see a dog suffer and have compassion … If you can see your favorite horse suffer, where you’ve got to put him down, you feel pain!
Palestinian mothers are crying over the loss of their children! I watched them cry; I watched them touch their babies that are dead, and don’t want to let the baby go to be buried.
“That’s not a barbarian feeling, that’s a human feeling. I saw Jews that were suffering, too, burying their dead, and weeping as the Palestinians are weeping. These are not barbarians! They have suffered from Israel’s presence in Palestine,” said Minister Farrakhan.
Israel’s actions are fully supported by the United States, Israel’s military and financial benefactor.
“The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza tonight,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on March 18.
“As President Trump has made it clear—Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel, but also the United States of America, will see a price to pay. All hell will break loose,” she said.
The U.S. State Department said on March 1, the U.S. signed off on $4 billion in military aid to Israel. In addition, since taking office, the Trump administration has approved nearly $12 billion in major defense equipment sales to Israel.
Meanwhile, contrasting expressed promises to end wars, President Trump escalated tensions by ordering military strikes on Yemen and the Ansar-Allah (Houthis).
In solidarity with the Palestinian cause, the Houthis are sabotaging Israeli and Israeli-affiliated commercial vessels and American warships in the region. The U.S. accused the Houthis of being proxies of Iran, which Iran denies. On his Truth Social platform, President Trump spewed harsh words at Iran.
“They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘Intelligence.’
Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN,” posted President Trump. “IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!”
By presstime American airstrikes killed more than 50 people in Yemen. Some observers question the timing of the attack and Israel’s restarting war in Gaza.
“It does not look like a coincidence that the United States resumed bombing the Houthis in Yemen … just two days before Israel started bombing in Gaza,” said Kevin Martin, president of Peace Action. “That looks very much coordinated,” he told The Final Call.
Mr. Martin condemns both attacks perpetrated by Israel and America. “It could open the door to a war powers resolution against Trump,” he said, “because there is no authority for the United States to be bombing Yemen,” Mr. Martin reasoned.
Yemen is the poorest country in the region where Washington supplied Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with many weapons they used in a previous war in Yemen. “And, the people in Yemen and Gaza have suffered far too much already,” said Mr. Martin.