The media uses the word “war” to describe the bombardment of Gaza since October 2023. But the word war misses a big part of what’s actually been going on in Gaza.
- Wars are fought between two states – but Palestinians have no state. The establishment of a state is precisely the cause the Palestinians are fighting for. Instead of a state, Palestinians in Gaza have lived under Israel as the occupying power since 1967. As the controlling authority of Gaza, Israel has almost exclusive authority over what who and goes into and out of the territory. In spite of its claims of withdrawing from Gaza in 2005, major international bodies such as the International Court of Justice still consider Israel the occupying power in Gaza, with clear responsibilities set out in International Law including the responsibility to protect the civilian population.
Based on the information before it, the Court considers that Israel remained capable of exercising, and continued to exercise, certain key elements of authority over the Gaza Strip, including control of the land, sea and air borders, restrictions on movement of people and goods, collection of import and export taxes, and military control over the buffer zone, despite the withdrawal of its military presence in 2005. This is even more so since 7 October 2023.
– from the ICJ’s Summary of the Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024.
2. Wars are conducted as series of battles, even in the case of a war with a guerilla insurgency like Iraq or Vietnam, but there have been no wars in Gaza.
3. Wars are intended to inflict military defeat. The bombardment of Gaza, however, has been unrelenting and has consistently targeted a refugee civilian population, and the targeting of civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, universities, factories and sanitary facilities. Among the scholars who came to the conclusion that Israel’s actions were genocidal is, Israeli academic Lee Mordechai, who meticulously cataloged the conduct of Israel’s assault, including detailing the massacre of Palestinians and the causing of civilian deaths through deliberate starvation and the attacks on hospitals.
Other scholars who have concluded that Gaza is a genocide include
Omer Bartov, Israeli-American scholar of Genocide at Brown University
Instead Israel is committing a genocide – in other words it is trying to eliminate the civilian population of Gaza.
Lee Mordechai’s database of war crimes in Gaza
Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
