In a press release, the Gaza Civil Defense stated that Israeli attacks had brutally escalated since the ceasefire was announced. Since the ceasefire agreement was announced, Israeli occupation forces have killed 73 people, including 20 children and 25 women. Another 230 people have been injured in the ongoing shelling, according to the statement. Although the agreement is scheduled to come into force on Sunday, Israel appears to be taking advantage of the last few hours to accelerate its operations.
According to the Palestinian Wafa agency, Israel attacked the al-Falah school in the Al-Zeitoun district, south of Gaza City, killing two girls and wounding dozens more. Several attacks targeted residential flats in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in the city center, which appears to be the focus of Israeli attacks. The Rimal neighborhood was also hit, in bombings that caused five deaths and ten injuries.
While the agreement provides for Israel’s withdrawal from the most densely populated areas and the possibility of Palestinian refugees from the south returning to the north, under still unclear conditions and probably under Israeli supervision. The Israeli defense forces, Tsahal, appear determined to reduce what remains of Gaza City to ashes, destroying the last accommodation infrastructure for refugees who have survived the vast ethnic cleansing operation carried out in northern Gaza during the last few months.
As explained to L’Orient-Le-Jour a Gaza resident, Noor al-Yacoubi, a 25-year-old translator: “Gaza remains in tension. The final days and hours leading up to a deal are known to be especially dangerous. “History has shown that Israel often intensifies its attacks during this period, amplifying fear as well as destruction.”. After more than 450 days of displacement, relentless terror and the incessant noise of exhibitions, many remain skeptical about Israel’s intentions, even though truce talks have never been more serious.
Despite the signing of a ceasefire, the genocide of the Palestinian people is far from over. This brief pause in hostilities does not resolve the central issue of the “open prison,” the millions of Palestinians living in the region surrounded by Israeli walls. Besides, The signing of an agreement, precipitated by pressure from Washington, has opened a political crisis within the Israeli governmentwith the maximalist wing of the coalition refusing to end Israel’s colonial war in the Gaza Strip. To win their support, Netanyahu could promise to relaunch an even more violent offensive in Gaza after a few weeks of truce and accelerate the colonization of the West Bank.
Faced with these new threats, the self-determination of the Palestinian people is the only thing that can definitively put an end to the ongoing genocide, while Israel takes advantage of every minute before the entry into force of the agreement to commit new massacres.
This article was originally published in Revolution Permanente, part of the International Network of La Izquierda Diario.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
