By John Pickard
In many places in Europe, and certainly here in the UK, there are commemorations to mark VE-day, the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. That war was the most destructive ever in human history, in terms of damage to civilian infrastructure and loss of life. But in proportion to its tiny size, the Gaza Strip has suffered destruction and death on a bigger scale than was experience by any European country in the Second World War.
Gaza is a narrow strip of land 25 miles long and around 6 miles wide but the Israeli so-called ‘Defence’ Force has bombed it relentlessly for eighteen months. According to Wikipedia, by last October – six months ago – Israel had bombed 40,000 different locations. By one estimate, a year ago, Israel had already dropped 70,000 tonnes of bombs on Gaza, “surpassing the combined bomb tonnage dropped on Dresden, Hamburg, and London in World War II”.
This article outlines some of the bombing damage from the Second World War, in which cities were reduced to ‘moonscapes’. But this damage affected urban areas and smaller towns and the countryside were not nearly as badly affected. But Gaza is such a tiny sliver of land, that in comparison to a whole country, even Poland and Germany, it has suffered far more in comparison. According to the UN, there is as much as 50 million tonnes of rubble in Gaza.
As a result of this brutal barrage, the population of Gaza – two and a quarter million before October 7, 2023 – has suffered over 52,000 deaths, overwhelmingly non-combatants, and including around 20,000 children. Untold numbers of Palestinians have been injured and traumatized. If the casualties were counted in proportion to the population, Gaza has suffered six times more casualties than the UK did in the Second World War. Moreover, in Britain’s case, most of the deaths were service personnel, whereas in Gaza it is Palestinians unconnected with Hamas or its military wing.
Palestinians facing starvation and malnutrition
Making life in Gaza far worse, the Israeli government has chosen to starve those left alive, preventing food and relief convoys getting into Gaza and cutting of supplies of water and electricity. Humanitarian aid agencies have reported that “Palestinians face starvation and severe malnutrition as Israel’s blockade continues…”
The United Nations estimates that damaged buildings include more than 90% of homes in Gaza, with 160,000 destroyed and 276,000 more severely or partially damaged. Nine tenths of the population have been displaced – nearly two million people – and many families have been forced to evacuate from one place to another, as Israel ‘warns’ people to move, a dozen times or more. Huge tent cities have sprung up to house these desperate people – although even tents have been subject to Israeli bombs from time to time.
After the Hamas incursion into Israeli in October 2023, Israel has conducted a relentless war; it has conducted a collective punishment on the entire population of Gaza. There is barely a single war crime that has not been committed – and is still being committed – by the IDF in Gaza, but there are no consequences for the perpetrators because they are supported by the Israeli government. In turn, the Israeli government is supported by the compliance of the majority of western governments and politicians.
Ethnic-cleansing is the policy of Israel’s right wing
Now the Israeli government is calling up thousands more reservists to intensify its occupation of Gaza. Israel intends to permanently occupy the whole of Gaza, much to the delight of the most far right in a right-wing cabinet. Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, for example, told a conference in Jerusalem on Monday that Israel was “going to finally occupy the Gaza Strip“. It is the policy of Israel’s right wing to ethnically-cleanse Gaza (and the West Bank), driving out the Palestinians for future generations of exclusively Jewish settlers.
In reality, the Israeli government’s decision to launch yet another offensive is a political measure to bolster support at home, in the face of a crescendo of criticism of the war, even among the families of hostages, as well as growing resistance among reservists being called up for Netanyahu’s “forever war.”
The Palestinian people, in both the West Bank and Gaza, are the chief victims of the most powerful military machine in the Middle East. But the one-sided war on Gaza is going to create upheavals in coming months, not only in the Arab states, where the populations have an affinity and sympathy for their fellow Arabs, but in Israel itself, which has sunk to the level of an international pariah state.
History will not forgive the western politicians who have been complicit in the genocide in Gaza, including British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, people who are utterly unable to offer a word of criticism to Israeli for its war-crimes and genocide.
Nor will we forget the disgraceful bias seemingly hard-wired into the western media, acting as a collective mouthpiece for the Israeli government’s press office. Even today, the Guardian, of all papers, refers to the “collapse” of the recent ceasefire, when even the opposition in Israel agrees that Israel “chose” to end it.
As politicians in Europe commemorate the end of the most destructive war in that continent’s history, few will even acknowledge that a far more destructive and deadly war is concentrated today in 140 square miles of territory. The terrible saga of the obliteration of Gaza still goes on. So the protests will continue.
