The dozens of deaths during a food aid distribution should not be considered an isolated incident. They are the consequence of the methodical crushing of the enclave, transformed by a freewheeling army into a field of ruins at the cost of a terrible human toll.

Each day that passes in Gaza reveals as much about the ordeal endured by Palestinian civilians as it does about what Israel has become. On February 29, the same day that the number of Palestinians killed surpassed a staggering 30,000 people, according to an estimate from what remains of Hamas-controlled health services, a new tragedy was added to the horrors of war launched in response to the massacres of Israeli civilians perpetrated by the Islamist militia on October 7, 2023.

A food aid convoy was attacked by private civilians near Gaza City, close to Israeli positions. This hunger riot and the stampede it triggered led to Israeli fire which the army recognized. Dozens of Palestinians died. This is the consequence of the obstacles opposed by Israel to the delivery of aid which has become vital, which are inexorably pushing this overpopulated territory towards a manufactured famine.

This tragedy should not be considered an isolated incident. On the contrary, it reveals what the Hebrew State intends to do with Gaza after the fighting for which it has not yet set any end despite the absence of results concerning their dual objective: liberation. Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7 and the total eradication of Hamas.

Obstinate refusal

After the methodical crushing of the narrow strip of land, transformed by a freewheeling army into a field of ruins at the cost of a terrible human toll, this project now involves the destruction of the slightest form of administration. It is not just that of Hamas. The attempt to kill UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees whose work is crucial in Gaza, is part of this perspective.

This Israeli design is confirmed by the stubborn refusal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow the return of a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority according to the wishes of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, to supplant Hamas. Israel wants chaos to reign. The convoy stormed on February 29 had not been organized in coordination with the UN agencies still present there.

The allies of the Jewish state, starting with the United States which arms its arm without being moved by the war crimes that they allow, like the Europeans, have a choice. They can accommodate through weakness this strategy which aims at a return, much worse, to the situation which prevailed before October 7, 2023, i.e. the strangulation of the Gaza Strip by a merciless land and sea blockade. They will in fact be accomplices if they continue to finance without demanding anything in return the survival now in question of this territory, like the appearance of status quo which prevails in a West Bank corrupted by Israeli colonization.

On the contrary, they can decide to establish the beginning of a balance of power if they are convinced that the protection of civilians in a land for which Israel cannot claim any internationally recognized right is the prerequisite for any political perspective. , also stubbornly refused by Benjamin Netanyahu. It is a difficult choice, especially after years of cowardly disinterest, but there is no alternative to shame.