Israel says, "next war, we're going to kill 300 Palestinians a day" - in context
by Kathryn Shihadah
Reported by Middle East Monitor on Christmas Eve:
Chief of Staff of the Israeli occupation army, Aviv Kochavi, has revealed that his goal is to kill 300 Palestinian fighters per day in any possible offensive on the besieged Gaza Strip, Maariv newspaper revealed last week.
Israeli intelligence does not expect a major operation to be launched against Gaza in the near future, but the army has been training extensively to deal with a scenario of attacking Gaza and causing much damage to its military and civilian infrastructure, media reports and analysts have said.
This is unbelievably cruel and malicious, but not new. The people of Gaza have endured fourteen years of crushing blockade while the world yawned. They have braved three major incursions in the last twelve years, and frequent airstrikes in between.
The people living in Gaza today had already suffered at the hands of Israel long before the “wars” and airstrikes and blockade: 64% are refugees or descendants of refugees who were exiled by Israel c. 1948. International law demands their return, but Israel refuses.
Israel’s blockade and de facto occupation of Gaza has caused an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, in which most water is unfit for drinking, electricity is intermittent, medical care is erratic, many staples are unavailable, and unemployment is catastrophic.
Entire neighborhoods in Gaza were reduced to rubble – or worse, craters – in 2008-9, 2012, and 2014, but never rebuilt because Israel prevented materials from entering Gaza. Schools, hospitals, and mosques were bombed, factories and infrastructure were destroyed.
The people of Gaza, through their government, are resisting their oppression by Israel – it is for this that they are punished in “small” daily ways and huge ways from time to time.
It is for this resistance against their oppressor that Israel is poised to kill 300 Palestinians a day “next time.”
Let us not forget for one moment that Israel’s military efforts are subsidized by the US to the tune of over $10 million a day.
For more detailed perspective on the carnage that Israel has inflicted on the people of Gaza, take a look at the statistics below (gathered by Israeli human rights org B’Tselem – these numbers do not include deaths in the West Bank, Jerusalem, or Israel. For a complete list of Palestinian and Israeli deaths, patiently and lovingly documented by If Americans Knew, go here.)
