One year of war on Gaza… 76 years of dispossession

It has been one year since Israel launched its siege and war on Gaza, one year of military assaults on a civilian population held captive under years of illegal occupation that has systematically breached every single law of war, every human right and every moral principle known to humankind.

In the last year, Palestinian children, women and men have been mercilessly killed in daily attacks by Israeli occupying forces across every inch of the occupied State of Palestine. No part of Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is safe from the Israeli occupation’s reach.

Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza and injured more than 102,200 people. Thousands more are missing, buried under the rubble, in mass graves or in mass detention, disappeared without a trace. The casualties in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, stands at over 700 Palestinians killed and 6,350 injured by soldiers and settlers.

Many of the injured are disabled for life and many will die of their wounds, alongside the many who will die of malnutrition and chronically ill persons who will die for lack of medical treatment as Israel has decimated the health system in Gaza, striking hospitals and depriving them of medicines and fuel to operate. The European, Nasser and Al-Ahli hospitals are the latest casualties of Israel’s assault on healthcare in Gaza.

Moreover, Israel has decimated the ranks of medical personnel, with its relentless attacks on doctors, nurses, medics as well as its documented detention and torture of medical staff, in addition to its targeting and killing of over 280 humanitarian workers, among them 220 UNRWA staff members and at least 116 Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

The shocking toll of the past year will only continue rising without the ceasefire long called for by the UN General Assembly and Security Council. Every day, there are over 100 casualties. Left without a ceasefire and without protection from their occupier, children and women constitute most casualties of this Israeli war on the Palestinian people. At least 16,000 children have been murdered, tens of thousands of children have been wounded  and over 2,000 suffering amputations.

And, yet, the international community fails to act to hold Israel to account, to sanction it for its crimes, even after its listing as a violator of child rights in the annual UN Report on Children and Armed Conflict.

The Security Council continues to fail to act to enforce its resolutions, including resolutions 2712 (2023), 2720 (2023), 2728 (2024) and 2735 (2024), and to hold Israel accountable for its systematic violations, including of the binding Provisional Measures Orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Moreover, countries continue to transfer weapons and ammunition to Israel, full well knowing these arms will be used to kill Palestinian civilians.

This is beyond a betrayal of our people, who have been failed by the international community for decades since the decision, in 1947, to strip them of their homeland and strip them of their right to self-determination; it is equally a betrayal of humanity and of the international legal order established to protect all peoples and to ensure international peace and security.

Left unprotected and defenceless and denied their inalienable rights, despite all the resolutions and all the demands for compliance by Israel, the occupying power, our people have only suffered more horrific atrocities, more losses and more devastation.

While already over 80 per cent of housing and nearly every hospital and school and vast swathes of water and sanitation networks have been destroyed in Gaza, the ongoing Israeli attack is causing only more mass destruction and mass displacement.

The UN estimates are that already at least nine out of 10 people in Gaza have been forcibly displaced from their homes since October 2023. Displacements continue occurring daily as Israel continues to issue “evacuation orders”, with some families reporting having been displaced eight to 10 times in desperate search of safety that is nowhere to be found.

When will the international community act to uphold the rule of law?- Fadi Hanania

They have been severely traumatised by constant displacements and terrorised by the unrelenting Israeli attacks being perpetrated all around them. They are exhausted, afraid, hungry and dehydrated as Israel continues to use starvation and dehydration as weapons of war, persisting with its obstruction of humanitarian access and the delivery of desperately needed aid.

The level of human suffering and indignities are beyond description and beyond comprehension. All of this is being perpetrated by Israel in full view and total contempt of the international community that has long demanded an end to these illegal actions, including Israel building settlements across the Palestinian territory it has occupied since 1967, and this includes East Jerusalem.

And, yet, no action is being taken to stop crimes, including the blatant acquisition of territory by force in violation of one of the cardinal principles of the UN Charter.

When will the international community act to uphold the rule of law? When will the Security Council act on its solemn Charter mandate to maintain international peace and security and its pledges to protect civilians in armed conflict, including children, women, humanitarian personnel and journalists, all of whom are under constant attack in occupied Palestine? When will there be justice for the victims?

The international community cannot remain paralysed in the face of these crimes by the occupying power. As we tragically mark one year of this war on Gaza, the Palestinian leadership solemnly and urgently calls again on the international community to act now to ensure and enforce a ceasefire and save the millions of human lives at risk.

We appeal to the Security Council, General Assembly, Human Rights Council, ICJ, ICC and all states to rise to their responsibilities and obligations to act to stop these atrocities, protect the Palestinian people and restore humanity and the prospect for a just peace in line with international law and the relevant UN resolutions.

The international community cannot continue allowing Israel to trample on international law and to destroy the international legal order without consequences.

The international community cannot continue forsaking the Palestinian people and the permanent responsibility towards them until a just solution is realised for this grave, historic injustice.

It is time to act. There must be an end to this unjust situation and an end to this illegal colonial Israeli occupation.

Only then can peace and security ever be realised.

Fadi Hanania is the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Malta.