Israel Wants Gazans Suffocated

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Gazans are victims of Israeli viciousness, suffering for over 10 years under suffocating blockade - flagrantly illegal collective punishment imposed on two million people.

The international community is complicit with Israel for failing to intervene responsibly, ignoring its high crimes against all Palestinians.

Gaza's illegal blockade caused severe shortages of virtually all essentials to life, its tunnel economy a partial yet way inadequate lifeline.

It symbolizes the will of a besieged people to survive. Tunnel-supplied goods are essential.

Using them risks collapses, fires, explosions, airstrikes and bulldozings. Gazans call them "a way to paradise or death."

Building them is expensive and time-consuming, requiring months of intense labor, workers risking respiratory problems, other illnesses, injuries or death.

At one time, tunnels provided around two-thirds of Gaza's consumer goods. The Strip reflects the heart of Palestinian resistance - risking death below ground, along with injuries or perishing from Israeli aerial, ground and offshore attacks.

Rafah crossing is the only above ground point of entry or egress from Egypt. It's ill-equipped, often closed and way inadequate. 

As long as Israel keeps Gaza blockaded, tunnels are a lifeline too vital to lose. Destroying them creates enormous hardships.

It's unknown how many operate. Hundreds were built, most destroyed, the latest one overnight on Saturday near the Gaza/Egyptian border, according to the Palestine News Network (PNN).

IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus announced it, disgracefully saying "(w)e completed the destruction of a third terror tunnel" in recent months - terror-bombed by Israeli warplanes.

He lied adding the tunnel was "a severe breach of Israel's sovereignty, a serious threat to Israeli civilians and a threat to the humanitarian efforts that Israel allows for the people in the Gaza Strip."

So-called Israeli "humanitarian efforts" caused a dire humanitarian crisis. According to the PNN, Israel temporarily closed all traffic through the Kerem Abu Salem crossing into southern Gaza, effective Sunday morning.

Since early last year, Israel has been building an underground barrier around Gaza, an effort to intensify its blockade.

Commenting on the latest tunnel destroyed, Netanyahu threatened Hamas with "even greater force," saying its leadership "must understand that we will not tolerate the continuation of these attacks and will respond with even greater force."

Hamas was uninvolved with scattered rocket fire harming no one, following Trump's outrageous Jerusalem declaration.

Israel's dirty war on Gaza continues in other ways as well. Mohammed Hamdan, brother of Hamas official Osama Hamdan was seriously wounded in an attack on his car while visiting Sidon, Lebanon.

His vehicle was bombed and destroyed. A drone flying overhead at the time of the explosion almost certainly was an Israeli one - illegally in Lebanese airspace, responsible for what happened.

Gazans and other Palestinians are victims of daily Israeli state terror. 

Days earlier, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian children in cold blood, wounding three others, two seriously.

What's going on throughout the Territories reflects Netanyahu's diabolical scheme to inflict maximum suffering on as many Palestinians as possible, including use of live fire on unarmed civilians threatening no one - flagrantly breaching Fourth Geneva's Article 147, stating:

"Grave breaches (include) willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment…willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health…"

Israel breaches international law daily, remaining unaccountable for its high crimes.

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