TEHRAN-Israel presses ahead with its war of genocide, massacre and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip as the death toll from its onslaught against the besieged Palestinian territory keeps mounting. 

More than 27,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and tens of thousands of others have been wounded since Israel launched its brutal attacks on the strip on October 7.

Over the past weeks, Israel has focused its military offensive on Khan Younis. It claims that the city is the stronghold of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas. The regime says it has killed 2,000 Hamas members in Khan Younis and destroyed a number of important tunnels used by the resistance group’s underground network. 

However, facts and figures suggest that civilians have fallen victim to Israel’s frequent assaults in the city. 
According to the United Nations, the two remaining hospitals in Khan Younis, al-Amal and Nasser, have been destroyed. Both facilities have been repeatedly shelled by the Israeli army. 

On Thursday, the Palestinian Red Cross Society said Israeli forces had besieged Al-Amal for 11 days. It added that there had been repeated raids into the courtyards of the hospital, the association’s headquarters, and direct fire on the buildings. The organization said these raids threatened the lives of the staff and the displaced.

The Palestinian Health Ministry also announced that 30,000 people are stranded without food, water, or baby formula in the area around Nasser Hospital. 

 Ignoring ICJ ruling 

Such reprehensible measures indicate that Israel is turning a blind eye to the recent ruling by the United Nations’ top court, which ordered the regime to take all measures within its power to prevent acts of genocide against the Palestinian people.

The International Court of Justice’s judgment was issued in response to a full case submitted by South Africa which accused the regime of genocide against the Palestinians. 

The number of deaths in Gaza has grown by more than 1,000 since the Hague-based ICJ issued its ruling. 

The regime’s army has repeatedly targeted residential areas, UN sites, hospitals and medical facilities in the Gaza Strip over the past four months. According to international law, hospitals and health centers are considered protected spaces, and attacking them amounts to a war crime. 

Israel which has enjoyed decades of impunity for its atrocious crimes against the Palestinians, has not only demonstrated blatant disregard for international law but also for the ICJ’s verdict. 

Israeli war minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday announced the expansion of the onslaught from Khan Younis to the southern city of Rafah, an area once described as a “safe zone”. 

The announcement means another genocide for Palestinians. This is because Rafah is overcrowded with 1.9 million Gazans forced to flee their homes as a result of Israel’s attacks across the strip. Rafah which is close to Egypt’s border, remains the last refuge for Gaza residents and they don’t have anywhere else to go to. 

Rafah a “pressure cooker”

On Friday, the United Nations raised the alarm about the humanitarian situation in Rafah.

"I want to emphasize our deep concern about the escalation of hostilities in Khan Yunis, which has resulted in an increase in the number of internally displaced people seeking refuge in Rafah in recent days," the spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Jens Laerke added, "Thousands of Palestinians have continued to flee to the south, which is already hosting over half the population of some 2.3 million people. ... Rafah is a pressure cooker of despair, and we fear for what comes next."

Israel’s plan all along has been to forcibly expel the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip to make way for its direct control over the territory.  

According to a document that was leaked weeks after October 7, the Israeli Intelligence Ministry had called on the regime’s army to evacuate the civilian population to Sinai.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far rights ministers supported the mass expulsion of the Palestinians.

Israel burns Gaza homes

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on Thursday that soldiers are burning Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip on direct orders of their commanders, to prevent people from returning to live in them. 

Setting fire to homes belonging to civilians, for the mere purpose of punishment, is forbidden under international law.

A BBC analysis of satellite images showed that between 144,000 and 170,000 buildings have been damaged in the Gaza Strip over the past four months. 

According to a Washington Post investigation published in January, entire swaths of Gaza have been obliterated in Beit Hanoun, Jabalya and Al-Karama neighborhood.

The report also said 350 schools and some 170 mosques and churches had been damaged or destroyed as of late December. 

Israel’s ethnic cleansing agenda in Gaza has been supported by certain Western countries, in particular the United States. 

Washington has provided Israel with a huge amount of military aid and blocked resolutions at the UN Security Council aimed at establishing a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. 
Other Western countries are also complicit in Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign. 

Recently, Israel’s Western allies paused their funding to the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) which is considered a lifeline for over two million Gazans. 

Their move was in the wake of allegations that some UNRWA staff were involved in the military operation carried out by Hamas inside Israel on October 7. 

The suspension of funding will impact life-saving assistance for Gaza civilians as they are grappling with starvation, looming famine and an outbreak of disease under Israel’s continued indiscriminate bombardment. 

It seems that the U.S., Britain and Germany, which are among those countries that adopted the move against UNRWA, seek to divert attention from the ICJ’s ruling against Israel. 

Support for the Palestinians and their resistance against Israel continues to grow in West Asia and beyond as Israel continues its barbarism in Gaza.

Undoubtedly, the West’s support for the regime’s brutal onslaught will further escalate the war in the region.