WAs Israel’s ground troops increasingly advance in the Gaza Strip against the Islamist Hamas, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations used drastic words to highlight the suffering of the civilian population. At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Riad Mansur said, referring to the fierce fighting: “Gaza is now hell on earth.”
However, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects a ceasefire despite criticism of the high number of civilian casualties and compared the war against Hamas to the Allies’ fight against the Nazis. Meanwhile, Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan pinned a yellow Star of David with the words “Never Again” on his lapel in front of the Security Council. This is reminiscent of stars that the Nazis forced on Jews as identification marks in the Third Reich.
Israel draws comparison to D-Day
He will wear the star, like his grandparents and the grandparents of millions of Jews, Erdan said to the Security Council. “We will wear the star until you condemn Hamas’ atrocities and demand the immediate release of our hostages.” Terrorists from Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, carried out a massacre of civilians in Israel on October 7th. More than 1,400 people died during and in the following days.
Erdan compared Israel’s ground offensive to the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944. If the UN Security Council had existed on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, there would probably have been a heated debate about how much electricity and fuel the citizens of Munich would have left, he mocked the UN Security Council. The Palestinian UN representative Mansour, however, pleaded: “Treat us like human beings with the respect we deserve. We are not subhumans. We’re not from another planet.”
The head of the UN Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA) urged an expansion of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. A handful of convoys as before are not enough for more than two million people in need, said UNWRA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini. Most people in the Gaza Strip felt trapped in a war that they had nothing to do with. “They feel like the world is equating them all with Hamas. This is dangerous. And we know this only too well from previous conflicts and crises. An entire population is being dehumanized,” Lazzarini warned.
According to the UN, acute fuel shortages are already affecting Gaza’s residents’ water supply. “Only one desalination plant is operating at just five percent capacity, while all six water treatment plants in the Gaza Strip are currently out of operation due to lack of fuel or electricity,” said UNICEF director Catherine Russell.
Again calls for a ceasefire
She implores the UN Security Council to immediately adopt a resolution reminding the parties of their obligations under international law, Russell said. This also includes a ceasefire. The Palestinian UN representative Mansur quoted former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld as saying: “The United Nations was not founded to take us to heaven, but to save us from hell.” This means nothing other than that Save the Palestinians in Gaza, demanded Mansur.
However, Israel continues to reject a ceasefire. “Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the terrorist attack of September 11th, Israel will not agree to a halt to fighting with Hamas after the terrible attacks of October 7th,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Monday Journalists. “Calls for Israel to agree to a ceasefire are calls to capitulate to Hamas, to terrorism, to barbarism. That will not happen.”
And so Israel’s ground troops, in conjunction with the air force and navy, are advancing further into the Gaza Strip. According to their own statements, they freed one of their female soldiers from Hamas violence. According to the Israeli army, at least 239 other people were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip in the Hamas attack on October 7th, including several Germans. Hamas has so far released four hostages through the mediation of Qatar and Egypt. Israel’s army believes that most of the remaining hostages are still alive.
40 people are still missing since the terrorist attacks. Because of their dire condition, many of the bodies have not yet been identified. The German Shani Louk was among those killed.
Meanwhile, Israeli military fighter jets also bombed “terrorist infrastructure” of the Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, the army said on Tuesday night. These included Hezbollah weapons and positions. According to the army, rockets had been fired from Lebanon at Israel in the previous days. There have been increasing confrontations at the border since the beginning of the Gaza war. Hezbollah has ties to the Islamist Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip.
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