Palestinians in Gaza are entering the new year as vulnerable and besieged as the last.
Israel’s war in the enclave continued in 2024, killing 23,842 people and injuring 51,925 this year alone, bringing the official death toll to a staggering 46,376, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Israel has used siege and starvation tactics, as well as scorched earth bombings, drawing accusations that it is committing genocide from rights groups and United Nations legal bodies.
All documented Israel’s systematic targeting of hospitals, displacement shelters, aid workers, journalists and so-called safe zones, which are often anything but.
In northern Gaza, the Israeli army has imposed a complete and suffocating siege in an attempt to starve out fighters and drive out civilians in what has been called “ethnic cleansing”.
These tactics violate international law and are creating the conditions to kill a people “in whole or in part”, meeting the definition of genocide in the UN Genocide Convention, rights groups say.
“The last year has been very dark for us. How can I describe it any other way? It has been beyond excruciating,” said Eman Shaghnoubi, 52, from Deir el-Balah in Gaza.
“We have gone from one humiliation to another,” she added, citing the permanent relocation of Palestinians to the enclave.
Inside Gaza
Israel has rendered 34 hospitals in Gaza “non-functional” and forced 80 health centers to close completely, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
In recent days, Israeli forces stormed the only major hospital left in devastated northern Gaza, evacuating staff and patients before setting fire to the medical facility.
Torrential rain is currently battering the tented villages that stand in for many of Gaza’s towns and cities, with hypothermic deaths on the rise as freezing temperatures remain low.
Shaghnoubi, who has six sons and two daughters, said her children are struggling to survive in the cold and that her small tent does not protect the family from the torrential rain.
“My children sleep in a wet bed at night,” she told Al Jazeera.
Shereen Abu Nida, 40, also said that she and her four children are facing hardships due to the terrible living conditions brought about by the war. Worse yet, her husband was kidnapped by Israeli forces about a year ago, leaving her to care for her children alone.
“I’ve had to spend this whole year alone, alone,” she said, her voice shaking.
Musa Ali Muhammad al-Maghribi, 52, added that his family has little hope for the future.
He said his nine children are sick and he can’t find medicine, nor does he have enough food or clean water for his family, a trial faced by most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
“(Israel) has destroyed us,” he told Al Jazeera. “Every day, we just hope to die.”
Netanyahu prolongs the war
Despite the extreme hardship, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is showing no signs of stopping the attack.
Efforts to broker some form of ceasefire, which have been ongoing for most of the conflict, have failed in the face of what many, including US President Joe Biden in June, have described as political interest on the part of the Israeli prime minister. . minister.
Accusations of exploiting the Gaza war for personal gain have centered on Netanyahu’s efforts to avoid his ongoing trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of public trust, which he denies.
Moreover, the prime minister’s corruption trial suggests that Netanyahu is seeking to prolong the war to deflect attention from allegations of negligence or incompetence during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that killed 1,139 Israelis.
Accusations of opportunism have come both from within Netanyahu’s right-wing cabinet and from the streets, where tens of thousands of people continue to rally in support of a deal that would free prisoners taken during the Hamas-led offensive.
International impotence
The international community has failed to stop – or mitigate – the carnage in Gaza largely because of the US’s unqualified political and military support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
In addition to the more than $20 billion in aid provided to Israel since the start of the war, the US has torpedoed diplomatic efforts within the UN to end the war, including suppressing recent reports of possible famine in continuation in northern Gaza.
In January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to do everything it could to prevent any act that could be considered genocide. Despite this, rights organizations based in Palestine and internationally, including Amnesty, have concluded that Israel is actively embarking on a campaign of genocide within the Strip.
Similar international actions have also been taken against the leadership of Hamas and Israel. In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.
Israel claims to have killed Deif in July. Netanyahu and Gallant remain wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In October, Israel defied international pressure and voted to suspend the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), widely regarded as one of Gaza’s main lifelines. When the ban goes into effect at the end of January next year, Gaza will lose its main aid agency and with it, much of the network that distributes food, medicine and the infrastructure needed to sustain life.
In December, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for UNRWA’s work to continue and, for the third time, for an immediate ceasefire. Despite this, Israeli attacks on Gaza have continued and the agency’s future remains uncertain.
Palestinians in Gaza like Abu Nida hope the war will end soon this year.
“This has been the worst year of my life,” said Abu Nida.
“Nobody in the world has lived through the days we’re living through,” she said.
