At least 313 Palestinians have been killed as Israel struck 426 targets in Gaza, its military said, flattening residential buildings in giant explosions.
Among those killed in Gaza were 20 children. About 2,000 others are wounded, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said more than 20,000 Palestinians left Gaza’s border region to head further inside the territory and take refuge in UN schools.
Nebal Farsakh, the spokesperson of the NGO Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRC), told Al Jazeera that their medical teams were facing “great challenges” in Gaza, adding that they had called on the international humanitarian community to open humanitarian corridors so that NGOs like them could safely carry out their work of helping people in the Gaza Strip.
On Saturday night, Energy Minister Israel Katz said Israel would halt the electricity supply to the besieged territory. The Palestinian enclave – home to some two million people – has been under an Israeli air, land and sea blockade.
Al Jazeera’s Youmna ElSayed said humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip were in “constant deterioration”.
What used to be 120 megawatts of electricity has now decreased to only 20MW, provided by power plants that are paid for by the Palestinian Authority, ElSayed said.
Meanwhile, healthcare institutions had to rely on spare generators to continue operating through the night due to Israel’s decision to halt the electricity supply while residents were left to endure the darkness with the unsettling backdrop of explosions not far away.
This must be a neat little world you live in where world history doesn’t exist and norms of a time period weren’t real and didn’t matter. Hell, by your method of accounting, I suppose Europe needs to import about 330 million Americans.
I’m not supporting imperialism. It was an awful thing. The genocide of the natives in the Americas was absolutely despicable. The impact around the world was by and large awful for those being colonized. But Israelis are not colonizers in Israel. They have had a population there even under Muslim rule.
To actually want to find a peaceful resolution, you must start with an understanding of how the world actually works.
Country borders have been built. Having might did allow you to expand your empire since time immemorial. And the modern form of Israel came from fighting and diplomacy with the British, who had conquered that land. Israel legally established itself with firm borders just as the Palestinians were offered.
That is the real world. And that is the situation you must work with. Whether you think it is fair or not.
And whether or not you like it, both the west bank and Gaza (and much more) were ceded to Israel by the countries controlling those territories prior to the war. And Israel has also been willing to make land for peace agreements as it did with Egypt and the Sinai peninsula. Jordan and Egypt withdrew their sovereignty. Up until that time they could have also made Palestine an independent state. They didn’t.
With all of that being said, after many years of war of war and fighting and disagreements, Israel has become less diplomatic. Especially after the total demobilization of Gaza. Them leaving Gaza is what allowed this current attack to happen.
And the harsh truth is that the Palestinians could have a country rather quickly, but it would just be less than what they demand and want. They are in a weak bargaining position. Made weaker by the repeated attacks. But for all intents and purposes, Gaza has been a sovereign territory for 18 years. And they have done nothing in the name of peace.
It is long, complicated, and difficult. And I support the Palestinians getting their own sovereignty and nation. I support land swaps. But I also acknowledge the reality of the situation requires that the Palestinians give up on some things they have sworn to not give up on. Israel has not kept Muslims from visiting their holy sites, the way Jews were denied in spite of the agreements Jordan made with the UN. In fact, it was Jordanian(I believe) troops that would not allow me to visit inside the temple mount, because I’m not a Muslim.
Negotiations require flexibility. And while Israel has shown that flexibility with land swaps in exchange for the settlements, the other side doesn’t even want to be required to acknowledge Israel as having a right to exist. Border disputes happen all the time and are worked out in different ways, but very often one side can end up with less than they want. But isn’t that worth taking over the current situation?
Look up Martín Garcia island. Or the Andes boundaries. The Sverdrup islands. Hanish islands. The Baltic sea with Poland and Denmark.
LOL. Ain’t no one reading that. Not in a “I read it, but don’t want to work on a response” way, but “I don’t think any opinions you’ve expressed thus far warrant reading a wall of text about ‘how the world really works’”.
Real funny way to say you would prefer to not see the other sides’ thoughts.
So I’ll make this one short. You said
The thing is, there is no god (or natural law of the universe) given set in stone right to rule. But the de facto and often de jure truth is that historically they do. Human has functioned as such since the time when multiple species of humans existed.
Ok but in this case you’re wrong. Go read the 1948 plan. They ASKED both parties to voluntarily make 2 states. Jews said of course Arabs said no this is our land and always has been and these are our enemies.
Somehow you think that in the 20th century it’s ok for a country to
A have a colony and B dictate things to that colony against its will.
Just because it has the force to. Astounding. Morality be damned huh? Ethics right out the window might makes right.