WHAT NOW FOR PALESTINE -IN THE SHADOW OF GENOCIDE AND A NON-CARING WORLD

- 1947 AND UN ARMISTICE LINES - 1949

- By Shirley Candappa

n 7 October 2023, Israel commenced bombardment of Palestine’s Gaza Strip. Gaza is a small beachside landstrip of around 365 sq miles bordering the Mediterranean Sea, sandwiched between Egypt and Israel. The territory with a population of around 2.3 million Palestine is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

Today the death toll from Israel's war in Gaza stands at over 61,709 killed including 17,492 children. Over 14,222 persons are missing and presumed dead. More than 111,588 persons have been injured, and almost all of Gaza’s homes have been damaged or destroyed.

Since October 2023 Israel has deprived Gazans of water, food, medicine, fuel and everything other than the air they breathe.

Israel's attack on the Gazan people followed an attack by the Palestinian group ‘Hamas’, on Israeli occupied Palestinian territory in Gaza on October 7. Around 1,200 Israeli settlers were killed and over 250 were hostage.

The crisis in Palestine however did not begin on 7 October 2023. It began with the UN carving out the State of Israel in what was originally undivided Palestine in November 1947.

The birth of Israel in May 1948 led to the mass expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the newly created state of Israel. ‘Britannica’ estimates the number of Palestinians displaced from their original homes, and villages by Israeli militias between December 1947 to January 1949 range from about 520,000 to around a million people. Palestinians commemorate the 15th of May as the day when the destruction of Palestinian society and homeland in 1948.

In the weeks prior and following its recognition as a state by the UN, Israel, carried out massacres in Palestinian towns and villages. One of the worst massacres took place at Deir Yasin where over 200 Palestinian civilians were murdered in cold blood.