{"id":282814,"date":"2024-03-03T08:20:51","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T08:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=282814"},"modified":"2024-03-04T07:54:14","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T07:54:14","slug":"israel-opens-fire-on-palestinians-gathered-at-food-truck-killing-104","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=282814","title":{"rendered":"Israel Opens Fire on Palestinians Gathered at Food Truck Killing 104"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Whitney — The Unz Review March 1, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The majority of Palestinians in Rafah live in an area that is roughly the size of Heathrow Airport. The city is cramped and unsanitary. It is surrounded on three sides by Israeli ground forces and on the fourth side by the 20 ft high Egyptian border wall. For all practical purposes, Rafah is a prison, the only difference being that, in a prison, the inmates are fed. In Rafah, no one is fed even though there are nearly 2,000 humanitarian trucks lined up beyond the Rafah Crossing waiting to deliver food to the starving population. The humanitarian convoy<\/a> is being blocked by Israeli forces that are acting on orders from top military leaders. Ostensibly, Israel is depriving the Palestinians of food to create a strong incentive for them to flee the country when the Egyptian border is breached. When that happens, the western media will characterize the exodus as a \u201cvoluntary migration\u201d, a designation that downplays the reality of ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Israel launched a surprise attack on Palestinians who had gathered at food trucks in Gaza City. According to numerous reports, more than 100 people were gunned down while trying to get desperately needed food. Here\u2019s a short recap of what took place:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt about 4:30 this morning, trucks started to come through. Once we approached the aid trucks, the Israeli tanks and warplanes started firing at us as if it were a trap,\u201d<\/strong> the man recounted to Quds News Network, as cited by Al Jazeera<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Israeli military opened fire on the aid seekers, Israeli tanks advanced and ran over many of the dead and injured bodies <\/strong>in the southwestern parts of Gaza City. It is a massacre, on top of the starvation threatening citizens in Gaza,\u201d Al Jazeera<\/a> correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul said.<\/p>\n

Over 250 Palestinians were wounded in the attack, the majority of whom have been taken to al-Shifa Hospital and Kamal Adwan Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the others are being rushed to the Ahli and Jordanian hospitals. The [death toll] will rise. Hospitals are no longer able to accommodate the huge number of patients because they lack fuel, let alone medicine. Hospitals have also run out of blood,\u201d al-Goul added\u2026.<\/p>\n

Following the attack, Jadallah al-Shafei, head of the nurses\u2019 department at al-Shifa Hospital, told Al Jazeera<\/a> the \u201csituation cannot be described in words\u2026 It is reminiscent of the dark scenes from the Baptist Hospital four months ago where 500 people were killed in one Israeli air strike,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the early hours of the morning, the hospital has been flooded with dozens of dead bodies and hundreds of injured. The majority of the victims suffered gunshot wounds and shrapnel in the head and upper parts of their bodies<\/strong>. They were hit by direct artillery shelling, drone missiles, and gunshots. Israeli forces massacre civilians waiting for humanitarian aid<\/a>, Mondoweiss<\/p>\n

The incident is just the latest in an endless series of massacres. Israeli airstrikes account for the killing of 50 or-more people a day. The victims of these attacks are civilians, they are not Hamas and Israel knows they are not Hamas. But the killing goes on regardless. Why? Why is Israel shooting blameless civilians going about their business? What strategic benefit is there to that?<\/p>\n

Plenty. The hungrier and more desperate the people are, the more likely they are to storm the border as soon as the wall has been breached<\/strong>. This is the only logical explanation for Israel\u2019s behavior. They want to keep anxiety levels sky-high in order to produce the outcome they seek which is the expulsion of the entire Palestinian population. So, while it\u2019s true that Israel\u2019s attacks on civilians amounts to cold-blooded murder, it is cold-blooded murder with a purpose. And the purpose is the realization of the Zionist ideal of a Jewish-majority homeland from the \u201cRiver to the Sea\u201d<\/strong>. That majority can only be achieved by driving the Palestinians out of the country and into Egypt.<\/p>\n

Have you seen the videos of the Israelis blocking food shipments <\/a>to the people in Gaza? Some of these videos contain footage of families wrapped in Israeli flags<\/a>, singing and dancing while they prevent aid trucks from entering Rafah<\/a>. At one checkpoint the Israelis gyrate wildly while the loudspeakers blast rock-and-roll<\/a> music at full volume. At another checkpoint, flag-draped Israelis set up an inflatable \u201cBouncy Palace<\/a>\u201d so their children can play with their friends while their parents stop emergency food supplies<\/a> from crossing the border.<\/p>\n

How do you explain this type of behavior? How do you explain the fact that seemingly normal people \u2013who have jobs, went to college, and probably engage in the same social activities as the rest of us\u2013 are capable of such unspeakable cruelty? Are these the \u201cgood Germans\u201d we\u2019ve read so much about over the years?<\/p>\n

No, this is very different, after all, no one can claim that \u201cI was just following orders.\u201d No one ordered these people to block food shipments at the border. They are here voluntarily because they want to be here. They want to be able to tell their grandchildren that, when their army launched its attack on the Palestinians in Gaza, they made their contribution by ensuring that women and children would face an agonizing death by starvation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Once again, how do you explain this type of behavior?<\/p>\n

Many of these people have allowed themselves to interviewed, and the interviews have been widely circulated on Twitter. Surprisingly, these people are quite bold in defending themselves.<\/a> What\u2019s clear, is that they believe in what they are doing and don\u2019t feel any remorse for their actions. It\u2019s extraordinary. Here you have intelligent, articulate people standing in front of a camera and making the case that it is their patriotic duty to starve thousands of women and children to death. It boggles the mind. And it boggles the mind to see them cheer wildly and celebrate when they stop the food trucks<\/a> that are the last lifeline to an ailing population. For these people, starvation is not an avoidable crisis or a moral dilemma. For these people, starvation is victory.<\/p>\n

Do you know what the term \u201csadistic\u201d means?<\/p>\n

It means: \u201ctaking pleasure in the infliction of pain, punishment, or humiliation on others.\u201d (Merriam-Webster)<\/p>\n

Would it be fair to call Israel\u2019s treatment of the Palestinians \u2018sadistic\u2019? Would it be accurate to say that Israel\u2019s assault on a civilian population goes far-beyond what ordinary people would regard as normal behavior?<\/strong> We\u2019ve all seen the devastation, the ruins, and the mountain of rubble stretching miles in all directions. How do we make sense of these things? And what do they tell us about Israel? Do they tell us that Israel is trying to \u201cdefend itself\u201d?<\/p>\n

Of course, not. Transforming Gaza into a moonscape has nothing to do with \u2018self-defense\u2019. And it doesn\u2019t have anything to do with vengeance either. It\u2019s all about the land; seizing the land from its indigenous owners and incorporating it into a Greater Israel. That\u2019s what Zionism is, a messianic ideology that blinds its adherents to the suffering of others, and turns intelligent, responsible men into heartless brutes capable of unimaginable savagery.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s rampage in Gaza is not the result of security concerns or the rebuilding of deterrents. No. It is the result of an idea that permeates Israeli culture and is finding expression in the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Millions of non-Jews are being forced out of the country to preserve the racial purity of the state, the Jewish state. This is the idea that fuels the carnage; this is the dystopian ideal that has produced Gaza\u2019s killing fields.<\/p>\n

This is from an article at the Electronic Intifada:<\/p>\n

Every single child in Gaza is facing death \u2013 either by Israeli bombardments, starvation or disease.<\/strong> More than one million children are living a catastrophic health emergency directly caused by Israel\u2019s ongoing blockade of humanitarian aid, according to a new report by Save the Children.<\/p>\n

In northern Gaza, which has effectively been cut off from aid deliveries by the Israeli military, one in six toddlers is acutely malnourished\u2026 \u201cThe Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,\u201d warned Ted Chaiban of UNICEF last week\u2026.
\nEvery child in Gaza faces starvation<\/a>, Electronic Intifada<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right, isn\u2019t he? Every child is facing a death sentence because he was born an Arab in a land that has been taken from him. Had he been born Jewish; his fate would have been entirely different. Had he been born Jewish; he would not be huddled in a tent in a squalid refugee camp in Rafah waiting for the Israeli army to drive him into the desert at gunpoint. But he was not born Jewish, so he\u2019ll either have to go where he is told or die in his present location. There is no third option. Here\u2019s more from UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe speed of malnourishment of young children is astounding. The bombing and people being killed directly is brutal, but the starvation\u2014and the wasting and stunting of children\u2014is torturous and vile. It will have a long-term impact on the population physically, cognitively and morally\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never seen a civilian population made to go so hungry so quickly and so completely, that is the consensus among starvation experts,\u201d said Fakhri. \u201cIsrael is not just targeting civilians, it is trying to damn the future of the Palestinian people by harming their children.\u201d Biden claims Gaza ceasefire in sight as Palestinians starve<\/a>, World Socialist Web Site<\/p>\n

Israel has meticulously targeted food storage facilities, granaries, mills and bakeries. All the traditional sources of food production have been destroyed. There are numerous videos on the Internet showing tanks or armored vehicles crushing canned-goods or bags of flour beneath their treads. What we are seeing is the most robust and determined effort to starve a population in modern times. And it goes far-beyond the mere destruction of food production facilities and the blocking of humanitarian aid trucks. Israel is even taking aim at visa requirements in a fiendish attempt to prevent humanitarian organizations from operating in Gaza at all. Here\u2019s the story from The Guardian:<\/p>\n

Israel has stopped issuing visas for international staff of humanitarian organizations that work in occupied Palestinian territories, hampering efforts to get food and other vital supplies into Gaza.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dozens of foreign aid workers, including heads of organisations, have had to leave Israel and the Palestinian territories, or are overstaying their visas and risking deportation so they can continue working, an alliance of aid groups has warned.<\/p>\n

Emergency response teams, who have the specialist experience to deal with the multiple challenges of working in Gaza, are particularly affected\u2026Visas are required to enter Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, but new ones have effectively been blocked by the ministry of welfare and social affairs\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There have always been ups and downs\u2026 where access was harder. But never on this scale\u2026 With no humanitarian visa renewals since the outbreak of this war, [Israel is] leaving humanitarian workers facing deportation when the Palestinian people need them most.\u201d Humanitarian workers face deportation from Israel after freeze on visas,<\/a> Guardian<\/p>\n

Is this not sinister?<\/p>\n

The food producing facilities have all been destroyed, the humanitarian aid convoys have been blocked, and now even the foreign aid workers and emergency response teams are being deported. Israel is determined to control every grain of rice that enters the Gaza Strip so they can keep a stranglehold on a population that had the audacity to be born in a land destined to become the Jewish state.<\/p>\n

On top of that, the Israeli army has started mowing down civilians who dare to approach the food trucks that provide the meagre gruel that keeps their families alive.<\/p>\n

Can it get any worse?<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is particularly telling is the way the Western mainstream has given very little time to Palestinian eyewitness accounts of the event, and there are many. While giving as much if not more time to the Israeli version. In effect, the western MSM is providing cover for Israeli crimes <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":282717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-10-gaza-war","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282814"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282817,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282814\/revisions\/282817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/282717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}