The US president Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threaten to end the ceasefire with Hamas by Saturday noon (February 15) if ALL hostages by then are not freed.
This was not the terms set out in the ceasefire.
This ceasefire was to move from phase one to three, involving PERIODIC releases of hostages-prisoners from the two sides and complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip before the third phase ends on March 2.
But Trump says this “drips-and-drabs” release of hostages can’t go on what if the same has been outlined in the ceasefire.
The pretext is Hamas hasn’t released the next lot of nine hostages even though it is still five days remaining for the moment.
Hamas, in a statement, has pointed out Israel has regularly been violating the ceasefire since it was inked in on January 19 and this has even been conceded to the New York Times by a few Israeli officials.
But this doesn’t register with these butchers of Palestinians, one who has been killing tens of thousands for past 15 months and the other who promises “all hell would break out” after noon on Saturday.
Israel, even as the first phase of ceasefire kicked in, has been regularly killing Palestinians which number 25 in the last three weeks.
Under the ceasefire terms, 12,000 trucks of food and other basic necessities were to roll in for the Palestinians in Gaza by now. Thus far it numbers only 8,500.
The ceasefire had stipulated 200,000 tents for the first phase. The numbers thus far is only 10 percent of the deal halfway through the first phase.
There were to be 60,000 mobile homes to be set up. Not a single one has been done thus far.
There was this clause that 50 seriously sick and injured people would be moved out of Gaza daily with family members accompanying them. They number 120 patients thus far when it ought to have been 1,000 people by now.
The ceasefire thus was just a chimera.
All president Trump wanted was a trophy for his inauguration day; and Netanyahu was sold the idea they would make Hamas look the bad guy who violated the ceasefire even as latter’s hands would be forced.
Both wanted ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians – one with incessant bombings, rockets and missiles and the other by building “Riviera of Middle East” in Gaza while over a million Palestinians are kicked out in neighbouring Arab nations.
Nobody was game for it; least of all the Palestinians who they thought would jump out of the raging fire engulfing them at the first opportunity.
But Palestinians are not going anywhere in what must be viewed as the most heroic of all resistance in the history of mankind.
For the last three weeks, these tragic people have been busy clearing the rubble largely with bare hands; most slabs hiding the dead bodies of their own brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers.
They remain exposed to harsh winter in the absence of blankets, caravans and tents.
Prices of essential goods are shooting up.
Water around is contaminated and yet consumed in absence of any other option.
So all is set for genocide 2.0.
It’s unlikely those who stood their ground despite hell raining from the sky would be scared by Trump’s tone or choice of words.
It would disappoint those Israelis who are waiting to hug their long-held family members but they could be counted on fingers only. They would be drowned out by the rest of fellow citizens who clamour for cleaning-out Palestinians from Gaza and West Bank.
Nobody seems capable of stopping this butchering of human lives. Hezbollah is weakened; countries like Turkey or Iran won’t opt for a frontal war; and China and Russia but for one don’t have military bases in the region which could counter these blood-thirsty vampires. They can’t project power as the US does.
All it takes is one vote in the United Nations which could stop this genocide but the United States repeatedly uses its veto against the world community who as one voice want Israel to be punished.
There is no international law, no convention, no moral order, no ethical commitment, no court of justice, no repugnance.
Israel is occupying parts of Lebanon; it has clutched Golan Heights and spread itself on Syria and it doesn’t matter if under international law it is plain and simple occupation by a colonial, apartheid state.
Israel and the United States have shown they care two hoots about making or keeping friends. They would bully and force subservience but we know this is self-destructive. You can’t be an island when the sea of humanity is boiling at your sight.
They would pay the price eventually but a sea of blood would’ve flown by then.
