It is already the fifth day of the war between Israel and Hamas, and things are getting worse. According to the Palestinian agency for refugees at the UN, Gaza has lost 250,000 residents.
The number of airstrikes conducted by the Israeli military over the Gaza Strip has increased, severely damaging the region’s infrastructure and uprooting thousands of residents. According to Israel’s defence minister, he has “released all restraints” on his troops and declared that Gaza “will never return to what it was”.
Reports suggest that over 2,100 people have perished in the fighting, the majority of whom were on the Israeli side. Since Saturday, 900 people have died in the enclave, according to the Gaza health authorities. 260 children and 230 women are among the deceased.
Israel’s shelling of the Gaza Strip and its threat to encircle the Hamas-run Palestinian territory completely with a siege have been referred to as “nothing less than genocidal” by the Palestinian representative to the UN. Israel’s border police shot and killed two Palestinians in East Jerusalem, an indication of rising violence that disproportionately targets young people in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
There is already “clear evidence” that war crimes may have been committed in the most recent escalation of violence in Israel and Gaza, the UN’s human rights council warned. It said that since Saturday, evidence of “war crimes committed by all sides” had been gathered.
It is imperative that all sides prioritise peace and the safety of people as the conflict develops. The situation is being closely watched by the international community, which is calling for an immediate ceasefire.