Trade Unionists For Palestine

WHAT ARE THE FACTS ABOUT ISRAEL’S ATTACK ON GAZA?

1. Over 900 people have already been killed and Israel is committed to continuing the mass murder. (If Gaza, with its population of 1.5 million, were Australia, population 21.5 million, that would be over 10,000 dead.) With Israeli elections due in two months, all Israeli leaders are competing over who is the toughest and who is ready to kill more in Gaza.

2. Most of those killed have been civilians. The figure of 60 civilians which has been given out is nonsense, based on the exclusion of all male victims from the dead. Thousands, including children, have been injured, many of them seriously, with loss of limbs, eyes etc.

4. Despite letting in a little aid one day this week, Israel is maintaining the most severe blockade seen anywhere in the world for over 50 years, which starves Gaza of food, medical supplies, water, fuel and other essential resources.

5. United Nations commissioner-general, Karen Abu Zayd, says the situation in the region is desperate: "There's no fuel, there's no power plant, there's no electricity working now."

6. Medical services in Gaza, already depleted by the Israeli siege over the last year, are close to collapse, with doctors and nurses only able to deal with the most serious cases, many injured left to die in hospital corridors, the morgues full and ambulances not working for lack of fuel and spare parts.

7. The UN, on which under the Israeli siege most people in Gaza depend for food, has stopped distributing food because its agencies have run out of fuel for vehicles. Nine out of ten Gazans live below the poverty line, with many families forced to eat grass to survive.

8. The infrastructure in many areas has been so destroyed that residents have no access to water or electricity. The UN says the Israeli blockade has resulted in Palestinians receiving running water only once every five to seven days

9. Israel is in breach of many Geneva Conventions and international laws amounting to war crimes, including wilful killing, extensive destruction of property not justified by military necessity and collective punishment.

Israel is only able to act in this barbaric manner because of the support it gets from governments who habitually turn a blind eye to its war crimes.