More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israel-Hamas war nearly five months ago, according to Gaza health officials.
The surge in Palestinian deaths comes after witnesses said Israel forces fired at a crowd of people waiting for aid in Gaza City on Thursday, killing at least 104 people and wounding about 760.
Israeli officials acknowledged that troops opened fire on a large crowd of Palestinians who had converged on an aid convoy as it entered northern Gaza. Officials said troops opened fire after the crowd approached the soldiers in a threatening way.
World leaders are right to condemn the Israeli forces attack on civilians seeking aid.
“It is a heinous crime to target peaceful civilians who are rushing to get their share of humanitarian aid,” read a statement released by Egypt’s foreign ministry.
“It is a flagrant violation of the international law and the international humanitarian law, and also shows disregard to the sanctity of human lives,” the Egyptian statement added.
The Associated Press reports: “The war has driven 80 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes, and U.N. officials say a quarter of the population is starving.
“The World Health Organization warns that poor sanitation, the lack of access to clean water, and the over-crowdedness of settlements where displaced Gazans have relocated, could lead to further infectious disease outbreaks and ultimately more deaths.”
The war began after Hamas militants stormed across southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 others hostage including men, women, children and older adults.
About 100 were freed about 50 days into their captivity and roughly 130 hostages remain.
Israel had every right to a strong military response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack in protection of its citizens. No government would allow such a brutal attack without punishing its attackers.
However, U.N. experts say Israeli strikes on Gaza amount to collective punishment of Palestinians.
While condemning the “horrific crimes committed by Hamas,” a group of independent United Nation experts has previously said that Israel has resorted to “indiscriminate military attacks” against Palestinians in Gaza.
Given the scale of death and devastation in Gaza, the United States must now take a more active role in seeking to end the humanitarian catastrophe the war has created.
Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s head for the Eastern Mediterranean, is right in saying that “concrete steps” toward peace are desperately needed.
“The 30,000 are not mere statistics, they are human lives,” Balkhy wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “As a doctor and humanitarian, I will keep advocating for the right of all people to life and health. I call on all leaders to join.”
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described Gaza as “a death zone” and has called repeatedly for a cessation of hostilities.
Leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the country’s oldest and most prominent Black Christian denominations, and other faith leaders across denominations are right to call for a cease-fire as the death toll rises in Gaza.
Failure to end the conflict will result in an escalation in the deaths of innocent civilians and the risk of war spreading across the region.
The U.S. should join with other world leaders to push for an urgent cease-fire in Gaza.
(Reprinted from The Philadelphia Tribune)