Israel’s Dehumanization of an Entire Nation: Justifying War Crimes in Gaza
By: M. Shaifi
The obnoxious atrocities and war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians represent not just a flagrant violation of human rights but a calculated systematic act of violence masquerading as self-defense. In the aftermath of its humiliating defeat in the wake of the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm; Israel has escalated its aggression ruthlessly expanding the war beyond the Gaza Strip leaving devastation in its wake. Over 42000 Palestinian civilians have been brutally massacred and entire communities uprooted while Gaza itself reduced to rubble. These actions are not the unfortunate byproducts of conflict they are part of a deliberate campaign aimed at erasing Palestinian existence and culture and future.
Israel’s insistence on framing this genocide as a legitimate response to supposed threats is as hollow as it is grotesque. Under the guise of fighting Hamas Israel has massacred Palestinian civilians and obliterated hospitals and using hunger as a means of slowly killing 2.5 million human beings. Yet despite overwhelming evidence of its crimes it brazenly claims to be acting within legal bounds all while cloaking its systematic eradication of a people as self-defense. The international community too long complicit in this charade must reckon with the fact that Israel’s conduct constitutes nothing short of apartheid as recognized even by South Africa a nation deeply familiar with the horrors of such a regime.
What Israel claims is a defensive war is in reality a war of extermination intended to fragment displace and destroy the Palestinian people. The ongoing siege of Gaza an open-air prison where access to even basic necessities like food water and medical care is severely restricted has not only decimated the population physically but aimed to annihilate them morally. This siege is not simply a policy of containment it is a war crime in progress conducted with the cold calculation of a regime determined to suffocate an entire population.
The Israeli narrative desperately attempting to invert reality seeks to portray itself as a victim of Hamas's so-called violence. Yet the historical context of occupation settlement expansion and the slow-motion ethnic cleansing of Palestinians over decades shows that Israel’s alleged self-defense is a mere pretext for further annexation and domination. In fact, the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm was not an unprovoked military initiative,rather, an act of resistance borne out of sheer desperation---against 75 years of occupation and an existential threat to Palestinian survival. It was the inevitable response of a people who have been driven to the brink by the suffocating siege systematic dehumanization and relentless violence imposed by Israel.
Israel’s catastrophic intelligence failure during the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm further underscores its culpability. Its reaction---an unrelenting campaign of destruction---has only amplified the suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza further exposing the fraudulent nature of its defense claims. As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres rightly pointed out decades of occupation cannot be divorced from the events of October 7 2023. That simple truth was too much for Israel’s defenders who demanded his resignation for daring to state the obvious: that Israel’s policies are the root cause of the ongoing violence.
In response to the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm; Israel unleashed a savage and indiscriminate military invasion that defies any semblance of proportionality or morality. The killing of thousands of civilians the annihilation of Gaza’s already fragile infrastructure the use of prohibited weapons and the calculated starvation of an entire population amount to crimes against humanity on an unprecedented scale. The forced displacement of Gazans from their homes is a glaring reminder of the ethnic cleansing project Israel has pursued since its inception.
The anniversary of the heroic Operation Al-Aqsa Storm serves as a stark reminder of the enduring Palestinian resistance in the face of overwhelming oppression. Israel’s crimes are not confined to the Gaza Strip they are part of a broader long-standing effort to erase the Palestinian people. Yet despite Israel’s immense military might the global tide is turning. Protests against Israel’s actions are erupting across the world and the Palestinian cause has regained prominence on the international stage. Israel’s campaign of deception designed to manipulate public opinion and shield itself from accountability is crumbling.
This is not a war of equals. It is the slow methodical extermination of a people by a state that has wrapped itself in the false cloak of victimhood for far too long. The world can no longer afford to be silent in the face of Israel’s grotesque atrocities. It must recognize Israel’s war crimes for what they are: not self-defense but a systematic genocide.
