Israel's most extreme genocidal violence beckons

With US support, Israel may now proceed with the total liquidation of Gaza

“This is only the beginning", declares Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu after ordering air strikes which slaughtered over 400 Palestinians, many of them children. A reminder: he is already a wanted man because of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed before this latest genocidal onslaught.

A few weeks ago, Netanyahu’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded Israel “open the gates of hell” in Gaza. And so Israel has, in the form of outright, unapologetic, shameless genocidal violence. In doing so, it enjoys the full backing of Donald Trump, who reportedly gave the “green light” to this butchery.

I’ve looked at some of the footage so you don’t have to. A dead baby in a jumpsuit covered in rainbows. A dead child with a bloodied face in a Mickey Mouse top. A man holding a toddler, her face blackened by burns. A grieving father playing with the pigtail for the last time. Another grieving father wails as he holds the lifeless body of his daughter in her red pyjamas. A young boy sobbing over his dead father in a zipped body bag. The body of a young boy extracted from a mangled rubble. Six members of the Abu Duqa family - the father, mother and children - killed by an Israeli strike on their car - one child survived with severe injuries.

Entire families were wiped out, their names forever erased from the civil registry. There’s a picture of a little girl called Siwar, sitting in a red chair amongst rubble, after her family returned to their home. She was killed alongside her sister, parents, uncle, aunt and grandparents.

The Palestinian artist Dirgham Quraikah was killed alongside all 30 members of his family in an Israeli missile strike on their home. A family described on Instagram as “the happy family” in Arabic, with a smiling mum and dad holding their beautiful girls - all killed.

Palestinians in Gaza tweeted out fearing this would be their last night alive. Like Mohammed Jawad and his beautiful baby girl. He tweeted:

Thankfully, they survived.

But for many Palestinians who feared it would be their last night alive, it was, including so many other little babies.

Feroze Sidhwa is a Californian surgeon who is volunteering in Gaza, and previously offered evidence - along with 64 other US-based medics - about the Israeli army deliberately shooting children in the head. He now testifies that almost all of the patients he tended to overnight were women and children.

Let’s just take a step back and put this despicable massacre in its proper context. As Israel opened the gates of hell on Gaza, as promised by its finance minister, CNN issued a breaking news alert, which read:

Here is an example of how the world has been turned on its head, language robbed of all meaning, in order to protect Israel from accountability for the heinous crime it is committing.

What CNN itself acknowledges is described by Israel itself as “extensive strikes” is not sufficient to declare the ceasefire objectively over. If just a tiny equivalent of Hamas rockets had been lobbed at Israel, CNN would even think of suggesting that represented anything other than the end of the ceasefire.

According to the New York Times, this onslaught was ‘targeting Hamas’. The newspaper knows full well that how many kids have just been slaughtered.

Indeed, this so-called “ceasefire” - which supposedly came into effect on 19th January - has itself been a murderous farce. Before this latest massacre, Israel had reportedly killed more than 150 people in Gaza since that so-called ceasefire began - and that’s without even mentioning the dozens of Palestinians who have been slaughtered in the West Bank.

But it’s not just armed violence. 16 days ago, Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza, preventing any humanitarian aid of any description from getting in - food, medicine, you name it. That’s caused the price of some staple foods to surge by 200%.

This is a straightforward crime. Indeed, Israel had already repeatedly deliberately starved Gaza and prevented the essentials of life from entering and then from getting to the people who need it - but kept claiming otherwise. This time, they just went and said it - boasting of their criminal violation of international law. Indeed the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister centre on the crime of starvation.

This criminality was apparently finally recognised by the British government. When asked about this siege, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Parliament that Israel is “in breach of international law”.

You might be relieved that, after all this time, the British government has said the obvious.

Not so fast with any kudos for Lammy. The government came out and promptly rebuked him and instead said that Israel was only “at risk” of violating international law. Lammy - a self-aggrandiser devoid of principle or backbone - declared he “could have have been clearer”, backtracking on the truth.

But this was nonetheless a confession. Lammy admitted Israel is violating the law, something he obviously knows is true, which means continued arms sales and diplomatic support for Israel constitute willing and knowing complicity in Israel’s crimes.

The crimes do not stop there. Israel has ordered civilians to “evacuate” large swathes of Gaza - that is yet more forced displacement, clearly underlining that there will be renewed land assaults by the Israeli army.

So what happens next? Well, it was clear that Israel’s genocide was never going to end. Israel was always going to resume its genocidal onslaught when it decided there was an opportune time - in this case, conveniently to stop Benjamin Netanyahu having to face questions about corruption.

Donald Trump has himself endorsed or the mass violent removal of the surviving population, and now Israel is set to destroy what is left of Gaza’s already decimated infrastructure to facilitate that historic crime. The most extreme phase of Israel’s genocide now beckons.