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In a statement of genocidal intent as the International Court of Justice would describe it, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, warned “the People of Gaza” that they would face something “far harsher” if they did not release all Israeli hostages and remove Hamas from power.
The siege and butchery of Gazans since October 7th has widely been considered unprecedented in the history of warfare between the two peoples, yet Katz said “if all Israeli hostages are not released and Hamas is not kicked out of Gaza, Israel will act with force you have not known before”.
He concluded this message with the warning of “total devastation”—not of Hamas, but the “people of Gaza”.
WaL has reported before about the double standard used by major media outlets describing acts of violence between Israel and Palestinian militant groups like Hamas. BBC or the New York Times will often frame Palestinians directly murdered by Israeli military actions as having “died” rather than been “killed” while BBC‘s notorious senior editor on all things from that part of the world has been exposed as working with an extreme pro-Israel bias.
Perhaps unsurprisingly then, in the days following Katz’ statement, BBC’s coverage declined to mention any of this genocidal language, saying merely that “Israel Katz issued a ‘last warning’ to Hamas on Wednesday, calling for the return of the remaining hostages being held by the group”.
BBC is the West’s largest media outlet, with over 1 billion visits per day.
That’s offensive
Sources speaking to CNN suggested that a major ground operation in Gaza is being prepared that may involve as many as 50,000 soldiers, with accompanied armor and support vehicles, that would “clear” Hamas fighters from areas and then hold the territory to prevent them from returning.
They would likely be implementing the “Generals Plan” to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its 2 million Palestinian residents starting in the north, and the Israeli government has already set up an agency that will relocate any Palestinian who wants to leave the Strip peacefully to another country, though none have agreed to take in refugees in this way.
CNN described this enormous invasion force as an “offensive” three times in the first three paragraphs, and 6 times in the story overall. An offensive is a coordinated attack against an enemy, but being the enemy are hidden insurgents, who is it being offended against, that is to say, who is being attacked? It’s far safer and less horrific to suggest troops are going on the offensive in Gaza than saying they are “attacking” Gaza, and despite the two being essentially the same, one reads softer than the other.
CNN also called the plans “operations” and in one case described it as “escalating the pressure,” meaning, the resumed bombing operations that killed over 200 Palestinian civilians over the weekend, in order to “bring Hamas back to the table on Israel’s terms,” Israel Ziv — a retired IDF general and chief of operations in the joint chiefs of staff, was quoted as saying
“But of course the problem is that once you escalate you can find yourself at the end of the road, in the depth of swamp. And this is the risk that no one knows if it will work or not”.
Ziv’s swamp comment heralds back to the description of Afghanistan as a “quagmire” and shows a continuing trend amongst Israeli military and national security experts in stating that the idea of defeating Hamas is a fantasy.
The death toll in Gaza recently surpassed 50,000 civilians according to Gaza’s health ministry, which Western experts generally recognize as accurate. The death toll is also widely accepted to be much higher, potentially double, as it’s impossible to account for bodies buried under collapsed buildings. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: Israel Katz in a propaganda photo in North Gaza. PC: Israeli Defense Ministry handout.
