“Israel targets the innocent” was the main headline of Daily Sabah’s print edition on Aug. 8 - a straightforward four-word headline, but everyone could read and feel the hidden pain, tears, anguish, blood, screams, tattered bodies, shattered homes, ambulance sirens, funerals and the smell of gunpowder. Another round of unjustified and barbaric aerial strikes by Israel in southern Gaza that has so far killed more than 40 civilians, including six children, is expected, as per an Israeli spokesperson, to last for one week as if it is some kind of annual clearance sale at a shopping mall.
The memories of the 11-day May 2021 Israeli-Palestinian conflict are still alive, apparent on the streets of Gaza and the West Bank that witnessed 256 deaths of civilian Palestinians, including 66 children. Unlike the May 2021 carnage, the current killing spree has been started by Israel without any documented “provocation” from the Palestinian side. As usual, in a typical, threadbare and cruel manner, Israel has labeled the current assault as a “preemptive” act of self-defense against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group (PIJ) that could last a week. But this Israeli stance has been blasted by Francesca Albanez, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, in very blunt words: “Israel cannot claim that it’s defending itself in this conflict.” This neutral assessment of Albanez, who is physically present in Gaza, corroborates the fact that the Israeli air raids are totally baseless and unjustified.
On Aug. 1, in the Jenin refugee camp in West Bank, Israeli soldiers arrested Bassam al-Saadi, a high-ranking official of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), but his arrest did not lead to any kind of protest on the streets. In fact, Saadi's arrest was considered a routine matter for two reasons – one, Saadi has already been arrested seven times in the past, and two, Saadi is a relatively less know figure even within the ranks of PIJ.
There were no reports of any protest or threat of rocket attack on Israel from the PIJ to take revenge for his arrest. It was a "routine" arrest. Surprisingly, despite complete silence from the PIJ on Saadi's arrest, Israel suddenly restricted traffic around the "Gaza envelop," the residential area of Israeli communities adjacent to the Gaza-Israel boundary. Usually, these kinds of restrictions are imposed by Israel whenever there is a threat of Palestinian rockets to safeguard Israeli civilians if a conflict is initiated, but this time there was no such threat at all, not even the revenge attack by PIJ. There was no incidence of PIJ or other Palestinians firing missiles from Gaza toward Israel documented by media, but Israel suddenly launched these massive aerial strikes. This time the aerial strikes were mainly focused on a residential building in Gaza City. Several missiles targeted with precision three apartments in that building and killed Taiseer al-Jabari, another lesser-known commander of the northern division of al-Quds Brigades (Saraya al-Quds), the military wing of the PIJ. Apparently, this is naked state-sponsored terrorism that Israel has unleashed against innocent Palestinian civilians without any justification.
The Israeli military spokesperson, who even forgot the name of al-Jabari during his live media talk, alleged that al-Jabari was planning to launch "anti-tank" attacks on Israeli civilians and Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers. Many theories are being thrown in the air to trace the reason behind Israel's abrupt attack on the innocent Palestinians. One key proposition links this attack with the domestic politics of Israel. With less than two months in office as a caretaker, Prime Minister Yair Lapid, a civilian politician who never served as a combat soldier, unlike most of his predecessors, is trying to bolster his political stature for the forthcoming general elections in November. By deliberating starting this campaign of aerial attacks on the Palestinian communities, in a military-loving country, he wants to cultivate a strong aura of security to counterbalance his lack of military experience. His main opponent, former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, has launched a massive political campaign against Lapid as a leader who has compromised with the United Arab List and its leader Mansour Abbas to remain in power. Undoubtedly, the support of Abbas and his alliance would be extremely crucial for Lapid to form a majority in the future government. Netanyahu is exploiting this aspect of Lapid's dependency on the list as him being a "soft civilian leader" who does not understand the military aspect of running the government. Against the backdrop of being continuously labeled as a weak leader who has sold the country to the supporters of extremist terrorist groups, Lapid is making every effort to demonstrate his toughness against the Palestinians. Impressed by Netanyahu's incessant propaganda, Lapid is being denigrated by right-wing Israeli groups as someone who has compromised on the national interests of Israel to save his chair. By intentionally launching an attack on the Palestinian areas and initiating a military confrontation, Lapid is allegedly trying to improve his political image.
Another assumption is that Lapid has targeted PIJ with a plan to sabotage the prospects of revival of the defunct nuclear non-proliferation treaty between the United States and Iran, considered a major PIJ patron. Reports about renewed attempts to revive the talks on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty between Iran, the U.S., China, Russia and the European Union have created panic in Israel, which is trying to scuttle this process. By attacking PIJ, Israel wants to build a case against Iran as a sponsor of terrorism in Israel with a view to dissuade its "close friends" from further engaging with Tehran. Whatever may be the reason behind Israel's recent onslaught against the Palestinian territories, it reflects extreme cruelty, hatred and barbarism that have seeped deeply into Israel's strategic outlook with regard to the Palestinians. Spilling the blood of innocent civilians and destroying their homes just to promote the domestic political agenda is the most condemnable and heinous crime. The unfortunate aspect of the whole episode is the complete indifference of the U.S. and the Western countries to this reprehensible act of Israel. As a routine for many decades, both Washington and London have very casually categorized it as "Israel's right to defend itself." This stark-naked dichotomy in the response of the Western capitals, who claim to be the champions of human rights, toward killing innocent Palestinian civilians is becoming more vulgar and callous when seen against their totally opposite reaction to the killing of the civilians in the Ukraine war. The same is the case with the U.N. and other global human rights organizations that are letting the Israeli politicians, be it Lapid, Netanyahu or their predecessors, kill the innocent Palestinian civilians at their whims to gratify their domestic political interests. This unabated cruelty on the part of perpetrators – as well as their supporters – is going to make matters worse for Israel. All their efforts to obliterate and annihilate the Palestinians will inversely ignite more passion and commitment to retaliate and fight for their basic rights and peace – fueling the perpetual confrontation will do no good to Israel's interests.
