On October 7th, Hamas attacked Israel and killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in barbaric acts of terror.

This was a predictable explosion – another of the periodic outbursts against 75 years of displacement and oppression, and 15 years of suffocating blockade, suffering, and starvation inflicted on Gaza, by Israel, in what the U.N. calls unliveable conditions and Human Rights Watch calls an “open-air prison.”

As of November 4th it is estimated that Israel has killed at least 9,200 Palestinians in response. In that number are at least 3,800 children and 2,400 women. The most conservative estimate would still mean 65-70% of Palestinian casualties are civilian; 40% children. This is an ongoing series of war crimes.

Another 140 or so Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and at least 2,100 injured, in a mixture of Israeli settler mob violence and military activity. There is a concerning possibility that things will escalate here too. The Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank are illegal under international law.

Additionally, Israel cut off Gaza’s food, water and medicine completely for a time, and is now only allowing a trickle through. More than 2 million Palestinians are still being attacked, with nowhere to go, and wildly insufficient food and medicine. Collective punishment is illegal under international law.

Hamas’ attack appears to have broken the status quo of a slow suffocation of the population of Gaza; unfortunately it appears that the result may just be a hastening of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

Free Palestine 🇵🇸