By Abayomi Azikiwe
Nearly 300 Palestinian people were massacred at a refugee camp in central Gaza on June 7 under the guise of rescuing captives held by resistance forces since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Storm on October 7, 2023.
It was later announced that four of those held were retrieved in what was promoted as a major military victory for the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).
Nonetheless, the deaths of at least 274 Palestinians were reported by western media sources as a necessary by-product of the purported successful military operation. This follows the same pattern of coverage by the corporate and government-controlled news agencies which are based in the imperialist states and their satellites.
Official figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry based in Gaza indicate that more than 37,000 people have been killed since the intensified aerial bombardments and ground operations. In addition to those killed, tens of thousands more have been wounded and injured as the entire population of 2.3 million remain displaced and imperiled.
Hospitals, schools, neighborhoods, religious institutions, refugees and internally displaced camps have been subjected to massive bombing, shelling and raids. The Israeli government and the United States have repeatedly blamed Hamas and other resistance movements for the initiation of this latest phase of the war as well as their refusal to accept the terms laid down by Washington and Tel Aviv for a ceasefire.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made numerous trips to the West Asia and North Africa regions supposedly seeking to negotiate a settlement. However, the administration of President Joe Biden consistently says that its commitment to the settler-colonial state now occupying Palestine is “ironclad”. This commitment to the security of the State of Israel includes massive shipments of warplanes, guns and bombs.
In addition to the supply of arms, U.S. military and intelligence support to Tel Aviv is critical to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. This was revealed recently when the Islamic Republic of Iran retaliated against the targeted assassinations of several diplomatic and military officials from Tehran who were in Damascus, Syria assisting that government which has been under siege since 2011 by the imperialist states and their allies in the country.
Consequently, it was not surprising when several news agencies reported the U.S. role in this recent massacre which has been condemned by various organizations and governments throughout the world. In an effort to redirect the attention from the genocidal actions of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and the Pentagon, the U.S. submitted a resolution to the United Nations Security Council on June 10 which passed with only one abstention from the Russian Federation.
However, it is quite obvious that the Biden administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do not want a meaningful ceasefire after more than eight months of bombing and shelling. The White House and the U.S. Congress are continuing to supply weapons and diplomatic cover for the Zionist state.
According to an article published in the Egyptian-based Al Ahram:
“An American cell in Israel supported the efforts to release the Israeli captives, working with Israeli forces on the operation, a U.S. official told CNN. The official referred to a U.S. team that’s been in place supporting Israel since 7 October with information gathering about the captives.
“That team, composed of special operations, military, and intelligence personnel working out of the embassy in Jerusalem, has been in Israel since the war began, The Washington Post reported. Since then, it has shared with Israeli counterparts information about captives’ potential location gleaned from U.S. drone surveillance over Gaza, communications intercepts and other sources, said the people familiar with the matter.”
In another report on the June 8 massacre in Nuseirat, the Lebanese-based Al Mayadeen Television network cited western sources as confirmation of the Pentagon involvement in the killing of 274 people in central Gaza. This represented the continuation of the collaboration between the Pentagon and the IOF in the latest genocidal onslaught.
Al Mayadeen noted in one article that:
“The Israeli occupation forces launched on Saturday (June 8) numerous airstrikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which led to the death of at least 210 Palestinians and injury of 400. A team of American experts stationed in Israeli-occupied lands supported the Israeli military in retrieving the four captives by giving information and other logistical support, according to one American official, who spoke anonymously to discuss the delicate operation.
“A senior Israeli official told the NYT that the U.S. and UK have been in ‘Israel’ throughout the war on Gaza, assisting Israeli intelligence in gathering and analyzing information about the captives, some of whom are citizens of both countries. Two Israeli official sources cited that U.S. military officers gave the occupation information regarding the captives retrieved Saturday.”
Consequently, the label placed upon the head of the imperialist camp is correct. The term “Genocide Joe” is a clear reflection of U.S. policy towards the Palestinians.
Blinken’s claim in his latest shuttle diplomacy throughout the region that the U.S. is supplying the most aid to the people of Gaza is outrageous. In reality, the Biden administration is supporting every genocidal act against the Palestinians carried out directly by the armed forces of the State of Israel.
In many areas of Gaza, people are experiencing famine due to the lack of adequate food supplies and clean drinking water. People are drinking water taken from the Mediterranean Sea. Consuming water which is not desalinated can result in serious health problems among all age groups within the population.
Palestinians in Gaza are largely dependent upon canned food supplied by aid agencies which also contain high sodium content. The unhealthy and limited food available in most parts of Gaza only compounds the existing humanitarian and public health crises.
In regard to the health crisis, as a whole the physicians, nurses, medical technicians, ambulance drivers and others are being targeted by the Israeli military forces. It is nearly impossible to provide any effective healthcare treatment for gunshot injuries, shrapnel wounds from bombs, the systematic torture of civilians alongside maternity services and treatment for other diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cancers and heart problems.
U.S. Administration Cannot be Trusted as Honest Brokers in Peace Efforts
Blinken told the international press in the aftermath of the U.S.-sponsored Security Council resolution for a ceasefire based upon the terms set by Washington that all votes are in for the commencement of a ceasefire except for Hamas. This statement is not only absurd, it is an insult to the Palestinian people since they do not have a vote within the United Nations.
A vote within the UN General Assembly in May was designed to enhance the status of Palestinian representation within the international body. However, the Biden administration is not in support of the creation of a genuinely independent and sovereign Palestinian state and therefore it remains clear that the U.S. government is in favor of maintaining the status quo.
The official policy of U.S. imperialism solidarizes with that of the settler-colonial state in Tel Aviv which is determined to eliminate the resistance to the occupation in Gaza and throughout the entire length and breadth of Palestine. In order to wipe out the resistance to the occupation requires the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people.
These facts have created a situation where the students and other sectors of the U.S. population are seizing spaces on college campuses to establish encampments in solidarity with the Palestinians. The students are demanding the full disclosure and divestment of all financial holdings in the settler-colonial state now occupying Palestine.
Consequently, the only real manner to address the Palestinian question is within the areas of mass demonstrations and electoral support for initiatives which express dissatisfaction with U.S. foreign policy towards Palestine. These methods of opposition to the genocide have gained far more political traction than the efforts designed to appease Zionism and imperialism.
Be the first to comment