By Harinder Mahil

I don’t know how many have died
Or how many died before war flared up.
There must be a way to listen to all
The pain that burns in a people
Must be a way to hear all that anguish.

(An excerpt from a poem written by Ben Okri, a Booker prize-winning poet.)

Ben Okri is absolutely correct. We don’t know how many have died in Gaza. However, we do know their number is in thousands. Many of them women and children who have nothing to do with terrorism.

The world has not been able to stop any genocides that have taken place over the hundreds of years. It seems we are not able to stop the one taking place in Gaza.

As I write this piece on May 25, the health ministry in Gaza states that at least 35,903 people have been killed in the territory during more than seven months of war. This includes more than 14,000 children. The victims also include at least 9,220 women, while 7,000 remained under the rubble or were missing.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says that as of May 24, 2024 preliminary investigations showed at least 107 journalists and media workers were among those killed since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.

More than 190 UN staff have been killed in the Israeli war on Gaza, according to the latest figures from the global body. As of April 30, the UN reported that 254 aid workers had been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. More and more people and countries around the world are calling for a permanent ceasefire.

But the US government continues to provide backing to Israel. Since October, the US has vetoed three separate efforts at the Security Council to secure a ceasefire.

As I write this piece, I read various newspapers state that Israel had a bad week. This relates to three separate announcements.

First came the news that the international criminal court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, has officially asked that arrest warrants be issued against Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister Yoav Gallant(along with some Hamas leaders) as he has concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant are criminally responsible for starvation, murder, intentional attacks against civilians, extermination and persecution, among other crimes.

Then came the news that Ireland, Spain and Norway have decided to recognize the Palestinian state later this month. This is a move that is likely to bolster the global Palestinian cause but further strain relations between Europe and Israel.The three European nations say their decision is the best way to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East.  

The latest news came when the International Court of Justice (ICJ), or world court, ordered Israel on Friday, May 24 to “immediately” halt its military assault on Rafah, describing the humanitarian situation in the southern Gaza city, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are sheltering, as “disastrous”.Israel must “immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah Governorate which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”, the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ’s) president said.

That may have been a bad week for Israel but it has been much worse for the Palestinians who are being slaughtered by the Israeli attacks. They do not have drinking water, food, electricity or shelter. They are facing bullets and bombs and have no where to go.

Millions of people around the world are calling on Israel to cease its attacks on civilians and allow an immediate flow of aid to a starving and displaced population. We want ceasefire now! If Israel does not agree to a ceasefire, it will continue to be isolated in the world community.

Harinder Mahil is a human rights activist and is president of the West Coast Coalition Against Racism (WACAR).