Lost in the terrible news of Israel’s war against Lebanon is Israel’s other battlefront — the Palestinians in Gaza. While the world has been looking toward Lebanon, Israel has taken the opportunity to run amok in Gaza. Just as Lebanon, Gaza is also fighting to live. Israel continues to indiscriminately bomb its civilian neighborhoods, killing and maiming scores since the Israeli Cpl. Shalit was captured in late June. Since then, Israel has been firing more than 150 shells a day into Gaza. The result is a similar level of death and destruction to that which has been simultaneously unleashed upon Lebanon.
Gazans have to deal with two serious problems — the Israeli military assault and their own growing economic crisis. Three-quarters of Gaza’s population was already living in poverty after international aid dried up in protest against Hamas’ political victory. Since the fighting in Lebanon began, the situation has worsened. Israel has allowed only a trickle of food and other essential supplies into Gaza.
As is the case with Hezbollah, it isn’t clear what impact Israel’s campaign is having on Palestinian activist groups. What we do know is that Qassam rockets keep landing in Israel’s southernmost towns, just as Hezbollah’s Katyushas create their own havoc in Israel’s north. Israel has hardened its stance regarding the release of its soldier, ostensibly the reason for its Gaza aggression. A prisoner swap deal which looked promising enough a few weeks ago has collapsed. Israel apparently, at this particular time, does not want to appear as being forced to release Palestinian prisoners when its war in Lebanon is supposedly the result of the abduction by Hezbollah of two of its soldiers. Should a Palestinian prisoner exchange be conducted, the world will most definitely want to know why a similar trade-off could not have been made involving Lebanese prisoners, thus averting much Israeli savagery. Hence, a release of Palestinian prisoners would mean Israel is sending the wrong message.
Israel’s intended message is quite different. It is waiting until its current rampage in Lebanon ends before tackling the matter of the abducted soldier in Gaza, hopeful that victory over Hezbollah, however that is defined from the Israeli perspective, will enable it to dictate the corporal’s release without being obliged to release Palestinian prisoners. A decimated Hezbollah and the wholesale destruction of Lebanon, Israel wants to show the world, is what happens when its soldiers are abducted.
Lebanon and Gaza are in the same situation. More of their children than fighters are being killed, and not a finger from the international community, in terms of individual countries or a collective UN effort, has been lifted to help. Yet they are not identical. Unlike the Lebanese, Gazans are not waiting for a UN cease-fire resolution stopping Israel’s criminality. Security Council resolutions calling for an end to the occupation of Palestine number in the dozens and are several decades old. Israel has never obeyed a single one.
