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The conflict expands

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A fortnight down the line, the military offensive in Gaza is becoming hellish.

Published: Mon 21 Jul 2014, 8:15 PM

Updated: Fri 3 Apr 2015, 9:34 PM

This unwarranted jingoism from Israel has its own reasons, as it wants to penalise the Palestinians for forming a unity government for the first time in their chequered history. But the point is that Tel Aviv is off the hook and there is no accountability of any kind and from any quarter of international community! This is more than enough for Israel to go ahead with its nefarious plan, as is evident from the scale of destruction in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israel’s audacity to say that it will go for a full-fledged ground offensive is an attempt to vacate the occupied territories through psychological tactics, thus rendering a million more people homeless. The offensive has raised fears of displaced people crossing over the borders into Egypt and Jordan, kicking off a new humanitarian crisis. Though little is expected of the meeting in Qatar between UN chief Ban Ki-Moon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the magnitude of the crisis is broadening with the passage of each single day.

The most unfortunate aspect of diplomacy has been the tacit backing that Israel got from Washington, which enabled Tel Aviv to paint a local tragedy into a war scenario. The so-called right to defend from Hamas rockets, which anyway end up in the no-man’s land, has come as a licence to kill Palestinians in retaliation. This quid pro quo is tantamount to barbarism and cannot be condoned under any excuses of self-defence. Ban has an agenda to deliver and that is to broker an instant ceasefire and initiate an independent inquiry into the Israeli blitz. It’s time to slap sanctions on Israel for this new spate of genocide. Until and unless Tel Aviv comes under pressure nothing will change for good.



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