This is willed death and destruction. It is freely chosen.

JVL Introduction

Abby Zimet spells out some of the human costs of this savage war.

The dead, estimated at the time of writing was 25,490, at least 10,000 of them children, and over 63,354 wounded, many permanently disabled.

Over 340 doctors or nurses are dead and 350,000 ill patients without medication.

Starvation abounds, with a UN official saying Israel has blocked 18 of 21 deliveries of food, medicine, water and other supplies to Northern Gaza this January.

Zimet cites Dr. Yasser Khan, a Canadian eye surgeon, who has worked in 40 countries around the world. On Gaza, his first active war zone, the worst devastation ever. Amidst drones humming, bombs dropping, mass chaos, screams, “the most gruesome injuries imaginable” – skull fractures, burn injuries, multiple limbs missing, eyes gouged, “shrapnel faces” – in a deluged hospital full of children shaking, starving, bleeding, blinded, in shock, everywhere: “That’s what a war on civilians does.”

Above all, “It’s a war on children. And Israeli forces know this – that when a bomb’s going to drop, children are going to die or get maimed or lose arms and legs and parents.”

RK

This article was originally published by Common Dreams on Wed 24 Jan 2024. Read the original here.