A year on from the start of the Gaza war — which has killed over 42,000 Palestinians and close to 2,000 Israelis — the conflict has only escalated and widened taking in Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Yemen.
On Sunday, on the eve of the anniversary, Sydneysiders held protests calling for the end to the ongoing destruction of Gaza, with seperate vigils held the following day for both the Palestinians and Israelis who have been killed, injured or displaced.
On October 7 last year Hamas breached the Gaza border fence in a surprise attack, killing 1,139 Israelis and taking another 250 hostages. Some of those hostages have since been killed, while others remain captive, and Israel this week announced 726 soldiers had also died in combat or friendly fire incidents in Gaza over the past year, the highest number of military fatalities suffered by Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
In Gaza another 10,000 Palestinians are believed to lie dead under the rubble of their bombed homes, with recovery crews still unable to retrieve most of the bodies.
The death toll of Palestinians has dwarfed previous conflicts, with an estimated 70 per cent of fatalities women and children, and large areas of the Gaza Strip left uninhabitable. In June, the reputable medical journal The Lancet predicted 186,000 deaths were attributable to Israel’s actions. Another 742 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, which is not technically part of the war, over the same period.
In Sydney’s Hyde Park on Sunday, for the 52nd week in a row, over 10,000 protestors marched demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, and calling for both state and commercial organisations in Australia “to stop funding Israel”.
“Thank you for coming out for the last 52 f—— weeks of resistance,” Gumbaynggirr, Bundjalung, and Dunghutti speaker Lizzie Jarrett, a member of the Black Caucus, told the rally.
And in response to the heavy police presence, which included the Riot Squad, quipped: “You know who I’d also like to thank today, believe it or not, I’d like to thank the f—— cops for taking us on and making sure we’re really relevant.”
Gaza has been reduced to rubble, and Palestinian families have to survive in inhumane conditions.
Attendees were threatened with arrest if they waved the Hezbollah flag or showed pictures of assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, but some flew Lebanon or Ned Kelly flags in the colours of Hezbollah, seemingly alluding to the militant group.
Despite its own call for a ceasefire and for restraint from all parties in the Middle East, the Australian government maintains military ties with Israel, irrespective of the threat of legal repercussions for military exports.
The government has also been criticised for its humanitarian effort, stopping aid to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine) for months, and according to DFAT, donating just $84.5 million in humanitarian assistance to the Middle East since October 7. Billionaires Andrew and Nicola Forrest have donated $40 million themselves to humanitarian efforts in Gaza.
“We want to see the philanthropic and private sector respond more strongly to the humanitarian needs in Gaza,” Forrest said recently.
The United Nations has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and for the free flow of aid to Palestinians, to which the Netanyahu government banned the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres from entering Israel. Furthermore, legislation currently before Israel’s Knesset would prevent UNRWA from distributing aid to Palestinians.
“Gaza has been reduced to rubble, and Palestinian families have to survive in inhumane conditions with scarce water, food and supplies,” said a representative of UNRWA.
But in the past few weeks the media’s attention on the dire humanitarians situation in Gaza has been distracted by Israel’s bombing of Lebanon and a series of sabotaged pager and walkie talkie attacks on Hezbollah.
More than 1,900 people have been killed and over 9,000 wounded in Lebanon over the past year, but a more complex war in the Middle East beckons, with most of the fatalities occurring during Israel’s bombing of the country during the past three weeks.
Israel has also conducting airstrikes on Syria and Yemen, and vowed to strike Iran’s energy sector, after that country’s missile strikes on Israel in retaliation for the killing of Nasrallah.
South Africa, which has accused Israel of genocide and brought a case against the country in the International Court of Justice, was joined this week by Bolivia in the action, the latest of several countries to add their name to the charge, including Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Libya.
The United States, meanwhile has called for restraint from Israel and advocated for more aid, while simultaneously providing the Netanyahu government with billions of dollars worth of military equipment and bombs that it is using in Gaza.
Main image of Sunday’s Hyde Park protest by Central News.
