When it's not starving children to death, Israel is burning children alive
How many war crimes will it take before we stop this?
Save the Children is reporting that skeletal Palestinian children are roaming the streets with begging bowls, desperately searching for food, and while their fragile bodies cling to life, they're contending with a significant increase in Israeli aggression.
Israel has gone on another bombing rampage, claiming it targeted “terrorists, weapons depots, sniper and anti-tank positions, tunnel shafts, and other terrorist infrastructure”, but one of the places it bombed was a school.
Israel bombed the Fahmi al-Jarjawi school in Gaza City, leaving the building engulfed in flames and killing at least 36 civilians, including several children. The charred bodies of mothers and children were pulled from the rubble throughout the night so expect that number to go higher. Israel bombed a nearby house, killing 19 members of the same family, and a nearby tent encampment, killing six members of the same family.
The school was not warned about the incoming strike and this is an important point: in order for your strike to be compliant with international law, you must take reasonable steps to protect civilians, including ordering evacuations before strikes.
Israel struck while everyone was sleeping, giving those sheltering in the school no chance, and aside from anything else, schools and refugee shelters are not legitimate military targets.
Without providing evidence, Israel used the tired excuse that the school was a Hamas "command and control centre". They've used that one so many times, their spokespeople say it on autopilot now. They don't need to check with their superiors, they just know that's the line, regardless of whether Israel has bombed a house, a school, a hospital, or a tent. Everything Israel bombs is a Hamas command and control centre.
Shin Bet said the school, sorry, command and control centre, was being used to plot terror attacks against civilians. Are we expected to believe that during a fight for its survival, Hamas has the time and resources to plan another October 7th, and is doing so inside a jam-packed school where there is barely an inch to move? Even if it were true, how is killing Palestinian women and children an acceptable solution? Why does it only count as terrorism when the victims are Israeli?
Israel has made a habit of bombing schools packed with civilians throughout this genocide. It killed 53 in the al-Buraq School in Gaza City, it killed 65 (in two attacks) in the Al Fakhoura school in the Jabalia refugee camp, it killed 30 in the al-Awda School near Khan Younis, it killed 100 in the al-Tabin School in Gaza City, and it killed 33 in three schools in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City.
I'm yet to be shown evidence these schools were command and control centres, and given Hamas operates underground (as Israel loves to tell us), it seems absurdly unlikely. The idea that Hamas was using refugees as human shields is insulting because Israel is not remotely concerned about civilian casualties. School buildings offer Hamas no protection whereas tunnels do.
I'm unaware of any western leaders condemning Israel's latest school bombing, but if Russia had done such a thing, it would have taken them a nanosecond to respond. When Angela Rayner was recently asked if she thinks Israel is violating international law, the deputy prime minister argued it's not her call to make, but it is the government's call.
Not only are we arming Israel, but we're conducing surveillance flights, meaning the RAF could have helped Israel select these schools as targets. If this was the case, we have every right to know and we must demand prosecutions.
Make no mistake, the RAF is a partner in this genocide. This is one of the reasons our leaders never condemn the bombings, but will sometimes murmur unease about child hunger. We are causing innocent lives to end in the most horrific ways and seeing this with your own eyes is the only way to truly grasp the horror.
In the latest bombing, harrowing footage of a child trying to escape the flames was caught on camera. The girl is 7 years old and her name is Ward, which means flowers. She miraculously survived, but I understand she lost six family members and her father is in critical condition.
You can watch the footage here.
Do you have a little girl? I have two. I want you to stop for a moment and picture your little girl in those flames. I'm not remotely sorry for taking your mind there.
Sights like this are supposed to change you. Even if you are the most ardent Zionist and you've been propagandised since birth that Israel only acts in self-defence, such sights should stir something inside. Every fibre of your being should tell you this is wrong. You should feel a sadness and anger driven by this thing called empathy. Just know that if Israel is prepared to incinerate Palestinian children to get its way, its willing to incinerate any children, including yours.
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Why can't anyone stop this? Is the whole world insane?
"In war, we praise an airman for burning children to death. When he comes home and kisses his own children he is praised for being a good father. But how can he then live with his own thoughts and feelings—he must deny them. But if he does that, how could he know himself? Surely his life cannot make any sense? He has lost his humanity."
Edward Bond: A Short Book For Troubled Times.
Did we all lose our humanity?