Summer siege

Israel sticks to its doctrine of disproportionate response by pounding Palestine in retaliation for the abduction of a soldier.

ISRAEL'S excuse for launching yet another savage attack on the Palestinian people was the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. He was abducted in the last week of June by members of three armed Palestinian resistance groups. The kidnapping was a response to continuous attacks by the Israeli armed forces on Palestinians, civilians as well as officials, since Hamas was swept to power in January this year. The fighters, who tunnelled their way into Israel from Gaza, did not attack soft civilian targets. Only the Israeli armed forces were targeted.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed in the attack and a third was kidnapped. "We have decided to tell the occupier `no more truce from today' in response to the bloodletting of our women, children and our elderly. We will not suffer your repeated crimes in silence," the Palestinian groups responsible for the kidnapping stated. The soldier was captured from an army camp that was regularly used for shelling thickly populated areas of Gaza. A day before the incident, Israeli commandos had raided the town of Rafah and captured two Palestinian brothers.

The Palestinian fighters announced that the Israeli soldier, Corporal Galid Shalit, would be returned unharmed if the Israeli authorities released Palestinian civilians and political prisoners languishing in Israeli jails. Some of them have been incarcerated for ten years and more. There are around 350 Palestinian children in Israeli jails. According to the non-governmental organisation Defence for Children International, "almost all the children are tortured and the practice is condoned by the Israeli State and legal system". In the month prior to the abduction of the Israeli soldier Israeli forces killed 49 Palestinians, including 11 children. Since Israel withdrew from Gaza, its army has fired between 7,000 and 9,000 artillery shells on the territory. The Palestinians have responded with their indigenous Qassam rockets. These rockets are aimed at small towns near the border with Gaza and have rarely caused serious damage.

Operation Summer Rain, as the Israeli military response was code-named, was disproportionately strong. The Israel Defence Force (IDF) closed all border crossings and effectively sealed the Gaza Strip. Neither was the West Bank spared; the IDF made more than 50 incursions into residential communities, arrested civilians and razed farmland.

The IDF evidently prepared for this kind of a military response, which has followed its much-publicised withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. Earlier this year, IDF Southern Command chief General Yoav Galan told Maariv Daily that the military would use "more aggressive military activity, including [re] occupying the Gaza Strip, as a result of increased Palestinian attacks". These "attacks" were carried out with Qassam rockets and other crude weaponry. The IDF, on the other hand, has targeted the Palestinians since the beginning of the year with the most sophisticated weapons.

"Israel has frequently resorted to the doctrine of disproportionate response - not an eye for an eye, but 10 or 20 Palestinian deaths for every Israeli loss," wrote Will Hutton in a recent article in the Observer newspaper. Twelve years ago Prime Minster Yitzhak Rabin sealed off the entire West Bank in a failed attempt to rescue an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants.

The only power plant in Gaza, which supplies electricity for its 1.5 million people, was destroyed on the very first day Israel launched the attack. At the best of times, Gaza has been an impoverished city. It is also the most densely populated area in the world. It is also among the driest places in the world. Since the last week of June, Gaza has been without electricity and water. Hospitals and other essential services have closed down. Children and the elderly among the population have naturally been the main sufferers. In Gaza's two main hospitals, infant incubators, and dialysis and oxygen machines have been rendered useless. Lack of sanitation has led to a public health crisis. Raw sewage has clogged many of the streets.

The almost round-the-clock military raids, coupled with the sight of Israeli tanks rumbling on the streets of Gaza, have traumatised the people, especially children. At regular intervals, Israeli jets let off nerve-shattering supersonic booms, which splinter windows. According to media reports immediately after the kidnap incident, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet to ensure that "no one should be able to sleep in the night in Gaza". The fear quotient has become all the greater; Israeli jets and helicopters have randomly fired bombs and missiles at civilian residences. They have already destroyed the three main bridges in the town, completely disrupting the transport of food, medicines and other basic necessities.

Human rights groups have said that the Israeli actions are a clear violation of international laws, especially the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Israel is a signatory. Officials of the World Food Programme, which feeds around 600,000 Palestinians in the occupied territories, have warned of an impending humanitarian crisis. They stressed that Palestinians were already living on one meal a day and that malnutrition, anaemia and kidney problems are increasing steadily.

The Israeli actions were really aimed at a "regime change". Eight Hamas Cabinet Ministers, 30 Members of Parliament and 30 officials were captured and put under arrest. Israel has only targeted Hamas, though militant groups owing allegiance to other parties also participated in the recent kidnapping. The state of Israel has kidnapped half of the elected government of Palestine. An opinion poll published in the second week of July revealed that the majority of the citizens of Israel favour the assassination of the Hamas leadership, including the elected Prime Minister, despite the Hamas-led government disclaiming responsibility for the recent kidnapping.

The perceptive Israeli columnist, Gideon Levy, wrote recently in the country's leading newspaper Haaretz that it is "not legitimate to cut off 750,000 people from electricity. It is not legitimate to call on 20,000 people to run from their homes and turn their towns into ghost towns. It is not legitimate to kidnap half the Cabinet and a quarter of a Parliament. A state that takes such steps is no longer distinguishable from a terror organisation."

Palestinian government buildings in Gaza have been repeatedly attacked. The Ministry of Interior building in Gaza has been hit twice. The Prime Minster's Office was also bombed.

The International Federation of Human Rights Leagues said in a statement in the second week of July that Israel had to be held accountable for its actions. "As the occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel bears responsibility for the welfare of the Palestinian population," it said.The United Nations' West Asia envoy Alvaro de Soto has also been critical of Israeli actions. He said that the U.N. "took exception" to the arrest of a third of the Hamas-led government and the bombings of the office of the Palestinian Prime Minister. The U.N. envoy to the newly constituted Human Rights Council, John Dugard, told a special session that Israel was "violating the most fundamental norms of humanitarian law and human rights laws." The council passed a resolution by a big majority condemning Israeli actions in Gaza. India supported the motion moved by Muslim nations.

The Israeli state, however, continues to be impervious to international public opinion, backed as it is by the West. The Bush administration has once again defended Tel Aviv's heavy-handed response by stating, "Israel has the right to defend itself". Among Western nations, only Switzerland has dared to issue a statement condemning the latest Israeli military offensive against a mostly defenceless population. The E.U. continues to hold fast to its position that Hamas is a "terrorist" organisation and therefore it cannot do business with the present Palestinian government. After showing signs of following a slightly independent policy on West Asia, the E.U. has reverted to type, lining up behind the U.S. and backing Tel Aviv. The E.U. by its inaction is tacitly backing the Israeli government's policy of making the Palestinian territories ungovernable. The Israeli government then can use the argument that it has no credible partner to negotiate with.

Israel has been successful in subordinating the Palestinian issue to the U.S. "war on terror". As recent events have shown, Palestinians are reconciled to the reality that they have to depend mainly on themselves for a long political and military struggle with Israel. The victory of Hamas in the January elections, according to many Arab commentators, is a reflection of this. The aim of Hamas is to engage Israel on equal terms while continuing to resist Israeli occupation, politically and militarily. The recent Hamas-Fatah accord, which implicitly recognised Israel, called for the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. The Israeli government wants to confine those borders to the dustbin of history as it goes about annexing more Palestinian territory. Israel is using one pretext after another to avoid meaningful negotiations.

The Palestinian people have not remained mute spectators as Israeli army tanks rumbled into northern Gaza. As of the second week of July, more than 40 Palestinians have been killed following the kidnap of a single Israeli soldier. On July 5, after Israeli forces killed 19 Palestinians, Palestinian Interior Minister Saeed Seyam, who belongs to Hamas, declared a state of emergency. The Minister called "on all Palestinian security and military services to participate in the moral, national and religious duty to defend our people and to confront this incursion and cowardly Zionist aggression."

Prime Minister Ismail Haniya described the latest Israeli offensive as "a crime against humanity and a hopeless attempt to bring down the Palestinian government".ss Palestinian fighters from various factions have given a tough time to Israeli forces, which is backed by tanks and helicopters. Palestinian fighters traded anti-tank rockets in the narrow streets of Gaza in running battles with the IDF. The Palestinian toll of July 5 in Gaza is the highest in a single day since Israeli forces killed 28 Palestinians in September 2004 in northern Gaza.

There are some positive indications that Israel may tone down its hard-line stance. On July 8, Israeli Minister for Public Security Avi Dichter told a media conference that if the kidnapped soldier is released, Israel "will release prisoners as a reciprocal gesture. Israel knows how to do this. Israel has done this more than once in the past." In the first week of July, Hamas had issued an ultimatum to Israel to release 1,500 women and children in return for Corporal Shalit. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been trying to hammer out a solution.