Tensions between the US and Israel escalated overnight when the US abstained from voting for an immediate ceasefire resolution to stop the atrocities in Gaza. Farah Abdurahman reports.
The United Nations Security Council voted overnight for a ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution has come up three times previously since Israel started its war on Gaza, each time voted down by the US, who, as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, holds veto power.
This time however, the United States abstained from voting, allowing the resolution, which was proposed by 10 elected members and supported by 14 nations, to be passed in a round of applause by council members.
Once a resolution is passed, it becomes international law. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, rejected the ceasefire in a statement, calling the US abstention “a clear threat from the consistent position of the US”.
In a show of protest, Netanyahu also cancelled an Israeli delegation to the US.
US still bankrolling Israel’s onslaught
In response to Israeli criticism regarding the ceasefire, White House spokesman John Kirby said the US still supports Israel and is continuing to provide weapons systems and other capabilities for the country to defend itself.
In addition to financial and military aid, the United States also provides large-scale political support to Israel, having used its UN Security Council veto power 42 times against resolutions condemning Israel, out of a total 83 times in which its veto has ever been used.
In addition to an immediate ceasefire to extend for the duration of Ramadan, which thus far has not been upheld, the resolution calls for the release of all remaining 143 Israeli captives held by Hamas in the strip.
It was a deal that the political arm of Hamas publicly welcomed, stating they were ready to engage in an immediate swap of captives on both sides.
Israel’s Occupied Forces have taken thousands of Gazan men, women and children hostage over the course of recent months. They also dug up graveyards across the Gaza Strip and removed the bodies of Palestinians from their final resting places.
There are also thousands of Palestinians held under administrative detention with no charges in the West Bank, many of whom are children and women.
Footage along with witness accounts and victim testimony have revealed the extent of torture and humiliation to which the Palestinian hostages are subjected, including being stripped, starved, beaten and raped.
In the hours immediately after the ceasefire resolution was passed, civilians reported that Israel enacted another attack on Palestinians waiting for food aid in what has been labelled the “Flour Massacres”.
More recent victim accounts from released Palestinian hostages detail the use of dogs to either attack Palestinians in areas under siege, as was the case at the Al-Shifa Hospital which was bombarded for the second time in recent months, or of dogs made to defecate on Palestinian hostages taken captive.
Western media complicit in war crimes
In light of the failure of Western media to report the atrocities, Dr Aliya Khan, Clinical Professor of Medicine at McMaster University in Canada and member of the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations, took to social media to detail the reports she has received from her colleagues who are volunteering at hospitals in Gaza.
“I’m receiving reports from my colleagues who are on the ground now, and I just received a report that Al Kheir Hospital, which is next to Nasser Hospital, has been attacked, and the paramedics there informed the physician that a woman was raped for two days until she lost her ability to speak,” Dr Khan said.
“Women are being raped and this is not being publicised. No one is speaking about this in the western media. Political leaders are not talking about this.
“Another woman at the Nasser Hospital was stripped of her clothing in front of her husband and brother. When one of them took their clothes off to cover her, the Israeli soldiers killed both the brother and the husband.
“We have the International Court of Justice saying that there is a plausible genocide happening, and we have asked Israel and the United States to stop these attacks immediately, but there has been a complete blind eye. A complete disregard of the words of the International Court of Justice.
“Not only are women being raped, children are being bombed to bits and pregnant women are being mowed over by bulldozers. These are unbelievable, horrific crimes, war crimes.”
Netanyahu intent on Rafah attack
Prime Minister Netanyahu has renewed his intentions to enter Rafah, a small parcel of land on the Egyptian border that Palestinians from across the strip were sent to as it was declared a safe zone.
Rafah has been under constant bombardment for months now despite the one million civilians taking refuge there. Israel intends a full-scale invasion into the densely populated civilian area, with the invasion plan due to be presented to the US during the now cancelled delegation.
In response, John Kirby said the withdrawal of the Israeli delegation was disappointing but also called for Israel to exercise restraint.
“We don’t believe that a major ground operation in Rafah is the right course of action, particularly when you have a million and a half people there seeking refuge, and no conceived plan, no verifiable plan to take care of them,” Kirby said.
“We’ve been very consistent on that.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the long-awaited resolution must be implemented and that failure to do so would be “unforgivable.”
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Farah is a former political reporter for Fairfax Media. She has almost 20 years of media and communications experience in senior and executive roles working across government, research and innovation, and the private sector.