Six months of Gaza invasion: Slaughtered Palestinians, ruthless Israel and a hypocritical West

In March, Al Jazeera uploaded a 2-minute video clip. It showed four men walking in a decimated land. An air strike hit them, killing two instantly. One man is seen to be walking away, if you look closely, he's still holding belongings and there's an apparent desperation in his steps. 

He is then hit by another air strike and killed. The last man stumbles, trying to walk away. Unlike the first survivor, he seems hopelessly resigned to his fate. He falls and is struck and killed. 

The video footage was retrieved from an Israeli drone by Al Jazeera, which verified the location to be Khan Younis in Gaza. The incident is believed to have taken place in early February after the ICJ ruling ordered Israel to prevent civilian deaths in Gaza. 

Around the same time, at least two other video footage captured by an Israeli drone started circulating in the media. Both showed seemingly unarmed civilians struck and killed. 

On 31 March, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a story on "kill zones," where Israeli defence officials and soldiers question the Israeli army's claim of 9,000 [Palestinians] terrorists killed.

"These are often [Palestinian] civilians whose only crime was to cross an invisible line drawn by the IDF." 

In the Haaretz story, a senior IDF officer said, "They [the four unarmed Palestinians] were simply the people who were closest to the [Hamas rocket] launching site - it's possible they were terrorists, it's possible they were civilians out looking for food." 

Who knows really? Does it even matter?

The 7 October Hamas attack, which killed 1,139 Israelis and kidnapped over 200, compelled Israel to launch an all-out war against Gazans — who live in the 365 km2 Gaza strip under the de facto governing body Hamas since 2007. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a response which would "reverberate for generations to come." Top government officials, especially ministers in Netyanhu's war cabinet, resonated with the same sentiment as it conducted collective punishment against the two-million Palestinian population. 

Apart from the sheer scale of death and destruction caused by the Israeli government — which many experts even in the West say is unprecedented — something else happened: an unprecedented shift in narrative. 

If not anything else, Israel's disproportionate attack on Gaza, which according to a CNN report, "multiple international organisations" have said may be a genocide now, has sent shockwaves through the multitude. 

Millions of people across the world, including North America and Europe, have protested and questioned Israel's "self-defence" rhetoric for killing Palestinians — mostly civilians, women and children.  

One could argue that it is the pressure from civilians in the "democratic" first-world countries that has compelled world leaders to change their narrative, approach and foreign policy regarding Israel at this time. 

In the broad scheme of things, international relations and geopolitical tensions are at an all-time high, with many experts and pundits cautioning against "a new world disorder."

Perhaps there is a more comprehensive way to look at the interconnectedness of three elements, a trifecta if you will, which is causing experts to decry "a new world disorder."

First is Israel's impunity and unchecked military objectives. Second, the support for Israel from its allies in the West  — which is belatedly waning according to reports but remains – leading to a global outcry accusing the West of double standards and hypocrisy. 

Third, countries from the Global South challenge the West's narrative. Could this spill over to other areas of trade and diplomatic partnerships? 

When impunity spills blood

The unprecedented Palestinian death toll exceeding 32,000 at the time of this writing since 7 October last year was not achieved only by air or drone strikes that killed 2-5 civilians at a time. 

No, Israel has deployed tools and techniques to cause an unfathomable scale of destruction and death that many experts, even in the West, are worried about. 

On 3 April, a new investigation by +972 magazine (an online magazine, established in August 2010 by a group of Israeli writers in Tel Aviv; now run by Israelis and Palestinians) and Local Call (a Hebrew-language news site) found that the Israeli military uses an AI called Lavender to create target lists in Gaza and authorise strikes.

While there are many key and shocking takeaways from "Lavender: The AI machine directing Israel's bombing spree in Gaza" investigation report, the numbers stood out for me. 

The report said, "In an unprecedented move, according to two of the sources, the army also decided during the first weeks of the war that, for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians; in the past, the military did not authorise any "collateral damage" during assassinations of low-ranking militants. 

The sources added that if the target was a senior Hamas official with the rank of battalion or brigade commander, the army on several occasions authorised the killing of more than 100 civilians in the assassination of a single commander." 

The investigation also found that "during the first weeks of the war, the army almost completely relied on Lavender, which clocked as many as 37,000 Palestinians as suspected militants — and their homes — for possible air strikes." 

However, despite the unprecedented evidence, testimonies from international humanitarian organisations and live footage from Gaza pointing to the bloody destruction of Palestinian lives — Israel's strongest ally, the US refused to set any red lines, to date. 

Calling out the West

Demonstrations, discourses and activists have also used platforms and this unprecedented momentum in support of Palestinians, to call attention to the root causes of the Israel-Palestine "conflict." 

There has already been a shift in narrative especially among the "youth" – mostly fueled by exposure to the graphic details of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza on social media documented by citizens, video bloggers and journalists. 

In a leaked post-October 7 audio recording, Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, can be heard saying, 'We have a TikTok problem,' referencing the declining public support for Israel among younger people, according to a Democracy Now report in March. 

In late March, Gallup polls showed that a majority in the US now disapprove of Israeli actions in Gaza and "approval has dropped from 50% to 36% since November." 

One key takeaway from this shift is how many have pointed to the West's double standards. A case in point is how the West responded to Russia's invasion of Ukraine versus the Palestinians. 

This is a crisis moment because if the world opinion, in the majority, thinks and believes that the West is failing in its principles and democratic values, if citizens despite restrictions, censorships, punishment and threats to keep quiet continue to speak up against their governments on this matter and continue to move the needle, then where will this lead to? 

Would it make a dent in the US foreign policy? A case in point is the change in the Biden administration's tone after state primary vote results started to come in — with hundreds of thousands of voters choosing to cast their "uncommitted" ballot. 

"Already, it seems like the movement has jolted Biden – and other Democrats – on the issue. The White House's language has changed, from seeking a "humanitarian pause" to a temporary ceasefire. Biden called for a port to be built to drop aid into Gaza. 

More Democrats have publicly started speaking out against the Biden administration on the issue. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, one of Biden's allies, called for ousting Netanyahu's government," according to a Guardian story titled "How the uncommitted movement rocked Biden over Gaza" published on 17 March. 

However, activists and organisers behind the movement are not happy with the changes saying it's too little, too late. 

Since 7 October, Israel has seen its largest protest to date this week. Tens of thousands of Israelis have rallied in Tel Aviv against their prime minister, demanding a Gaza hostage deal.  

A new 'disorder'?

If we look at the Middle East, six months on, perhaps there is not much sign of change. After all, this is not 1973 at the time of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia's reign. 

I bring this up because, "During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an embargo against the United States in retaliation for the US decision to re-supply the Israeli military and to gain leverage in the post-war peace negotiations," according to US Department of State. 

But if we are to look elsewhere, there are voices of dissent, if you will. South Africa proved to be a staunch supporter of the Palestinians echoing Nelson Mandela's sentiment. So much so, that South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide at the International Court of Justice and had its hearing at the court in January. This is a first in many ways, but primarily because Israel was taken to an international court at the time of committing the crime it has been accused of.

South Africa's government also declared that if and when any South African returns after serving in the Israeli military, they will be arrested. 

South Africa is not alone. The African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat described the war in Gaza as immoral and unacceptable in January, reported AP. 

There are also South American leaders, such as from Brazil and Colombia, who have called Israel's military campaign in Gaza a genocide as early as November. 

The Malaysian Prime Minister also made headlines that month when he spoke about the Palestinians' plight in front of President Biden at a Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco, according to The Star, an English-language newspaper in Malaysia.

There's also Iran and its influence in the region, which the Guardian's diplomatic editor Patrik Wintour mentions in his understanding of what Netyanhu's short-sighted war plan is leading to — "a new disorder." 

But, unfortunately, in real-time at least, all this makes almost no tangible impact in stopping the "war." The UN resolutions and vetoes are some of the cases in point. 

However, there is some truth to what Mehdi Hasan, broadcaster, author and former host on MSNBC, wrote in February on Guardian. He argued in the opinion piece, titled "Biden can end the bombing of Gaza right now," that the US still holds a lot of leverage over Israel, contrary to what Biden administration spokespersons will have you believe. 

Hasan also refers back to 1982, when former US president Ronald Reagan called and stopped the all-out assault on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Beirut.

What lies ahead? 

Marking six months of Israel's military campaign in Gaza and Netyanhu's "delusional promise" to eliminate Hamas, experts penned many columns and editorials regarding what the future holds for Palestinians and the Middle East, or even the world. 

One thing becomes clear, many amplify the need to stop the slaughter of Palestinians because "now you have 30,000 people who are dead, 17,000 orphans … what is their view of Israel and the United States going to be when they grow up?" according to an expert in a CNN report. It makes the argument that it is in Israel's interest and security, that they should stop killing and maiming Palestinian children. 

But to say Israel should stop the killings because otherwise it will pose a security threat to them again dangerously undermines the value of Palestinian life. If we look at the previous "conflicts," "revolutions" and invasions in the Middle East, which involved foreign powers in the last two decades, we surely understand how the value system works. A case in point is the 2003 Iraq invasion by the US. 

What seems to be different now is that this "war" has generated a global shift in narrative which no longer sees Palestinians' lives as less equal than their Israeli counterparts. Secondly, this global audience has been exposed to the graphic details of the Israeli aggression against Palestinians through an unprecedented lens.    

And they are calling out the West: Be it the foreign policy of the world's most powerful countries, Israel's blatant breach of international humanitarian law or the use of AI to kill Palestinian civilians.

Finally, the recent killings of six Western aid workers by Israel in Gaza have once again shown the world the West's hypocrisy. It took these six deaths for President Biden to threaten Israel of pulling support, for the British daily newspaper The Independent to run a full-length front page story calling to end the war, and more leaders and editorials in the West to call out Israel. 

While this latest development reeks of hypocrisy (because 30,000+ Palestinian killings did not evoke similar outrage and condemnation for Israel in the West), it also further cements Israel's pariah statehood. But can it save Palestinians?

With six months on and no viable end in sight to the slaughter of Palestinians and an imminent Rafah invasion, the prediction still does not inspire hope. 

The world, and by that I mean, leaders in the West, is moving and changing its narrative, but at a snail's pace and at the cost of Palestinians' lives. Meanwhile, survivors in Gaza continue to live through unimaginable conditions, as journalist Hind Khoudory recently told Al Jazeera, "Everything changed, [in the last 6 months], even my heart."