Calls grow for a ceasefire in Gaza

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

As casualties mount in the devastating war in Gaza there are signs that the original sympathy felt for Israel after the brutal October 7 attack has dropped and sympathy for the beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza is rising.

More than 300,000 people marched in London at the weekend prompting some violent clashes. In this country there were significant gatherings in Auckland and Dunedin, and a young boy was seriously hurt by a man who attacked him with a shovel as he left the rally in Auckland’s Aotea Square.

The situation at the Al-Shifa Hospital, where doctors struggle under unbelievable hardship, is one that upsets even those who have sympathy for Israel, which has offered to help evacuate babies.

Israel claims that Hamas, the armed group which controls Gaza, has its headquarters under the hospital — something Hamas denies, saying the tunnels and facilities under the hospital currently shelter more than 40,000 displaced people.

Calls for a ceasefire are growing with French President Emmanuel Macron the latest world leader to join in.

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Pro-Palestinian speakers are urging New Zealand to join the calls.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is supporting humanitarian pauses but not a full ceasefire, which he says could allow Hamas to regroup.

Israel president Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to enact a ceasefire and goes further to say that after the war he will want some form of military presence in Gaza that would prevent Hamas from being able to make any more attacks into Israel.

While all this goes on the casualty figures are rising. The death toll in Gaza has passed 11,000 — including two refugee workers employed by NZ charity ReliefAid, whose homes were hit in a missile strike.

Israel has suffered about 40 military casualties in its offensive, on top of the revised figure of 1200 killed in the original attack by Hamas.

The fate of the 240 hostages taken in the October 7 attack is desperate, although there have been unconfirmed reports in Israeli media claiming there has been progress on a deal.

Tragically there are no signs of any improvement in the situation in Gaza, either temporarily or in the longer term. Palestinians and their supporters will only settle for a free Palestine “from the river to the sea”, while Israel will never willingly relinquish the land it holds now.

The only hope for the future is the two state one, with the more moderate Palestinian Authority — under new leadership — in control of a free Palestine. Alas there is no chance of that happening for the foreseeable future, just a continuation of the endless cycle of Palestinian attacks sparking heavy Israeli reprisals.