What is the issue?
- A Peaceful protest in Gaza by the Palestinians has turned violent after the use of force by Israeli administration.
- International communities must take action against the Israeli government to protect Gaza civilians.
What is the Gaza conflict?
- Gaza is a densely populated strip of land that is mostly surrounded by Israel and peopled almost exclusively by Palestinians.
- Israel used to have a military presence, but withdrew unilaterally in 2005.
- But it is currently under Israeli blockade.
- In recent years, Egypt has also joined the blockade, practically cutting off the strip from the rest of the world.
- The flow of both goods and people into and out of Gaza is heavily restricted.
- Life in Gaza has become increasingly miserable more than a decade of closures, with residents enduring daily power outages lasting for hours.
What are the recent happenings in Gaza?
- Gaza has become a site of frequent border protests against a stifling blockade of the territory.
- Hamas is an Islamist organization of Palestine which organizes the border protests in Gaza.
- It recently announced that the protests would continue until May 15, the 70th anniversary of Israel’s creation.
- Recently thousands of Palestinians marched near the border fence and violent protest continued.
What is the present concern?
- Israel responded unlawfully by calling for the use of live fire against even peaceful Palestinian protesters who posed no imminent threat to life.
- More than 750 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire.
- It became the bloodiest attack in Gaza since the 2014 war between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas.
- In the past, Israel has faced serious allegations of using force against Gaza civilians.
- But Israel enjoys the privilege in the UN by the U.S. support.
- US has already blocked move in the UN Security Council seeking any inquiry on Israel.
- Despite international calls and repeated warnings by rights groups, Israel has not eased its restrictions on the strip.
What is Palestine's response?
- It accused Israel of “intentionally, grossly and systematically” violating its legal obligation to protect civilians.
- Recently the Palestinian authorities appealed to the U.N. Security Council for immediate international protection for Palestinian civilians, especially in Gaza.
- There is also a call for an independent investigation of the killings.
What international measures need to be taken?
- Joint efforts to mitigate the suffering of Gaza’s people need to be taken from both Israel and Palestine side.
- International community needs to act responsibly when it comes to the grave rights violations.
- There has to be an international probe into the latest violence.
- World powers should urgently provide economic assistance to Gaza to save it from total collapse, and put incremental pressure on Israel to end the illegal blockade of the Gaza strip.
Source: Indian Express, the Hindu
