UK Medical Study Finds 186,000 Gaza Dead

The world’s pre-eminent medical journal, The Lancet, issued a stunning report, Counting the Dead in Gaza: Difficult But Essential. It projected the current Gaza death toll is far higher than the nearly 40,000 victims reported by the Gaza health ministry. It notes that a third of Gaza buildings have been destroyed,  which contain the corpses of tens of thousands, whose bodies cannot be recovered. Also, there are scores of causes of post-conflict mortality including disease, starvation, and general inaccessibility of proper medical care.

Comparing figures from similar conflicts, it estimates there will be between three to five uncounted deaths for every known one, hence the 186,000 figure. Of course, the longer the war continues the higher this figure will rise. There is no end currently in sight, given Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire.

This places the Gaza genocide in a category of some of the worst post-WWII genocides including Darfur (500,000 deaths), Rwanda (800,000), and Cambodia (3,000,000). The Gaza toll eclipses some of the most infamous slaughters in Bosnia and East Timor.

Despite the immensity of the suffering, the world seems not just indifferent, but actively abets the slaughter. It provides billions in weapons used to multiply the suffering manifold. It has taken a sledge hammer to the vaunted “rules-based order.” The rules apparently do not apply to the powerful, but only to the weak. Unless rules apply to everyone they may as well not exist.

Bibi kills yet another ceasefire deal

Recently, the Biden administration announced a supposed breakthrough in ceasefire negotiations. Hamas had backed off its demand that a ceasefire signal the end of all hostilities. The US believed that removed a major hurdle which had blocked previous Israeli acceptance of the terms of a deal.

But days before the resumption of talks, Netanyahu blew them up by announcing new terms, which he knew Hamas would never concede. The title of the document he released didn’t even use the term “ceasefire” or refer to the talks. Instead it labelled the planned negotiation as an attempt to block the IDF from completing its mission to destroy Hamas. Among his demands:

• the right to resume hostilities after the conclusion of the ceasefire;
• the release of all hostages and the right to mount military rescue operations to free them.
• In a slap at Egypt, a major mediator in the negotiations, he demanded the end to smuggling of weapons from that country into Gaza.
• He rejected the return of displaced residents to northern Gaza, claiming “thousands” are “armed terrorists.”  All of these were key non-negotiable demands of Hamas.

To add insult to injury, he implied with a straight face that Pres. Biden had blessed these new demands.  It is typical of Bibi to promote his own interests by pretending that others share them.

Netanyahu knows he has Biden over a barrel. He calculated that the US president has cornered  himself in a trap of his own making. One from which he cannot extricate himself, even if he wanted to (clearly he died not). Also, Biden was a weak leader even before his debate debacle. Even more so given his current crisis, which will undoubtedly lead to his dropping out of the race. The Israeli premier, despite his enormous faults, is a shrewd political operative. He knows the opportune moment to exploit weakness and pursue maximalist interests. This is one of those times. Bibi is playing Biden like a fiddle and calling the tune.

Netanyahu’s Congressional address

The Israeli PM will speak to a Joint Session of Congress, gifted to him by Democratic and GOP Congressional leaders. During which he will extol his decimation of Gaza, and tout his firm leadership of his country and the righteousness of his cause.  Well over 100 of the 535 members of Congress will boycott this dog-and-pony show.  Not to mention the tens of thousands who will protest this insult to the American sense of decency.  Given the crisis the country faces with Biden about the drop out of the race, it’s the worst possible time to welcome someone steeped in genocide.  But those who invited him are to blame for this mess and should suffer the consequences.

Hannibal Directive and IDF murder of Israeli civilians

I was one of the first journalists outside Israel who reported on the IDF’s Hannibal Directive, which it invoked invoked during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge.  It called for the killing of any IDF soldier who was captured by Hamas.  The goal was to prevent soldiers falling into the enemy’s hands, where they would be exploited to pressure the government to negotiate a prisoner exchange, in which Palestinian prisoners would be freed.  Two soldiers were killed then in Gaza, likely (and deliberately) by IDF fire.  Their bodies are still held by Hamas, since Israel has refused to negotiate for their repatriation to their families.

But there is another underlying motive for Hannibal.  To understand it, one must realize that Israel is not a country with an army. It has an army with a country. In other words, the Israeli state does not serve its citizens. Rather citizens serve the state.  The army is a national institution. Service is mandatory (though many receive exemptions). The military is regarded as the crowning glory of the nation. Those who sacrifice their lives and die in service to the nation are seen as national heroes.

But captured soldiers are not.  In this sense, they are seen as a stain on themselves, the army and–by extension–the nation.  Similarly, Donald Trump disparaged John McCain, who was held captive by the North Vietnamese for seven years. He called McCain a “sucker” for being captured.  He added: “I don’t like suckers.”  Neither does Israel admire its own captives.  They are a reminder of failure and the vulnerability of its military in the face of Palestinian resistance.

Hannibal and 10/7

Haaretz has just confirmed something we all knew about 10/7: the IDF invoked the Hannibal Directive to kill scores, if not hundreds of Israeli civilians to prevent their capture by Hamas.  We would know how many if Israel did autopsies on bodies of the victims. But it conveniently has refused to do so.

Examples of Hannibal in action have been documented by army officer eyewitnesses who killed their own citizens on that tragic day.  Helicopter pilots testified they saw jeeps filled with hostages speeding back to Gaza.  They were ordered to fire on the jeeps and did so, knowing there were Israelis inside the vehicles. An IDF general ordered a tank to fire a shell point-blank into a kibbutz residence holding 13 civilians and Palestinian fighters.  It killed everyone in the building.  Now this general will receive a promotion and become chief of the Southern Command, which includes Gaza.

The expansion of the military doctrine to Israeli civilians as well as soldiers, is a callous betrayal of its own citizens.  It represents the a corruption of national values. I know of no country which routinely commands soldiers to murder of their own civilians during war against a foreign enemy.

Hannibal has been in force for over 30 years.  It has been reported in Israeli media for almost as long.  But it is rarely reported, if at all, in global media.  I first reported it regarding Operation Protective Edge in 2014 and have published many posts about it in the years since.