Opinion: World has failed to stop Gaza carnage

In one of his most important statements, the 16th century Italian thinker Niccolo Machiavelli observes: “For, in truth, there is no sure way of holding [a province] other than by destroying it.” This is exactly what Israel is doing to Gaza, for a month now, and the death toll is approaching 2,000, following the resumption of Israeli attacks on Friday after a brief truce.

What is missing here is reading what history has taught us. When people see that life and death is equal to them and there is nothing to lose, they will fight till they die. Even a cat, when it is cornered, will fight back, however strong the attacker might be. Humans are the same. In the past six years, Israel has launched three wars against Gaza. Each of them end with a truce, which is soon broken, and bloodshed starts again. This time, the war has gone on the longest, and the death toll has been the highest.

Every sane person must conclude that the balance of power is drastically in favour of Israel. But Gaza has plenty of humans ready to die, as death is much more preferable for many of them than the degrading life in a cage, deprived of any movement outside the tiny Strip, high unemployment, lack of clean water, electricity, and even cement to build their houses or medicines to treat patients.

Although Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, it started a blockade hardly seen in recent history. Almost two million people live in 360sq km of land, which represents only 1.33 per cent of historical Palestine. It has been blockaded through land and sea by Israel. Its border with Egypt has been closed for most of the time in recent months for political and security reasons.