The genocide in Gaza is ongoing. More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel from October 2023 to date, 17,000 of whom were children. This is the largest number of children killed in a genocide over a fourteen-month period. Indeed, most of the dead were children and women. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are also victims. As a consequence of the genocide in Gaza, Lebanese, Yemenis, Iraqis and Syrians among others have also paid the ultimate price.

Apart from being killed by bombs and bullets, an increasing number of Palestinians have starved or frozen to death. They are being deprived of adequate food, medicines and other essentials as a deliberate policy of the Israeli occupation regime. The intention is to eradicate the Palestinians.

Gaza has also been rendered uninhabitable. Most of the hospitals have been destroyed totally or damaged extensively. Over a thousand doctors and nurses have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces. Hundreds of teachers, students and journalists have also been killed. The destruction of schools and universities is part of the larger devastation of the coastal enclave.

READ: WHO says more than 12,000 people need medical evacuation from Gaza

It is clear that Palestinians and Palestine are being ethnically cleansed. Ethnic cleansing is central to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. It has been happening since 1948 when the state of Israel was established on Palestinian land. The Nakba (Catastrophe) saw some 750,000 Palestinians driven out of their homes by armed Zionist groups. The process has continued piecemeal ever since. Without ethnic cleansing, the Zionist project cannot be completed.

It is not just about expulsion and annihilation, though. Many Palestinians have also been jailed and tortured by the Israeli occupation regime.

The aim is to make life so unbearable that Palestinians will leave their land “voluntarily”.

Why is Israel so determined to wipe out the Palestinians? Probably because the Palestinians are an enduring reminder to the Israelis and the rest of the world about who the original inhabitants of Palestine are; that there is, indeed, a country called Palestine. The very presence of the Palestinians exposes........

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