WASHINGTON, Dec 24 (APP): Israel’s aggression of the besieged Gaza Strip “has been unlike any other in the 21st century”, with its occupation military forces dropping some of the largest bombs to decimate the Palestinian enclave, The Washington Post reported Sunday. The Post, in its report, “used data from the UN Satellite Center, or UNOSAT, which analyzes satellite imagery from conflict zones,” to assess the massive devastation in Gaza.
Moreover, the report is based on interviews with more than “20 aid workers, health-care providers, and experts in munitions and aerial warfare”. “The most ferocious attacks have come from the air, flattening entire city blocks and cratering the landscape,” the report said. The Israeli invasion has caused the deaths of more than 20,000 people, most of them women and children; displaced over 1.2 million; and destroyed or damaged about half the buildings in the territory. “The Israelis have also pulverized something else: Gaza City’s cultural riches and municipal institutions,” lamented the Mayor of Gaza, Yahya R. Sarraj, who painted a vivid picture of the ravaged city in an op-ed published in The New York Times Sunday. Mayor Sarraj wrote, “The unrelenting destruction of Gaza — its iconic symbols, its beautiful seafront, its libraries and archives and whatever economic prosperity it had — has broken my heart. “The Gaza Zoo has been destroyed, with many of its animals killed or starved to death, including wolves, hyenas, birds and rare foxes. Other casualties include the city’s main public library, the Children’s Happiness Center, the municipal building and its archive, and the seventh-century Great Omari Mosque.
Israeli forces have also damaged or destroyed streets, squares, mosques, churches and parks.” Concluding with an motional appeal, Mayor Sarraj called on the world’s municipalities — everyone — to pressure world leaders to stop this mindless destruction. “Why can’t Palestinians be treated equally, like Israelis and all other peoples in the world? Why can’t we live in peace and have open borders and free trade?”, he asked. “Palestinians deserve to be free and have self-determination. Gaza’s emblem is the phoenix, which rises from the ashes. It insists on life.” Meanwhile, The Washington Post investigation found that the Israeli army has conducted “repeated and widespread airstrikes” in the vicinity of hospitals and healthcare facilities, which “are supposed to receive special protection under the laws of war.” “Satellite imagery reviewed by Post reporters revealed dozens of apparent craters near 17 of the 28 hospitals in northern Gaza,” the report stated, adding that ten craters “suggested the use of bombs weighing 2,000 pounds, the largest in regular use.” The Post quoted former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Michael Lynk, as saying that “the scale of Palestinian civilian deaths in such a short period of time appears to be the highest such civilian casualty rate in the 21st century.”
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