Those who take action, do. Those who talk, bandy slogans, stage propaganda campaigns and recruit a following, but the end result is nothing.
More than five months have passed since the start of Israeli aggression on Gaza and as yet, of the international community’s ability to end this war on the Palestinian people there is no sign.
It was hoped that a ceasefire would be reached before the holy month of Ramadan and the crisis would end, but the complicity of the major powers prevented that.
However, we are not making a comparison. Rather, we are highlighting a fact that only the malicious will ignore. Since the beginning of the Gaza crisis, Egypt has not stopped supporting Gaza with humanitarian aid, of which 90 per cent of the coast is borne by Egypt bears.
Meanwhile, Egypt has been engaged in relentless efforts to reach a political solution to the Gaza crisis through continual negotiations with regional and international parties and holding conferences for a ceasefire, the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the rebuilding of Gaza, which has suffered damage of $90 billion by the Israeli war machine.
Egypt has presented many initiatives, held meetings and appealed to the UN Security Council, but there are forces that do not see the human tragedy in Gaza and believe that the crimes committed by Israel are nothing but self-defense.
The announcement by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken confirms the view that it is up to Hamas to agree to a ceasefire thereby allowing more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, and to hold talks on a “permanent solution” to the conflict.
Blinken’s words were echoed by US President Joe Biden in his annual State of the Union address, in which he referred Israel’s right to eliminate Hamas and that the latter is setting impossible conditions to stop the war.
Regardless whether one agrees or disagrees with Hamas’s policy, what matters to the US Administration is not the achievement of a sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but rather a temporary truce during which prisoners are exchanged in accordance with mechanisms decided by Israel and supported by the US.
It is no longer a question of stopping the genocidal war prosecuted by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Nor is it a matter of addressing their suffering, or planning for the reconstruction of Gaza. Rather, it is about releasing detainees in order to eliminate the humanitarian dimension of the proposed truce plan, which Hamas is said to be responsible for blocking it.
The international community still seems far from taking any action to stop the genocidal war or to return the displaced from southern Gaza to the north of the enclave. Even the threat to invade Rafah drew little opposition from Israel’s allies and all we hear are America’s timorous recommendations to stop it.
The international community must work to hold accountable and prosecute
Those responsible for the continual bombing of the Gaza Strip, collective punishment, starving the population, and destroying infrastructure there must be brought to account for what are war crimes. Israel must meet its obligations as an occupying power under international law.
However, the steadfastness of the people of Gaza and support of all peace-loving peoples in the world will eventually stop the bloodshed and bring peace.
Mohamed Fahmy is the editor-in-chief of The Egyptian Gazette and Egyptian Mail newspapers
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