Rights and Accountability 24 July 2014
The United States and other governments have harshly blamed Hamas for the ongoing slaughter in Gaza because they refused a unilateral “ceasefire” declared by Israel on 14 July through its Egyptian proxy.
But as dozens of prominent figures in Gaza civil society write, “Hamas represented the sentiment of the vast majority of residents when it rejected the unilateral ceasefire proposed by Egypt and Israel without consulting anyone in Gaza.”
“We share the broadly held public sentiment that it is unacceptable to merely return to the status quo” of devastating Israeli siege on Gaza, the civil society leaders said. “To do so would mean a return to a living death.”
To put the situation in context, Visualizing Palestine (visualizingpalestine.org) created this infographic that charts the routine violations of the last Egyptian-brokered ceasefire from 22 November 2012 until 7 July 2014.
Israeli violations lethal and most frequent
While both the Israeli military and Palestinian resistance factions violated the terms of the ceasefire, a close examination shows that Israeli violations were more frequent and far more deadly.
Out of Israel’s 191 violations, 10 percent resulted in death and 42 percent in injuries or detentions; while out of the 75 Palestinian violations, just four percent resulted in injuries and none in death.
This new graphic complements the earlier one created in February by Ben White and Rachele Richards for Al Jazeera that covered the first three months of the November 2012 ceasefire.
During that period, zero rockets and two mortar shells came out of Gaza. In the same period, Israel attacked Palestinians in Gaza dozens of times, killing four and injuring 91.
No one in Gaza would want the current bloodbath to continue for another minute, but it is imperative that any ceasefire agreement actually be enforced – especially on the party with the tendency to most frequently and lethally violate the terms of previous agreements: Israel.
This is the first of two graphics to be released on the situation in Gaza by Visualizing Palestine. Visualizing Palestine has provided a file with the raw data used to create this infographic.
As of Thursday evening, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported that 797 Palestinians have now been killed, and more than 5,100 injured during the sixteen consecutive days of Israel’s attacks.
More than one hundred Palestinians were killed on Thursday alone, as Israel attacked multiple areas of the Gaza Strip, including a United Nations-run school in Beit Hanoun where Palestinians had sought refuge.
