Watch: Day 14 roundup of Israel's attacks on Gaza

“It seems that the Israeli leaders saw an opportunity here to materialize the long-announced Zionist dream to get rid of the Gaza population,” Ahmed Abofoul, Legal Research and Advocacy Officer at the Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, tells us on Friday’s livestream.

Abofoul and our executive director Ali Abunimah discuss the role of the International Criminal Court as Israel continues to relentlessly bomb Gaza.

There is nothing that could stop the court’s prosecutors issuing arrest warrants or charges against Israeli leaders over not just the current genocidal attacks on Gaza, but, as Abofoul explains, the historic and ongoing crimes of Israel’s wider settler-colonial project.

He notes the hypocrisy by the West in using the International Criminal Court to swiftly issue charges against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

“The West has shown us quite clearly that we can mobilize international law to support people for their right to self-determination, and their right to be free from any alien domination or occupation,” he says.

“But when it comes to Palestine, this enthusiasm seems to not exist. And this is not only dangerous, as it is dehumanizing the Palestinians, it’s also dangerous because it undermines the very system that the West claims to agree with or to want to implement.”

We are also joined by Tarek Loubani, an emergency room physician who regularly works at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

Loubani explains the overwhelming conditions under which medical staff are working across hospitals in Gaza and the physical and emotional toll that work is taking.

“I’m imagining that the disaster triage officer, the doctor at the very front, and the calculations that they’re making – they’re calculating the chance of survival of the patient. They’re calculating the post-injury care that’s needed,” he says, as basic medical equipment and resources are scarce.

“These are terrible decisions that these doctors are making by the minute.”

On the second half of the show, journalist and researcher Jon Elmer discusses Israel’s plans for a ground invasion as top ministers say they are willing to sacrifice Israeli captives.

“Hostages and civilian casualties will be secondary to destroying Hamas, Economy Minister Nir Barakat told ABC News, ‘even if it takes a year.’” https://t.co/4MirYthFH3
— Lara Friedman (@LaraFriedmanDC) October 20, 2023

“I think they’re defined by the absence of a plan,” Elmer notes.

“Step one, according to [Israeli defense minister Yoav] Gallant is to destroy Hamas. Step two was a slightly lesser war. And then step three was [to] bring in some sort of collaborator government,” he explains.

“The ability for Palestinians in Gaza to defend themselves as a resistance movement is so significant that I think we need to be shown some sort of reality before we accept any of this Israeli madness that we’re hearing in all forums.”

Watch the entire broadcast above, or listen via Soundcloud below.