Since the end of October, Israel has maintained an aggressive stance against Hamas and, subsequently, Gaza in continuing the onslaught seen over the last 8 months. With certain western nations like Ireland, Spain and Norway recognizing Palestine as a sovereign nation, and the ICC calling for the arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials alongside Yahya Sinwar and top Hamas leaders the world saw a glimpse of a possibility of this aggression ending. However, this was thwarted by the massacre committed by Israel in Rafah.
Rafah Massacre and complete gaza death toll
- The Attack in Rafah left 45 dead, including 23 women and children.
- There were 249 reported injuries with many of the victims suffering from large burn wounds and missing limbs.
- Netanyahu claimed the killings by Israelis forces was a “tragic mistake"
- The total death toll in Gaza has now risen to 36,284.
Strikes in Syria
- The Syrians have also suffered at the hand of the Israelis with an estimated 220 people killed
- The last strike was on Thursday 30th of May 2024 in Baniyas in which 1 girl was killed with 10 civilians injured.
- This comes only weeks after an Israeli strike killed top Iranian officials in Damascus at Iran’s embassy.
Lebanon and hezbollah
- Over the last 8 months a total of 447 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israel.
- Hezbollah have reacted to Israeli aggression in Gaza by carrying dozens of artillery attacks on military targets and rocket attacks on the civilian populace.
- The Lebanese based group has carried out over 2000 attacks against Israel.
- One recent incident was the downing of an Israeli drone by Hezbollah.
- The mount meron air traffic control base was also attacked and damaged by Hezbollah in January of this year.