Gaza:
A Year of Destruction

Oct 14, 2024

Since the Israeli State began its most recent war a year ago, Gaza has been all but destroyed.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed—though this is almost certainly an undercount. More than 90% of the 2.3 million people still alive have been forced out of their homes, living in ruins, under tarps or in tents without running water, electricity, or regular access to food. The majority of the buildings, roads, and electrical infrastructure has been destroyed. The hospitals have been levelled.

The details leak out because reporting on Gaza is almost impossible—at least 128 journalists and media workers have been killed, mostly by the Israeli military. So instead, reports come from medical workers who recount the horrors they’ve seen: dozens of children shot in the head or chest. Severe malnutrition among the entire population. Newborns dying from dehydration or easily preventable infections. And of course, the severe psychological trauma among children and adults that comes from living in a war zone.

Even as the Israeli state expands this war into Lebanon, it is continuing military operations in Gaza, with no end in sight.

This is first of all because the Netanyahu government in Israel has determined to continue its offensive. But behind the Israeli state lies the U.S. state, which shows by its unblinking support for the Israeli state that this enormous scale of death and destruction doesn’t trouble it in the slightest.

After all, terrorizing people and carrying out mass slaughter are the methods U.S. imperialism has long used to maintain its domination. Sometimes it carries out these massacres with its own forces, as in the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Other times, it uses proxy forces, as in the wars in Central America in the 1980s—or the current wars carried out by Israel.