Today, March 7, 2024, marks five months since the start of the genocidal violence that has engulfed Palestine and in particular Gaza. The numbers, shocking as they are – more than 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, maimed, or are missing – fail to capture the textures and depth of dystopian horror and overwhelming despair that has marked this period.

Getty Images, 14 December 2023

Since October, tens of thousands of tons of bombs, most of which have been manufactured by Israel’s strongest ally and leading global arms dealer, the United States, have incessantly rained down over civilians. Most of these explosives have been delivered through experimental aerial and naval weaponry powered by AI software that is being tested for the first time in Gaza, one of the most densely populated places in the world that has been under siege for over fifteen years.

Israel’s assault on besieged Gazans presents, according to the CEO of Israel’s leading technology incubator, a unique opportunity to test new technologies of warfare. Through a disregard for human life and the creation of one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in history, the arms industry is experiencing record highs and eager expectations for the future. 

Approximately 80% of Gaza’s population today are descendants of refugees of the 1948 Nakba, in which Palestinians were murdered, displaced and exiled to facilitate the formation of the Israeli state. In line with Israel’s history of forced displacement, since October, nearly 90% Gazans have faced internal displacement due to the complete obliteration of critical civilian and public infrastructure. Many displaced people have been forced to relocate several times during this period, often requiring dangerous journeys by foot risking further violence, due to Israel’s constantly changing designation of so-called ‘safe zones’.

The mass devastation of infrastructure has also included the destruction of hospitals. As of today only a handful of hospitals in all of Gaza remain partially functional for over two million people, constituting a complete collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system. Coupled with preexisting limited medical supplies, the tens of thousands of severe injuries that have required surgical interventions have rendered supplies practically non-existent, forcing physicians to operate without anesthesia, oxygen cylinders or clean water – items explicitly prohibited from entering Gaza by Israel. Since October, over 1,000 amputations have been conducted on children without the use of anesthetics.

The complete collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system, in conjunction with mass famine and inaccessibility of treated water has left Gazans at risk of contracting infectious diseases. Experts warn that the rise of epidemics is both grave and imminent. More than 20,000 babies have been born since the start of the war. Non-existent prenatal care, Israel’s barring of maternity kits and the absence of medical supplies have led to significant rates of obstetric complications that have resulted in increased maternal and infant mortality.

While Israel has always tightly controlled food imports to Gaza as a method of collective punishment – including the use of a formula to calculate the minimum calories per person to determine restrictions – deliberate starvation has been an explicit method implemented since the beginning of this war. An analysis of food security conducted by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification shows severe food insecurity, demonstrating that 100% of Gaza’s population is at “imminent risk of famine” as Israel continues impeding the delivery of critical aid. Last week, after one month of the complete withholding of aid distribution, a crowd of famished Palestinians were fired upon by the Israeli military while gathering at a humanitarian convoy. At least 112 Palestinians were killed and another 760 injured in what has been called the “flour massacre”. This is the 14th incident of recorded shelling against people while seeking aid since October.

While critical attention has been provided to Gaza, Israeli forces have simultaneously unleashed a harrowing campaign of collective punishment against Palestinians in the West Bank. Mass arrests inflated already bloated political prisons. Accounts of systematic torture, sexual abuse, medical neglect, depravation of food and water, among other horrific conditions echo among the thousands of Palestinians that have been rounded up during this period. Israeli settlers with support from military forces have emptied vulnerable Palestinian villages, threatening them with lethal violence. Raids in major West Bank cities, such as Jenin, have accompanied drone killings and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, while the construction of additional illegal Israeli settlements continues widespread with little pushback from its allies. 

The harrowing conditions that shape Palestinian life under occupation and the excruciating cruelty that has taken place over the course of the last six months are possible only due to Israel’s American and European enablers. As the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, Israel has been awarded unconditional material, political and institutional support with little condemnation for its war crimes.

In December 2023, South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide before the International Criminal Court. The court’s interim ruling published a month later affirmed that Israel was possibly committing genocide. Despite the mounting evidence of Israeli war crimes that led to this ruling, the court did not call for a ceasefire. Once again, demonstrating to Palestinians adherence to international law and the recognition of human rights does not apply to their occupiers.

For Gazans, their lives have been reduced to fighting for their most basic needs. Surviving. Their stories, their lives, passions, futures, now a mere blur. “Now is the time of monsters,” Gramsci wrote while imprisoned by the fascist regime. This is certainly the case today. United by their impunity, now is the time for volatile monsters.