
By DOMINIC GUTOMAN
Bulatlat.com
The cessation of violence in Gaza arrives more than 465 days and 46,000 lives too late, according to an international humanitarian organization.
“While this temporary cessation of fighting and bombing must be both respected and long-term, this is only the beginning in addressing the immense humanitarian, psychological, and medical needs in Gaza,” said Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a statement.
The ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas took effect on January 19, pausing a 15-month war in Gaza. The deal stipulates a pause in fighting and the release of three Israeli captives and about 95 Palestinian prisoners on the first day.
Ninety percent of the population in Gaza suffered from internal displacement. Around half of the hospitals in Gaza are out of service, with those remaining only partially functional, according to MSF.
“For more than 15 months, hospital rooms have been filled with patients with severed limbs and other life-altering trauma, caused by strikes, and distressed people searching for the bodies of their family members,” MSF said, stressing that health facilities were not spared from the attacks as eight of their colleagues were killed during the war.

Despite the ceasefire, the attacks against the Palestinian people continued, with Israel launching a “counterterrorism action” in the Jenin governorate, killing 10 Palestinians and injuring more than 35 people. With the ceasefire only taking effect in Gaza, the United Nations said that the negotiations should take the whole Palestinian territories into consideration, underscoring Jenin as part of Palestinian territory under the West Bank.
“Our response is that the West Bank is part of the occupied Palestinian territories, and of course, as such, the future of that of the West Bank, Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories as a whole needs to be dealt with through negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities,” Farhan Haq, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said.
For the International League of Peoples Struggles-Asia and the Pacific (ILPS-AP), this calls for building ever stronger solidarity between the Palestinian people and the world, with ceasefire as the beginning of achieving justice and accountability.
“The US-backed Zionist Israeli regime led by Netanyahu and its death squad, the Israel Occupation Force, must be put to the courts and end their reign of impunity. Those who enabled and supported the genocide must also face reckoning,” ILPS said.

The first phase of the ceasefire deal lasts six weeks which is supposed to involve the release of 33 Israeli hostages and 1,900 Palestinian detainees. More hostages and detainees are scheduled to be released starting January 25.
While the ceasefire and release of hostages and detainees bring relief to the families, it does not erase the ordeals they have suffered in captivity, according to international rights group Amnesty International.
“Unless the root causes of this conflict are addressed, Palestinians and Israelis cannot even begin to hope for a brighter future built on rights, equality and justice. Israel must dismantle the brutal system of apartheid it imposes to dominate and oppress Palestinians and end its unlawful occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory once and for all,” Amnesty International said.
These international human rights organizations recommended that Israel immediately end its illegal blockade in Gaza, guaranteeing the entry of vital medical supplies to treat the wounded and the sick and facilitating repairs in the medical facilities and vital social infrastructures. (RTS, DAA)