Despite Hamas agreeing to a proposal for a ceasefire, Israel chose to carry out an invasion of Gaza City on Wednesday evening. Alexander Atarodi says that Israel had no interest in a ceasefire.
There was a small window last summer and some kind of will from both sides, but it did not go through for various reasons. Now water has flowed under the bridges and I do not think that Israel is interested in a ceasefire today. This at the same time as Israel is heavily pressured by both international and domestic protests.
”The equation does not add up”
Previously, the Israeli government has stated that the invasion would be preceded by evacuations of the city's approximately one million inhabitants. If they are telling the truth remains to be seen.
One discusses with other countries to move the population of Gaza to Libya or Somaliland or Sudan, at the same time as one says that one evacuates the Palestinians to another part of Gaza. The equation does not add up, says Alexander Atarodi.
In addition, Israel is violating international law if it forcibly relocates the population, he adds.
It is a humanitarian catastrophe of a magnitude that we rarely have seen. To also, on top of what has already happened, expel these people from a small geographical area to an even smaller geographical area in southern Gaza, where there are already about a million people. It means enormous suffering.
”There may be a hidden agenda”
What Israel wants to achieve by invading Gaza City is shrouded in mystery, according to the Middle East expert.
Israel has said that it wants to "cleanse" Gaza City of terrorists, Hamas members, in order to then hand over the control of Gaza to someone else, without defining exactly who. There may absolutely be a hidden agenda, that one wants to mislead the rest of the world.
That it happens right now, when the US President Donald Trump and European leaders are focusing on the war in Ukraine, is worrying, says Alexander Atarodi.
In the long term, I am very worried about the consequences of this destructive force. for global security policy and of course also for the view on democracy and human rights.
