A "pause" in Gaza is welcome, but the slaughter must stop for good

The death toll in Gaza swelled to 15,000 heading into the "pause" today. Israel has done another "October 7th massacre" to the Palestinians every 4 days since then! Pressure from around the world has helped bring about some temporary relief, but what really needs to happen is a complete stoppage of the relentless inhumane starvation and slaughter of innocent civilians.

After 48 days of nonstop airstrikes, there have been 14854 confirmed deaths in Gaza (including 6150 children). There are also about 7000 people missing and assumed to be crushed under collapsed buildings.

Even ignoring the 7000 missing, that's 310 people per day, meaning Israel is conducting the equivalent of at least TWO October 7th massacres every week!

22,000 confirmed dead or missing under the rubble, that's almost TWENTY times the Israeli death toll on October 7th. Israel calls it a "war", but it's just a continuation of the slaughter they have been perpetrating against the Palestinians since they were created in 1948.

Let's not forget:

• during the pause, almost no food, water, medicine, supplies, or energy is being allowed in
• communications are still cut
• people are dying from treatable communicable/waterborne diseases
• infrastructure has been destroyed, leading to more misery and death
• the IDF continues to occupy and control Gaza, shooting anyone who disobeys their orders during the "ceasefire"
• they pancaked several apartment buildings full of people just before the pause went into effect, and plan to do the same once the pause ends
• right now, thousands of Palestinians are in Israeli prisons, many without having been charged with any crime, and without any basic rights
• since 2007, over 2 million Gazans have been prisoners... when do THEY get freed?

A pause is just prolonging the suffering of a lot of people, if what comes on the other side isn't relief. If it's just more starvation and bombing, then this pause is merely more cruelty. This has gone far beyond "self defense", or even childish retaliation. This is a war crime, which the UN has announced will likely also be declared a genocide.

And the whole thing is made more preposterous by the fact that Israel's prime minister Netanyahu has supported Hamas for many years.

Another October 7th every 4 days? Not acceptable! Don't just pause, STOP.

DRutter