The People of Gaza Need a Ceasefire Now

It is imperative that there is a ceasefire now accompanied by a massive relief effort.

The Biden administration is now admitting that the death toll in Gaza is likely much higher than the count from the local Ministry of Health:

A senior Biden administration official said the death toll of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is likely far higher than the 10,000 number being reported by the health ministry amid Israel’s war against Hamas.

Barbara Leaf, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, told a House panel that those killed over one month into the war are likely “higher than is being cited.”

There are many Palestinian civilians that have been trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings that have not yet been included in the reckoning of how many people have been killed in Gaza in the last month. 10,000 dead in a month is horrifying, especially when we remember that most of those killed were women and children. There is good reason to think that the real total is significantly higher. That number is only going to increase as the bombing continues and starvation, dehydration, and disease begin claiming more innocent lives. Even before the war, the people of Gaza had inadequate water supplies, and now there is a severe shortage of clean water:

The conditions mean residents of Gaza have an average of three liters of water per person a day—for drinking, cleaning and other purposes, according to the U.N. In normal circumstances, daily personal water usage averages around 100 liters. Even in emergencies, the World Health Organization says that people should have access to a minimum of 15 liters a day.

If this war is allowed to drag on for months, the loss of innocent life will be staggering. There have already been so many children killed in just the last four weeks. An average of 130 Palestinian children have been killed every day of this war. The price of this war is already too high, and it is going to get so much worse if it is not halted now.

The people of Gaza are experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises in decades. The civilian population is in extreme danger from bombing, forced displacement, and lack of sufficient food, water, and fuel. It is imperative that there is a ceasefire now accompanied by a massive relief effort. It is obvious that the civilian population needs a ceasefire, and they are the ones that would benefit the most from it. As Yousef Munayyer put it last night:

The people who would most benefit from a ceasefire, and who want and need it the most, are the people paying the highest costs for this madness, the civilian population of Gaza which has been mercilessly bombed by Israel for a month.

Dribbling in a little aid a few trucks at a time is not nearly good enough to meet the needs of millions of suffering and hungry people. Isolated pauses in the fighting are not enough to protect the civilian population. The administration wants to put Band-Aids on gaping wounds.

Adil Ahmad Haque wrote an important article on the question of self-defense and proportionality as it relates to this war:

Under the law of self-defense, even a legitimate aim must be set aside if it is outweighed by the harmful effects of the force necessary to achieve it. Even if Israel’s right of self-defense is engaged, its current exercise of that right is disproportionate. Israel must either accept an immediate ceasefire, or drastically narrow its war aims and dramatically change its tactics.

No matter how many weak excuses they make to the press, the administration has the leverage to pressure Israel to halt or at least curtail the bombing campaign and invasion. They also need to press the Israeli government to lift the siege that is cutting the population off from basic necessities. The administration’s refusal to call for a ceasefire under the circumstances is appalling. Their continued unconditional backing for the war is outrageous. The public has to put pressure on both Congress and the White House to push for an end to the war, because it is extremely unlikely that the government will change its policy unless Americans insist on it.