Gaza and the Muslim world

August 26, 2024

ISLAMABAD – TODAY, a new round of peace talks begins in Cairo but all indications are that Israel’s genocidal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is setting conditions that Hamas will find impossible to accept, such as a continued Israeli military presence in Gaza.

The main pressure for a peace deal is coming from the Biden administration, which in its final months in office, wants some sort of foreign policy success on its report card that may also boost the chances of Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race.

But committed as the US administration is to supporting Israel come what may, it is not clear what leverage it may have in order to exert pressure on Tel Aviv to agree to a deal acceptable to all parties. So far, billions of dollars of military supplies such as bombs, missiles and equipment are flowing freely from the US to Israel. It is abundantly clear that that lever will not be used.

So far, of the 40,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since October last year, some 14,000 are children. The number of wounded children, which include many multiple amputees, is no less. An even greater tragedy is reflected in the term ‘wounded child with no surviving family’. There are countless numbers of WCNSF as they are called.

Among the ummah, the only defiant stand against Israel, even if limited, has been taken by Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Images of Palestinian children murdered in the most brutal of ways land in the US via social media and sections of the traditional media every day, every hour but even those horrific photos and footage do not seem to move the political decision-makers.

Israel’s scorched earth military campaign that has destroyed most of Gaza and its infrastructure,