The following is an extract of an article first published in PassBlue.com by Mona Ali Khalil, an internationally recognized public international lawyer with 25 years of UN and other experience, including as a former senior legal officer in the UN and in the IAEA, with expertise in peacekeeping, peace enforcement, disarmament and counterterrorism.

Image by UNRWA/INSTAGRAM. Starvation and forced displacement are among the numerous crimes being committed in the Israeli war on Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The essayist writes: “While the list of crimes by Hamas is long,” the tally of crimes by Israel and its armed forces and armed settlers “is much longer.” 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasts that he single-handedly blocked a Palestinian State from becoming a reality even though it is recognized by more than 130 countries and enjoys the status of an Observer State in the United Nations.

In his 16 years in power, Netanyahu has ramped up illegal settlements, effectively annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem; funneled millions of dollars to prop up Hamas and undermine the Palestinian Authority; and concluded the Abraham Accords with four Arab governments willing to sideline the Palestinian cause: Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and United Arab Emirates.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas launched a bloody attack in southern Israel, which disrupted the status quo — one that was acceptable to Israelis but agonizing for Palestinians. According to Israel’s latest count, 685 Israeli civilians, 373 members of the Israeli security forces and 71 foreigners were killed as a result of that attack and the Israeli security forces’ delayed response to it.

Since then, Netanyahu and his extremist government have waged a vengeful war on Gaza and a possibly genocidal war against its entire population.

Israel’s American, European and Arab allies are seeking to resurrect the two-state solution as a path to peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Netanyahu objects to such proposals, saying that a Palestinian State “would give a huge reward to unprecedented terrorism.”

One can equally say — if not more so — that the Arab states and Muslim world’s renewed offer to recognize and to make peace with Israel along the 1967 green line would also give “a huge reward” to Israel’s unprecedented barbarism.

While the list of crimes by Hamas is long, including the deliberate killing of civilians, indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas and the taking of men, women and child hostages, the list of crimes by Israel and its armed forces and armed settlers is much longer.

See the rest of the article on PassBlue.com, including a long list of the crimes by Israel and its armed forces and armed settlers.