Yesterday the Gaza Strip witnessed one of the most vicious and intense Israeli military campaigns in months. For the first time in four years of Palestinian civil uprising, the Israeli army reached the heart of the over densely populated Jabalya refugee camp.

This latest Israeli incursion comes supposedly as a response or retaliation, to a Qassam rocket attack by Hamas, which killed 2 children and injured 10 in the southern Israeli town of Sderot and a scorched earth policy which is part of Israel's plan for Gaza ‘disengagement.’ With Israel’s ‘natural right to defend herself,’ the Israeli army undertook one of its most concentrated and systematic campaigns of killing innocent Palestinian civilians while at the same time, demolishing many homes and general infrastructure in Gaza.

According to news sources, since Wednesday’s incursion, 42 Palestinians have been killed and 140 people injured, who are said to be in very critical condition, 57 homes have been completely demolished, and one power transmitter was destroyed in the centre of Jabalya camp as well as, the outer walls of a UN school.

The primitive, homemade Qassam rockets have proven to be a great annoyance for the Israeli military, illegal Israeli settlements within Gaza, and neighboring Israeli towns and villages. Using these simple rocket attacks as a pretext, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered his Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to “Take every necessary step to stop the firing of Qassams”. In immediate response, Mofaz consulted with his Chief of Staff General Moshe Ya’alon, and told the Israeli Public Radio that “the army is considering temporarily re-occupying the Palestinian territory and could mobilize reserve troops”. Under this operation codenamed ‘days of penitence’, Gaza could become the venue of a large scale campaign of killings and massacres similar to the tragedy that took place in the Jenin refugee camp two and a half years ago.

Israeli troops have repeatedly entered northern Gaza in an attempt stop Qassam rockets from reaching Israeli settlements and nearby towns and villages, but have failed so far. It is unclear how this latest operation will seek to halt the Qassam rockets, and the Palestinian resistance at large. With Gaza becoming a virtual disaster zone, the Israeli Government can not seem to comprehend that its incursions in Gaza will only fuel the anger and tension among Gazans, while achieving no security goals whatsoever for Israelis.

If security is not Israel’s primal intention, the question arises, how Israel’s miserable conduct can be justified, with respects to human rights and the complete disregard for human life. Quite simply, apart from Israel having sadistic obsessions with Gaza and its inhabitants, Israel’s policies of continued and repeated war crimes in Gaza go hand in hand with PM Sharon’s proposed Unilateral Disengagement Plan. This plan seeks to evacuate all settlers by 2005, while creating as much collateral damage as possible prior to handing over the territory back to Palestinians. Former Gaza Security Chief, Mohammed Dahlan, who is seen as a key player in running Gaza after an Israeli withdrawal, said in a statement that the Israeli operation “will result in a bloodbath on both sides because the Palestinian people cannot remain silent in the face of this aggression”.

How much more damage and killing does the Israeli army need to commit before the International community, through the mechanics of the United Nations Security Council, issues a Chapter 7 resolution which progressively pressures Israel into full compliance with legally binding resolutions, or face sanctions and eventually the threat of military action through a world alliance?

The UK Foreign Minster Jack Straw described the Middle East conflict as the greatest challenge to international order and went on to say “As for Israel – the targeted killings have to end, the settlement building in the West Bank must stop as must the routing of the ‘security barrier’ onto Palestinian land”. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan also commented on the recent developments in Gaza by expressing grave concern at the escalation of violence and “especially mourns the death and injuries of children”. According to Al Mezan, a Palestinian human rights organization, after four years of the Intifada, the excessive use of force by Israel has brought the death toll in Gaza to 1,621 Palestinians, 179 of whom were killed by extra-judicial assassinations. The Israeli military also targeted 5,897 homes, 221 public facilities, 67 schools, 30 places of worship and 18 NGO offices, in addition to 477 commercial businesses and 248 industrial facilities.