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The events that occurred in Gaza that under Operation Protective edge is an expression of colonialism and a continuation of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinian population. Mint Press News has been on the forefront of bringing readers, fact-checked news on Gaza.
Throughout history, all occupiers have 3 goals:
1.) Ensuring it’s own existence over the existence of it’s native population
- Calls for genocide of Palestinians by Israeli lawmakers : “The entire Palestinian people is the enemy,” calling for the destruction: “including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.”– Israeli lawmaker Ayelet Shaked published
- Targeting of civilians — about 2,000 people died, most of which are women and children
- Destroying the lifeline on which the native people rely on to survive as in destroying the infrastructure and over 10,000 homes:“At least 134 factories were destroyed during Israel’s four-week military offensive in the Gaza Strip (…) destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian national economy by targeting factories which posed no security threat to the occupation.”
2.) Annexing as much land as possible to continue the occupation and expand the new colony
- Protective Edge resulted in Israel annexing a 4-mile buffer zone surrounding the Gaza strip border. This looks very similar to Israel annexing land from the West Bank and the Golan Heights in it’s 1967 war.
- Israeli buffer zone tightens Gaza chokehold “Israel declared a three kilometre buffer zone inside Gaza’s borders last week, an area that represents 44 percent of Gaza’s territory. Anyone within the zone has been warned by the Israeli military to leave or risk being bombed.”
- Since Israel established statehood in has annexed nearly 90 percent of Palestinian land. See image below:
3.) Crushing any resistance and any sign of strength among the population it’s occupying
- This resurfacing of aggressive rhetoric coming from Israel towards the Gaza Strip, Palestinians and Hamas came right after Hamas and Fatah declared a unity government. This, to Israel, was a sign of strength on the part of Palestinians