Day after day, the appalling toll of the Gaza war continues to rise, now exceeding 40,000 dead and around 100,000 wounded. On the scale of France, this would represent around 1.3 million killed, a third of them children, and 3 million wounded. Even though these figures are staggering, international opinion seems to have become accustomed to such a routine of horror.
Such widespread passivity can be explained by various factors, starting with the ban on Western press access to Gaza, which dampens the shock of the unfolding tragedy and even encourages campaigns of denial. But the extent of this collective shock also stems from a disturbing loss of meaning, as if such appalling carnage came to defy comprehension. That is why it is essential to remember that the Israeli offensive against Gaza, launched in retaliation for the terrorist bloodbath of October 7, 2023, has already changed nature twice, first with the ground reoccupation of October 27, then with the attack on Rafah on May 6.
In response to the massacre perpetrated by Hamas and its allies on Israeli territory on October 7 (1,200 dead, two-thirds of them civilians), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government launched an unprecedented wave of bombardments against the Gaza Strip. The intense shelling of the Palestinian enclave, cut off from the rest of the world, resulted in almost 8,000 deaths in three weeks, while two-thirds of the population were forced to flee their homes to areas designated "safe" by the Israeli army. Although the vast majority of victims have been counted in the center and north of the territory, no sector of the Gaza Strip has really been spared. Israel's allies solemnly warned against the dangers of a ground offensive; however, Netanyahu ignored them, even if it meant falling into the trap set for him by Hamas in Gaza.
The ground campaign unleashed by Israel in the Gaza Strip on October 27 is fundamentally different from the previous ground interventions that marked the 2009 and 2014 wars in Gaza. It is a methodical and devastating reoccupation, based on Israel's total control of a central axis running 7 kilometers to the Mediterranean Sea, which bisects the enclave south of Gaza City. The axis is named the Netzarim Corridor by Israel in memory of the religiously inspired settlement that was evacuated there in 2005.
The Israeli reoccupation is also attempting to empty the entire northern Gaza Strip of its population, despite the fact that 300,000 of its inhabitants refuse to leave. More than six months of destructive bombardments and fierce fighting have raised the human toll of the Israeli offensive to almost 35,000 dead, with a further 27,000 killed during this phase of ground reoccupation.
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