Sunanda K. Datta-Ray | Why Israel wants Gaza to be free of all Palestinians
Deccan ChronicleEven Israel’s admirers and well-wishers, which includes Narendra Modi’s India, must wonder as the new year breaks what exactly Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to achieve by bombing the Gaza Strip into extinction. More and more one suspects that Israel’s real aim is to create a terra nullius, a “territory without a master”, where Israeli ownership can no longer be questioned. Israel began ground operations in the 25-mile-long Strip, which is between 3.7 and 7.5 miles wide and whose 141 sq miles supported 2.3 million Palestinians and boasted one of the world’s highest population densities. With one per cent of Palestinians dead in Gaza, 85-90 per cent driven from their homes, and a humanitarian crisis that worsens every day, Israel possibly hopes that Gaza’s few survivors will escape into Egypt, whatever the cost.