Israel has been consistently violating the Gaza ceasefire deal. The apartheid state has collectively punished Palestinian people, purportedly to push Hamas into changing the details of the deal. This is a war crime, as human rights groups have pointed out, but Western mainstream media outlets have been trying to ‘both sides’ what is happening.
Now, Israel has just unilaterally ended the ceasefire, bombing all over Gaza and murdering around 400 people in Gaza, including roughly 100 children. And with the media struggling to spin this aggression in Israel’s favour, a surgeon working in occupied Gaza has spoken with perhaps more clarity and professionalism than we’ve seen from the mainstream media throughout the whole genocide.
“I did six operations overnight. Half of them were in small children, probably six and below… Most of them are going to go on to die”
Dr Feroze Sidhwa told Sky News of the “utter carnage and destruction overnight”, and the fact that he mostly saw children and women in the hospital.
I did six operations overnight. Half of them were in small children, probably six and below… Most of them are going to go on to die, unfortunately… It was just utter carnage. As usual, when you drop bombs on tents, that’s what happens.
https://x.com/SaulStaniforth/status/1901924286199124020
When the Sky presenter insisted on highlighting a ‘both sides’ line to minimise the horror of Israel’s crimes, Sidhwa responded as you would expect a journalist to if they were actually doing their job – by clearly laying out the facts:
I actually also want the hostages released, and I think if Benjamin Netanyahu wanted the hostages released he would have just continued with the hostage deal which is what the hostage families have been begging him to do.
He added:
The Israelis have not participated meaningfully in the negotiations over phase two, and instead they have said they want to extend phase one, which just means Hamas would release all the hostages and get nothing in return. Of course they’re not going to agree to that. It’s ridiculous.
I’m a doctor – I don’t want people taken hostage, just like I don’t want babies killed like happened today… If Benjamin Netanyahu’s government wants their hostages back, they know exactly how to get them back. It’s to continue the deal that would’ve brought them back. And this is the exact opposite of that.
https://x.com/SaulStaniforth/status/1901927177479688508
Israel killed the ceasefire, but MSM struggles to tell us that
For most commentators, it was clear that Israel – with the support of its US backers – had finally blown up the ceasefire after weeks of violations.
https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1901877089634062823
If you looked to the compromised mainstream media, however, you would think this was all about Hamas and not a conscious Israeli decision to end the ceasefire with a renewed killing spree:
https://x.com/AssalRad/status/1901806904571273448
https://x.com/SanaSaeed/status/1901809007368536496
https://x.com/prem_thakker/status/1901800619121275227
The BBC, which is an expert both at omitting key information and focusing people’s attention on Hamas to distract from Israel’s crimes, resorted to its bread-and-butter propaganda strategy once more:
https://x.com/AssalRad/status/1901929576563200136
As UNICEF speaks of a million Palestinian children “struggling to survive without basic necessities” in Gaza thanks to Israel’s actions, mainstream media outlets are clearly choosing to support the cause of war over the cause of peace. Our politicians, meanwhile, timidly admit Israel’s breaches of international law but still plan to welcome Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar to Britain this week.
The world deserves so much better than the current media and political systems. And we urgently need to build an alternative full of humane, honest voices like Dr Feroze Sidhwa’s.
