Stop the Israeli Genocide against Palestinian Women and Girls!
In the last two days, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the Israeli Occupation forces (IOF) committed at least 47 massacres against the Palestinian people living under siege in Gaza. These attacks have resulted in 266 martyrs, including 117 children. Most of those impacted are from the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip. Since Israel’s attacks against Palestinians began on October 7, the IOF has committed 597 massacres, resulting in the murder of 3,813 Palestinians. As forces are limited on the ground to offer relief, it is estimated that over 1,500 Palestinians—830 of whom children—are still buried under the rubble of buildings and civilian infrastructures that have been carpet bombed by the IOF. The overall number of those martyred by Zionist forces has risen to 5,087—including 2,055 children, 1,119 women, and 217 elderly individuals. 15,273 citizens have been injured from the indiscriminate airstrikes, phosphorus gas, and military attacks.
What we are seeing play out in Gaza is genocide against the Palestinian people as indiscriminate attacks are impacting entire families, men, women children and the elderly. Israel cannot claim that it is simply defending itself against a threat from Gaza, when it has massacred, imprisoned, and dispossessed millions of Palestinian in its 75-year occupation of Palestine territories. Settler-colonizers have no right to self-defense when the peoples it displaces and annihilates begin to resist. As Israel continues to increase its aggression by targeting hospitals, mosques, churches, and schools—the United States has stood by and justified the military actions being taken. As the US continues to provide unmatched military aid to Israel—the blood of the Palestinians is on the hands of the United States and Israel.
As members of the International Women’s Alliance in the Asia Pacific, we are too familiar with the impacts of military aggression in our communities. From the US-backed joint military activities that happen throughout the region and put our communities in the crossfire during drills and trainings; to the creation of US military bases which displace us from our homes and increase the violence we experience—we are enraged by what is playing out in Palestine and cannot stay silent as Palestinians living under occupation and displacement are being massacred. We know that the US military aid being sent to Israel only empowers more killing and more violence—and just as we condemn US military support to our own fascist governments we demand an end to US military aid to Israel, and an end to the US-Israel occupation of Palestine once and for all!
Our hearts go out to our sisters and brothers in Palestine and our Palestinian siblings around the world who have been displaced from their homeland for generations—just as we actively resist in our homelands for genuine sovereignty and self-determination, we raise our fists and stand with Palestine in their fight for the right of return, for self-determination, and for an end to the illegal occupation led by the US and Israel.
Our organizations stand in steadfast solidarity with the people of Palestine as they continue to resist and call for justice amidst this massacre. We call on all our members in the Asia Pacific region and around the world to join us in solidarity with Palestine by taking photos, recording videos or sharing art with the following demands:
STOP BOMBING GAZA!
END THE SIEGE, END US-ISRAEL OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE!
SUPPORT PALESTINIAN PEOPLES’ RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION, RETURN, and RESISTANCE!
#FreePalestine