By María Josefina Arce

Since the beginning of the year, tension has been escalating in the Middle East, due to Israel's constant aggressions against the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, territories illegally occupied by Zionist troops.
  
In recent days, the occupation forces repeatedly bombarded Gaza, attacks that received a response from the Palestinian resistance. And although a cease-fire agreement between the two sides, mediated by Egypt, came into force this Saturday, caution and uncertainty reign.
   
Tel Aviv's criminal actions were condemned by several nations and the UN. The secretary general of the international body, António Guterres, had described the killing of women and children by Israeli bombardments as unacceptable.
  
The number of deaths in the five days of aggressions rose to 33, including six minors and 3 women, in addition to more than 150 wounded.
  
At the same time, UN humanitarian agencies had warned that the situation in the area was really worrying, as fuel was running out and vital supplies such as food and medical supplies were in short supply, in view of Tel Aviv's closure of the crossings.
  
The Palestinian authorities had denounced the destruction of some 940 homes, difficulties in the electricity sector and the paralyzation of educational and fishing activities.
  
The losses caused by the Israeli bombardments, which seriously affected the agricultural sector, are estimated at around five million dollars.
  
The reality is that the Zionist regime practices a policy of apartheid in the occupied areas, even recognized by the UN. Last year, the Special Rapporteur of the International Organization on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory, Michael Lynk, pointed out that three million Palestinians are without prerogatives, living under an oppressive regime of institutional discrimination.
  
Lynk stated that Israel privileges the 700,000 illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Palestine claims as the capital of its future independent state.
  
Other organizations have denounced that countries that protect Israel, such as the United States, are supporting a system of apartheid, undermining the international legal order and exacerbating the suffering of the Palestinian people.
 
Israeli violence claimed the lives of more than 225 Palestinians in 2022, including 53 minors, and so far this year the number of victims has risen to more than 150.
  
The Palestinian people have the right to free self-determination, to live in freedom, peace and dignity in the territories that belong to them and that have been usurped by the Zionist regime of Israel.