(C) OpenDemocracy
This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Israel’s assault on Gaza provides breeding ground for Hamas [1]
[]
Date: 2023-11
More than 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in the first eleven days of the fifth war in Gaza since 2008, according to the Palestinian health authorities. Well over 10,000 have been wounded and a thousand are still missing, mainly under the rubble of bombed buildings. At least 1,400 Israelis have also died, including 279 soldiers, with a further 3,400 wounded.
Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has said it will launch a major operation in northern Gaza – Hamas’s military centre – to irreversibly destroy the group, whom Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu described as “bloodthirsty monsters”. At least half a million Gazans have already fled south after an evacuation order.
History suggests Gaza will experience vast devastation in the coming days. Hamas must have anticipated this when it launched an attack on Israel on 7 October, which suggests it has planned for what has followed.
There are no indications of how long northern Gaza will be closed to its people, or even whether its closure is to be permanent. Southern Gaza also houses many Hamas military facilities, so the Israeli assault on northern Gaza is expected to later continue to the south, and will likely also extend to Hamas supporters in the occupied West Bank.
Help us uncover the truth about Covid-19 The Covid-19 public inquiry is a historic chance to find out what really happened. Make a donation
US president Joe Biden is in Israel today, probably to encourage a degree of restraint by the Netanyahu government and limit Palestinian deaths and injuries, though a huge loss of life at Al-Alhi Al-Arabia hospital in Gaza City overnight is overshadowing his visit. Biden’s comments to Israel that it looks like “the other side” was behind the attack on the hospital – as yet unconfirmed – suggest he will continue to back Netanyahu, as do reports from journalists in Israel of a substantial airlift of US military supplies.
To assess what will happen next, we must remember the context. Gaza was occupied by Egypt during the Israeli War of Independence from 1947 to 1949, becoming a destination for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees fleeing Israeli forces. Two decades later, in the Six Day War of 1967, Israeli forces took over the Gaza Strip and evicted the Egyptians, occupying and controlling it until 2005, when Israel withdrew and passed it on to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Hamas narrowly won the most seats in the Palestinian legislature in 2006 but took over Gaza by force the following year, when joint rule with the PA failed. In response to this, the Israeli government imposed a blockade on the strip and, since then, overall Israeli control of Gaza has been near-total, with the territory effectively an open prison to two million people. Inhabitants survive largely due to food provided by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), which also works to educate young people, many of whom are descended from the 1940s refugees. Gulf states such as Qatar also provide support.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/hamas-israel-palestine-war-breeding-ground-new-recruits-paul-rogers/
Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/
