On October 7th, 2023, the militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking nearly 250 soldiers and civilians as hostages. They launched attacks from the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated parts of the world, and since then Israeli Defense Forces have been carrying out strikes across the Gaza Strip [1]. Since then, nearly the entire population of 2 million people has been displaced, with restrictions on humanitarian aid only exacerbating the humanitarian crisis [2]. Israel continues to be condemned for war crimes due to indiscriminate attacks, which are causing mass amounts of civilian casualties. Due to restrictions, Gaza is running out of water, electricity, and medicine [3]. Hamas is also involved in numerous war crimes, from hostage-taking to the alleged use of civilians as human shields [4].
However, with the barrage of contradictory and convoluted information coming in from news sources, politicians, and social media, to truly understand the war, it is important to take a step back and look at some of the background information.
What is Hamas and What Do They Want?
In short, Hamas aims to control all of Israel, which it does not recognize as a legitimate state, as well as the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip [11].
Hamas currently controls the Gaza Strip and remains one of the Palestinian territories’ two major political parties, supported largely by Iran, who actively praised the attacks and provides them with millions of dollars in aid, and Turkey, who harbors some of its top leaders [8]. It was established in 1987, and in 1988, published its charter, calling for Israel’s destruction and the forming of an Islamic society in Palestine. In 2017, it accepted the formation of a Palestinian state along old borders, yet still refused to recognize Israel [7].
In 2006, Hamas won a majority of seats in the legislature due to the rejection of the governing party at the time, Fatah, which many viewed as corrupt and unable to deliver on promises. However, Hamas was soon ousted from power by Fatah, which refused to accept the results of the election. This led to a week of fighting, dividing Palestine into two territories, the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas, and the West Bank, governed by Fatah [9]. “Palestinians have not voted for a legislature since 2006, nor a president since 2008,” explains the Council on Foreign Relations [7]. Hamas has since ruled the Gaza Strip with a strict authoritarian government, enforcing gender segregation and repressing the media and opposition.
Since they took over the Gaza Strip, Hamas has fired rockets and mortars into Israel, and in 2021, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another paramilitary organization, fired over 4,000 rockets from Gaza during an eleven-day conflict. However, their attack beginning on October 7th has been much different than previous attacks, involving extensive military strategy, scale, and secrecy [7]. The group operates through a massive network of tunnels, many of which are lined with electrical wiring and include blast doors, weapons, and multiple branches, noted as the most sophisticated network in warfare. These act as living spaces while enabling members of Hamas to engage in cross-border attacks. Locating and destroying these tunnels have become one of the largest challenges and tasks for the Israeli military [10].
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that Hamas, classified as a terrorist group by countries including the United States and EU, cannot be confused with the Palestinian population [5]. In fact, the majority of Gazans have been frustrated with their governance, and do not align themselves with Hamas’s extremist ideology [6].
A Bit More History
The Israeli-Palestine conflict goes back to 1917, with Britain’s Balfour Declaration, which is considered the root of both the conflict and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948. This declaration pledged to establish a home for Jewish people in Palestine, yet 90% of the Palestinian population was made up of Arab natives, creating tensions from the very start. Additionally, Britain had simultaneously promised Arabs in the region independence and promised the French that most of Palestine would be under international administration with the rest of the region split between the two powers after the war. However, the declaration implied that Palestine would be occupied by the British and that Arabs would not gain independence [12].
In 1948, after a 1947 UN Resolution for the establishment of an independent Jewish State in Palestine, effectively dividing Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, Israel was created, leading to the first Arab-Israeli War [13, 14]. This war ended with an Israeli victory but divided the territory into the State of Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Due to a mutual defense pact, Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip, Jordan controlled the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Syria controlled the Golan Heights. This was followed by the six-day war in 1967, in which Israel gained control over all three territories. Six years later came the Yom Kippur War, launched by Egypt and Syria, which ultimately led to no gains for either of the countries [14].
1979 brought the signing of the Camp David Accords, which ended the conflict between Egypt and Israel but left questions of Palestinian governance unanswered. The 1993 Oslo 1 Accords set up a way for Palestinians to govern themselves in the West Bank and Gaza, leading to mutual recognition between Israel and Palestine. Since then, however, conflict and tensions have only increased, most notably with the Israeli construction of a barrier wall around the West Bank to contain Palestinian uprisings, a military confrontation between Israel and Hamas in 2014, and the 2015 declaration that the Oslo Accords no longer bound Palestinians. In 2021, protests culminated with Hamas launching rockets into Israeli territory, to which Israel responded with airstrikes, hitting both military and non-military buildings. Eleven days later, the two sides agreed to a ceasefire; however, the attacks continued [14].
What Is Happening Now?
The current conflict remains a controversial balance between aiding Palestinian civilians and defending Israel against Hamas. The United States continues to be criticized for its pro-Israeli stance and refusal to call for a ceasefire, as well as veto of a UN resolution to do so [15, 16].
Attacks between the two sides continue, with indiscriminate attacks from both sides killing hundreds of civilians. As of the first week of December, death tolls have surpassed 15,200, with 70% of the dead being women and children. Due to Israel’s unrelenting attacks on Palestine, the entire population is now crammed into the southern half of the Gaza Strip. Still, as Israel begins its move into the southern half, questions of what will happen to civilians remain [17]. For the first time in the war, Israel finally opened up direct passages for aid into Gaza, which will hopefully double the food and medicine reaching civilians. However, they have also ramped up attacks on Palestinian civilians, killing 90 in a refugee camp in northern Gasa [18].
Due to international efforts, Israel and Hamas agreed to a 4-day truce, allowing for the return of 50 hostages in return for 150 Palestinians kept in Israeli detention [19]. With pushes from Qatar and Egypt, the deal was renewed twice, leading to the release of 104 hostages [20, 21]. However, 143 remain [21]. Seven days later, on December 1st, fighting resumed, with Israel launching multiple attacks on Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating the terms of the cease-fire [22]. Reports confirm that the day before, Hamas killed four Israelis in an attack in Jerusalem [23].
Conclusion
As of now, the outcome of the conflict remains uncertain. Both sides continue attacks, and Israel says it will not stop the war until it eliminates Hamas, pushing back on calls for a ceasefire [23]. The UN approved a nonbinding ceasefire resolution and is set to hold a formal vote on one within days[24, 25].
Despite all the uncertainty, one thing remains clear – something must be done to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Otherwise, mass numbers of civilians will continue to die for something they have zero control over.
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44124396 – 1
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/what-palestinians-really-think-hamas – 6
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-hamas – 7
https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/10/14/23917078/israel-hamas-war-gaza-iran-hezbollah-khamenei-lebanon – 8 https://nbcmontana.com/news/nation-world/fact-check-team-understanding-palestines-political-divide-between-hamas-and-fatah – 9
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/what-is-palestinian-group-hamas-2023-10-30/ – 11
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/truman-israel/ – 13
https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict – 14
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/14/us/politics/israel-biden-letter-gaza-cease-fire.html – 15
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/1/the-israel-hamas-truce-has-ended-what-we-know-so-far – 20
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/30/hamas-hostages-list-names-tracker-israel-gaza/ – 21
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/01/1216333362/israel-hamas-ceasefire-combat-gaza-hostages – 22
https://time.com/6341993/israel-hamas-ceasefire-war/ – 23
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/01/1216333362/israel-hamas-ceasefire-combat-gaza-hostages – 24