photo credit: Natalia Favila Inacua
The ongoing conflict between what is modern day Israel and Palestine is long and complex. Throughout history, the war-fare has caused thousands of deaths on both sides. Recently, on Oct. 7, the conflict escalated when Hamas launched an attack on Israel.
For context, Hamas is a militant Islamist group that has held control over Gaza, a narrow piece of land on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, since 2006, according to Global Conflict Tracker.
Along with this, it is a common misconception that Hamas and Palestinians are one in the same.
The people of Hamas and Palestine “are not necessarily interchangeable. It is important to distinguish between the two that not all Palestinians are a part of Hamas and not all Hamas members are Palestinians,” social studies teacher William Mathes said.
On the other hand, Israel was created when the United Nations voted to partition land in the British mandate of Palestine into two states – one Jewish, one Arab- following the events during the Holocaust, according to the Guardian.
There is a lot more to both nation’s history than what is stated here. The conflict between modern day Israel and Palestine has been going on for over a century. The complexities of those past encounters are what has led to what happened at the beginning of October.
Oct. 7 was when Hamas fired thousands of rockets towards Israeli towns before breaking through the heavily fortified border fence that separated the two nations. From there, Hamas sent gunmen deep into Israeli territory, and they killed more than 1,400 people, including civilians and soldiers, and took more than 200 people hostage, according to Israeli authorities. It has been described as the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, according to CNN.
After the attack, Israel officially declared war on Hamas, and a directive from the defense minister was sent to the Israeli Defense force telling them to carry out a “complete siege” of Gaza, according to Global Conflict Tracker.
“Israel retaliated against Gaza, particularly Gaza City which is the most densely populated city in the world. Not the most populated, the most densely populated city. Even if Israel is trying to do targeted attacks they are going to kill civilians in the process,” Mathes said.
In addition, Israel released a statement ordering Palestinian citizens in Northern Gaza to evacuate before a possible ground assault. Israel gave specific terms of a grace period they would give to let the people of Northern Gaza get out of the area.
However, many are saying that there is nowhere else for Gazan citizens to go due to crossings out of Gaza being shut, according to CNN.
On top of that, Israel made the decision to block supply lines for basic necessities, such as water and fuel into the Gaza population.
The UN warned that the lack of water and fuel in Gaza “became a matter of life or death.” However, negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and the United States President Joe Biden, caused Israel to decide to renew water supplies to parts of southern Gaza, according to CNBC.
Due to blocking these supply lines Gazans are also running out of food and medicine, causing them to be in desperate need of aid.
There are some aid convoys that have been allowed into Gaza but they are only bringing in a fraction of the supplies needed. Additionally, the UN said that distribution of the supplies from the aid convoys will have to stop if there is no fuel for the trucks, according to PBS.
The controversy, the complexity, and the questions of morality is what has been bringing the war between Israel and Palestine so much news coverage from around the world. Many people know and are having discussions about what this conflict will mean for all parties involved.
“This is an extremely important conflict that people need to be aware of. Not only because thousands of innocent people are dying, but also to understand global politics and the roots of them,” Ramamoorthy said.
There is so much more to the complex relationship between these nations, whether that is historically or recently. As viewers watch this conflict continue to play out, the complexity tied to this conflict will cause Israel, Hamas and Palestine to continue to be a major political topic and topic in the press.
