Yahya Sinwar’s killing will not end the Gaza war
We may already know this, but it’s worth repeating: the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and 120 others being taken hostage and brought to the Gaza Strip. The unprecedented attacks caught Israel by surprise. In retaliation, the country’s forces launched a military campaign in Gaza that has devastated the coastal enclave and left tens of thousands of Palestinian dead, civilians and Hamas fighters alike.
Now among those killed is Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the chief architect of the October 7 attacks. His death, however, will not end the war. Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza and Lebanon, where Hamas ally Hezbollah is based. Hundreds of Hezbollah fighters have been killed. Hundreds of Israeli troops have been killed since the Gaza war began. A year after the October 7 attacks, and despite the killing of Sinwar and his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas remains undefeated and is still firing rockets at Israel. War will not end the threat against Israel; only political and social justice for the aggrieved Palestinians will bring lasting peace.
A retired Israeli general has said starvation is the only way to bring Hamas to surrender, telling Palestinian civilians to leave or starve. Thanks to a blockade, only 30 food trucks have managed to enter northern Gaza. The United States threatened to withhold delivering munitions to Israel unless food aid was allowed in. This seemed hypocritical of President Joe Biden’s administration. It’s as if it’s saying: feed them first, then we will give you more bombs to kill them.
“The situation is desperate. We have no shelter supplies, very little food and zero assurances from Israel on getting anything into [the] Jabalia [refugee camp,] where more than 100,000 people are trapped,” Georgios Petropoulos, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza, was quoted by the BBC as saying. The siege strategy, “surround and starve them,” seems to be the Israeli plan.
Long history
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has a long history. In 1922, when the Ottoman Empire was defeated by the Allied powers after it sided with Germany in World War I, Palestine was put under British administration by the League of Nations. The British decided to establish in Palestine a homeland for Jews living abroad then. Hundreds of Jews began migrating to Palestine, and violence soon erupted between the Jews and the Palestinians.
Tensions between them grew worse. After the Allies’ victory in World War II, Jewish migration to Palestine increased, helped by a Europe that felt guilty about the Holocaust. Amid growing violence, the United Nations proposed dividing Palestine into two states: one for Jews and the other for Palestinians. The Palestinians and their Arab neighbors said no; the Jewish migrant community said yes.
In 1948, the British ended its administration of Palestine and withdrew. The large Jewish community declared independence and founded the State of Israel. Neighboring Arab nations rejected that and invaded but were defeated by the new state, which grabbed much more territory than it had already occupied.
About 800,000 Palestinians were driven out of their lands and became refugees in neighboring countries. This event is known as “Nakba,” or the “Catastrophe.” Only the West Bank and Gaza remained in Palestinian control.
In 1967, the Six-Day War erupted, with Israel emerging victorious over Egypt and Syria and capturing and occupying the West Bank and Gaza. In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared illegal Israel’s occupation and establishment of Jewish settlements in those territories and its annexation and use of natural resources there. This came after the ICJ alleged on May 17 that Israel’s war on Gaza was “genocidal.” It ordered Israel to stop it, but the country ignored it and denied the allegation.
The Palestinians have been caged in Gaza and the West Bank since the Six-Day War. Eventually, they were allowed some degree of autonomy under Israeli control and close monitoring. Some Palestinians in Lebanon formed Hezbollah, while those in Gaza established Hamas to oppose Israel. Iran supports both groups.
Brutal retaliation
A year after October 7, Israeli forces, supplied with weapons from the US and Germany, continued their campaign of brutal retaliation: the nonstop bombing of homes, clinics, schools and hospitals in Gaza. Allegations of multiple war crimes and genocide continue to surface, which Israel repeatedly denies.
As many as 42,000 Palestinians have been killed, almost half of them women and children. Those still living are on the edge of famine. Nonstop bombing drove at least 2 million Gazans from their homes, and have been told repeatedly by Israel to evacuate elsewhere in the territory. But where? There are really no safe spaces in Gaza. Countless buildings there have been totally destroyed. Scores of Palestinian bodies still lie under the rubble.
Israeli troops have already entered the West Bank, and hundreds more Palestinians have been killed. Jewish settlers continue to illegally grab land there, with the military’s backing. Hezbollah has been firing hundreds of rockets at northern Israel for many months, hitting villages there and causing thousands of Israelis to evacuate.
Despite the US warning him not to escalate the conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent troops to Lebanon, anyway. Several Hezbollah leaders have been assassinated, and dozens of the group’s fighters have been killed or seriously injured by exploding pagers and hand-held radios planted by Israeli intelligence operatives. About 2,000 Lebanese have been killed, and an untold number more were driven from their homes.
Israeli tanks have shelled the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon and broke into the UN compound, injuring several UN troops. An arrogant Netanyahu has ordered the UN to withdraw its peacekeepers from Lebanon, but the UN command has vowed to stay, prevent atrocities and monitor attacks by Israeli forces.
The US supplies more than $3 billion every year, as well as tons of bombs and other munitions, to Israel. New US air defense systems are being delivered. As the US presidential approaches, it is not politically expedient for Biden to pressure Netanyahu to stop the fighting or to halt delivering bombs. Netanyahu is backed by a powerful Israeli lobby and the military-industrial Nations complex that wants more war.
The politically powerful Christian evangelical lobby that backs Donald Trump wants Israel to possess all of Palestine. It believes that, once that happens, Jesus will return to Earth, and believers will ascend with him to heaven in the “rapture.”
In the meantime, Netanyahu is apparently blocking a ceasefire deal, delaying the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. It seems the hostages have been used as pawns in his plan to stay in power, emerge as his country’s savior, and avoid facing corruption and fraud charges in an Israeli court.
The legacy of the ongoing war in Gaza will haunt Israel for generations to come. There is so much deep hatred on both sides that peace seems impossible. It seems Israel would not defeat Hamas or Hezbollah. For every fighter killed, two more will replace him. What the endgame will be, no one knows. Who will rule Gaza after the war is over is unknown. The only long-term solution is the two-state solution, but that is impossible right now. Meanwhile, the killings and human suffering continue.
END
This column was first published in The Sunday Times (www.manilatimes.net) on October 20, 2024. Print, digital, and online republication of this column without the written consent of the author and of The Manila Times is strictly forbidden.
Fr. Shay Cullen
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About the Founder
Fr. Shay Cullen
Shay Cullen is a Missionary priest from Ireland, a member of the Missionary Society of St. Columban and Founder and President of Preda Foundation since 1975.
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