Understanding The Gaza-Israel Conflict

For those still clueless about the Gaza-Israel conflict or what led to the July 2014 war, Nisarg Kamdar breaks down the timeline to explain what the problem is all about

“We are moving from Iron Dome to an iron fist.”

With that ominous remark, the Israel Defence Forces launched Operation Protective Edge, an offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza strip. It ended in wanton destruction and left more than 2,200 people dead, the vast majority of whom were Palestinians. The middle East had gone bonkers, but the countless wars involving Israel and Palestine have desensitised a considerable number of people to the ruination the countries have fallen into. Thus, it is apt to trace the causes of the present war.

Gaza
The Gaza Strip is an exclave region of Palestine, meaning a part of the territory of Palestine that is completely surrounded by Israel. In other words, Gaza is separated from the remaining territory of Palestine by Israel. Gaza is bordered by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. The Gaza-Israel conflict is part of the wider Israel-Palestine conflict.
Gaza is one of the most densely populated regions on the face of the Earth and has been under a crippling blockade since 2007. Egypt has sealed its borders with Gaza, while Israel has imposed a land, air and sea blocked on Gaza. This was done as a measure of retribution against the Palestinian people for democratically electing the political wing of the militant organisation Hamas. Debilitating the Gaza economy, the blockede, which has received widespread criticism from United Nations to Israel’s strongest ally, the United States, has left an unacceptable and unsustainable humanitarian situation in the Gaza region. Imagine never having travelled or having no access to any route out of a region smaller than the a suburb in your city. That’s what the situation is like.

Israel
Israel has been at the receiving end of several crude rockets fired by Hamas militants from Gaza, and has raged against this by indiscriminate firing of rockets into civilian regions. To combat this Israel has developed a mobile all weather defence system called the Iron Dome. It is designed to intercept and destroy 90% of the unsophisticated rockets fired from Gaza.

The fight

Hamas has also been building a network of underground tunnels into Israel and Egypt. While the tunnels along the Egyptian border are primarily used to supply civilian  goods like food and medicine as well as commodities like fuel and concrete, they have also been utilised as a channel for smuggling weapons. During war they’ve also functioned as secure passages for Hamas militants. An Al-Jazeera report noted that at their peak the tunnels poured $700 million into the Gaza economy and provided employment to close to 7,000 people. The tunnels along the Israeli border however, have been used to launch frequent attacks on the Israeli Defense Forces(IDF). One 66-foot deep tunnel was Zonstructed at a colossal cost of $10 million, making it Israel’s prime bone of contention. They contend that war is necessitated by cyclical need to undertake operation to destruct these underground tunnels. In fact this was proffered as an explanation for the blockade. However, it crumbled when Israel launched a military operation against six civilian ships carrying humanitarian aid and construction material for the Gaza Strip. Gaza Flotilla Raid, as the operation is popularly referred to, was carried out in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea and left nine activists dead. A UN report described “the circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution.”

Catalysts of the war
One of the events leading up to the break of war in July 2014 was the abduction of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. While Israel alleged Hamas was behind these abductions, the Palestinian authority in the West Bank attributed it to the Qawasameh clan which has a long history of sabotaging any attempts at peace with Israel. This led to a series of arrests and air strikes, which descended into a full-blown war.

Possibility of peace
Palestinians have pointed to the reconciliation between Hamas and the other main Palestinian faction Fatah, after seven years of division under the banner of a Unity government as the reason for Israel’s anger against Palestine. In comparison to Hamas, Fatah is seen as a moderate alternative to Hamas in Israeli and Western circles. A belligerent refusal to negotiate any peace with the new government, and rather seemed to push for harsh measures against the Unity government. The European Union, the United Nations, the United States, China, India, Russia and Turkey, though, recognised the Palestinian unity government.

Armed VS Unarmed
What followed next was the disproportionate use of force by the IDF against people living in the Gaza Strip which left 1,500 civilians dead. The savagery of the use of force against unarmed civilians was a permanent blot on humanity. While no one begrudges Israel’s right to self-defence, the targeting of UN schools and shelters is a war crime. The brutalities of excessive force cannot be justified considering that families have lost generations in Israeli strikes. The lopsided battle was perfectly captured by comedian and satirist Jon Stewart when he narrated how the citizens of respective regions were alerted to strikes. “While Israeli citizens can now download an app which warns them about strikes, Gaza residents are informed about imminent Israeli air strikes through light, smaller ones.”

Will there be reconciliation?
Like so many other disputes across the globe, this one began with a fight for land but politicians on both sides have now mutilated it into visceral hatred for the other. Both the Hamas leadership and the Israeli leadership derive a part of their power through constant war-mongering and hatepeddling. The solution, as several United Nations resolutions have espoused, is a two-state solution based on the five principles of peaceful coexistence. The challenge is whether both states can eject themselves from this orbit of despair to bring one of the longest running conflicts in the Middle East to an end.

 

Volume 4 Issue 4