Gaza strife

Ignoring international appeals for a ceasefire, Israel has expanded its military offensive in Gaza. After a week of aerial bombardment, it has deployed ground troops.

The Israeli government has justified ‘Operation Protective Edge’ as a “defensive action” in response to Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel. The belligerence was launched amid an inflamed atmosphere caused by recent tit-for-tat killing of three Israelis and a Palestinian, all teenagers.

 Following the disappearance of the Israeli youth, the Israeli government launched a massive operation in Gaza, arresting hundreds of Palestinians and demolishing homes.

Even if the youth were abducted by Hamas – there is no evidence pointing to that yet – it doesn’t justify the collective punishment of Palestinian civilians. Likewise, the random bombing of Gaza “to remove Hamas once and for all” is indefensible.

 Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza is a war crime. It is widely believed in Gaza and outside that ‘Protective Edge’ was prompted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s international isolation, rather than any provocation by Hamas.

It is a political move aimed at silencing the Israeli hard-right and undoing international support for Palestinians that the recent Hamas-Fatah unity evoked. 

Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel are wrong. But Israel’s aerial bombing is a disproportionate response. Over 160 Palestinians, around half of them women and children and the majority civilian, have been killed in a week of aerial strikes. No Israeli life has been lost yet.

 Of course, Israel’s Iron Dome system has provided its citizens with a protective umbrella against rocket attacks.  Besides causing some anxiety to Israelis,  Hamas rockets have caused no casualties and very little damage. Israeli losses being low, Netanyahu could be tempted to prolong this war.

 The question is whether that would make Israelis safer. Two previous wars that Israel unleashed on Gaza over the past six years failed to produce a solution and Hamas emerged unvanquished. 

The international community has adopted a rather pusillanimous approach to the crisis. Several countries, including India, have taken a position of equidistance between the two sides as though their actions are equally grave.

 Indeed, while Hamas has been called on to halt the violence, Israel is being asked to exercise only “maximum restraint.” Has the world forgotten the historical context of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and that Israel is occupying Palestinian land? Surely the Palestinians have a right to defend their territory against Israeli invasion.