Israel-Hamas War: Report updated January 2, 2024
Sohail Mahmood, PhD
Political Analyst | Political Consultant | Board Member| Author
The war started after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and about 240 others taken hostage. Months of heavy bombardment of Gaza has claimed over 22,000 lives, mostly women and children. Some 58, 000 people in Gaza were wounded. Another 7,000 people were trapped under the rubble. A total of 172 Israeli soldiers have been killed and more than 900 have been injured. Since the start of the war, 506 servicemen and women have been killed. [i] International concern is growing at mounting casualties. There have been global protests against Israeli killings of Palestinian civilians.
After more than 12 weeks of the war, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) stepped up strikes in Gaza and has reduced much of the territory to rubble, killing thousands and plunging its 2.4 million people into a humanitarian disaster. The war has escalated beyond expectation.
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The UN says 85% of Gaza's people - almost two million - have now been displaced. The U.N. has warned of the increased risk of hunger and disease, as desperate families shelter in makeshift tents against the winter cold.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said nearly 1.8 million people are sheltering in or in the vicinity of its overcrowded installations in Gaza. The agency has also reported damage from attacks hitting 128 of its sites, with 142 of its personnel killed.
Meanwhile, there is a growing health emergency. The World Health Organization says that vaccines are crucial because of the conditions in which Gazans live. Thousands of people live together in overcrowded camps with very poor water conditions, poor hygiene, and very poor sanitation - these are all breeding grounds for various diseases.[ii]
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with the war until Hamas is crushed and the more than 100 hostages still held by the militant group in Gaza are freed.? Israeli leaders have outlined a low-intensity campaign that focuses on remaining Hamas strongholds and could last for much of the year.[iii]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on December 30, 2023, that "the war is at its height". He said that the country must retake control of Gaza's border with Egypt, an area now crammed with civilians who have fled the carnage across the rest of the enclave. Retaking the border could also constitute a de facto reversal of Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, raising new questions over the future of the enclave and prospects for a Palestinian state. Washington said Israel should allow a Palestinian government to control Gaza when the conflict is over.[iv]
Meanwhile, the IDF continued the raids across several areas of the occupied West Bank. Since October 7, at least 321 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF or Israeli settlers. More than 2,550 people have been arrested in the occupied territory since the Israel-Hamas war began.?[v] The?Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition war monitor, reported that the airstrikes hit a Syrian army artillery unit where members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah were also stationed. The observatory said Israel carried out 76 attacks on Syrian territory in 2023. [vi]Israel also carried out air strikes on January 2, 2024, targeting Syria. Israel’s military said earlier that it has hit sites in Syria following attacks launched toward northern Israel from Syrian territory.[vii]
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Israel announced on January 1, 2024, that the war has many months to go. It has signaled a new phase in its offensive in which the IDF would draw down forces inside Gaza this month and shift to a months-long phase of more localized "mopping up" operations. Meanwhile, Hamas also showed its continued ability to target launching a barrage of rocket fire at Tel Aviv.[viii] The war between Israel and the Hamas is expected to last all of 2024.[ix]
But ahead of a visit to the region by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israel is under growing international pressure to scale back the offensive. Blinken has?urged Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians.
The unprecedented widespread death and destruction led South Africa to file a case against Israel at the ICJ, accusing it of “genocidal" acts that aim “to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.” Israel rejected the accusations, calling them a “blood libel.”[x]
South Africa asked The Hague-based court last week to issue an interim order for Israel to immediately suspend its military operations in Gaza. The case, if it goes ahead, will take years, but an interim order could be issued within weeks.
It's unclear what concrete effects an ICJ ruling against Israel would have, but it would likely isolate the country politically and economically. [xi]
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Bianca Nobilo, in her article “Israel-Hamas war threatens to spill over, AI, and a seismic US election: 5 predictions for 2024”, CNN, January 1, 2024, says:[xii]
International pressure is mounting on Israel to limit the duration and intensity of its war amid a global outcry over Gazans being trapped in mortal danger, without critical supplies or access to healthcare, as the disease spreads through crowded humanitarian camps. Despite this, Israel has doubled down on its efforts and vowed its war on Hamas will rage for many months. The risk of a wider Middle East conflict?escalating. There are increasing cross-border exchanges between the Iran-backed, Islamist paramilitary group Hezbollah and the Israeli?Defense Forces (IDF) on the Lebanon-Israel border. Proxy attacks by Iran-backed factions in Iraq – like the recent strike on the US embassy in Baghdad - are becoming bolder and more common. And?further attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed?Houthi rebels?on global shipping routes through the Red Sea and Suez Canal could make energy prices soar. There’s also a risk of other extremist groups in the region being fueled by opportunism and/or grievances. Any formal normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a deal that appeared close before October 7, is now off the table. The United States’ early unequivocal support of Israeli attacks on Gaza has damaged the image it projects as a guarantor of human rights and international law – a reputational hit from which Washington is unlikely to recover in the short term, despite a decisive shift in tone. Going into 2024, the US and its allies must strike a balance between retaliation for and deterrence of proxy attacks, while keeping their responses under a threshold that would trigger a wider conflict.
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Israel has been under pressure from the United States, its top ally, to shift to lower-intensity operations in Gaza and to protect Palestinian civilians. The Israeli military said on January 1, 2024, that its troops and aircraft "struck a series of targets in Lebanon, including terrorist infrastructure, military sites in which Hezbollah terrorists were operating, and launch posts."[xiii]
Israel has warned that, if Hezbollah does not back down, a full-on Lebanon war looms. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, whose militant allies in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen have also been carrying out longer-range attacks against Israel.
There have been at least 17 attacks on vessels the Houthis believe are linked to Israel or its allies, mostly without success. The Yemen-based group has targeted ships in the Red Sea in a show of support for Hamas. The U.S. December 31, 2023, sunk three Houthi boats in response to an attack by the Iran-backed militants on a 2023, container ship in the Red Sea.
Ten Houthi fighters were killed, and their death marks a new phase in the crisis.[xiv]
Tariq Kenney-Shawa in his opinion piece “Israel's Gaza strategy: Create facts on the ground that can't be undone”, published in ?Los Angeles Times on January 2, 2024, aptly argues that:[xv]
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For decades, Israel has established “facts on the ground” to expand and entrench its control of the West Bank while defying international condemnation. Now, after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Israel is using the same strategy to achieve a new goal: the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. By driving 2 million people from their homes, destroying critical infrastructure, and bulldozing huge swaths of land entirely, the new facts on the ground Israel is creating will render Gaza uninhabitable by the time the guns fall silent, leaving no other option but mass displacement…Now, the Israeli government is in the process of once again unilaterally reconstructing reality on the ground, and in doing so, destroying all hopes for a peaceful future. This time, it is not pursuing expansionist goals through settlement construction, although resettling Gaza may very well be the plan in the long term. In attempting to annihilate Hamas, Israel is wiping Gaza as we know it off the map and rendering it unlivable for the 2.3 million Palestinians who call it home. This is not the unfortunate outcome of war, but a calculated strategy to achieve the goal of maximum land with minimum Palestinians — consider this the new facts on the ground. Even before Israel’s new onslaught, Gaza’s infrastructure was crippled by more than 16 years of a suffocating Israeli blockade. More than 85% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been?internally displaced, with no safe place within Gaza to flee. If Israel’s assault ended today, analysts estimate that more than?50% of housing?in Gaza has already been severely damaged or destroyed. Israel?reportedly plans to flood?Hamas’ tunnel network with seawater, which risks permanently polluting Gaza’s soil, contaminating its aquifers, and causing even more infrastructure collapse. …Herein lies the menace of Israel’s “facts on the ground” strategy. Israeli leaders have over the years achieved their expansionist goals by gradually, but steadily, carrying out practices widely abhorred by the international community and illegal under international law. In the West Bank, ethnically cleansing all Palestinians in one fell swoop would probably trigger regional and maybe even international intervention, but taking the land incrementally by constructing settlements as stubborn facts on the ground could achieve the same end with less blowback. Similarly, Israel does not need to kill Gaza’s entire population all at once. All it must do is ensure the Gaza Strip is uninhabitable and the rest will follow. Israel can once again shrug its shoulders and point to the irreversible reality it created. It does not have to end this way. The international community, with the U.S. at its helm, could discard its facade of helplessness and leverage its ample economic and diplomatic tools to make it clear to Israel that the mass displacement of Palestinians is unacceptable, that Gazans must be able to return to their homes. Without intervention now, Israel will march ahead, as it did in the West Bank, systematically destroying the viability of all alternative solutions and ensuring another Nakba of historic proportions.
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Earlier, the Biden administration had also sent messages to Iran and Hezbollah that the US would be prepared to intervene militarily if attacks were launched against Israel. On November 5, 2023, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reiterated the US position that it was committed to deterring “any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this conflict”. The S Central Command, which covers the Middle East, said that an?Ohio-class nuclear missile submarine had arrived?in the region. [xvi]
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Earlier, the World Health Organization director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “very concerned” about the reports of connectivity outages in?Gaza, as well as “heavy bombardments” of the territory, and called for all channels of communication to be restored “immediately”. “Without connectivity, people who need immediate medical attention cannot contact hospitals and ambulances,” he said.
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The heads of all major United Nations agencies and international charities issued a joint statement calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, calling the situation “horrific” and “unacceptable.”[xvii]
The UN said on November 5, 2023, that 88 staff members from its Palestinian refugee agency have been reported killed, which it said was “the highest number of United Nations fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict”.[xviii]
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Blinken made a whirlwind Middle East tour focused on aid for the Palestinians and backing "humanitarian pauses" in the fighting. He went to Israel, the occupied West Bank, Jordan, Iraq, Cyprus, and Turkey. The US diplomat has been facing a chorus of Arab calls to support an immediate ceasefire.
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Meanwhile, Turkey, which is allied to the Palestinians but also has ties with Israel, has said it is recalling its ambassador to Israel and breaking off contacts with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel sees Hamas as an existential threat and has vowed to annihilate it after several inconclusive wars dating back to 2007.
Netanyahu has remained firm on his position, vowing that "there won't be a ceasefire until the hostages are returned".
"Let them remove this from their lexicon. We are saying this to our enemies and our friends," the right-wing premier said after meeting troops.[xix]
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Earlier, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Israel's war with Hamas could draw in other regional forces, but Conricus said Israel's position was "very defensive" and soldiers have "only been responding to attacks from Hezbollah".
On November 1, 2023, communications and internet services were cut off in the enclave again. This was the second such blackout in the besieged territory in less than a week.[xx]
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Israel has launched indiscriminate and relentless airstrikes while blacking out communications and internet services in the Palestinian territory.
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Israel has repeatedly warned Gaza residents to evacuate northern areas and while many have gone south, many have stayed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed international calls for a "humanitarian pause" in fighting to enable emergency aid deliveries to civilians suffering from critical shortages of food, medicine, drinking water, and fuel.[xxi]
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Israeli airstrikes hit a densely populated refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on October 31, 2023, in which four hundred were killed. A barrage of Israeli air strikes on a densely populated refugee camp near Gaza City has drawn condemnation from governments and NGOs across the globe. Ireland’s foreign minister Micheál Martin has said in a statement that he is “deeply shocked” by the number of casualties caused yesterday by an Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza.[xxii]
Martin wrote:[xxiii]
I am deeply shocked by the high number of casualties following the bombing by Israel yesterday of the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza. Ireland has made clear on many occasions that Israel’s right to defend itself must be within the parameters of International Humanitarian Law. We now urgently need a humanitarian ceasefire and a significant scaling up of humanitarian access to get vital supplies to civilians. We cannot wait any longer.
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Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has issued a strongly?worded statement stressing that he is “appalled” by casualties at the Jabalia refugee camp and that “laws of war and humanity must always apply.”[xxiv]
He wrote:[xxv]
Building on the EU Council’s clear stance that Israel has the right to defend itself in line with international humanitarian law and ensure the protection of all civilians, I am appalled by the high number of casualties following the bombing by Israel of the Jabalia refugee camp. UNSG António Guterres reminded us that IHL [international humanitarian law] cannot be applied selectively, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution. The right to self-defense should always be balanced by the obligation to spare civilians to the greatest extent possible. Laws of war and humanity must always apply, including when it comes to humanitarian assistance. With the unfolding tragedy in Gaza, the European Union has been calling since last week for humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs. With each passing day, as the situation becomes increasingly dire, this is more urgent than ever. The safety and the protection of civilians is not only a moral but a legal obligation.
The brutal attack on the hospital in Gaza on October 17, 2023, created an immense outpouring of public support for the Palestinian cause. Demonstrations were held in several countries across the globe. The Arab and Muslim public opinion turned against the US as it saw the Biden administration as complicit in the Israeli aggression and its relentless attacks on Gaza. The public believes that Biden was encouraging Israel in its aggression against the Gazans. Israel wants to conduct a brutal ethnic cleansing of the Gazans. A forced movement of Gazans south will lead to another Naqba, a reference to the first forced dislocation of Arabs in 1948. Most of the Western media is supporting Israel fully and wholeheartedly, as expected.
The October 7 attacks come after months of surging violence between Palestinians and Israelis, with the long-running conflict now heading into uncharted and dangerous territory. Questions remain over how the Israeli military and intelligence apparatus appeared to fail miserably in one of the country’s worst security failures. The debate has started on how Israel and the US were caught off-guard by the Hamas attacks of October There are many reasons.
The intelligence agencies were over-dependent on technology as compared to human intelligence.
Sheer complacency, even hubris in general on the part of both the U.S. and Israeli governments and other institutions as well.
Netanyahu was distracted by the internal crisis caused by his judicial reform agenda and the significant public challenges he met on that score. Similarly, Biden was distracted by his domestic challenges: the Ukraine war, the economy, and Republican challenges.
Biased input from think tanks, media, and other sources of public debate in both countries.
The violation of the sanctity of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was an insult to the Arabs and the Muslims.
The total siege of Gaza was becoming unbearable, and the economy was in bad shape. The youth were unemployed and frustrated by the loss of economic opportunity.
Hamas had to protect its credentials of being a liberating force for the Gazans.
The Gazans were on their own and could not depend on anyone else to come to their rescue. The Arabs and Muslims had betrayed them. So, they had to act with their backs on the wall. So, to speak.
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Today, there are increasing concerns the conflict could spill out into the region that was raised on October 8, 2023, when the Lebanese group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for targeting three Israeli sites in an area known as Shebaa Farms, using missiles and artillery. Lebanon considers the area as Israeli-occupied.[xxvi] Iranian threats of entering the war somehow if the Gaza situation deteriorates further must be taken seriously. It can and will open the South Lebanon theater of war. The Iranian-Hamas-Hezbollah nexus will be established in that eventuality. Iran cannot let Israel dismantle Hamas in Gaza. Israel and the US are aware of this eventuality. The elimination of Hamas by Israel is not possible at all. Given the public support of Hamas in the Global South, the US will not be eager to enter yet another war in the Middle East. It was American hubris that led to its defeat in Afghanistan after two decades of war against the Taliban, a rag-tag militia at the most. Americans recall their Iraq misadventure and are very reluctant to get embroiled in yet another war, not of their own making. The American foreign policy establishment also realizes the changed nature of asymmetric warfare and the salience of nationalism as a potent force in global politics. Further entanglement of the US well-advanced Islamic fundamentalist forces in the greater region, which had been defeated after decades of bloody and expensive wars. Therefore, the US will be overly cautious in intervening again in the region for the sake of Israel’s security. Arab and Muslim resilience can be expected down the road. The further escalation of the war in Lebanon and Syria will spell disaster not only for Israel but also for the US. Both Russia and China can be expected to increase their assistance to the Arab resistance forces like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah aligned with Iran, which has a history of providing support to these groups. Most importantly, the US is distracted because of internal politics and Ukraine's war and would want the war to end soon enough, weeks not months at the best. The US has a convergence of national interest with local powers like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and even Pakistan to contain the war to Gaza only. An escalation of war can get out of control and get into a messy situation very quickly. The US does not want that to happen. Only the US can stop Israel from eliminating Hamas from Gaza, as announced by its leadership. Circumstances demanding prudence over reckless behavior with Israel are bent upon now. The world is now polarized between support for Israel and against it. The US cannot support an outright invasion of Gaza and a bloody ethnic cleansing project without a cost and profound consequences. Therefore, the US should earnestly work for a cease-fire. Gaza cannot be occupied again by Israel and is ruled directly as a total and absolute ruling power. Neither can the Hamas be marginalized. At best it can be weakened. The hardline Israeli government will make more enemies as the Arab and Muslim world creates greater sympathy for the helplessness, pitiable living conditions, wretched poverty and even further weakening the population of the 2.3 million people of Gaza. The October 7 Hamas attacks did not happen in thin air. There is a history of Israeli expansionism, aggression, human rights violations, and sheer subjugation of Gazans since 2006. Gaza is an open-air prison for all practical purposes where Israel controls all aspects of life there. Plus, fighting between the two sides has surged in the past two years. The violence was driven by frequent Israeli military raids in Palestinian towns and cities, which Israel has said are a necessary response to a rising number of attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis.
Global public opinion is already shifting against Israel. The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly has called for a pause in the war. The public in the US and the UK also want it now. The consequences of a hurried and ill-thought war on the region would be disastrous. Wars are nothing but politics by other means, the great strategist Clausewitz taught us. However, the Gaza war has not been thought out clearly by both the US and Israel.
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What comes next? Can Hamas be defeated, as claimed by Israel? Since Hamas is more than a militant organization, it is an ideology with deep roots in Gaza. Therefore, it is very doubtful that it can be defeated. For argument's sake, even if it is defeated, what will replace it? Direct military rule by Israel will further complicate matters in the enclave. On October 31, 2023, Blinken said the United States and other countries were looking at "a variety of possible permutations" for the future of Gaza if Hamas fighters are removed from control. [xxvii]
?Most importantly, the Muslim world will turn against both the US and Israel even further. The devastation of Gaza will create an upswing in anti-American sentiment in the Arab and Muslim world. Even though Muslim and Arab governments are not supporting Hamas, the people are doing it. Global electronic media, especially social media, is a new phenomenon that is affecting public sentiments to turn against Israel. Notwithstanding Western claims to the contrary, the Global South is siding with the Palestinian cause. Israel is poised to overreact which like the US after 9/11 will make the greater Middle East a more volatile and dangerous region. Such a development will weaken the US. In short, a fallout in a prolonged war will prove disastrous for the entire region and will result in the rebirth of Islamic fundamentalism. No one would want that to happen. The path to a two-state solution, as hinted by President Biden, is possible provided there is a quick cease-fire and an end of hostilities. However, the Israeli momentum of war cannot be easily stopped even by the US itself. Therefore, weeks of bloodshed can be seen in the Gaza and North Israel border with Lebanon. It all depends on Israel and its staunch American backer. The Biden administration is trying to contain the spread of the war through another round of intense diplomacy where Secretary Blinken again visits the region on January 3. It is talking with Saudi Arabia, and other allies, to achieve that purpose. However, the constant pro-Israel policy of the US is creating an imbalance in approach to the issue. The US fails to fully comprehend the viewpoints of the Palestinians, and their Arab and Muslim supporters. Although the Biden administration talks about the eventuality of a Two-State Solution it is seen as just lip service to global demand, empty rhetoric, and only plain talk to stall for Israel to subjugate the Palestinians completely. Given its outright and tremendous support for Israel, the credibility of the US is diminishing in the region, as well as in the overall Global South.
The war, if not contained now, will have a significant impact on the entire region. Already, the war has escalated beyond Palestine and has involved Yemen and Lebanon. Today Hamas has the support of Iran, Pakistan Türkiye, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Qatar. Russia and China also support Hamas. Many Arab governments do not support Hamas, but their people do. It is not only the Arab people but also those of the larger Islamic world that support Hamas. The reason for that support is the humiliation and anger felt by Hamas from Israeli atrocities, especially the late desecration of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and the exceptionally long occupation of Palestine in general. The Western media is mostly biased in favor of Israel and does not show the true sentiments of the Arab and Muslim peoples of the region.
What is likely to happen in the future?
Appeals for restraint came from around the world, though Western nations stood by Israel.[xxviii]
The US may provide direct military assistance to Israel in the shape of targeting the Hamas leadership and in any rescue attempts of the 199 hostages, especially Americans. It is already getting sucked into the war as the US military has earmarked approximately 2,000 service members for a potential deployment to Israel. If deployed, the troops would not be used for combat but would be assigned to advise and offer medical support to their Israeli counterparts, among other tasks, the newspaper said.
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When the situation in the Gaza Strip deteriorates significantly, Hezbollah may step into the war in southern Lebanon.
A new push for the establishment of the Palestinian state may well occur after the warring sides are exhausted.
Only after Israel has achieved its strategic objectives, as it defines itself, will the war end and not before. The US only wants to contain the war, not end it any time soon. It might last for the year, as indicated by the Israeli leadership already. Notwithstanding the global condemnation, Israel will not stop until it has achieved its stated objectives. There will then be a cease-fire and an exchange of Israeli POWs and Palestinian prisoners. Qatar, Egypt, and Türkiye will facilitate this exchange.
Having been seemingly defeated, Hamas will make peace with Israel. This will happen from weakness and sheer exhaustion more than anything else. However, the conflict will rupture again after some years.
From 1948 to 2023, Israelis have been forcibly expelling Palestinians from their homes. Much earlier, Israeli actions were shocking indeed. The Israeli army told 1M+ Palestinians in northern Gaza they had 24 hours to leave their homes. Palestinians from Gaza say that a suggestion to open a safe corridor for them to flee to Egypt’s Sinai region would be a repeat of their mass exodus in what they refer to as the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, in 1948 when at least 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes by Israel.
Meanwhile, the OIC has failed to voice the aspirations of the Muslim world. The organization is composed of 57 Muslim countries with a population of 1.5 billion or so. It miserably failed to come to the assistance of the hapless Gazans in their time of sheer anguish and distress. Although the Muslims themselves have supported Hamas at the popular level. However, the Muslim governments are paralyzed in inaction and caution. The OIC can pressurize the Biden administration to get much-needed humanitarian assistance flowing into Gaza. But that is hoping too much as the Islamic world faces an acute crisis of leadership. When the OIC holds an emergency summit of heads of government, they can unite on a one-point agenda: getting humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza through the Rafah gate. No one is mentioning military assistance, just humanitarian aid. But that is asking too much from a timid and feckless Islamic leadership. It is both feasible and doable. We are running out of time, though.
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The debate today is what happens after the war ends.
The US proposed a reformed Palestinian Authority to come back to Gaza. Blinken told a US Senate hearing earlier that it would “make the most sense” for an “effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza.” But he added: “If we cannot do that, there are other temporary arrangements that may include several other countries in the region. It may include international agencies that help provide security and governance.” But this is rejected by Israel’s right. They want Israel to have full security authority.[xxix] The US doesn’t want Israeli reoccupation of the Gaza enclave and will eventually force Israel out of the territory but not before its destruction.
Some other proposals are making the rounds. There is one for a multinational force to administer Gaza for a transitional period of two years until a Palestinian security force attains the capacity to assume the tasks of maintaining security. Another more realistic proposal is for something like the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) peacekeeping body that supervises the implementation of the security provisions of the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. None of the 13 participating nations in MFO are from the region.
The US is once again talking of the Two-State Solution. However, the US does want Israel to destroy Hamas at an acceptable price The hard question is whether that can be achieved. Most analysts believe that is not possible.[xxx]
Most importantly, though the US supports Israel, its long-term national interests diverge from it. While Israel views Hamas as an existential threat to be eliminated, the US does not. The Biden administration is trying to shore up an alliance against Russia, Iran, and China. While both the US and Israel want to evade a larger regional war,? Israel is “willing to take more risks in pursuit of?defeating Hamas”.[xxxi] Thus, the two allies differ on the endgame of the war. Given the global support for a Two-State Solution project, the US can be expected to go for it even though Israel does not want it at all.
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The only solution to the conflict is the implementation of the universally agreed UNSC resolution 242 and UNSC resolution 338. A two-state solution can bring peace to the region. Nothing else will work. Gaza is an occupied territory that must attain its freedom. Despite the growing crisis, President Joe Biden has failed to restrain Israeli aggression. Despite global demands, he is not calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Earlier, Biden called?for eliminating Hamas and has reiterated time and again America’s deep commitment to Israel’s defense. Biden’s blind support of Israel is not a sensible foreign policy stance as it fails to take into consideration both the aspirations of the Palestinians and the interests of other regional actors.
A balanced approach to the Palestinian issue by the US and Israel can bring peace to the region. The US is not the preeminent global superpower anymore and therefore must behave in that fashion. The Global South and many political groups in the West itself are now advocating permanent regional peace that can be attained by the establishment of an independent sovereign Palestinian state. It is about time. Self-denial on the part of both the US and Israel does not help at all. The Biden administration is trying to prevent the Gaza war from spreading further. However, it is not pressuring Israel for a ceasefire. Even if the US can achieve its objective, Israel is going to lose in the end. The world will hold the US as complicit in Israel’s war crimes. Likely the war shall galvanize the Islamic radicals in a manner unlike before. This time the world electronic media is showing the destruction of the Gaza Strip as never before. The barbarity of the Israeli strikes in the enclave has galvanized a global reaction as never before. Continued bloodshed and destruction of the Palestinians shall spell disaster for the region and beyond. Bold actions are required now to prevent that eventuality.
The previously neglected Two-State Solution urgently needed to be enacted now. Only that can usher into regional peace. However, the Biden administration will not act and that will be tragic, indeed. The people of the Middle East region deserve better. Peace and justice must be prioritized over war.
[i] George Wright, “Israel says the war in Gaza expected to continue throughout 2024”, BBC News, January 2, 2024
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67855117,? Israeli Military Signals New Phase in Gaza Offensive, January 01, 2024. VOA Newshttps://www.voanews.com/a/israeli-military-signals-new-phase-in-Gaza-offensive-/7420661.html,? Israel expects long war, rotates troops, as Gaza death toll rises, DPA,? January 1, 2024, https://news.yahoo.com/israel-expects-long-war-rotates-172833959.html, WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDY, AND MELANIE LIDMAN, “Fighting in southern Gaza city after Israel says it is pulling thousands of troops from other areas”, Associated Press, January 2, 2024, Fighting in southern Gaza city after Israel says it is pulling thousands of troops from other areas (aol.com), Martin Belam? and Helen Livingstone, “?Israel-Gaza war live: Israeli military kills four alleged Palestinian militants in West Bank, IDF says”, The Guardian, January 2, 2024,Israel-Gaza war live: Israeli military kills four alleged Palestinian militants in West Bank, IDF says (msn.com)
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[ii]? George Wright, “Israel says the war in Gaza expected to continue throughout 2024”, BBC News, January 2, 2024
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[iii] Fighting in southern Gaza City after Israel says it is pulling thousands of troops from other areas, AP, WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDY, AND MELANIE LIDMAN
January 2, 2024, Fighting in southern Gaza City after Israel says it is pulling thousands of troops from other areas (aol.com)
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[iv] Dan Williams, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Arafat Barbakh
“Israel's aircraft and tanks step up strikes as it plans to reduce troops.”, Reuters, January 2, 2024
https://news.yahoo.com/israels-aircraft-tanks-step-strikes-040504903.html?fr=sycsrp_catchallYahoo News
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[v] Martin Belam? and Helen Livingstone, “?Israel-Gaza war live: Israeli military kills four alleged Palestinian militants in West Bank, IDF says”, The Guardian, January 2, 2024,Israel-Gaza war live: Israeli military kills four alleged Palestinian militants in West Bank, IDF says (msn.com)
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[vi] Martin Belam? and Helen Livingstone, “?Israel-Gaza war live: Israeli military kills four alleged Palestinian militants in West Bank, IDF says”, The Guardian, January 2, 2024,Israel-Gaza war live: Israeli military kills four alleged Palestinian militants in West Bank, IDF says (msn.com)
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[vii] ?Lyndal Rowlands,?Alastair McCready, and?Maziar Motamedi, “Israel-Hamas war live: Four Palestinians killed by Israel in West Bank”, January 2, 2024
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[viii] Dan Williams, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Arafat Barbakh
“Israel's aircraft and tanks step up strikes as it plans to reduce troops.”, Yahoo News/Reuters, January 2, 2024, https://news.yahoo.com/israels-aircraft-tanks-step-strikes-040504903.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
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[ix] Israel-Gaza live updates: IDF says it expects war to last all of 2024, ABC NEWS, January 1, 2024, https://www.yahoo.com/gma/israel-gaza-live-updates-idf-050335821.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall?????????????????????????????????????? George Wright, “Israel says the war in Gaza expected to continue throughout 2024”, BBC News, January 2, 2024
[x] Fighting in southern Gaza City after Israel says it is pulling thousands of troops from other areas, AP, WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDY AND MELANIE LIDMAN, January 2, 2024, Fighting in southern Gaza City after Israel says it is pulling thousands of troops from other areas (aol.com)
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[xi] Ibid
[xii] Bianca Nobilo,? “Israel-Hamas war threatens to spill over, AI, and a seismic US election: 5 predictions for 2024”, CNN, January 1, 2024, https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/01/world/2024-predictions-trump-israel-ukraine-intl/index.html
?
[xiii] Israeli Military Signals New Phase in Gaza Offensive, January 01, 2024. VOA News, https://www.voanews.com/a/israeli-military-signals-new-phase-in-gaza-offensive-/7420661.html
?
[xiv] Martin Belam? and Helen Livingstone, “?Israel-Gaza war live: Israeli military kills four alleged Palestinian militants in West Bank, IDF says”, The Guardian, January 2, 2024,Israel-Gaza war live: Israeli military kills four alleged Palestinian militants in West Bank, IDF says (msn.com)
, Israeli Military Signals New Phase in Gaza Offensive, January 01, 2024. VOA News, https://www.voanews.com/a/israeli-military-signals-new-phase-in-gaza-offensive-/7420661.html,
[xv] Opinion: Israel's Gaza strategy: Create facts on the ground that can't be undone
The Los Angeles Times, ?January 2, 2024, Opinion: Israel's Gaza strategy: Create facts on the ground that can't be undone (msn.com)
[xvi] Blinken arrives in Turkey for Gaza talks as US sends submarine to Middle East
Guardian, November 6, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/06/israel-hamas-war-blinken-turkey-gaza-us-submarine-ankara-talks-hakan-fidan
?
[xvii] Blinken arrives in Turkey for Gaza talks as US sends submarine to Middle East
Guardian, November 6, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/06/israel-hamas-war-blinken-turkey-gaza-us-submarine-ankara-talks-hakan-fidan
?
[xviii] Israel intensifies brutal Gaza strikes despite ceasefire calls, AFP/ REUTERS, November 06, 2023, https://tribune.com.pk/story/2445064/israel-intensifies-brutal-gaza-strikes-despite-ceasefire-calls
?
[xix] Ibid
[xx] Foreigners, wounded set to leave Gaza, Reuters, November 01, 2023,
?
[xxi] Foreigners, wounded set to leave Gaza, Reuters, November 01, 2023,
?
[xxii] Martin Belam?and?Helen Sullivan, “Israel-Hamas war live: Rafah crossing open to people for limited evacuation? from Gaza; BBC launches emergency radio service”, The Guardian, November 1, 2023,Israel-Hamas war live: Rafah crossing open to people for limited evacuation from Gaza; BBC launches emergency radio service (theguardian.com)
[xxiii] Ibid
[xxiv] Martin Belam?and?Helen Sullivan, “Israel-Hamas war live: Rafah crossing open to people for limited evacuation? from Gaza; BBC launches emergency radio service”, The Guardian, November 1, 2023,Israel-Hamas war live: Rafah crossing open to people for limited evacuation from Gaza; BBC launches emergency radio service (theguardian.com)
?
[xxv] Ibid
[xxvi] CNN’s Mostafa Salem, Amir Tal, Shirin Zia Faqiri, Paul P. Murphy, Lauren Iszo, Gianluca, CNN, October 9, 2023, https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/09/middleeast/israel-gaza-hamas-fighting-monday-intl-hnk/index.html
?
[xxvii] Foreigners, wounded set to leave Gaza, Reuters, November 01, 2023,
?
[xxviii] Israel imposes 'total blockade' on Gaza as aircraft continue to pound enclave, Reuters October 09, 2023, https://tribune.com.pk/story/2440101/israel-imposes-total-blockade-on-gaza-as-aircraft-continue-to-pound-enclave
?
[xxix] Patrick Wintour, “What happens to Gaza the day after the war ends?”, The Guardian, November 6, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/05/what-happens-to-gaza-the-day-after-the-war-ends
?
[xxx] Ibid
[xxxi] Tarini Parti and Anat Peled, “U.S. and Israel Split Over Gaza Goals, Muddying War’s Endgame”, November 4, 2023,