On October 6, 2023, the Palestinian militia group Hamas led a violent surprise attack against Israel through the Gaza Strip. After coming into Gaza on motorbikes and paragliders, the country was unprepared to protect itself before Hamas soldiers kidnapped over 100 civilians and killed many more. They plan to do a prisoner exchange with the estimated 4,500 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. After Israel quickly declared war on Hamas, the two are currently sending rockets and missiles to various locations, with an Israeli missile hitting an apartment building and refugee camp, resulting in over 500 casualties.
This event could be explained as the inevitable build-up of nearly a decade’s worth of conflict and a millennia of religious disagreement. With various new sources claiming this to be the 9/11 of Israel or the greatest number of Jews killed since the Holocaust, it’s evident that this event will be followed by a war that could perhaps determine whether the people of Palestine will have an internationally recognized sovereign state of their own. Although the attack was initiated by a Palestinian-Islamic nationalist group, all of Palestine is now under siege, and it’ll be interesting to see which foreign nations will come to which person’s aid. With many Palestinians living in nearby Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, perhaps this attack will be the catalyst for those small nations to ally with Hamas. On the other hand, nearly every single country, except the US, Canada, Australia, and the majority of Western Europe, declared international recognition of the state of Palestine. After this surprise attack, the route that these countries take could determine the outcome of this war. Their aid in the war could turn the tide, but this senseless act of violence on civilians could change their outlook on the conflict. Furthermore, it’s difficult to see how this war could be played out. With the threat of nuclear violence constantly looming over the world, I took Netanyahu’s message to Gaza (a warning to civilians of Gaza to flee because Israel will act “forcefully”) as the possibility of a complete wipeout of Palestine, although looking back, it doesn’t appear to be that extreme.
In class, we’ve spoken about diplomacy and the means of war. In this scenario, it’s the retaliation of a non-recognized state against a state that aims to absorb it into its own. It’s important to recognize that the will of a nation to be sovereign will translate into the strength and effort it takes to be free. Furthermore, we’ve constantly recounted that the United States has been the power of the world for nearly a century. Here, we must note that their influence in this conflict could dictate its end. Had they recognized Palestine as sovereign, thus causing a chain of countries in support of Palestine, perhaps a diplomatic and peaceful conclusion would have occurred.