Israel has been targeting Palestinian people for decades. Palestinians living in tormented territories, namely the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and occupied East Jerusalem, have been living under strict Israeli control. They cannot move without the permission of the Israeli security forces. Therefore, Palestinian people have been living under prison conditions. The blockade that has been implemented against Gaza keeps more than 2 million people in an open prison. Naturally, the conditions are unbearable. Everyone was expecting that sooner or later, this would explode, which it did on Oct. 7.
After the large-scale and effective attack against Israeli targets, Israel reacted disproportionately by targeting mostly civilian locations. Since Israel, its Western allies and some regional actors separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, claiming that the Hamas rule is unacceptable, we have to analyze why Israel has specifically targeted the Gaza Strip. There are several significant reasons to discuss.
First of all, the target is the Hamas movement itself due to its main characteristics. Israel wants to destroy the Hamas movement. Some Arab regimes also share this view with Israel. They want to destroy the Palestinian front of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is known as the only relevant political actor demanding change in the Arab world. It is generally believed that Hamas is the only Islamic movement left in the Arab world after the Arab insurgencies and revolutions. For Israel and its supporters to complete the secularization process in the Arab world, it is necessary to get rid of Hamas. On the other hand, Hamas is considered an obstacle to the normalization and transformation of the Middle East.
Second, Hamas is targeted because it is the only independent political actor representing the Palestinian people. Contrary to the claims of some pro-Israeli observers, Hamas is not a proxy of any regional state, including Iran. Many states, that recognize Hamas as a legitimate political actor representing the people of Gaza, have been supporting the Hamas political authority. Although it cooperates with different regional and global actors, it never gives up its independent position regarding the Israeli-Palestinian question.
Third, Israel and Israel’s Western allies, together with some regional states, attempt to destroy Hamas to create a “tamed Palestinian political entity” to be able to control the Palestinian people. Israel and its allies will not accept the establishment of a meaningful Palestinian state. Although Palestinian political actors, including Hamas, have been asking Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders, Israel acts the other way around. That is, it tries to expand its territories against the Palestinian people.
Fourth, Israel has been trying to destroy the Palestinian political entity in Gaza and de-Palestinize the Gaza Strip to achieve its goal of “cleaning the area from the river to the sea.” Thus, Israel can control the natural gas reserves found in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Fifth, the Gazan people, a great portion of which are the people that are forcibly displaced in 1948, are quite politically conscious and dynamic. Arabs call the people living in Gaza the people of dignity (“ehli Gaza, ehli izza”). Despite all the hardships they experienced in the Gaza Strip and the oppression of Israel, they did not leave their lands. They continue to resist Israeli oppression by living on their lands.
It has been over a month that Israel’s massacres continue in the Gaza Strip. There are three main groups of states giving different reactions to the Israeli massacres. The first group, which consists of most Western states led by the United States, gives unconditional political, economic and military support to Israel. The second group of states stands with the Palestinian people. Many countries around the world, extending from the Middle East to Latin America, from East Asia to Africa, fall into this group. The third group of states remains indifferent to Israel’s massacre of innocent people, most of whom are women and children. Some Arab states fall into this group.
Every front considers the latest developments from their respective perspectives. The first group of states wants Hamas and its supporters, together with the population of Palestine, to be eradicated. The second group works for an urgent humanitarian cease-fire and calls Israel to end its atrocities and mass killings in Gaza. The third group follows a “wait-and-see policy” and chooses not to react until it sees the results of these developments.
