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Empoword Explains: Israel-Palestine Conflict

Molly Finlay
Israel-Palestine conflict. Citizens hold signs protesting the occupation of Palestine

CW: This article discusses violence and terror attacks.

Molly Finlay

On Saturday 7 October 2023, Palestinian militant group, Hamas, launched a major surprise attack on Israel. In retaliation, Israel has launched air strikes. Fighting on both sides continues.

What’s happening in Israel and Gaza?

In the early hours of Saturday 7 October, Hamas breached the security border around Gaza, initiating a surprise attack on Israel.

At around 6am local time, Hamas started to fire rounds of explosive rockets into Southern and central Israel. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) reported that 2,500 rockets were fired.

Fighters infiltrated multiple Israeli communities, including Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the border of Gaza, where homes have been destroyed and families killed. Simultaneously, Hamas attacked the Supernova music festival, an event arranged to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

Eyewitness reports from the event describe Hamas gunmen entering the festival on foot, while other militants descended on the crowds in paragliders.

Photo and video footage obtained by first responders as well as festival attendees show armed men attacking fleeing civilians with bursts of automatic fire.

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1711687516435386511

Israeli authorities now estimate around 199 hostages from across the country are being held inside Gaza. According to rescue agency Zaka, more than 260 bodies have been recovered from the festival site. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel in total.

BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen described the surprise attack on Israel as, “the most ambitious operation Hamas has ever launched from Gaza”.

What is Hamas?

An acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas is a Palestinian extremist group dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and has engaged in frequent conflict with Israel since it took power. Governing a population of over two million, Hamas runs Gaza’s education, health and court services.

For most people, Hamas is represented by its armed military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades (IQB). The IQB is comprised of trained paramilitary forces believed to include forces of small boats, combat drivers, paragliders, and drone operators.

Are Hamas terrorists?

Hamas became a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK in its entirety in 2021. During a vigil held in Finchley United Synagogue on Monday 9 October, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned those who refuse to describe Hamas as terrorists.

Speaking from the Labour Party conference earlier this year, Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer told LBC, “Hamas’s actions are terrorism and Israel has the right to defend herself.”

The BBC have since defended their decision not to label Hamas as “terrorists”, referring back to its founding principles.

Netanyahu Responds

The Israeli government have launched waves of retaliatory air strikes, mobilising tens of thousands of reservists in preparation to attack Hamas “by land, air and sea”.

In a bid to “clear out the hostile forces that have infiltrated [their] territory”, Israeli warplanes have been carrying out airstrikes in Gaza since last Saturday. The IDF claims to have targeted military infrastructure, destroying buildings used for carrying out Hamas activity. Israel’s defence minister has insisted that no power, water or fuel will be supplied to Gaza until hostages are freed.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 2,750 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its retaliatory airstrikes.

Israel’s airstrikes, as well as their pledge to withhold basic supplies, have been condemned by the United Nations as “collective punishment”. And has been classed as an international war crime.

The UN Secretary-General remarked to the press that, “civilians must be protected at all times. International humanitarian law must be respected and upheld”.

The IDF has since delivered evacuation orders to protect innocent civilians, instructing citizens of Gaza to move South before they launch an offensive aiming to eradicate Hamas.

The United Nations has suggested that it is “impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences”.

Palestinians have since been gathering at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in South Gaza, hoping to leave the strip ahead of an expected Israeli offensive.

History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

The land that now constitutes Israel and the two regions of Palestine, Gaza and the West Bank, is highly contested. This is due to the shared claims of Jerusalem as a holy city by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

After the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the land belonging to the defeated states was divided among the Allies. Palestine was assigned to be controlled by Britain under the British Mandate for Palestine.

Under the Balfour Declaration, Britain pledged to establish a Jewish National Homeland, which came into effect in 1923, giving the land to the Jewish people.

After the Second World War, in 1947 the United Nations proposed to partition Palestine into two independent states, Israel, and Palestine, with the sacred city of Jerusalem becoming an international zone. This was rejected by the Arab communities, and Britain withdrew from Palestine unable to manage the unrest.

After Israel declared itself an independent state in 1948, war broke out between the Arabs and the Jews. The Arab-Israeli War continued until 1949 when a ceasefire granting two-thirds of the land to Israel was agreed.

Palestinians moved or were forced from their homes into the new Arab regions of Gaza and the West Bank, which were controlled by Egypt and Jordan respectively. 750,000 Palestinians were displaced during this period, in what is now known as “Al Nakba” or “The Catastrophe”.

Since 1967, many Palestinians have continued to live in Gaza and the West Bank under Israeli occupation.

This densely populated land has hosted scenes of repeated battles. For some the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace seem more distant than ever.

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Featured Image courtesy of Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplashed. No changes were made to this image. Image License found here.

Having recently graduated from an MA in Journalism at Edinburgh Napier University, Molly is a freelance journalist with an interest in politics and current affairs, particularly issues surrounding women and reproductive healthcare. Molly has worked as a BBC Young Reporter during COP26 and has written for Holyrood Magazine as well as Deadline News, with bylines in the Sun, Daily Express and the Mirror.

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