In Gaza, a different view of the Hamas raid on Israel
By Taylor Luck and Fatima AbdulKarim
RAMALLAH, WEST BANK AND RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA- A mood of shock and inevitability has spread over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as residents find themselves plunged into a war that has caught everybody off guard.
But even as the Gaza Strip braces for an Israeli ground assault and its 2 million inhabitants prepare to cope with what Israeli officials call “a complete siege” denying them food, water, fuel, and electricity, a large majority of Palestinians appear to support Hamas militants’ brutal weekend attack on Israel.
Before Israel began retaliating for the deaths of more than 1,000 Israelis, mostly civilians, with massive airstrikes, the breaking news of the surprise Hamas eruption had prompted celebrations on the streets of Ramallah, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, where people distributed sweets to gathering crowds.
Many saw the attack, in which over 100 Israelis were abducted and taken as hostages into Gaza, as retribution for the deaths of Palestinian civilians in earlier rounds of conflict and in daily life. “The world keeps saying this attack is unprovoked, but in fact the world is ignoring how violent the daily occupation is,” says Diana Buttu, a former adviser to the Palestinian delegation to peace talks with Israel, now in abeyance.
Since the United Nations started counting deaths in 2006, 2023 has been the deadliest year for Palestinians – 200 have died this year at the hands of Israeli soldiers or settlers in the occupied West Bank. “We’ve tried to make ourselves likable, and now I think the Palestinians are seeing we can never be in a good place with the international community, so we have pushback instead,” says Ms. Buttu.
The bloody events of last weekend, including the massacre of over 250 revelers at a rave party, have been condemned by people around the world as a terrorist outrage. In Gaza, however, they are widely seen as a breach in the Israeli-built wall that has trapped residents for 16 years and condemned them to victimhood.
“The situation is very devastating, and we couldn’t take it anymore,” says local journalist Hind Khoudary, describing deteriorating living conditions in Gaza. “It may not be aligned with international law, but, for the first time, Palestinians here in Gaza do not feel helpless.”
They are, however, paying a heavy price.
As Israeli missile strikes on the strip continued for a third day, the death toll rose to more than 900 by late Tuesday, including 120 children, according to Palestinian health officials. The Israeli military warned Gaza residents on Tuesday to leave the strip through a border crossing with Egypt, in order to escape danger, but a spokesperson later acknowledged that the crossing is closed. Multiple Israeli missile strikes hit the Gazan side of the border crossing late Monday, effectively sealing Palestinians in, according to the independent Egyptian media outlet Mada Masr.
“It’s difficult to predict anything at this stage,” cautions Ahmad Bassiouni, a Gaza-based researcher, but like many Gazans, he expects an Israeli ground assault in the coming days. The “proper Israeli response hasn’t yet started,” he says.
When it does start, say Hamas officials, there will be no going back. In previous rounds of violence, Hamas lobbed missiles into Israel and then desisted in return for increased economic aid, brokered by Egypt and Qatar. Israeli officials believed that the arrangement was manageable.
But Hamas officials describe the current war as a turning point. “We will not go back to the situation before Oct. 7,” says a Hamas source close to the movement’s leadership, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Hamas appears to have had both domestic and international motivations for its attack, which inflicted the heaviest one-day death toll on Israel since the Jewish state’s foundation in 1948.
Officials told Arab media that their goal was an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and that they were also reacting to alleged violations by Israeli extremists of rules regulating access to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.
Also in Hamas’ sights is a prisoner swap, according to the Hamas source. He indicated that the movement would seek to exchange more than 100 Israeli civilians and soldiers held hostage in the Gaza Strip, a group that includes children and older Israelis, for Hamas militants held in Israeli jails, although Hamas had “not yet set conditions for the release.”
Unverified, graphic videos, purportedly showing Hamas militants abusing their hostages, are circulating on social media.
In remarks broadcast by Al Jazeera late Monday, Abu Obaida, spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing, announced it would execute an Israeli civilian hostage every time an Israeli missile strike hit a residential building in Gaza without prior warning.
But Hamas spokesperson Ibrahim Hamad also told Al Jazeera TV on Sunday that the attack was “absolutely a message” to Muslim countries seeking normalization with Israel.
Among them is Saudi Arabia. ..…CONTINUE READING AT THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR