Israel’s attacks on Gaza: A guide | Gaza News

EXPLANATION

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but has since fought five major wars in which thousands of Palestinians have died.

Where is Gaza?

Gaza is a coastal strip about twice the size of Washington DC

It runs along the Mediterranean Sea, is surrounded by Israel on three sides and borders the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula at one end.

What is the population?

About 2.3 million people.

Many of them are descendants of Palestinians whose homes were ethnically cleansed by Zionist militias during the Nakba in 1948 to pave the way for the establishment of the State of Israel.

They fled to Gaza, which was then under Egyptian control.

How did Israel conquer Gaza?

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the Six-Day War of 1967.

The war led to UN Resolution 242, which called on Israel to withdraw from the territories it had conquered by force.

Has Israel ever occupied Gaza?

Yes, Israel has occupied Gaza since 1967.

When the Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and the Palestinians in 1993, there was great hope that a Palestinian state could be established on the land Israel had captured in 1967.

A Palestinian Authority (PA) was established to govern the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip until a Palestinian state was established.

In 2005, then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to withdraw 7,000 Israeli settlers and Israeli troops from Gaza.

He referred to the need to detach Israel from the security risks associated with trying to hold on to the Gaza Strip.

So did things get better after Israel left Gaza?

According to the UN, Israel reoccupied the Gaza Strip shortly after Hamas won elections held by the Palestinian Authority in 2006.

Hamas is one of the two largest Palestinian parties. The other is the previously dominant Fatah.

International actors – especially the US – rejected the results and cut their funding. The US also supplied weapons to Fatah in order to wrest control of Gaza from Hamas.

War broke out and Gaza fell under the administration of Hamas, while Fatah – through the Palestinian Authority – controlled the West Bank.

Israel classified Gaza as “hostile territory” and collectively punished the civilian population there by imposing a land, sea and air blockade.

This severely restricted the movement of people and goods into and out of the enclave, led to the separation of families and the destruction of the economy.

Since 2008, numerous UN reports have warned that the Israeli siege would trigger a humanitarian catastrophe, exacerbated by regular Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Wait, how many times has Israel attacked Gaza?

Since Israel’s withdrawal from the enclave in 2005, Israel has fought five wars against Gaza, apart from smaller incursions and bombings.

Before October 7, Israel had declared that its policy was to “mow the grass” – that is, to weaken Hamas’s military capabilities by indiscriminately bombing Gaza every few years.

Hamas was left with few options in response to Israel other than rocket attacks or smaller-scale operations – a “violent balance,” wrote Tareq Baconi, an analyst and author of Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance, in the New Yorker.

As the siege – like Hamas – became a permanent reality, Baconi said, the attacks were also aimed at getting Israel to ease the blockade from time to time.

One of Israel’s first major wars against Gaza was Operation Cast Lead in 2008, which began after Hamas rockets were fired at the southern Israeli city of Sderot.

The fighting lasted 22 days and claimed the lives of 1,440 Palestinians – mostly civilians – and 13 Israelis.

The disproportionate number of Palestinians killed compared to Israelis developed into a pattern.

Six years later, in a campaign Israel called the “Protective Edge,” about 2,100 Palestinians were killed in seven weeks, compared with 74 Israelis.

The other three major wars took place in 2012 and 2021, as did Israel’s current war against Gaza.

Is the current Israeli war against Gaza different?

There is no end in sight to this war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far rejected a ceasefire, claiming he wants the right to maintain a low-intensity war in the Gaza Strip – possibly forever.

Israel has been continuously bombing Gaza since Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed 1,139 people and captured 250.

Israel says its goal is to “destroy Hamas,” although experts, allies and members of the Israeli government are skeptical about the feasibility of this plan.

In nine months, Israel has killed over 38,000 Palestinians, displaced almost the entire population and reduced Gaza to rubble.

In addition, the siege was tightened, leading to mass starvation and a state of famine recognized by the UN.

Some experts believe that Israel is trying to “depopulate” the Gaza Strip by making it uninhabitable for humans.

Human rights groups, UN experts and a case brought by South Africa to the International Court of Justice suggest that Israel’s violence also amounts to genocide.

Arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court are expected against several Israeli politicians for war crimes in the Gaza Strip, including “annihilation.”