74OA said:
Five new realities after four weeks of fighting. Good article.
Hamas must go but then what? "If this war does not deliver enough of a shock to break deeply-held prejudices and to make the idea of two states viable, nothing will. And without a mutually-acceptable way of ending the conflict, more generations of Palestinians and Israelis will be sentenced to more wars."
CHANGES
First, we are fortunate that Israel has held fast in determination to eradicate Hamas, so far:
Second, what? Hamas has stated, in the past 24 hours no less, that they intend to repeat this until Israel is no more, and it is not a territorial battle to them at all. This has been echoed by 'religious scholars' wide and far in the islamic world and the West Bank and Lebanon in particular.
Quote:
It is also clear that Israel's assault on Hamas is causing terrible bloodshed. The latest figure for Palestinian deaths from Gaza's health ministry, run by Hamas, has exceeded 9,000 - of whom around 65% are children and women.
It is not clear how many of the men who have been killed were civilians or fighting for Hamas or Islamic Jihad. US President Joe Biden and the Israelis do not trust the ministry figures. But in past conflicts, Palestinian casualty statistics have been considered accurate by international organisations.
One grim milestone is fast approaching. The United Nations (UN) says around 9,700 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion 21 months ago.
Some of the Palestinian dead would have been part of Hamas. But even if that proportion is as high as 10%, which is unlikely, it means that Israel is on course to have killed as many Palestinian civilians in just over a month as Russia has killed in Ukraine since February 2022. (The UN says its data for Ukraine is incomplete and the true number of civilians killed is likely higher, while in Gaza the number of dead is also likely to be higher as many Palestinians are believed to be buried under rubble).
There is no relevance here, other than the U.S.' complicity in the outbreak of the Ukraine Russia war, and funding Iran alike to spur on this war in Israel.
Ultimately, war must be waged against a people, not simply an armed force of uniformed combatants. Hamas, and now Israel recognize this. The people of Gaza seek the destruction/death of all jews, and have stated as much over and over.
They ran with swords after the fences were breached on Oct 7 hoping to help behead jews. The solution is for surviving Gaza refugees to move to arab countries and assimilate. Period.
BBC propaganda rooted in fiction and lies is irrelevant to the reality here.