On Saturday, a six-month-old truce between Israel and Hamas ended when rockets launched from Gaza landed inside Israel. Since then, Israel has embarked on the greatest military campaign in Gaza since 1967 when Israel claimed the territory from Egypt after the Israeli Arab war of that year. During this latest round of violence four Israelis have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza, and at least 360 Gazans have been killed by Israeli air strikes. United Nations estimates believe that at least 62 of the dead in Gaza are civilians.
So far, the Israeli Defense Forces have attacked a police academy, government ministries, a government-run television station, tunnels used to smuggle goods into Gaza from Egypt in an attempt to circumvent the blockade that Israel has placed around Gaza since 2005 and a seaport. Strategically, Israel’s decision to blow up buildings at the Islamic University of Gaza may indicate a turning point in the clash. While Israelis believe that the University—which has long been a good source of recruits for Hamas–has been assisting in the development of rockets used to attack Israel many Palestinians see this attack as an effort aimed at destroying the cultural and educational systems of Gaza and through them the Palestinians as a people.
Estimates indicate that Gaza’s nine hospitals have been overrun by at least 1500 people seeking medical attention. Do to the three-year-old blockade and the current conflict necessities such as food and basic medical supplies are scarce; making treatment of so many injured extremely difficult.
For all Gazans life is very difficult. Most of Gaza only has a few hours of electricity each day and almost all stores are empty. Added to the constant fear of when and where an F-16 will drop another bomb and you can see that life in Gaza is really hard.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Israelis have spent the last four days waiting to hear sirens warning them that more rockets are coming and instructing them to run to shelters. In cities like Ashkelon and Ashdod, both about twenty miles from Gaza, citizens use to feel safe. But over the last few days people in both cities have been killed and residents have spent hours hiding. For them, life is very difficult.
Around the Arab world from Indonesia to Iraq citizens have turned out by the thousands to denounce Israel’s bombings. During these protests both Israeli and American flags are being burned. In Iran and Indonesia efforts have begun to recruit people to volunteer to travel to Gaza to fight the Israelis. In Beirut, tens of thousands turned out in a rain storm to join the calls of Hassan Nasralah, the leader of Hezbollah, in calling for war with Israel. For his part, Nasrallah has also called for Egyptians to stand up to their government for its unwillingness to fully open the Rafah border crossing it maintains with Gaza.
Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, said that the force used by Israel has been “excessive” and added that he has been saddened by the violence.
Yesterday, Israel did agree to let 40 trucks carrying supplies to enter Gaza and Egypt allowed some injured Gazans to seek medical attention at its hospitals.
Reportedly, the British and French are working on a resolution of the European Union nations that would call for an immediate end to the violence in Gaza while establishing a route that would allow humanitarian organizations to begin serving the citizens of Gaza. According to the Jerusalem Post the Israeli government is worried that the British-French effort will be negative towards Israel.
To read the source articles used to create this post read these articles from the New York Times, Washington Post, the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, and the BBC.
