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The Gaza Attacks

  • Writer: Telling their Stories
    Telling their Stories
  • Jun 14, 2021
  • 4 min read

In recent times, there has been severe conflict due to an Israel Supreme Court ruling saying that many Palestinian families would be evicted from their homes. The power struggle between Palestinian demonstrators and the Israel police force resulted in rocket attacks and air strikes. A report from the Israeli military says that “62 of its fighter jets dropped 110 guided bombs onto the Gaza Strip overnight”. Peace talks have failed for more than 25 years, and the hostility continues. This is a deep and multi-layered issue, and this article only covers a small part of it. It is important to learn about the Israeli-Palestine conflict because this has been the worst turbulence in years in the area.

Before elaborating more on the details, let’s learn more about the Gaza strip. The Gaza strip is a flat coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea. It is a densely populated region with a rapidly growing population. Living conditions are in straitened circumstances because of “inadequate water, sewage, electrical services, high rates of unemployment, and, from September 2007, sanctions imposed by Israel on the region”.

Many people turn to Google Earth to learn more about countries and look at maps of these places. According to Google, this computer program should display clear images of densely populated areas on a consistent basis. Considering that Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, it is baffling that the images of Gaza on this platform are blurry. These images are from 2016. One open-source investigator names Samir claims that, "The fact that we don't get high-resolution satellite images from Israel and Palestinian territories sets us back,". In order to understand the root of this complex conflict, we need to fully understand the geography and how it has shifted over the years.

A pertinent part of understanding the matter at hand and Gaza’s society is Hamas, a Palestinian militant assembly that controlled Gaza since 2007. The people in this group have “fought three wars with Israel, which along with Egypt has maintained a blockade on the strip to isolate Hamas and to pressure it to stop attacks”. Overall, this group is perceived as a terrorist group to “Israel, the United States, European Union and United Kingdom, as well as other powers”. Secret tunnels are used to bring goods into Gaza and to fire rockets into Israel. Between the Israeli government and Hamas, there have been “major confrontations in 2008/09, 2012, 2014 and again in 2021”.

This issue had not been created overnight. There is almost one hundred years of history behind it. When Britain was in charge of the area known as Palestine, there was an Arab majority and a Jewish minority. Both the Jews and the Palestinan Arabs wanted the land, because the Jews saw it as their ancestral home. Tensions between them, as well as against the British rule, only grew as more Jews began to arrive. The 1947 - 1949 Palestine war was fought on the territory of Palestine itself. On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was declared independent. This only added fuel to the war. What followed was Al Nabka (the Catastrophe), when thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee from their homes.

When the fighting from this war ended, Israel controlled the majority of the land. In addition, since there was no peace treaty, wars and general violence only continued in the following years. The question is, what is happening there now?

Although tensions are often high, they have overflowed in the past month. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank report that they are being afflicted by Israeli’s limitations and regulations. Israel insists that these actions are merely protection from the violence coming from the Palestinians.

These disagreements are having dire effects on the people of these places as well as the areas surrounding them. According to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 227 people, including more than 100 women and children, have been killed in Gaza so far”. The UN secretary general, António Guterres reported that, “the hostilities have caused serious damage to vital civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including roads and electricity lines, contributing to a humanitarian emergency. Crossings into Gaza have been closed and power shortages are affecting water supplies,”.

Around the world, there have been protests in major cities such as Warsaw and Milan in order to support the Palestinians. Very recently, Israel and Hamas have unanimously settled to a cease-fire as suggested by Egypt. A statement from the Israeli prime minister's office proclaimed that "The political leadership emphasizes that it is the reality on the ground that will determine the future of the operation,". Before, this ceasefire had been speculated, but not affirmed. There had been some breaks of the violent retaliation between the areas, showing promise of the situation being pacified and an eventual complete ceasefire.

It is key to take into consideration the fact that ceasefire can be vulnerable and easily threatened. There is no guarantee that it will last. However, as a concluding note, it is important to emphasize that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land is settler colonialism. Israel’s goal is to force indigenous Palestinians off the land, one way or another. The United States must stop financially and militaristically supporting Israel’s continued human rights violations and crimes against Palestinians. This is not a religious conflict, nor is it a “both sides” issue, but it is one in which we must all stand against settler colonialism and for human rights.


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