For the last one week, news reports have been full of the Israel-Palestine conflict. But have you ever wondered how it all began and what led to the furious battle during Ramadan? We are going to talk about all those incidents which made Israel more belligerent than ever.
Let’s begin with attacks on residential buildings in Gaza. Yesterday, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) blew up offices of Palestinian sympathizers Al Jazeera and other media houses in Gaza city. Before blowing up the Al Jalaa building where the media outlets were housed, the IDF had informed the owner of the building that his building would be targeted by an airstrike thereby giving an hour to evacuate the people inside the building.
According to the IDF, Hamas uses tall buildings in Gaza for multiple military purposes such as intelligence gathering, planning attacks, command and control, and communications. Reportedly, Al Jalaa was one such tall building from where Gaza had been operating for its military purposes and this is why the IDF blew up the building.
As per the IDF, the terror organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have fired over 1,750 rockets at Israel which has taken lives of more than 7 people and injured over 523 people on the Israeli side. A number of rockets launched by the terror organizations have damaged homes, schools, hospitals, and vehicles. In retaliation, the IDF has struck more than 650 terror spots in Gaza so far that also includes 10 attack tunnels and rocket launch sites, leading to the neutralisation of more than 100 terrorists linked with Hamas and PIJ.
According to the IDF, out of more than 1750 rockets fired since Monday, 300 misfired and exploded inside Gaza. This has killed and injured innocent civilians in Gaza. This is because Hamas and Islamic Jihad put rocket launchers and military sites deliberately within densely populated civilian areas in the Gaza Strip. On the other hand, the IDF does everything to ensure the protection of Israeli citizens and its renowned Iron Dome Aerial Defense System has successfully intercepted more than 90% of rockets fired at Israel. The Iron Dome Aerial Defense System and easily accessible bomb shelters all over Israel have saved thousands of lives.
Iron Dome is an anti-missile defense system prepared especially to protect Israel from the rockets of small distances. It can attack rockets for up to a distance of 70 Kms. It is capable of attacking irrespective of different weather conditions. It was used for the first time in 2011. It was established for the first time in the town of Beersheva which is only 40 km away from the Gaza strip. After that, it was established near the Palestine borders. Overall, the IDF has established the Iron Dome in 13 locations. The radar of Iron Dome tracks the approaching rocket in the air itself.
The monitoring unit of the IDF predicts the direction of the approaching rocket. The firing unit of the Iron Dome attacks on the rocket. The unit also defends Israeli citizens by predicting the attack. The success rate of the defense system varies from 75% to 90%. The cost of one such attack by Iron Dome is about 50,000 dollars. There are 20 missiles in one firing unit of Iron Dome.
Al-Aqsa - the bone of contention
The fresh episodes of clashes between Israel and Palestinians erupted on 12 April when Israeli police put up blockades stopping people from sitting in the Damascus Gate plaza. During the month of Ramzan, this place happens to be the most popular public area. Four days later, Israel imposed a 10,000-person limit on prayers at Al-Aqsa mosque on the first Friday of Ramzan. This led to the turning away of thousands of Palestinians.
On May 8, the last Jumma of Ramzan, over 160 people were injured when Israeli riot police clashed with Palestinians at the mosque premises. Reportedly, Israel Police had inputs that the Palestinian supporters were planning to attack them. This is exactly what happened. Palestine supporters threw stones and fireworks on the Police while in retaliation, Israel Police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades. As per the Israel Police, 17 officers were injured.
However, this didn’t stop here. Once again, the very next day, tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers prayed at Al-Aqsa Mosque on Islam’s holy night of Laylat al-Qadr and locked horns with Israeli Police. That day, around 80 people were injured.
Let’s dig deeper into the history of the issue to know more about the conflict. A few Palestinian families have settled in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem.
Let’s go down history lane
Jerusalem is 3000 years old home of Jews. After facing years of persecution and Holocaust due to anti-semitism in Europe, Jews decided to settle in their ancestral home (British-controlled Palestine) between 1896 and 1948. 90% of all Jews decided to settle in their ancestral home (British-controlled Palestine). More than 650,000 Jews settled in different parts of the erstwhile Palestine. Arabs considered the arrival of Jews as a part of European attempt to colonise the Arabs. This led to battles between the two communities - Palestinian Arabs and Jews. It became tough for British to control the violence and finally in 1947, the UN voted to divide the land into two countries. Jews acquiesced to the resolution. For Palestinians, it was a plan of a long-running Jewish attempt to push them out of the land. Later on, the Arab states of Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Syria declared war on Israel. In a violent tussle, Israeli forces trounced the Palestinians and Arab armies that compelled 700,000 Palestinian to take refuges in neighbouring countries. In 1948, the state of Israel came into existence. Again the UN came into action and promised 56% of British Palestine for Israel. However, Israel held 77% of the British Palestine by the end of the war. Only West Bank and the eastern quarter of Jerusalem (controlled by Jordan), along with the Gaza Strip (controlled by Egypt) left with the Palestinian Arabs.
As the struggle between Israel and Palestine kept mounting, the Palestinian militias resorted to the First Intifada, or uprising. In December 1987, Hamas came into existence as an organisation led by Sunni-Islamic fundamentalists with its prime objective of annihilating Israel. Since its formation, it has bombed Israel numerous targets, taken Israeli civilians hostages and killed them. Not only this, Hamas has used suicide bombers many times to destruct Israeli civilians.
In 1993, to solve the dispute between Israel and Palestinians, the Oslo Accords came into effect and created a Palestinian Authority tasked with limited self-governance of parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Apart from this, it acknowledged the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as Israel's partner in permanent-status negotiations about remaining questions.
In 2007, Hamas took control of the Gaza strip. Since then, there have been full-fledged wars and multiple rounds of low-magnitude fighting. However, the fundamentals of the tension have remained intact which include blockade of Gaza and siege of the West Bank by Israel. Not only this, one major bone of contention has been the rule of Palestine which has been divided between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
As of December 2020, Israel has got worldwide recognition by 164 of the other 193 UN member states. Besides not having diplomatic relations, Israel's sovereignty is disputed by some countries.
Israel is defending its civilians
After the 2014 war in the Gaza Strip, Hamas has studiously constructed an underground network of tunnels called the Metro. The network is a maze of dozens of kilometers of tunnels that traverse through Gaza and provides protection from aerial incursions of the IDF.
At midnight of May 14, the IDF spokesperson’s English department tweeted that IDF air and ground troops were attacking in the Gaza Strip. The reference to the ground offensive offered media outlets news pieces to demonize Israel and this is exactly what happened. They started reporting about the claimed offensive which alerted terrorists of Hamas.
To strike at incoming Israeli ground forces, Hamas had essentially sent its anti-tank missile teams and mortar squads into the tunnel. Nevertheless, they were literally unaware of the bait they just became a part of. They were lured into entering the tunnel by Israelis and then 160 aircraft were brought to bomb them. What Israel did was nothing but an act of safeguarding its citizens. Hamas is a terrorist organization that has pledged to destroy the State of Israel. In recent times, it had softened its stance. However, this stance has again changed after the disorder in Jerusalem after the Al-Aqsa attack and the expulsion of Palestinian families from Sheik Jarrah to attack Israel.
Statements of PM, defense minister, and chief of IDF
The mayhem has been condemned by politicians from all sides and parties. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu termed the situation “intolerable”. Further, he said that nothing justifies lynching Arabs among Jews, and nothing justifies lynching Jews among Arabs. Moreover, he stated that the country was battling “on two fronts”.
It goes without saying that violence is not the solution be it anywhere in the world. We condemn the violence in Israel but Hindus should learn from Israel so that they can defend themselves whenever they are under terror attack or Jihad.
Amid all this, the attack on Israel is still on. However, people in Gaza have died in more numbers than those in Israel. The repercussions of the tussle can are witnessed now in parts of the world. Throughout the violence, the role of media has once again come under the scanner due to their anti-Israel propaganda. In one such biased reporting, Palestine sympathizer media house Al Jazeera tried to spread fake news that the IDF was targeting children. The fake propaganda was busted by an IDF video which demonstrated how the IDF didn’t launch an attack only because children were playing on that particular spot.
All this while, Hamas doesn’t seem to be caring about Muslims. What they only care about is 72 hure (virgins) which they want after death in Jannat (paradise).
Nevertheless, we want to reiterate that violence of any kind need is not acceptable and should be condemned.
Stay tuned for more information on the ongoing tussle.
You can also listen to our Podcast.
Comments