Israel lays siege to Gaza after brutal Hamas attack

Israel has declared a state of war after Saturday’s attacks by Hamas militants. Fears are growing for more civilian deaths and a possible spread of hostilities throughout the Middle East. Some are also wondering how Israel’s tight intelligence net failed to see the attack coming.

On Saturday, Hamas militants based in Gaza carried out a brutal all-out assault in southern and central Israel. Hamas fired anywhere between 2,200 and 5,000 rockets at civilian targets. At the same time, armed Hamas fighters stormed villages and settlements, firing on any civilians they found and bombing homes. This is the largest scale assault in Israel since the Yom Kippur War, which commenced October 6, 1973, nearly 50 years to the day before this attack.

Casualty numbers are going up all the time, but as of this writing, about 900 Israelis have been confirmed killed. Over 260 of the deaths were attendees at an electronic music festival that was happening just over a mile from the border with Gaza.

Militants also captured dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of Israeli civilians and took them back to Gaza. There are also several foreign captives, including an unknown number of Americans. Hostages include women and young children as well as elderly and disabled people.

Israel’s government has been very coy about the exact number of hostages taken. The press is full of stories of family members calling Israeli authorities, who will tell them nothing of the fate of their missing loved ones. However, several have recognized their loved ones in videos apparently uploaded by militants, showing them in captivity.

How did Israel not see this coming?

Questions are swirling about how Israel’s extensive and sophisticated intelligence apparatus apparently failed to see the attack coming. Some current and former Israeli military commanders say that the government’s pre-occupation with violence in the West Bank forced the military to take its eyes off Gaza. Others have blamed a subterfuge by Hamas, which in recent years had made a show of seeking more economic cooperation and peaceful coexistence with Israel.

Today, an anonymous Egyptian intelligence official told the Associated Press that the Egyptians had in fact warned the Israelis on numerous occasions that “something big” was coming from Gaza, and that Israel ignored these warnings. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refuted this claim. However, there is no denying that Netanyahu’s embattled government, whose legitimacy was wearing thin both in Israel and abroad, has received a much-needed jolt of domestic and international support as a result of Hamas’ attack.

Despite the meticulous planning that obviously went into this attack (certainly over months and possibly a couple of years), it’s difficult to see what Hamas’ aim was beyond spreading terror and killing as many civilians as possible. They have seized no territory and have made no attempts at gaining any concessions. Ultimately, Hamas and the Palestinians will gain nothing from this attack. Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s hawkish and authoritarian Likud party, not to mention his ultra-right-wing Jewish nationalist coalition partners, now find themselves with the upper hand both politically and militarily.

Gaza under siege

For all the unexpected capability Hamas demonstrated in this attack, this remains an asymmetric conflict. Israel is one of the most heavily-armed and sophisticated military states in the Middle East. They have vowed to pull no punches in their retaliation for Hamas’ brutal attack and are preparing an all-out assault on Gaza, calling up about 300,000 reservists. Just this morning, Israeli forces carried out air strikes on about 130 targets within the strip over just 3 hours.

Netanyahu’s government has warned Gaza’s civilians to “leave now”, but it’s not clear where they’re supposed to go. The densely-packed coastal enclave (just under one-third the size of Union County, MS) is surrounded by a 40-mile long, 20-foot high wall and is now under siege on all sides. There are about 2.3 million people living in Gaza, about half of them children. According to the UN, over 120,000 Gazans have been internally displaced just since Saturday.

Hamas militants seem to have brought the hostages back as an insurance policy against a ground invasion by Israeli forces, but it’s unclear how much of a deterrent the presence of hostages will be. Israeli airstrikes have killed about 560 civilians in Gaza, including at least 33 children. Hamas also claims the strikes killed some of the Israeli hostages but that has yet to be confirmed. As of today, Israel has also cut off all supplies to Gaza including food and medicine as well as water and electricity.

Calls for de-escalation, fears conflict could grow beyond Israel

Egypt has been attempting to mediate between Hamas and Israel, fearing both high civilian casualties and the possibility that the conflict could spread with other regional players joining the fray. Already, Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, Israel’s neighbor to the North, have been launching rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas.

There are also accusations that Israel’s perennial foe Iran may have had a hand in planning Saturday’s attack. Iran financially supports Hamas and has long called for the annihilation of Israel as a Jewish state. This summer, Iran hosted a delegation of high-level Hamas officials and leaders of Israeli Jihad, another militant group. While Tehran has enthusiastically supported Hamas’ attack as an act of “resistance”, Iranian officials have denied any involvement. Officials in the Israeli Defense Forces have also said there is currently no evidence that Iran had anything to do with orchestrating Saturday’s attack.

There was also a bit of a diplomatic kerfuffle in Europe after an EU commissioner abruptly announced that humanitarian funding would be cut to Palestine. Several EU states, including Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands protested and the commissioner promptly backpedaled. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his government would not cease humanitarian, saying ““We really have to make the distinction between Hamas, the terror organization, and very innocent Palestinians who are just as much victims right now, and again, in the case of Gaza, have been for 16 years. And have to live under the yoke of a terrible terrorist regime”.

Israel lays siege to Gaza after brutal Hamas attack – National & International News – MON 9Oct2023