I’m willing to bet most or all of that is provocation from Hamas. It is not Israel just randomly pounding on Gaza.
The 2008 attack (for example):
The Israeli government’s stated goal was to stop indiscriminate Palestinian rocket fire into Israel[46] and weapons smuggling into the Gaza strip.[47][48][49]Hamas stated its rocket fire, which resumed in November 2008, was in response to an Israeli raid of a tunnel leading from Gaza, which it characterized as a ceasefire violation.[50][51] Israel said the raid was a preemptive strike against a tunnel they believed would be used to abduct Israeli soldiers guarding the border.[50][52] - SOURCE
Twitter has video of long columns of Israeli tanks heading for Gaza. IMO, at the very least Gaza is going to come under complete Israeli occupation. Worst case, the citizens are removed and deported to Egypt, Jordan or the West Bank, and Gaza gets absorbed into Israel.
My biggest worry is that this is part of something bigger. I hope western militaries are on high alert against shenanigans from Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, etc. At the least, this could have been encouraged by Russia and Iran as a distraction from Ukraine and to split western allegiances.
Other than that, I got nothing to explain this. Hamas is going to lose, and lose big. And at this time, I don’t think it’s going to hurt Israel on the world stage. The Palestinians support Russia and are supported by the Russian axis, so I don’t think the Palestinians are going to find a lot of champions to come to their cause in the west this time.
Not when it’s your fault. This would be the result of repeated war. The Palestinians are responsible for waging war and should forfeit their land as a result. It would be a crime against humanity to allow this to on.
You do understand that a significant proportion of Palestinians are unhappy that they have been pushed out of their historic Palestinian homeland and feel they are treated as second-class citizens?
The majority of Palestinians (and Gazans in particular) are normal, peaceful humans who just want a peaceful life and a chance for their kids. They’re no different than any other big group of people anywhere else on Earth. The mass murderers currently rampaging in Israel are murderous scum, but their crimes are their own, and it’s tragic that peaceful men, women, and children living in Gaza are going to suffer for it. Hopefully Israel doesn’t follow your advice and harm (by forced relocation or otherwise) innocent children.
If that were the case they wouldn’t allow Hamas to build up and launch thousands of rockets from their neighborhood. This didn’t happen overnight and it’s a recurring event.
Remember when Israelis used to drive to Gaza, enjoy the beaches, and buy from street vendors? Then again, the good old days also had the Suez Crisis and Six-Day War.
Yes, I’m sure all those women and children, with no real functional government or security forces, were going to march up to armed, murderous gangs and tell them sharply to leave and then they’d leave. Yes, that’s exactly how it would go, thank you for educating me.
This is the case in pretty much every armed conflict ever throughout history (civilians who want nothing more than to get on with their normal lives getting wrecked between two opposing factions). It sucks but it doesn’t seem to count when deciding to go to war.
There’s certainly significant support for violent action against Israel in Gaza, there’s no doubt about that. However, that’s because these people are brainwashed, and “tough” measures are the best recruitment tool Hamas has.
The fact that they support a regime that kills people isn’t justification for killing noncombatants, any more than the heinous acts committed by Hamas today are justified by anything the IDF has ever done.
What needs to happen now is that Israel will need to destroy Hamas’ capability to wage this war. That will mean ground troops in Gaza. That will mean a lot of dead Israeli troops, a lot of dead Hamas fighters, and yes, a lot of dead civilians. This blood is on Hamas’ hands.
Once Israel secures this objective, though, you will not see Israel do things like flatten Gaza or deport its citizens. This is because unlike Hamas, the Israelis are not bloodthirsty terrorists.
This is not the day for this. You want to have this discussion today of all days, go to the fucking Pit where you can be properly responded to.
Of course. Humans are humans. There’s nothing uniquely good or bad about Gazans, Palestinians, or any other big group of hundreds of thousands of humans. It’s absolutely terrible and tragic that there are murderous assholes among them, just as it’s tragic when they’re anywhere. And it’s especially tragic that these murderous assholes are causing violence that will lead to a response that will inevitably cause more suffering in Gaza. Hamas is killing Israelis and will cause more suffering for peaceful Gazans. Like Babale says (barring deliberate targeting of civilians by the IDF which will hopefully not occur), this blood and suffering that will result from these terrorist attacks is on Hamas’ hands.
