Why Israel Can’t Back Down in Gaza
For the past two years, Israel has received excessive criticism about the war in Gaza, which mostly centers around allegations of Israel committing genocide. Despite all of this, Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government have continued their operation in Gaza and have vowed to continue fighting until Hamas agrees both to disarm itself and to release all of the Israeli hostages.
First of all, despite the world’s accusations, Israel actually takes extensive precautions to protect the Gazan civilian population. For example, Israel drops leaflets that announce the exact coordinates of future bomb sites. Moreover, Israel’s tactic of deploying foot soldiers instead of just bombing Gaza indicates that they want to make sure that people in houses or buildings are militants and not civilians. This tactic unfortunately causes many casualties among the Israeli soldiers, but it is worth it for Israel to protect civilians. One reason that the death toll in Gaza is so high despite Israel’s precautions is that Hamas purposefully stores rocket launchers and other weapons in hospitals, schools and general civilian areas. Often, when Western news headlines report that Israel bombed a hospital or a school, Hamas can be partially blamed for storing rocket launchers inside in a civilian area. This problem of human shields is amplified with Hamas militants themselves; unlike a normal standing army, which has uniforms, Hamas terrorists all wear civilian clothing. Because of this, Israeli soldiers have no easy way to distinguish between civilians and combatants. All of these factors place the bulk of the blame for Gazan civilian deaths on Hamas, not Israel.
Israel has learned from its past mistakes dealing with Gaza. Its 2005 unilateral withdrawal from the strip led to Hamas taking over. From then until Oct. 7, Israel mistakenly believed that they would be able to contain the terrorist group. Hamas took over the strip in 2007, and since then, Gaza has been almost entirely reduced to a launch pad for countless rockets sent to Israeli communities. Since 2007, Israel has carried out several mini operations in Gaza in order to deter Hamas from sending more rockets. However, Israel never tried to overthrow Hamas’s leadership, because Israeli leadership believed Hamas didn’t want a full-fledged war, and so their primary goal was ending rocket attacks. However, the Oct. 7 massacre has completely changed that view. It showed that as long as Israel has a terrorist group on its borders, no matter how good Israeli security is thought to be, the terrorist group can still break through the border and kill Israeli civilians. In order to ensure that Hamas or another terrorist group will not have power over the strip, Israel cannot agree to ending the war without Hamas disarming and without a clear plan for who will rule Gaza.
Despite the fact that Netanyahu’s clear terms for a cease-fire deal mean that the war can end today if Hamas agrees to disarm and release the hostages, the world continues to put pressure on Israel. Based on the above reasons, however, the Israeli army cannot withdraw without guaranteeing that Hamas won’t be a threat. Giving control of Gaza back to Hamas will erase all progress toward weakening Hamas that Israel has made in the past two years. It will empower Hamas by showing them that no matter what it does to terrorize the Israeli population, it will stay in power. Netanyahu bowing to global pressure creates a reality where Hamas can keep attacking innocent Israeli civilians. Ensuring Hamas disarms means ensuring a tragedy like Oct. 7 never happens again.
Editor’s Note: This article was written prior to when the first stage of the Israel-Gaza peace deal was announced.
Photo caption: Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Joyce N. Boghosian
