Hello defence lovers! Hostilities between Israel and Palestine are increasing rapidly. In this article, we are going to understand the ongoing Israel Palestine conflict.
The Background
Israel Palestine conflict is not new. It has been going on since the formation of Israel. This conflict was the root cause of the famoust wars like Arab Israel war and the six day war . But few recent incidents have reignited this conflict.
The city of Jerusalem is a holy place for three different religions. All the three communities residing – the jews, the Muslims and the Christians have their holy places in Jerusalem. The Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is the third holiest place for the Muslims after Mecca and Madina.
Al Aqsa Mosque
Recently the supreme court of Israel asked the Palestinian setlers vacate a land called Sheik Jarra, which Israel beleives belongs to Jews, and thus plans to settle jews over there.
After this judgement, protest erupted in Jerusalem. The Palestinian protestors turned violent and started pelting stones and attacked the Israeli police. The police in retaliation raided the Al Aqsa mosque where the protestors took refuge beleiving that as it was a holy place, the Israeli police won’t enter there. But the Israeli authorities raided the mosque and several innocent people who were offering their prayers over there got injured.
The Hostilities So Far
This incident triggered widespread anger against Israel in the Muslims world. In retaliation the Hamas fired over 200 rockets from the Gaza strip on Israel in the first Salvo, most of which have been successfully intercepted by israel’s Iron Dome Air defence system.
Hamas is a military organisation designated as a terrorist organisation by many countries. It mainly operates from the Gaza strip and fights for the Independence and establishment of Palestine as a nation.
Israel in retaliation for these rocket attacks launched massive airstrikes on Gaza, in which top Hamas leaders have been eliminated. But some innocent civilians have also lost their lives.
Hamas on the other hand has increased the rocket attacks. Till now, over 1700 rockets have been fired by Hamas in which 8 people on the Israeli side have lost their lives, including an Indian national. On the Palestinian side over 100 people including civilians have been killed and over 400 have been injured.
Now Israel is mobilizing its ground forces and armoured division towards the Gaza strip. Israel’s entire adult population has combat training thanks to its compulsory military training program. Every Israeli citizen can jump straight into combat to answer the nation’s call of duty.
Israeli forces are heavily armed with ultra-modern technologies. On the other hand, Hamas is poorly armed with the alleged Iranian smuggled weapons. Nearly 40,000 Hamas terrorists are there in the Gaza strip. Thus Hamas won’t stand a chance but will fight till its last breathe if Israel invades the Gaza strip. Over 20 lakh civilians are now stuck in a situation that can soon turn out into a full-scale war.
US president Joe Biden’s statement “Israel has the right to defend itself” has unofficially given Israel the green signal to invade Gaza. As of now, it seems that Israel is determined to annex the Gaza strip and wipe out the roots of Hamas. But Israel is infamous for its brute force which is bad news for the Palestinian civilians.
The international community is divided over Israel. Countries like Germany and Austria are openly supporting Israel while the Arab and Muslim world is dead against it. The UN security council is soon going to meet the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Israel’s Hidden Intention
Israel wants to provoke Iran through the invasion of Gaza. Allegedly Iran has supplied billions of weapons to Hamas in Gaza including the rockets. Iran is believed to be one of the Nations which extends all its support for Palestine. This is a primary reason behind bitter Israel-Iran relations. Possibilities are very high that after Gaza’s invasion, Iran can launch a counteroffensive against Israel. Any attack on Israel buries the chances of the revival of the Iran nuclear deal.
Israel’s anti-terror efforts and the retaliation of the attacks of the Hamas is totally justified. As Indians, we can understand Israel’s pain of having such a neighbor which is a terrorist factory. But Israel must differentiate between the Hamas terrorists and the innocent Palestinian civilians, the innocent civilians, the innocent women, and children must not be harmed. But we have to understand that not every army on earth is as professional and moral as the Indian Army.
