The Israeli-Palestinian Dilemma: A Critical Examination of Historical Injustices and Ongoing Humanitarian Crisis

Bilal Hyder Simair

The October 7th attack by Hamas on Israel which resulted in some 1200 deaths of Israelis, has witnessed one of the deadliest retaliation by Israeli occupational forces but not against Hamas or its soldiers. Israel has carried out its retaliatory attacks against civilians and spared no one, children, women, elderly, and even targeted hospitals. This is all followed by their claims that Hamas uses these places as human shields and that Hamas needs to be eliminated as they indiscriminately killed “babies”, “raped women”, and killed families during their 7th October attack. 

What led to 7th October? 

This conflict did not start on 7th October 2023. This conflict started back when back in 1917 the British government, who had no right at all to sell Palestinian land, promised Jews of giving them a “home” on Palestinian lands. Following this, in 1948, Zionists with the help of the international community claimed independence and formed what we know today as the Israeli state. At that time, Jews were only 33% of the population and owned only 6% of Palestinian land so the argument that Palestinians sold their lands is absurd. The UN partition gave 55% of the land to Jews and 45 to Palestinians who were 67% by population and owned 96% of the entire Palestinian land. This injustice and brutal treatment of Palestinians is what started this conflict. Since occupation, Israel has committed unprecedented atrocities and human rights violations against Palestinians but the world has never spoken a word as they are silent now while Israel is carpet bombing entire Gaza. 

The continued oppression, killings, illegal imprisonment, tortures, and illegal settlements are what forced Palestinians to defend themselves with whatever they have. Be it stones, rockets, or guns. They are resisting and using the right to self-defense against occupational forces. The Hamas attack, contrary to Israeli claims, was purely à military operation aimed at attacking and neutralizing the occupational forces and giving a setback to their might. The Hamas attack was mostly carried out to attack military bases and police stations as the news later confirmed Hamas had specific maps of military sites and bases that clearly show their intention and targets. 

Interestingly, Israeli forces’ claims about Hamas attacks and the targets carried out by Hamas have turned out to be nothing but pure propaganda. The first claim was that Hamas killed more civilians. The recently issued list of names of people killed shows most of the killed were army or police personnel, their ranks are there with their names. Secondly, they accused Hamas of rapping women, and this too later on proved to be wrong as the Israeli government confirmed they had no evidence of their claim. Thirdly, they claimed Hamas had beheaded 40 babies and also fed the story to US President Joe Biden and he bought the lie. He went on live television and condemned Hamas for doing so. However, later on, the white house spokesperson denied the President had seen any such videos of babies being beheaded. The journalist who claimed this claim live later on apologized for spreading fake news as she did not receive any confirmation or evidence from the Israeli government. Fourth, most of the civilians killed at the festival were killed by Israel’s helicopter’s firing as the leaked helicopter’s footage at the scenes of the festival on 7th October shows Israeli soldiers indiscriminately firing and bombing the area which resulted in mass killings of their civilians. Additionally, the victims later on in interviews acknowledged indiscriminate firing of Israeli helicopters at people. They said Israel killed their civilians. This was because of the overwhelming military operation of Hamas which had paralyzed the Israeli state and its institutions. They were not able to understand the situation correctly. These lies were whitewashed by the biggest commercial media outlets in the first place but got dumped as time passed and evidence emerged with survivors’ interviews and videographic news. 

Now, in return for a purely military operation, Israel, instead of retaliating against Hamas and targeting them, started carpet bombing Gaza. They dropped some 30 thousand tons of explosives, more than two nuclear bombs dropped by the USA on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in the deaths of some 11,320 civilians out of which 4,650 plus were babies. Yes, 40% of their targets were babies and children of Gaza. The remaining are women, the elderly, doctors, Journalists, and UN staff members. This is, as said by the UN Chief, collective punishment and banned by the international community. Israel in the first place had no even right to strike in self-defense as according to the ICJ verdict in 2004 Israel has no right of self-defense

Israel being an occupational force does not have the right to self-defense. ICJ has stated this and its international law. Wars are fought on battlefields and not inside Hospitals. Israel is at present the world’s worst enemy of humanity. They stopped food supplies, medical assistance, electricity, water, and even fuel which is essential for the running of hospitals inside the Gaza Strip. Gaza is a small area hosting some 2.2 million people. Since Israel started its indiscriminate attacks, some 21 out of 31 hospitals are out of service because of either direct bombing or besiege of Gaza and stop of fuel, electricity, and medical supplies. Israel bombed the al-Ahli hospital killing more than 500 Palestinians including those who were taking shelter there as hospitals are the safest place and no one had thought about them being bombed there. No human would attack hospitals. They not only bombed the hospital but also physically assaulted al-Shifa Hospital and fired bullets inside the hospital. This is a pure violation of international laws. But guess what? Israel is immune from any international law for the USA and its Western allies are always at the forefront to support this wild animal in its every action. Israelis called Hamas “Animals” but they have proved this to be them and not Palestinians. 

Current Humanitarian Situation

Since the October 07 attack by Hamas, Israel has stopped electricity, water, food supplies, and even medical supplies. Water scarcity is increasing day by day and the UN reported that the average per-person water requirement is some 100 liters of water. In the Palestinian’s case, they are only left with 3 liters per person. They have no electricity, internet, or food supplies and are dying of wounds because hospitals are also being bombed and supplies of fuel and medicines are also banned by Israel. Schools, Mosques, and everything else in Gaza are bombed. 

When we say everything, it means everything. Israel has even attacked refugee camps. They attacked Jabalia Camp killing scores of innocent people followed by its attack on Jenin refugee camp in West Bank. They have left nothing and have targeted everything. But this leaves us with an important question to ask ourselves: What are we doing? 

The USA, European countries, and other nations have openly stood by Israel in its massacres. Muslims failed to take action at the OIC summit and only continued condemning instead of taking any practical measures against Israel like an oil embargo and cut-off relations. Is our self-interest over everything? Including humanity? Where does this put us as human beings? People of the world have to take a stand and protest should not be to show support for Palestinians but rather to demand our governments to take practical measures against the worst enemy of humanity, Israel. 

The author is a student of International Relations at the National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad.