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ISRAEL, HAMAS and GAZA
Part 1 The War (2024 February) INTRODUCTION The Australian TV discussion program Q+A (November 13th) featured a committee discussing the Gaza war which started on October 7 when Hamas militants poured into Israel and killed, raped, mutilated, burned, kidnapped or otherwise injured 4000 people. The President of the Palestine Advocacy Network, refused to condemn the atrocities. He deflected the question by asserting that Jews persecuted Palestinians for 75 years, killed West Bank Palestinians, restricted imports into Gaza, and that Hamas merely wants one united country, Jews and Palestinians together. Actually these are not good reasons to rape, kill, kidnap or injure 4000 people uninvolved in the alleged earlier history. Critics later "slammed" Q+A: "for giving its high-profile Q+A platform to an anti-Semite..." Another committee member noted that civilians were dying in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) invasion of Gaza and that killing civilians is a war crime, but didn't mention that Hamas using civilians as human shields is itself a war crime that makes civilian deaths unavoidable. In this article I'll present some historical background and describe the war from news reports. For updated analysis see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel-Hamas_war A subsequent article will compare international reaction to the war with biblical ethics.  Map for illustrative purpose only
Not necessarily accurate HAMAS Hamas is an Islamist [Muslim fundamentalist], political, paramilitary organization which governs Gaza supported militarily by Iran. Hamas was established in 1987, its formation inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian Islamist political movement designated terrorist by Australia, USA and Egypt. The Oslo Accords established the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (1994) to govern the West Bank and Gaza with the "two state" goal of Israel and Palestine existing as two independent countries. Hamas rejected the political framework, portrayed itself as defender of Palestinian rights, and turned to violence to undermine Israel and dominate Palestinian politics with the goal of one state only, Palestinian. In 2005 Israel withdrew its military from Gaza, dismantled the homes of Israelis who lived there and compelled 9000 to relocate. Hamas was democratically elected in Gaza in 2006. A rift with the West Bank Palestinian Authority followed in 2007. Hamas imprisoned or killed its political opponents and dismantled democracy, and conducted cross-border raids and rocket attacks on Israel as a matter of policy. HAMAS CHARTER The Hamas Charter (1988) reveals why Hamas despises democracy, rejected the Oslo peace process, and pursued confrontation with Israel. The Preamble states: ″Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam invalidates it, just as it invalidated others before it″. The 36 Articles after the preamble are saturated with accusations and conspiracy to justify Hamas' goal of destroying Israel by Jihad (Islamic Religious War). Article 6 says that Hamas "strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine". Article 7 quotes a hadith [sayings attributed to Muhammad]: "The Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say, 'O Muslim, O servant of God, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'" Article 8 says the Qur'an is its constitution, jihad its path and "death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes." Article 20 accuses Israelis of inflicting "collective punishment", "breaking bones", "opening fire on women and children", "The Nazism of the Jews does not skip women and children", "In their horrible actions they mistreat people like the most horrendous war criminals", etc. Articles 22 and 32 blame Jews for all social evils and wars since Napoleon's time, and claim Jews aim to rule the world: Article 22: …They
were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of
the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their
money, they formed secret societies, such as Freemason, Rotary Clubs,
the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of
sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money
they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to
colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their
resources and spread corruption there.
They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it. Article 32: ...After
Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the
Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they
will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in
the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the
best proof of what we are saying.
Leaving the circle of struggle with Zionism is high treason, and cursed be he who does that. "for whoso shall turn his back unto them on that day, unless he turneth aside to fight, or retreateth to another party of the faithful, shall draw on himself the indignation of Allah, and his abode shall be hell; an ill journey shall it be thither." (The Spoils - verse 16). There is no way out except by concentrating all powers and energies to face this Nazi, vicious Tatar invasion.... (https://irp.fas.org/world/para/docs/880818) The Protocols (Article 32) first appeared in a Russian newspaper in 1903. The document alleges that Jews and Freemasons made plans in Switzerland in 1897 to create a world state based on slavery. The Protocols were exposed as forgery probably masterminded by Russia's secret police. Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf (1925 ) wrote: How
much the whole existence of this people is based on a permanent
falsehood is proved in a unique way by 'The Protocols of the Elders of
Zion', which are so violently repudiated by the Jews. With groans and
moans, the Frankfurter Zeitung repeats again and again that these are
forgeries. This alone is evidence in favour of their authenticity.
Hitler's logic — that proving something a forgery is evidence of its authenticity — is perverse! The Protocols became a rationale for the Holocaust and reached the Muslim world via Nazi radio broadcasts. Hitler's Nazis in Germany gained power similarly to Hamas. Elected democratically in 1933 Hitler violently dismantled democracy and blamed Jews for all of Germany's problems. Palestinian leaders rejected the two-state solution in: • 1947-48 when it was authorized by the United Nations; • 1979 when Egypt made peace with Israel; • 1980s when Hamas produced its Charter;. • After the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993; • 2008 when Israel's prime minister offered the 1967 borders. GRAND MUFTI and NAZI PROPAGANDA The Hamas Charter echoes the anti-Semitic propaganda of Nazi Germany except that the Nazis didn't call Jews Nazis — that's a Hamas addition. How did Nazi anti-Semitism reach and infect Islam? Jeffrey Herf (2009) consulted American-produced summaries of Nazi shortwave radio programs broadcast in Arabic to North Africa and the Middle East from 1939 to 1945. In 1977 the American State Department declassified several thousand pages of these radio broadcasts translated into English. They reveal a "tsunami of anti-Semitism" including speeches by the Grand Mufti (= expounder of Islamic law) of Jerusalem. In 1941 the Grand Mufti, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini (1897-1974), a Palestinian nationalist, conferred with Hitler in Berlin. The Nazi newspaper, Volkischer Beobachter, published a photo of their meeting. Al-Husseini was hostile to Western influence in Arab countries and believed that the West, led by the Jews, was waging War against Islam. To him the proof was the Balfour Declaration (1917), which stated that Britain supports establishing a Jewish national home in Palestine provided that the rights of non-Jewish communities were safeguarded. He opposed Jewish immigration and helped incite the 1920 Nebi Musa riots which caused much damage to Jewish life and property. Al-Husseini sought an alliance of Arabs and Nazis to establish a Palestine state and exterminate 1 million Middle Eastern Jews. Hitler agreed subject to waiting until Germany's armies reached Palestine. Al-Husseini assured Hitler that "The Arabs were Germany's natural friends because they had the same enemies ... the English, the Jews, and the Communists". Al-Husseini lived in a confiscated Jewish house in Berlin until 1945 supported by a Nazi stipend. He visited at least one concentration camp, met Heinrich Himmler in 1943 who told him Germany had already wiped out 3 million Jews, helped to recruit Muslims for three Nazi army divisions, and maneuvered to block transfers of Hungarian Jews to Palestine and redirect them to death camps. The Jews, according to many broadcasts, caused the World War, conspired to rule Muslim countries and the whole world, made Allied nations pawns in their agenda, but Germany was leading the fight against them. The broadcasts portrayed Nazis and Arabs as allies, called for Muslim revival, and freely quoted the Qur'an. Al-Husseini himself declared: “Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion.” Nazi propaganda, with al-Husseini's cooperation, instilled contempt for democracy into Islam along with authoritarianism, non-liberal economics, religious discrimination and cultural repression, and provided the ideological background for future terrorists, Jihadists and dictators. After WWII al-Husseini fled to Egypt and avoided prosecution for war crimes. If Germans indoctrinated with Nazism for a decade killed Jews and Russians in millions, what could a further 80 years of Nazi indoctrination, as expressed in the Hamas Charter, achieve with Arabs? Answer: Recurring war, aid money squandered on building 500km of tunnels, rockets in thousands traumatizing daily life in Israel, families of murderers who kill Jews financially rewarded, and unprovoked terror inflicted on 4000 victims on a peaceful Sabbath morning. An example of "Pay for Slay" is two Palestinian teenagers who in 2011 murdered three Israeli children and their parents in their beds and felt "proud". The mother of one called him a "hero" and was awarded a huge payment, and Gazans celebrated in the streets. The killers faced the death penalty which was commuted to life in prison. The chasm in ethics is vast when one group rewards terrorists who murder innocent civilians and the other gives criminals fair trials and shows mercy. Literature discussing how Hitler's anti-Semitism penetrated Islam is reviewed at: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/the-nazi-roots-of-islamist-hate ISLAM AGENDA Islam has an agenda, which Hamas believes in, of world conversion to Islam. Robinson (2004) writes: The
Holy War as it is known in Islamic Jurisprudence is basically an
offensive war. This is the duty of Muslims in every age when the needed
military power becomes available to them... Thus the apostle of God
said: "I was commanded to fight the people until they believe in God
and his message..."
Muslims believe that all peoples of the world must ultimately submit to the law of Allah as conveyed, interpreted and applied by the prophet Muhammad and his followers. A means for achieving this is jihad. The world and all that is in it legitimately belongs only to Allah (Surah 3:180), the prophet and his followers. The Assyrian born Muslim scholar ... Professor Bassam Tibi, says the West is gullible: For a Muslim peace...implies the extension of...Islam to the entire world... The quest of converting the entire world to Islam is an immutable fixture of the Muslim worldview... Western analysts seem to want to ignore the well documented facts of history which demonstrate Islam's expansion by means of military conquest is not an occasional event but an institutionalised process of normative religious obligation. Egyptian Sayyid Qutb who is regarded as 'one of the major architects and strategists of contemporary Islamic revival', saw jihad as 'a mandatory, proactive activity that seeks to establish Allah's sovereignty over the whole earth.' It is an integral part of Islamic missions' (dawa) drive for world conquest... With such theological underpinnings non-Muslims need to understand that values and assumptions they bring to the negotiating tables or by which they analyse Muslim activities are quite invalid from an Islamic perspective. For Muslims the massacre of enemies is not a crime against humanity. It simply represents victory for Islam. It is not a moral issue at all. WAR INSTEAD OF PROSPERITY The International Community gave Gaza $4500 million in 2014-2020. Hamas introduced social welfare programs, reduced organized crime, and invested in public infrastructure. This, if supplemented with free elections, and exploiting Gaza's ideal location for tourism, could have made Gaza a "Mediterranean Singapore". But Hamas chose hatred instead, and wasted Gaza's opportunities. (Howe 2023) Hamas facilitated poverty by stockpiling rockets, constructing its vast underground labyrinth, importing war materials, and orchestrating repeat confrontations with Israel. Israel, by prioritizing peace, employment, education and technology, anticipates growth in GDP in 2024 despite the war, and has 97 privately-held companies worth more than $1billion. (Trinca 2023) Israel has demonstrated that education, free speech and democracy promotes prosperity, and Gaza that hate, religious totalitarianism, terrorism, war and indoctrination creates poverty. Israel has responded to Hamas attacks with incursions to suppress them: 1. Operation Summer Rains (2006): Seven Israelis and 402 Palestinians killed 2. Operation Cast Lead (12/2008 to 1/ 2009): A 22-day ground incursion to clear out militants and rocket-launching sites and other military infrastructure but discontinued due to US pressure. Israel then set up its "Iron Dome" defensive system to intercept rockets in flight. It's expensive — Hamas long range rockets cost US$3600 each to produce, short range rockets $500, but Iron Dome interceptor rockets $60,000 each. 3. Operation Pillar of Defence (11/2012): Responding to renewed missiles attacks, Israel with air and artillery strikes destroyed weapons-depots, missile launchers, and Hamas control centres. 57,000 reservists were mobilized but no ground attack followed. Lyons (2012) quoted a waiter at a Gaza restaurant: "We must destroy Israel until they leave our land the whole of Palestine… I hope to have children to sacrifice them for the Palestinian cause. We are sacrificing Gaza's children for the sake of God; it is not expensive." During the interview the Hamas television station was turned on: "Over pictures of fighters, Hamas's words of hate flowed: "We will destroy Israel," the song said. "Death to Israel, Israel is the enemy of humanity."" The waiter's comments indicate why most Gazans are aged under 19. Mass-producing children, indoctrinated with hate, ready for "sacrifice", could eventually overwhelm Israel with sheer numbers. 4. Operation Protective Edge (7/2014 to 8/2014): A 51-day operation to stop ongoing rocket attacks and incursions by terrorists via tunnels and coastal boats. An IDF ground assault entered northern Gaza to locate tunnel entrances and faced strong Hamas resistance in densely populated areas. 66 IDF troops and 6 Israeli civilians died; Palestinians about 2000. 5. Israel-Gaza War 2023-24 Israel's announced aim this time was to dismantle the Hamas organization. Hamas ideology, like Nazi ideology, requires the extermination of Jews, and October 7th revealed what that implies. Hamas inflicted the worst single-day killing of Jews since WWII. The objectives were to provoke Israel to violent reaction which would mobilize Muslim anger worldwide; stop the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia; distract Palestinians from Hamas’s failure to improve Gaza's economy; and perhaps inspire a Hezbollah invasion of northern Israel. By luring the IDF into Gaza Hamas expected to kill unprecedented numbers with booby traps and close-quarter, subterranean fighting. As on previous occasions the world would condemn Israel and insist on a ceasefire. After that negotiations over hostages could be spun out indefinitely to get thousands of terrorists and criminals in prisons released. Resupplied from aid money, Hamas could then do it all again. In Western media Hamas propaganda promotes Hamas as a peaceful nationalist organization. It uses the right words such as "liberty", "freedom", "nationalism", "democracy" and sometimes "two-state solution", but in practice is an anti-democratic, destroy-Israel, terrorist, religion. The spokesman on Q+A criticized Israeli violence but omitted that Palestinians routinely stab, shoot or bomb Israelis or throw rocks, and the IDF, the police, and sometimes civilians react. Regarding the Gaza blockade (since 2007) he didn't mention that the blockade slowed the stockpiling of rockets that disrupt daily life and economics in Israel, and kill, injure and traumatize civilians. Regarding 75 years of persecution he omitted to mention that Arab bands attacked Jewish settlements already between 1881 and 1914, and commenced regular killing of Jewish citizens with the Nebi Musa riots in 1920. Initially Jews put up with Arab attacks, then began to organize, and the violence became tit for tat. It's documented in Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (1993). In 1929 Arab attacks killed 133 Jews. At Hebron 59 men, women and children were killed and dismembered, many others tortured and maimed. (p.29) In 1936 100 Jews were murdered and many farms destroyed. Trees planted by Jewish immigrants to restore the environment were destroyed in the 1920s, hundreds of thousands. The Q+A spokesman didn't mention any of the above. Nor the Charter, the Nazi "tsunami of anti-Semitism", or the Mufti's plan for a Middle East holocaust. Israel reacts against specific perpetrators, but Palestinians attack law-abiding Jews randomly anywhere. That's how many end up in prison or get killed. On November 30th two Muslims entered Jerusalem and murdered three civilians at a bus stop and were gunned down by soldiers. OCTOBER 7 Hamas leaders planned Operation al-Aqsa Flood for two years during which militants attended weekly training. At 4am, October 7th, 2023, more than 2000 militants assembled and received machine guns, explosives, rocket propelled grenades and rifles. Their goal was to attack an unprepared democracy and slaughter, terrorize, and "soil them". The $1bn perimeter fence around Gaza was breached with bulldozers and explosives and the terrorists on motorbikes and trucks and by paragliding swarmed into Israel at 30 locations. Many wore body cameras and live-streamed what followed. Each unit had maps showing targets, defenses, locations of dogs and houses with gun-owners — information collected by Gaza residents employed in Israel. Hundreds of Gaza residents joined the invasion. Other squads waited at the fence to receive captured hostages. Militants massacred 260 at an outdoor music festival. Unarmed people were shot, burned or beheaded. Terrorists searched houses room by room. Babies were slaughtered in their cots; civilians doused in petrol and burned; parents tied up and made to watch as militants cut body part off their children; people hacked to death with machetes and garden tools; women's bones broken to facilitate raping them; hundreds gang-raped then killed, their bodies scattered around for kilometres; hostages paraded in Gaza and mishandled and spat at. Fifteen Israeli Muslims (Bedouins) were also killed, some when shielding Jewish neighbors. Shown photos of Kfar Azza, one of the communities attacked, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken expressed revulsion: "It's beyond what anyone would ever want to imagine... Its simply depravity." Foreign correspondents gathered on October 16 in Tel Aviv to view gruesome film compiled from terrorists' body cameras, security cameras, vehicle dashboard cameras, and mobile phones. More than 1200 people including foreigners employed on kibbutzim were slaughtered; 3000 injured; and 240 kidnapped as insurance against retribution. Hamas also fired 4000 rockets into Israel, damaging many communities, to detract attention from the invasion. In Gaza the population was jubilant. They had voted Hamas into power, supplied Hamas with 30,000 fighters, expressed approval of Hamas in surveys, supported building the tunnels, gathered intelligence for October 7th, approved of aid money being diverted to the military, joined the October 7 invasion, and approved of hostage-taking. Commentators speak of "innocent civilians" but the majority, as indicated by surveys, approved of Hamas. The main planners were Yahya Sinwar (61) a founding member of Hamas and its overall chief in Gaza; Mohammed Deif (58) who had commanded Hamas’ military wing; and Shadi Baroud deputy commander of Hamas Intelligence Directorate. Sinwar spent 23 years in Israeli jails for killing Israeli soldiers. He was among 1027 prisoners, some serving life sentences, swapped in 2011 for Gilad Shalit a young Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in 2006. Consider: One soldier was exchanged for 1027 criminals. Just one of those released criminals, not counting others, was instrumental in organizing the carnage of October 7th. An Islamist recipient of mercy organized merciless savagery upon thousands! ISRAEL'S REACTION October 7th, 2023, was the greatest one-day massacre of Jews since WWII. Hamas denied it happened, but was refuted by what the terrorists themselves filmed! On October 8th the IDF fought terrorists at 20 locations; on the 9th Israel mobilized 300,000 reservists; on the 11th terrorist-occupied areas were reclaimed and 1500 terrorists were dead. The statutes of the International Criminal Court (ICC) define hostage-taking as a war crime and prohibit cruel treatment of captives. Hamas, however, on October 9, threatened to kill hostages and show it on the Internet if the IDF attacks or Israel fails to release 5000 Palestinians in jails. Israel commenced bombing — precision bombing — after urging people to leave targeted areas. An explosion at the al-Ahli hospital (October 17th) killed hundreds. Muslims and politicians around the world condemned Israel. Days later investigation attributed the explosion to a misfired Hamas rocket. About 10% of Hamas rockets are estimated to misfire or land in Gaza! Israel urged northern Gaza's 1.1 million people to head south before the ground offensive begins. But Hamas ordered civilians to stay, even blocked roads. The Weekend Australian reported this under "Sickening 'don't flee' decree". On October 28 Israel's ground assault began, air attacks struck 150 targets, and Israel's fleet launched raids on Hamas bases. Eleven Hamas leaders including Shadi Baroud were reported already dead. On November 2, Hamas official Ghazi Hamad demanded that Israel "release all the prisoners from its detention centers" and "halt its aggression... And after that, we can talk about everything about hostages..." A week earlier the same official said on Lebanese TV that Hamas “must remove” the Jewish state and was prepared to repeat its October 7 operation “a second, a third, a fourth time." On November 3 Antony Blinken at a press conference said: "Hamas doesn't care one iota for the well-being of the Palestinian people... It cynically and monstrously uses them as human shields, putting ... weapons and ammunition, within or beneath residential buildings, schools, mosques, hospitals." On November 5 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to daily 4-hour "pauses" so Gaza residents could flee south along "humanitarian corridors". The main hospital in Gaza City, Dar al-Shifa, was besieged. The hospital administration denied that militants used it for military purposes. On November 15 the IDF found two dead hostages outside the hospital, stores of firearms and video of live hostages inside, and tunnels underneath. The casualty count in Gaza as announced by the Hamas-run Health Ministry went up and up — by 18th November 12,000 deaths including 5000 children, by mid February 27,000. With the source being Hamas who denied that October 7th events happened, the figures need confirming, but include Hamas fighters and deaths from misfired rockets. Netanyahu announced: "Any civilian death is a tragedy, and we shouldn't have any because we're doing everything we can to get the civilians out of harm's way, while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm's way... So, we send leaflets, [we] call them on their cell phones, and we say, 'Leave'." In tunnel warfare Israel sent robots to investigate, then poured in liquid explosive gel. Nevertheless, booby traps took a toll — four Israel troops died and four injured in an explosion upon opening a shaft. Fifty hostages were released during a truce and 150 Palestinians from jails. Hamas refused to release more women after several reported sexual violence in the tunnels and on December 1 war resumed. Tunnel shafts discovered soon numbered 800 with 500 destroyed. Commentators noted that repeated truces would let Hamas regroup, make time for Hezbollah to get involved, increase international pressure for permanent ceasefire, degrade Israel's economy because the war costs it $200m per day, and thwart Netanyahu's stated aim to destroy Hamas. By December 9 Hamas fighters in north Gaza were surrendering, 80% of Gaza's population was displaced, with looting, crowding and hunger. The IDF started pumping seawater into the tunnels, thousands of cubic metres per hour with five large water pumps. A resolution by the 15 member UN Security Council called for humanitarian ceasefire but refused to condemn Hamas for October 7th and was vetoed by the US. Russia's deputy UN ambassador accused the US of issuing a "death sentence to thousands". Jordan's top ambassador accused Israel of "war crimes and massacre". The General Assembly (December 12) voted for "immediate humanitarian ceasefire". Israel's envoy criticized their non-condemning of Hamas and declared, "If you want a real ceasefire, here is the right address. This is the phone number of Hamas's office in Gaza..." He displayed a large board showing the phone number and added: "Tell Hamas to put down their arms, turn themselves in and return our hostages. This will bring a complete ceasefire that will last forever." Defeating Nazism in 1945 came with terrible suffering due to Hitler's "no surrender" stance. Hamas likewise won't relinquish its goals against Israel. To do so would be "high treason" and traitors end up in hell — their Charter says so. Hamas, in hostage negotiations, demanded a 10-year ceasefire. Why 10 years? Robinson (2004) explains: Until
the entire earth and all of its inhabitants return to the rulership of
Allah ... war must be pursued against those who have yet to submit...
If, for political or economic reasons, a state of permanent war cannot
be overtly or aggressively prosecuted then and only then may a truce be
agreed upon (Surah 9:1-5). However according to the model of the
Prophet's own example such a truce cannot be maintained beyond ten
years. Furthermore at any time during that truce decade it may be
unilaterally abrogated whenever the Islamic position becomes
favourable...
In Yemen the Houthis (Iranian-backed militias) began firing rockets toward Israel and carried out attacks on merchant ships. On December 18 the US announced "Operation Prosperity Guardian" to deter Houthi aggression. Hezbollah also, by early January, had: "carried out around 670 operations, targeting 48 Israeli border positions and 11 rear sites..." (Sunday Mail, January 7, p.70) In mid January Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong, visited Israel. "On Monday, she stood alongside Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi as he spoke of Israeli genocide and violations of international law, repeating the detestable phrase to reporters that the events of October 7 didn't happen in a vacuum." (Bashan 2024) Wong pledged $21.5m in humanitarian assistance. But this was put on hold when employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were found to include terrorists involved in October 7, and others had openly celebrated the atrocities. (Sharma 2024; Stewart 2024) In February Hamas's Khan Yunis brigade, after a 2-month fight for Khan Yunis (a city in southern Gaza), ended up dismantled. Netanyahu then ordered the IDF to prepare to enter Rafah in March, where 1.3 million civilians had sought refuge, and where the remaining Hamas battalions were holed up. Joint statements (February 15) by Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Britain called the proposed attack "catastrophic" and urged Israel against it because "there is simply nowhere else for civilians to go." FROM HAMAS to CHRIST One Hamas man discovered a better way than hate and war and tells it in his biography Son of Hamas (2010). Mosab Hassan Yousef (born 1978 in Ramallah), son of one of Hamas's founders, was first arrested at age ten for throwing rocks at Israelis, and after that jailed many times. Yousef was in Megiddo Prison in 1996 and witnessed Hamas inmates weed out supposed collaborators with torture, killing many who "had nothing to do with Israeli intelligence". He started asking himself: "What if Hamas succeeded in destroying Israel and building a state. Will they destroy our people in this way?" He worked for Israel's security service from 1997 to 2007. The information he supplied prevented dozens of suicide attacks. He then moved to the USA and was granted political asylum. Yousef met a British missionary in 1999 and was baptized in Tel Aviv in 2005. He does not adhere to any denomination but believes: "Only Jesus could save mankind through his death and resurrection. And Jesus is the only way to God." Interviewed by Fox News in October he said that Hamas "don't care for the Palestinian people" and are using them for their long-term goal of "transforming the Middle East and the world into an Islamic state." CONCLUSION: Part II of Israel, Hamas and Gaza will compare the conflict and global reaction to it with biblical ethics, and include references. |