The Gaza War — A 2-Month Analysis
The other day, someone I consider pro-Palestine accused me of bias towards Israel in the ongoing Israel–Hamas war. Interestingly, a pro-Israel person had earlier in the day questioned my motive in my lack of posts about Hamas’ tactics. Personally, I am at a loss as to why Nigerians, and by extension Africans, who are invested in the conflict in Gaza, do not with the same vigor talk about what is going on in Sudan.
Maybe not entirely at a loss because I know this armed conflict has some religious coloration, and its escalation may turn into something global. Still, there is a war going on in closeby Sudan, a fellow African country, that I believe should also take as much brain space as the one Netanyahu is solidly behind. In the Sudanese war, as of October 2023, up to 10,000 people had been killed, and up to 12,000 others injured. Over 4.8 million have been internally displaced, and more than 1.3 million others have fled the country as refugees.
So, as I go on with this mid-war evaluation, have it at the back of your mind that the war in the Middle East is not the only one at the moment.
The October 7 attacks shocked Israel. After Hamas fighters killed more than 1,200 people, while committing sexual assault and torture, sometimes on video, Israeli leaders promised to eliminate Hamas. Israel vows to kill the Hamas fighters, destroy their weapons stockpiles, and collapse their network of tunnels. To do so, Israel has dropped 2,000-pound bombs on Gaza’s densely populated neighborhoods.
These Israeli bombs have turned much of Gaza to rubble. A former Pentagon official thinks the closest comparisons to so many large bombs falling in such a small area are the Vietnam War or World War II.
Having that many bombs in a tiny 365sq km area causes tremendous damage. And it will if you understand how small that area is. In contrast, Lagos, Nigeria’s smallest state, is 3345sq km. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, says it has confirmed that more than 15,000 people in Gaza have died during the war. Another 6,000 or so are missing. About 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced.
You may say Hamas overstate its numbers, but many international observers believe that the overall death toll is accurate. Israel, in turn, say that a third of the dead were likely fighters allied with Hamas, rather than civilians.
Still, accepting that two-thirds of 15,000 are dead means Israel is taking responsibility for 10,000 dead civilians. That’s a huge number in a war that is just 2 months’ old. So, no surprises that U.N. officials and many human rights advocates have criticized Israel for not pursuing tactics that would have killed fewer people.
Even the US, eternal allies of Israel, have had some in their fold rail against how Israel went about the bombing. Before invading the Iraqi city of Mosul to defeat the Islamic State in 2016, for instance, the U.S. military spent months developing a plan, partly to minimize casualties. Israel, by contrast, started bombing Gaza almost immediately after October 7. Critics including US officials insist that Israel knew to do better, could have done better, but decided against it.
Israel on its part points its fingers squarely at Hamas. It says Hamas hide weapons in schools, mosques, and hospitals, and their fighters disguise themselves as civilians. All these are violations of international law, Israel reminds the world.
In truth, this is perhaps the only way Hamas can survive, and both sides know it. The Israeli military is a more formidable enemy, and efforts to sniff Hamas with these tactics would contribute to the delegitimization of Israel. Hamas has vowed to repeat the October 7 attacks at the next possible opportunity and ultimately destroy Israel.
Hamas is smart with its strategy, which involves forcing Israel to choose between allowing them to exist and killing Palestinian civilians. They may be beloved by those who are firmly on the side of Palestine, but Hamas itself is not prioritizing Palestinian lives.
In the evaluation of this ongoing conflict, one party that has not received as much attention is Egypt. Egypt borders the Gaza Strip and even controlled the area during the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. After the dissolution of the All-Palestine Government in 1959, under the excuse of pan-Arabism, Egypt continued to occupy Gaza until 1967.
But after the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty, a 100-meter-wide buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Route was established. Egypt wanted nothing to do with Gaza any longer.
Their decision still stands. Egypt’s leaders have maintained a militarized border with Gaza, refusing to admit refugees. “We are prepared to sacrifice millions of lives to ensure that no one encroaches upon our territory,” Egypt’s prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, said recently.
Egypt has justified the decision by saying that it does not want to reward Israel’s aggression by encouraging Gazans to flee. And Palestinians themselves have historical reasons to fear that fleeing their land will lead Israel to annex it.
Still, Egypt’s refusal to accept many refugees is inconsistent with the behavior of many other countries during wars. Germany, Poland, and other European countries have accepted millions of Ukrainians even though doing so arguably rewards Vladimir Putin’s invasion. Turkey has admitted millions of Syrian refugees in recent years. Chad has accepted many Sudanese refugees.
In these other cases, countries took steps to save lives. In Gaza, the civilian toll continues to mount, thanks to the decisions of these three parties.
So, when folks come to you and ask you to categorically choose a side, it’s probably because they want you to suspend critical thinking and choose their side. The war is a little more nuanced than that.
