Hamas is resisting and looking at Gaza from the rest of the Arab world: this is the Middle East this week.
Hamas opposes Israel’s ground invasion | Looking at Gaza as seen by the rest of the Arab world. This is the Middle East this week:
What is the endgame of Israel’s ground invasion?
There have been some stumbles since Israel’s land invasion of the Gaza Strip began almost two weeks ago.
It is too early to say how the war against Gaza will end, but experts say Hamas’s fighting capabilities have improved, meaning the fighting on the ground will be much more vicious.
Israel has said it will soon split the Gaza Strip in two and encircle Gaza City, but to do that it will have to fight an urban war that is expected to be bloodier than has been the case so far.
Especially when the battle goes underground, in Hamas’s feared tunnels.
Israel completely besieged the enclave a month ago. During that time, what little food, water, fuel and medicine Gaza had stockpiled was virtually used up. Our graphics team visualized what it means to go without enough food and water for a month.
Municipal freshwater for bathing, washing clothes and running household plumbing has also dried up, meaning people have to wash their children in the highly polluted sea near Gaza, causing ulcers and other ailments.
The people lost because of the war
Ahmed was an ambitious dentist with a smile who was always happy to give free treatments to his friends (he needed the practice too). Yosep, on the other hand, was considered a tech genius whose final message to his wife was, “I love you,” followed by a heart emoji.
Ahmed, a Palestinian, and Yosep, an Israeli citizen, both died recently. Ahmed in the Israeli bombing of civilian homes in the Gaza Strip, and Yosep in the Hamas attack on October 7.
In Gaza the bombardment has not stopped; children make up almost half of the more than 10,000 people who have died. This makes the current conflict possibly the deadliest for children in modern times.
In addition to bombing residential areas, Israel is also bombing hospitals, even though tens of thousands of families are known to have fled to them for safety.
Governments have been trying to evacuate their nationals from the war-torn region, and some have had to make the difficult decision to leave family members behind. Some managed to leave Gaza with their Palestinian relatives, but became stuck elsewhere while they waited for their government to issue visas to their non-national spouses to accompany them home.
What now?
Although there were many relieved listeners by the time Hassan Nasrallah concluded his speech on Friday, it remains to be seen whether his organization, Hezbollah, will stay out of the fighting or come to Hamas’s aid.
Rumors are swirling about a possible post-war political settlement in the Gaza Strip involving the Palestinian Authority, which rules the occupied West Bank. But many Palestinians are not happy with the PA, especially those living in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Arab Strait has made its position clear as major demonstrations in support of Gaza took place in Turkey and Iran.
Tunisia also saw large demonstrations, and open expressions of distrust of the West and Western influence have increased as people grow tired of what they call Western indifference to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The Tunisian government appears to be responding to that sentiment and is working on a number of laws that would severely restrict the activities of NGOs.
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Quote of the week
“Our hearts are burning over our land… We wait all year for the olive season, which is the most beautiful season, but the Israelis deliberately burned our trees using their rockets and tank shells.” | Nisreen Abu Daqqa, a farmer from the city of Khuza’a in Gaza.