Gaza is currently ruled by Hamas, an Islamist militant group that committed for the destruction of Israel. The UK and many other countries classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 after winning the Palestinian elections in 2006 and ousting the rival Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas, which is based in the West Bank. Since taking control, Hamas and Israel have engaged in few wars, and both Israel and Egypt have inflicted an encirclement on Gaza to isolate Hamas and pressure them to halt attacks, particularly the indiscriminate firing of rockets toward Israeli cities. Palestinians in Gaza state that Israel’s restrictions and airstrikes, often targeting heavily populated areas amount to collective punishment. Additionally, this year has been the deadliest year on record for Palestinians violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, leading to the highest number of Palestinian casualties on record. Palestinians in these areas also face restrictions and military actions in response to deadly attacks on Israelis.
What are the main problems?
There are several issues on which Israel and the Palestinians cannot reach an agreement. These include:
- The fate of Palestinian refugees
- Whether Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank should remain or be dismantled
- Whether the two sides should jointly govern Jerusalem
- And, perhaps most challenging of all, whether a Palestinian state should be established alongside Israel.
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been conducted intermittently since the 1990s but collapsed in 2014.
Israel has initiated a war against the Palestinian militant organization Hamas following an unprecedented attack conducted by air, sea, and land on Saturday. The assault has resulted in over 1200 dead in Israel, as reported by the public broadcaster Kan. In response, Israel launched a deadly series of airstrikes on Gaza, claiming the lives of at least 900 people. As the militants withdrew into Gaza, they asserted having taken at least 100 hostages and threatened to kill them if airstrikes targeted Gaza without warning. In response, Israel vowed that Hamas would face severe consequences and might be gearing up for a ground invasion into Gaza.
What happened?
On Saturday morning, militants from Gaza fired thousands of rockets at Israeli towns. They managed to breach the heavily fortified border fence with Israel and sending militants deep into Israeli territory. In the incursion, Hamas gunmen killed hundreds of people, including civilians and soldiers, and took hostages, at times seizing them from their own homes. Israeli troops more than two days regaining control as intense fighting unfolded in the streets. On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that they had successfully regained control of all Israeli communities near Gaza’s southern border after the conflict with Hamas came to an end.
On Tuesday, IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus stated that approximately 1,500 bodies of Hamas fighters were found inside Israel since the attack on Saturday. The attacks were unprecedented in both tactic and scale, marking the first time since the 1948 Arab Israeli war that Israel has engaged in street battles with its adversaries on its own territory. Additionally, Israel has never experienced a terror attack of this magnitude, resulting in the loss of numerous civilian lives. While Hamas has previously kidnapped Israelis, it has never before taken dozens of hostages at once, including children and the elderly. Hamas named the operation “Al-Aqsa Storm” and claimed that the assault was in retaliation to what they perceived as Israeli attacks on women, the desecration of the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and the continuous siege of Gaza.
The death toll in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reached its highest annual fatalities since 2014.
The recent violence has resulted in over 1,000 deaths in Israel and approximately 900 in Gaza as of October 10, according to authorities on both sides.
How has Israel responded?
In reaction to the attack Israel declared war and initiated “Operation Swords of Iron,” targeting suspected Hamas and Islamic Jihad locations in Gaza. As of Monday, hundreds of people, including dozens of children, had been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the region. The IDF instructed civilians in Gaza to evacuate their residential areas immediately for their safety, as Israeli military operations persistently target Hamas. All crossings between Israel and Gaza have been closed, potentially indicating preparations for a ground incursion into the enclave.
On Monday, Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege” on Gaza.
G7 Back calls for “humanitarian pauses” in Israel-Gaza war
We clearly censure the terror attacks by Hamas and others across Israel that began on 7th October 2023, as well as continuing missile attacks against Israel. We proclaim Israel’s right to protect itself and its people, in conformity with international law, as it search to stop a return. We call for the urgent release of all hostages without prerequisite. We express our heartiest compassion and regret to the victims of these attacks and their tribe, as well as all citizen, Palestinian, Israeli, and others, including our own civilians, who have died or been hurt during this contention. Israelis and Palestinians have an equal right to live in security, decency, and peace. We refuse anti-Semitism and Islam phobia in any shape in our own community and anywhere in the world. We pressure the need for quickly action to address the worsen humane catastrophe in Gaza. All gathering must allow unhindered humanitarian support for civilians, water, medical care, fuel, and shelter, food, water, medical care, fuel, and shelter, and access for humanitarian workers. We support humane pauses and passage to facilitate necessary needed assistance, civilian movement, and the release of prisoner. Foreign nationals must also be allowed to continue to go. We underscore the importance of keep safe civilians and complaisance with international law, in specific international humanitarian law. Afterward October 7, the G7 members have engage an additional $500 million for the people of Palestinian, including through the UN agencies and other humanitarian actors. We wish all Muslim countries around the world to join us in this effort. We warmly welcome the November 9 international conference urge in Paris on humanitarian issues.
The rise in fundamentalist colonist violence perform against Palestinians is unacceptable, enfeeble security in the West Bank, and menace hope for a lasting peace. The members G7, along with ally in the region are working exclusively to protect the disagreement from increase rapidly further and spreading more widely. We also working together by imposing sanctions or other measures, to refuse Hamas the ability to raise and use funds to carry out cruelty. G7 members are committed working together with partners to prepare sustainable solutions for Gaza and a return to a broader peace process in line with the internationally agreed parameters. We underline that a two-state solution, which viable Palestinian and a envisions Israel state living side by side in peace, security, and mutual recognition, remains the only path to a just, lasting, and secure peace.
OIC summit calls Israeli assault on Gaza a war
The Ambassador of Palestinian Riyad Mansour said that the members of the OIC are “support to the Palestinian people in the united demonstrating solidarity, and also challenging the implementation of the Resolution in the UN General Assembly.
Today reporters to speaking (03 Nov), each other with the members of the OIC, Ambassador of Palestinian Riyad Mansour said that the Security Council is “unable to act collectively.
Riyad Mansour explained, “To continue international peace and security when there is a war, the initial and most essential action they should declare a ceasefire, the war is stop and deal with that situation.
And because some individuals with veto power are pushing for Israel to persist in these actions, want Israel to go on with this crime and to leave it completely to Israel to conclude when they will stop.
The Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot reiterated, “Nonetheless we will continue to knocking on the door of the Security Council.
Jordan order to return its ambassador to Israel, Mansour said, “We hearten as many as possible to taking practical steps against all those who are break commandment against the Palestinian peoples. And by that I mean representative of the occupying authorities, they need to feel the pressure.
The Ambassador Libyan Taher Elsonni, who is helping as the Chairman of the Arab Group, also spoke to reporters.
Taher Elsonni said, “There’s no reason to bomb refugee camps, like Jabalia twice. There is no reason to target hospitals and under what so called the right to defend.
Ambassador Elsonni Taher said, “Dispossess over two million Palestinians from water, food and feul is a war crime. It is not controversial, because it more dangerous for killing everyone.
The Chairman of the Arab Group Mr. Mohammed Rikan Hadid Alhalboosi also said, “automate Palestinians is not acceptable. We are all humans and all lives matter.”
Mr. Mohammed Rikan Hadid Alhalboosi continued, “I’m thinking about where’s the voices of human rights activists, special delegate on what’s happening. Where are the human rights and when it comes to children women in conflict? We hear that all around. Where is it today? And why we are not hearing those voices anymore? We heard messages or voices on humanitarian pauses. We’re calling for ceasefire.”
Ambassador Taher Elsonni reiterated, “it is not a picture to be played, to stop when we want and leave people die. A ceasefire must be called and must be called now.
Saudi Arabia said, Tuesday, it will organize two summits for Arab and Islamic leaders to talking about the conflict in the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reports.
A statement by the Saudi Foreign Ministry Prince Faisal bin Farhan said an Arab summit will be held in Riyadh on Saturday and another for the OIC member states on Sunday to discuss the Gaza conflict and its humanitarian repercussions. On Monday, the OIC said an emergency summit will be held in Riyadh on 12 November to discuss the Israeli assault in the Gaza Strip. The Saudi Foreign Ministry also announced the postponement of an Arab-African summit, which was scheduled for 12 November.