ABDULATEEF AL-MULHIM
Few weeks ago, three Israeli teens were kidnapped and murdered.
Two of them held dual citizenships, Israeli and American. Few days
later, apparently to avenge the deaths, a Palestinian teen was kidnapped
and killed. It was clear that the two incidents would spell disaster.
In other words, four teens were murdered and there were more killings to
come.
In the wake of the four killings, many in Israel
and the West Bank including some mayors in Israeli and Arab towns urged
both the Israeli government and Hamas not to escalate tensions but it
looked obvious that things would not calm down and the rest of the story
is known to all.
A question answer of which is not
known to anyone is: Why Gaza does not have bomb shelter? Hamas took
control of Gaza Strip in 2005 following Israeli withdrawal. However,
hostilities never ended. In one of the conflicts around 1,500
Palestinians lost their lives and the Israeli side sustained few
casualties. Undoubtedly, Israel is militarily powerful than Hamas. Had
Hamas built bomb shelters, the causalities would have been reduced. It
seems Hamas does not pat much attention to the number of dead
Palestinians. Hamas is not gaining anything by locking horns with
Israel.
In the wake of this current crisis, people
around the world took to the streets, some supporting Israel and some
opposing it. Reportedly many Jews around the world took part in protests
slamming Israeli attacks on Gaza. Many Arabs criticized Hamas’
“irresponsible” approach that has put Palestinians in harm’s way. In
other words, there are people from both sides who are not in favor of
armed conflict. So why don’t these people sit together for a truce
resulting in a lasting peace? Now, let us go back to the absence of bomb
shelters in Gaza. Hamas either does not understand the rule of the game
or simply just turn a blind eye to it. Hamas know well that Israel will
hit back and hit hard if attacked. So, why Hamas was successful in
spreading a sophisticated network of tunnels and fail to build simple
bomb shelters if they knew there would be armed conflicts? Is Hamas
willing to sacrifice Palestinians to get more Arab and foreign financial
aid and what is more, does Hamas receive orders from abroad or they
simply have no control over various factions within Hamas? As we have
seen, some of Hamas missiles are either from Iran or used Iranian
technologies. So, the question is, can Hamas use these missiles or its
technologies without a green light from Iran and is the attack from Gaza
planned by the Iranians to take some of the pressure off Bashar Assad?
Till
the time of writing this article, the number of Palestinian dead is
approaching over 200 and we have seen gruesome scenes of dead children
but we all know that the dust will eventually settle and they will just
become statistics in history books. What if the Israeli ground forces
attack northern Gaza? How many casualties Hamas is willing to sustain?
Hamas
had been in isolation from the day it took control of Gaza because of
its behavior. So, maybe Hamas wanted to emerge from this isolation and
catch world’s attention but other means should have been adopted to do
that. Leaders of Hamas are now under more scrutiny from their people.
Hamas leaders are jet setters. They travel high class, stay at the best
hotels and eat the best food but their people are not paid their
salaries on time and what is worse is that they are always under
constant pressure from Hamas rule and the Israeli missiles. And Hamas
did not even think of building bomb shelters. So, is Hamas looking for
more innocent Palestinian casualties to gain more sympathy from the
outside world?
Israel
is using lethal weapons at a time when many countries in the Arab world
are in chaos. There are more Syrian refugees and displaced families
than there are Palestinians. There is more destruction in Libya and
Yemen than there is in Gaza and there are far more gruesome killing
scenes in Iraq than in Gaza. The Arabs are busy. So, the assets of Hamas
could have been utilized to educate the Palestinian youths. But if
Hamas really wanted an armed conflict, then they should have at least
built some bomb shelters for the poor innocent Palestinians. Most of
them don’t want this armed conflict.
No comments:
Post a Comment