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Gaza has been a thorn in Israel’s side for decades. That narrow strip of land, home to more than 2.4 million people — 70 percent of whom are refugees — would not exist if it were not for the creation of Israel in 1948. Its very existence is, in fact, a daily reminder of the tragedy that has befallen the Palestinians, who, until today, are denied justice and the right to self-determination.
Gaza is home to eight refugee camps, although Israel has largely obliterated them in the past 15 months. Today, more than 90 percent of Gazans are displaced as a result of Israel’s barbaric war. The humanitarian crisis in the Strip will last for years. Israel’s horrific violations of human rights and international law in Gaza will haunt that nation forever.
Even before Hamas took over in 2007, Gaza represented a security nightmare for Israeli leaders and its military, especially in its crowded and poverty-stricken refugee camps. In 1992, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was quoted as saying: “I wish I could wake up one day and find that Gaza has sunk into the sea.”
It was in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp that the First Intifada detonated in 1987, before quickly spreading to the rest of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It marked the first popular uprising against the Israeli occupation since 1967. Between 1987 and 1991, Israel killed at least 1,087 Palestinians, of whom 240 were children. The Intifada created political undercurrents that led to the convening of the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991 and the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
Under the latter, Israel agreed to withdraw from Gaza as an initial step toward ending its occupation of the Palestinian territories. Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat arrived in Gaza in July 1994, marking a historic return of a Palestinian leader, himself a Gaza refugee, to a self-ruled area. Israel dismantled its Gaza settlements and withdrew in 2005.
But Gaza and its refugee camps were also the birthplace of Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which became the primary opponent of Fatah, the largest of the Palestinian groups, whose head was Arafat. Hamas appeared during the First Intifada and vowed to use armed resistance to liberate all of Palestine.
After Hamas carried out a bloody coup against the Palestinian Authority in 2007, it assumed complete control of Gaza. The year before, it had won a majority of seats in the Palestinian legislature. President Mahmoud Abbas was forced to ask Ismail Haniyeh, a leading Hamas figure, to form a short-lived government.
Hamas’ takeover of Gaza led to Israel imposing a blockade on the Strip and that triggered multiple bloody confrontations between the two sides. These involved the firing of rockets from Gaza and Israeli airstrikes, as well as limited ground invasions. Thousands of Gazans were killed in these fights. But nothing compares to Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on southern Israel.
Between Oct. 8, 2023, and Sunday’s pause, Israel carried out a war on Gaza that killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children. That figure is likely to rise sharply, since thousands remain buried under the rubble and are unaccounted for.
While Israel, led by Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist government, waged a genocide, Gaza became every Israeli’s nightmare: a threat that simply will not go away. After 470 days of the most brutal and indiscriminate bombing of one of the most crowded places on Earth — destroying more than 90 percent of the civilian infrastructure — Netanyahu was forced into accepting a ceasefire deal by incoming US President Donald Trump. The agreement differs little from former President Joe Biden’s suggestion of last May, which was accepted by Hamas at that time.
When Netanyahu declared war on Gaza, he set three main goals for a war that he said must end in “total victory.” They were the destruction of Hamas, the return of all Israeli captives and full Israeli military control of Gaza. While the second and third phases of the deal need more negotiations, few in Israel believe Netanyahu has fulfilled any of these objectives.
While a now humbled Netanyahu has said that Israel will resume its attacks on Gaza at any given moment, the reality is that neither Trump nor the rest of the world would allow a resumption of the bloodbath. In a few days, the foreign press will enter Gaza — Israel has banned them since Day 1 of the war — and they will report to the rest of the world the horrors and the tragedy that Gaza has suffered.
While the future of Gaza — including who will end up running it and how normality can ever be achieved — remains ambiguous, the reality is that Israel has failed to erase the people of the Strip or drive them into the desert. Injured, shell-shocked, hungry and cold, the people of Gaza have derailed Israel’s plans. People are returning to the battered north, Israel’s army is withdrawing, aid is flowing in and Jewish settlers are not colonizing the Strip. And to rub it all in, Hamas, while weakened, has not been destroyed.
Sunday’s prisoner exchange, with elite Hamas fighters emerging in military gear, sent a chilling message to Netanyahu and the extremists. All the killings and all the destruction only brought shame and debacle for Israel: it has a prime minister who is now wanted for war crimes and the country itself is facing charges of genocide at the world’s highest court.
While the future of Gaza remains ambiguous, the reality is that Israel has failed to erase its people or drive them into the desert.
Osama Al-Sharif
But soul-searching and cool heads are now needed on both sides. The Palestinians have paid a high price — the highest since the Nakba — for a war they did not choose to start. Hamas bears responsibility for a decision it made that has left the Strip in ruins.
Israel, too, must try to learn from its Gaza blunder. It has blemished itself and the stains are indelible. Israel cannot claim victory or a moral high ground when the horrors of what happened to Gaza will continue to unfold for generations to come.
Gaza has become Israel’s Achilles’ heel, a traumatic event that is now stuck to it and taints its existence. The country’s far right has erased the romantic, often false, narrative espoused by Israel. Its legacy today is one of genocide, the killing of babies, war crimes, rape, torture and the usurping of land.
If anything good has come out of this war, it is this: The Palestinians have survived, will continue to survive and will seek justice and accountability. But only Israel, the one that seeks penance, can deliver both.
- Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. X: @plato010