Another vicious bout of violence

Irrespective of whether Israel and Hamas sign a ceasefire agreement any time soon, the recent flare up in Gaza which may still escalate into a full-blown war, is a reminder of how uneasy is the peace that prevails in the region

It is the seventh day of Operation Pillar of Defence, the military operation launched by Israel in response to incessant rocket fire from the Gaza Strip that has led to an unprecedented escalation of violence in that region. Already, more than a 100 people have died  and as this article goes to print, representatives from Israel and Hamas (the terror organisation that governs Gaza) are meeting in Cairo to hammer out a cease-fire agreement. The talks are being mediated by the Egyptians and are in a crucial stage.

But irrespective of how the talks progress, it will surely be a litmus test for Egypt’s recently elected President Mohamad Morsi. A member of the Muslim Brotherhood of which Hamas is an off-shoot, Mr Morsi has a tightrope to walk. On the one hand, Hamas expect their fellow ‘brother’ to behave in manner that is more favourable to them as compared to his predecessor Hosni Mubarak, a secular dictator and a Western ally. But on the other hand, Mr Morsi cannot afford to come out too strongly against Israel and cross her American friends either. He remains hugely dependent on Washington, DC for crucial aid money that is needed to rebuild the Egyptian economy currently lying in shambles.

For Mr Morsi, this is a head-versus-heart kind of situation; and for now, he seems to be going with his head having refused to condemn Israel as strongly as Hamas would have liked him to. Of course, this does not mean that Hamas is politically isolated — it continues to enjoy the support of Qatar and Turkey, for instance. That the Egyptian President has still expressed hopes for a ceasefire agreement is possibly the result of the tremendous international pressure that is there on all parties to prevent an escalation of violence.

But even as world leaders scramble to prevent another full-scale war, the fact remains that on the ground there is no respite. On Tuesday alone 60 rockets were fired into Southern Israel, at least two of which exploded as far as Jerusalem, almost 80kms away from Gaza. The distance and the religious significance of the Holy City, to both Jews and Muslims, make the attack a particularly audacious one. Now, combine that with the fact that even Tel Aviv — located in central Israel — has come under fire in this past week. It becomes amply clear that Hamas now has significantly improved weaponry that includes long range missiles such as the Iranian-made Fajr-5 missiles, for this is the first in recent time that Israel’s two largest cities have come under such fire.

On its part, Israel has of course retaliated with full force, and rightly so, starting with the killing of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari on November 14. Since then, it has launched more than a thousand air strikes targeting Hamas leaders, weapons caches and rocket launching pads in Gaza. Additionally, there have also been more ‘symbolic’ attacks against Government offices.But that is not all.

As Hamas continues to rain rockets on Israel, the latter has already prepared herself for a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza. Israel has already positioned 40,000 reservists on its border and if talks fail, there is a possibility that Israeli troops will once again go into the Gaza Strip — a territory they held until 2005, when Israel unilaterally backed out of the area, handing over control to the Palestinian Authority which then lost power to Hamas.

But while there is a 50-50 chance of ground invasion, it is still the last resort option. A full-scale war, similar to the 2008 Operation Cast Lead, will not only cost Israel much of the international support it currently enjoys but will also lead to huge casualties particularly on the Palestinian side. Unfortunately, a disproportionately large number of Palestinian deaths has always characterised such clashes.

This is primarily because Hamas uses women and children as human shields and deliberately launches attacks from inside crowded civilian spaces such schools, hospitals and mosques. Furthermore, it has not cared to put in place the kind of defense mechanism that Israeli citizens today enjoy — from the Iron Dome, which intercepts and destroys rockets and shells, to bomb shelters and more.

No, instead, Hamas has chosen to waste its resources on shelling Israeli targets even if that means preventing aid from reaching Gaza. On Tuesday, for instance, only 24 of the 120 Israeli aid tracks that waited at the Gaza crossing could actually go through before the border was closed. And yet ironically it is Israel that supposedly has Gaza under siege!

On a concluding note, it is important to mention that of the three Israelis who have died in this bout of violence, one was Mira Sharf — the wife of the rabbi who heads the Chabad House in New Delhi. When they came under fire, they were in the town of Kiryat Malachy which is relatively new to this kind of an attack as it closer to central Israel. Ironically, the couple was in Israel to commemorate the attack on Chabad House in Mumbai four years ago during the 26/11 carnage.

(This article was published in the Op-ed section of The Pioneer on November 21.)