The bodies of 109 Palestinians including 23 children and 11 women were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, and spokesperson Khalil Degran told the Associated Press that more than 100 wounded also arrived to the hospital. In addition, he said the rest of the 210 Palestinians killed were taken to Al-Awda Hospital after the spokesman said he spoke to the director there. But the numbers at that hospital could not be confirmed by the AP.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue the war until all hostages are freed, but Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official now based in Lebanon, struck a drastically different tone.
“The horrific massacre committed today by Netanyahu and his fascist government against the Palestinian people in Gaza, which led to slaughter of 210 and more than 400 wounded so far — under the pretext of liberating those detained by the resistance — confirms what the resistance has said repeatedly: that Netanyahu doesn’t plan to reach an agreement to stop the war and free the captured Israelis peacefully,” Naim said, according to the Associated Press.
Imagine coming home to find your family was burnt to a crisp and your house and belongings torched by a foreign nation’s military.
Do you expect this person to shrug it off and say “ah just collateral damage” or do you become vulnerable to propaganda from a group that says “I told you so, they’re evil and must be destroyed”?
When we watched Luke Skywalker take up arms and join an armed rebellion against the evil empire after they murdered his family, we all cheered. But when the perpetrator doesn’t look like a comicbook villain, things are suddenly less clear.
Point it, Hamas can’t be defeated like this. Every bombing of a civilian home creates more Hamas terrorists. When left no choice, people will choose violence. And to them it seems clear that Israel gives them no choice. From the safety of our homes we can see that Hamas is not worthy of any praise and that their actions are deeply reprehensible. But they live amongst the rubble caused by Israeli bombs; they won’t see it that way.
This is a violent path that can only lead to genocide, which must be prevented. If we truly want there to be peace, both sides must concede things. Otherwise Hamas or its successor will just come back.
You make a strong point, and all of it makes sense. This is NOT a simple, black-and-white/either-or situation. Upvoted.
I think the Israeli thought might be along the lines of:
Imagine you see your neighbor supporting a bunch of terrorists in their home. Suddenly their home is bombed and turned into a parking lot. Maybe you’ll think long and hard when a terrorist group knocks on your door and asks to hide there for a while. The only problem is, do they ask or just come in uninvited?
Fixing this would ideally not involve guns, but it doesn’t work this way, at least not well. The only way this can end is if Hamas is destroyed and Gaza is occupied - by Israel or the UN - and rising terrorist groups are infiltrated and nullified before they can reach the stage of endangering their neighbors, until the entire population grasps and can control a self-government process.
If the people of Gaza assist in any way in destroying Hamas, this ends sooner and lives are saved. And the people aren’t there yet - Hamas was their government, so…
Again, not a great solution.
But I find it interesting that almost every comment I receive is “But look what the Israelis did to us years and years ago…” These commenters should grow the fuck up. Get over it. And no, I’m not a Native American so I don’t have a first-hand experience of it. But just as the Native Americans fought for years by using raids, kidnappings, outpost torching… wow, this looks familiar. And they didn’t win either. The same thing is going to happen to Hamas and those who support them.
Again, Hamas has publicly stated that they will not stop killing until Israel is wiped off the map. We can figure it out from there how this has to go.