Hamas is a name that does not mean much to the average American who doesn’t watch the news. However, Hamas is the name of the terrorist organization that recently made headlines for firing rockets and storming cities throughout Israel from their headquarters in the Gaza Strip. This action incited violence in Israel unlike any seen in decades. Both Palestine and Israel hang in the balance between violence and total control of this historic section of the Middle East, due to a conflict that goes back decades.
The beginning of the modern Israeli-Palestine conflict can be traced back to World War 2, when Israel was created. In 1947, the United Nations created a partition plan to divide the British state of Palestine into Jewish and Arab sections. The creation of the Jewish state sparked the first Arab Israeli war which in turn split the new country into three sections, the State of Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, according to cfr.org.
These splits created tensions between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The latter three countries supporting Palestine, leading to a mutual distrust of Israel. In 1967, in response to Egyptian maneuvers, Israel attacked Syria and Egypt, starting the 1967 Six-Day War. The result of the war being that Israel grew to four times its size by annexing surrounding land, and the Arab countries were soundly defeated. Israel was now the powerhouse of the Middle East, which was a direct inverse of its position before the war, according to wilsoncenter.org.
Following the Yom Kippur War, and the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1979, the Middle East reached a tentative peace, as both countries followed each other’s treaties. However, this peace would only last eight years, as in 1987, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians rebelled against the Israeli government, causing what is known as the first intifada, or uprising. However, in 1993 and 1995, The Oslo I and II Accords were put in to place respectfully in agreement with the UN.
The Oslo Accords set up the Palestinians to go into the West Bank and Gaza and govern themselves in those regions. Peace was short-lived, however, as in the year 2000, Palestinians launched the second intifada. The second Intifada was sparked in light of grievances of Israel control over the West Bank, and the interference of Israeli officials into Islamic holy sites. The second intifada ended in 2005, with a barrier wall set around West Bank despite international objection.
In 2006, Hamas won the Palestine Authority’s parliamentary election. Hamas is a political and militant movement closely related to Palestine’s Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas has been recognized as a terrorist organization by many western countries, such as The United States and European Union. Hamas was responsible for the 2014 clash between Palestine and Israel, in which 73 Israelis and 2,251 Palestinians were killed. The Hamas party continues its dominance over Palestine to this day, despite its terrorist status, according to bbc.org.
In 2018, regular protests at the Gaza-Israel border erupted in violence as some protesters climbed the perimeter fence and threw rocks. Almost 200 Palestinians were killed and more than 6,000 were injured by live ammunition. This tense atmosphere in Palestine led to a split in leadership, with Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip and another party, led by President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, controlling the West Bank.
Fast Forwarding to December of 2022, the most far right and religious members of Israel’s government were inaugurated. This is dangerous for Palestine, as one political party endorsed by this government is the Religious Zionism party. Zionism is the movement that endorses the unification of Israel, and a banishment of ethnic Palestinians, according to amnesty.org.
The election of a largely conservative and religious Israeli government puts Palestine in a dangerous position, as many of the politicians in the new government wish to eliminate the Palestinian presence in both Gaza and West Bank. The Hamas presence in Gaza also creates an issue for the Israeli government, by simply existing on Israel’s border. The palpable tension between the two countries is ready to be cut, and Hamas is the first to make a move.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza, infiltrating communities near the Gaza-Israel border, killing over 1,400 Israelis. In response, Israel began firing artillery into Gaza, killing more than 8,000 Palestinians. While the situation in the Middle East is ongoing, the whole world looks on with a tense breath, hoping the violence present wont escalate to uncontainable proportions.
