Trapped like mice. This is how the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip feel since the start of Israel’s response after the terrible Hamas terrorist attacks which left more than 1,300 dead on the territory of the Jewish state last Saturday.
First, they were trapped at home by the incessant bombings. “There are bombings everywhere, in all directions. We don’t have access to the news. All we hear are the sounds of war. It’s 24 hours a day. We don’t sleep,” described Ehad Bader to Globe and Mail earlier this week. This Canadian doctor, visiting his family in Gaza, may be able to leave the enclave thanks to a special flight organized by the Canadian government, but for most Gazans, all exits are blocked.
To the west, it is the Mediterranean Sea to which Gazans, under Israeli blockade since 2007, do not have access to flee. To the north and east, the Israeli army is massing its troops on the other side of a wall – built to isolate Gaza – but which Hamas fighters managed to force last Saturday. To the south, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi’s Egypt has told the Palestinians in Gaza to “stay on their land”.
It was just the beginning. On Thursday and Friday, Israel dropped leaflets in Arabic from the sky, ordering more than a million Gazans living in the north of the enclave to move south. The unprecedented order has sparked as much anger as dismay. Fearing a “humanitarian calamity,” the United Nations Secretary-General’s office called on Israel to retract the statement. Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip without sharing since 2006, has warned Gazans not to flinch. Several Arab countries have also expressed their disagreement. Israel explains that its army wants to target Hamas infrastructures which are located underground.
And the civilians in all this? They don’t really know what to do anymore. Moving around is perilous because of the continuing bombings. If they decide to leave their homes, they do so in more than difficult conditions.
There has been no electricity in Gaza since Israel imposed a complete siege. Water and food are becoming increasingly scarce. Hospitals are overflowing and lacking everything.
Normally, the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated territories in the world. This situation has only gotten worse since more than 400,000 people, or one in five Gazans, were displaced by the bombings, even before the evacuation order. “But where is the feeling of security in Gaza? Is this what Hamas is offering us? a desperate Gaza City resident told an Associated Press reporter as he watched his neighbors flee.
On Friday, local authorities already reported 1,900 deaths.
Leaving is dangerous. Staying is dangerous. Gazan families are asked to choose their poison.
This trap that Gaza has become does not threaten to close only on the Palestinians who live there. Several experts are warning Israel, which, as we write these lines, appears to be preparing a ground assault in the small territory cordoned off on all sides.
The argument holds water. Hamas, which spent two years preparing Saturday’s attacks, most likely prepared the ground for the arrival of Israeli troops. Its fighters know every corner of the 365 km2 from the Gaza Strip. We already know that they operate from a complex network of underground infrastructure.
Hamas still holds more than 135 Israeli and foreign hostages, claiming that 13 of them were killed in bombings ordered by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The human losses linked to a ground military incursion promise to be heavy not only for civilians, but also for the Israeli soldiers who will fight on enemy territory.
It is also a safe bet that the leaders of Hamas, who instigated the atrocities of October 7, relied on an all-out response from the Israeli authorities, likely to fuel indignation in the region. Their dire wishes were quickly granted. The Israeli Prime Minister promises a military response that will “reverberate for generations”. He says the ongoing counter-offensive is only the beginning of reprisals.
PHOTO ARASH KHAMOOSHI, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Thousands of Iranians demonstrated in Tehran on Friday to show their support for Hamas.
In the Muslim world, anger is already brewing. On Friday, demonstrations denouncing the ferocity of the Israeli response took place in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Jordan.
If some of these protests are organized with the views guy – notably by Hamas allies in Iran and Lebanon – they have the potential to spread throughout the Middle East as the Israeli military operation progresses and allegations war crimes are piling up.
Iran is just waiting for that. The Islamist regime in Tehran, which fears being further isolated, is seeking to derail negotiations to normalize diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel under American aegis. And by the same logic, to call into question the Abraham Accords – bilateral agreements concluded between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – during the presidency of Donald Trump.
It is therefore in triple mined territory that the Israeli army seems to be preparing to march. And this, even if the wires connected to the explosives are phosphorescent.