A month after Hamas launched its deadly raid into southern Israel, Gaza now looks like a wasteland. More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,104 children, according to reports.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Gaza was becoming a “graveyard for children.”
“Ground operations by the Israel Defense Forces and continued bombardment are hitting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches and UN facilities – including shelters. No one is safe,” Guterres told reporters, adding, “At the same time, Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields and continue to launch rockets indiscriminately toward Israel.”
Israel has reported that at least 31 of its soldiers have been killed since it began ground operations in Gaza more than a week ago. In addition, at least 1,400 people in Israel were killed and 240 more taken hostage during the October 7 attack.
A Standoff
Neither Israel nor the Hamas militants who control Gaza are anywhere close to seeing the need for a cease-fire. Israel said hostages would need to be released first. Hamas said it will not free any hostages, nor will it stop fighting while Gaza remains under siege.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested his nation may become responsible for securing the Gaza Strip once the war ends.
“I think Israel, for an indefinite period, will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it,” the prime minister said in an interview with ABC News. “When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.”
Pro-Palestinian Protests
Hamas is losing on the battlefield, but it is winning the war. It has spurred protests around the world, with mass crowds rallying to its cause.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C., for one of the largest pro-Palestinian protests to date. Protesters carried placards with slogans such as “Palestinian Lives Matter,” “Let Gaza Live,” and “Their blood is on your hands.”
It was described as a “National March on Washington: Free Palestine,” and in addition to being one of the largest pro-Palestinian gatherings in the U.S., it was also one of the biggest for any cause in the nation’s capital in recent years.
It was not an isolated event.
Some 30,000 people attended rallies across London, blocking Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus before gathering in Trafalgar Square. Demonstrators gathered outside BBC headquarters to protest the network’s coverage of the war, which critics have called biased.
Thousands more have demonstrated in Berlin, Paris, Milan, and Dhaka. There was even a small gathering of protesters outside Boeing’s facility in Saint Charles, Missouri, near St. Louis.
Protest Turned Deadly
There have been some confrontations between supporters of Israel and Palestine, and on Monday, a 69-year-old Jewish man died after falling and hitting his head during an altercation with pro-Palestinian protesters in California. Paul Kessler succumbed to injuries sustained at dueling demonstrations on Sunday in Thousand Oaks.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Kessler was struck in the head before he was knocked over. An autopsy conducted on Monday determined his manner of death was a homicide, and local law enforcement is investigating his death as a possible hate crime.
U.S. Lawmakers Called Out By Israeli Ambassador
Among those supporting Palestine are several high-profile U.S. lawmakers – members of the far-left “Squad” in Congress refused to condemn Hamas. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) were among House members who voted against a House resolution condemning Hamas. The resolution passed the chamber overwhelmingly last week.
“They are motivated by hate toward Israel and political interests here,” Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Friday from his office at the Israeli consulate in New York City. “I think some of them suffer from ignorance regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
He added, “Muslim countries who are butchering or committing massacres against their own people, hundreds of thousands of Muslims are being executed or killed and murdered by their regimes. I never saw these members of Congress campaigning against them. I just see them campaigning against one of the closest allies of the United States.”
It Happened Again – This Time The World May Not Care?
In the more than 80 years since the Holocaust, Jews around the world have repeatedly vowed “never again,” yet it did happen – albeit on a far small scale – on October 7, a day that quickly became known as “Israel’s 9/11.” Yet when Israel responded, the world turned against them.
As a result, it appears that Hamas is on the verge of winning the war. Instead of a bomber wearing a suicide vest, the terrorist organization willingly sacrificed the entirety of Gaza. Hamas leaders knew how Israel would respond. It knew that killing a thousand Israelis would result in at least ten-fold Palestinians dying in the response.
They probably see it as a fair trade. They knew Israel’s response would inflame the Muslim world, while they would win the support of progressives and liberals around the globe.
In other words, Israel may win the battle. It may even make a desert of Gaza and call it peace. But Hamas is winning the war.
Author Experience and Expertise: A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
