By: Hassan Kallon Esq. and Dr. Ibrahim Seibure
On 7th of October 2023, militants belonging to the Palestinian group, Hamas crossed over into Israel and unleashed a campaign of terror and bloodshed on Israeli citizens along the border areas. In what has since been described as an “unprecedented assault”, the attack claimed about 1,200 mostly Israeli lives, while around 250 people were forcibly taken hostage. The brazen nature and consequences of the attack forced the Israeli government, presided over by Benjamin Netanyahu, to declare a state of war on the day following the attacks. Since then, the Israeli Defence Forces have launched air and ground incursions into Gaza, killing over 43,000 Palestinians, injuring more, while reducing most of the Gaza strip to rubble. Far from being a purely Isreal-Hamas (Palestine) conflict, the conflagration has spread further and engulfed other middle eastern states including Lebanon and Iran. This has prompted fears of the emergence of a wider Middle Eastern crisis.
At this juncture, it is important to take a minute and reflect on how the Middle East and particularly, Israel and Palestine got here in the first place. For starters, many people, save historians and others interested in Middle Eastern studies, hardly know that the modern state of Israel only emerged following the end of the second World War in 1948. Following its defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Britain took control of the area known as Palestine at the end of World War One. The land itself was inhabited by a large Arab and a smaller Israeli population at the time.
About this time though, Britain was committed to establishing a permanent home for Israelis. As a result, tensions grew between the Arab majority and Israeli minority in this area. While Jews considered Palestine their ancestral home, Arab Palestinians were determined to not be driven from their birthplace. Between the 1920s up to the 1940s, the number of Jews inhabiting the lands steadily grew, with many of them having fled persecution in Europe.
Though the United Nations voted for two states (Arabs and Jews) to be carved out of Palestine, this never came to fruition. By 1948, the state of Israel was created which immediately led to attacks from five Arab states: Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. Since then, the violent crisis between the Arab and Israeli populations have only intensified. These tensions culminated in the “Six Day War” between Israel and the surrounding Arab states in 1967. In the aftermath, more Israeli settler have continued occupying even more territories including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, even though these settlements have been held to be illegal under international law.
Following Israel’s declaration of war and its ensuing ground and air attacks on Gaza, the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah, moved to re-affirm its solidarity with Hamas and the people of Gaza. Since October last year, both Hezbollah and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have been trading attacks on each other. With support from Iran, Hezbollah has been launching rockets into Israel. This culminated in the declaration of an-out war by Israel about two months ago. On the night of Friday, September 27th this year, Hezbollah confirmed that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had been killed following an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Beirut.
This attack marked the high point of tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. An exploration of the origins of the Israael-Lebanon unease reveals that it has been long coming. Apart from being part of the initial group of Arab states that attacked the newly-created Israeli state in 1948, Palestinian groups like the Palestine Liberation OrganiSation (PLO) have been using Lebanon as a base for attacks on Israel since 1970, resulting in Israeli incursions into Lebanon. Despite the establishment of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in 1978, Israel’s invasion of Lebanon did not stop.
The formation of the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, contributed to raising tensions between the neighbours even further, leading to an invasion into Lebanon by Israeli forces in 1982. By 1985, Israel had retreated to South Lebanon and created what it called a security zone. This occupation eventually continued until 2000. Back to the present-day, this war has resulted in countless deaths, notably women and children and destroyed a large number of infrastructure.
In all this narrative, what has been questioned is the role of regional and international players. Far from being a disinterested spectator, Arab states like Iran are intrinsically invested in supporting Hamas (in Gaza) and Hezbollah (in Lebanon). spectators have also questioned the roles of the United States and other western powers who continue to support Israel’s military efforts, despite clear violations of the principles and dictates of International Humanitarian Law by all sides.
In Gaza, not only have civilians borne the brunt of these attacks, but they also continue to be disproportionately affected in other ways. Starvation has been reportedly employed as a weapon of war with food blockades and attacks on humanitarian convoys a normal occurrence. Hospitals and other critical facilities have not gone unscathed. Despite noises to that end, the United Nations has not been able to broker any lasting ceasefire or end to these conflicts. As a result, UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Agency has predicted, rather gloomily, that the entire population in Gaza is at the risk of imminent death.
The natural question ensuing from all this narrative is: what is the hope for ordinary Lebanese and Gazans wishing for an end in this carnage? The simple answer to that question is: NOT MUCH. Far from relenting, Israel and Netanyahu show no sign of slowing down any time soon. Even as we write this piece, Israel has issued warnings to residents of Baalbeck in Eastern Lebanon to evacuate their communities since it is getting ready to launch fresh attacks on the area. More than 2,100 people have been reportedly killed in Lebanon alone from airstrikes on the country in the past five weeks, adding to the over 40,000 reported victims in Gaza.
Add to this mix the recent Israeli killing of the Hamas Leader, Yahya Sinwar, and you have all the elements for a prolonged conflict. In addition, the United States has recently dispatched B-52 Bombers to the Middle East to avert the possibility of an Iranian attack on American personnel and interests.
This followed the release of a statement by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei in which he said: “Ongoing events in Lebanon & Gaza have resulted in the martyrdom of 50,000 ppl in the last year, mostly women & children… The US that claims to be an advocate of human rights, supports & is complicit in those crimes. Plans & weapons used are from the US. “Mediation efforts by Egypt and Qatar, with the backing of the United States has so far failed to secure a truce and release of hostages. While Hamas is calling for a total halt on Israeli hostilities, Israel says it hopes to permanently dismantle the militant group before bringing a halt to the status quo in Gaza.
To make matters worse, Qatar has decided to suspend its mediation efforts since in its opinion, both parties are not negotiating in good faith In the circumstances, one can only then say a quiet prayer for ordinary citizens who seem caught between a rock and a hard place.