ephoto from a Jewish day camp in the SF Bay Area Source :Foward/JWeekly

RESOURCE: 2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR 

Table of Contents

• Why the Gaza Blockade
• Hamas's Tactics - How Hamas' Unique Urban Warfare Uses its Citizens as Shields.

Israel has a blockade of Gaza Because Hamas Is at War with Israel and Steals Humanitarian Aid to Build Weapons.

Hamas is a religious fundamentalist organization that depends on guerrilla urban warfare tactics.  Originally accepted by Israel as a religious alternative to the secular PLO, it soon morphed into an even more radical organization that provided its own set of social services paired with militias. Elected to a majority in Gaza in 2006 (which is the last election held in Gaza), they also run the government in one of the densest urban areas in the world with an iron fist.  Homosexuality is punishable by 10 years in prison or death, women can not travel without a male chaperone.  They are also known for environmental warfare, sending flaming balloons to start brushfires in Israel.  Hamas won elections in Gaza in 2006 and then proceeded to kill or torture political opponents.  While the Oslo Accords created a structure for peaceful negotiation for two states, Hamas refused to join in any negotiations with Israel and continued to stay at war with Israel. It continues to call for the elimination of all Jews or Killing from the region and the killing of Jews.  It sent militants into Israel to shoot or kidnap Israeli civilians, and bomb town centers, usually delivered by militants who would blow themselves and the people around them up.  Israel and Egypt then imposed a blockade of Gaza to prevent the flow of arms and explosives into Gaza.  Hamas was caught then stealing aid money,  humanitarian aid and supplies to make rockets, stole cement to make tunnels to get into Israel and stole food as well.  The blockade now focuses on both military and dual-use technologies since Hamas has tried to use whatever it can to make weapons instead of helping Gazans, but at times Israeli-Right politicians have hardened the blockade or used it in a heavy-handed fashion more to look tough, even though it hurts Gazans.  That being said, Israel provides access to emergency health care, water and electricity into Gaza.  Gaza's own infrastructure decayed under Hamas, and worsened due to damage caused by fighting Israel, the blockade and corruption have also hurt both the economy and the rebuilding of Gaza.

Hamas Deliberately Stages Its Military Operations In Schools, Hospitals and Civilian Buildings Making Conventional Ground Force Operations Nearly Impossible to Take Out. 

Hamas is a fundamentalist organization that depends on guerrilla urban warfare tactics that used to rely on suicide bombing and armed attacks on civilians until the security wall prevented such attacks (it also has had other effects including cutting of Palestinians from their land and preventing regular contacts between Arabs and Israelis) 

Since they are no longer able to send suicide bombers into Israel, their primary form of attacking Israel is to send cheaply made, rockets either supplied by Qatar or Iran or by repurposing oxygen tanks and fertilizer provided as international aid.  Not only is the firing of rockets into civilian areas by Hamas possibly a war crime, but Hamas also locates their military operations headquarters in or beneath hospitals, and have deliberately located munitions and rockets in UNWRA schools, over and over again (and apparently was locating attack tunnels under schools in 2021 as well). 

They also deliberately place their operations in dense urban areas, and place tunnels under residential areas for troops and munitions to move, which has resulted in them being accused of using civilians as shields.  This well-documented placement deep within Gaza means that it is impossible to take out rockets or operations without hitting densely populated areas and the easy mobility of the rockets make a ground operation impossible.  Israel does try to warn residents of targeted areas and has called off several high risk operations that could affect children.  Further, Hamas' rockets frequently do not make it out of Gaza.  The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that at least 11 of the 128 civilian casualties from Gaza in 2021 were killed by Hamas' own rockets (the claim of 245 casualties produced by Hamas to the United Nations Office of the Coordinator includes over 128 militia members). 

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