KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The conflict between Israel and Hamas has claimed around 2,200 lives so far. Israel leaders announced they would make a war-time Cabinet to oversee the fight after Hamas launched an attack over the weekend that the Israeli military did not expect.
Since the attack, Israel has sealed off the Gaza Strip and left the people there without reliable access to food or supplies while the Israeli military bombards it, demolishing neighborhoods. Larry Nicholson, a retired three-star U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant General, said the area has around 2.2 million people in "one of the most densely populated urban areas in the world." The Gaza Strip is around 210 square miles large, he said.
Palestinians live in the area and in the West Bank. For decades, Israel and different groups and nations in the Arab world have feuded. The most recent bout of violence began after a Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, which marked 50 years since the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
"When I was there some time ago, it was still pretty isolated. However, there were a number of citizens in Gaza — Palestinians who were working in Israel. One of our jobs as a UN observer is, we would be at a gate watching Palestinian Gazans go to work every day in Israel, but they had to be back at night. So, obviously, the situation has changed. It is locked down, there is no port, per se, no real port which allows a lot of trade. Everything coming in and out of Gaza is closely regulated by Israel," said Nicholson.
A blockade around the Gaza Strip was established in the mid-2000s, around the same time as an election involving Hamas. Despite Hamas being placed on the U.S.'s list of terrorist organizations in 1997, Palestinians in Gaza voted for the group to speak for them legislatively in the mid-2000s. As a result, Hamas effectively has two sides — a political side that speaks for Palestinians and a militaristic side that can foment violence.
"When I was there, there was a sense of optimism," said Nicholson. "The Palestinian Authority was starting to become a political entity, not just a terrorist organization. Hamas wasn't even on the horizon at that point. There was a feeling at that point, both in Israel and in Palestine, or Gaza ... There was a feeling in Gaza that the isolation would soon end and better days were ahead. Now, 20-something years have passed since then, and things have not gotten better. So, I think there's probably a lot of despair and there's probably a lot of hopelessness, which is not a great environment for stability."
Data from the United Nations shows that from Jan. 2008 to the end of 2020, around 5,640 Palestinians died in the continued conflict between Israel and Palestinians. It also estimated more than 114,000 Palestinians were injured.
Comparatively, more than 300 Israelis died in the same timeframe and around 5,600 were injured, according to the UN data. The data does not include the most recent bout of violence, prompted by the Hamas attack.
"Unfortunately, we continue to have a series of exchanges and reciprocal, 'Hey, you hit me and I'm gonna come back and it's a revenge shot.' It seems to be non-ending, and I think, what we see now is unacceptable and inexcusable," he said. "But I think there are 2.2 million frustrated people in there and I think that tension and that angst of not seeing a bright future on the horizon, it certainly doesn't bode well for peace inside the region."
Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza hold about 150 soldiers and civilians hostage, according to Israel. Nicholson said he believes Israel is currently focused on trying to rescue hostages by gathering different types of intelligence regarding the hostages' locations, and is preparing for complex urban combat that involves combing through buildings with plenty of rooms.
Israel and Hamas have had repeated conflicts in past years, often sparked by tensions around a Jerusalem holy site. This time, the context has become potentially more explosive, and both sides talk of shattering with violence a years-long Israeli-Palestinian deadlock left by the moribund peace process.
The most recent attack tallies a death toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria. Israel is run by its most hard-right government ever, dominated by ministers who adamantly reject any Palestinian statehood. Hamas, in turn, says it is ready for a long battle to end an Israeli occupation it says is no longer tolerable.
"Israel has been very clear that the mission here is the utter destruction of Hamas. Eliminate Hamas, not a political entity, no longer a viable organization. To do that, they're going to have to go through Gaza, and I don't know that 300,000 is enough," said Nicholson. "I've never seen a military operation that is staring down the barrel of something this scope and magnitude."