In early October, war broke out on the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian militant group. This conflict was touched off on Oct. 7 by a surprise attack when armed Hamas fighters breached a border security fence and gunned down Israeli civilians and soldiers. Israel responded with a barrage of airstrikes that decimated the Gaza Strip.
According to BBC, “More than 1,400 Israelis were killed, while the Israeli military says more than 220 soldiers and civilians, including women and children, were taken to Gaza as hostages.” According to CNBC News, “Health authorities in Gaza said over 5,000 people have been killed since the Oct. 7 start of the war between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel. More than 15,000 have been injured, the authorities said. *CNBC could not independently verify these numbers.”
There is a long history of war in this region. This area has been besieged by conflict for many years. According to BBC News, “In 1947, the UN voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem becoming an international city…That plan was accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by the Arab side and never implemented….Because there was never a peace agreement there were more wars and fighting in the following decades.” Peace talks were “held on and off between the 1990s and 2010s, interspersed with outbreaks of violence.”
Now, most Palestinian refugees and their descendants live in Gaza and the West Bank. In the past 50 years, Israel has built settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where more than 700,000 Jews now live.
This war is ongoing and it’s devastating to anyone involved. Who is on which side? According to BBC News, “The US, the European Union and other Western countries have all condemned the Hamas attack on Israel….Russia and China have both refused to condemn Hamas, and say they are maintaining contact with both sides in the conflict….Iran, Israel’s arch-enemy, is a key supporter of Hamas.”
Beyond the lives that have been lost and the people who are suffering without aid, and the people who are hostages, this decades’ long conflict is making it so that people are choosing sides instead of moving towards peace.
Go to The Wall Street Journal for live updates on the conflict and any future resolutions.