INTRODUCTION

The Israel-Palestine Issue has been an ongoing phenomenon in contemporary world politics since the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which called for the creation of a national home for Jews in the land of Palestine, which was later followed by the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948. The dense and difficult nature of the conflict has kept it going to the modern day, where currently the Israel-Hamas war blazes on in the Levant region. Since its establishment, the Israeli state has fought numerous wars with its Arab neighbours.

The warring parties involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict of 2023 are mainly made up of the Israeli government and Hamas, a militant organisation based in the Gaza Strip. Since 2007, Hamas has fired rockets across the Gaza border into Israel. The consistent violence has caused immense destruction in the region and has led to  a massive humanitarian crisis within the Gaza Strip. The war has sent ripples across the globe, with social media emerging as a mouthpiece for both warring parties, and both parties using narratives and counter-narratives to fight the opinion war. As one of the most severe escalations in recent years, this phase of the conflict has drawn the urgent attention of the international community, which has called for mediation and resolution of the conflict .

This article explores the main players involved, the conflict's intensity, and its far-reaching global impact, including its significance for India.

TIMELINE OF THE CONFLICT

As mentioned earlier, the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas began on October 7 2023, when Hamas launched at least 4,400 rockets into Israel, and launched an incursion into southern Israel, attacking and killing many Israeli civilians. Among the targets were Israeli music festivals and military bases, such as the Re'im military base. The total number of deaths are estimated to be 1,139. In response, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) deployed their military aircraft to conduct air strikes on Hamas’ infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. They then began their ground operations in Gaza as a counterattack, thus beginning the current Israel-Hamas war. 

Over the month of October, Israeli forces continued their counterattack, which evolved into an invasion of the Gaza Strip, to surgically strike Hamas fighters and rescue hostages taken during the initial attacks by Hamas. According to the Israeli government, Israel's bombings targeted only Hamas's military installations, including armament storages, subterranean tunnels, and rocket-launching facilities. However, the IDF’s actions came under heavy criticism by global media during their operations, as the shelling and bombing of the Gaza Strip was largely indiscriminate, despite the IDF’s promise of a surgical strike against purely Hamas targets. Many Palestinians were either killed or displaced in the Israeli counterattack and the ground operations in the Gaza Strip. However, Hamas’s usage of human shields against the IDF primarily spiked the civilian casualty in the war.  

From November to December 2023, truce talks were brokered by Qatar, where prisoners were exchanged between the two warring parties. Following the truce, fighting again broke out in December, when Israeli forces resumed their ground operations in northern Gaza, before withdrawing in February of 2024 and changing their focus to the south of the strip, after the failure of peace negotiations. In May of 2024, Israel launched an offensive towards Rafah, a city on the southern border of the Gaza Strip. This offensive was followed up by continued operations in the region by Israel, which began in June 2024 and have been ongoing till date.

KEY ACTORS

ISRAEL

Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sees Hamas as a terrorist outfit and an existential threat to itself. According to reports, the IDF's activities are concentrated on destroying Hamas's offensive capabilities, which have grown significantly more advanced as a result of increasing foreign assistance, such as longer-range rockets sourced from Syria, and Iran, and smuggled through Egypt. Iran’s support comes in the form of supplying weapons to Hamas, monetary aid and providing training for Hamas militants with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

HAMAS

Hamas has presented itself as an alternative to the more “passive” Palestinian Authority and is a hyper-nationalistic Islamist organisation that has often used terror to attain its goals. Formed in 2007, its asymmetrical warfare strategy centres on striking Israel with rockets and using tunnels for carrying out infiltration and operations while attempting to garner support for its cause throughout the world. Dissatisfaction with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which many Palestinians perceive as inefficient, has reinforced Hamas's position despite the significant losses Gaza has sustained in the current conflict.

REGIONAL PLAYERS  

Iran has a large influence in the conflict since it gives Hamas monetary aid and military equipment, such as sophisticated long-range rockets and military training, giving Hamas the confidence to increase the severity of their attacks against Israel, whom Iran considers as an illegitimate state. Following the Israel-Hamas war of 2023, Iran has been engaged in a proxy war, wherein, an Israeli retaliatory air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, killed many senior Iranian officials. Iran further retaliated by seizing the Israeli-linked ship MSC Aries and launching strikes into Israel on April 13, 2024. These strikes led to a retaliation by Israel, which launched further retaliatory strikes in Iran and Syria on the 19th of April.

SEVERITY OF THE CONFLICT

The severity of the conflict largely draws from the continuous military action of both the parties involved. With the IDF using heavy-handed military operations to sweep their way across the Gaza strip, and Hamas firing their rockets indiscriminately at both civilian and military targets, the war has seen some of the worst fighting of the 21st century. Both sides have been accused of committing war crimes by pleas submitted to the International Criminal Court, but neither side has been held responsible for the same.

The population of the Gaza Strip has suffered immensely as a result of the Israeli embargo, which is causing the siege and harsh living circumstances in the area. The supply of necessities like electricity, clean water, and medical equipment has also been severely disrupted. The international community has made efforts to mitigate the situation and resume the flow of necessities to Gaza, but the lack of cooperation by both Israel and Egypt has halted any such efforts. Israel’s concerns over the supply of humanitarian aid are owing to several factors, such as Hamas holding control over aid distribution, the usage of this international aid in further expanding the tunnel infrastructure underneath Gaza, prevention of weapon smuggling under the guise of aid and to increase Israel’s pressure over Hamas so that the prolonged warfare in the region comes to a close.

 

The involvement of foreign actors like Iran has also led to conflict proliferating over the larger Middle East region. Iran and its allied non-state actors such as Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels have continually attacked Israel using rockets, which has attracted retaliation from Israel. The likelihood of a wider regional conflict is heightened by Tehran's greater involvement, given the ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran. Israel's relations with its neighbours such as Syria and Lebanon have worsened as non-state actors within these states, such as Hezbollah, are increasingly clashing with Israeli forces, which has led to displacement of Israeli citizens from the northern region of Israel as a result of lethal projectiles launched from Hezbollah along the border.. On 17 and 18 September 2024, thousands of handheld devices such as pagers and walkie-talkies across Lebanon, which were to be used by members of Hezbollah, exploded, killing 42 people and injuring more than 3,500 decimating the Hezbollah ranks. Hezbollah responded by firing rockets into the north of Israel, which led to an Israeli aerial counter strike. Israel, on 1 October,  launched Operation Northern Arrows, a ground invasion of Lebanon, after conducting air strikes in Lebanon that killed the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on 27 September. The war has also incensed the Houthi rebels to begin terrorising and sabotaging commercial shipping in the Bab El Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea.

IMPACT ON INDIA

India is deeply connected to both Israel and the Arab world at large, both diplomatically and economically, therefore the Israel-Hamas war affects it greatly. Although India has recognised and supported the Palestinian territories after its independence, in recent decades it has also grown much closer to Israel, particularly in the areas of technology and defence. This has led India to adopt a policy of strategic autonomy, wherein maintaining its relations with both sides, India has a difficult challenge. India has constantly advocated the cause of a just and equal two state solution as a means of achieving peace in the region. A major issue for India, if the violence continues to interfere with regular business operations, is the impact on Its commercial relations with Israel, as sales and distribution of products can get severely delayed, causing a slump in that sector of both economies.

CONCLUSION

The ongoing Israel-Hamas war has had a global effect due to the large number of casualties that the war has brought, along with the fact that the war has fanned the flames of conflict further over the Middle East. With tensions rising between Israel and Lebanon, direct border clashes between these nations are becoming more and more frequent. This development could lead to escalation of the conflict and even an all out war. 

The conflict has caused turmoil in the economic development of the European economies, which were already affected heavily by the Russia-Ukraine war. As the situation on the ground goes, many countries, including the United States, have proposed multiple ceasefire agreements to stop the war once and for all, however, the implementation of any ceasefire will clearly take more time.

BY TEAM GEOSTRATA