On October 7th, Hamas militants attacked Israel and destroyed Israeli communication towers with explosives, killed more than 1,200 people, took over 240 hostages, and massacred hundreds at a music festival. Hamas raped girls and women with such extreme force that they died with bloody, broken pelvises and a bullet in their head. This attack was unprecedented in its coordination and scale, the deadliest attack Israel has experienced in decades, and the worst massacre on Jews since the Holocaust.
In response, Israel has retaliated in a way that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has said, "will change the Middle East." They have laid siege to Gaza with thousands of airstrikes that have killed over 2,700 Palestinians and displaced hundreds of thousands. They have blocked all humanitarian aid to Gaza, including food, water, or fuel. The United Nations Secretary-General and millions of people in the US have condemned Israel for their actions and the "war crimes" they have committed.
To put this situation into perspective, Hamas is a terrorist organization that has committed genocide against Jewish people while seeking to destroy the Israeli nation. They are terrorists. Read that again because many stand behind Hamas and Palestinians despite their attacks on Israel for hundreds of years. Whether you believe it is a conflict of land, power, or religion, Hamas is the one butchering and raping Jewish children and women, along with the slayings of men. Israel may not have started this war, but they have the right to end it.
According to a recent poll by CNN, 71% of Americans say Israel's retaliation is justified compared to 8% saying it is fully unjustified. I am pointing this out because many opinions are circulating through social media and my DMs, expressing how Israel is in the wrong here or how they are "just as bad as Hamas," which is the overstatement of the year. Majority of these people's reasoning for their opinions are along the lines of how the Israeli airstrikes are purposely targeting thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and that the IDF has the blood of Gazans on their hands.
In actuality, Hamas has the blood of the dead Gazans on their hands. They were the ones to launch such a gruesome attack, knowing it would put both Israeli and Palestinian lives in danger. Hamas is the governing body in Gaza so if they cared about Palestinians, they would know attacking Israel would turn their homes into a warzone. However, they don't care. In their minds, the more deaths, the better. This is because it helps them achieve their political goals. Having civilians in combat zones means more human shields; dead and wounded Palestinians cause an increase in sympathy for Hamas and an increase in criticism of the Israeli government.
The IDF didn't launch missiles at hospitals in Gaza because they are terrible people; it is because these civilian hubs are where Hamas militants are located. They store rockets in schools and guns in mosques, and in 2014, their headquarters were located in Gaza's central hospital. Why would they shoot rockets from Gaza's densely populated areas? The answer is that Israel will have to shoot back and, unfortunately, kill many Palestinians. This is all part of Hamas' strategic plan to put Israel in a position to restrain its forces due to the demands of the rest of the world.
Not only is Hamas responsible for these deaths, but they are responsible for the poor living conditions Gazans must face.
They have radicalized and brainwashed thousands of Palestinians to believe Hamas is fighting and murdering Jews for the greater good. These people spread hate and conflict, forcing surrounding Middle Eastern states, including Israel, to close their borders to Palestinians. States do not help those in the Gaza Strip because of the actions of Hamas and radicalized Palestinians. This creates the inability for Gazans to leave the Gaza Strip, even if they are against Hamas and looking for a better life.
Hamas and many others claim that Gaza has significant poverty; however, The New York Times has addressed how Gaza's per capita gross domestic product, which was $5,600 in 2021 in terms of purchasing power, is not much lower than India's. Hamas does have the money to grow Gaza, but they have used it on tunnels and weapons. In 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported that with the money Hamas had, they had enough to build "86 homes, seven mosques, six schools or 19 medical clinics." Instead, they built 32 tunnels.
Hamas wants sympathy and support from others around the globe to better achieve their goal of dismantling Israel. They are the central cause of the misery and death of those in Gaza and Israel, so it is Israel's responsibility to end that by completely removing Hamas from this world.