Post by pieter on May 10, 2019 21:29:38 GMT -7
Gaza–Israel conflict
I start with a personal story from my own objective about Gaza. People often speak about Palestine and the Palestinians. I think that there are 5 different Palestinian idenitities and zones. First you have the West Bank Palestinians who live partly under the rule of the Palestinian Authority and thus the PLO and Fatah. Second you have the Gaza Palestinians who live under Hamas rule, and have a different identity than the West-Bank Palestinians. Third you have the Palestinian Diaspora in the Arab world, the Lebanese Palestinians, the Jordanian Palestinians, the Syrian Palestinians, the Egyptian Palestinians, the Iraqi Palestinians and the Palestinians who live, study and work in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwayt, Oman and Yemen. Part of the Third cathegory are also the Palestinians who live and work in Tunesia (the old PLO/Fatah headquarters), Algeria, Libiya and Morocco. The forth Palestinian group is the Palestinian Diaspora in the West, Europe, Northern-America and Southern-America.
Palestinians are often portrayed by Americans, Israeli's and Europeans as Fedayeen ("those who sacrifice themselves"), Keffiyeh wearing, Levantine Arabic fighters against the Israeli occupation of the West-Bank and the closed land, sea and airborders between the Gaza Strip and Israel, the Mediterranian sea and Egypt, against other Palestinians and other Arabs in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and other Arab countries with Palestinian minorities and inside Israel. Next to that they are associated with Islamist, Sunni Muslim Jihadist (Salafist/Wahabist) Fundamentalist terrorist extremists, because there are Palestinian Fatah al Islam ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatah_al-Islam ) fighters, Palestinian fighters of the military wing of the islamist Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade or the the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades.
Members of the Al-Quds Brigades of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade of Hamas
The Israeli, American and some of the European press and media show Palestinians as heavily armed terrorists with Kalashnikov assault rifles ((AK-74's), Rocket-propelled grenades (the Yasin anti-tank rocket launcher weapon which was developed by Hamas' Ezzedeen-al-Qassam brigades), hijacking of Air Planes during the seventies (Black September organisation of Fatah), blowing up Air Planes, attacking school busses and busses of Public Transport in Israel during the sixties and seventies, border crossing armed raids against Israeli Kibbutzim, villages and towns, and later the suicide bombings during the nineties and early this century, and the bulldozer, car and knive attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. Palestinians are always shown in this narrative as strange aggressive, screaming, scrarry looking alien Arabs, with maskes, Face covering balaclava's and Arabic Flags, Islamic banners, sling shots and throwing stones at the Israeli border police, the Israeli Army (Tzahal/IDF) or Shin Bet (Shabak) personel.
Fedayeen from Fatah in Beirut, Lebanon, 1979
Palestinian Hamas militants attend a military drill in preparation to any upcoming confrontation with Israel, in the southern Gaza Strip March 25, 2018
Like the Israeli's and the Diaspora jews the Palestinians are very devided in moderates, more liberal voices, nationalists, social-democratic/socialist/social liberal (moderate left/center left), marxist, conservative, nationalist and fundamentalist Islamist groups (from Hamas, Palestian Islamic Jihad to Fatah al-Islam, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham [Al Nusra Front], Islamic State [Daesh], Al Qaida and Hezbollah supporting Palestinians). The tribal and clan based culture of large groups of Palestians stemming from their Arabic Levantine roots (similar to the Arabs of the Middle-East and North-Africa) hinders Palestinian unity. This discord goes back to the times of Ottoman Palestine and British Palestine. Competing clans of family tribes hinder the Palestinian cause, like competition between Israel critical Diaspora jews and Hebrew speaking Israeli jews hinders 'Jewish Unity' in the world. I am not taking sides here, but speak from a black and white Pro-Palestian point of view and a Zionist Israeli point of view in this paragraph. On both sides hard liners, absolutist, hard line, dogmatic, orthodox, doctrinary thinkers think in a 100% Nationalist (Nativist, ethnocentric), fundamentalist (Halachic and Sharia), ideological, philosophical and theocratic way. They want all the land, because their strict Monotheist religion demands absolute control and settlement of the land by only their people and rule by their faith, people only.
Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops on the Gaza border, May 3, 2019.
Moderate Palestinians and Israeli's have a hard time today, because their idea of Peaceful coexistence, a Two state solution, a Federal state or a One state solution with equality for both peoples is far away. On the Palestinian side a fierce competition between Fatah (PLO/Palestinian Authority) on one side and Hamas on the other side hinders the Palestinian cause. Peace negotiations and secret negotiations between Fatah and Hamas took place in Saoudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and other places. In Gaza a civil war took place between Hamas fighters and Fatah fighters, which Hamas won. Hamas won the elections in Gaza and replaced Fatah rule there. But some tribes and family clans remained loyal to Fatah. Fatah militia continued their armed struggle against Israel from the territory of Gaza, often collaborating with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Peoples resistance committees. Militant factions of the Palestinian Fatah movement like Tanzim and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades operated and operate in both the Westbank and Gaza next to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade of Hamas, the Al-Quds Brigades of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) (Arabic: لجان المقاومة الشعبية, Lijān al-Muqāwama al-Shaʿbiyya), the Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades.
Despite the Israeli occupation of large parts of the West-Bank, the rather authoritarian rule of the Palestinian Authority in area's of the West-Bank which are under PLO control and the rule of the Hamas regime in Gaza many Palestinian people from the middle class, working class, high class and farmers manage to survive, despite their difficulties whith reaching their job, getting a job, reaching their land, school or university (due to the Israeli roadblocks, Palestinian corruption and nepotism and rivalry between Fatah and Hamas, and between various family clans and their interests). These Palestinians just live their live, work hard for their families and try to make a living. Many of them have relatives abroad in other Arab countries, in Europe, the USA, Canada or Southern-America.
Israeli soldiers walks in front of a Merkava tanks, stationed near the border with the Gaza Strip on May 6, 2019 in Mavkim, Israel.
Photo: Lion Mizrahi (Getty)
Fatah–Hamas reconciliation process
Coat of arms of Palestine -- standard pan-Arab "Eagle of Saladin" with shield of the flag, and holding a scroll with the word filastin فلسطين (Palestine).
The Fatah–Hamas reconciliation process refers to a series of reconciliation attempts to resolve the hostility between Fatah and Hamas since the 2006–2007 Fatah–Hamas conflict and Hamas' subsequent takeover of the Gaza Strip.
Despite a number of agreements, those attempts have as of 2016 not been successful, with Hamas still exercising full control of the Gaza Strip, despite the formation of the "unity government" in June 2014. Israel and the United States have effectively opposed reconciliation.
Until the First Intifada, Fatah was the sole dominating party in the Palestinian political arena, including the PLO. In 1987, Hamas arose as a resistance movement against the Israeli occupation. Following the Oslo Accords, the PLO, of which Fatah still was the dominant member, formally denounced armed resistance. Hamas refused to recognize Israel and opposed the Oslo Accords and subsequent agreements between the PLO and Israel. Under pressure of Israel and the international community, Fatah attempted to eliminate Hamas, especially after Mahmoud Abbas had succeeded Arafat as President of the Palestinian National Authority. Tensions mounted ahead the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005 and culminated in the Battle of Gaza in June 2007, resulting in a split of the Palestinian government.
In reconciliation attempts, Hamas has mainly focussed on reform of the PLO and its inclusion in the organisation. After Hamas' victory in the 2006 elections, it unsuccessfully tried to run the PA Government due to Israeli and international boycott.
Hamas won the January 25, 2006 elections in Gaza, winning 42.9 % of the vote (with 77 percent voter turnout), giving it a parliamentary majority with 74 of the 132 seats.
Although Hamas has maintained that it is ready to conclude a long-term truce with Israel (hudna), it has vowed to never recognize Israel, because this would imply the recognition of the "Zionist occupation of Palestine", which Hamas views as an Arab Islamic country. In the view of Hamas, recognition of Israel would imply the acceptance of the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians during the Nakba during the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel and denounce armed resistance, unlike the PLO and implicitly Fatah, has been the main reason for Israel and the international community to oppose the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. Fatah has met with massive external pressure not to cooperate with Hamas.
2005 Cairo Declaration
On 19 March 2005, twelve Palestinian factions, including Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) signed the Palestinian Cairo Declaration. The Declaration reaffirmed the status of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people through the participation in it of all forces and factions according to democratic principles. The Declaration implied a reform of the PLO by the inclusion in the PLO of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It also called for unity of the Palestinian factions against the Israeli occupation and avoidance of further violent interactions between the Palestinian groups.
2014 Gaza and Cairo Agreements
On 23 April 2014, Fatah and Hamas signed a new reconciliation agreement, which would see a unity government formed within five weeks, followed by presidential and parliamentary elections within 6 months. On 2 June 2014, President Abbas swore in the new technocratic unity government, headed by the incumbent PM, Rami Hamdallah. The Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that world leaders should not rush to recognize the new government, calling Hamas a terrorist organisation that is committed to the destruction of Israel. The Palestinian PM's office issued a statement denouncing Netanyahu's words as intended to continue Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Israel suspended peace talks and announced new sanctions.
As the Government's work did not make progress, also troubled by massive Israeli raids in the West Bank following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenager settlers, and the subsequent major attacks on Gaza during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, the parties signed an additional agreement in Cairo on 25 September 2014. This agreement specified the tasks and responsibilities of the new Government.
The Gaza–Israel conflict|
Home to 1.9 million people, Gaza is 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide, an enclave bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, Israel and Egypt.
The Gaza–Israel conflict is a part of the localized Israeli–Palestinian conflict, but is also a scene of power struggle between regional powers including Egypt, Iran and Turkey together with Qatar, supporting different sides of the conflict in light of the regional standoff between Iran and Saudi Arabia on one hand and between Qatar and Saudi Arabia on the other, as well as crisis in Egyptian-Turkish relations.
The conflict originated with the election of the Islamist political party Hamas in 2005 and 2006 in the Gaza Strip and escalated with the split of the Palestinian Authority Palestinian government into the Fatah government in the West Bank and the Hamas government in Gaza and the following violent ousting of Fatah after Fatah lost the election to Hamas. Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, and the joint Egyptian-Israeli blockade of Gaza have exacerbated the conflict. The international community considers indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian structures that do not discriminate between civilians and military targets illegal under international law.
Israeli airstrike on Gaza
As part of its 2005 disengagement plan, Israel retained exclusive control over Gaza's airspace and territorial waters, continued to patrol and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, with the exception of its southernmost border (where Egypt retained control of the border and border crossings were supervised by European monitors) and continued to monitor and blockade Gaza's coastline. Israel largely provides and controls Gaza's water supply, electricity and communications infrastructure. According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, Israel remains an occupying power under international law. The United Nations has stated that under resolutions of both the General Assembly and the Security Council, it regards Gaza to be part of the "Occupied Palestinian Territories". Meanwhile, the Fatah government in the West Bank, internationally recognized as the sole representative of the State of Palestine, refers to the Gaza Strip as part of the Palestinian state and does not recognize the Hamas government.
Hamas security forces patrol along the Gaza-Egypt border, April 14, 2016 in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. (Said Khatib/AFP)
Hamas security forces next to an Egyptian watch tower on the border between Egypt and Gaza
Egyptian security forces stand guard at the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on August 14, 2017. (AFP Photo/Said Khatib)
Masked members of the Egyptian army. Egypt is battling an insurgency by the Islamic State group in the Sinai that has killed hundreds of members of the security forces. Egypt closed its Rafah border with the Gaza Strip on February 9, 2018 as its army launched a major operation in the Nile Delta and the northern Sinai Peninsula, heart of a persistent Islamic State group insurgency. Egypt has been waging a military campaign against jihadists in the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Egyptian soldiers at the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Eygpt
A soldier standing guard on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border to cross over from Egypt to Gaza at Rafah city, August 10, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)
Like in the right-left political discord in Europe and the USA many people think black and white about Israel and the Palestinians in my environment. I have both Pro-Palestinian (Free Palestine) people in my environment and Pro-Israeli people in my environment. Like in the conflict these people don't get along very well. I often meet and speak these people on seperate occasions.
Link/source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza%E2%80%93Israel_conflict
I start with a personal story from my own objective about Gaza. People often speak about Palestine and the Palestinians. I think that there are 5 different Palestinian idenitities and zones. First you have the West Bank Palestinians who live partly under the rule of the Palestinian Authority and thus the PLO and Fatah. Second you have the Gaza Palestinians who live under Hamas rule, and have a different identity than the West-Bank Palestinians. Third you have the Palestinian Diaspora in the Arab world, the Lebanese Palestinians, the Jordanian Palestinians, the Syrian Palestinians, the Egyptian Palestinians, the Iraqi Palestinians and the Palestinians who live, study and work in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwayt, Oman and Yemen. Part of the Third cathegory are also the Palestinians who live and work in Tunesia (the old PLO/Fatah headquarters), Algeria, Libiya and Morocco. The forth Palestinian group is the Palestinian Diaspora in the West, Europe, Northern-America and Southern-America.
Palestinians are often portrayed by Americans, Israeli's and Europeans as Fedayeen ("those who sacrifice themselves"), Keffiyeh wearing, Levantine Arabic fighters against the Israeli occupation of the West-Bank and the closed land, sea and airborders between the Gaza Strip and Israel, the Mediterranian sea and Egypt, against other Palestinians and other Arabs in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and other Arab countries with Palestinian minorities and inside Israel. Next to that they are associated with Islamist, Sunni Muslim Jihadist (Salafist/Wahabist) Fundamentalist terrorist extremists, because there are Palestinian Fatah al Islam ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatah_al-Islam ) fighters, Palestinian fighters of the military wing of the islamist Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade or the the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades.
Members of the Al-Quds Brigades of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade of Hamas
The Israeli, American and some of the European press and media show Palestinians as heavily armed terrorists with Kalashnikov assault rifles ((AK-74's), Rocket-propelled grenades (the Yasin anti-tank rocket launcher weapon which was developed by Hamas' Ezzedeen-al-Qassam brigades), hijacking of Air Planes during the seventies (Black September organisation of Fatah), blowing up Air Planes, attacking school busses and busses of Public Transport in Israel during the sixties and seventies, border crossing armed raids against Israeli Kibbutzim, villages and towns, and later the suicide bombings during the nineties and early this century, and the bulldozer, car and knive attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. Palestinians are always shown in this narrative as strange aggressive, screaming, scrarry looking alien Arabs, with maskes, Face covering balaclava's and Arabic Flags, Islamic banners, sling shots and throwing stones at the Israeli border police, the Israeli Army (Tzahal/IDF) or Shin Bet (Shabak) personel.
Fedayeen from Fatah in Beirut, Lebanon, 1979
Palestinian Hamas militants attend a military drill in preparation to any upcoming confrontation with Israel, in the southern Gaza Strip March 25, 2018
Like the Israeli's and the Diaspora jews the Palestinians are very devided in moderates, more liberal voices, nationalists, social-democratic/socialist/social liberal (moderate left/center left), marxist, conservative, nationalist and fundamentalist Islamist groups (from Hamas, Palestian Islamic Jihad to Fatah al-Islam, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham [Al Nusra Front], Islamic State [Daesh], Al Qaida and Hezbollah supporting Palestinians). The tribal and clan based culture of large groups of Palestians stemming from their Arabic Levantine roots (similar to the Arabs of the Middle-East and North-Africa) hinders Palestinian unity. This discord goes back to the times of Ottoman Palestine and British Palestine. Competing clans of family tribes hinder the Palestinian cause, like competition between Israel critical Diaspora jews and Hebrew speaking Israeli jews hinders 'Jewish Unity' in the world. I am not taking sides here, but speak from a black and white Pro-Palestian point of view and a Zionist Israeli point of view in this paragraph. On both sides hard liners, absolutist, hard line, dogmatic, orthodox, doctrinary thinkers think in a 100% Nationalist (Nativist, ethnocentric), fundamentalist (Halachic and Sharia), ideological, philosophical and theocratic way. They want all the land, because their strict Monotheist religion demands absolute control and settlement of the land by only their people and rule by their faith, people only.
Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops on the Gaza border, May 3, 2019.
Moderate Palestinians and Israeli's have a hard time today, because their idea of Peaceful coexistence, a Two state solution, a Federal state or a One state solution with equality for both peoples is far away. On the Palestinian side a fierce competition between Fatah (PLO/Palestinian Authority) on one side and Hamas on the other side hinders the Palestinian cause. Peace negotiations and secret negotiations between Fatah and Hamas took place in Saoudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and other places. In Gaza a civil war took place between Hamas fighters and Fatah fighters, which Hamas won. Hamas won the elections in Gaza and replaced Fatah rule there. But some tribes and family clans remained loyal to Fatah. Fatah militia continued their armed struggle against Israel from the territory of Gaza, often collaborating with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Peoples resistance committees. Militant factions of the Palestinian Fatah movement like Tanzim and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades operated and operate in both the Westbank and Gaza next to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade of Hamas, the Al-Quds Brigades of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) (Arabic: لجان المقاومة الشعبية, Lijān al-Muqāwama al-Shaʿbiyya), the Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades.
Despite the Israeli occupation of large parts of the West-Bank, the rather authoritarian rule of the Palestinian Authority in area's of the West-Bank which are under PLO control and the rule of the Hamas regime in Gaza many Palestinian people from the middle class, working class, high class and farmers manage to survive, despite their difficulties whith reaching their job, getting a job, reaching their land, school or university (due to the Israeli roadblocks, Palestinian corruption and nepotism and rivalry between Fatah and Hamas, and between various family clans and their interests). These Palestinians just live their live, work hard for their families and try to make a living. Many of them have relatives abroad in other Arab countries, in Europe, the USA, Canada or Southern-America.
Israeli soldiers walks in front of a Merkava tanks, stationed near the border with the Gaza Strip on May 6, 2019 in Mavkim, Israel.
Photo: Lion Mizrahi (Getty)
Fatah–Hamas reconciliation process
Coat of arms of Palestine -- standard pan-Arab "Eagle of Saladin" with shield of the flag, and holding a scroll with the word filastin فلسطين (Palestine).
The Fatah–Hamas reconciliation process refers to a series of reconciliation attempts to resolve the hostility between Fatah and Hamas since the 2006–2007 Fatah–Hamas conflict and Hamas' subsequent takeover of the Gaza Strip.
Despite a number of agreements, those attempts have as of 2016 not been successful, with Hamas still exercising full control of the Gaza Strip, despite the formation of the "unity government" in June 2014. Israel and the United States have effectively opposed reconciliation.
Until the First Intifada, Fatah was the sole dominating party in the Palestinian political arena, including the PLO. In 1987, Hamas arose as a resistance movement against the Israeli occupation. Following the Oslo Accords, the PLO, of which Fatah still was the dominant member, formally denounced armed resistance. Hamas refused to recognize Israel and opposed the Oslo Accords and subsequent agreements between the PLO and Israel. Under pressure of Israel and the international community, Fatah attempted to eliminate Hamas, especially after Mahmoud Abbas had succeeded Arafat as President of the Palestinian National Authority. Tensions mounted ahead the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005 and culminated in the Battle of Gaza in June 2007, resulting in a split of the Palestinian government.
In reconciliation attempts, Hamas has mainly focussed on reform of the PLO and its inclusion in the organisation. After Hamas' victory in the 2006 elections, it unsuccessfully tried to run the PA Government due to Israeli and international boycott.
Hamas won the January 25, 2006 elections in Gaza, winning 42.9 % of the vote (with 77 percent voter turnout), giving it a parliamentary majority with 74 of the 132 seats.
Although Hamas has maintained that it is ready to conclude a long-term truce with Israel (hudna), it has vowed to never recognize Israel, because this would imply the recognition of the "Zionist occupation of Palestine", which Hamas views as an Arab Islamic country. In the view of Hamas, recognition of Israel would imply the acceptance of the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians during the Nakba during the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel and denounce armed resistance, unlike the PLO and implicitly Fatah, has been the main reason for Israel and the international community to oppose the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. Fatah has met with massive external pressure not to cooperate with Hamas.
2005 Cairo Declaration
On 19 March 2005, twelve Palestinian factions, including Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) signed the Palestinian Cairo Declaration. The Declaration reaffirmed the status of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people through the participation in it of all forces and factions according to democratic principles. The Declaration implied a reform of the PLO by the inclusion in the PLO of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It also called for unity of the Palestinian factions against the Israeli occupation and avoidance of further violent interactions between the Palestinian groups.
2014 Gaza and Cairo Agreements
On 23 April 2014, Fatah and Hamas signed a new reconciliation agreement, which would see a unity government formed within five weeks, followed by presidential and parliamentary elections within 6 months. On 2 June 2014, President Abbas swore in the new technocratic unity government, headed by the incumbent PM, Rami Hamdallah. The Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that world leaders should not rush to recognize the new government, calling Hamas a terrorist organisation that is committed to the destruction of Israel. The Palestinian PM's office issued a statement denouncing Netanyahu's words as intended to continue Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Israel suspended peace talks and announced new sanctions.
As the Government's work did not make progress, also troubled by massive Israeli raids in the West Bank following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenager settlers, and the subsequent major attacks on Gaza during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, the parties signed an additional agreement in Cairo on 25 September 2014. This agreement specified the tasks and responsibilities of the new Government.
The Gaza–Israel conflict|
Home to 1.9 million people, Gaza is 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide, an enclave bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, Israel and Egypt.
The Gaza–Israel conflict is a part of the localized Israeli–Palestinian conflict, but is also a scene of power struggle between regional powers including Egypt, Iran and Turkey together with Qatar, supporting different sides of the conflict in light of the regional standoff between Iran and Saudi Arabia on one hand and between Qatar and Saudi Arabia on the other, as well as crisis in Egyptian-Turkish relations.
The conflict originated with the election of the Islamist political party Hamas in 2005 and 2006 in the Gaza Strip and escalated with the split of the Palestinian Authority Palestinian government into the Fatah government in the West Bank and the Hamas government in Gaza and the following violent ousting of Fatah after Fatah lost the election to Hamas. Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, and the joint Egyptian-Israeli blockade of Gaza have exacerbated the conflict. The international community considers indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian structures that do not discriminate between civilians and military targets illegal under international law.
Israeli airstrike on Gaza
As part of its 2005 disengagement plan, Israel retained exclusive control over Gaza's airspace and territorial waters, continued to patrol and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, with the exception of its southernmost border (where Egypt retained control of the border and border crossings were supervised by European monitors) and continued to monitor and blockade Gaza's coastline. Israel largely provides and controls Gaza's water supply, electricity and communications infrastructure. According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, Israel remains an occupying power under international law. The United Nations has stated that under resolutions of both the General Assembly and the Security Council, it regards Gaza to be part of the "Occupied Palestinian Territories". Meanwhile, the Fatah government in the West Bank, internationally recognized as the sole representative of the State of Palestine, refers to the Gaza Strip as part of the Palestinian state and does not recognize the Hamas government.
Hamas security forces patrol along the Gaza-Egypt border, April 14, 2016 in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. (Said Khatib/AFP)
Hamas security forces next to an Egyptian watch tower on the border between Egypt and Gaza
Egyptian security forces stand guard at the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on August 14, 2017. (AFP Photo/Said Khatib)
Masked members of the Egyptian army. Egypt is battling an insurgency by the Islamic State group in the Sinai that has killed hundreds of members of the security forces. Egypt closed its Rafah border with the Gaza Strip on February 9, 2018 as its army launched a major operation in the Nile Delta and the northern Sinai Peninsula, heart of a persistent Islamic State group insurgency. Egypt has been waging a military campaign against jihadists in the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Egyptian soldiers at the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Eygpt
A soldier standing guard on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border to cross over from Egypt to Gaza at Rafah city, August 10, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)
Like in the right-left political discord in Europe and the USA many people think black and white about Israel and the Palestinians in my environment. I have both Pro-Palestinian (Free Palestine) people in my environment and Pro-Israeli people in my environment. Like in the conflict these people don't get along very well. I often meet and speak these people on seperate occasions.
Link/source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza%E2%80%93Israel_conflict
