Gaza Conflict

 

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Fighting between Israel and Hamas has entered its third week and left much of Gaza City damaged from heavy shelling by the Israel Defense Forces.

The conflict broke out on July 8, when Israel launched "Operation Protective Edge" in response to Hamas launching rockets toward Israel.

Since the conflict began, 1,340 Gazans have died and 7,200 have been injured while 59 Israelis have died.

What's the Latest?

Israel has been criticized by the United Nations and other world leaders for bombing a U.N.-sponsored school sheltering civilians in Gaza. The United States has condemned the shelling of the school, but also the fact that there were weapons being kept there.

This week, the IDF called up 16,000 additional reservists to join some 65,000 that were already fighting, a sign that the mission could be expanded further. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will not stop the operation in Gaza until all of the tunnels constructed by Hamas leading from Gaza to Israel have been destroyed.

The U.N. has said a quarter of Gaza’s population is displaced, with 225,178 Palestinians in 86 U.N. shelters.

What Is Gaza and Who Controls It?

The Gaza Strip is a Detroit-sized area on the border with Egypt up against the Mediterranean Sea that is one of the most densely packed places on Earth. Technically part of the Palestinian Authority, it has been governed since 2007 by the militant group Hamas. With 1.8 million people living in just 139 square miles, Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth.

Hamas, which rejects the existence of Israel, recently agreed to form a unity government with the other main Palestinian political faction, Fatah. The new Palestinian Unity Government recognizes the state of Israel. But the outbreak of current hostilities pitting Hamas against Israel has left the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority on the sidelines.

What is Hamas?

Hamas is part of an international Islamist movement and who doesn't recognize Israel. Hamas is, according to its charter, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood — an Islamist group that operates around the Muslim world, and one that nominally ran the Egyptian government for about a year recently. Hamas isn't controlled by the Egypt-based brotherhood leadership, but they have close ties. Unlike many Brotherhood branches, though, Hamas also has a militant wing: the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Palestinian Authority held popular elections across the West Bank and Gaza for the Palestinian legislature in 2006. Hamas won a slight majority. However, Hamas refused to recognize Israel or respect past Palestinian agreements with Israel while in government. Hamas fought a pretty bloody civil war with the more moderate Fatah party over this and de facto seceded from the PA to govern Gaza independently from the West Bank-based leadership. Today, Hamas and Fatah are closer to reconciling than they've ever been. They signed a agreement to both support an interim government in April

Since Hamas' 1987 founding, Hamas and Israel's long history of antagonism — Hamas conducted a significant number of suicide bombings inside Israel during the early 2000s —is a major contributor to the current crisis. Hamas and Israel refuse to negotiate openly and directly, and neither trusts the other even a little bit. As such, even small provocations have the potential to escalate rapidly.

What Sparked This Violence?

Tensions were ignited in June when three Israeli teenagers, one with American citizenship and all seminary students, were kidnapped while hitchhiking in the West Bank and killed. They were kidnapped on June 12 and their bodies were discovered June 30. Israel accused Hamas of kidnapping the three teens, which the militant group denied. Within days, Israel arrested more than 300 Palestinians, many of them members of Hamas. At least 10 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,000 private homes were raided.

Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square on June 29, 2014 for a rally calling for the release of the three Israeli boys who were kidnapped on June 19 near the West Bank settlement of Gush Etzion. On the night the boys' bodies were found, a barrage of rockets were launched from Gaza at Israel and Israeli warplanes carried out numerous air strikes in Gaza.

On July 2, a Palestinian teenager was kidnapped and burned to death in apparent retaliation. The death triggered riots in East Jerusalem, a largely Palestinian area. Three Israelis have been arrested and charged with his death.

The attacks quickly escalated. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have fired rockets with a reach that Israel had not previously seen, with air raid sirens going off as far away as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. Many of the missiles have landed in desert areas or been intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

Since 2007, Israel has maintained a blockade of Gaza. It severely restricts all border crossings in territory. The blockade restricts access to food, water, electricity, gas, construction materials, and other necessities. It's not that Israel doesn't let any of those things into Gaza; it's that it bans many products and regulates the flow of others pretty tightly.

The stated goal of the blockade, which Israel has loosened recently, is to prevent Hamas from getting what it needs to build rockets and mortars that could hit Israel, and rocket fire has diminished. However, it's clear that another key purpose of the blockade is to weaken Hamas politically.

What is the significance of tunnels in Gaza?

Tunnels into Gaza are really important — and hugely controversial

Because Hamas can't get much through the Israeli blockade, they've developed an alternative means of resupplying Gaza: tunnels into Egypt. Gazans dig under the Egyptian border and pop out past border guards on the other sides. Smugglers supply them with goods that Israel can't or won't let through.

These tunnels serve both Hamas and Gaza civilians. Hamas and its fellow militants use them to bring in weapons, components for homemade rockets, and whatever else they need to fight and, in Hamas' case, govern. Civilians bring in medicine, food, and whatever else they want that doesn't get through the Israeli blockade.

Since the Egyptian military seized rule over Egypt from the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013, they've weakened the tunnel system. Egyptian authorities shut down many of the major tunnels. Israel believes that, as a result, Hamas is uniquely vulnerable to an offensive right now, as it's having trouble resupplying.

What it the significance of Rafah Crossing?

There's only one major supply route to Gaza that isn't a tunnel or Israeli-controlled: the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Currently, Egypt heavily restricts the flow of people and goods in and out of the crossing. The Rafah crossing has become so important for Hamas that some experts believe Hamas is pushing in this current war to pressure Egypt to open up Rafah.

The theory is that Hamas is trying to leverage public Egyptian anger at Israel into concessions from the Egypt government. The primary concession would be to open up Rafah so as to aid the Palestinian cause.

Who Are the Key Players?

Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and is considered a terrorist group by Israel and the U.S. But while there is no Israeli military presence inside Gaza anymore, the effective control of Gaza’s sea, air and borders is under Israeli control.

The Israeli Defense Forces are the military arm of Israel and are well armed and exceptionally large given Israel’s population. Most Israeli residents must go through compulsory military service and are automatically enrolled in the IDF’s reserve forces.

What Is Notable About This Outbreak of Violence?

The current fight comes after almost two years of relative calm between Israel and the Palestinians and just months after the latest round of peace talks collapsed.

The technology being used by both sides is more advanced than in earlier periods of violence. Hamas has publicly claimed responsibility for using a drone, and went on to say that it actually has two types of drones: one to gather intelligence and another to fire munitions. Hamas has been able to reach cities that are much further north in Israel than they ever have before, instilling a new fear for Israeli residents. Israel claims some 5 million people now live within striking distance of Hamas’ newest rockets.