By knocking out Israeli surveillance and executing an assault on the Israeli people on October 7, the terrorist group, Hamas, aimed to continue its mission to erase the Israeli State. Hamas was founded in 1987.
Separate from Palestine and Palestinians, Hamas is an extreme Islamic terrorist organization that controls Gaza. It is committed to armed resistance against Israel and the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state in Israel’s place, according to the National Counterterrorism Center.
Following the end of WWII in 1948, the United Nations voted to make Israel two separate states: one for Jewish people and one for Arabs.
Despite being accepted by Jewish leaders, Arab leaders refused to abide by the treaty. This refusal led Arab states to attack Israel resulting in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
During the war, thousands of Arabs fled or were forced out of their homes, creating the refugee problem seen today.
According to the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), hundreds of thousands of Palestinians “fled or were forced out of their homes,” during these attacks resulting in Israel controlling the majority of the territory.
Since then, Israel and Palestine have fought over who has the right to the land, with Israel believing they have the right to exist as a Jewish state and Palestine wanting to exist as its own state.
Hamas was formed during the Palestinian Intifada, a period of aggressive protests against Israeli occupation of Palestine.
According to Britannica, Hamas was founded under the idea that “Palestine is an Islamic homeland” and that “waging holy war to wrest control of Palestine from Israel is a religious duty for Palestinian Muslims.”
At 6:30 a.m. on October 7, several thousand Hamas terrorists destroyed the border between Gaza and Israel, ‘infiltrating the skies with air strikes,’ slaughtering Israelis and taking civilians hostage.
Retaliating, Israel declared war against Hamas on October 8, launching air strikes that have killed thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Israel has also advised Gazan civilians to evacuate.
According to Duke University Judaic Studies professor Marc Z. Brettler, the main precipitating factor [for the crisis] is the “horrendous” attack on October 7.
“More than 1,200 people residing in Israel, most of them but not all of them Israeli citizens, [some of them were foreign workers] were massacred and in many cases, their bodies were abused. Women were raped, bodies were burned, children were beheaded,” Brettler said.
In 2007, Hamas took control of Gaza to advance their goal of dismantling Israel.
“[Hamas] has received millions of dollars of humanitarian aid [from a global financing network], which has been diverted to [their] war effort to build a very complex set of tunnels [in the Gaza Strip] which they [are using] for defense for building rockets,” Brettler said.
For Israel, the sovereign country “needs to react,” according to Brettler.
“Certain sections of Israel have been under almost non-stop rockets. Almost every sovereign country would have to react in a way that would get rid of these dangers and that is the main way in which I’m seeing the current crisis,” Brettler said.
Brettler believes in justice for those butchered, tortured and killed in “horrific ways.”
According to Emmanuel College political science professor Lenore G. Martin, “there is a lot of misinformation going on.” Martin co-chairs the Middle Eastern Seminar at Harvard University.
“The biggest problem is that there is a great deal of misinformation on social media whereas legitimate news sources are responsible to provide accurate news and to correct mistakes they have made,” Martin said.
These kinds of stories “create a lot of emotion” and are “very, very hard to look at,” Martin said.
According to Boston University Israel Institute Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow Tamara L. Lev, the solution is to “have two states, one state for the Palestinians and one state for the Israelis.”
However, Hamas has a completely different desire in what outcome the group wants.
“Hamas, [is] clearly saying that it does not believe that the Israel state has a right to exist. Everyone that supports this is basically calling for the elimination of the State of Israel,” Lev said.
Lev wishes for peace within both Palestine and Israel. “I really hope that the Palestinians themselves that are not Hamas, that are not aiming to continue the war will bring their voices for peaceful co living in the region,” Lev said. “I hope that in Israel the current government will change, because the current government…is a very right wing extreme government. It is hard to see how it can promote a peaceful sustainable solution.”
On Novermber 24, a temporary ceasefire began between Israel and Hamas.
According to CBS News, “Israel and Hamas reached an agreement to extend the temporary cease-fire in Gaza for a seventh day…not long before the previous two-day extension was set to expire.”