Israel’s military mobilized hundreds of reservists around the Gaza region late Tuesday following a full day of rocket fire.
The attacks from Gaza began in response to Israel’s assassination of Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu al-Ata, who was killed together with his wife in their home early Tuesday morning.
Abu al-Ata is said to have been the PIJ leader responsible for the most recent slew of rocket attacks against Israel.
Shortly after the assassination, PIJ and Hamas vowed to retaliate and did so with a barrage of rockets launched at southern and central Israel, activating emergency sirens across half the country.
A military spokesperson announced Tuesday night that, as of 7pm, 190 rockets had been fired at Israel from the Gaza region.
According to the spokesperson, the Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted 90% of the rockets, roughly half of which fell in open areas.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, three more Palestinians were killed and 30 wounded in strikes Israel carried out during the day.
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett (HaYamin HeḤadash) has declared a state of emergency in areas within 80 km (50 miles) of Gaza. Schools and all non-essential work has been cancelled throughout the targeted areas and local authorities have also ordered the opening of bomb shelters wherever necessary.
The people of Israel are meanwhile not hearing any serious war aims from our government other than the cessation of rocket fire on our population centers. This lack of leadership and vision is exactly what causes Israelis and Palestinians to suffer from same ridiculous war every 2-3 years.
Israel needs to finally acknowledge our mistake in allowing United States President George W. Bush to force us out of Gaza in 2005. Rather than marvel at the Iron Dome destroying rockets in the sky, we would do well to remember that Israel only needs such expensive technology to protect us because our leaders succumbed to Washington’s demand that we surrender the strip.
The only way to rectify our mistake is to correct it. If we want these endless rounds of violence to stop, we’ll need to retake Gaza, rebuild the two dozen Jewish communities that were demolished, dismantle Hamas and offer the Palestinians a better life with us in a single state that grants everyone equal rights, access and freedom of movement.
Returning to the Gaza region would of course come with major responsibilities, especially in regards to alleviating the humanitarian crises plaguing its people. Once in control, Israel should immediately work to decrease the population in the overcrowded strip through major financial benefits for Gazan Palestinians who wish to either return to the parts of Israel their family’s fled in 1948 or spread out into the Negev and help develop the burgeoning region.
Embarking on such a course, which would meet the Jewish need for security and a return to Gaza while offering Gazan Palestinians security, inclusion, wealth redistribution and an answer to the refugee question, could go far in showing that both peoples can mutually benefit from the correction of Bush’s Gaza Disengagement.
Because the power dynamics in the conflict overwhelmingly favor Israel at the present time, it is Israel’s responsibility to take the first steps toward reconciliation. The full liberation of Gaza and its people would be a bold and productive way to communicate our commitment to rectifying past injustices and our seriousness to finding new approaches to ending our conflict.
