Israel-Hamas War: No Endgame Amid International Pressure

The UNGA adopted a resolution to immediately hold a ceasefire, allowing a humanitarian pause to relieve Palestinians besieged in the Gaza Strip by Israeli Armed Forces. However, Israeli PM Netanyahu is undeterred in his ground operations in the Gaza strip. The Israel-Palestine relations must be based on sharing and caring for two dissimilar communities of the same vicinity. Justice must be upheld and truth and reconciliation reign in this conflict.

Since the onset of the Hamas War on Israel on October 7, the travesty of conflict has been ongoing for a month. So far, Palestinian people numbering more than nine thousand and 1400 Israelis have lost their lives. Nepal has lost ten lives in this conflict with one person missing. The Government of Nepal chartered an airplane and rescued the interested citizens to come back home while others reached home with the help of India. Nepal has positioned its policy on this conflict based on the United Nations resolution on a two-state solution to the problem. However, in the aftermath of the Hamas Attack, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kathmandu issued a press release condemning this startling assault and supporting Israel. 

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to end the war and immediately hold a ceasefire, allowing a humanitarian pause to relieve Palestinians besieged in the Gaza Strip by Israeli Armed Forces. The aerial bombardment and brutal assault targeting buildings in the Gaza Strip caused damage, wounded and killed civilians and humanitarian workers, as claimed by relief agencies and partners. The international community expressed warnings and worries that a humanitarian catastrophe is imminent in this retaliatory attack of Israel. Israel has attacked Hamas cells and agents in the West Bank. It is also securing its northern frontier bordering Lebanon, where Hezbollah fighters are targeting Israeli Defense Forces. Israel has advised communities to move to safer regions bordering Southern Lebanon. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the country is in total war and will not let up ground operations in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu is undeterred. Unless Israel triumphs, there is no backtracking of an offensive drive. Israel warned the civilians to move towards the south of Gaza to evade Israeli bombardments mopping of Hamas from the Gaza turf. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Tel Aviv for the third time to meet Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog and expressed solidarity and support for Israel’s defense. He, however, said that civilians need maximum protection observing international humanitarian law. Blinken said that fighting cannot stop but can be localized and America supports Israel’s right to defend.

While Israel intensifies its assault against Hamas, diplomats in the United Nations, Washington and West Asia are mulling a post-Hamas Gaza Administration, provided Israel succeeds in eliminating remnants of the Iran-backed militant group Hamas

Recalling the Cairo Summit for Peace held in Egypt, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi exhorted a ceasefire, ending double standards and discriminatory diplomatic practices favoring Israel, ending Israeli settlement expansion and “occupation,” ending collective punishment to the Palestinian civilians, de-escalating war and stopping war crimes and genocides. Egyptian President El-Sisi also maintained the revival of the peace process of warring Israelis and Palestinians to reach a two-state solution. He underlined the establishment of the Palestine state with the borders of the June 1967 war with east Jerusalem as its capital as a long-term resolution.

While Israel intensifies its assault against Hamas, diplomats in the United Nations, Washington and West Asia are mulling a post-Hamas Gaza Administration, provided Israel succeeds in eliminating remnants of the Iran-backed militant group Hamas, which has ruled the enclave since 2007. Israel has so far failed to come up with an endgame to the conflict. There are options floated for the deployment of a multinational force, an interim Palestinian-led administration that would exclude Hamas, a stopgap security and governance role for neighboring Arab states and temporary U.N. supervision of the territory.

Great powers like Russia and China underline a two-state solution and the Global South favours resolving the conflict in accordance with the United Nations resolution on this conflict. However, unanimity is rarely achieved in the resolution of this conflict. We can say that the territorial claims should stop, the settler’s expansion drive stopped and Israelis & Palestinians be treated as equal citizens of the world without any discrimination or prejudice. Violence must stop to the hilt and the peace process must be revived to live in peaceful coexistence. Waging war cannot ensure a solution. Talking and listening to each other is the cure to prevent and avert conflict destroying a humane society. 

Three major casus belli of the Hamas assault are:

1. The mistreatment of Palestinian women, children and civilians,
2. The expansion of Jewish settlement,
3. Poking pinpricks by visiting religious spaces of Muslims like Al Aqsa Mosque.

Before this, Israel was captive of a judicial reform bill opposed by the domestic political society. The American Administration maintains a diplomatic position to realize uncompromising functional democratic values and norms. Amid warfare, the Israeli Administration focused on defending its people and state.

Diplomacy must end this war and reconcile the mission to coexist in a democratic template. The multilateral forum to make, keep and pursue peace in the region can take into the confidence of the international community, great powers and regional players. The State of Israel has the right to defend while the Palestinian Authority has the right to exist. A trajectory of both statehood and topsy-turvy-like affairs needs a safe voyage by recognizing a two-state solution as an unequivocal position of many countries in the world. Otherwise, staying in peace is elusive and evading bilateral problems without resolution would constantly cause the phenomena of conflict and violence. The norms and salience of Israel-Palestine relations must be based on sharing and caring for two dissimilar communities of the same vicinity. Justice must be upheld and truth and reconciliation reign in this conflict. Peace must prevail not only in greetings but also in deeds. 

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