It should be obvious to the militants in Gaza that they are no match for the Israeli military. It makes no sense continuing to fire rockets into Israel, knowing full well that the response will be brutal.
The reliance by Hamas and the various Gaza militias on indiscriminate rockets is a criminal violation of international humanitarian law, but the small number of casualties and the minor damage caused by them might force us to assess the circumstance which some observers note as disproportionate might against the Palestinians.
These observers may even say there is no better way for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to win the January election than to inflict another deadly blow on Gaza, especially as Israeli strikes have killed Ahmad Jabari, Hamas’ military commander.
The issue before the international community has been to obviate Israel’s having to launch yet another attack of the kind of 2008-2009, flattening Gaza’s cities and killing 1 417 people. To this end United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was sent off to the Middle East to help broker a ceasefire – to get the guns silenced, so to speak, and encourage dialogue.
A Hamas official said yesterday Egyptian mediators had pretty much clinched a truce with Israel, which was said to be open to a long-term deal aimed at ending Palestinian rocket attacks that have plagued its southern region for years.
The question is how long this ceasefire would be, given that Hamas has declared before that it does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Still, for the sake of any meaningful peace, Khaled Meshaal, leader of the Hamas Islamist movement that governs the Gaza Strip, has said that Israel must lift its blockade of the Palestinian coastal enclave as a condition for a truce.
United States’ President Barack Obama would rather have a diplomatic solution, than a possible Israeli ground operation in the densely populated territory of 1.7 million Palestinians.
The horrific violence, which would expose the utter vulnerability of all those living in Gaza, one of the most crowded and impoverished communities on earth, would make a frightful picture of human obliteration, which the international community would hardly want.
Continuing warfare will not help what many who have observed the plight of Gaza at close range have described as “the largest open air prison in the world”.
Yet with all the talk of truce and expressed hope of calm, the rocket firing and retaliation continue. The international community can only hope majorly for that magical ceasefire.
Secretary of State Clinton echoes that wish, but not without making it clear the United States is solidly behind Israel’s security. It is a thought Gaza must bear in mind as it remains committed to its “fight for freedom”.