Editorial Desk :
Call Hamas a terrorist group or whatever, but do not forget the ceaseless acts of state terrorism and humiliation meted out to Palestinian Muslims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government which have created an explosive situation among the Palestinians. Saturday’s assault on Israel by Hamas is an act of desperation.
No one should condemn Hamas and ignore the state terrorism of Netanyahu, because that will only aggravate the long festering crisis in the Middle East.
The Muslim countries must not sit idle and let the Israeli military continue its atrocities over the unarmed Palestinian civilians through aerial bombardment killing hundreds.
Before pointing fingers at Hamas – the Islamic resistance movement – for the ongoing escalation one must take into account what the Israeli authorities were doing in the recent months and years.
Israelis under Prime Minister Netanyahu did not show any respect to the rights of Palestinian Muslims as they desecrated Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims after Mecca and Medina.
All the while Israelis have continued its illegal settlement activities in the lands of Palestinians.
The controversial visit of Israel’s far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in January this year at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound elicited angry response from countries and the UNSC fittingly called for preserving the status quo at the sacred site.
Israel’s far right wants to change the decades-old status quo at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound that allows only Muslims to worship at the site.
The Jews however call it Temple Mount and want to establish their worship there. Moreover, the far right in Israel also raised the call for building a temple in place of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The visit by Ben-Gvir was indeed “an unprecedented provocation” for the Palestinian leaders.
The OIC as well as Arab states and Turkey condemned Ben-Gvir’s visit at that time. Some Arab states, however, have normalised its relation with Israel in an act of betrayal to Palestinians.
With Israelis continuing to occupy more Palestinian lands, Hamas launched the recent blitzkrieg – named “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” – into the land of Southern Israel.
They killed Israelis and took hostage a number of Israeli soldiers and citizens.
It is said that in the 50 years of its history, Israel has not seen this kind of humiliation in the hands of Palestinians whom the country and its successive leaders treated as sub-humans.
After Saturday’s attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliations. As we write this piece, Israel has not yet started a ground operation into Gaza, but it deployed four military combat divisions near the Gaza border.
The Israeli defence minister also ordered a “full blockade” of Gaza cutting off food, fuel and electricity supplies. Once the Israeli military goes for ground operation in Gaza, the Israeli military might go to any length to wipe out the Gaza inhabitants in an attempt of ethnic cleansing.
Meanwhile, supporting Israel unabashedly, the US has deployed aircraft carriers and bombers to the Middle East, in an apparent warning to Iran.
In another development, Hezbollah of Lebanon started fighting against the Israelis and the Israeli army started an artillery attack against them.
Since Benjamin Netanyahu has declared war against the Palestinians, all Muslim countries must stand beside the Palestinian Muslims at this crucial moment.
They must not be left alone as they have been suffering injustices in the hands of Israelis for decades since the creation of Israel.
Enough is enough. With Prime Minister Netanyahu, a power hungry man as he is, Palestinians cannot hope for peace. If it is necessary to go for all-out war then let it be.
There is no Palestinian solution in the west that consistently defends Israeli barbarities as the apartheid regime’s ‘right to defend itself’.
