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A week ago, the Hamas militant group in Gaza launched a surprise, coordinated attack on Israel, shocking the world with its brutality. More than 1,300 Israelis have now been confirmed killed. Scores were taken hostage.
Israel immediately responded by cutting off the electricity, water and fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip, a tightly packed place of more than two million people, and launching airstrikes that have killed more than 1,500 Palestinians. A ground invasion is likely next, which would exacerbate the humanitarian disaster.
Just after Hamas’ attack, Eyal Mayroz, a lecturer in peace and conflict studies at the University of Sydney, wrote a piece for The Conversation examining the possible motives behind the militant group’s actions, as well as what Israel might do next.
And Ian Parmeter, the former Australian ambassador to Lebanon, provided more context on Hamas’ attack in both an essay and a podcast with Michelle Grattan, our chief political correspondent.
As Parmeter wrote:
“The overall lesson for Israel is that it has to develop a policy for managing the Palestinians living in the areas it controls. It has been able to ignore Arab and international pressure to negotiate a two-state solution or acquiesce to a one-state solution. … Such a non-policy can no longer continue.”
In another piece this week, Andrew Thomas from Deakin University said both sides stand to lose legitimacy in the eyes of the world.
Hamas’ attack will have a devastating impact on the legitimacy of the Palestinian self-determination movement as a whole. And Israel, he said, needs to make a choice: “Will it squander its own legitimacy by destroying Gaza?”
Lastly, Maha Nassar, a Palestinian history expert at the University of Arizona, provided a brief history of the Gaza Strip and explained why this is so important to understanding the root causes of the current conflict.
As the war continues, we will continue to ask analysts to explain and contextualise the events, relying on their extensive knowledge and research on the region.
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