War On Palestine and For the Well-Being of the Muslim World

It was simply beyond comprehension to understand the drastic war which began in middle East. While everyone was taken aback by the unilateral aggression of Russia over Ukraine, this attack by the Hamas terrorists over Israel defied any sense of sanity. How come you provoke a strong opponent by killing scores of people unilaterally in a one-sided aggression without expecting retaliation. This senseless maneuver is beyond comprehension and what we are seeing now is the aftermath of the cowardly attack. As with Russia, the burning question remains - what provoked and who provoked the Hamas to venture into the meaningless war. It's a trap for death, destruction and they went straight into it. What are the circumstances which instigated the Hamas to take such a decision. To venture into a war is an extreme step and the world needs to look at it with disdain while taking a middle path away from this extremist mindset. In the middle of nowhere, these terrorists have ventured into this extreme act of self-immolation and immolating all of their ilk as well. This is not just another act but one of the outcomes of an extremity arising out of severe internal agitation after losing hope for a better living due to the ongoing external circumstances.

To go into details, a series of coordinated attacks, conducted by the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, from the Gaza Strip onto bordering areas in Israel, commenced on Saturday 7 October 2023. The attack began in the early morning with a rocket barrage of at least 3,000 rockets against Israel and vehicle-transported incursions into its territory. Palestinian militants breached the Gaza–Israel barrier, targeting civilians for killing in neighboring Israeli communities and attacking military bases. In a single day, over 1,200 Israelis, primarily civilians, including women and children, were killed in several towns and at a music festival, where over 270 party-goers were murdered. Around 200 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip of which the number of kidnapped children is slightly under 30. Israeli military forces began conducting retaliatory strikes before the Israeli government formally declared war on Hamas a day later. 

The war following this blunder was truly horrific. After clearing Hamas forces from southern Israel, the Israel Defence Force(IDF) conducted airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, which to date have killed over 8,000 Palestinians, including women and a number of children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, including more than 50 UN agency staff. It has been a struggle for aid workers on the ground to stay alive and help. A total of 6,000 bombs were dropped by Israel during the first six-days of the conflict, more than used by the United States over an entire year of operations in Afghanistan and double the number of bombs employed by the US-led coalition against ISIS over one month. Fears of a humanitarian crisis were heightened after Israel cut off food, water, electricity, and fuel supplies to Gaza, which had already been blockaded by both Egypt and Israel. Israel urged 1.1 million Gazans to evacuate northern Gaza, while Hamas called on residents to stay in their homes and, according to the IDF, blocked roads leading south. The United Nations reported that around a million Palestinians, nearly half of Gaza's population, have been internally displaced. Remember Gaza exists in a small area with a dense population and 1 million people displaced with the raining bombs and full scale war creates a living nightmare for anyone. Though I had nothing to do with the war, I live with empathy and it is tough to think about the crisis that unfolded in the region. As I said, the Hamas militants have made a lethal attempt for self-destruction to wreak havoc on two million Palestinians living there. Israel didn't do it, Hamas did it on themselves. It would be difficult to understand the intention of going straight into the mouth of a tiger but what prompted it is the question to answer.

I am a huge admirer of the Arab and Muslim world who also reciprocate by being part of my journey. As I said earlier, they played a huge role in my making which I cannot disclose completely. But it is an unfortunate situation that the fraternity is at the receiving end of numerous wars in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria to Palestine and more. The violent conflict within them and with the rest of the world needs to be stopped at any cost. Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian activist was awarded the Nobel peace prize this year for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all. The organization for which she works was banned in Iran while she won the Nobel peace prize. Is promoting peace and human rights banned in a just nation? While there are centers of peace in the Arab world, they are relegated to sidelines while violence takes the mainstream. Militants and extremists rule the roost working with the governments while any sense of modernism, development on par with the contemporary world takes a backseat. If you live in harmony with the rest of the world, you don't rebel, retaliate and create needless violence. The progress of the Muslim minds with their acceptance of the world around is the work which needs to be taken up. If for anything, this offense by Hamas is needless and the environment which brewed these attacks is negative and the pain is immense in an otherwise happy, peaceful world. The world which is rattled by two wars in Ukraine and Palestine needs to get together and stop the future one. We need to check on each other and every other nation for the well-being of everyone and not just live in isolation. It is up to the leaders, international bodies and other workers to get the act together and prevent the pain of a Gaza or a Ukraine in any other country. We need empathy and need to spread good living to everyone without creating pockets of destruction while talking about growth and development. For the pain will catch up and the suffering will catch up and the practical ways to spread peace will prevent the next meaningless attack. This enhanced suffering should give way for a disarmament around the world and the countries should stay away from using mortal weapons. This is with the hope that a peaceful resolution can be found between Israel - Palestine and all the violence dies a thousand deaths. It is with a hope that Ukraine is also liberated from the war and the world returns to peaceful ways sooner. We need to take up the Gandhian way of promoting peace and non-violence to create a world with hope and not destroy in split second. For every act of violence and oppression there may emerge a tall leader in every region to restore order thousand times forcefully back.