ON November 24, 2023, a temporary ceasefire was announced between Israel and Hamas. This is about the twelfth time a cease fire has been announced in the region since 1948. It was a welcome development and the world had wished that the ceasefire would lead to permanent solution to the conflict between the parties.

Unfortunately, the Israeli cabinet announced that it would resume its war with Hamas in Gaza immediately after the truce expired. It was not surprising that the parties resumed the conflict. 

In the last two publications, I had narrated the extent of the massive and irreparable damage that had been done to both human lives as well as infrastructural resources of the region. 

In the previous publications, I had narrated series of wars that have ravaged the region, beginning from the Battle of Tel Hei of 1920, to the Israeli-Palestinian war of 1948, and the six-day war of 1967. 

In addition to the long list of wars already published, there were many other wars, including Lebanon war of 1982, first Palestinian Intifada of 1987, the Second Palestinian Intifada of 2000, the Second Lebanon War of 2006, and the birth of the Hamas and thirty-five years of Israeli-Hamas wars from 1987 till date. 

The unending wars are conclusive evidence of the facts that the numerous wars between Israelis and Palestinians are rooted in “hate without an end”.

Palestine Liberation Organisation, PLO

In 1964 Palestine Liberation Organisation, PLO, was created. By 1982 the PLO had amassed huge popularity and acceptance in Palestine. The organisation declared all Arabs living in Palestine up to 1947 as Palestinians, and focused on creating a Palestinian State within Israel. In response to this, Israel invaded Lebanon and ejected the PLO in 1982. 

The First Palestinian Intifada of 1987

1987 was a significant year that changed the tide of the Israeli-Palestinian wars. This is because the Hamas was created in this year. 1987 also witnessed a unique war known as Intifada War. 

The Israeli occupation of Gaza strip and the West Bank in 1967, under the Six-Day war (as discussed last week), led to a Palestinian uprising. This led to the 1987 Intifada, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. Peace was brokered in the region through the Oslo Peace Accord in 1993. This led to Israel’s ceding of some territories to Palestine, including some parts of the West Bank. 

The Second Palestinian Intifada of 1987

The second intifada was a major war between Palestine and Israel which lasted from 2000 to 2005. It was said to have been caused by the failure of the 2000 Camp David Summit in July 2000, which was meant to broker a lasting peace in the region. The war started in September 2000, as a protest to the visit of Ariel Sharon to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The Palestinians started the intifada with suicide bombings, gunfights, rocket attacks and stone throwing. Israel responded with targeted killings, gun fights, tank attacks and airstrikes. The war was more gruesome than the first intifada, and was said to have been ended by the Sham el-Sheikh Summit of 2005. Both the Palestinian President and the Israeli Prime Minister agreed to stop mutual attacks everywhere. Additionally, Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, agreed to release 900 of the 7,500 Palestinian political prisoners and that the Israeli troops will withdraw from parts of the West Bank by the end of 2005. 

The Second Lebanon war of 2006

This was a 34-day war in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Golan Heights. The war started on July 12, 2006 when Hezbollah, a Shiite Islamic militant group in Lebanon, fired rockets at Israeli border towns. The ambush led to the death of three Israeli soldiers and the abduction of another two Israeli soldiers. Five more Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon in a failed rescue attempt. Hezbollah demanded the release of Lebanese prisoners in exchange for the release of the hostages. Israel responded with airstrikes and artillery fire on targets in Lebanon, imposition of air and naval blockade on Lebanon, and ground invasion of Southern Lebanon. Hezbollah launched more rockets into northern Israel and engaged Israeli armies in a guerilla warfare. The conflict was believed to have led to the death of about 1,500 people in all, and a severe damage to the Lebanese civil infrastructure, and displaced about one million Lebanese. The UN negotiated a cease fire which ended the war on August 14, 2006. However the war was said to have ended on September 8, 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon due to Iranian military support of Hezbollah before and during the war. 

35 years of the existence of Hamas and its impact on the Israeli-Palestinian wars

The Hamas is a Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, which was created in 1987. This is a Muslim brotherhood which was launched in the Palestinian region with the aim of establishing an Islamic state in Palestine and to obliterate Israel. Hamas is Israel’s biggest enemy at the moment. However, it only came to the scene of the Israeli-Palestinian wars following its political conquest of the Gaza strip in 2007. Hamas’ involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian wars before 2007 include the following: 

*Two years after its creation, Hamas launched its first attack on Israel’s military, kidnapping and killing two soldiers. 

*In 1993, the Oslo Peace Accord was signed with the aim of establishing peace between Israel and Palestine. Hamas objected to this peace process, and sought to halt it with bus bombings and gun attack in Israel.

*Between 2001 and 2002, during the second intifada, the Hamas sponsored and carried out a series of suicide bombings in Israel which led to the killings of Israelis outside a Tel Aviv disco in June 2001 and 30 Jewish celebrants at a Passover seder dinner in Netanya in March 2002. Four months later, Hama’s military commander Salah Shehadeh was killed in an Israeli air strike, and Israel started a siege on the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

*Between March and April 2004, Israel launched airstrikes which killed Hamas co-founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and co-founder and political leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi. From this period, the Hamas leadership went into hiding and the identity of Rantissi’s successor was kept a secret. 

To be concluded

Please send your comments and suggestions to my email: president@abuad.edu.ng