Two years ago today, the terrorist group Hamas stormed Israel and brutally murdered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and captured others.
Images and videos of the aftermath of the attack on a music festival, bodies in the streets, and testimonials of survivors showed the horrors of what happened that day.
Even to this day, Hamas holds people they took hostage. Two years their loved ones have called for their release. Two years some of these people have been kept captive.
The attack sparked a bloody retaliation by Israel, which, as countless images have shown, has levelled Gaza since then.
Israel bombarded Gaza, but in doing so killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of them innocents.
Quickly, images and videos of the destruction emerged, of people walking over the rubble of what was once their homes, of bodies covered in drapes, of parents carrying deceased or injured children. Israel went to far.
Protests began to emerge in countries all over the world, calling for the war to end, and for Israel to stop its attack on Palestine. There were also protests calling for the release of the hostages held by Hamas.
South Africa filed a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, saying that Israel committed genocide. Israel is denying the allegations and the case is still ongoing.
More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The fighting has gone on for two long years.
Nations, in a bid to try and stop the fighting and in what is seen as a strong statement that Israel must stop, began to recognise Palestine as a State. Malta is one of the nations that did so. Such a move is a requirement if a two-state-solution, widely viewed as the only chance for a long-term peace, is to be found. Hamas must have no role – in any shape or form – in the future Government of Palestine, Malta’s Prime Minister, Robert Abela said while recognising Palestine. A statement other countries that recognised Palestine have also made.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for a permanent ceasefire and said Hamas could have no role in governing Gaza, calling for the group to “surrender their weapons” to the Palestinian Authority (PA), the BBC also reports.
Indeed there can be no future for the Hamas organisation if there is to be a long-lasting peace. It must be dismantled.
The court cases against Israel must also continue, especially since it was reported by the Associated Press that a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council had concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, also explaining that the team was commissioned by the Human Rights Council, the U.N.’s top human rights body, but it does not speak for the United Nations. Israel rejects the genocide allegations and the report.
“The current U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, has decried Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza and spoken out forcefully against alleged crimes, but has not accused Israel of carrying out genocide. His office, alluding to international law, has argued that only an international court can make a final, formal determination of genocide,” AP reported.
After two years of fighting, there is now a sliver of hope. Israel and Hamas were to hold indirect negotiations in Egypt yesterday, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a hostage release could be announced this week.
The Associated Press reports that US President Donald Trump has welcomed the Hamas statement accepting some elements of the U.S. peace plan. Israel has said it supported the new U.S. effort. Under the plan, Hamas would release the remaining 48 hostages – about 20 believed to be alive – within three days. A Hamas statement on Friday said it was willing to release the hostages and hand over power to other Palestinians, but that other aspects of the plan require further consultations among Palestinians, the Associated Press also reported, while saying that the statement made no mention of Hamas disarming, which is a key Israeli demand.
There is hope that peace can be achieved, whereas just weeks ago, it seemed so very far away.
Too many innocents have lost their lives.