EDITOR, The Tribune.

Why is there a war in Israel right now? What are they fighting for and why is it so different from things that happened there in the past?

In the last month there is a war taking place in Israel. This war is very different from previous incidents and rounds of unrest in the region. This war is taking place in an area called Gaza.

Gaza is a relatively narrow strip of land located along the southern border of the State of Israel between Israel and Egypt. Until 1967, Gaza was under Egyptian control, but following the Six Day War, during which Egypt attacked Israel, Israel became in control of the area.

In 2005, Israel decided to leave the Gaza Strip where most of the residents are Palestinians and to evacuate Jews who lived in the area. Israel transferred the territory to the Palestinian Authority, the internationally recognized entity of the Palestinian people, established as part of the Oslo agreements. Israel left houses, agricultural fields, greenhouses and other equipment in the hands of the Palestinian Authority and completely ended Israeli presence in the area. Israel intended for the Palestinians to live peacefully alongside Israel.

However, in 2007, a Palestinian terrorist organisation called Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, killing Palestinian Authority officials during the violent take-over. Hamas has brutally ruled this area ever since.

Who is Hamas - The organisation that controls the Gaza Strip from 2007 until today? Hamas is a fundamentalist Islamic extremist organisation with a main tenet of fighting a religious war against infidels. Hamas does not allow rights for minorities, women and LGBTQ+ people. Hamas is an organisation which does not recognise the State of Israel and isn’t and has never been interested in negotiating with Israel on any topic or issue. The Hamas organisation openly calls for the annihilation of the state of Israel. The organisation’s founding statement clearly states that there is only one thing to do with Israel - destroy it.

Hamas is widely recognised as a terrorist organization by numerous countries and international bodies, including the United States, several European countries, Israel, Canada, and others.

Hamas shares the same principles and methods of operation as the Islamic State - ISIS - an organisation that Western countries have been combatting for many years.

Since 2007, Hamas has attacked Israel with tens of thousands of rockets targeting civilians in addition to various terrorist attacks against the citizens of israel. Israel, for its part, fought back Hamas, but also attempted to improve the living conditions of the residents of the Gaza Strip in a number of economic ways.

On October 7, everything changed.

On the morning of Saturday, October 7, around 3,000 Hamas terrorists invaded the State of Israel by land, sea and air. They attacked about 30 communities, villages and army bases along the border between Israel and Gaza, indiscriminately massacring citizens: elderly people, women and even young children and babies. Hamas terrorists murdered people brutally and indiscriminately. In one instance hundreds of innocent people were slaughtered in a music festival. At the same time, the organisation fired thousands of rockets into Israel, aimed not at military bases but at central cities and population centres in Israel. During the brutal attack, Hamas terrorists abducted over 240 hostages into the Gaza Strip, including elderly people over 80 years old and about 30 children, many of them without their parents. Hamas abducted those people, abused and tortured them and now uses them as a bargaining chip against Israel.

As a result of this terrible attack, 1,400 people were killed in Israel. Some of the victims were brutally raped and some bodies were so badly mutilated that they cannot be recognised. By any standard, the terrorist attack of October 7th is a crime against humanity and pure evil.

Like every sovereign state, Israel has a right and a duty to defend itself and prevent such atrocities from ever being repeated. Israel went to war not against the Palestinian people, but against the bloodthirsty terrorist organization - Hamas.

Israel defined the following goals for the war: destroying the military capacity of this terrorist organisation and returning the kidnapped 240 children, women and elderly who are being held hostage. Once those goals are met, Israel has no intention of occupying Gaza or holding the territory.

Israel is fighting a war against an organisation that represents the dark forces that free countries all over the world reject. Like the war against the islamic State - ISIS and Al Qaeda, this is a war that must be won. This is the war against Hamas.

NADAV PELDMAN

Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Israel in Mexico

November 6, 2023