THE BEGINNING
For around a month now, there has been a massive conflict in Israel. Sadly for them and all the Middle East, This is by no means new. This article aims to get you up to speed with the many worrying and controversial developments that have implications for Israel, Palestine, and the rest of the Middle East.
This whole conflict started on October 7th, when HAMAS(Islamic Resistance Movement), The de facto rulers of the Gaza Strip, an enclave of Palestine on the southern Israeli coast, started a massive ground and sea invasion of grander Israel. They were pushed out of the enclave with rockets, artillery, and guns, funded mainly by the Iranian government. They took tons of hostages and killed hundreds(which would soon reach into the thousands later down the line). This was an incredibly coordinated and prepared attack never seen before, at least at first. You see, 50 years ago, in 1973, on October 6th(one day before the modern-day attack), the arab nations of Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, a multitude of other arab countries, and even some volunteers from Cuba and North Korea Invaded Israel. Israel could hold the assault off until the other powers sued for peace. But this left quite a dent in Israel’s reputation with the rest of the Middle East. The timing of this attack is most likely not a coincidence.
THE WAR
Now, thankfully, HAMAS has slowed down its military operations ever since Israel began to retaliate. And now, with heavy bombing and ground troop operations, they have mostly swept up the territory lost to HAMAS in the first days of the war. And they’ve even begun to push into Gaza proper; whether you see this as a good or bad thing is up to you. Now, unfortunately, we have to cover the more unpleasant side of this: war crimes. HAMAS has kidnapped hundreds and killed thousands of both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as multiple foreigners, while drugged up on captagon. Israel is also far from benevolent in this while not kidnapping anyone as far as we’re aware, but they’ve killed thousands of Palestinians in their Ariel and ground attacks.
THE REGION
This war has caused a strain of relations and quite a problem in the Arab world; many Islamic militant groups and civilians side with Palestine, while most Islamic nations stand with Israel or are primarily neutral. It also started a fire of emotions across the rest of the world in both governments and civilian populations, with many expressing their viewpoints and taking to the streets in protest. This is going to most likely be a long and costly war, in a long set of history, between Israel and the rest of the Middle East.
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