The War in the Middle East is raging without a let-up. By latest headcounts, more than 12,000 people have died, mostly women and children. That over 5000 of these were children adds to the poignancy of the situation. Starkly, one out of every 200 people in Gaza with a population of 2 million is dead. Some 3,000 persons, half of them children, are “missing.” Nearly 30,000 people have been injured. “A whole generation has been damaged or disabled.” The United Nations lost over a hundred of its peacekeeping staff in action on the warfront. The UN, rather, is helpless beyond a point – as is also evident in other recent wars. Founded in 1945, in the backdrop of World War II, its express purpose was to maintain international peace and avoid future wars. Its role in brokering peace is often called into question – more so with the overarching influence the US and the West wield over this huge entity represented by all nations across the globe.
This time, the trigger was a Hamas offensive into Southern Israel on October 7, killing over 1200 people and taking over 250 as hostages to bargain for a future truce. Predictably, Israel responded with a killer instinct. Hundreds are killed every day by attacks from air and by the land forces of Israel, aided by weapons and fighter jets it got from the United States and aided by the rest of the West. The Islamic world is hardly in a position to challenge the US, as had also been the case when Saddam Hussein was taken head on, his establishment uprooted, the nation seized in a war that lasted just a few days and the despot liquidated in quick succession.
There have been many casualties on the Israeli side too, but very little compared to the catastrophe faced by the Palestinians in Gaza. Compared to the fighting in 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021, “This is the most deadly,” say analysts. In what is described as an asymmetrical warfare, Hamas is fighting in a more pronounced way this time. Involved in this war are a “cocktail” of foreign weapons accessed by rival sides. In the past, the Palestinian fighters fought Israel with stones and Molotov cocktails. Now, they are targeting the Jewish nation with laser-guided missiles and anti-tank munitions, sniper rifles, magnet bombs etc in Gaza and beyond. Hamas, with a fighting force of 30,000, gets its weapons from what was left behind by the fleeing militants in Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and also those sent from Iran or, even from North Korea. In other words, in the besieged Gaza, the world is at war with itself.