I start with something that shouldn’t need saying. Palestinian civilians have suffered terribly. Whatever one’s views of Israel, Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu or the wider Middle East conflict, yes, there is suffering among innocent Palestinians. Children have been killed, families displaced, homes destroyed, and a civilian population has endured appalling hardship.

Acknowledging that suffering does not, however, require us to suspend our critical faculties.

And there is one extraordinarily important part of the story which seems to disappear from much political and media discussion. Hamas is not simply a Palestinian political organization that Israel happens to disagree with. Hamas is a terrorist organization proscribed by the United Kingdom and many other countries. The UK Government states explicitly that Hamas commits, participates in, prepares for, promotes and encourages terrorism, and identifies the destruction of Israel among its aims.

That is not an Israeli propaganda claim. It is the position of the British Government and many others in the world. So why does this fact so often seem to become little more than a footnote when the Gaza conflict is discussed?

The uncomfortable question

Imagine, for a moment, a country whose neighbor was controlled by an organization which had carried out a murderous attack on its civilians, taken hundreds of hostages and openly regarded the destruction of that country as part of its political objective. Would we really expect that country simply to shrug its shoulders and say: “Ah, never mind. We must concentrate exclusively on the consequences of our response”? Of course not.

The Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023 was not an unfortunate misunderstanding. Around 1,200 people were killed, and hundreds were taken hostage, as so many need to be reminded of. Yahya Sinwar, subsequently Hamas’s overall leader, was fully identified as one of the principal architects of the attack. Neither has Hamas suddenly, in the meantime, become a liberal, democratic movement committed to coexistence. And that matters, and should be central, to any debate or argument.

It matters because any serious discussion of Gaza has to address not merely what Israel has done, but why Israel is fighting Hamas in the first place, what Hamas has said and done, and what Hamas would do if it were left in a position to repeat the attack.

Hamas leaders have repeatedly presented the conflict as a continuing struggle. In 2024, for example, senior Hamas figure Khaled Meshaal spoke of the organization rising again despite the devastation inflicted upon it. The big question therefore becomes unavoidable. If Hamas remains committed to armed struggle and capable of rebuilding, what exactly is Israel supposed to do? Sit there and accept being rocketed almost daily?

That does not give Israel a license to do whatever it wants. It does not excuse civilian casualties. It does........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)