How is the killing of Palestinians going to bring peace to the Middle East? - Yorkshire Post Letters

As with any discussion of conflict in the Middle East, the 1940s Holocaust and the Hamas attack on Israel (October 2023) are never to be forgotten. But another basis for our reaction to the Israeli-Palestinian-Lebanon conflict lies in the Balfour Declaration of February 1917.

As British Foreign Secretary, when the UK had responsibility for the area called Palestine, Balfour stated that the UK Government favoured the establishment of a home for the Jewish people but "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of...non-Jewish communities in Palestine". From this optimistic commitment stems the ongoing century-long conflict. And the most pressing issue now: ‘How to end this murderousness?’

In Gaza, the IDF (Israel Defence Force) claims that from an initial figure of 30,000 fighters Hamas now has between 10 and 20 thousand. Even if that number is correct they are barely equipped but bitterly determined to maintain resistance to the occupying Israeli forces.

The ceasefire details imposed by the IDF (which claims that it has “gone way above the requirements of international humanitarian law" in moderating its attacks) included military occupation of ‘only’ 53 per cent of Gaza. As well as having to kill a further 700 Palestinians in order to maintain the ceasefire, it has now become necessary for the IDF to occupy 73 per cent of the Strip.

The remaining Gazan population (nearly 2m) have to live on land where 80 per cent of the buildings and infrastructure have been destroyed. The population exists mostly in enormous tent ‘cities’ (tents in these temperatures) accompanied by pools of sewage.

Electricity and water supplies are scarcely existent while babies frequently present at First Aid posts with facial rat bites (information from the BBC and British Red Cross). Netanyahu's plans are for up to 1.5m Gazans to be forcibly cleared from this land (to where?).

Does this mean that the Trump plan for his extended family to make even more money by building a hyper modern holiday development on the Gazan rubble becomes a reality?

In Lebanon, Hezbollah, previously estimated to be 100,000 strong, numbers now around 30,000 to 50,000. So Israeli forces have achieved another resounding success.They have also reduced a ‘safe’ zone six miles wide in southern Lebanon to uninhabitable chaos and have demanded the evacuation of Lebanese citizens from more than 1/8th of the national area.

Some of these people have had to move five times, sometimes with the ‘luxury’ of two hours warning before evacuation and then find that bridges essential for flight have already been bombed.

Meanwhile Israeli settlers continue to force W. Bank Palestinian farmers from land and villages that they have occupied for centuries. Any Israeli occupation/activity there is illegal by international law.

When will Israel be satisfied? Since its establishment it has faced five successful wars with its neighbours but all have been of limited duration.

Can the current ‘endless’ war ever end in success? Is victory to be measured in the thousands of children killed by the self-styled ‘most moral military in the world’? Can it really be the death of x per cent of Palestinians that will somehow bring stability? Is it not clear that the decimation of one generation of Israel's enemies will mean an even more aggressively motivated following generation?