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In every Israel-Hamas war, Hamas’s tactics of embedding themselves within highly populated civilian areas and deep within civilian infrastructure, inevitably and unfortunately leads to large numbers of civilian casualties and large-scale destruction in Gaza. This significant devastation often leads to push back from International and social media networks, with many calling for a ceasefire long before Israel completes their operational goals. While the loss of civilian life is horrendous and concern is valid, calls for Israel to prematurely end before finishing their mission ignores the safety and security of Israeli society and Israel’s obligation to defend its citizens, and Israel cannot take this risk for several reasons:
1. Hamas, from its founding, has been very clear in their agenda to wipe out the entire state of Israel. Their leadership has repeatedly stated their plans of annihilating Israel and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar plainly stated that the deadly October 7th massacre was just a rehearsal for the main event. Hamas leadership have called for violence against all Jews and Israelis worldwide, and they consider the entire state of Israel Palestinian territory. When a terrorist organization that has been shooting rockets toward Israeli civilians for decades, and barbarically tortured and massacred 1200 Israeli citizens and abducted another 240 in the October 7th massacre says that they will do it again and again, Israel has not only the right, but the obligation to defend its citizens and ensure the people of Israel’s right to safely live in their sovereign land.
2️. Hamas does not respect ceasefires. Every Israel-Hamas war to date has been started by Hamas after a period of calm during a ceasefire. This means that during ceasefires Hamas attacked Israel by shooting rockets toward Israeli city centers or sending terrorists inside Israeli territory to murder and terrorize Israeli citizens. Even during long periods of ceasefire Hamas and other terrorist organizations continue to sporadically shoot rockets and send incendiary balloons or kites toward Israeli towns. This is especially true for the towns along the Gaza border. In order for Israel to ensure safety for their citizens and allow Israelis who live along the border of Gaza to live safely and securely they must achieve their military goals before coming to a ceasefire agreement.
3. Hamas in their attacks against Israel have been known to take Israeli citizens as hostages and hold them captive for extremely long periods of time, if not indefinitely. Holding civilians hostage is a clear war crime according to international humanitarian principles. After the October 7th massacre, Hamas captured an unprecedented amount of hostages, holding captive 240 Israeli citizens ranging in age from babies to elderly. The IDF’s goal of returning civilian hostages is a legitimate war aim and agreeing to a permanent ceasefire before securing the safety of its citizens is not a legitimate ask.
Hamas has demonstrated time and again that they have no respect for human life, Israeli or Palestinian. They hide behind their own women and children resulting in enormous loss of life among Palestinian civilians, and they use Israeli civilians as a pawn in their mission to annihilate the entire state of Israel. They misuse international funds to fortify their terror network instead of building a prosperous Palestinian state in Gaza. They indoctrinate their children to hate Jews and love terror, making use of every retaliatory step that Israel takes to further incite hate among the Gaza population. Entering a ceasefire with Hamas prematurely during conflict has time and again shown that the terrorist organization takes the opportunity to rebuild their arsenal and regroup in order to attack Israeli civilians again and again, each time more fiercely and more deadly.
When you hear calls for a permanent ceasefire make sure to point out why this is not possible:
- Hamas does not want peace with Israel, they want total destruction of the Jewish land.
- Hamas has and will continue to attack Israeli civilians until they are stopped.
- Hamas has no respect for Palestinian or Israeli lives and will keep fighting to achieve their goal of annihilating the Jewish state, no matter how many Palestinians die in the process.
On This Topic 👁
The Hill | Why a Ceasefire Means Death For Israel
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4301843-for-israel-a-ceasefire-means-death/
CBS | Hamas Claim They Don’t Know How Many Hostages Remain in Gaza https://www.cbsnews.com/video/senior-hamas-leader-says-he-doesnt-know-how-many-hostages-are-left-in-gaza/
The Hill | Why a Ceasefire Would Backfire
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4290273-why-a-ceasefire-in-israel-would-backfire/