Our View: ‘Day of rage’ should be against Hamas

It was astonishing that terrorist group Hamas called for a ‘global day of rage’ in support of the Palestinians and against Israel on Friday 13 October. If there was to be any rage it should be against Hamas, the actions of which, last weekend, have completely destabilised the Middle East region, leading to a declaration of war by Israel, and the danger of a broader conflict looming.

Hamas has caused this after last weekend’s entry into Israel by its gunmen who murdered hundreds of defenceless civilians, including women and children, and took over a hundred hostages that are being kept in the Gaza Strip; there was also a barrage of rocket attacks. What it had hoped to achieve with the atrocities it committed, that were universally condemned is unknown. But its leadership could not have been so stupid to have thought there would be no retaliation by Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war at the weekend and the Gaza Strip has been the target of an Israeli bombing campaign since – the Israeli military said on Thursday it had dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza. The bombing campaign, according to the Gaza housing ministry, quoted by the UN, has destroyed 752 residential and non-residential buildings (2,835 housing units). More than 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced while on Thursday the Israeli military, ahead of the expected ground offensive, sent evacuation orders that affected one million people living in the northern part of Gaza.

The 2.3 million people living in the Gaza Strip, described as one of the most densely populated areas in the world, will now be pushed into half of that area, without water, electricity or fuel, because of the blockade, which Israel said it would lift only when the hostages being held by Hamas were released. The UN Secretary-General’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said such a movement of people would be impossible to take place “without devastating humanitarian consequences,” and urged Israel to rescind the evacuation orders.

Hamas, meanwhile, has told people to stay put, although it is very difficult to believe that anyone would heed any advice from a group that has caused the catastrophic situation now facing the people in Gaza. Some could argue that the showdown was inevitable somewhere down the line, but this is a moot point. The fact is that the Hamas attack and the atrocities committed last weekend sparked this war, which could last weeks or months and is guaranteed to make the lives of the 2.3 million people of the Gaza Strip much more difficult than they had been ten days ago.

So far, some 3,000 civilians from both sides have been killed and the death toll is set to rise in the coming days, not to mention the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This is all the doing of Hamas.