![]() Over the course of that 2014 conflict, the Israelis lost 68 troops, while several hundreds were left wounded, some maimed for life. ![]() However, the last time it sent in troops, during “ Operation Protective Edge” in July 2014, they came up against determined paramilitaries who knew the urban areas intimately and had long trained in urban guerrilla warfare. Israel’s problem in Gaza is that it cannot prevent the rockets being fired without a military ground force intervention. Later that day the first of the Hamas rockets were fired from Gaza.ĭevastation: much of Gaza City is being reduced to rubble by Israeli airstrikes. Three days later the police repeated the operation as the violence escalated further. As tensions rose and Hamas threatened rockets in response, the violence escalated to the evening of Friday May 7 when, as the New York Times put it, “police officers armed with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-tipped bullets burst into the mosque compound shortly after 8pm, setting off hours of clashes with stone-throwing protesters in which hundreds were injured, medics said.” This contributed to increasing Palestinian anger and more demonstrations especially at the Damascus Gate and the mosque itself. It has been suggested this was to prevent the call to prayer interfering with a speech due to be given by Israeli president Reuven Rivlin nearby. The Israeli actions at al-Aqsa were extensive and stretched over a month starting on April 13, the first day of Ramadan, when police reportedly entered the mosque’s courtyard and cut the cables to loudspeakers in its four minarets. That will have a far deeper and more longer-lasting effect than is currently recognised in the west. The key element of recent weeks has been the repeated incursion of the Israeli police into al-Aqsa mosque. It is impregnable in the sense that it cannot be defeated, but insecure in that the underlying threats will not go away – as is evident in the current violent confrontations. Instead, an apt summary is of a state that is impregnable in its insecurity. With all this – and US president Joe Biden’s continuing assertion that “Israel has the right to defend itself” – the country should feel safe and secure. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has persistently claimed that his country is indeed safe, that it has nothing to fear from the Palestinians, and that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, especially in East Jerusalem, can and should expand, not least as Israel has established good relations with key Gulf states. ![]() ![]() It lacks a port, its sole airport was destroyed many years ago and its Mediterranean coastline is patrolled by Israelis at all times. Gaza may not be occupied in the conventional sense but it is a small territory with 2 million people living behind borders controlled by Israel. Given its long-developed capabilities in public order control, such a position should also apply to its control of radical dissent within its own borders, as well as in the Palestinian occupied territories. Its military forces may not match the likes of Egypt or Turkey in numbers, but the might of its training, equipment, technologies and nuclear weapons make it unassailable. Israel is the most powerful state in the Middle East.
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