Terror in Israel as Tenuous Gaza Situation Escalates

Akiva Levine (’26) house in the border town between Gaza and Israel, of Sderot, suffered a direct hit.

This past week, a horrendous series of attacks were carried out against Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israeli settlements and cities like Sderot, Ashkelon, and Ashdod were barraged with over 300 rockets. These attacks were executed this past Wednesday in only a matter of hours and luckily no casualties were reported. Israel used their Iron Dome defense missile system to deflect most of the rockets. Nonetheless, great terror sparked throughout Israel as a result of these attacks, and many people became aware of this emerging situation set within the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

During these attacks and the hostility that hung ominously in the air, several regional powers like Egypt attempted to broker a ceasefire between Gaza and Israel, as only in the past 10 months, Israel

Last Week’s Solution

The rockets this past week have been the most recent increase in hostility between Gaza and Israel. Many claim the rockets were shot in response to Israel’s killing of three top commanders in an Islamic Jihad, as part of Israel’s Shield and Arrow operation. Following Israel’s operation and successful targeted assassination, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem issued a warning, claiming that Israel "bears responsibility for the repercussions of this escalation." When situations like this have occurred in the past, Israel knew how to deal with them. As the rockets were shot, millions of Israelis were instructed to remain close to safe rooms and bomb shelters. Aside from the Iron Dome, other Israeli air defenses such as David’s sling air defense system intercepted the rockets. (The David’s Sling became operational in 2017 and unlike the Iron Dome, it intercepts rockets from a medium to long range, instead of a short range. ) Thanks to defenses like these, only one empty has already had its third confrontation with an Islamic Jihad. The political chief of Hamas, located in Gaza, claimed that he had received phone calls from Egyptian, Qatari, and United Nations officials on this matter.

A question still hangs: will Hamas, join an Islamic Jihad to continue retaliatory action against Israel? This question can determine the very length and intensity of the current round of fighting. The rockets fired were most likely being launched solely by an Islamic Jihad and no indication of Hamas’s involvement has been reported, said Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military chief spokesperson, to the New York Times.

From a political standpoint, these events can show us the different goals and interests of an.

Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The interests of Hamas differ from those of an Islamic Jihad. Over the past year, Hamas has been less eager to engage in fighting with Israel, as Israel issued over 20,000 permits for Gazans to work in Israel, slightly benefitting the people of Gaza. It is no doubt that Israel alike has no interest in the ensuing war with Gaza. Israeli spokesperson Hagari stated, to the New York Times, “Israel is not interested in war.”, continuing to explain that Israel had already achieved its objective with the killing of three Islamic Jihad operatives. Amid this crisis that caused this year to be the deadliest in more than two decades for Palestinians and Israelis, 110 Palestinians and 19 Israelis have been killed. Israeli schools near Gaza have closed and a state of emergency has been issued throughout areas of the country. Over the past years, Israel has continuously been attacked from surrounding hostile territories, yet their resilience as a small nation leaves them to be a surviving nation in the face of adversity. Israel will continuously try to defend itself as a nation and will never allow the Jewish homeland to become uprooted. As a united Jewish community in Memphis Tennessee, though we are not directly connected to Israel on a day- to day basis, we must protect and honor our homeland. We must continue advocating for our Jewish state of Israel as it defends itself against enemies.

As Benjamin Netanyahu said in March of 2012, “The purpose of the Jewish state is to secure the Jewish future. That is why Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, against any threat.”