An Ordeal & Indifference

Gaza has become a graveyard for children and families. Children in different parts of the Gaza Strip were reportedly killed while sheltering inside their tents or desperately queuing for a piece of bread amid a rapidly worsening food crisis. The lives of all children are virtually at risk or have been shattered by unimaginable trauma, loss, and deprivation. Their safety and access to essential humanitarian aid are not being facilitated, as explicitly demanded by international law, a statement by UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Regional Director Edouard Beigbeder says.

The latest death toll (as on June 10) stands at 62,614 for Palestinians and 1,139 for Israelis in the Gaza strip since October 7, 2023, when an assault by Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel, and some 250 people were taken to Gaza as hostages. In revenge, Israel launched a ground and air offensive and is committing unrestrained genocide in Gaza—a tiny Palestinian enclave of 150 square miles.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which organised a Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists, arrived at an Israeli port on Monday after Israeli forces stopped and detained them — enforcing a longstanding blockade of the Palestinian territory. Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament who is of Palestinian descent, was among those on board. She has been barred from entering Israel because of her opposition to Israeli policies towards the Palestinians. She was among six French citizens on board. French President Emmanuel Macron called for consular protection and the repatriation of the French citizens.

Hamas-Israel War

Since its creation in 1987, Hamas has been at the forefront of armed resistance in the occupied Palestinian territories. While the movement itself claims an unbroken militancy in Palestine dating back to 1935, others credit post-1967 manoeuvres of Israeli Intelligence for its establishment. Jean-Pierre Filiu (2012) in his article ‘The Origins of Hamas: Militant Legacy or Israeli Tool?’, delves into the historical foundations of Hamas, starting with the establishment in 1946 of the Gaza branch of the Muslim Brotherhood (the mother organisation). This “official history” of the movement denies any break in continuity over the last 70 years, as if the Muslim Brotherhood had always been at the vanguard and epicentre of the national struggle. This narrative aims at discrediting other Palestinian factions, chief among them being Fatah, identified with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. The second interpretation depicts Hamas as a “golem,” a creature in Jewish folklore fashioned from mud and made animate who ultimately escapes his master. It accurately reflects the widely held belief that Hamas was created by the Israeli security services in Gaza to divide and weaken the Palestinian national movement but ended up, as in the Jewish fable, turning against its creator. For those subscribing to this “counter-history,” there is no authentic nationalism outside of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), founded in 1964 and taken over by Fatah in 1969, with Yasir Arafat at its head. Qatar, a trusted US ally in the Middle East for decades, is a major Hamas financer and backed its political takeover of Gaza in 2007. Hamas opened a political office in Doha in 2012.

Hamas entered Palestinian politics as a political party in 2005 when it engaged in local elections, and secured a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in 2006, beating Fatah. Since 2007, Israel has launched four wars against Hamas and the Gaza Strip. The UN data on Palestine-Israel conflict shows, between 2008 and August 31, 2023, Israel had made four major assaults on Gaza: (i) 23-day assault during 2008-09; (ii) 8-day assault in 2012; (iii) 50-day assault, 2014; and (iv) 11-day assault in 2021. These assaults resulted in 6,407 deaths to Palestinians and 308 Israeli deaths. The current one is the fifth deadly conflict, which has killed nearly 64,000 people during the last 20 months of unconstrained annihilation by Israeli forces.

Gaza: A Bustling Trade Centre of Yore

Gaza was a bustling trade centre in ancient times, serving as a vital link between Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. Its port played a crucial role in facilitating trade with Africa. In addition to Gaza, the ancient port of Jaffa was a gateway for goods flowing in and out of Palestine. It was a hub for trade with the Aegean world and Asia Minor.

Besides historical claim on Jerusalem and ‘Zion Land’ by the Jews, thousands of Palestinians are getting killed in the Israel-occupied Gaza strip, as global powers are trying to establish at least three major trade routes through Israel-occupied Palestine:

✻ The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC): It connects Indian ports with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Israel/Palestine, and the European Union. Countries that have signed up to become part of the project are: India, the USA, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the EU, Italy, France, and Germany.

✻ The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): 19 countries from the Middle East and North Africa have joined the BRI. Except for Israel, almost all the major economies of the Middle East have joined the BRI. It is reported that China has invested in more “BRI-like” projects in Israel than in any other regional country. Currently, China is the top trading partner of Israel, ahead of the USA. In 2024, it exported USD 19,097.962m to Israel and imported USD 2,858.745m from the country.

✻ A train route connecting Africa, Israel, the Middle East, and Europe: A few analysts believe that this proposed rail route can pose a major challenge to China’s dominance in industrial production.

Global Protest against Zionist Genocide

Global protest against genocide is observed across many countries. The UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Norway have imposed sanctions on Israeli far-right ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, for “inciting extremist violence” against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. University students in the USA have lodged strong protests despite persecution by the Trump Administration.

Representatives from a group of countries led by Colombia and South Africa will meet next month to formulate legal and diplomatic measures against Israel for its “ongoing and escalating violations of international law” in the occupied Palestinian territories in a bid to bring them to a halt.

A Gaza-bound convoy of over 1,000 protesters, in a ‘symbolic act’ challenging the blockade, has arrived in Libya, headed to Rafah to defy Israel’s aid blockade. More are expected to join as the caravan passes through Libya and Egypt.

The Cuban crisis lasted only for 12 days, from October 16 to 28, 1962. That confrontation is widely considered as the closest the Cold War came to escalating into full-scale nuclear war. It could be settled by two superpowers—the USSR and the USA—through negotiations. In the evolving Cold War 2 phase, the conflicts have become more complex and a multipolar clash of civilisations, in which Western Judeo-Christian civilisation, Chinese Confucianism, Islamic resurgence, and Russian Eurasianism are competing to shape the future. Unlike the Cold War of the last century, where the US and USSR operated in largely separate economic spheres, today’s great powers are deeply intertwined. China and the United States remain economically interdependent, with vast trade networks binding them together.

Involvement of multiple power centres with strong economic and cultural states has made the conflict resolution more complex. Continued genocide in Gaza for over 600 days is a case in point.

The writer is a professor of Business Administration who primarily writes on political economy, global trade, and sustainable development. Views expressed are personal