Hamas is using Gazans as pawns - editorial

With the IDF poised to launch a ground campaign into Gaza in the next phase in its war against the ISIS-like terrorist group Hamas, the world’s attention has turned to the residents of the tiny enclave who are caught in the middle.

The IDF, one the world’s most moral armies, sent a warning on Saturday to the population of the northern half of the Gaza Strip, advising them to move south immediately, ahead of a likely ground assault.

On Sunday, the army announced it would continue enabling Palestinian civilians fleeing the fighting in Gaza to relocate within the territory, adding that hundreds of thousands have already heeded the evacuation order despite the threats and physical obstacles placed in their path by Hamas.

Israel's concern for Palestinian civilians 

When compared to Hamas’s massacre of 1,300 Israeli civilians last weekend and its ongoing rocket barrages targeting Israeli towns and cities, Israel’s concern for Palestinian civilians and efforts to prevent civilian casualties present a stark contrast.

“We didn’t put those civilians there,” IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said in an English-language briefing on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday morning. “They are not our enemy. We are not trying to kill or injure any civilians. We are fighting against Hamas. That needs to be abundantly clear. We are targeting their infrastructure – wherever it is.”

However, the response to Israel’s humanitarian call – which would save countless lives – has been met with cynical rejection by Arab countries, the UN, and Hamas.

Israel has released aerial footage of Hamas putting up roadblocks to prevent people from leaving in order to use them as human shields, and Hamas has reportedly ordered residents to stay put.

Egypt, Gaza’s neighbor to the south, also rejected the call for Gazans to leave.

“Egypt will not allow the Palestinian cause to be settled at the expense of other parties,” Egyptian President Abdel Sisi said last week. “This is the cause of all causes, the cause of all Arabs. It is important that the [Palestinian] people remain steadfast and present on their land.”

Likewise, Jordan’s King Abdullah warned “against any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians from all Palestinian territories or cause their internal displacement, calling for preventing a spillover of the crisis into neighboring countries and the exacerbation of the refugee issue.”

The head of the 22-member Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, urgently appealed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to condemn “this insane Israeli effort to transfer the population.”

In response, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, told UN diplomats that the evacuation warning was “to temporarily move [people] south...to mitigate civilian harm. The UN should be praising Israel for these precautionary actions.”

The insistence that Gazans remain put in the northern territory of the Strip and face mortal danger from Israel’s expected incursion is an outrageous and cynical exploitation of innocent people without means.

It is reminiscent of previous instances throughout the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which Palestinians were used as pawns by their Arab brethren, denied basic rights in the lands in which they reside, and forced to languish in ‘refugee camps,’ some of which are now 75 years old.

Keeping them in a permanent state of limbo apparently serves the purpose of all involved. Palestinians get to play the victim card while the Arab countries have no obligation to take them in – in glaring contrast to Israel’s absorption of hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries who were displaced in 1948.

That deeply flawed way of thinking has gotten the Palestinians nowhere in their national aspirations over the decades. And now, that stubbornness will result in the death of Gazans, which could easily be prevented.

Several possible destinations

Besides the natural destination of Egypt, there are numerous wealthy Arab countries, from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, that could prevent a humanitarian crisis by providing funds and sanctuary to the Gazans who choose to leave the area, if they’re able to escape Hamas’s draconian clutches.

Israel’s call for Gazans to flee southward is being heeded in part, but the resistance met by the Arab countries and the UN is further evidence of the fact that securing the lives and well-being of Palestinians always comes second to putting the burden of their fate on Israel.