If only. If only Hamas had not seized Gaza; if only it did not use its people as human shields and human weapons, as pawns for its own deadly operations. If only we could avoid this tragedy of lost Palestinian lives. If only – it is a sentiment that has characterized decades of violence in this region. If only Hamas, which has ruled Gaza with an iron fist since 2007, hell-bent on destroying Israel, had chosen to build homes, infrastructures; if only it had chosen to develop the Gaza Strip, to create better lives for the Palestinian people.
If only! Yet this week’s violence on the Gaza-Israel border throws into even sharper focus the lengths to which Hamas will go to hurt Israelis, any Israelis that it can get its hands on, at the momentous expense of its own people’s lives. For indeed, Hamas is willing, even eager, to push young Gazans, all the more so children, to the Israeli-Gaza border fence. Hamas instructs them to ignore every warning that Israel is sending—warnings including by leaflets, on radio and on social media—to stay back from the fence, to cease the hurling of firebombs, grenades and rocks, and to refrain from tampering with the border fence. Hamas didn’t hesitate to sacrifice its own people in order to try to storm over the border, into Israel and inflict bloody terror upon as many Israelis as possible.
This is what happened when a Hamas crowd ignited and wrecked the Kerem Shalom terminal, the lifeline for delivering fuel and goods from Israel and from international donors into the Gaza Strip. Gazans are being sacrificed in a calculated manner by their Hamas leaderships’ terror tactics.
Because, among the crowds of Gazans, Hamas is concealing its armed operatives, trained, determined and ready at a moment’s notice to plunge into Israel, to dodge Israeli spotters by rapidly dispersing and, finally, to enter one of the many Israeli towns near the border and execute massacres of unspeakable proportions.
Hamas operatives caught within Israel have echoed this intent: Yahya Ijlah, a 19-year-old member of Hamas who entered Israel on April 29, 2018 said that he had been sent to the border in order to steal a security camera. He stated that Hamas “is working to make its activities look like a popular uprising in the media, and not a violent operation by its members.”
Hundreds of suicide bombings. Thousands of rocket attacks. Countless ramming attacks, stabbings, rock pelting and other attacks were carried out or encouraged by Hamas in the past decades. Thousands of Israelis killed or injured. Hamas’ record and intentions to maim Israelis is the key part of the story of this week’s clashes in Gaza.
Nigerians unfortunately also know all too well the brutal effects of terrorism and insurgency. As we grapple with the violence in both nations, we should recall – If only the people of Gaza or North-east Nigeria for that matter, could be freed of destructive, radical ideology, and could forge a new path, a path where children are treated like the treasures that they are, and taught to embrace life, love and peace. If only we could see an end to all the violence.
Nadav D. Goren, is Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Israel in Nigeria
