Losing focus on ending the Gaza war would be a mistake

Displaced Palestinians in Gaza on June 17. Palestinians are well aware that as other communities across the region breathe a sigh of relief after a fragile truce between Israel and Iran, their ordeal goes on. EPAShow less

As much of the Middle East welcomes the tentative ceasefire that appears to have halted the 12-day war involving Iran, Israel and the US, for Palestinians there is no such reprieve. During the missile exchanges that closed regional airspace and drove frantic diplomacy, Israel’s military continued to press its assault in the ruined enclave despite their country’s towns and cities being the target of Iranian missiles.

Palestinians are well aware that as other communities across the region breathe a sigh of relief, their ordeal goes on. “We don’t have a strong ally,” Amira Nassar, 29, a resident of Gaza's Al Zaytoun neighbourhood, told The National on Tuesday. “We don’t even have a real country with borders to defend us. Who cares about us? We’re no longer part of the game. We’re weak and we don’t matter.”

Protesters at Nato summit call on leaders to focus on Gaza

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It is difficult not to empathise with such despair. Although Gaza appeared to fall from the international agenda as countries tried to avert wider catastrophe in the Middle East, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict nevertheless remains an unresolved issue that brings much despair and fuels conflict across the region. As Israel’s fatally ill-conceived campaign in Gaza grinds on with the same deadly results seen for nearly 21 months, all sides now have a responsibility to build on this moment of de-escalation.

The reality is that Israel’s stated war aims in Gaza remain unmet despite the appalling death and destruction meted out since the deadly Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023. At least 50 hostages remain unaccounted for, and seven Israeli soldiers were killed during an attack in Khan Younis on Tuesday. Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups are down but not out. With no end to the war in sight in Gaza voices inside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own party – such as senior Likud figure Michael Kleiner – have said they believe it is the time to end it.

Many Palestinians are angry that a way was found to halt a major Middle East war in just 12 days, while the one they find themselves in has continued for far too long

Similarly, Hamas – now greatly weakened and largely shorn of its Iranian support – also has a responsibility in finding a way out of a conflict it provoked with its 2023 killing of more than 1,200 Israelis – most of them civilians – and the kidnapping of over 240 more. A gruelling war of attrition in which Palestinian civilians are subjected to collective reprisals, repeated displacement and a fatal lack of food, water and medicine offers no victory worth talking about. The examples of Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah are relevant here: both sought a way out of conflict once their losses proved too great without any resolution for the Palestinians.

The longer the Gaza war goes on, the more civilians will die. On Tuesday, the UN human rights office reported that 500 people have been killed while trying to access humanitarian aid at sites secured by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US and Israeli-backed private organisation. Amid such suffering, many Palestinians in Gaza are understandably frustrated and saddened that a way was found to halt a major Middle East war in just 12 days, while the one they find themselves in has continued for far too long. Without a similarly international and focused effort to end the Gaza catastrophe, not only will Palestinians continue to believe, as Ms Nassar said, that their lives don’t matter, there will be no lasting Middle East peace.