Hamas’ Terror Has Expanded

While it seems impossible for Hamas’ terror to worsen, it has. Having unleashed a genocidal terrorist attack on Israel two years ago, and still holding Israeli hostages, Hamas is now doing the same to Gaza. For Hamas, death has gone from being its perverted means to being its only end.  Yet grotesque as Hamas’ terror has become, civilized nations are pushing to implicitly validate it.

HAMAS and its atrocity against Israel

On October 7, 2023, Hamas perpetrated an unquestionably genocidal attack on Israel, killing every Jew—man, woman, or child—it could; it committed atrocities; it took hostages; approaching two years later, it still holds those hostages. 

Israel responded as would any nation whose citizens had been so attacked. In WWII, the Allies—such as Britain, France, and Canada—demanded nothing less than unconditional surrender and held trials for Axis war criminals. Israel is justified to demand nothing less from Hamas.

Over the almost two years, Hamas has not slackened its zeal for killing Israelis; only its means for doing so have been diminished. It still embeds its terrorists among civilians; it still fires rockets indiscriminately into civilian populations—both Israel’s (intentionally, as it has long done) and Gaza’s (presumably unintentionally); when it releases hostages, it only does so on terms heavily favorable to it; it steadfastly refuses to release all the hostages it holds.

For nearly two years, Hamas has shown an utter disregard for human life. Now, its terror has expanded to include the Gazan people on a mass scale. Not that Hamas has not already caused enough carnage in Gaza. Roughly 60,000 have died in the war that Hamas brought on Gaza; Hamas is also careful to never divulge how much of that number is due to its own rockets or embedding among the civilian populations. Hamas has deliberately killed and tortured Gazans who oppose its leadership.

Casualties in Gaza will get worse

Dramatically higher Gazan casualties now loom. Starvation’s specter stretches over Gaza as Hamas is accused of stealing aid to the civilian population to resell on the black market. 

Of course, Hamas could stop the threat of starvation at a moment’s notice by simply releasing all remaining hostages and surrendering—something it could have done at any point over the last two years. That it would still refuse to do so, even with the threat of starvation looming in Gaza, is no surprise. Such disregard for human life has always been at the heart of Hamas’ methods.

Dating back to the second intifada, during which Hamas emerged, suicide bombings were a prominent element, the most deadly being Hamas’ 2002 killing of 30 Israelis in Netanya.  Following  Hamas taking control of Gaza’s government, it systematically purged its opponents and constructed tunnels throughout the territory, including under schools and hospitals. Into these, Hamas sent its terrorists and then hostages, knowingly guaranteeing civilian casualties when Israel struck back. 

Civilian deaths in Gaza was not a byproduct of Hamas’ strategy of waging terrorist war on Israel; they were integral to it: a callous propaganda tool. Now starvation’s threat takes Hamas’ unconscionable strategy to another level of human destruction.

HAMAS is responsible for all those casualties

It is clear to anyone objectively viewing the current situation: Hamas bears full responsibility for the carnage since October 7, 2023, not only in Israel but in Gaza too. Hamas also bears full responsibility for that now looming over the people it cynically declares to be its primary concern. 

However, the world refuses to look objectively, because it is unwilling to look at the emaciated victims that Hamas refuses to help. Implicitly, the world knows Hamas will never stop killing, because it has no other purpose and no greater aim. The world cannot appeal to Hamas’ humanity because the world knows Hamas has none to which it can appeal. So, the world instead takes the easier route and presses Israel to stop what Hamas has brought on itself and Gaza but refuses to stop.

Blindly, such nations—Britain, France, and Canada who demanded unconditional surrender for WWII’s Axis powers—are validating everything Hamas has done. Calling for a Palestinian state, while Hamas retains the reins of government in Gaza—something these nations would never have done with the Axis governments—means allowing genocidal terror and all the crimes against humanity—Israeli and Gazan—to accomplish Hamas’ ostensible purpose.

Gaza cannot govern itself

Never has Gaza shown itself less capable of self-government; never has such a state’s justification been less valid; never has Israel had less confidence in such a state’s future or its own security. How does such validation of Hamas’ despicable means do anything but add incentive for repetition for more terror? 

Those nations calling now for a Palestinian state have no answer. They do not because there is only one answer. That answer reverses the solemn pronouncement of “never again” into “ever again.” And, tragically, “again and again.”

This article was originally published by RealClearWorld and made available via RealClearWire.