(Photo by B’Tselem field researcher, Muhammad Sabah, via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 4.0 DEED)
Note: This article is the third part of a three-part article series analyzing the history and deception of Israel’s occupation of Palestine on the domestic and international stage.
As Israel opens another front in its seemingly ever-expanding regional war, it has accelerated its Palestinian genocide. In the West Bank, Israel is seeking to inflame tensions to reach a level where Palestinians feel compelled to respond violently. This past Ramadan, in February, Zionist settlers assailed Al-Aqsa over two dozen times. Israel also revoked all Al-Aqsa visitor permits when it restarted its war with Iran on February 28th, 2026.
Israel has also increased its arrests and dispossession in the West Bank, jailing over 200 people and destroying over 300 homes. Through these actions, Israel is seeking to provoke Palestinian pushback to justify an even harsher crackdown so it can “revoke the Oslo Accords and extend Israeli sovereignty”, as finance minister Bezalel Smotrich laid out.
In Gaza, Israel has done away with the fiction of upholding the ceasefire and resumed its starvation of the strip. Food prices in Gaza have already doubled. Israel has also blocked the next phase of the so-called ceasefire, which calls for a Palestinian National Committee to administer Gaza’s basic affairs and services. This blockage clearly indicates that Israel is committed to colonization not coexistence.
Gaza’s official death toll already stands at a minimum of 72,123 people, while the actual casualty number is likely above half a million. This is the end phase of the hundred-year war on Palestine, and of Israel’s multi-decade asphyxiation of Gaza. Israel continues to blame Hamas for Gaza’s suffering, all while suffocating the strip. As Fidel Castro, Cuba’s revolutionary leader, said, “You try to strangle us. And then you criticize us for the way we breathe”.
The Gaza Withdrawal
The official start of Israel’s strangulation of Gaza started with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s withdrawal in 2005. At the time, the Palestinian resistance in the strip was formidable. They had made Israel’s occupation a burden, especially considering only 8,000 fanatical settlers were living amongst 1.4 million Palestinians.
Sharon announced the withdrawal in late 2003 amidst the Second Intifada. Publicly, Sharon and U.S. President George W. Bush portrayed the withdrawal as a “bold and historic initiative that can make an important contribution to peace.” In private, Sharon and his team called it “formaldehyde” that would kill the peace process. Israel unilaterally disengaged, “to rid itself of a burden”, not to promote a permanent solution.
By the time Sharon passed his withdrawal plan through the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in 2005, the situation on the ground had become more favourable to Israel. Yasser Arafat’s sudden death, possibly due to Israeli poisoning, and Mahmoud Abbas’ weak leadership had fractured the Palestinian Authority.
Before the retreat, Sharon signed a “ceasefire” in February 2005, ending the Second Intifada and assuring the operation would go smoothly. By September, the IDF had removed all settlers in Gaza and had nominally transferred control back to the PA. While Israel stated it handed control to the PA, it actually maintained effective control of Gaza.
Israel still dominated Gaza’s borders, airspace, and territorial waters. Gaza went from an occupied territory into an open-air prison as Israel put on the mask of peace, all while it intensified its oppression. The next step in this two-faced plan was to hold the Palestinian Legislative Elections.
Palestinian Elections
Ever since President Bush’s 2002 declaration calling for a Palestinian State, elections and new leadership, the U.S. and the broader international community have been supporting elections in Palestine. Bush made this declaration not just to achieve a lasting peace, but mainly to garner Arab support for his war in Iraq.
The PA quickly complied with Bush’s demands and began preparing for elections. Palestine held its first elections since 1996 on January 9th, 2005, with Abbas winning 62.5% of the vote. Hamas, an Islamist Palestinian resistance group which was highly active during the Second Intifada, did not participate, giving a false sense of security to the U.S. that everything was going to plan.
(Photo by Eric Draper via Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)
The next set of municipal elections went smoothly with Abbas’ party, Fatah, winning most of the seats. Although in Gaza, Hamas won a majority of seats, foreshadowing what was to come. As the election date, January 25th, 2006, approached, Hamas continued to hone its anti-corruption message under the Change and Reform banner.
On election day, despite winning only a small plurality of the popular vote, it won a commanding 74 of 132 available seats. Hamas especially dominated in Gaza. Hamas’ victory shocked the world, especially Bush, who expected Abbas’ and a pliant Fatah to win a majority so they could finally achieve a solution to their liking.
Shock and Dismay
Initially, President Bush said the results reminded him “about the power of democracy.” He also stated the elections were a “wake-up call” and that Palestinians were fed up with the status quo. Israel, on the other hand, was distraught.
Certain Israeli officials called the results a “hopeless situation from a political point of view.” Others lamented it was “an earthquake” and a “tragic defeat for Israel in the war against terrorism.” More astute officials recognized that “Israel played a big role in weakening the Palestinian Authority and strengthening Hamas.”
Israel, now feeling weakened and embarrassed, decided to increase the already punitive restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement in and out of Gaza. All tax and customs revenue owed by Israel to the PA was withheld. Israel was punishing the Palestinians for using their votes to show the world their disapproval.
Despite Bush’s words about the power of democracy, within a month, Bush planned with the Israelis to overthrow the newly elected Hamas leadership, particularly in light of Hamas not recognizing “Israel’s right to exist.”
The Only Democracy in the Middle East
Israel has claimed it is “the only democracy in the Middle East,” while setting itself up to overthrow a nascent and functioning democracy, just because it did not like the election results. Israel and the U.S. planned to starve the PA of cash to pressure Abbas into illegally calling new elections, to get a Hamas-free government.
At first, Abbas resisted and then got into government formation talks with Hamas. After those talks proved to be fruitless, Fatah and Hamas started fighting across Palestine, and the international aid embargo proved too costly. In December of 2006, Abbas succumbed and called for new elections.
Upon hearing Abbas’ statement, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said, “Israel would be ready to release funds for humanitarian needs in the Palestinian territories.” While this statement may seem positive, it was non-committal and reduced Palestine to “territories” rather than a functioning, independent sovereign state.
Western Stubbornness
In February of 2007, Saudi Arabia’s king stepped in amid renewed internal Palestinian hostilities and invited Hamas and Fatah leaders to Mecca for unity talks. By March 2007, the unity talks seemed to have worked.
Western nations responded tepidly to the successful unity talks. The European Union said it would maintain ties with only non-Hamas officials. The U.S. said it would only maintain contacts with Abbas while reducing his security budget. They feared Hamas could attain that funding.
The lack of enthusiasm in these statements foreshadowed the international community’s response – maintaining the economic blockade on the PA. Straining vital aid to Palestine led to renewed battles between Hamas and Fatah.
The Coup
After months of brutal bloodshed, Hamas defeated Fatah and took full control of Gaza on June 15, 2007. Chaotic and violent scenes filled the airwaves. Palestinians in Gaza looted government buildings and draped them in Hamas iconography. Hamas dragged the brutalized and lifeless bodies of Fatah members through the Gazan streets.
Immediately after Hamas’ victory, the international community started vociferously blaming Hamas. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said it was “the overthrow of Palestinian legitimacy.” The U.S. resumed aid to Fatah and portrayed its defeat as extremists ousting reasonable moderates. In the West Bank, Abbas orchestrated a bureaucratic coup, dissolving the newly minted Palestinian unity government.
In reality, the overthrow of Palestinian legitimacy came when President Bush started plotting a coup against Hamas. Unsatisfied with the 2006 election results, Bush outlined his strategy in the “Dayton Plan.” The Plan called for restructuring and arming Fatah’s security forces.
The Enforcer
Central to this plan was Fatah’s brutal enforcer, Muhammad Dahlan. Dahlan would marshal the Fatah’s forces after fresh American training and weapons. In early 2007, Dahlan launched a series of attacks against Hamas, setting several of their strongholds on fire.
Hamas retaliated against Fatah, and with increased ferocity when they discovered the Dayton Plan via Jordanian newspaper Al-Majid. To Hamas, this meant only one thing: Fatah would not stop until they gained total control. Hamas and Fatah oscillated between negotiations and fighting for the next few months, until on June 7, 2007, when an exposé in Israeli newspaper Haaretz confirmed their worst fears.
Abbas was seeking his biggest arms shipment yet: dozens of armoured cars, hundreds of armour-piercing rockets, thousands of hand grenades, and millions of rounds of ammunition. After learning of this shipment, Hamas went on the offensive. They sought to pre-empt the American-backed Fatah coup. Ironically, withholding aid helped Hamas’ victory. While Fatah received little money and its forces went unpaid, Iran supplied Hamas with over 200 million USD worth of aid.
The Blockade
Instantly after Hamas’ takeover, Israel announced a brutal blockade on Gaza, intending to punish Palestinians in Gaza for electing Hamas. Israel drastically limited the amount of food coming into Gaza. Dov Wiesglass, advisor to then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, stated that the goal was “to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”
(Photo by Saber Ashor ECHO via Filckr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The Israeli blockade forced 80% of Gaza’s population to depend on international assistance for survival. It pushed unemployment above 50%, left hospitals with only 60% of essential supplies, made 96% of water undrinkable, and caused rolling blackouts. According to a 2012 United Nations report, Israel engineered these conditions to make Gaza uninhabitable by 2020. Israel has razed Gaza to the ground, rendering that report a reality.
Mowing the Grass
Israel not only blocks any chance of a peaceful resolution by imprisoning over 2 million people in Gaza, but also claims the right to enter Gaza and kill whomever. Israel calls this strategy “Mowing the Grass.” The doctrine began in early 2008 with Operation Hot Winter, launched in response to Hamas rockets. During this operation, Israeli forces killed 111 Palestinians – half of them children – and wounded over 400. Two Israeli soldiers and one civilian also died.
On December 27th, 2008, Israel launched a merciless onslaught it dubbed “Operation Cast Lead.” The attack killed 1,419 Palestinians, 83% civilians, destroyed 3,540 homes, and rendered 20,000 Palestinians homeless. These are only a small sample of the Israeli war crimes during the invasion.
Israel then followed up with Pillar of Defence in November 2012, Protective Edge in summer 2014, Guardian of the Walls in May 2021, Broken Dawn in August 2022, and Operation Shield and Arrow in May 2023. These attacks killed 171, 2,104, 253, 33, and 11 Palestinians, respectively. At least 66% were civilians.
Death is only a small fraction of what Palestinians suffer under Israeli occupation and invasion. 2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinians on record, even before Israel’s genocide after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks.
The Abraham Accords
On September 15th, 2020, Israel signed the American-mediated Abraham Accords with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Morocco signed on December 10th, 2020. The signatories portrayed the accords as a peace deal, despite never having fought with each other. In fact, these countries had covert relations with Israel before this deal.
While world leaders were marking the Abraham Accords as a true shot at resolving the conflict, the accords completely bypassed Palestine and Palestinians. The deal brought no peace, but rather cemented Israel’s occupation and erasure of Palestine.
(Photo by The White House via Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)
It is the “brotherly Arab countries” wholehearted endorsement of Israel consolidating its occupation and erasure of Palestinians that prompted Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack. With each additional normalization deal, Palestinian liberation fell from the global conscience. Palestinians knew they had to somehow reclaim the world’s attention and finally achieve their liberation, and they knew it had to be drastic.
80 years of oppression, killing, torture, failed peace negotiations, ethnic cleansing, and dispossession, paired with Arab states formally accepting the status quo, and attempting to bury the Palestinian cause incited Hamas into enacting its October 7th attack. Hamas knew Israel’s reprisal would be brutal, but they expected world leaders to eventually reign Israel in and solve the conflict once and for all. Half a million Palestinian casualties later, no one has attempted to stop Israel’s final solution.
The Only Solution
For 80 years, the international community has attempted to broker a negotiated settlement to the ‘Israeli-Palestinian conflict’. All these attempts have failed due to Israeli stubbornness.
Israel used the negotiation failures to advance its strategic aims of ethnically cleansing Palestine and violently imposing a “greater Israel” on the region. The international community has remained largely quiet on that front, while vociferously condemning any time Palestinians use violence to assert their self-determination. This cannot go on.
World leaders must open their eyes to the writing on the wall. Israel will not stop; it must be stopped. They must band together and impose peace. Not the fictitious two-state peace they have been stammering on for decades, but a real peace settlement that creates one state in historic Palestine with citizenship and equal rights for all its inhabitants, regardless of ethnic or religious background. As Malcom X said, “We need a free Palestine…We don’t need a divided Palestine. We need a whole Palestine.”
Edited by Gabrielle Andrychuk
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