Israel reacted to the October 7 attack and, in accordance with international norms, has the right to defend itself against terrorist organizations. Israel has the right to defend itself and this right can be realized by destroying the Hamas movement and other terrorist organizations. The question is in what way. Israel reasonably proposed that the civilians, who are often used as human shields, should be evacuated. Regrettably, the international community is unable to adopt such a plan. That’s why it is unclear how things will develop. Most probably, Israel, in a cautious way, will continue to achieve its goal – if not to fully destroy Hamas then to thwart the resumption of terrorist activities for a long period of time. The opinions were stated by experts invited to IPN’s public debate “Humankind between Terrorism, Compassion and Interests”.
The permanent expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan said that terrorism is the practice of influencing government decisions by violence and by intimidation of the population. The terrorists aim not only to kill more people. For them, it is important to obtain from politicians the decisions they need. “Hamas is an Islamist Palestinian movement and a political party that controls the Gaza Strip in Palestine, where the organization is based. It is also active on the West Bank. The organization has a military wing that practices terrorism. These are the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam brigades. The Fatah Party is Hamas’ rival. It controls the West Bank, west of the Jordan River, where the authority is de facto exercised by the secular government of the Palestinian National Authority,” explained the expert.
According to him, the Hamas movement was founded in December 1987, shortly after the first Palestinian Intifada was launched as a branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It is recognized as a terrorist organization by Israel, Canada, the United States, Japan, the European Union, the Organization of American States and by other states. It is banned in Jordan and Egypt.
Igor Boțan noted that compassion expresses feelings that are often attributed to situations of sadness and mourning as the people seek to identify themselves with a particular group or an individual affected by a tragedy. It depicts the sympathy and pity the people can have for the sufferings of another person. Empathy is much more profound and helps to experience the sufferings and sadness of other persons. International norms refer to rights that derive from the concept of justice, trying to avoid emotions.
Foreign policy expert Mihai Isac, a permanent invitee of the foreign policy program Global Impact on TVR Moldova, said that as it was expected, the impressive war machinery of Israel reacted and in accordance with international norms, Israel is fully entitled to defend itself against terrorist organizations. Since the very beginning, the Hamas movement and its allies, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, became involved in a profound propaganda war, then in acts of terrorism and this led to the start of the Israeli military operation.
“Despite all the speculations, the Israeli army is talking all the possible measures to avoid collateral losses on the battlefield. In social media, we also see how the Hamas movement and its allies use the hostages as human shields. There are yet no exact figures of the persons who were kidnapped by Hamas and its allies. Unofficial reports put these at 240, if I’m not wrong. Among these persons are three Romanian citizens who are also Israeli citizens,” stated the expert.
Mihai Isac said everyone sees how the globalization of terrorism affects also the states of the region that is situated close to us. In the Gaza Strip, there are several hundred Romanian citizens and citizens of the Republic of Moldova. It is not an accurate, known figure as a part of the persons who have the nationality of the Republic of Moldova also have Romanian nationality. The Romanian and Moldovan authorities are making effort to bring these persons home within possibilities.
“We actually see how Hamas achieved its goal of thwarting, together with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the peace negotiations between Israel and particular Arab states that are generically known as the signatories of the Abraham Accords, which gradually contributed to the normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab Kingdom of Morocco, between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Qatar. What Hamas did was to turn the geopolitical clock at least one decade back,” stated the foreign policy expert.
Andrei Curăraru, security expert of WatchDog Association, said the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where only one third of the 35 hospitals have energy to work, is evident. Almost 70% of the population is internally or externally displaced. A humanitarian corridor was opened for seriously hurt persons to Egypt. But Egypt is reluctant to accept too many persons on its territory as the refugees from that area earlier generated unpleasant situations, including in Muslim states.
“What we should realize is that the whole West puts great pressure on Israel for this to attentively stage its military operation and to end the violence and sufferings experienced by civilians in the Gaza Strip. It is very important to understand and to reiterate that the Palestinians do not identify themselves with Hamas. There should be a clear delimitation between combatants and non-combatants. The non-combatants in this situation should be protected, both those from the Israeli part and those from the Palestinian part. The taken measures should reduce to the maximum the collateral losses, either the physical damage or human casualties and damage caused to health,” explained Andrei Curăraru.
According to him, Israel doesn’t have a well-planned strategy as regards the relocation. There are voices saying that a greater relocation is needed in Muslim states of the region, incusing with the financial support of Israel, which is interested in such a devolvement. But there is unwillingness to leave inside the community as the people will have to abandon everything and to live in worse conditions than in Gaza.
As to the hostages, the expert said the situation here is more difficult. They negotiate the release of the taken hostages by diplomatic ways. It is presumed that the hostages were taken primarily to strategic points that can be shelled by Israel and are a kind of human shield for Hamas. If the release of hostages is prioritized, this can lead to a humanitarian armistice, but here it goes also to the tactical movements of Israel.
The public debate entitled “Humankind between Terrorism, Compassion and Interests” was the 293rd installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
