At war for more than a week after being attacked by the terrorist group on October 7th Hamas, Israel developed battle strategies that could make the country the villain of the story, even if in this case it was the victim. During the week, the Israeli government imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip, preventing the entry of food, electricity, water and gas. , has formed a war cabinet and is threatening a ground offensive, worrying the international community as a real bloodbath could ensue if Gazans are not driven out of the region. The humanitarian crisis is already a reality in the enclave and the number of internally displaced people is approaching 500,000.
During his attacks on Gaza StripThe Israeli bombings have already killed more than 1,500 people and destroyed schools used as shelters UN (United Nations), in which several employees of the organization died. Experts consulted by Young pan warn that situations like this are not good for Israel’s image, which always loses to Hamas in the war of narratives. Historically, in most cases when the Jewish state attacks Gaza (including in retaliation) or stops an attack, dozens of civilians die. This event reinforces the discourse that the villain is Israel, that they are the “monsters” and not Hamas.
Karina Calandrin, a fellow at the BrazilIsrael Institute and a doctor of international relations with a focus on the Middle East, says this shift has already begun. “The news that one of the Israeli counterattacks hit the UN building and a staff member was killed is already raising questions about Israel’s actions and leading to a negative view,” he says. This means that the country is losing the fight against Hamas and this conflict is understood as an anticolonial struggle. “Although Israel was attacked and we have seen the brutal acts of Hamas in the last few days, people defend the action as an anticolonial struggle.” The expert emphasizes that Hamas’ main target at the moment and with this attack the best prepared in its History this is exactly what it is: the Israeli counterattack. In this way, the group succeeds in winning the international narrative debate.
A fireball erupts during an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City │MAHMUD HAMS/AFP
“They know that they cannot win in a military war, that Israel has much more military power, so they prepared, carried out a very large attack and thought about an appropriate Israeli retaliation: hard and very strong,” Calandrin explains that Hamas begins to use this action to damage Israel’s image. Vitellius BrustolinProfessor of International Relations at the UFF and researcher at Harvard, analyzes that Hamas planned this attack for months, which meant that in addition to attacking Israeli territory, it was also able to collect the full number of rockets it currently has , in order to also be prepared for what possible answers the Prime Minister’s government would give Benjamin Netanyahu. “What does Hamas want with this reaction? He wants exactly what is happening now, that people are asking questions and that the reaction is disproportionate,” he says, adding that the group does not want to negotiate peace because it does not recognize the existence of the State of Israel.
“Hamas wants to create this polarization and attract supporters from other organizations that also don’t want Israel to exist. “That’s why Israel’s response must be surgical,” says Brustolin. For him, the ideal is to remove as many civilians as possible from this region, to negotiate the removal of the hostages so that the Israeli forces can then take surgical action against the Hamas leaders, because “many people who are there in the “In the Gaza Strip, children, women, the elderly and even young people in general have no direct connection to Hamas,” the professor emphasizes. The expert recalls that Israel’s strategy was reconsidered or postponed because Netanyahu had been talking about launching a ground offensive since the beginning of the week, but this has not happened so far.
“The United States has been in direct contact with Israel, which may mean that there has been an adjustment in this strategy and that negotiations will need to take place before a land incursion, if it is actually carried out, in order to have as little impact as possible . Collateral,” because this pause would be a way of not complying with Hamas’ strategy, and no matter how much the Israeli population demands an act of justice, it is necessary to spare as many innocent lives as possible so that justice can be done intelligently. Otherwise, “the terrorist group will end up adding exactly what it wants, namely increasing division and hatred in the context of this war,” Burstolin concludes.
Christopher Mendonca, political scientist and professor of international relations at Ibmec Belo Horizonte, complements the Harvard researcher’s speech by recalling that surgical interventions are important, especially because, as an Israeli newspaper pointed out, Prime Minister Netanyahu shares some of the blame for this radicalization of the Hamas is responsible for the attack. “Recently, when I was in office and prime minister, the attacks against the Gaza Strip were intensified, and this created a suitable environment for Hamas to become even louder and stronger in the fight against Israel,” says the professor, who said also recalled that Netanyahu was a person who had an extensive career in the military sector.
Risks of the land offensive
House destroyed after an Israeli air strike in the western Shati refugee camp in the western Gaza Strip │HAITHAM IMAD/EFE/EPA
On the third day of War in the Middle East, Israel vowed to launch a ground offensive aimed at “changing the reality in Gaza to prevent something like this from happening again, no matter how long it takes,” said General Dan Goldfus of the Israeli army’s 98th Infantry Division and added that the Enclave would never do this but it would be the same. This statement caused tension in the international community due to the possible risks. The problem with this approach by Israel, experts say, is that it could result in a bloodbath that further damages the country’s image and brings Hamas closer to its goal. “A land incursion in this situation has to be covered with smoke.” “Bombs on behalf of the civilians, because if it were an environment without hostages or civilians, air cover could be provided by bombing to pave the way for the infantry,” Brustolin explains . Karina Calandrin recalls that historically, “every time Israel invaded Gaza by land, the number of Palestinian civilians killed was very high.”
This balance heightens awareness and amazes people. “This ground invasion could result in many Palestinian civilian deaths. So it is already raising this concern, not only obviously because of the consequences that this will have in the image of Israel, but also because of the deaths of Palestinian civilians, many of whom have no connection to Hamas and are even suffering under the Hamas government. This is a dictatorial authoritarian government,” concludes the professor. The death toll in Gaza and Israel has risen to over 2,800. In Israel, the number now stands at 1,300, according to medical sources cited by the local press, while the total number of deaths caused by Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip stands at 1,537, with 500 children added to 276 women, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health .