Civilians: the Major Causality of War in Gaza

Conflict in the Middle East appears constant in recent years, but the problems that are currently dissipating have incurred serious causalities.  As most are aware, after the six-month cease-fire between Gaza and Israel ended in December, conflict between the two groups was immediately reignited.  Instigated primarily by the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel, the conflict was intensely escalated by the air and ground campaign issued by Israel in response to Gaza’s aggression on December 27^th. The causalities are extensive, and unfortunately, many civilians were lost in the process of the war.

My aim is not to criticize Israel’s decision to attack Gaza; instead, I am concerned with a conflict that left over 1,300 Palestinians dead in less than a month, of which 600-900 are rumored to be civilians.  Clearly, Israel intended to make an aggressive statement in attempts to protect their people, but were the methods used to accomplish that task justified?  Many human rights organizations think not, and have launched numerous investigations regarding the targets and weapons of attack used by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF).  At the top of the list is Israel’s use of white phosphorous, of which certain uses were banned in the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in 1980.  Though white phosphorus was clearly used, there remains debate in how frequently it was misused, and investigations are currently being undergone on this topic.  Additional critiques of Israel have been the frequency of which humanitarian aid resources were harmed in the conflict; UN buildings and Red Cross/Crescent supplies were damaged or ruined in the course of the month long discord.   Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for UN Relief and Works Agency said that during the conflict “tens of millions of dollars of aid have been destroyed.”  Finally, one must question the motives of a war that ended with a huge percentage of its causalities being civilians.  It took Israel four days to allow humanitarian organizations access into the area, which in this situation was horribly detrimental.   Not only was the Shifa hospital completely overwhelmed and desperately lacking supplies, but the shortage of power and running water was rampant in Gaza.  Both of these things led to increased death and hardship for Palestinian civilians that could have been alleviated or dissipated with increased humanitarian aid.

I am very empathetic with Israel’s need to establish peace for their people, and I think everyone can understand how such an intense priority can bleed the line of right and wrong, but I fear that their actions in the last month have only escalated tensions and angers on behalf of the Palestinians.  If this is true, then I fear that many civilian lives were unjustifiably lost for a very short time of peace.