"Gaza has simply become uninhabitable," Martin Griffiths, head of the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs and a long-time relief coordinator in the Middle East, reported Saturday. Deep hunger is everywhere, starvation is a reality for thousands, especially children. Already 22,000 Gazans have lost their lives in combat or as collateral damage. More may die for lack of water or food.
Israel seeks the eradication of Hamas, a worthy goal. But, as the Israeli Defense Force continues doggedly to pursue that objective and tries assiduously to trap militants in their tunnels and pursue any who emerge above ground, so it is time immediately to pivot tactically to an initiative that prioritizes saving the lives of non-combatants while still relentlessly pursuing Hamas.
What if the IDF started distributing water, food, and humanitarian supplies -- even medicines, blankets, and tents -- to displaced Gaza Strip inhabitants who are not Hamas loyalists or friendlies? IDF personnel could give food and water only to those thousands who stood before them and passed whatever tests were necessary to make sure they were not linked to Hamas. Those who were cleared could get supplies and be moved into "safe" areas patrolled and controlled by the IDF. Gradually, that would mean the successful segregation of the "cleared" from the "suspected" and some semblance of order would hence return to sections of the Gaza Strip, little by little.
Such a procedure might appear fanciful, but Israel can both pursue Hamas to the ends of the earth AND enable ordinary Palestinians in the Strip to regain a sense of hope. Israel could also turn an immense tragedy into something a less disastrous, no matter how belatedly. The mechanics of bringing Israeli humanitarian supplies into the Strip would avoid the lengthy inspections that now occur, and delay the distribution of UN provided goods. And by doling out rations themselves, and totally being in charge of the disbursement of relief supplies, Israel could ensure that none of it leaked to Hamas (so far a major concern) and it could take credit locally and beyond for recognizing that at least some (if not many) of the residents of the Strip were not Hamas-infected and want nothing more than a relief from hunger and thirst. Babies are among the presumed innocent, and Israel -- if nothing else -- can direct its assistance under this scheme initially to women and children and only subsequently to older men and eventually to those younger men whom Israel has thoroughly vetted.
Segregating those who are cleared into tightly patrolled shelter areas could also allow Israel to exert control without further losses of civilian life. Ideally, over considerable time, Israel in this manner could separate the sheep from the proverbial Hamas-infected goats. That may take immense doing, but if combined with a major humanitarian effort, some such inspired effort could even improve the IDF's ability to ferret out hidden Hamas encampments. If, as has happened recently, Hamas manages to shoot missiles at Israel from southern Gaza, Israel would be able to suspend deliveries of food. Ultimately, Israel wants both to eliminate Hamas AND to convert Gazans into anxious civilians who will cease cooperating with dastardly Hamas.
Feeding civilians will help. So will providing shelter. The result could be the slow marginalization and isolations of Hamas fighters and their so far elusive leaders.
President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have been urging Israel to be much more precise and targeting in their attacks on Hamas. By now, with Blinken en route to Israel, it is clear that widespread bombing has forced Hamas underground and reduced the size of its fighting force. But further carpet bombing is easily viewed as indiscriminate, particularly since so much of the human and physical destruction in Gaza has not yet completed the annhilation of Hamas. At this stage, nor will more heavy shelling and bomb drops. Such massive revenge (as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has called it) initiatives have run its day. Now the IDF needs to revert to precision and -- for the collaterals -- compassion.
Biden and Blinken have also condemned outrageous ethnic cleansing proposals from Netanyahu's two most prominent extreme right-wing supporters and cabinet ministers. Their venal statements were "inflammatory and irresponsible,” proclaimed the US State Department and the foreign ministries of Britain and France. The extremist Israelis want to deport Gazans, replacing them with Israeli settlers. To voice such sentiments is repugnant, and hardly helpful, realistic, or capable favorably to influence global sentiment. Netanyahu needs to break with those extremists and others who want to focus fully on wreaking revenge rather than trying, belatedly, to attempt to turn the tragedy in Gaza to Israel's conceivable longer-term advantage.
There are members of Netanyahu's special war cabinet who will understand the need to provide humanitarian help to Gazans, and to prosecute a more exactly targeted war from her on out. This is especially necessary if, as defense minister Yoav Gallant says, the battle against Hamas will continue for six months. Gallant suggests that after victory is declared, Israel should keep control of Gaza's borders while a multinational task force (from the Arab world?) manages the reconstruction and economic development of what is left of the Strip. Gazans unconnected to Hamas would, he proposes, handle civilian affairs. But there would be no role for the Palestinian Authority (contra Biden). Nor, indicates Gallant, would he favor the settlement of Israelis in the post-war Gaza.
Those might prove to be plausible outcomes for Gaza if Gallant can overcome the objections of his right-wing colleagues and separate Netanyahu from their pernicious influence. Meanwhile, however, children and their parents in Gaza, must not heedlessly continue to suffer unnecessarily, no matter the atrocities committed wantonly against Israelis on Oct. 7 and since. Compassion for civilians might even -- a long shot -- help free hostages. It is past time for Israel to pivot to a new strategy.
First of all the Israeli government and the majority of Jewish citizens of Israel would need to see the Gazans as people equal in humanity to themselves, just as worthy of security, homes, food, water, and love... and they don't. They should go way beyond what you encourage. They should open their hospitals to the wounded they have bombed into desperation. But they won't.