The incredible suffering, death and destruction in the six months since the Hamas attack on October 7 has widened the gulf between Israelis and Palestinians, making both feel that the prospects for peace in the Gaza Strip are increasingly difficult to achieve.
The bloodiest Gaza war ever erupted since the Hamas attack on October 7. Meanwhile, Israeli retaliatory attacks have killed more than 33,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children.
“(Our suffering) intensified after October 7, after 33,000 people were martyred and after the destruction and siege,” said Fidaa Musabih, a 27-year-old Palestinian, whose home north of Gaza was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.
He now lives at home with 27 relatives in Rafah, southern Gaza. He lives in fear of Israel’s planned attacks on a region home to 1.5 million people, most of them refugees.
“How can I hope that peace will come? We have nothing left to lose,” said Musabih.
Meanwhile, no major Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been held for years. This means that any future negotiations will be in the shadow of this unprecedented bloodshed.
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In Gaza, an average of dozens of people are killed per day, according to the territory’s health ministry, in persistent bombardment that has flattened much of the territory. The UN has also warned that its 2.4 million population is on the brink of starvation.
“Both sides are trying to portray everything that happens in the context of the other side as not worthy of being a partner,” said Khalil Shikaki of the Palestine Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR).
Despite the ongoing war in Gaza, violence in the West Bank involving Israeli forces, settlers and armed Palestinian militants has escalated to levels unprecedented in two decades.
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Palestinian Tarek Ali, who works near Ramallah, said tensions and violence, which were already bad before the attack, had now gotten worse.
“This shows how deep the hatred between us and them is, further eliminating the possibility of peace,” said the 47-year-old man.
Israeli Jewish Support Low
An opinion poll conducted in early March by the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) showed Israeli Jewish support for a two-state solution at an unprecedented low of 35%.
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The figure marks a sharp decline from support of around 49% in 2022 for the creation of an independent Palestinian state. However, Gazans’ support for a two-state solution has increased, according to a PCPSR survey, from 35% in December to 62% in March.
“Options for peace at the societal level still exist today, as they did in the past, and will probably become even greater once the war is behind us,” said Shikaki, the PCPSR researcher.
Charbit, a political scientist, said the magnitude of the war and the concerns of the international community had opened up new opportunities for the two sides to make peace.
“The chance is very small, but the opportunity is still there,” he added.
(AFP/Z-9)
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