2023-10-14 03:20:36
The situation in Gaza, but also throughout the Middle East, is complex. To better understand the ins and outs of the war between Israel and Hamas, here is our decoding, supporting figures and maps.
1/ The situation in Gaza
To the Gaza gangs, overpopulated enclave controlled by Hamas, has been subject to an Israeli blockade since 2007. The Jewish state controls entries and exits from the territory, airspace, its maritime outlets as well as most of its food, energy and water supplies.
As our map shows you, the border is hermetically sealed by an “iron wall”. It is a metal and concrete barrier equipped with state-of-the-art equipment (cameras, barbed wire, sensors, machine guns, etc.). It cost billions of dollars to build and maintain. It is this barrier that Hamas terrorists managed to cross at several points on Saturday October 7.
Furthermore, Israel has a powerful anti-missile defense system called the “Iron Dome” which allows it to intercept most rockets fired from Gaza.
What the map doesn’t show is what’s happening under Gaza! There is indeed an intense network of tunnels nicknamed by the Israeli army the “Gaza Metro”. Hundreds of tunnels have been dug under the 14-kilometer border between Gaza and Egypt’s Sinai to move fighters, weapons and other contraband goods. Many have already been destroyed.
Since 2014, Hamas has dug underground routes within the territory itself. Fighters, installed up to 30 or 40 meters underground, circulate there out of range of strikes. Of the rocket launcher batteries hidden a few meters deep can exit through a system of trapdoors to shoot and disappear once more. The Israeli army intensely bombed them in 2021. But if part of this network is undoubtedly known to it, others have remained secret and will complicate its operations.
The Gaza band in chiffres
- Population totale: 2.3 million people (more than 50% of whom are under 18 years old)
- Surface: approximately 365 square km (40 km long, 6 to 12 km wide)
- Unemployment rate: more than 50% (two thirds of the population depends on humanitarian aid)
- Number of displaced by Israeli strikes: 338,000 people
- Number of Israeli casualties: more than 1,300 dead as of Friday October 13.
- Number of Palestinian victims: more than 1,799 dead (not including more than 1,000 Hamas fighters killed in Israel) as of Friday October 13.
- Number of Israeli hostages present in Gaza: 100 to 150.
- Israeli Army: 169,500 men and women, plus 400,000 reservists.
- Brigades Al-Qassam du Hamas: 15,000 to 20,000 fighters.
A succession of wars with Israel for 15 years
Israel on one side, and the Palestinian movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad on the other, have fought a succession of wars in the Gaza Strip since 2008.
At the end of 2008, Israel launched an air and then land offensive to put an end to the rocket fire: 1,440 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died.
At the end of 2012, the Israeli army carried out the targeted assassination of Hamas military leader Ahmad Jaabari. Eight days of airstrikes followed, killing 174 Palestinians. Six Israelis also die.
In July 2014, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge to stop rocket fire and destroy tunnels dug from the enclave. The war left 2,251 dead on the Palestinian side, the vast majority civilians, and 74 dead on the Israeli side, almost all soldiers.
In May 2021, a new war in Gaza left at least 232 dead on the Palestinian side and 12 on the Israeli side in 11 days.
Two years later, in May 2023, 35 Palestinians, including leaders of Islamic Jihad, were eliminated in five days of war.
2/ West Bank, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Golan: other areas of tension
If Gaza is the epicenter of the current conflict between Hamas and Israel, other areas of the region are disputed and subject to strong tensions, raising fears of the possibility of an extension of the war.
The West Bank
The West Bank is a territory occupied by Israel since 1967. Part of the territory – mainly the large cities – is administered by the Palestinian Authority (PA) from Fatah, a historic Palestinian movement rival to Hamas and led by Mahmoud Abbas. However, the AP is very weakened.
In the West Bank, numerous Jewish colonies developed and spread, illegal according to international law, where around 490,000 Israelis live. The Palestinians denounce this rampant colonization which de facto prevents the creation of their state. They also denounce the restrictions (in particular on travel) imposed on them and the provocations of Jewish settlers, protected by the Israeli army.
Around the West Bank, Israel has built a “wall of separation” to prevent Palestinian attacks on Israeli territory, but its route is controversial. Since the start of the year, the West Bank has been the scene of repeated Palestinian attacks once morest Israelis and recurring violence by Jewish settlers once morest Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government has favored settlement expansion.
Jerusalem
At least 360,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem, eastern part of the holy city occupied and annexed by Israel. The Palestinians want to make this area the capital of the state to which they aspire. Around 230,000 Israelis also live in East Jerusalem. Israeli-Palestinian tensions are crystallizing in particular around the holy places where incidents regularly take place: the Esplanade of Mosques (including the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam) and the Wailing Wall.
Israeli-Lebanese border
Lebanon and Israel are still technically in a state of war. The two states do not have an official border due to territorial disputes (in particular the Chebaa farms area) but they generally respect the blue line drawn by the UN. The border between Lebanon and Israel is, however, an area of tension where incidents regularly break out, fueling fears of an extension of the current conflict on the northern front.
Since last Saturday, exchanges of fire took place on several occasions between Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah is an ally of Hamas and a powerful political and military actor in Lebanon, particularly in the South. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), created in 1978 and responsible for maintaining peace, patrols the region. In 2006, a devastating war pitted Hezbollah once morest Israel, leaving more than 1,200 dead on the Lebanese side, mostly civilians, and 160 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.
Golan Plateau
Israel conquered part of the Golan from Syria during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, before annexing this territory in 1981. This annexation is not recognized by the UN. In recent years, Israel has carried out several strikes on Syrian territory once morest Iranian or Hezbollah forces present in Syria.
3/ The games of alliances in the region
We cannot understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without zooming out. The different powers of the region, and even beyond this, influence the situation. Some support Israel or are at peace with the Jewish state, others are fiercely opposed to it, still others play their own part. Overview of the different camps.
Israel
Israel is a democracy as well as a leading economic and military power. The Israeli army (IDF) is considered one of the best in the world. Israel is a nuclear power and benefits from very broad support from the United States, which provides it, among other things, $3.8 billion in military aid per year.
Palestine
In Gaza, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two major Islamist movements are supported by Iran. Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2005. In the West Bank, on the other hand, the Palestinian territories are administered by the Palestinian Authority. The PA is led by Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah and is an offshoot of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), the historic Palestinian movement traditionally close to Sunni Arab states like Egypt.
Lebanon
Lebanon is going through a serious economic and political crisis. The country is very divided into different streams. Within it, the Shiite Hezbollah movement, which represents a very important faction, is supported by Iran.
L’Iran
The Shiite country is Israel’s sworn enemy. Tehran does not recognize the right to exist of the Jewish state. Its nuclear program, in particular, worries the West. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Palestinian cause has established itself as one of the pillars of Tehran’s diplomacy.
Syria
Technically at war with Israel, the country remains led by Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is supported by Iran and Russia. But it is in ruins following years of civil war and no longer has the capacity to influence the regional situation.
Saudi Arabia
First Arab economy, heavyweight of the Gulf countries, guardian of the two holiest sites of Islam, Saudi Arabia was in discussions for months to normalize relations with Israel, under the auspices of the United States. Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reported progress in this direction in September. Riyadh hoped in particular to obtain security guarantees. The Sunni kingdom is a historic rival of Iran, predominantly Shiite. Recognition of Israel by Saudi Arabia would represent a major success for the Jewish state. One of the motivations for the Hamas attack is undoubtedly to have wanted to derail this normalization process.
Egypt and Jordan
These are the first countries to have signed a peace agreement with Israel (from 1979). Cairo has established itself over the years, through its political weight, its good relations with both camps and its geographical proximity, as a regular mediator between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Morocco, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Sudan
These states have established diplomatic ties with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords, signed in 2020 and negotiated by the government of US President Donald Trump.
Qatar
The rich gas emirate plays its own role in the region. Doha, which has hosted a Hamas political office for more than ten years, provided millions of dollars in aid to Gaza, with Israel’s agreement. Historically closer to Islamist movements, it plays a mediating role.
Türkiye
Relations between Ankara and Israel have evolved up and down in recent years. After more than a decade of tensions, ties had warmed up recently. Fervent support of the Palestinian cause, in favor of a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also asked the Palestinians to “stop harassing” the Israelis.
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