It is eight months since Hamas murdered more than 1,160 Israeli civilians and reservists and abducted around 250 more. This act of barbarism transformed perceptions of the conflict. No longer could Hamas be plausibly judged any sort of pragmatic actor: it is a mortal threat to the Jewish state and an oppressor rather than liberator of Palestinians. The rescue on Saturday by Israeli special forces of four hostages held in Gaza was a humanitarian act. And it points more widely to the obligation on western governments to pressure Hamas rather than gloss over its brutal terror campaigns.
The hostages had all been seized by Hamas from a music festival in southern Israel on October 7. The plight of Noa Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen aged 26, has come to exemplify the crisis. Having been abducted on the back of a motorcycle she was later forced to appear in a Hamas propaganda video, to the understandable distress of her parents and outrage of her compatriots.
Ms Argamani and three other Israelis were freed by Israeli forces in an operation in two locations in Nuseirat, in Gaza. It was a heinous act for Hamas to kidnap and incarcerate them but, predictably, this has not dissuaded pundits and politicians from criticising Israel for the act of rescue. And this is to get the moral onus upside down.
The Gaza health ministry, under the control of Hamas, claims that more than 270 Palestinian civilians were killed in the rescue. Whatever the true figure for casualties, they were not targeted by Israel. On the contrary, the responsibility for civilian deaths lies with Hamas for taking the hostages, ensconcing themselves in a residential area, and then firing on the prisoners and their rescuers. That balance of responsibility needs to be ever borne in mind.
There are many sound criticisms to be made of the Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu in this crisis. It should have scrupulously allowed the passage of aid to Gaza, observed long humanitarian pauses to enable this, and voluntarily exposed its troops to dangers in order to lessen the risks to Palestinian civilians. But it is outrageous to suggest that Israel lacked just cause to strike back at Hamas and liberate its citizens from captivity. Any democratic government would have done the same; and quite rightly the Biden administration, the British government and the European Union have acknowledged the stakes in Israel’s need to sweep Hamas from Gaza.
The question for western governments now is how to simultaneously secure justice for Palestinians and security for Israel against a demonstrated terrorist threat. And the central part of this must be to treat Hamas as the threat that it is to a lasting and equitable peace. A little over a week ago, President Biden, with the support of Egypt and Qatar, set out a sensible proposal for a six-week ceasefire under which Israeli forces would withdraw from populated areas of Gaza and Hamas would release its hostages. The refusal of Hamas to accede to even this minimal step should convince moderate Arab states, along with America’s allies in Europe, to redouble efforts to isolate this terror gang.
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Israel’s governing coalition undoubtedly contains rejectionists who will not make peace with the Palestinians and they need to be faced down. But the prerequisite of an end to this crisis is that Hamas be defeated and repelled; and Israel should have the support of the civilised world in getting its people back.
