Causes and effects of the 2008 Gaza conflict between Israel and Palestinians

¶ … Gaza Conflict. It explores the causes of the conflict. This paper indicates that the military aggression of Israeli against Gaza begun in December 27, 2009. It however, notes that the conflict actually started much earlier. The aggression brought about the deaths of about 1,300 Palestinians. The paper also finds out that the aggression by Israel wasn't as a result of the launch of Qassam rockets by the Palestinians against Israeli; on the contrary, the conflict had several other causes which the paper has adequately looked at. Besides, the paper also explores the effects of the conflict. It indicates that a number of devastating effects were brought about by the conflict. The adverse effects affected several sectors such as educational sectors, health sectors among several other sectors which the paper has adequately looked at.

Contents

Introduction

Those who took part in the Conflict

The Causes of Gaza Conflict

The effects of Gaza Conflict

Shelter

Destruction of Buildings

Health

Medical equipment and facilities

Psychological Effect

Energy

Water

Sanitation

Economic Infrastructure

Conclusion

Introduction

The military aggression of Israeli against Gaza is stated to have begun in December 27, 2009. It should however, be noted that the conflict actually started much earlier. The aggression brought about the deaths of about 1,300 Palestinians. This included about 700 civilians. It also resulted into the demolition of a number of infrastructures within Gaza Strip. Though Western media describes it as a war, it should be noted that it was just an aggression or a conflict. Indeed aggression best describes what was done by the Israelis in Gaza.

Gaza conflict took place between the year 2007 and 2008. It was a conflict that took place between Israel and Gaza. The conflict was characterized by a number of fights and clashes between Israel Defense Forces as well as the Palestinian militants. It started in the month of May, 2007 as Israel reacted to the provocations from the militants through the use of airstrikes. The Palestinians fired about 220 rockets at the Israelites who were in Sderot as well as western Negev for a period exceeding one week. Israeli Air Force also fired back bombs as well as missiles into Gaza. The fighting erupted at a time when there were severe factional violence in Palestine. Besides, a number reports indicated that there were increasing humanitarian crisis levels within Gaza (Spyer,2010). After retaliation by Israel, Hamas retorted to persist with their retaliation against the strikes by Israeli. Some officials of Hamas were arrested by Israel. Among those who were arrested were two members of the cabinet (Ethan, 2009).

The Causes of Gaza Conflict

The aggression by Israel wasn't as a result of the launch of Qassam rockets by the Palestinians against Israeli; on the contrary, the conflict had a number of causes which came from Middle East, Israel as well as from Western politics. All these forces initiated the conflict as a result of their failure to accept the results of the parliamentary elections of Palestinian of the year 2006. It was this parliamentary election that made Hamas to be in power. In short, the conflict was caused by the failure of Israel, the West, as well as a number of the Arab countries to accept the results of the parliamentary elections which were conducted in 2006. During the elections, out of the total 132 seats, Hamas garnered 74 legislative council seats. International observers monitored the elections. Among those who closely monitored the election was aformer president of U.S., President Carter. The elections were described as fair and transparent. It should also be noted that the elec-tions were held at a time when there were a number of projects which were funded by the West in a bid to promote democracy within the Arab nations. However, a number of actors declined to accept the results.They also refused to work with the government which was democratically elected. This was because they didn't recognize the agreements that existed between Israel and Palestinian Authority.

The effects of Gaza Conflict

The Gaza conflict had a number of effects. It had medical, humanitarian, economic, as well as industrial effects. As stated above, the conflict took place between the years 2008 and 2009. The conflict commenced with the air strikes which were initiated by Israeli on December 27, 2008. It however, ended on January 18 after Israel, Hamas as well as other Palestinian factions unilaterally stopped the truce-fire. The conflict ended after 22 bombardment days by sea, land, as well as air. This resulted into the death of about 1,300 Palestinians. Similarly, more than 5,000 were injured. At the same time, about 13 Israelis died. There was a warning from United Nations Development Program that the conflict could bring about severe long-term effects. This was because both the livelihoods as well as the assets of thousands and thousands of the civilians of Gaza could be affected.

The United Nations referred to the 2009 predicament of Gaza as "human dignity disaster,." This is because it entailed huge demolition of livelihoods as well as the destruction of infrastructure as well as the deterioration of other basic services. There was widespread panic and fear. Approximately two fifths of the total population was not capable of supporting themselves. They could only depend on humanitarian help. The situation was described by the Red Cross as intolerable.

Shelter

A number of civilians were displaced as a result of the conflict. The situation was described by the UN as a perilous protection crisis. The whole population of Gaza civilians suffered. They did not have a safe haven. Besides, they had nowhere to shelter from the bombs. They also had nowhere to move due to the fact that the borders were closed. Indeed Gaza conflict was a unique conflict because the civilians had nowhere to flee. Everybody was had panic, fear as well as distress. A number of them evacuated their homes. They moved to the streets for very long hours. This exposed them to danger. The civilians also faced insecurities as they re-stocked basic necessities like food, water as well as cooking gas. A number of children, who were half of the total population, had nowhere to go.

It was estimated that several homes were damaged. It also became very difficult for the inhabitants to reside in them because of cold weather. The displaced individuals used some schools for temporary shelters. A report indicated that by January 3, people in excess of 13,000 (about 2000 families) had been displaced. A number of the affected families sought shelter together with their relatives. On the thirteenth day of the military operation, approximately 21,200 Palestinian individuals who had been displaced were residing at the shelters. As the third week was approaching, the number of displaced individuals increased by approximately 14,300. This made the total number of displaced Palestinian individuals to reach 35,520. The number of displaced Palestinians continued to rise steadily. This resulted into the opening of additional emergency shelters all over Gaza.

Destruction of Buildings

A number of buildings were destroyed as a result of the Gaza Conflict. A report that was provided by the Red Cross indicated that in Jabalia, more than one thousand households now lives on the ruins of their houses. It was also reported that a complete industrial as well as residential area within the East of Jabalia was systematically demolished. It was also reported that a good school within Gaza was reduced to ruins. Similarly, the shelters of about 2,000 homeless families were totally destroyed.

Another survey that was conducted by United Nations Development Program stated that an estimated 14,000 homes, 68 buildings belonging to the government, as well as 31 buidings that belonged to non-governmental organizations were damaged, either partially or wholly. A number of schools were also damaged. This was according to a report that was produced by the UNDP. The schools that were destroyed belonged to the government as well as those which were privately owned within Gaza. A damage assessment that was done by satellite by the UN revealed that approximately 2,692 buildings were destroyed. Some were severely damaged. Besides, a number of roads were damaged.

Health

Medical equipment and facilities

There were a number of adverse effects that were caused by the conflict .for instance, an ambulance was destroyed during the conflict. Similarly, about 105 drugs were destroyed in the central drug center. Similarly, about 255 supplies of medical equipment and goods stopped their operations. This was as a result of the conflict. Similarly, about one fifth of ambulances became grounded because they lacked spare parts. Again, fire prevented a number of the ambulances from reaching the injured victims. Again, hospitals reported chronic gas shortages. The WHO made a report that at about one thousand medical machines could not work. This was brought about by the fact that there were chronic shortages of spare parts and equipment and spare parts.

There were instances when the hospitals could go without electricity. This affected the quality of healthcare of the population. The situation made about19 health centers to be closed because of hostilities within the areas where the health centers were located. Labs, vaccine stores, as well as warehouses were closed by the Ministry of Health because they lacked fuel for running the generators.

Psychological Effect

A number of individuals were extremely shocked by the conflict. A vast majority of those who were shocked were children. Besides the children, panic was also reported among several students. The panic was worsened by those attacks which were timed at the time when the students were in school. At the times of the airstrikes, students were in classes. Some of the students were having their midyear exams. It should be noted that the conflict had devastating effects on both the children as well as the students. After the conflict, a number of schools tried to provide psychological as well as mental support to affected students before they resumed teaching the major subjects. Half of the population risked suffering from stress disorders due to the crisis.

Energy

The single power plant within Gaza was not operational because it lacked industrial fuel as well as spare parts. Due to this, there were chronic power outages which could last for about16 hours each day. The airstrikes resulted into localized damages as a number of electrical lines were interfered with. Several areas were made to receive power black outs which lasted about 24 for hours. Similarly, because of the severe damages that were brought about by air strikes interfered with about 15 transformers for electricity.a number of individuals who were residing in northern as well as central Gaza were not supplied with electricity during the daytimes as well as at night times. Similarly, heating as well as cooking fuels were not available and quite a number of the gas stations within Gaza were closed.

Water

The conflict also brought about shortage of chlorinated water because of the blockades that were made by Israeli. This increased the risk of disease outbreaks. In one of the Israeli airstrikes, water wells were extensively damaged. This made about 30,000 Palestinians not to have water. Similarly, one of the airstrikes within the area of Al-Mughraqa destroyed one of the major drinking water pipes. This cut off water supplies to the individuals who resided within Nuseirat Camp. Again, about 7 water wells became destroyed. The wells until now can't be repaired because of bombardments.

Sanitation

Beit Hanoun's sewerage as well as water systems was destroyed, this caused severe damages to the major sewage pipeline. This also made sewage water to move towards the streets. The sewage could not be treated. They moved into the sea. Due to this, a number of people were exposed to health hazards. At one time, the sewage system of Gaza was almost collapsing because it lacked power as well as fuel.

Economic Infrastructure

There was a widespread destruction of commercial enterprises as well as public infrastructure. There was a massive destruction of about 219 factories as a result of the military operation of Israeli.

How "western" policies/agendas impacted Israel's decision

Israel's reaction to the Gaza conflict can be see to have had been influenced by the Western perception of war against terrorism and counterinsurgency (Amidror,2008).The war on global terrorism is closely tied to Hamas which is a terrorist organization with very strong links to Al-Qaida. The U.S.'s interest in the Gaza war was somehow connected to their interest on terrorism. What is however worrying is that the U.S. has taken a biased inclination towards the war on terrorism.Between 1948 and 2004 the UN General Assembly has made 322 resolution favoring Israel but non-that condemned at attack on the Arab Stares such as Palestine.

The roles of the U.S. In the Gaza War were as follows

Military support

On the 25th of January, 2009, an unnamed U.S. diplomatic cable stated that U.S. Navy warships were strategically positioned in the Gulf of Aden in order to track the role of Iranian authorities in the shipment of arms that were reported by Israeli intelligence to have been initiated by the that Iran's Revolutionary Guard as part of their program to supply arms in Gaza strip (Mahnaimi,2009).

Political support

It is worth noting that the U.S. supported Israel's participation in the Gaza war. This is evident from its act of blocking the 30th December 2008 proposal for ceasefire at the U.N Security Council (al-Mughrabi,2009; Lederer,2008). On the 31st of December,2008 the U.S. hired a German merchant ship to help in delivery of more munitions to the supply base located in Israel. These arms and munitions could be made available to Israel in the case of an emergency (Ambrogi,2009).

The Arms and Security Initiative of the New York-based New America Foundation claimed that "Israel's intervention in the Gaza Strip has been fueled largely by U.S. supplied weapons paid for with U.S. tax dollars,."

On the 9th of January, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice successfully defended Israel on the civilian death issues that came about as a result of the Israeli operations and blamed the deaths on Hamas' tactics of fighting form densely civilian populated areas and structures as a form of human shield On the 9th of January, the U.S. secretary of State Condoleezza Rice strongly defended the Israel on the issue of civilian deaths by blaming Hamas' tactics of fighting in heavily civilian populated areas as a form of a human shield. On the same day the U.S. House of Representatives voted 390 to 5 in support of the Israeli offensive (AFP,2009).

The role of U.S. On the Israeli war was condemned by the Institute for Policy Studies since it was tantamount to war crimes in the Gaza strip (Bennis,2008).

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the paper has established that there were several motives behind the Gaza conflict. It has greatly explored the causes of the conflict as well as the numerous adverse effects that the conflict brought about.It has been found out that the aggression by Israel wasn't as a result of the launch of Qassam rockets by the Palestinians against Israeli; on the contrary, the conflict had several other causes which the paper has adequately looked at.Besides, the paper has found out that a number of devastating effects were brought about by the conflict. The adverse effects affected several sectors such as educational sectors, health sectors among several other sectors like water and sanitation. The role of U.S. In the conflict is evident since they fully supported the conflict in military and political terms.