The death count of the recent Israeli raid on Nuseirat camp which saved 4 hostages has been an object of concern for me looking into the future of the war. Israeli sources claims a death toll of 100, while Western news is leaning towards the 274 casualties supplied by the Gaza health ministry. In a recent interview with Jake Sullivan, Bidens National Security Advisor, acknowledges that there is extensive loss of Palestinian life but blames Hamas for “hiding among the civilians” as reasoning for these losses.

I was born while we were invading Afghanistan, and remember when the protection of civilian life war paramount in special forces raids. Special forces were specifically used in order to limit civilian casualties compared to aerial strikes, which are obviously safer for troops than a ground raid. President Obama during planning was even offered to carry out drone strikes and bombing the compound, but denied the choice in favor of a strike team. This raid to save the 4 hostages took Obamas 3 options of bombings, drone strikes and ground forces and decided to do them all without any of the positive outcomes.

The fact that the main talking points are “how many people actually died,” and not “look at how many people died” is telling for both the Biden administration and for the media as a whole.

Civilians or Fighters

Hamas has a generally accepted figure of 30,000 fighters at the beginning of war, and Israel claims that it has wounded roughly 9,000 of those fighters as of February 1st. The death toll at the time was about 27,000 casualties. It doesn’t take a genius to see that a whopping 18,000 of those deaths as of February 1st were civilians.

These figures are sickening to look at, and don’t really require much digging in order to dredge up. It harrows similarly to our own conflict with terror. Our role should be providing guidance to the Israeli government and teaching them lessons from our own actions. The situations are very similar, we are not new to the idea of an enemy hiding among the civilian population and understand that civilian casualties will happen in a conflict against a terror group.

But we also need to face the fact that a war against a terror group is an unwinnable one. The battle against a political idea or movement is unwinnable. Hamas will continue to be a political actor within Palestinian government whether we like it or not. If we truly embodied the spirit of representative democracy and public rule, we would stand with the idea of a Palestinian state and its right to self determination.

Hiding among the population is a cowards way to fight a war, I will be the first to admit it. Needing to put your own people in harms way to continue your political existence is unforgivable and the political arm of Hamas does deserve to be punished for doing so in accordance with international law. Discounting high casualty operations as “Hamas hiding among the civilians” is also the easy way out.

What should the response be?

Developed democracies should be mortified of how Israel is conducting itself on the battlefield in the same way the US was criticized for its actions during the War on Terror. The fact the US hasn’t pulled military aid all together from seeing the amount of civilian casualties is concerning, as it puts us in the position of being enablers in what many see as a genocide. We cannot afford to hold that position for obvious reasons.

Continuing to provide intelligence is acceptable in providing location data for hostages or Hamas movements. Putting pressure and conditions of supplying intelligence will make sure we still have a seat at the planning stage of hostage rescue or raids being conducted. Civilian safety should always be our number one priority when discussing or providing military assistance, as continued civilian casualties as high as this will put both the US and Israel in a place of political isolation

Conditioning aid for Israel based on amount of humanitarian aid that enters Gaza would be a good place to start, as it mitigates our need to fully commit to the Israeli operations, but also provides the life-saving aid that is needed to keep Gaza from falling due to famine. It also creates intrinsic leverage against the Israeli government to push for a day after plan once a ceasefire is called and armed hostilities have ended.

Further Reading

This article by Foreign Affairs – Israel is Losing America is a great overview of recent considerations by the Netanyahu government in order to prolong the conflict in Gaza. It highlights the influence of domestic polarization and how “Netanyahu is stoking the flames of polarization to fend of criticism of his leadership” both in Israel and the US.

Another article from Peoples World accounts a protest in DC called the “Peoples Red Line,” in reference to the threat that Biden had posed to Netanyahu in order to limit his response in Gaza. The article also highlights activity captured on video of military helicopters flying from the humanitarian port and IDF soldiers using trucks that resembled aid vehicles. Authenticity of videos is disputed, but the consequences of these videos from the UN is examined after.