Gaza Caught in the Crossfire: Why Current Ceasefire Demands Miss the Mark
The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has rightly sparked global concern and emotional pleas for a ceasefire. The images of suffering Palestinian civilians are harrowing. However, calls for Israel to unilaterally lay down arms while ignoring Hamas's role in the crisis risk neglecting a crucial aspect of the conflict: the asymmetrical nature of the threats faced by both sides. On October 7th, Israel faced an unprecedented onslaught. Hamas, operating from a sophisticated network of tunnels beneath Gaza, killed, tortured and kidnapped over a thousand Israeli civilians and unleashed a barrage of rockets targeting civilian populations throughout Israel. This intricate underground system serves as both a weapons cache and a military base, establishing Hamas as an armed force operating from the heart of a densely populated city. It is hard to demand that Israel should allow an army to place its barracks under a populated city, from which it can repeat such attacks. Demand