제 20 호 Why Did the Israel-Hamas War Start?
Kicker: WORLD
Why Did the Israel-Hamas War Start?
By Su-Young Kim, Reporter /kimsuyoung1342@gmail.com
The Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas, an armed political faction that rules Gaza in Palestine, launched a massive attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Jewish Sabbath. The war is causing many deaths and injuries, and people are terrified, with their safety threatened. These wars have continued in the Middle East. Why is there a terrible war going on? Let’s find out why.
First, froma historical perspective, the reason for the Israel-Hamas war should be traced back to World War 1. World War 1 was a war in which the Allies from Britain, France, and Russia and the Central Powers from Germany and Austria fought as the center of both camps, which lasted for four years from 1914-1918. The allies, including Germany, prevailed in the early days of the war, and Britain and its allies tried to benefit through internal division of the Ottoman Empire, which was an ally of Germany.
The Ottoman Empire's territory
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/why-did-the-ottoman-empire-fall.html
As you can see on the map, the Ottoman Empire was widely spread throughout the Balkans, Asia Minor, and North Africa, and colonized many peoples. The Arabs were one of the peoples colonized by the Ottoman Empire. The Arabs wanted to break away from the Ottoman Empire and establish an independent state. At the beginning of World War 1, Germany and other allies prevailed, and Britain sought to gain an upper hand in the war through the division of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, in the 1915 McMahon Declaration, Britain promised Arabs that if they fought with Britain against the Ottoman Empire, they would establish an independent country for Arabs in the Middle East, including Palestine. The British were also trying to borrow money from Jews, who were spread around the world to raise a lot of war funds because Germany was so powerful. The United Kingdom issued the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917, a declaration announced by British Foreign Minister Balfour that he agreed to establish a nation-state for Jews in Palestine to support Jews in World War 1. Furthermore, in 1915 and 1917, when the McMahon and Balfour Declaration were announced, the Pico Agreement, a secret agreement agreed by Russia that Britain and France would divide and occupy the Middle East if they won World War I. However, this is brought to light by Russia's revelations. Eventually, the British double contract against Arabs and Jews became known.
Balfour and Balfour Declaration
https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=630048&cid=50766&categoryId=50794
On the other hand, as the term diaspora suggests, Jews were scattered around the world. However, Jews moved to Palestine during World War 2 because of severe oppression from the German Nazis. Thus, conflicts arose between Arabs originally living in the Palestinian region and newly moved Jews, and the United Nations proposed a split resolution.
United Nations Resolution
https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-Nations-Resolution-181
As shown on the map, the green part was suggested to be inhabited by Jews and the orange part by Arabs, but the Arabs opposed the UN proposal because there were already more Arabs living in Palestine than Jews at that time. In 1948, the Jews founded Israel when Britain, which ruled the Palestinian region, withdrew from Gaza, which is currently at war. Arabs, including Hamas and not many Jews are living in Gaza and conflicts between them have not paused. Hamas is a Sunni Muslim and nationalist political party and paramilitary organization in Palestine. It is leading the Palestinian armed struggle against Israel. In the 2006 Palestinian general election, Hamas beat Fatah, who supported the bilateral plan for peaceful coexistence with Israel, and later came to power in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza after a power dispute with Fatah.
The war may have been influenced by several factors as well as historical reasons in the past. Gaza has a high unemployment rate, so the war may be aimed at bringing together internal forces through war. There is also an analysis that the war, may have started as relations improve between Israel and Saudi Arabia to prevent their diplomatic relations from being normalized.
To sum up, we looked at the historical, political, and social reasons for the Israeli-Hamas war that began in October. Historically, Jewish, and Arab misunderstandings, conflicts between the two peoples in the Palestinian region, as well as social issues such as Gaza's unemployment rate and relations with neighboring countries are analyzed as reasons for war, but regardless of the reason, I don't think it's right to resolve violence through ruthless wars by any means.
