(RightWing.org) – Israel’s military has attacked refugee camps in central Gaza, as the country expands its campaign against the Hamas terrorist group. The bombardment has sparked new criticism of the Jewish state’s policies, along with renewed calls for a ceasefire. Is Israel going too far, or is there more to the story than the headlines suggest?
Refugee Camps Targeted In New Offensive
On December 26, Israeli aircraft and artillery hit targets in and around three refugee camps at Nuseirat, Maghazi, and Bureij. Residents say the bombardment was “very intense” and fear Israeli ground forces are approaching. They’re right. In the first stage of Israel’s ground response to the October 7 massacre by Hamas, the IDF captured Gaza City, the Iran-backed extremist group’s main stronghold. This was followed by an advance into the south of the territory. Now Hamas has been pocketed in the center of the Gaza Strip, and Israeli forces are closing in.
Israel’s operations have attracted fierce criticism and triggered left-wing and Islamist protests around the world. Despite the savagery of the Hamas assault, many people don’t approve of the Jewish state attempting to force the group out of power and destroy its military capabilities. The latest attacks have added even more fuel to calls for an immediate ceasefire.
It’s Not What It Seems
While headlines like “Israel attacks refugee camps” look horrifying, the situation is more complicated than that. The “refugee camps” aren’t fields full of tents; they’re towns, and the “refugees” in them are people who fled during the 1948 Arab attack on Israel — or, by now, mostly their descendants. No significant numbers of Palestinian refugees have arrived in Gaza since 1971, when Palestinian terrorists tried to overthrow the government of Jordan during the Black September war and Jordan retaliated by expelling them. However, the towns were designated as refugee camps by the UN in 1948 and that designation has stuck, even though it hasn’t been an accurate description for decades.
Aid agencies are now warning that Gazans are running out of safe spaces to evacuate to, as people flee the fighting and head for central Gaza. Now that area is becoming a combat zone, too. However, Israel is determined to destroy Hamas and ensure nothing like October 7 can ever happen again, and that means taking control –- at least temporarily –- of the whole Gaza Strip to ensure the group’s leadership is totally removed. Over a hundred hostages kidnapped on October 7 are still unaccounted for, and Israel wants to rescue them too. As even pro-Palestinian sources admit, the “camps” are hotbeds of terrorism, they were never likely to escape the war,
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