Prof M Zahidul Haque :
After nearly two weeks of fierce fighting, Israel and Palestine agreed to a ceasefire on the 20th of May, 2021. That’s a great solace to the entire humankind. Majority of the people on Earth do not wish to escalate hostilities among nations. The brief but worst war in years between Israel and Palestine had taken hundreds of lives and caused wide destruction on both the sides.
Since the fighting began on May 10, 2001, the Palestine side mainly Gaza Strip sustained a huge loss of lives and properties. According to health officials of Palestine, 232 Palestinians including 65 children and 39 women were killed and more than 1900 wounded in aerial bombardment. A number of buildings, schools, mosques, hospitals and other infrastructure including electricity and water generation installations, UN facilities were destroyed by Israeli bombings. Even the building which housed the office of Associated Press (AP) and Al-Jazeera TV was completely destroyed by the Israeli bombers.
Palestinian children are the worst victims of the war; not only they had been mercilessly killed and tortured but made cripple and homeless. Many of them had lost their parents, siblings. The United Nation’s Secretary General Antonio Guterres in his address to the UN General Assembly remarked–“If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza”.
For now, the top priority for Palestine is to ensuring emergency humanitarian assistance. At the same time necessary arrangements are to be made to rehabilitate orphans and disable children. Ensuring medical treatments for wounded people and children plus re-starting COVID-19 treatment and vaccination program have to be expedited. Reconstruction of educational institutions and other facilities need to be done at the earliest. Widowed women should be provided with financial and technical assistance to getting themselves self-reliant. It is expected that the United Nations, USAID and other international development agencies would come forwardto help re-build the devastated Gaza and over all Palestine.
The 11-days war between Israel and Palestine has left a good lesson for both the sides. Israel got it learn that the United States is their most trusted friend because they received whole-hearted support from the United States including selling of arms to Israel even during the time of conflict. Of course it is the US President Joe Biden who contributed significantly in persuading/ pressurizing Israel to go for a ceasefire; a stern White House message confirms this-“If Netanyahu carries the conflict much further, he risks losing significant backing in Washington”. In reality, The United States being a powerful UN Security Council Member has been playing the role of strong diplomatic defender for Israel. It may be mentioned here that Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations also actively mediated to reach the Israel-Hamas truce.
On the other hand, quite a number of countries and OIC extended support to the Palestinian’s cause but bold involvement was not so eminent. It’s perhaps due to the political differences prevailing between main political parties–Fatah and Hamas. In order to emerge as a strong force Fatah and Hamas should be united on chalking out national plan and program. They must form a strong democratic forum and work unitedly intensifying their diplomatic approach towards establishing their rights and to make truly an independent Palestine where the people of Palestine can live peacefully with honor and dignity.
(The author is a Professor at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh).
