By Wesam Bahrani
Unique Palestinian resilience despite severe hardship
TEHRAN- Marking 200 days since Operation al-Aqsa Storm that saw the Israeli army attack Gaza with unprecedented ferocity, major questions remain as to what Tel Aviv has achieved.
By the admission of Israeli officials, former and present military chiefs and political leaders, as well as media analysts, the regime’s army has been bogged down in Gaza.
With the exception of death, destruction, and brutality committed in the Gaza Strip, the occupation regime has failed to achieve any of its officially and unofficially stated goals.
The officially stated goals are the elimination of Hamas, wiping out its military capabilities, returning the Israeli captives, and preventing any part of Gaza from becoming a security risk to the occupation regime in the future.
The unofficial goals, which have been stated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet ministers, are displacing Gaza’s population to Egypt, re-occupying Gaza, and rebuilding settlements in Gaza.
Both the officially and unofficially stated goals have been abject failures by the admission of Israelis themselves.
The Israeli minister of war or military leaders try to speak of tactical victories when announcing the discovery of a tunnel shaft and some light arms here and there or even the killing of resistance fighters.
Yet, experts say this is natural as the Israeli army possesses one of the most powerful and sophisticated weaponry and technology in the world.
If it can’t achieve these simple tactical achievements, then the end of the Israeli military is spelled. This is not something Tel Aviv should be boasting about.
The slogans of the war, 200 days ago, were not the discovery of some arms here or tunnel shafts there.
In its first days of the ground offensive, the Israeli army invaded and occupied northern Gaza and then withdrew its forces after a few months, declaring mission accomplished.
200 days later, Israeli army units are back in northern Gaza, fighting against the Palestinian resistance forces in the same areas that it had invaded on day one.
Half of the Israeli captives have not been released. The other half were released through negotiations with Hamas.
The Palestinian resistance forces have used guerilla warfare to ambush and defeat Israeli army units, (videos surface every day detailing in evidence attacks on Israeli troops and military vehicles) forcing entire brigades to withdraw from the enclave.
When the Israeli army was forced to withdraw from the Palestinian territory, the regime’s political leadership resorted to propaganda by turning an embassaring defeat into attempts at alluding it to a victory.
This strongly indicates that the Gaza resistance is still alive, active, and very far from being eliminated.
100,000 displaced Israeli settlers have yet to return to their settlements in the Gaza envelope.
200 days and Israeli society is deeply fractured and polarized. News surfaces frequently of infighting and divisions among the members of the war cabinet set up after October 7.
The Israeli public who are demanding the resignation of the prime minister are back on the streets of Tel Aviv in their masses, calling for early elections and an immediate ceasefire. Surveys by the Israeli Maariv news site show that the majority of the Israeli public is not satisfied with the war on Gaza.
Netanyahu and the ministers he relies on to stay in office speak of victory or one step away from an absolute victory, while the international community, including the regime’s staunchest ally, the United States, are telling Tel Aviv in private and sometimes politicians speak openly in public that the occupation regime has lost.
The Israeli regime has not only lost in Gaza it has also lost its image around the world. Long years are needed for its international reputation to recover, if it ever does.
There are other major losses, which include its economy, ongoing security issues as well as “the day after” the war.
After speaking about a number of scenarios, the Israeli political leadership still has absolutely no idea what it plans to do when the war is over. This strategic failure to plan for the “day after” reflects the lack of any Israeli military strategy in Gaza over the past 200 days.
The head of the regime's military intelligence has resigned over failures around the 7 October Hamas attack.
Aharon Haliva is the first senior figure to step down. More are set to follow suit for the security and intelligence lapses, including Netanyahu who faces prison but is adamant to carry on with this murder campaign against women and children for as long as possible to avoid that inevitable fate.
What the Israeli army has successfully achieved is the killing of civilians.
So far, more than 10,000 women and more than 12,000 children have been massacred. More than 17,000 children are now orphans. Thousands of elderly have been murdered. At least 8,000 civilians remain missing. Some estimates put that figure in the tens of thousands.
70,000 others are injured, and again, the majority of them are women and children.
The Israeli occupation has also brought starvation, famine, and disease across Gaza. Nearly all Palestinians rely on food aid to survive. Many are malnourished.
This is anything but a military victory. Especially not a victory by an army that recently called on 360,000 reservists to join all its other battalions against an area roughly 365 square kilometers.
These are all the signs of Israeli barbarity, collective punishment and genocide.
Despite everything the Palestinians in Gaza have gone through for 200 days, they refuse to leave their homeland. They refuse to surrender. Hamas refuses to bend to pressure in negotiations. The group continues to insist that those displaced from northern Gaza must be allowed to return.
The resistance movement has not backed down on its conditions over a ceasefire deal, which entails the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the enclave and a prisoner exchange.
Reports suggest Netanyahu is desperate for a ceasefire deal. The Palestinians maintain that their terms must be met.
In essence, the occupation regime has lost on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.
This reflects the unique resilience of the Palestinians despite all the pain and hardship that no population on the planet has endured in the 21st century.
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