October 7, 2024, marks the first anniversary of Al Aqsa Flood operation that returned the Palestine issue top of the Arab and Islamic agenda, which was overshadowed by normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam.
The normalization was now in a "reset" situation, and in September this year, even Prince Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, stated that the kingdom would not establish ties with Israel until a Palestinian state has been created.
The Al Aqsa Flood operation, launched by Hamas, resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis and the abduction of about 240 Israelis.
Israeli response to the Al Aqsa Flood operation was genocide of Palestinians. As of October 6 of this year, 41,825 Palestinians were killed and 96,910 injured by Israel. According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights chief Volker Turk most of the dead are women and children.
Ismail al-Thawabta, the head of Gaza's Government Media Office, told Anadolu that at least 16,859 children since October 7, 2023, were killed. He further added that "around 25,973 Palestinian children now live in Gaza without one or both parents due to the Israeli aggression".
As of Sept. 25, Israeli military operations damaged or destroyed nearly 60% of buildings in Gaza, according to an analysis of satellite data conducted by Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University and Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center.
An estimated 227,591 housing units have been damaged or destroyed, along with 68% of the enclave's road network, according to two recent analyses from the UN Satellite Center.
"Only 17 of 36 hospitals remain partially functional, and all suffer from a lack of fuel, medical supplies, and clean water," Oxfam said this week.
All of Gaza's population of 2.1 million is now in need of humanitarian assistance, and more than two million Palestinians - half of them children - are living without access to sufficient water, food, shelter and medical care.
Tellingly, the people of Gaza remain steadfast in the face of genocide by Israel. Despite the unimaginable suffering they endure, they continue to resist, their faith serving as a source of strength and courage.
One year after intensive bombing and killings the Israeli army was unable to dismantle Hamas; that was the professed objective of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
On the eve of the first anniversary of Operation al-Aqsa Flood, the Palestinian resistance continues its operations by targeting the Israeli forces and confronting Israeli attempts to infiltrate the northern Gaza Strip. The resistance continues to bombard Israeli settlements around Gaza with rockets.
The al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement (PIJ), announced that its fighters had bombarded Askalan and the surrounding settlements with a barrage of rockets. The Israeli Channel 13 confirmed that it monitored the launch of 3 rockets from the Gaza Strip toward southern Askalan.
According to Raphael S. Cohen, director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program of RAND Corporation, prior to the October 7 attack, Israel thought it had contained, deterred, and appeased Hamas-- by a mixture of building a wall around Gaza, fighting small-scale prior wars, and letting economic aid into Gaza and providing limited permits for Gazans to work in Israel. Consequently, the Israeli leadership thought they had the Hamas problem in hand. And as October 7 demonstrated, they did not.
Yedioth Ahronoth, a leading Israeli newspaper, citing Israeli security sources wrote recently that Hamas is working to consolidate its authority again in the areas of Gaza that the Israeli forces vacated and no one in Gaza stands against Hamas, and no one challenges its rule.
To borrow, Dr. Fadi Zatari, of Zaim University, Turkiye, Hamas' 'Al Aqsa Flood' operation will forever be considered a turning point in the contemporary history of the Palestinian-resistance movement. Planning and executing such an operation targeting the world's most technologically advanced military state is not a small feat considering Hamas' limited resources. The attack has shattered the myth and image of Israel as an impenetrably strong state.
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